A co-worker asked me yesterday if I would mind switching nights with her since she needed off Sat night. The night she wanted to switch was tonight. I didn’t have any real plans, so I said OK.
So, today has been my odd day off in the middle of the week, and it happened to be on Family Dinner NIght or FDN. This is the day of the week and my MIL comes over for dinner and traditionally we play games or watch a movie together before she goes home. FDN used to be at her house til we seriously outnumbered her.
Our oven isn’t working at the moment, but DH wanted spinach lasagna, so I set my alarm for noon. I didn’t actually get out of bed til 2, mostly because that was when MIL pulled into the driveway. The kids were due home at 3:30-4 and DH got off work at 5pm. So, I got up and ready and proceeded to get dinner ready. I boiled the noodles, made the meat sauce got the cheese and spinach ready and layered it all in the Crock Pot, and turned it on High. My CrockPot is amazing on High. MIL and FIL gave me a big fancy stainless steel one last Christmas, but it’s High setting is barely as good as the low setting on my old one. So, I hardly ever use the big one. Then as the kids got home, I got them to doing their dishes they hadn’t done the night before. We never can seem to get dishes done AFTER dinner. We always have to have them come wash dishes so stuff is clean to MAKE dinner. We’re so dysfunctional.
By the time DH got home at 5:30 (after stopping to get his mother beer) we got veggies nuked in the microwave and got the kitchen table cleared off and actually all sat down to eat dinner together at the table. That was nice. We used to do it every night when I only worked part time or was on day shift at the store. The lasagna was basically a soup because I’d had to cook the noodles before putting it all in the crock pot, but it allowed it to at least all be done in the 2 hours it cooked in there. If I’d used hard dry noodles, it would have taken at least 5 hours on high or 8 on low. It was still really good though, and only a few comments were said about the spinach. Even the kids who dont like spinach (like me) like it in lasagna.
After dinner, we went to the living room which 10 hadn’t quite cleaned up from the hurricane she created last night. That child can sure make a mess by not really trying too hard. So she cleaned it up really quick and we all sat around the otoman and got out Boggle and paper and pens. It’s a game my husband could seriously win tournaments at if they had them. He got his bachelor’s degree in English and has always been good with words and spelling. I’m not stupid, and love word games as well, but I’ve only beat him maybe 5 times total in a one-on-one Boggle Duel. His mother gets closer scores to beating him than I do when we all play. Still, tonight he won both games, even after giving him the handicap of only getting to have 5-letter words and larger.
Then we decided to play Munchkin, which is a card game. It’s a parody of role playing games like WoW and D&D. It’s cute, but I feel it lasts too long. It was time for dessert, but we discovered that even though there were three ice cream containers in the freezer, they each had maybe a spoonful in them. So, I let them play Munchkin while I ran to the store for sodas and dessert. I got a peach pie, two kinds of ice cream and soda for us and the kids. We only drink diet, though for me it’s because I prefer the taste, … it sure doesn’t make me lose weight LOL. Then I got out my cool spiffy camera and used it to take videos of them playing. We all had a great time. Even 6 amused herself by taking 16’s MP3 player and jamming to the tunes while dancing all over the house. It was fun. I hope I get put on day shift, so evenings like this can happen more often.
I’m currently trying to figure out how to edit the movies I took. One was really long and there’s a good stopping place so I can upload it to You Tube, but Windows Movie Maker doesn’t like .MOV files, and it’s difficult to find anything that will convert them. Still working on that.
As for my room. I managed to get one more box of stuff sorted. Now that big stack that had been in front of my closet is down to just the pink plastic tote thing. I’ll sort it all out tomorrow. Either later tonight/morning I’ll put a bunch of the stack of stuff in the kitchen into the crates, or I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ve really got to finish some of these projects. NO one else in the house is even pitching in or asking if they can help with anything. But of course I’m used to that. As long as I get to vent and rant to you all on here, I usually feel much better afterwards 
I am really hoping I can get a lot of work done on it, and maybe even find another table to replace the one in here now that’s just not working. Heck, I might see if we have some plywood scraps, but some 4×4’s cut to size for legs and build my own table. That would be pretty cool actually. I promise, when it’s done, I will post pics. Until next time…
1 Comment
October 16, 2008 at 5:31 pm
We’re the same way with dishes! After I cook dinner, I resent having to do the dishes…so they don’t get done until the next day when I realize I have no counter space to cook! It’s a viscious cycle that could be VASTLY improved if our husbands ever actually got their arms elbow deep in some soapy water every now and again.