White Broccoli

M has been wanting to get a gift for her teacher—such as, for example, the rose petals she collected walking home from school yesterday and brought home and put in a baggy with water (so they’d always stay soft and not dry out). I told her that maybe a baggy of water, even if it did have pretty rose petals in it, wasn’t the best present for Mrs. T. I told her something that Mrs. T could keep for a long time would be better. She let me know that's why there was water in the baggy! Well after lunch today, I found M reading a craft book she found in the bookcase. She found lots of things that she wanted to make. I found some old clay up in the cabinet, and we set about making wind chimes for Mrs. T. Although our clay seemed a little dry, I think they might work out okay. Hopefully. (I'll let you know in a couple days!) But, of course, after we spent the afternoon working with our clay, rolling it out, cutting pieces, poking holes, and putting them out to dry, M had the book back out. “Oh, what about this, Moma?... maybe instead… Oh, I bet Mrs. T would like this!... Oh, Mom, do you have this? Can I make this now? (with this I stress the NOW in it... not now as in next time but as in now) Let’s make this one!” I’m thinking, We just finished the last project! No way are we starting another one now! From there, it went to food. Can we have this snack? That snack? The other snack? To which I’m thinking, You just had goldfish! No more snacks! So, I needed a distraction. I sent the girls out to pick sweet peas. I told them they could eat what they picked and that would be their snack. Next thing you know, M and L have a bowl and area filling it up with all the sweet peas they can find. I hear them talking about dinner and M about a really yummy recipe. I doubt M’s recipe is anything more than in her imagination because I heard sliced bananas somewhere in it. Then she starts looking through the fridge asking about squash and white broccoli (“white broccoli” is mom-talk for “cauliflower”) and zucchini and carrots and many other things...Then she took the peas and washed them. Before she got too far into this “recipe” of hers, I took over the sweet peas. We ate some of the peas raw, and I stuck some in the microwave and we ate those cooked.

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