From Really Picky to Much Less Picky.

I wish I could say with all sincerity “from really picky to not at all!” in the title, but that would be a lie.

And per rule #5 on the family chalkboard, we don’t tell lies. Also, note to self: learn how to letter in chalk. We’ll go ahead and call that a 2014 goal, since I haven’t set any yet.

We still have some fairly picky eaters in this house.

And they come by it honestly; my dad called me “Picky Nikki” for years, and I still have a few food aversions (but really, who doesn’t?). However, I mostly overcame my pickiness by high-school age, and I am SO happy that my kids are overcoming it much earlier than I did. Because life is too short not to eat good food and try new things, right?

Last weekend, I thought of a salad I used to order at a restaurant called Cheddar’s, which we don’t have in the St. Louis area. They make this awesome Grilled Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad that I love. I used to make it years ago for Matt and me for dinner sometimes, but along the way (“the way” being several years of children who don’t eat salad), it was forgotten.

I got all excited, thinking about making it for dinner. I meal-planned on Sunday (the week ALWAYS goes better when this happens), and put it on Monday night. I gave the boys a heads-up that we were having this, and the older two were actually excited. That’s the moment I realized it: we have come really, really far.

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Probably 2 years ago, I started introducing very basic Romaine lettuce salads as a side at dinner. It started as a couple of bites loaded with dressing gagged down by the boys (then 8, 6 and 4ish), and turned into a regular part of our weeknight dinners over time. They all eat a side salad with a sensible amount of dressing with absolutely no problem now, but all prefer the salad fairly plain: lettuce, spinach (they do best if it’s chopped up and not whole leaves, but that’s fine), a little cheese, maybe some croutons.

We introduce lots of things like this: alongside other things they really like, with a “try a bite or two” rule. I realize there are some foods they’ll never like (Luke STILL can’t eat green beans without gagging), and that’s fine, but repeated exposure to so many things has meant expanded palates and more dinner choices for us.

Jack Henry is easily still the pickiest, but I have to say, he’ll readily try almost anything new. He doesn’t often get a new “favorite” from those tries, but we press on. Bennett is probably the most adventurous eater and frankly, has the biggest appetite…he tries things and generally likes more new things than the others. Luke isn’t far behind Bennett; a tad less adventurous, but occasionally surprising us, like asking for shrimp while on vacation last summer (I eat exactly 0 seafood; Matt loves it, so Luke ate some of Matt’s dinner a time or two).

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Back to Monday night’s dinner salad, which consisted of:
Romaine lettuce
Baby spinach
Shredded parmesan cheese
Rotisserie chicken breast
Cooked rotini pasta (penne or farfalle would be fine, too)
Dressing
Croutons

I told the boys that I’d pile everything on their plate but not mix it up, in case they’d prefer the parts of the salad plain. The 2 older boys sampled the Caesar dressing and wanted that; Jack Henry stuck to his favorite, Zia’s. Luke and Bennett promptly mixed their salads on their plates (we have some these from Nana Jo, and we use them ALL the time! Fun, right?) and ate them like grown humans eat a salad: all mixed up. Jack Henry picked at the components of his, which is fine by me, since he ate his chicken, some of the pasta, and a good amount of lettuce/spinach.

do you love the leftover jimmy john’s napkins? classy.

yum. i was so happy that there were leftovers the next day!

On to Tuesday night’s dinner: soup in a bread bowl. The boys used to HATE soup, so I’ve always always served it with some kind of bread. I feel like it softens the blow of a food they don’t like, you know? Well, over time, they’ve gotten to the point of liking a couple of different soups, so I thought bread bowls would be fun. The older 2 loved it…Bennett had seconds on the soup! JH still doesn’t like soup, so he picked at the parts of his he liked, and of course, loved the bread bowl. No kid has ever loved carbs like Jack Henry, I tell you.

And Luke made a pronouncement that I’ll not likely forget: “Mom, you’re right about trying things a lot of times. What’s that called? Repeated exposure? Yeah. It really works.”

Sage parenting advice from the 11-year-old, y’all.

Tonight is steak fajita night (smart shoppers: check your grocery’s meat section for meat that needs to be sold that day…Schnucks has a marked-down section, usually 25% off, where the meat still looks great but just needs to be eaten in the next day or two or frozen immediately.). They won’t eat the vegetables on their fajitas, so they’ll have another vegetable on the side. I’m fine with that, provided they try a bite of a onion or pepper. That’s all I ask.

