LunchTime Frustrations

I've vented my frustration with the employer's pantry before.

It's difficult to come up with lunches each day for the kids that incorporate a complete meal. Already, when I am not here, the kids pretty much graze. A cracker or two here, piece of fruit there, a granola bar, a cereal bar, goldfish or Cheerios sprinkled on the table, maybe a cheese stick.

When I am in the house, we operate with a bit of organization. The little ones sit in their seats for meals. Those seats and countertop gets cleaned, right after their faces and hands are wiped. I try very hard at lunch to include a lean protein, and vegetables. This is because, when I started, the oldest child was the only child. She was a toddler still herself, and ate in this same way. Her food consisted basically of cherry tomatoes, strawberries, cereal, and Gogurts. The child wouldn't eat much of anything else, although at 3 1/2 she has a more varied diet because of what I put before her.

With the twins, I made it a point to offer veggies before fruit. They love broccoli, and even Brussel Sprouts!

What I have the most trouble with is varying up the protein. I'll usually give them half a cheese stick apiece, and a couple of crackers for snack. Or I pull out a yogurt cup and feed them. Those things are almost always around.

At lunch, Momboss seems to think deli meats torn up should suffice. This is not a bad thing to do sometimes, but I find the twins tend to not like it very much. Besides, who wants to eat it everyday?

There is almost never any kind of meat in the house.

The problem is the way the shopping is done. Momboss goes out almost every day to get the few items she may need to make dinner. She may grab some fruit or yogurt, but for the most part, what would give me lunch options is hardly considered.

There have been times I often give her a list and she will pick stuff up.

I guess I need to do that more often. Today, I scrounged up a sweet potato, an apple, and a chicken breast (only in the freezer because I asked mom to buy a bag). I did quick recipe searches and came up with something.

This.

http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/sidedishes/r/sweetpotatoappl.htm

Except I also added a chicken breast.

Momboss came in after she got back from the gym (and getting HER breakfast out), and said, "yum!yum!" As she watched me chop.

I wanted to say, "you have no food!! Go to the store!"

She'd only come back with her own cereal, special mineral water, and maybe some strawberries.

I know I should have done this sooner, but I think I am going to plan lunches out a week ahead of time and make out lists to give to MB.

I'm Going CRAZY!

This displacement that's been going on since January is wearing on me. It's plain difficult to care for the kids properly.

Momboss says next week the majority of renovations should be completed.

I've taken most of it in stride. I'm adaptable. We've made do. I've nannied at the grandparents' house, kept kids in basement or out of the house for most of the day while extensive work is being done. I've noted in another entry the difficulty in keeping the kids in the basement. Blocking the steps, running upstairs to grab food and bottles or more diapers if we run out. Nobody seems to be able to find the monitors, so when anyone is napping on 3rd floor, I run up and down constantly listening for waking children.

This week, renovations have ramped up. There are stone layers laying the chimney. Guys putting in tile backsplash in the kitchen, as well as finishing cabinets. Painters are here. And the cleaning people came. Really?? Amid the dust covering the floor more every second due to sanding drywall, and smoothing stone? Amid the toys strewn all over from the kids being allowed to drag everything out of boxes at will?

On top of that, every day I come in, basic stuff I need for the kids has been moved. I can't find where the dishes have been put. We are out of whole milk for the toddlers. Bottles are littered throughout every level of the house. And guess what else??

I went to make a bottle for the infant, and can't find any formula anywhere. Thinking it's just been moved, I tore everything apart looking for it. Upstairs, downstairs, looking for boxes that might have any.

Finally texted Momboss.

Oops, we're out. Will bring home more.

I have a screaming, hungry 2 month old!

Sigh.

I really, really hope we are back to some kind of order next week as Momboss promises!

Snakes in the Basement!

So, the last 8-9 months have proven to be very interesting. In that time frame, Momboss announced she was pregnant again (just months after giving birth to the twins), they sold their house and had to give it up for immediate occupancy before finding a house for themselves.

So, we all moved into the grandparents basement for 3 months. During this time, a house they were buying fell through when the owner of the house died and the family decided on different terms for the sale.

