School day mornings are always frantically harried at my house – making sure that my older two kids are awake and fed and clean and have school lunches and signed handouts and agendas and love notes in their lunches and homework packed (and completed) and clean faces and brushed teeth and tidy hair and appropriate shoes on and out the door in time – it’s a VERY full hour. Oh, and add to that a three year old who wants exactly the same breakfast that everyone else is having (of COURSE she does), which means that most mornings finds me cooking twin breakfasts – a batch of gluten-free pancakes and a batch of regular pancakes, a pot of oatmeal and a pot of quinoa flakes.
So far, we’ve managed not to have anyone come staggering into school an hour late and wearing only one shoe, but I don’t know how we’ve succeeded. This year, I’ve tried setting out their outfits the night before, which they like approximately as much as you would like me setting out your outfit the night before. The Girl, in particular, has her own "unique" ideas about style, which I have just decided could best be described as "Scatterbrained Victorian Lady Inventor – this morning, she wore two fancy blouses on top of each other, a pair of wide-legged navy pants, a velvet hat and a necklace that she’d made the night before which held a miniature book that she had written the night before. Who am I to interfere with her artistic vision? What allure did my practical jeans and sweatshirt combo have when one could run out of the house looking like a complete loon?
SOMEHOW, I found myself with an odd spare couple of minutes this morning, so I called over The Baby and we made a batch of peanut butter balls, which are as follows:
1 cup of smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup of honey
1 cup of crispy rice cereal
1/4 cup wheat germ (obviously, I substituted gluten-free ingredients for The Baby, but that was easily done.)
You mix the peanut butter and honey together and then add the cereal ingredients and roll into small-ish balls, which you then place on wax-paper covered cookie sheets and stick in the fridge for a couple of hours. Tricky stuff. And then, if you are three, you will sit down with your Papa during his daily morning visit and eat your snack while drinking LOTS of apple cider.
We’ve been doing a lot of baking in the mornings, The Baby and me – making cookies, mixing together muffins, The Baby solemnly pouring brown rice flour and potato starch into our breadmaker – and then we sit down with our warm snacks and read stories. She’s a pragmatist, my child, and prefers books like "Harry The Dirty Dog", books which happen in her actual world, where trucks rumble down the street and her grandfather visits every morning and where she makes cookies with her mom, not knowing that this is the ebb of her babyhood, that next year will see her running out the door with her siblings, her outside shoes on her feet and flying her away.
The peanut butter balls are delish…however, I hope the baby is at least 2 years of age…because I would not use peanut butter until at least 2! You could use almond butter though…or a wonderful substitute called “Sunbutter”, made from sunflower seeds – high in zinc and iron…it is yummy without peanuts.
Also – honey is not recommended for babies under the age of 1 year.
Try the sunbutter…then you can actually send these yummy morsels to school!
My parents get here in just over a week and the realization that I have NO baking in the house just hit me this morning. So I’ve got my list for the next week: three different batches of cookies, at least three loaves of bread, peanut butter brownies, and these cranberry twists that I used to make all the time that my Mom still raves about every time she visits (and I haven’t made them in at least three years). But there’s something about fall and baking and the PRAGMATISM of such a tasty way to heat the house. 😉
Those peanut butter balls are probably my very favourite treat ever. I could eat a million. Uh…I probably have.
Out of curiosity, why don’t you just feed everyone the same meal?
It’s easier and you’re much less likely to experience cross-contamination, and in the case of pancakes, the difference in price is more than likely worth it.
Not to mention that having similar but different meals still makes you feel left out (I say this speaking as a celiac myself). The hidden message is that while gluten free food doesn’t make you sick, it’s still “inferior” to non-gluten free food and therefore it’s “not fair” to inflict the gluten-free stuff on the others. In the case of pancakes where recipes exist such that the gluten-free stuff is just as good or better than the non-gluten free stuff, is it really worth sending that message? I say this as a rational adult who intellectually understands the economics of feeding everyone gluten-free, but I still have part of me deep down that is wounded every time I am presented with a different meal (while appreciating the extra effort it took).
