trees, bushes, sticks, and lakes

I have two main parenting goals for tax season this year (well, the obvious one is to stay sane- but that goes without saying and is an annual feat in emotional restraint). The other two are:

Goal #1: Limit the kids' t.v. time to no more than 1/2 hour a day.

I remember being the all-knowing child expert while in graduate school (with no children) and secretly (or maybe not so secretly) frowning upon the concept of using the television as a babysitter. Of course that is wrong. Of course parents should spend quality time with their children. But no one can tell me that letting the kids watch 1/2 an hour of Diego so that I can make dinner is any worse than yelling at Ella to get down off the table and stay out of the dishwasher while telling Noah to please stop flushing the toilet and quit picking on your sister, while I'm frantically pulling some frozen, calorie-laden meal out of the freezer to throw in a pan and feed the little monsters.

No, a little quiet time for mommy is a necessary and beautiful thing. And, gracias Diego and Alicia, for teaching my children some Spanish while I'm pouring their leche or agua for dinner. Having said that, I do think it's important to try to limit the t.v. time, and I find that that's even harder to do when it's just me home with the kiddos 24/7. But, it's a goal I will definitely strive toward.

Goal #2: Try to fix healthy, well-balanced meals for dinner

This is a hard goal for me during tax season when I'm just cooking for the 3 of us, mainly because of the chaos that is the 5:00-6:00 time for us, especially on days I work. It's easy to throw in some sort of prepackaged meal, or heat up chicken nuggets and mac and cheese for the kids while I shovel in a bowl of cereal while trying to unload the dishwasher, make my lunch for work the next day, and writing out a check for the babysitter all at the same time, but I'm really trying to use those options only in emergencies.

I've been trying hard to get Noah to eat more vegetables and to be excited about eating healthy. He gets to go to the store with me to pick out some fresh fruit and veggies that he might like, and then he gets to choose one of each every night for dinner. So far it's been going well. He's excited about our dinner tomorrow, which is going to include trees, bushes, sticks, and a lake (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot sticks, and some fat free ranch) and also about pretending that we're herbivores on the night we get to eat salad!!

I'm also trying really hard to keep our dinners "family meals" while Seth is away. The t.v. is off, Noah and I say a prayer, and we really try and practice our good manners. To keep Noah entertained, I've made a set of "Dinner Cards" which are just note cards with questions on them like: "tell about a time when you were scared", and "if you could have any super power, what would it be and why". Noah LOVES it!! He raises his hand to answer, and really thinks hard about what he wants to say. Which gives him less time to think about how much he hates broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and ranch.