It was all chaos.

Eventually, we all made the move to the new house. It had been vacant for quite a long time, however. It was also a very outdated house on the inside. Major renovations started on the outside and the inside. This consisted of knocking down walls, tearing out fixtures, knocking out bricks from the fireplace. I was dealing with crawling babies finding nails, rocks, and pieces of drywall on the floor and joyfully eating it.

The kitchen was barely usable. The dishwasher didn't work so I was doing dishes by hand. I was digging for food, pots and pans and anything else I needed out of boxes since cabinets were being torn out due to a complete gutting of the kitchen. No one had bought any baby gates yet for this 3 level mansion. We were hanging out in the basement all day, eating in the kitchen, and kids were napping on the 3rd level in their rooms. This was a lot of not being able to do some of the most basic of things without worrying about babies climbing and falling down steps. Especially since there was a 3 yr old who did know how to traverse stairs and would sometimes start screaming in her room during naptime (throwing a fit) to having a potty accident in her pants (she went through a horrible regression stage after moving). This would lead me to having to ignore her for a few minutes, since running to check on her immediately would require leaving the babies alone trying to follow me. I would have to take one at a time to the kitchen, strap them in their seats, THEN go run and find out what 3 yr old S needed.

This was exhausting. We spent a good portion of our time out of the house once the weather got nice.

Then enter the snakes.

Momboss came home one day while I was feeding the twins. She went to the basement, where we had just been that morning. She came upstairs in a panic, saying there was a huge snake in the room where the toys were. She called her husband at work. Then she called a pest control company but they were unable to send anyone out anytime soon.

Dadboss ordered Momboss to sit and watch the snake.

"Don't let it get into the walls!" he said. "They'll have to tear all the walls out to get it!"

I told Momboss that was not true, tearing the walls out, but that they'd set traps.

She sat and watched the snake, since Dadboss would not be able to come home for another 45 minutes. She kept saying that she would not sleep in the house with snakes.

45 minutes later, Dadboss showed up. He went straight into the basement.

By this time, the twins were in their beds up on the 3rd level taking a nap. Me and 3 yr old S were in the kitchen.

This is what I heard coming from downstairs:

Dadboss: Let's get this shit taken care of!

Momboss: No, you can't shoot it! You're going to blow a hole in the wall and floor!!

Dadboss: What do you want me to do, then?

Momboss: I don't know, but you can't just shoot. You don't know what's inside of the walls! There could be pipes or.....

Dadboss: I tell you what, then. I am going back to work. When you figure out what you want me to do, then you call me back, okay?

Silence.

I heard footsteps on the stairs as Momboss and a worker from tearing out walls come up the stairs.

Momboss looked pretty pissed and unhappy.

The worker was laughing. "He's got a shotgun out! Cover your ears!"

I moved hastily over to S to put my hands over her ears, and no sooner had I done so, a shot rang out. Then another.

Hole in the Wall where the snake met its demise

"One shot should do it!!" Momboss yelled from the kitchen.

I went to the top of the steps and shouted down into the basement, "I'm NOT cleaning it up!"

I then heard the shop vac start up.

Then Dadboss and Momboss going in and out of the garage with shovels and plastic bags.

I told Momboss that she should call the cleaning lady and tell her we had an "incident" in the basement, and could she come clean up some blood?

She was not amused!

It's Been Awhile!

Wow! I can't believe I left this blog sitting as long as I did!

Actually, yes I can! It's been quite a year, and I've been very busy with that "new" family I mentioned last April.

You know, the one that only had one child at the time? A two year old?

Well.

Since that time, THREE more children have been born into the family. No joke!! So now I have FOUR kids that I nanny. As you can probably imagine, that keeps me pretty busy!

And boy, do I have some stories!

It's been about 18 months since I first started with this family, and I still really like the family a lot! The extended family is also very involved, so I get to see and spend quite a bit of time around them as well. Some people may not care for that, but I really enjoy it. They (the extended family included) all treat me like a part of the family. When Momboss' sister comes in town, I often keep her kids too, for extra pay of course.

Write soon!!