Four Pizza Night

Yesterday, bored with meal plans, I asked the kids to each come up with a dinner idea to put on the list. Reuben chose "rice". Reese chose "pizza with pineapple on the side". Cole chose "Nothing-Since-I-Wanted-To-Pick-Pizza-But-Reese-Already-Picked-It-And-You-Won't-Let-Us-Have-Pizza-Twice-In-One-Week"! Oh well. Two outta three's not bad.

Since the fridge was pretty empty and pizza toppings can be purchased at the last minute, I got busy making the dough so it could get to rising. My dough recipe makes two pizzas. Realizing I had an excess of flour, yeast, etc I decided to make two batches, so that we could have some dough in the freezer for a quick weekend lunch in the future. A couple of hours later, as I was rolling out the dough, Justin made a quick trip to the store for toppings and beer, and in no time, we were tossing pizzas into the oven....

Okay. Do you know how many pizzas we went through last night? Four. All four. Well, three and a half. Which still leaves no dough for the freezer. And which also means that at the ages of 6, 4 and 2, my boys can already put away close to 3 pizzas between the three of them....

I was laughing as I was putting the fourth pie into the oven and the boys were all still sitting at the table waiting for more--thinking of what life will be like a few years down the road--when they are all FOUR at the table--and bringing home their friends, to boot! Good thing this mama likes to cook!

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In other news: today we six hopped the bus that stops right out in front of our house, rode downtown to wander the Farmer's Market, filled our bags with local veggies, a new long-sleeved tee for Mama, and cookies from Mount Bakery, and then stopped into Pita Pit for a special lunch before riding the bus back home. All in all, a bang-up day!

Quote of the Day:

"This is the first time my Golden Tooth has ever eaten pizza!" --Cole, age 6

They're Here, They're Here!

My Christmas present was delivered today,
courtesy of the US Postal Service...

Five baby chicks, each of them just 2 days old.

Justin says if we want to name them, we should choose Foodie names, like Fryer and Drumstick, to remind us of their eventual purpose. I don't know that Cole really understands, because he wants to name one of them "Wheat"!

These sweet little ladies are the perfect end to my year, as God has been teaching me great things lately about the sanctity of life.

Last winter, He led me through a journey of ancient Old Testament scriptures concerning food and ritual. I was astonished to see such abundance of life in passages I had read so blindly for years. I saw the beauty of God's protection in scriptures about restriction; I found freedom in the celebration of Sabbath.

And then, unbeknownst to me, as I was praising God for loving me as a parent and giving me safe boundaries, he was creating another child within me, yet again expanding the limits of my little tent....

Teaching me ever more about trusting His timing, and having faith in the goodness of His gifts.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." --jeremiah 29:11

On a basic level, I am thankful for the food these chicks will provide. On a deeper level, although I am not looking forward to explaining their death to my boys, I am thankful for the opportunity to share that experience with my children. I hope that they begin to see, as I have, that sometimes One has to die, for us to truly live....

Friday Confessions

....or, Things I Need To Get Off My Chest:

* It is 2pm and I only just got out of my jammies

* I bribed the boys with money this morning to get them to make their beds

* I'm pretty sure that spot on Reuben's pants is poo that leaked through his diaper, and though I changed his diaper, I didn't change his pants

* I asked Justin to get pizza for lunch so that I wouldn't have to do more dishes

* I made the kids drink water with their pizza, while I drank Pepsi in front of them

* The last entry in my checkbook is from before Sean was born

* I haven't yet written my baby thank-you cards, delivered some of my Christmas packages, or put away the wrapping paper

* I bribe Reuben with chocolate chips or mini-marshmallows to get him to use the potty

* Reese is so in need of a bath that when I ran my hand through his hair this morning, it stayed in the position I left it.....

BUT...

It is the weekend (hooray, hooray) and tomorrow is Sabbath (hooray, hooray) and we are all buzzing about the games we will play, the walks we will take, the lounging we will do....

What bliss! This is what grace is, to me!