Lately I’ve gotten a few comments from people who read here – mostly via e-mail and in person – about what an awesome mom I seem, or about how perfect my life appears through the window of the blog. In fact, most people that I end up chatting with after they’ve read the blog say something to the effect of “I don’t know how you manage to get so much done!” Well, let me share with you – it’s called five to six hours of sleep per night.
It’s not that I *mean* to get so little sleep, it’s just that I get engrossed in whatever I’m doing and before I know it, it’s after midnight, and so by the time I wrap things up, brush my teeth and whatever, I’ve missed my window of opportunity for a full night’s sleep. Joe laughs at me when I tell him I’m tired and that I’m going to go to bed early because even when I have the very best of intentions, I still end up staying up past my bed time. And even though I do get a lot done, there is always a giant list of more things I’d like to do swimming around in my brain. Hopeless, really.
But that’s a little off of the point of this post. I thought I’d share with you another reality. The main reason I end up taking my girls everywhere and doing all kinds of things with them is because otherwise, we are all horribly miserable at home. We all get bored, and we get into a downward spiral of wingeing and complaining and punishment (Go to your room!) leading to tears and sorrow on all parts. So I work hard to avoid boring days at home, and so does Joe. This past Saturday night, Joe and I looked at each other and asked the inevitable question (besides what do you want to eat this week) of what the heck are we going to do tomorrow.
We thought at first that the weather would be less than ideal, and considered going to the zoo. But Sunday morning arrived bright and clear, and I remembered the clipping I saved from some newspaper listing the fall festivals around the metro area. We picked Sever’s Corn Maze. I had been out there about ten years ago, back when it was just the field of corn cut into a maze, and remembered it as a fun little adventure. Now, it is a multi-attraction festival, and still quite a bit of fun.
We arrived just as the “wild animal show” they’re offering these days was about to start. I voted we go watch it before doing the maze, but Joe was -um- less than thrilled about the straw-bale seating given his horrendous allergies, and refused to sit down (understandable, really). Then, Julie freaked out when she saw the skunk and wanted to leave immediately. So we headed on over to the main attraction.
It’s been raining quite a bit here in Minnesota this last week, and although the ground was wet, the dirt in the maze paths was packed hard enough that even the stroller rolled pretty smoothly over it. Julie was a little trooper and walked happily through most of the maze with us. We eventually swapped Sophie into the sling and Julie into the stroller to finish up walking the paths. If you walked around and found six hidden clues among 26 lettered sign-posts throughout the maze, you could sign up for a drawing – a pitiful $200 grand prize to be drawn among all the correct responses during their fall season. I couldn’t care less about the prize, but it was a good excuse to keep us walking around longer despite the unusually humid and hot day, so we did it.
When we emerged, it was time for lunch. They had several food vendors set up, including many of my favorite fair-food downfalls like corn dogs, french fries, roasted ears of corn, and kettle corn. Happily, though, I had packed a nice little picnic lunch for us, and we all sat and ate it. I was surprised by my own willpower, and by lack of whining requests by certain other family members for junk food. Julie did ask for kettle corn, but we reminded her that she’d had some just the day before at our neighborhood’s annual fall party, and that put a stop to it.
Sophie even sat on Joe’s lap for once throughout the meal without complaining. Which meant that I got to eat using both my hands and with an empty lap. What a treat! Oh, and they had a jazz band playing, which was quite the lowest common denominator of jazz bands, but did add to the overall ambiance of fun fall festival.
They had some nice little photo-ops set up nearby…
A very nice family offered to take a picture of all of us, and we gratefully agreed. Unfortunately, however, I look like an elephant in that picture for some reason, so you don’t get to see it. I will say that I don’t feel bad about it, though – I’m down 10 pounds from when I started Weight Watchers a few weeks ago, my clothes are all fitting much looser, and I’m slowly but surely shedding pounds. I’m moving in the right direction and I have no complaints. Must write about that some time.
I know these little face cut-out scenes are cheezy corny, but I love them, and the girls didn’t seem to mind.
They also had one of those giant slide rides, and since I’d meant to take Julie on the one at the State Fair and hadn’t gotten around to it, I offered to take her on this one. The guy was really nice, and only took money for one person when I took her up to get in line, ($2) and he told me to go twice if we wanted. We climbed the long staircase and saw this view from the top:
That’s only a small portion of the corn maze.
This is another small straw-bale maze they have set up for the kids.
And here we are looking down from the top of the slide
I’d never been down one of these slides before, and had always wanted to try one. They’re fast! And by the time we got to the bump at the bottom, we were going fast enough to catch a little air. It was fun, but Julie didn’t care for it and wasn’t interested in a second go.
By then we were all hot and tired, so we decided to head home without checking out the pony ride, the camel ride, the magic show, the pig races, or the kiddie straw maze. As we drove home, Joe and I agreed that it was worth the money and way better than sitting around staring at each other at home.
Oh, and I get a lot of comments about how I’m always cooking for my family. Tonight I made an awesome chicken dish from the Saving Dinner cookbook. It’s Garlic-Lime chicken, really easy to make. Tastes great, and I made some mashed potatoes and broccoli too. Here’s what the girls’ plates looked like at the end of the meal:
Yeah, neither of them touched their food. Julie’s going through a phase where she tells me she doesn’t like what I made before she even knows what it is, and I refuse to have power struggles with food – I put healthy food on the table that I know she can eat, and she either eats it or she doesn’t. My kid loves mashed potatoes, and has been known to eat both chicken and broccoli. Tonight she didn’t eat, and that’s just the way it was. Sophie has had an upset stomach the last few days, so I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t eat much, and wasn’t too worried about her either. At least she’s still nursing so I knew she’d get a little in her at bedtime.
So anyway, perfection doesn’t really live at my house. I just usually choose to share the happy moments on the blog, and we are blessed with many of those. Thanks for reading!
My kid is going through that same food phase. I hope he gets through it soon! Good luck with yours…
WHOOOO HOOOOO on the 10 pound loss!!!! What do you feel helped? Food Diary? More water? More veggies?
Love all the pictures of your fun adventures! Your kids will appreciate looking at all those when they are adults
And “Perfection” I think it makes appearances in all of our lives… it’s just fleeting, so it must be enjoyed while it visits.
Perfection does not exist. The part that is great is that you do not take the “easy” course and turn on the tv. Your kids will have great memories.
And I also admire the stance you take with food! It is almost the same thing that my Mom told us. “I only put good food on the table. Try a bite, if you don’t like it, you can have bread and butter tonight!” With 5 kids, and foster kids, she sure wasn’t gonna be a short order cook at dinner!