Kickin In In The Country

 
STUCK BETWEEN MEMORIES AND CALORIES
 
 
     We have been up to the same ole stuff around here. The kids keep me and Cody so busy we don't have time for much. We love it, of course! Luke is still running around the house in mismatch costumes. His imagination is crazy. He keeps us in stiches ALL OF THE TIME! He started pre-school this year and is going twice a week. He is loving it so much. He goes to his regular in-home childcare the rest of the time. I was laying him down last week and he said, " Mom, where am I going tomorrow? I said, Mrs. Pam's house. He put his hands out and asked, Well, when is my day off?" His new thing is Legos right now. He can build just about anything and will play for hours with them. He has always been a daddy's boy and I always joked it was a good thing because Jake is always so far stuck up my butt there wasn't room for two. But here lately this little one wants his mama more and more. I totally love it!

 

 

 

 



     Jake just finished his fall ball season. He tried out for the College Station 12 team last summer and made the maroon team. We drive to College Station twice a week for practice and Katy every other Sunday for games. We are on the road A LOT. We study spelling on the road, we practice math facts, and we talk about sports and his dreams. People think we are absolutely insane for doing what we do with this select ball. And that's okay. My mom drove from Willis to Clearlake when I was a kid so I could play on the best select basketball team in Houston and I made some of the best memories of my life there. We have already made great friends with the other families and Jake talks about the boys on his team constantly!  I will never forget one time my brother had to take me to practice and it was a good hour and a half if we didn't hit traffic. I kept telling him I had to use the restroom but he would just kinda nod and turn his music up louder. I am one of those people that when I say I have to pee, I gotta pee NOW. We hadn't no more pulled in the parking lot at the gym and I peed all over myself! I think Mom had given us twenty bucks to get something to eat on the way home so we had NO extra money to go buy me any new clothes. He turned that car around and drove me an hour and a half back home. Cussing me the whole way I'm sure. The times I am completely exhausted I remember something I saw one time...one day you wont have any kids to chase after and a quiet house. Enjoy it while you can. We are doing just that!

 

I haven't been on my diet or worked out in two weeks. I have cooked meals for my family I haven't cooked in a long time because they are "fattening." Which leads me to my next thought...I grew up in a BIG Cajun family. My mom was one of eight and my dad one of three and they were all from Louisiana. I think I was the only one born in Texas and my grandpa used to call me" HALF ASS COONASS." The things that I loved the most about the holidays and going to Louisiana was that certain smell. No, not a yankee candle smell or a glade plug in. That smell of the beginning of a roux, pork roast, smothered pork chops, or the start of rice dressing. So many memories with the women in our family happened in a kitchen. My grandparents raised all eight kids in a 1200 sq. foot house. Once their kids had kids we would be packed forty deep in there.  They had couches on every wall and a tiny kitchen. My grandmother was such a pack rat most of the counter space was taken up by junk. But we didn't care, we loved it. We would race to Westlake just to see what they were cooking. Mouth would start watering about Sulphur because you just knew it was going to be so good! What I would give for my kids to have visited that house just once...
     I have been off of my diet for two weeks now and haven't been able to work out oFast forward 20 years and this is our life now. I attempt to meal prep every week for me. These meals do not consist of roux, smothered pork chops, or rice dressing. They are the typical high protein, low fat meals. In return my kids eat something quick. Something frozen I throw in the oven or fast food. In the mornings they will ask for pancakes and I will pull out the frozen ones and they whine they want homemade. HOMEMADE?? I can't make homemade because then I will eat one now with syrup, and then eat one for a midnight snack and that's NOT on my diet! So, I don't cook it anymore! Here lately I have been thinking about these little boys, and the memories I have as a child. I want them to think of their mama as the best cook in the world. I want them to have that comforting feeling when they walk in from college with a friend and they can smell that gumbo on the stove. I want that smile on their face when they see those pork chops and rice and gravy on the table for supper. Do I want to be healthy and eat right and exercise and buy organic foods? Sure. But sometimes in this crazy world we live in now I just think we may have it all wrong.

I hope Thanksgiving is eating that piece of pumpkin pie and making lasting memories with your family!!
I hope Thanksgiving is a wonderful time spent with your family. I hope you eat that piece of pumpkin pie, and make lasting memories with the ones you love the most!