Some days I wonder how I manage to get anything done.  Today, we had a dinner snafu that ended in grilled cheese sandwiches becuase the meat, potatoes and other vegetables went in the garbage courtesy of my normally extra sensitive nose misleading me. Seems a tetra pak of beef stock that had a Jan 09 expiry and that was only opened and promptly refrigerated last week went really REALLY bad and ruined the gravy I made which ruined the food the gravy was bathing. Funnily, my husband stopped us from being poisoned. This is a man who eats questionable food from the fridge all the time which is a running joke in our family because ,

“It doesn’t mean it’s expired. It just means best BEFORE.”

On the positive side, I make the best grilled cheese ever. Tonight’s poisoned dinner rescue version was cheddar and mozzarrella and I like to grill a little bit of the cheese intentionally on the outside of the bread too. Yum. (Toast one side of the sandwich and then when getting ready to flip, pick up the sandwich with your spatula and drop a dollop of shredded cheese in the pan before placing the raw side on top. Crispy, golden cheese infuses onto  the bread. Ooey gooey good.

Anyway…

Today’s other perplexing problems involve kindergarten and fishing.

Kindergarten Problem (Advice Welcome!)

I had some great advice about the impending kindergartener. My 4 year old boy, (aka The Wee Boy) is starting in JK in September. He’s rarely been away from my side in four years except to spend a bit of time here and there with his grandparents. He’s never been watched by anyone else but his grandparents in his little life and here we are getting ready to ship him off to school and on a bus, no less. Oy.

My sister gave some great advice today. My 12 year old (aka The Boy) walks the 6-7 houses to grab his bus by himself. I haven’t walked him  in a few years but starting tomorrow, we’ve I’ve decided (much to the chagrin of both boys) that we will be walking The Boy to his bus every morning and meeting and greeting him every night for this last two weeks of school.  I’m hopeful my sister’s advice of giving The Wee Boy a glimpse into the not so scary future by letting him see the bus and bus driver every day up close and personal will help prepare him for kindergarten. 12 year old is mortified. Oh well. I’m desperate.

Wee one really is not interested in joining unless Mommy gets to stay with him. I have visions of curbside- leg grabbing-screaming-heart wrenching-panic attacks when he has to get on the bus (him, not me. Ok, mostly him) and the same kind of reaction when I try to leave him in a classroom.  I’m not a first time Mom but he’s way more attached to me than The Boy was due to my status of “WAHM” instead of “Out to work at an Office Mom” and we had a rough enough time with separation anxiety with The Boy back in kindergarten.  Looking forward to any other advice for kindergarten preparedness.

Fishing (Rhetorical Non-Issue but Commiserating and Mild/Harmless Male Bashing Welcome)

We live backing onto a lake.  Fishing opened on Mother’s Day a few weeks ago. My husband and The Boy just drove fifteen minutes to go fishing for the third time in less than a month. My husband has YET to cast his line into our very own lake which he claims to love hence the desire to never ever (ever) move away unless we move from the bottom of the lake where it’s a bit boggy to the top of the lake where houses are pricier and there’s less weeds. Mind you, the boggy part is good for fishing. Anyway, the perplexity is that they’ve driven to go pickerel fishing. We live in a community of the lake known as Pickerel Point.  Shrug.