So before I dive into today’s Halloween family fun, a couple stories. Tonight I was driving home from a charity function (which I’ll mention more later) and it occurred to me . . . I missed a HUGE opportunity with yesterday’s post. The title of the post should have been “Give ‘the finger’ to school lunches”. I have never had so many people comment to me about how much they too hate packing school lunches. My favorite comment came from my mother-in-law. Here’s what she wrote in an e-mail to me:
I too hated to make school lunches - choosing to have them buy instead. I never felt creative about lunches. There was a time when [my son]* couldn't remember to take lunch money and I finally had to tell the teacher "No more lunch loans!" She thought I was really cruel!
(* “my son” has been substituted for my husband’s name so as to protect the guilty).
The best part about this little story, at the very moment that I received this e-mail I had just hung up the phone with the school district’s automated system that said “Dear Mrs. Dugdale – the Superego (yep, the automated system calls her that too) has a school lunch account balance of negative two dollars and fifty cents”. Now isn’t it interesting that we have three children at that school, all three of whom always have the same lunch scenario, and yet only one of them has exceeded her account balance. Apparently the school lunch account apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!
Ok, on to family fun. Today it was mummy meatloaf. Here’s what I learned about making shapes out of an otherwise mundane dinner:
Oh, but wait, one more note before family fun. The d@mn tooth fairy didn’t show up again. And this time, for four days! In my, I mean her, defense, the Ego (middle child) didn’t legitimately lose her teeth. They had to be pulled by the dentist. So, here’s a suggestion if this happens to you – blame the way she “lost” the teeth. Here’s the hilarious part . . . Below is the note that the Ego left the tooth fairy this time:
Dear Tooth Fairy - can you give me 20 bucs. Check yes or no. p.s. plese write back plese read this |
I think that when the tooth fairy read this she thought “you have GOT to be kidding me. To hell with this kid, I’m gonna make her sweat”. So, four days later, this is what arrived on the Ego’s pillow along with two dollars – oh, and by the way, it arrived miraculously while the Ego was at school.
Dear Cassie - Yes, I am real. I am really sorry it took me so long to visit. Because your teth were pulled out and didn't fall out, it took me a little longer to find out. Love, the tooth fairy |
I have a feeling that the “tooth fairy” delivered it right after the Ego went to school because she couldn’t risk forgetting again that night.
The Ego’s comment when she got this note – “This cannot be your handwriting because it’s just too messy. Oh, and she used punctuation.” Apparently the tooth fairy’s left handed note threw the Ego off the scent, and who knew that the tooth fairy wasn’t supposed to know how to use punctuation?!
Enough digressions, on to the lessons and mummy meatloaf:
1) When you are talking to your husband as he’s on his way home, you may need to contain your excitement about tonight’s dinner – mummy meatloaf and ghost mashed potatoes. After all, he is the one who’s going to have to cook up this family fun because let’s not forget that you don’t cook – or more accurately, your husband wisely refuses to let you cook. If you do not contain your excitement, your husband’s response to you may be “you’re wearing me out, I should have just stayed at work”. Poor guy was exhausted, but he rallied and humored me with mummy meatloaf. :-)
2) When the recipe says that “after putting the cheese strips on the meatloaf, put it back in the oven for 1 minute”, they mean ONE minute. By the time I remembered the meatloaf in the oven it looked like (as my husband put it) a melted abominable snowman. The biggest bummer is that I didn’t take a picture of the “before oven” mummy. But, here he is the silhouette when I first put him in the oven.
Before |
After |
3) Do NOT put the “olive eyes” of the mummy on the baby’s plate. She will be sure to scream about how disgusting they are and that they have contaminated her meal.
Recommendations for today –
1) Try the mummy meatloaf. Here’s the picture from the original Disney Family Fun magazine.
All you do is make a meatloaf, shape it like a mummy and put cheese strips on it when it comes out of the oven. You can even get away with not putting it back in the oven. The cheese will just melt from the heat of the meatloaf. This only takes a few minutes, and is a memorable dinner for the kids. Plus, you can use them to make dinner - they'll love getting their hands all gooey!
2) Hire someone to be the tooth fairy. I can hire someone to remember to pick up my kids from school, why can’t I hire someone to remember to show up when they lose a tooth!
3) If you live in Escondido, Rancho Bernardo or 4S Ranch, check out and think about joining your local Charitable Foundation. The charity function I mentioned was for the Escondido Charitable Foundation. This was one of the first Foundations that I helped set up when I was working for The San Diego Foundation. In just 5 short years, the Escondido Charitable Foundation has made more than $560,000 in grants back to the community, and has an endowment fund of over $600,000 that will benefit Escondido forever. This year they gave $75,000 in grants and I was in awe of all they’ve done. Here in 4S Ranch and Rancho Bernardo there are similar foundations that have done similar work locally. Visit http://www.sdfoundation.org/CommunityFoundations.aspx to learn more.
Still giggling...
ReplyDeleteI love the check yes or no bit in the letter to the tooth fairy.
Hmmm...mummy meatloaf, huh? Looking interesting.
Newest follower...look forward to giggling along with your posts in the future.