Sunnyside Kid #5 and Wallpaper Worries

It feels like forever since I posted...though I guess Christmas wasn't too far away, really. It just seems so.

The kids FINALLY went back to school on Tuesday. Not that I don't love 'em, but 10-11 children in my tiny kitchen every day for breakfast, lunch, and snack was a little much. If we stay in this house we are going to HAVE to add on a dining room. Soon. Because I'm thinking I'll go crazy over the summer. Of course, three of my daycare children are teacher's kids, so enrollment may fall off for June and July.

That brings me to another item: You have to help me decide what to do with the boys' room. One of my daycare kids ate the border off my boy's bedroom wall. Yes, ATE. This is the same child who eats pine cones, sand, dirt clods, sticks, dog poo, rocks, and as of Tuesday....a huge hole in Marina's curtains. He is the one who broke the Fisher Price barn, tore up a whole bunch of books (so he could eat the paper), and destroyed two brand new Christmas gifts (so he could chew the plastic coated wires within). I can't count the number of finger sweeps I've performed on that baby. Being the early childhood development specialist I am, I recognize that this is NOT normal behavior. I'm strongly leaning toward a mild form of autism (his social behaviors are off, too). Being the country girl that I am, I can tell you that, "Sumthin' ain't right with that young'un."

As of Tuesday, I gave his mom two weeks notice that she will need to find another place for him to spend his days. Don't worry--I used the professional language, not the country girl equivalent. It is not that he is special needs. It is just that I cannot afford to keep financing his special needs. The curtains were the last straw. Those were nice curtains. Also, I cannot sufficiently serve his special need. This is home care. That means that, while I must take adequate safety precautions (adequate for MOST children), I am not expected to--nor could I possibly--maintain visual surveillance of all children at all times. I'm it. I'm the whole show. So, if it's twenty minutes till lunch, I'm in the kitchen getting the food on the table. I'm NOT in the boys' room. Where Sunnyside Kid #5 is eating wallpaper. I do not know that Sunnyside Kid #5 is chomping down, and therefor, if Sunnyside Kids #1-4 are not in the immediate vicinity, I may not become aware of Sunnyside Kid #5's appetizer of choice. I'm picturing finding Sunnyside Kid #5 dead on my floor with a huge wad of wallpaper (or curtains) lodged in his throat. I'm CPR and first aide certified, but not itching to try my skill any time soon--or ever! I can't have that on my conscience. Having to replace wall paper border is a nuisance. A child is irreplacable and losing one--that was placed in my care--unthinkable. I personally find the number of children crammed into a class in most daycare centers appalling. But, at least it is ONE room. Where the teachers can monitor him minute by minute.

Back to my decorating dilemma. What should I do? I've already checked e-bay for this border and I haven't found any auctions. All of my extra rolls were destroyed in the hurricane. I'm going to have to soak off and remove what remains of the border. Read that last sentence with a pronounced whine. I really loved that border. It went so well with all of our boy furniture. "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth. Do not store up for yourselves....." I did find some cute borders that may work (though not nearly as perfectly!!!) with the exsisting wall color, but then I wonder if I should replace it with something so juvenile since K is nine now (he was 6 and Ian was 2 when we originally papered the bedroom)... But then again, I do run a daycare, and that is where the daycare children play. But they won't always play there. We are hoping to move. Maybe I should just break out the KILZ (it's gonna take buckets to cover the royal blue. Ugh. And double UGH), and repaint with something neutral for the sake of resale? With my luck, if I do that, we'll be stuck in this house for the next twenty years.

And then I wonder if I should replace it with border at all, because what if I get another Sunnyside Kid #5? But, seriously, how often do children that eat wallpaper come along? Some help here? My brain is tired. I'm sorry the picture is so dim. I didn't think to give you a visual until after the sun set. Those are trucks, fire engines, helicopters, cars, taxis and road signs on a perfectly coordinated backgound of light blue with royal blue outlining. Trying to cope with a profound loss here....

Cooking For a What?

