Knotts Berry Farm!

Dan's somewhat cynical boss (you know who you are Mister!) said, "Oh you're taking a day off to go to Notveryfun, eh?" But I must say, despite his little joke, and the chaos and grumpiness that can often take place when taking a family of 6 to a theme park for a day, we actually had a GREAT time! I'm so thankful for 2 amazing conditions that made our good time possible; First of all, there was the weather. It was totally mild, not too hot, not too cold. I was thinking back and realizing usually when I'm at a theme park, the sun is scorching and the heat starts to get to everyone after a few hours. So the lack of heat was a blessing, and then there was another thing lacking: CROWDS! We didn't have to wait in any lines, I figured there must be a lull between Spring Break and Summer Break or something, all I know is we got to go on a bunch of the rides twice even.

Anyway, we loved it, we consumed the obligatory funnel cake, shook hands with Snoopy, and Lorelei and I even went on Ghost Rider, and thought we were going to die. It was all very bonding.

The Paradox of Food (my soapbox rant for the day)

Okay, so like all moms, I occasionally feel myself riddled with guilt for not doing all the things I envisioned a perfect mother would do. And considering one of the essential roles I have during each day is to provide some kind of edible substance for my 4 little ones to eat, much of my self-inflicted guilt revolves around food.

In an era in which one of our 200 channels is a network devoted entirely to food, cooking has become much more fashionable than the days of old, and it has become much more accessible to the common middle-class masses. In the "old days" fancy cheeses and gourmet ingredients were difficult to come by, but now we're surrounded by ridiculously large, overstocked grocery stores that offer everything even a gourmet chef at a 5 star restaurant could possibly want or need. And so naturally, I feel both a pressure and a desire to cook fun and fancy foods for the kids. Everything Paula Deen ever invented looks tasty to me, especially since most of her recipes revolve around BUTTER, sugar, salt, and more BUTTER.

But, ahhh, there's the rub. I also am now living in a time when politicians no longer use world peace as their political platform, rather they speak about the dangers of childhood obesity. The Biggest Loser is one of my favorite shows, and every other commercial warns about caloric intake and overly-processed foods. There are now entire aisles at the grocery store dedicated to gluten-free, chemical-free, taste-free items that are guaranteed to make me live forever. So healthy living has been forced into my permanent subconscious. I feel super guilty when I see that all the other kids at school brought organic apples for snacks, and my kid's eating goldfish crackers and a Hershey's kiss I threw in the bag for fun.

So really, there's a paradox. Half of the media is pressuring me to be like Emeril Lagasse, and prepare restaurant quality food at night, but then the other half of the media is berating me to only eat 17 carrot sticks a day (that I've grown myself) and to seriously consider buting and slaughtering my own green-grass fed cow.

In gist, I feel befuddled and insecure about my food choices for my kids which is why I gave up this morning and gave them Eggos for breakfast; nothing baked and tasty like a recipe from the food network, and nothing healthy and fresh like the talk shows and documentaries say I need to buy. I think for now, I'm going to fall back on the old, hey, canned green beans and instant mashed potatoes were good enough for my grandmother, and so they're good enough for my family. (She's 91 by the way, and she loves her some glucose saturated canned peaches, let me tell you...)

Overused

We all have our favorite catch phrases, or we go through stages in life where we use the same quirky little saying over and over again to add emphasis, to be sarcastic, or just as an inside joke.

But seriously, this one is on every single show. I can't flip on a show without hearing,

"At the end of the day...."

Watch for it, they used it twice on American Idol last night, the commentators and the celebs and the talk show hosts can't say it enough. So seriously, I have an idea, every time you hear someone on TV say, "At the end of the day...." send me money. Come on, it'll be fun.

Spring Days Recap

1. In March Aunt Sandra (Dan's younger sister), Uncle Rob, and our friend Andrea came out for a visit, fun times, see above pic. and note the family resemblance!
2. Of course we did the whole egg dying thing. I tried to be like Martha Stewart and we blew out eggs but what's the point when you have a 2 & 1/2 year old that crushes them sort of accidentally every time she tries to handle one?
3. A week later, our niece, Rhaquel stopped by on her Spring break Cali trip. You know she's a good kid for visiting her old and boring relatives instead of cruisin' LA for hot guys. I want my daughters to be just like her!
4. We signed up for Spring Break swim lessons. The girls loved them, then hated them, then loved them again. Hmmm, could these daily mood swings and bouts of fickleness be an indicator of my future raising 4 daughters? (PRAY FOR DAN)

5. Dan's been workin' on the garden. Now that everyone and their dogs have seen Food Inc. or Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution, I figure we'll be super popular with all of our Organic veggies this summer, and apparently popularity's still important to me (I have left-over high school issues from that time I ran for student council, and lost, whatever Kami).

6. We had an awesome neighborhood egg hunt at Uncle Dennys. What made it more awesome was the fact that he had just gotten Bantam hens for his little girl, so all of my girls got to love on them, hold them, and then beg us for some of their own to raise. Gee, thanks Denny.

7. I made individual parfaits to bring to the church breakfast this morning, they were so easy and a total hit!
7. My sister gave my kids absurd amounts of candy, and I immediately stashed all the good stuff for me to eat when they go to bed.
8. And of course, this morning we celebrated the Resurrection with our church family with an awesome message from our pastor (Pastor Rick Anderson fccoxnard.org) and took our annual Springy dress Easter family pic. The girls even got in a photo with our hunky GQ neighbor, Owen. Shouldn't every 10 month old own a suit?




In all, I must say, I'm loving Spring Break! I've got one more work-free week left before I face that final stretch before summatime. I'm grateful for these days!