I have been feeling yucko all day, and had no energy. It has rained off and on all day. It's weird to hear rumbling thunder on a January day. Last week we had snow and ice. This week - temps in the 60's.
Alesia, poor baby, is really sick. She slept thru her alarm this morning, but went on to school. She called me at 12:30 to come get her. Now, my girl never gets stick. She just doesn't. She might have a little cold now and then, and the gastric issues have dogged her but been much better since we modified her diet as she's lactose intolerant. However, she is just not prone to getting sick. She slept half the afternoon. We see the doctor in the morning. We have the same doctor, which makes it easier.
I picked up Mike from school at 3:30 and took him to the orthodontist, where he got a new bracket. He complained bitterly, but he is doing so well with his braces, and his teeth now have room to come in. The baby teeth pulled in Kazakhstan were rotten, which is why when I brought him home he had all these weird gaps in his mouth. He spent his first 8 years of life NEVER brushing his teeth, and he rarely brushed in the orphanage. That's why he had 6 cavities when he got here.
Michael had a tennis lesson at 5 this afternoon, and thankfully the rain stopped long enough for the lesson to happen.
I told Michael when he got back from tennis this afternoon that he needed to help Granny make dinner. I am trying so hard to not get Mother sick. She doesn't bounce back like a young person. So they heated up Stouffer's spinach souffles, and Mom made a meatloaf, with Mike's help. He likes to help in the kitchen and is very enthusiastic about cooking.
I know i've posted before about how we make meatloaf, which is different than most. We put in baking powder, an egg, soy sauce, ketchup, onion powder, etc. We always put in a dollop of Taylor's sherry, for flavor. Well, Michael had never handled the sherry bottle, and he accidentally poured in about a cup, instead of a tablespoon. When I took the meatloaf out of the oven, it reeked of sherry. Now, it was very tasty, and all the alcohol had burned off. The fumes, though, well... Alesia took one whiff, and said she was nauseated, and opted instead for chicken soup.
Thank goodness Mother made a big pot of homemade chicken and rice soup the other day. It's the easiest soup to make - cook chicken in chicken broth until soft and add rice and seasonings. We add carrots, too. It's so much better than canned soup.
If I do nothing else, I hope both my kids will grow into adults with an appreciation of good food, and the ability to cook decent meals for themselves. I take shortcuts, like the Stouffer's spinach, but most of my dinners are made from scratch, and my kids eat vegetables really well. We talk about food, and the importance of eating good food, a lot.
However, I probably need to give them a little lesson about the importance of cooking with cheap fruity wine in small bottles instead of using huge bottles of sherry, LOL...