So for the last two weeks, I've been trying my hand at once-a-month cooking. If your not familiar with the term 'once-a-month cooking', also know as 'cooking for the month' it is an idea that is supposed to "revolutionize" the way you prepare food for your family. The method is heralded as an EASY way to save time, cut cost, and conserve energy. All under the banner of their catchy slogan, "Cook for a day, eat for a month!" Horse hockey.
I've been reading about once-a-month cooking for years, and have tried a few variations of it. I almost always cook several meals on the weekend and have them ready to go in the fridge for weeknights. And cooking double batches and freezing half for dinners down the road, saved my butt and my budget when I was teaching full time. When we went to Russia, I had extreme guilt about leaving my mom to cook and care for the kids (not like she hadn't been doing it for 30+ years, but still...), so I prepared and froze a bunch of yummy dishes that she could just pop in the microwave and serve. But I've never been consistent, and I've never done an entire month. Since the master has taken this new job (which cut our monthly budget by $1,000), and taken over the money management department of our marriage (read--reduced my grocery spending allowance to 500.00), I figured that it was now or never. Or maybe I should say, now or starve. Doing the mail run at four in the afternoon, which was my normal time for supper preparation, is an additional factor. I was having to choose between getting dinner ready and getting my nap. Sweating in the kitchen or lazing in the bed, sweating in the kitchen or lazing in the bed....zzzzzzz
I started out on June first with my $250 determined to buy enough to eat on for a month. Ha! Ha! Give me $500, I'll show you! I'll only use half. But I think the joke is on me. I've put far more than $250 dollars of labor into this project (which has stretched from one day to ten) and I still don't have a month's worth of meals in my freezer. I only have 20. Now they say that you should not make any decisions about continuing the once-a-month method until you have enjoyed your frozen bounty for a few cycles, but this cooking marathon is hell. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Having my monthly," let me tell you.
For those of you considering taking the once-a-month plunge here are Jessy's Pros and Cons.
PRO

1. Does save money. Even for someone who never bought prepackaged or prepared foods, this has reduced my grocery costs still further. Because, I bought like a half a pig, 10 pounds of potatoes, vats of tomato sauce. The larger the quantity the cheaper per ounce/pound. Also you go to the grocery store less, so save on gas and eliminates impulse buying.
2. Able to combine steps. Instead of browning ground meat three times a week, you brown 10 pounds of ground round at once and use it in three different meals. Same with marinara--just cooked up a soup tureen of the stuff and used it in four different suppers.
3. Those are actually all the pros I can think of at present. But keep in mind I'm still in the trenches of getting this thing accomplished. Perhaps I will feel better about it, when I've spent five minutes defrosting instead of five hours slaving. I'll keep you posted.

CON

1. Arrrghhhh! The mess! The mess in my kitchen. The mess in my house. The books say you should not clean your kitchen until you are done, but in my case, that would be leaving the filth for 10 days, which is out of the question, and besides where would I continue to cook and what would I cook with? After each cooking session, every utensil/pot/pan/dish is dirty and the counters are spilling over with food and packages, and it's a real nightmare. My house is a wreck too, because all I've been doing is cooking and all the other housework has fallen by the wayside. Guess my savings would be lost if I hired a maid?
2. Whoever wrote these books do not have real husbands or real children. Because they set the same dinner on the table five times a month with every meal having one ounce of meat and everybody in their fake family says, "YUM! YUM! Thanks, Mom!" If I followed their meal plans, I'd be hearing from my folks something more along the lines of, "We just HAD cheesy potatoes last week." "We're sick of spaghetti!" and "Where's the beef?" At the Su_______ house we are accustomed to greater variety and much more protein than the once-a-monthers generally allow.
3. You have to plan every teeny, tiny, detail for the whole month. Have I ever mentioned that I'm not much of a planner? I'm more of a free spirit. I liked the, "Hmm....what sounds good tonight?" way of life. Now I have to decide a month in advance what will sound good on any given night. It is really cramping my style.

Some things that I have learned from this experience:

1. The old fashioned way of cooking truly is the cheapest way of cooking and it still works.
2. The old fashioned way of cooking is the hard way of cooking.
3. My family consumes on average 5 gallons of marinara a month. That boggles my mind.
4. When all of these children are consuming adult size portions, we will have to move to Montana, where we will kill and eat elk and forage for roots all winter long, and till the ground and scavage for berries in the summers.