Monday Musings: Empathy

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You get it now, eh?
You realize how it feels —
It’s no fun, is it?

My 8yo was upset because his two younger brothers drew on blank pages in his personal notebook. He was ranting and raving and stomping through the house, hollering at them for “ruining” his notepad. I understood that he was upset, and it wasn’t right for them to draw on his paper, but it was also a teachable moment.

I calmed him down and directed him to his room, where I pointed at his dresser. I told him that  I realized he was angry, and it was wrong for his brothers to mark on his stuff, but now he knew how I felt when he put stickers all over his dresser. I reminded him that I bought the dresser with my money; therefore, it belongs to me, even though it’s in his room. He didn’t ask my permission to put stickers all over it; he just did it. The dresser is, essentially, ruined. I suppose I could scrape off the stickers, strip off the varnish and repaint it, but he ruined it.

He was still upset, but the raging stopped. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll think twice the next time he wants to “decorate” his room without asking me first.

Wash, rinse, sanitize (Prayer devotional for the week of February 12, 2012)

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Would you eat at a restaurant that only rinsed off its dishes? What if they washed the dishes with soap and cold water? I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that you would not want to eat at such an establishment. Health codes (and common sense) require that the dishes not only get washed and rinsed properly, but commercial kitchens even have an extra sink basin for sanitizing.

I grew up watching the late Marvin Zindler on Houston’s KTRK Eyewitness News, and seeing one of his exposes on local restaurant violations was enough to make anyone reconsider cooking at home. I remember watching newscasts with my family and hoping that none of the restaurants we frequented were ever on his list of busted facilities. The fact of the matter is, when we sit down to eat at a restaurant, we want to trust not only that the food has been prepared under sanitary conditions, but also that the plate and utensils have been scrubbed free of visible filth and the invisible germs have been cleaned away, as well.

We have high standards when it comes to cleanliness. Or, do we?

In Matthew 23, Jesus went on a rant because the Pharisees were overly concerned about their outward appearance but cared little about what really mattered. In verses 25-26, he told them, “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something” (MSG).

Do we demand sparkling-clean dishes but fail to “sanitize” our own lives from the inside out? Do we serve dinner on perfectly coordinated place settings while our hearts are filled with self-righteousness? Do we keep the silverware polished but have tarnished attitudes? Let’s learn from the Pharisees’ mistakes; let’s not be falsely clean frauds.

Foodie Friday: Cooking vs. cooking

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My 11yo and I were fixing dinner the other day, and as I mixed together pasta noodles and sauce from a jar, he quipped, “So, we aren’t actually cooking dinner?”

I said, “What do you mean? Of course we’re cooking.”

He replied, “I mean we’re just mixing and heating it up. We aren’t cooking it.”

Well, pardonnez-moi, sous chef. Sometimes, we use jar sauce instead of making it from scratch. So, there – now you know a little secret: I don’t cook everything from scratch. *Gasp – I know! I try to make sure that the boys have ample amounts of fresh produce, and even though we eat dinner at home together most nights, some of our meals come from containers more so than raw ingredients.

Case in point: Italian food. I have tried making lasagna from scratch. It was abysmal. It took For. Ev. Er. and turned out blech. Not to mention, it was VERY expensive! Stouffer’s, on the other hand, makes a perfectly delicious lasagna that only takes a couple of hours of forward-thinking to pop into the oven before dinnertime.

I recently obtained a celery-based lasagna recipe from a like-minded low-carber friend, and I’m looking forward to making that one day soon, but when it comes to feeding five boys, I don’t have any shame in admitting that I serve box lasagna. It’s actually one of the few one-dish meals that feeds everyone.

I need a bigger oven. :p

Early Valentines

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I’m linking up with the MOB Society today for Let’s Hear it for the Boys!

I received a sweet surprise when the boys got home from Kidzone at church last night. I had stayed home sick and although I started feeling better in the late afternoon, I was zonked again by the time they got home and had already curled up under the blankets in bed. They came to my room to tell me good night, and the 7yos gave me two handmade cards:

One of them drew a winged heart-person with five smaller ones around it. He said the big one was me (obviously, lol!), and the others were him & his brothers. The inside featured a stick-figure drawing of me, and he even drew the hair parted to the side. :p

The other one drew a picture of me with a “pecok” and a bow & arrow. I asked him if I was supposed to be hunting the peacock (??), and he said no, we were just shooting paper targets, but he ran out of space to draw the bulls-eyes. On the back, he drew R2D2 … after all, what Valentine would be complete without droids? 🙂

They also made beaded hearts, which I brought to my office today to decorate. I may have still felt crummy last night, but those sweet boys sure made my heart happy!

Wednesday Words: Interactive e-books

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I read a fun new book over the weekend, Getting Dumped, by Tawna Fenske. If you have a Kindle (it isn’t available on other devices, unfortunately), then I highly recommend it. Plus, it is on sale this month. (<<D’oh – I bought it in January!)

The format is kinda like a choose-your-own-adventure book, except there is only one major decision point, and it happens around the middle of the tale. The decision is important, though, and what’s really cool about the story is that the aggregated choices of readers will guide the plot for future installments!

Getting Dumped is a fun, romantic adventure that leaves the reader wondering what the heck is about to happen (!!!), which is, I suppose, the whole point to get you to want to read the next book. 😉

I have an older-model nook that I bought a couple of years ago, and I really like it. However, since my husband is preparing for another deployment, I thought it would be nice (and totally selfless on my part, LOL) to give him the nook and buy myself a Kindle. Anyway, he liked the arrangement; besides, he can now read the entire Game of Thrones series and dozens of other books that I’ve already read or downloaded free/cheap. Win-win, right?? 🙂