My twist on traditional family dinner

Maybe it's a little old fashioned but we don't eat dinner till dad gets home. But what do you do when the job runs late and the kids are starving? You feed them dessert first. So tonight when dad calls at six to say he won't get out of Job before 8:30, we had dessert (read kids burn off sugar before bed) and family dinner is still in tact, even if it doesn't happen till 9pm. So we take the pillsbury dinner rolls, break them into 2 or 3 pieces and cook them in hot oil till golden brown and shake in a ziplock of cinnamon and sugar. These are also called "little donuts" on Sunday mornings and they taste better than the plain old dinner rolls would have with our chicken.
So in a changing world where families rarely get to sit down and eat together, a little improvising is A-okay. Dad won't have to work late all the time, mom gets to be the hero instead of the bad guy for a change, and family dinner is still intact. Don't be afraid to shake it up a little. Had a cookout with a bunch of leftover burgers? Have a burger for breakfast and make breakfast for dinner, either way you'll still get your protein and no leftovers to throw out. And for the true traditionalist, fry an egg and stick it on the burger with some bacon. Now that's thinking outside the box. Don't be afraid to have fun and remember mom,you're the boss of your house. It doesn't have to be the way "mom always did it" it just has to work for you and yours. And by the way, my dad wouldn't ask my mom for an egg bacon cheeseburger for breakfast but he's never been known to turn one down at my house!

A little bit of justice

Why is it that my creatures, great and small (read: spouse and kids) will wait until we are out of something completely before they tell me we need more?  I am quite sure that when you opened the drawer yesterday and there was only one pair of socks left, that it might it have occurred to you somewhere that this means tomorrow when you open the drawer there will be NO pairs of socks if you don't tell me.  So this morning when you are yelling that you have NO clean socks and I am putting away all the white laundry that just did yesterday and there are no socks, I have to wonder where all your socks went.  And somewhere in the pre-teen logic, you have separated all the socks into a separate pile that is in the back corner of the closet (not the hamper) and they did not get washed.  But you are even more mad when you have to wear your monkey socks with your ballerina shoes and I am laughing my head off.  A little bit of justice.

  I am also quite sure that when you leave only one square of paper on the toilet paper roll, you are not expecting to be the next one in the bathroom...but somewhere it must occur to you that you could very simply open the linen closet door and get a new roll.  I don't even expect you to put it on the roll or even throw out the old one, but you could at least get it out and put it somewhere near the commode.  But somehow, and this sadistically thrills me, you do end up being the next one in the john and then have to yell "hey mom, I need you really quick" so I can bring you the toilet paper...with a great big fat smile on my face and a little bit of justice.

And so no one feels left out, is it that hard to look into the shower before you step in to see if there is anything left of that little sliver of soap that you left yesterday morning?  And if there isn't, is it so hard to reach over to the shelf to grab that new bar of soap or is it just more fun to yell "Hey! You know there's no soap in here?" and wait while I come in and get you a new one.  But, while I am in there getting you the soap, I may just have to use the bathroom and when I flush and the water suddenly gets really cold, you are wishing you had gotten the soap yourself and I am getting...a little bit of justice.