Just a thought anyway – no idea whether your three-year-old is at that place yet or not, but I haven’t met a celiac over the age of 10 who hasn’t felt exactly the same way and I thought I’d mention it.
Hey–I just made those balls on Friday!
I know–my heart is heavy with the thought that this is my T.’s last year before school…it’s tough, it really is.
Harry The Dirty Dog…I’ve very fond memories of that book. My just beginning to fall in love with children.
I love to think of your oldest going out all flamboyantly. So sweet and gawky and respectable.
And your littlest leaving next year. Seems impossible.
I’ve been on a bit of a baking spree (with Beck’s Recipes) and I think my waistline is showing it.
Your mornings sound lovely. And just why a person shouldn’t have to go rushing off on a cool fall morning.
You get to see your dad every morning. I am so jealous. Really. Am.
Oh. I feel sort of sad after reading that last part …
Your girl and my older girl must have gone to the same fashion school. I have quit arguing with her…I just let her saunter off with dresses over top of too-short jeans, or knee socks under capris. If it makes her happy, who am I to burst her fashion bubble. That will happen soon enough (she’s nearly 8, so I give it about 3 more weeks).
The best part is going to be in 10 years when she looks at pictures and says, “Why did you dress me like THAT?”
The Girl’s sense of style sounds very confident. Good on you for letting her choose.
Our mornings are chaos. I typically don’t get anything ready the night before. Then, last night, I packed 3/4 of the lunches. This morning was smooth, like peanut butter. Whaddya know?
I have the same issue as Lori D above…my eldest lets me lay out her clothes with no issue, but the younger one is prone to say things like, “fine if you want me to look bad” or other such comments.
We are still working on the morning routine, but because I am so, anal about stuff all lunches are made the night before and all notes etc are taken care of too. It is the only way we can get all of us out the door. Just getting dressed, eating and cleaned up uses all of my energy at that hour.
I love how you are making the most of this time with The Baby. I am trying to do that with Rosebud during our afternoons together before we pick up Papoosie Girl and before the baby comes. Our know our time alone is ticking away.
I have the same issue as Lori D above…my eldest lets me lay out her clothes with no issue, but the younger one is prone to say things like, “fine if you want me to look bad” or other such comments.
We are still working on the morning routine, but because I am so, anal about stuff all lunches are made the night before and all notes etc are taken care of too. It is the only way we can get all of us out the door. Just getting dressed, eating and cleaned up uses all of my energy at that hour.
I love how you are making the most of this time with The Baby. I am trying to do that with Rosebud during our afternoons together before we pick up Papoosie Girl and before the baby comes. Our know our time alone is ticking away.
My oldest daughter (7.5) is happy to have me lay out her clothes for her. She honestly could not care less about what she wears. My youngest (2.5) is a whole different story – we already battle daily about fashion choices. Should be good times by the time she goes to school (next year ,).
Sigh. Remembering those days. Of course in my case my baby was never by herself as her older siblings went to school because of the dayhome, but I still went through the same feelings as you, not wanting that time to come.
That is some outfit you described. Well, we have a few years ahead for our kids’ clothing choices to horrify us.
Oh, if you only posted pictures of your kids. I would love to see if what I think that outfit looked like is what it really did:)
A morning much like this one I hatched a plan to move to a province that did not have jr. kindergarten. The following year I hatched a plan to move to a province that did not have all day kindergarten.
I’ve run out of places to move!
mmmm… peanut butter AND apple cider
sorry… did you say something else?
ah yes, the unique demands of fashion made by young girls. What is up with that? Ilsa has very definite ideas but they don’t conform to anything that I can make out. Sometimes I let her wear her own outfits, but sometimes I insist on enforcing my own ideas. Fashion police, here I come!
oof. my heart.
No matter how many times I read about children rushing off to school, I do not think I will ever be prepared for it.
My mom used to make peanut butter balls like this when I was young. Thanks for the idea.
The Girl’s outfit actually sounds kinda cool…maybe it looks better in words, though! HAHA!
It is so strange having all of the kids out of the house, even though KayTar is just gone for a couple of hours. Enjoy your Baby time while you can!