So if you’re out there wondering if your picky toddler will EVER eat anything normal, I tell you:
1. Stay the course. This can get better.
2. Continue to introduce new or not-favorite things. Repeat exposure is the only way this is going to work. (or, seeing a role model eat the food you want them to eat; peer pressure is a powerful thing)
3. Don’t give in just because it’s easy…you’re in charge here! Pick your battles, but your kid isn’t going to starve if he/she chooses not to eat the dinner you’re serving. You aren’t a short-order cook.

Hang in there, friends! You can do this.

Some Snow Day Thoughts.

So here we are. Snow day #3, coming immediately after the longest Christmas break my kids have ever have. This is day 19 of break. Day 19, people.

I am (dramatically) hanging on by a thread.

Don’t misunderstand me…I love my children so very much. And we have had some really great times over break. For instance, I LOVED that they were off school starting December 21; it gave us several days of relaxing togetherness as we anticipated Christmas. Our time between Christmas and New Year’s Day was fantastic…Matt was off work most of this time, and it was fun. And, also, filled with work, as we rebuilt a closet (pictures coming soon!), but it was good.

Then, last Sunday came, and the snow came in record amounts, and the temperatures fell to record lows, and the wind blew and there was no school.

And then there was no school again. And again.

It’s not them being home that I don’t like…it’s that no one has a routine. That’s fine when it’s the holidays, but the holidays are long over. When we have summer break, we start a new routine immediately (yes, it takes a few days to establish, but at least everyone knows what it is)…right now, we’re in this holding pattern, waiting for our routine to return.

It’s not just me; the boys WANT to go back to school. Jack Henry nearly cried upon hearing the news of snow day #2.

They’ve been outside in doses they can tolerate (and their awesome dad took them sledding during the snowstorm for an hour on Sunday!). They’ve played the iPad in amounts I never could’ve predicted that I’d allow, we’ve played games, watched movies, eaten a lot of food, and they’ve built forts galore in the basement.

BUT IT’S TIME TO GO BACK. The brotherly love wore off days ago, and they need a break from each other that isn’t me putting them in a time out.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day. I know it.

PS…if you’re looking for a fun thing to make, try these soft pretzels (then bonus: serve them for dinner). They were super easy to make and really, really good! This was the first time I’d ever made pretzels…and they were a huge hit. The only thing I’d do differently is divide the dough into 12 pieces instead of 8. 1/8 of that dough is a TON. We did end up cutting most of it up into small sticks.

Family Night.

Since school started, I’ve made a conscious effort to have one “family night” a week. Since Luke and Bennett each have a baseball practice near the dinner hour once a week, and on those nights I make something quick that can be eaten on the go if needed.

There aren’t many guidelines, but here’s what I’ve been making sure of: dinner is something everyone *should* like, hypothetically. Therefore, I will only try a new recipe on family night if I think it’s fail-proof and guaranteed to be loved (and to make sure dinnertime is pleasant and a success, I make something like beer bread, which is a treat).

I try to have dinner ready when Matt gets home at 6, and the boys do their part by getting their homework/reading and showers done before dinner, so we have some time to just hang out. They’re super cooperative, too, do I get the sense they like this time as much as I do ;).

The last several weeks we’ve been watching our DVR’d episodes of the Great Food Truck Race, and tonight we’ll watch the last of those. Tomorrow is a late start day for the boys, so we’ll have time for a game or 2 before bed, too. Over the next several (I hope!!) weeks, Cardinals playoff baseball will be part of family nights as well.

So chime in. What makes a family night special at your house? I’d love new ideas!

Also, they’re totally not paying me for this (but they could if they wanted) but you should buy this Trader Joe’s Salted Caramel Sauce ASAP. It’s pretty much the greatest thing ever, and a perfect family night dessert-maker (sundaes, apples and dip, a spoonful straight out of the jar. Not that I’ve ever done that.). The whole family loved it during last week’s family night! Obviously, it’s much cheaper in the store than that link shows – go get it!

