Today was the first time I was publicly shamed for my parenting. Maybe I should consider myself lucky since I have gone five years without this happening, but right now, the rage is still real.
We were at 11:30 mass this morning with Reese and James, and to us, it was just a normal Sunday. James had dropped his train about 317 times and had asked for us to pick it up 317 times. Maybe the 5th time he asked us, the elderly woman in front of us turned around, looked at James and said, "whisper! whisper!" in a semi-aggressive tone. Andrew and I looked at each other. This was just the beginning of it all and we were already pissed.
James is 2.5 years old and doesn't give a damn if you are supposed to be quiet somewhere. At this point, I had actually thought he was having a pretty good day. Five minutes later, the woman turned around, and this is what she said, verbatim, while wagging her stupid old finger at us, "You need to teach him to be quiet at home, not here at church. I have four kids and they were always quiet in church and never acted like this." Then she turned back around and we continued staring at her back, our mouths agape.
There was fire in my insides and I'm pretty sure I was shaking. I was mortified but would have also loved to punch her in her smug face.
I took James out of the church and spent the rest of the mass with him in the foyer, going over and over in my head what I wish I had said to that lady. "Well you were 20 minutes late to mass and didn't even hear the gospel so your attendance today doesn't even count you jerk!" or "I'm sure you remember exactly how your children behaved in church 90 years ago." Take that! I had plenty of zingers, most of which probably can't be mentioned here.
Thank you kind stranger! We needed that.
The boy is her one true frienemy. When he's asleep she is looking for her playmate, but when he is awake it is a never-ending battle for something. Anything. The cover to the yogurt container, for example. One stick from our yard that is covered in sticks. A piece of lint off my shirt.
The boy is currently on a tour of bad behavior and is making sure he doesn't miss any stops; the YMCA? Check. The library? Double check because he also peed on the computer chair.Target? Check. Market Basket? Check. He throws, he hits, he kicks, and he shouts, "Gimme that train!"in a voice that sounds like it came from a 400 lb trucker.
But he also has this face so it's hard to stay mad.
Dinnertime is something I dread. I like cooking, but I don't love the planning. I've never been good at meal planning. Half the time I don't think about dinner until 5 PM, then realize I don't have the ingredients and don't have the time or the energy to go to the store, and so it's frozen pizza again.
A couple of weeks ago Groupon was offering a deal from HelloFresh– 4 meals for 2 for $45 (Groupon value of $89.) I rarely buy Groupons but I was VERY excited about this deal. There would be no dinnertime dread for almost a week.
My Groupon was only good for the Classic box, but a Family Box and a Veggie Box are also available. Once you choose the box you want, you can then choose how many meals you want a week, the serving size for each meal (2 or 4 people), and then the particular meals that you want (6 meals are offered and they change weekly.) Then they deliver everything you will need to make your meals right to your door.
I loved, loved, loved getting the box. I got butterflies when I saw this sitting on my doorstep.
The box held 4 smaller boxes which contained the ingredients for each meal, instructions for preparation, and nutritional info. First off, the quality of the ingredients was exceptional (and this is where I was skeptical.) I mean they managed to send me fresh shrimp, a perfectly ripe avocado and a perfectly ripe mango. The instructions were straight forward, easy to follow, and no meal required a ton of preparation or long cook times. According to the directions, most meals averaged around 40 minutes for prep and cooking, and this was about how long it took for me.
One other thing I had been skeptical about was the size of the meals, especially after seeing the size of the proteins. We eat big. But, it turns out that my eyes were bigger than my stomach and we both felt satisfied with every meal.
The meals were SO good. We loved all of them. Preparing the meals was actually enjoyable. I had everything I needed! In the right amounts! Delivered right to me! And now I have the instructions on how to make the meals so I can do it myself anytime. Woot!
If the subscriptions were a little bit less expensive, or if I still worked outside of the home, I would definitely consider using HelloFresh regularly. For us, it doesn't fit into our budget right now, but I don't think the quality of the meals or the convenience can be beat. Plus the fact that I am preparing the meals myself, so I still know what we are eating, and don't have to guess when it was made or what exactly it contains.
Plus, if these people are using it, you know it's legit.
Sidenote: No, my kids would not eat any of the meals, but there is a Family Box available which is supposed to be more kid friendly. So, yes, I was preparing another meal for kids on top of our HelloFresh meal, but that would be happening anyway.
Sidenote 2: I really thought I pulled one over on Jamie Oliver by keeping the recipes and making them myself, but it turns out you can download all of the recipes from the website, for free, without even buying a subscription!