When Strangers Attack

Last week, in desperate need of a haircut, I bit the bullet and took both kids with me to the hair salon. I've been following the same girl around for ten years, at least, because she does such a good job, but she inconveniently doesn't get to work until 230. So the kids came along and I threatened bribed encouraged them to be mature and courteous so I could get my haircut. (This is mom code for not eating all the Dum Dums in the jar on the counter, not running through piles of hair and not using the words "butt," "poop" or "booger." My standards are not high. Anyway.)

She had a person ahead of me, so we sat and waited. When Johnny announced he needed to use the bathroom, I told him to go ahead and off he went. The bathroom is a single toilet in the back of the salon. As he walked off, the woman sitting next to me looked aghast and said in her best disapproving voice, "Children should always be supervised in the bathroom. Don't you know pedophiles lurk in bathrooms?"

Seriously?

There was a time when I would have felt obligated to explain the details of my decision. Those days are over. She got me on the wrong day. Not only was I tired, but also grouchy because the kids had bickered the whole way in the car.

My first inclination was to snap, "Mind you own effing business," but I bit my tongue. I'm thoughtful like that. My second inclination was to tell her, "Lady, you watch too much Dateline." Instead, I rolled my eyes and said, "He's six. He doesn't need me to wipe his butt." At which point she expressed surprise that he's six and not four.

Again, seriously?

I wouldn't let Maureen go into a crowded bathroom without supervision, but she actually is four. And this bathroom is one room with a single toilet and a door with a lock. While I do take both kids into the ladies room with me at the mall or other similar places, I can't do that forever. At some point, he needs to be independent enough to use the bathroom on his own. And he's my kid and I don't need the approval of strangers.

I think commenting on parenting issues in public is a sticky subject. Even if a person has the best interests of the child at heart, most often the comment just pisses the parent off.

I'm curious--has someone ever commented on your parenting in public and how did you handle it?

Menu Plan: Crazy Busy

I am crazy busy. I mean that. This coming week is so jam packed with stuff to do, there's not a lot of time left for cooking. Which means, as usual, I need stuff that is easy and fast and if I can do some prep work the night before, even better.

Here's what we'll be eating this week:

**Ranch Chicken Salad Sandwiches--I love the ease of a hearty sandwich with either soup or salad to go with it. I had a fantastic Baked Potato Soup at Houlihan's last week, and I found a recipe creation online, so if I have time, we'll have that with the sandwiches. Otherwise salad.
**Fully Loaded Chili--With four kinds of beans in it, this hearty chili is very filling. And I can do it in the crockpot. Bread and salad with it.
**Wells Street Chicken--My husband chose some seasoning mixes from a recent school fundraiser, and he wants to make this chicken dish that coats the chicken with, among other things, crushed potato chips. Not my cup of tea, but if he's offering to cook, I'm not going to complain. I'll get some fruit and veggies to go with it.
**Grilled Tilapia Po' Boys with Homemade Tartar Sauce--This is a Paula Deen recipe that amazingly doesn't look like it will make us all drop dead from heart attacks. And it's s perfect meatless meal to use up that giant bag of frozen fish I bought for use of Fridays.
**Sweet Italian Chicken--I love the ease of this recipe, plus I can prep it ahead of time and stick the pan in the fridge until it's time to cook it. Rice, veggies and maybe salad to go with it.

What are you eating these days?

Introducing The New Glasses

Reaching My Biggest Goal

In my last menu plan, I said something about willpower. I was mostly referring to that fact that I've given up Cadbury Cream Eggs for Lent. This is partly for my waistline, because one egg has 170 calories. And you know you never eat just one. But it's also because I figured it's about time that I actually gave up something that I really like for Lent. It just doesn't mean as much if you give up, say, bananas, when you actually hate bananas. It's going fine, although today I was thinking about how good one would taste.

Anyway, back to the willpower thing.

If you're a long time reader, or you know me in real life, you know that I've had a hard core Diet Dr Pepper habit that I've been trying to kick for years. It's amazing how hard it has been and sort of embarrassing that I can't even count how many failed attempts there have been in the past. But I also knew that at some point, it would just be time, like when I suddenly stopped biting my fingernails.

And folks, I'm happy to report that I'm doing it.

I'm doing it.

I'M DOING IT!!!!!!

It's gone something like this. A couple of weeks ago, tired of feeling like crap all the time, swigging down soda that was eating my teeth and giving me raging heartburn, tired of constantly going to the store to pay money that I didn't really want to spend for more teeth-eating-heartburn-inducing bottled crap, I decided I'd had enough. I thought about giving it up for Lent, but picked something I knew I could stick to. The soda would be secondary.

On a Friday, I drank the last of it. On Saturday, I woke up with a horrible headache. I lay in bed all morning, popping pills and rubbing pain cream on my head, but nothing helped. So my husband went to the store. He came home with ONE bottle of Diet DP and a 6-pack of a diet soda by another company. My headache went away. And that was the beginning.

It's been a week. Yesterday was harder because we went out to eat, I ordered a soda and the waitress refilled my giant glass with more without asking me if I actually wanted it. But I'm feeling pretty confident that I can continue to limit my intake and eventually cut it down to none. The benefits have been obvious right off the bat.

For example:

There's more room in the recycle can.

I've spent less time (and by extension, less money) at the grocery store.

By the third day, my usual afternoon slump had disappeared.

It's easier to push myself through workouts. Perhaps because I'm drinking more water and am better hydrated?

I'm sleeping better, and have more energy during the day.

I've lost a couple of pounds already and my tastebuds are already starting to come around to regular food. That is, I'm not constantly craving something sweet.

This has been a long time coming and by putting it out there, I'm counting on you guys to keep me accountable!!

I'd also love to hear about how you beat a nasty habit and what the kicker was to make you do it. Leave me a comment!

Super Siblings

Super Brother and Super Sister, at a recent superhero birthday party.

Menu Plan: Lent, The Season of Willpower

It's Lent, and that means it's my annual 6 weeks of trying to find meatless meals that everyone in the family will eat. It also means I gave up something big this year that is testing my willpower. But more about that later.

Despite being unemployed, I've been really busy lately, so this menu plan is based on food that I can fix with one eye closed. Here's what we'll be eating:

**Ranch Chicken Tacos--My husband really loves this meal, and both kids have been more adventurous lately, so I'm going for it. Plus, really, who doesn't like ranch dressing?
**Pizza--I asked for requests this week and my 6-year-old pizza freak asked for this. I'm really leaning towards the frozen kind, but I'll add salad and breadsticks with it.
**Garlic Shrimp and Chickpeas--From the latest issue of Food Network magazine, I'll make this for my seafood loving hubby on Friday. Not being a shrimp eater myself, I'll throw some of the chickpeas into a big salad.
**Hamburger Soup--I came up with this easy and versatile dish when blogging about canned foods for Potluck. You can read my post here. Bread and salad on the side.
**Lemon Chicken--The recipe for the marinade for this yummy meal came from a package of True Lemon. It also falls into my super easy category, so what's not to like?

While you're at it, pop over to Potluck and read about how I used the website to plan my shopping trip.

What are you eating these days?