Odds and Ends

1. Yes, I realize I didn’t blog about Christmas here. I intended to, but it just didn’t happen, and now I don’t feel like it. However, we had a fantastic Christmas with the boys – probably my favorite ever. We spent 2 fun days with extended family in Effingham before Christmas, got back here Christmas Eve, and we were here the whole week after that. This was the first Christmas Day in 13 years of marriage that we were at our own home on the 25th for the whole day!

Matt worked 2 days that week, but we mostly filled our time with games, Legos, puzzles, laying around in pajamas, and hanging out with friends. It was just perfect, and we loved it!

2. I just started a makeover of our playroom! I’m turning it into more of a big kid study/game/playroom, and I’m so excited to see the plan that’s been in my head for a while in real life. The house is a DISASTER since over the last few days I emptied the playroom of everything, but it won’t be that way for too long. Painting starts today.

2b. I did not realize how horrible the walls in there were.  The previous owners slapped a single coat of paint on the walls to cover some wallpaper (note to home sellers: this is always, ALWAYS a bad idea), which I knew, but I hadn’t ever really inspected the walls.  They’re in bad shape, but short of getting them re-drywalled, which will never happen, there’s not much I can do but paint them.  So that room will definitely be a Monet.

3. We took the boys to Champaign on Saturday for the Illini/OSU game, which WILL get its own post. I know, no Christmas, yes to one day on campus? I’m messed up. But it was fun day; one for the memory books.

4. If you shop at Schnucks for groceries, you might not know about this cool feature on their website. Find your local ad, and then click on an item to add it to your shopping list. You can print out or email your list to yourself. It includes sale prices and the general location in the store, so your items are grouped together. Really handy!

5. This happened. This really happened! Luke grew his hair out from August-Thanksgiving, got a decent haircut, and then hadn’t had it trimmed since. I told him over the weekend that it was time to go get a haircut, and he said, “Eh. Why don’t you just cut it?” Enter me, jumping for joy, and a tear coming to both Matt’s and Hayley’s eye, I think.

it was fine…just needed a little trim.

but clearly, i wasn’t going to argue with him asking me to do it!

6. I’m so happy Downton Abbey returned last night!  Every Sunday night for the next several weeks will be so fun.

7. Need some hair accessories?  The first big buy 2, get 1 free etsy sale is going on right now at Here’s the Diehl.  Don’t miss it!  You have until Jan. 27.

I Did What Any Sane Woman Would Do.

Last Friday afternoon, I heard a really loud noise coming from outside our house.

“Hmm,” I thought. “Someone must have gotten a new mower or something.”

When the sound didn’t stop and sounded closer than someone mowing, I stepped out the front door and ran to the side of our house to discover that my house was actually making that noise. Well, part of my house, at least: the air conditioning unit. And when outside, that noise was actually a shrill, high-pitched whine, coupled with a vibrating sound. And it was awful.

It stopped after less than a minute. I heard it a couple more times during the day, and when Matt got home from work, I told him about it.

Of course it didn’t make any noise again until around 9:30pm. When it started, Matt immediately jumped off the couch to head outside to hear it, and at the same time, our doorbell rang. Seems our neighbor was outside with his dog and there’s no mistaking that the sound meant something was wrong.

We shut down the a/c…no need to keep the neighbors up all night.

Since we were going to be in Effingham from Saturday afternoon-Sunday afternoon, we didn’t bother with paying more for a service call on Saturday morning. When we returned Sunday afternoon, it was 87 in our house. I threw open all of the windows, and it stayed 87 for 6 hours.

But what did I do after opening all of the windows, and what does the title have to do with any of this?

Well, within minutes of being home, I ran to the pantry. To save my chocolate chips. Being that I like to bake, I have a wide variety on hand: semi-sweet (mini and regular) and milk chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, Andes mint chips, peanut butter chips and caramel bits and almond bark. (This is not a joke.) I stuck them in the fridge, relieved that I wouldn’t have to replace them.

On Monday, I remembered a pin I’d stuck to Pinterest not long ago for a single-serving of chocolate-chip cookie dough. Based on the comments, here’s the best combination:
1.5 Tbl butter, softened
3 Tbl flour
1.5-2 Tbl brown sugar
splash of milk
splash of vanilla
as many chocolate chips as you want

Oh. my. goodness. I am a girl who loooooves cookie dough, and even I was able to save this for 2 servings 🙂

In the end, that cookie dough probably helped save my sanity, as our a/c wasn’t fixed until 3:00pm on Tuesday. The weather on Monday and Tuesday was a HUGE blessing, though, because while it did get pretty warm in here, the days were not horribly hot. In fact, if we’d had a/c, the days would have felt really nice, I’m sure.

