My Project

It sucks being a match-maker.  I can't help it, but I'm always trying to match my single friends.  I have two successful marriages for which I can take full credit.  At one of the weddings, the preacher even called me out during the ceremony! 

It's a curse though.  Recently, I've been trying to find a match for an old high school friend.  I thought it would be so easy.  I know him so well and since I was a 13 year old kid.  He's a decent and loyal person and he's even very handsome with a perfect jaw line, straight white teeth, greying blond hair and he weighs exactly the same as he did in high school.  A total "boy scout," he's never even smoked a joint, he played football at a major university and he happens to be a bone fide oil mogul with more money than he could ever spend...

So...apparently he somehow comes off too desperate for love.  I mean, he's looking hard.  I'm introducing him to beautiful, successful women who don't "need" a man, but who seek the companionship of one and they see the needy, insecure side of this almost perfect guy before the first course is served.  

What do I do with that?  I can't just throw him out there to the desperate girls.  That wouldn't be good for either of them.  Do I send him to a counselor?  He wants it to happen for him yesterday and so do I, but I want to be careful with him at the same time because I've known him for so long and I know it all comes from a good place.  He seriously seems defeated and outright depressed when a girl won't return his calls.  The girls are nice enough about it I guess, but just like, "um, no thank you."

This one is a challenge and I'm like the Roman gladiator at the coliseum of love. 

Let Them Eat Cereal

I've had it with my picky eaters.  I'm done trying.  If it were up to them we would have spaghetti five nights a week and tacos the other two.

We have one of those wooden message signs in our kitchen which reads, "Menu: eat it or starve."  I'll admit I bought it just because I thought it was cute, but now I really mean it...and meanly.

Basically every time I cook something that I think the entire family will enjoy, the kids turn up their noses and harrumph and whine until I dump the contents of their plates into the trash and either quickly fix yet another dish while my plate gets cold or point to the fridge and say "cereal."

For example, last night I made a simple meatloaf, cornbread stuffing and sweet potatoes.  And the thing is, they have eaten meatloaf plenty of times.  Same goes for stuffing, I mean what kid isn't down with stuffing?  But Noooooooooo, neither kid liked any of the stuff I'd prepared.  They elected instead to have Honey Nut Cheerios.  I wanted to scream.

I'm so tired of fixing "kid food" like macaroni and cheese and lasagna.  Uhg!  There was one night recently when I had fixed a nice dinner of my husband's favorite "pork chops and cabbage" with some fresh snapped green beans on the side.  The kids of course "tried it" and unceremoniously spit it back out onto their plates.  I then desperately made quickie mac and cheese for the boy and scrambled eggs for the girl, thereby dirtying at least four more dishes.  Fun.  It would be nice to be able to prepare only a couple of things for dinner and have some variety there throughout the week.

I don't buy chips or sodas or even ice cream...ever.  We do however always have plenty of breakfast cereals and toaster waffles on hand.  "Easy and quick" is definitely on the morning menu in this house.  Basically due to that being the only "junk" food ever available, the kids end up having cereal for dinner many times during the week when they "dis" my dinners.  Serves them right I say.  I'm done feeling guilty about that.

New motto in the Staglik household: "eat it or starve" (or eat cereal for dinner)!  It not just a decorative piece of art anymore.

And My Kitchen Stayed Clean

Thanksgiving was a great success!  No one cooked and no one cleaned up.

This was the second year in a row our small family decided to go "out" for Thanksgiving and it is our favorite new "tradition" going forward.  Yesterday we had a private room at one of the city's most critically acclaimed restaurants with great service, incredible food, and flowing Cakebread for over three hours!

The highlight of the day was when our NYC-dwelling niece appeared as a server, water pitcher in hand, to surprise her parents and grandma!  It made me cry it was so exciting.  We got it on video and we all watched it over and over again.

Although I love seeing all of our extended family, I also dread the "work" that goes into it, the preparation, the cooking, the cleaning and how it takes hours and even days to prepare for a feast that lasts thirty minutes tops.  I just have to be in a certain mood and moody as I am, I haven't seen that mood for sometime.

I hope this preference towards Thanksgiving reservations isn't setting a bad precedent for our kids.  I mean, we all grew up relegated to the "kid's table" and family all around and now I'm teaching my kids to sit quietly and order from a menu or fill their plates from the brunch buffet.  I would offer though that the time spent with the kids is more quality time, since I'm not distracted with food preparation and details.  Plus, it's so nice with the kids a bit older now and able to cut their own meat for example.  These are the best years.  They are generally well behaved, interesting, clever, polite and conversant young people at the dinner table and did I mention no one has to clean up afterwards.

Yes. This is how our clan rolls.  ...and a good time was had by all.