I Just Want You to Know_ Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith, and Family - Kate Gosselin [9]
Really, shaving cream? If only every day were this easy…
Other craft activities we did, especially in the cold winter months, included drawing with crayons, paper plate art, puppets, and Play-Doh—edible and nonedible varieties, which I made in large batches.
The back of our kitchen cabinets faced our dining room, so we displayed our newest art for all to see. Whenever we finished a project, I would write down their names as well as the title of the art, which was always something random: Hannah’s “dat,” Collin’s “line,” Aaden’s “mess,” Leah’s “garden,” etc. Then we would swap out the old pictures with the new.
Leah with her Magna Doodle art. I wanted to remember these creations before the kids erased them.
I tried not to use glue and markers or anything else that could get out of control easily. It wasn’t that I was afraid of messes per se, which wasn’t altogether untrue at that time; it was that each kid still needed help with glue and scissors. With just me helping each one, the other kids could quickly have a meltdown waiting a half hour for their turn. I had learned to try to avoid situations that resulted in meltdowns if at all possible. One of my favorite activities at this time included stickers. Mrs. Grossman’s Stickers, a California-based sticker company, had sent us tons of stickers, which we used frequently. They were cute, the kids loved them, and they were easy to control for messes.
I would say, “Stickers go on…?”
And the kids would respond, “People or paper.”
After lunch, no matter what season, we had blessed naptime. This was my chance to get things done, to clean up from the morning, start laundry, and start dinner.
Since cooking is my way to relieve stress, starting dinner was often my favorite time of day. With the little kids sleeping, I could zone out, thinking only of my dinner creation. I loved using organic and healthy ingredients that I found at Henry’s or on sale and turning them into a meal.
Whenever I found a good deal, I would either nab as much as I could or ask someone else to pick up extra for me. I remember one day when my sister Kendra came to our house with 225 cans of tomatoes—organic tomatoes, that is—to add to the 25 cans I had already picked up myself from Sharp Shopper, a discount store near her house. She also brought 20 pounds of organic butter. I was thanking God with great enthusiasm that day. The tomatoes were only 79 cents each, which was half of what they cost on sale at Giant. Such great buys!
One day we found strawberries at Sam’s Club for $1.50 a pound—organic, of course. I sent Jon back the next day for three more flats. Even we wouldn’t eat all that, but I knew I could freeze them. I constantly prayed that we would have enough to satisfy our needs, and God kept providing.
Grocery shopping was a big deal. When I was planning ahead and cooking in bulk, I would write out an ingredient list for about fifteen recipes and compile it into a grocery list. The list would practically be a book, and the amount of food it represented was shocking: 131/2 pounds ground beef, 5 pounds chicken, 1 pork roast, and so many other things. I often cooked a plethora of meals and froze them to pull out and use on a day gone awry. This is where planning ahead could literally save the day. I learned early on that there is no way to create a meal for ten on a moment’s notice.
Our shoe angel Connie sent us hooded towels one Christmas and the kids posed in them for her.
After dinner during the summer months, Jon and I would take everyone outside to play until dark. In the winter, we would head downstairs for family time. Jon and I were beyond exhausted by that time of the day, but we loved being in the same room together with the kids toddling around. This was when we’d clean up the toy explosion in the basement playroom and try to teach the little kids how to match the toys to the pictures on each basket. Then Jon would lie on one sofa and I would lie on the other, just trying to get a bit of rest before our last big task for the night: bath time.
Soon everyone