God saved the blazing heat for Wednesday through tomorrow, when it’s once again easily over 100 in St. Louis, which is something I have no tolerance for in September.

Dear October: kindly come quickly. Love, Me.

Quick Kitchen Corner Makeover

I keep seeing these cute menu boards all over the blogosphere and Pinterest, and I decided to whip one up.

However, I have almost no wall space in my kitchen…it’s not that it’s so filled with stuff that there’s no room; there’s just literally almost no wall space to begin with.

So, I improvised. And, what makes me even happier is that I had ALL of the things I needed on hand. So this project cost me zero dollars and zero cents (in new expenditures…I mean, obvs, I didn’t steal this stuff). Though, if you don’t have these things at home, this is definitely a project you can make on the cheap.

This is how the corner of the counter looked before:

this plate was fine, but it was just leftover decor from the old house. now it's a serving platter! or, possibly, going in my next garage sale.

And here’s why it looked like this:

pretty.

That would be my cheap imitation of an ipod dock, which consists of computer speakers purchased at a garage sale for $1. Yes, it works fine, but it’s a bit unsightly, as is that giant CO detector. So I keep it covered.

And now, here’s how it looks!

so far, we're only having dinner two times next week.

I used an old frame I had, and just left it alone…honestly, I would have preferred something smaller, but beggars can’t be choosers. The mat was in the frame, and I spray painted it to coordinate with the kitchen. The plate holder was spray painted oil-rubbed bronze (I wanted to paint it bright orange, but didn’t have any spray paint, so this had to do). I dug that paper out of my supply of cardstock, and then used my Silhouette to make the lettering (though, you could just write that on there, or you could buy letter sticker packs and DIY). I’m using a dry-erase marker to write the weekly menu.

My kids love when they can see for themselves what’s coming up on the menu (I used to sometimes make a paper copy of our menu), probably so that they can perfect their gagging skills well ahead of time on days that they hate what I’m preparing.

Have a great weekend! Next week I’m going to show you the new, improved dresser!

A Few of My Favorite Things, Spring 2011 Edition

1. Calypso Sun Wallflowers from Bath & Body Works. I’m extremely particular about the scents in my house, and totally partial to Leaves scent in the fall and Fresh Balsam in the winter, but I had no spring/summer scent that I liked until now! It’s a really fresh, crisp, orangy-smelling scent.

2. Crystal Lite Pure. It’s delicious. No artificial anything but still 15 calories a serving. Yay! I recommend the Mixed Berry flavor.

3. Getting awakened by my incredibly enthusiastic 6-year-old who is watching Quick Pitch (baseball recaps from the night before) and runs into my room to yell, “Mom, did you SEE Skip Schumaker’s slide into first last night?” I’d prefer it be 9am, but whatever. PS I have a crush on Skip Schumaker.

4. Pinterest. Holy cow. Super cool with the potential to be an addiction. If you want an account of your own, let me know and I’ll send you an email invite.

5. Vacation planning.

6a. My conversation with Jack Henry (while he and I were alone in the car) about how he can never be a dog, not even when he grows up.

6b. 4 days later…
Bennett: “Jack, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Jack Henry: “A dog.”
Bennett: “A dog? You know you can’t really be a dog, right?”
JH: “I know. But I do wanna be one.”

6c. My 5 minute convo with JH regarding which comes first, kindergarten or first grade. Seriously, how can something so simple require a 5-minute conversation?

7. Ulta’s nail polish deal. They often have buy-2-get-1-free on their OPI/Essie/etc polishes, plus a $3.50 off a $10 purchase. When I realized that many of the polishes I have were nearly as old as Bennett, I decided it was time for some new ones. The deal meant I got 3 new great Essie colors for about $13.

8. My husband. He’d always be on one of these lists, but I particularly love that he doesn’t bat an eye when he pulls into our garage at the end of a long day and realizes that I have yet another spray paint project taking up half the garage. And etsy shop stuff spread all over the living room at all times.

