So, I don’t know how it is at your house, but at ours there live two little girls that have grown more and more likely to use the word yuck when looking at the food being prepared for dinner.  We have been working on the concepts of “don’t knock it ’til you try it” and “you can start saying yuck when you start cooking your own meals.”  Well, that’s all fine in theory.  One too many days in a row and that’s it - “You are cooking Thursday night!!!!!!”  The look on our 7 year old’s face was great.  “But I don’t know how to cook……”

So she says.  As soon as she realized that we were serious, she said that she wanted to make her own mac and cheese.  She put together a list in ingredients and asked that they be there for her on Thursday.  Thursday rolls around, and I look at her and say “Where do you want to start to make dinner?  I’ll help, but you have to tell me what to do - you are in charge of this meal.”

Start the water.. and the oven

Get the heavy pan and we’ll melt the butter

Can you reach the flour?  I can’t get that high

Stir that please, I’ll add the milk

Please get the pasta down

grate the cheese

I’ll stir, you add cheese…. we need to save some for the top too

And thus it went.  Into the oven she placed dinner once we arrived home from our Yoga class.  Then a few minutes later I hear “Daddy - I need help.  Will you get the pot holders out of the oven - I forgot and left them in with the pan.”

Dinner was excellent!

Bedtime rolls around and I am talking to her and let her know that we would like her to cook once a week.  She groaned, but then said “well I guess we will have mac and cheese or pasta with red sauce once a week then.”  I said that was ok, or she could plan other things and we could work together to figure out a new to her dinner.  “Yeah - I could be your sous chef”  Who knew?

Well, in order of how things happened yesterday, here goes the important and big news.

First: the bunk beds showed up and were assembled for the girls. Both girls really like them - however, Ella was found this morning on the floor. She will happily tell you that she fell out of the bunk bed.

Second: After school Meg, Ella my parents and I all drove out to a local farm and picked up 11 little chicks to raise in our backyard. I am pleased to report that all 11 have made it through the night.

And then finally for those of you that know us - we have been pulling for Obama to get through this brutal primary. Looks like he pulled through just fine. I’m proud to be a supporter of his. The energy and poise he shows are just flat out amazing to me - each and every time I see him.

I think that is all the news I have to pass along for now. I am sure there will be more about all of these exciting events in the near future.

when i was at school it was field trip day and we went to the barn one thing

i saw is chickens i caught 5 but ! one did not run away that chicken was

called the blue silkee i was surprised so i bent down and picked her up.

Those were the words I heard upon my exit from the shower last week.  And really, you can insert pretty much anything in the blank and it has the same effect.  I tried to smile graciously to buy time and stammered through a vague answer about when mamas go to college and have babies and eat too many potato chips.

I stopped though.  I stopped and started over with a more straightforward approach about what is healthy and what is not-  including the fact that some fat is necessary.  I want to be clear.  I want to be straight forward and honest about health and weight as we raise these two incredible girls in a culture that worships the bodies of anorexic models.

It is difficult to answer the question “mama, why does your _____ jiggle.” (especially while trying to place the discussion into the larger context of health in general) But it is harder to sit on the couch with Meg snuggled up to me as I page through a Vanity Fair and and answer the questions like “why is that woman so skinny? why does that girl have black eye makeup and no pants? and what are those people doing?”

While I’m pretty okay with my jiggles, I expect to lose a few more of them this year as I train again for the Fox Cities US Cellular Half Marathon in September.  Long time blog readers will remember that I was working on this last year but didn’t end up running.  Kirk, Judith and I will be running together (and by together I mean we’re all going to drive to the start together and eat carbs afterward together.)  It’s a little bit of competition but mostly its encouragement.  Judith and Kirk have been more serious about training though.  Until about a week and half ago I had to qualify my “I’m training for a 1/2 marathon” statement with “and by training I mean I’m thinking really hard about going for a run.” I’ve been out three times now and starting up again this year is a whole heck of a lot easier than it was last year (when Ella was just eight months, still nursing and not sleeping well at all.)

I love to run - jiggles and all.  I’m not great at it but I do love it and I hope that Meg and Ella find some form of exercise that suits them like running suits me.  Because I want them to be healthy.  But someday… I’m going to remind Meg about my jiggles - I’m betting it will produce some giggles.