What are your favorites right now??

Sleetcation 2011

In anticipation of this “epic” winter storm of “crippling, historic proportions”, I made plans to have a few things to do if we did, indeed, get stuck in our house for an extended period of time.

The only thing epic about this was that it freakin’ sleeted ALL DAY LONG yesterday. Probably 2.5-3″ of tiny ice balls. And then a couple of inches of snow. Gah. This is not historic.

So my original plan to call this snowcation changed to sleetcation, which just isn’t nearly as cool.

It is, however, nothing to be out running around in. Earlier today I watched a snowplow have a very difficult time getting through our cul-de-sac, and the street in front of us that was cleared isn’t really so much.

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

1. Making breadsticks. Directions and pictures are on Three More Bites.

2. Luke is making valentines for school. This is our first time making homemade ones, and they’re so cute! I cut out the monsters with the Silhouette (using 2 downloads from their store), and the rest is just cardstock (from my supply) and googly eyes (purchased in my last-minute-rush-to-Walmart trip). Inspiration here.

3. Lots of Super Mario Bros on the Wii.

4. We finally got around to putting the boys’ handprints on the tablecloth like I do every Christmas. Wait…what? Christmas was six weeks ago? Oh.

5. A really cool pancake let the boys know that Aunt Heidi is having a baby girl! PS…do not try this at home. Flipping that pancake resulted in many small pieces.

6. Bennett worked on his new daily writing assignment, and he hit it out of the park with his penmanship! And his story about making breadsticks is super cute.

7. Jack Henry asked Matt to teach him how to play chess. Which is pretty much the most adorable thing ever. I recorded some of it, and it’s too long to post. But every time Matt would teach him about how a certain piece moves on the board, he would say, “ooh, so DAT’S how you play.” And I don’t think my Candyland and Memory days are over just yet; he stuck with it for about 15 minutes, but later told me that two of the chess pieces are called “guts” and “chunk” so I’m thinking that not much of the lesson sunk in.

8. The promise of brownies tomorrow, a playdate for Bennett, and lunch with an equally-cabin-fevered friend and her kiddos are keeping me afloat as my dear husband gleefully heads back to the office.

Friday Stuff.

First of all, I posted a confession over on Three More Bites yesterday. Anyone have ideas?

Also, Sonya posted this Fruit Salsa recipe that I’ve had before but never made, and it’s a keeper!

Did you know that you can sign up to have Three More Bites delivered to your inbox? You can! Click over there and on the top right, there is a subscription button (just like on this blog).

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Uh, I don’t know if you’ve seen the news or not, but dead birds keep freaking falling out of the sky. It’s happened twice en masse, and I’m starting to panic just a teeny bit. Not sure if you know this, but I HATE real birds (birds drawn on things are cute, though, like this).

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I’m so, so sorry if this is you, but all of the “repost this as your status” nonsense on Facebook is getting really, really annoying. Phew. I feel better just saying it.

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OK…off to work on dinner, fold laundry, and wrap a special little birthday girl’s first birthday present!

In Case You Missed It

A few quick hits, some light, some heavy. Blogging in bullets is very comfortable for me right now.

1. Compassion bloggers are in Kenya this week. I’ll be following through Kristen’s blog at We are THAT Family and Shaun Groves’ blog. Add them to your Google reader if they’re not there already. You won’t be sorry, and what they report will likely challenge your thinking. I’d love to someday go on one of these trips!

2. Lots of new recipes over at Three More Bites, including:
–Corn Bread Deep Dish Pizza
–Ravioli Veggie Soup
–Alabama Cookies
–Chicken Parmesan Pizza
–Lasagna Bianco
–Roast Pork Tenderloin

3. I had a moment yesterday where I freaked out a little about this whole “new house = new school” business. Deep breath. I’m still planning to post about this when I can.

4. Hannah posted a hilarious synopsis of what the show “The Bachelor” is like and I could not agree more! I am so not a fan, but I know many of you are. However, I think even if you watch the show you’ll find her analysis funny.

5. Luke just told me he was going to “go the extra mile” on his homework. He’s growing up too fast.

6. Biggest Loser last night = me not liking Michael any more. I’m all for game play, but that was just plain stupid (especially his comment to Daris and his mom about how he “just realized” that he’d split up mother and son – puh-leeze).