TOTALLY GEEKED!

Well, this varies so much in our house. Sometimes I'm home alone so I just fix whatever. When DH is not home it's more laid back. If we cook everyone helps and everyone cleans. When DH is here we usually have SS so it's always a big meal at dinnertime. DH helps cook. Sometimes the kids. The kids do stuff like set the table. After dinner the kids put the food away, clear the table, and load the dishwasher.

DH and I take turns cooking and cleaning up. We alternate who cleans up by one does them tonight and the other tomorrow (or he next time we eat at home).

Cooking is different. DH usually does the weekend breakfasts. I try to cook the dinners most nights since I am usually home first but sometimes I am too busy or tired usually with/from schoolwork.

Take today, DH made brunch, I made an afternoon snack, washed the dishes from both. I will cook dinner but it is also my turn to wash up the dinner dishes. DH also vacuumed the house and scrubbed the tub. Yesterday, DH took care of all the yard work. Tomorrow I will take care of changing the bed sheets and doing the household laundry (towels and sheets).

We are all over the place. DD had her SB banquet today, so not hungry for dinner, but I boiled eggs to make lunches for the week, she took two as her dinner, healthy, filling etc. During the week I cook dinner for us a few times, other evenings I work late so I always have things she can heat up herself such as chicken from a rotisserie or something else. My family tends to come up a few times during the month and I do it up, we sit around the dinner table for hours. It's really nice and gives DD that sense of a large family dinner.

lilyofcourse wrote:

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It's always been a group effort here. Even when the kids were little.

As soon as they could do something, I encouraged them.

I would pull a chair up to the counter and they helped me measure, mix and pour.

They carried things back and forth for me.

About the only thing I didn't give them were knives. If it needed cutting, I did it.

By 5 they could each make biscuits and cornbread almost completely by themselves.

As for meal times, it was easier for us to do family breakfast than anything. So I always got everything together and done while they were getting themselves dressed.

Even now, we get meals together as a family.

Dishes are hand washed, no dish washer.

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 You have a larger family, so a bit easier to have the players switch jobs, or such.  Just DD and me. I find it sad I can't give her the great family dinners every night that I grew up with.  This is why I jump at the chance to have my extended family or friends up so she gets the big family dinner thing.

lilyofcourse wrote:

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It's always been a group effort here. Even when the kids were little.

As soon as they could do something, I encouraged them.

I would pull a chair up to the counter and they helped me measure, mix and pour.

They carried things back and forth for me.

About the only thing I didn't give them were knives. If it needed cutting, I did it.

By 5 they could each make biscuits and cornbread almost completely by themselves.

As for meal times, it was easier for us to do family breakfast than anything. So I always got everything together and done while they were getting themselves dressed.

Even now, we get meals together as a family.

Dishes are hand washed, no dish washer.

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 How are you hand washing dishes? You eat off paper plates? Do you wash them?

Mellow Momma wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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It's always been a group effort here. Even when the kids were little.

As soon as they could do something, I encouraged them.

I would pull a chair up to the counter and they helped me measure, mix and pour.

They carried things back and forth for me.

About the only thing I didn't give them were knives. If it needed cutting, I did it.

By 5 they could each make biscuits and cornbread almost completely by themselves.

As for meal times, it was easier for us to do family breakfast than anything. So I always got everything together and done while they were getting themselves dressed.

Even now, we get meals together as a family.

Dishes are hand washed, no dish washer.

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 How are you hand washing dishes? You eat off paper plates? Do you wash them?

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 A lot of times, yes, we do. But not always. And you have to wash the pots and pans and other things used to cook.

Generally, by the time we sit down to eat, the only thing left to wash is what we are using. We clean as we go. 

And why do you care if I use paper plates? It's easier to clean up, easier for me to lift and carry. I also use plastic cups cause they aren't so heavy. 

I don't really care if you approve or what you think about it or anything else.

I was at the Dollar store thinking I should get some paper plates. But, I hate pulling up and taking out the trash and with 5 of us we should just make a lot more trash so easy to just wash my Corelle. I really love the feel of Corelle.

Mellow Momma wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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It's always been a group effort here. Even when the kids were little.

As soon as they could do something, I encouraged them.

I would pull a chair up to the counter and they helped me measure, mix and pour.

They carried things back and forth for me.

About the only thing I didn't give them were knives. If it needed cutting, I did it.

By 5 they could each make biscuits and cornbread almost completely by themselves.

As for meal times, it was easier for us to do family breakfast than anything. So I always got everything together and done while they were getting themselves dressed.

Even now, we get meals together as a family.

Dishes are hand washed, no dish washer.

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 How are you hand washing dishes? You eat off paper plates? Do you wash them?

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 A lot of times, yes, we do. But not always. And you have to wash the pots and pans and other things used to cook.

Generally, by the time we sit down to eat, the only thing left to wash is what we are using. We clean as we go. 

And why do you care if I use paper plates? It's easier to clean up, easier for me to lift and carry. I also use plastic cups cause they aren't so heavy. 

I don't really care if you approve or what you think about it or anything else.

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I never said I approved or disapproved. I was just trying to keep the story straight. But you do seem to be defensive about what other people may think about it.

When people say dishes, I think dishes. Pots and pans are not dishes to me, they are pots and pans. 

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Well, to be fair MM, it did sound like a bit of a backhanded slam towards Lilly.  That is why I piped in.  Maybe you didn't mean it that way. 

I just asked a question based on her previous posts. Not sure why that sounded like a slam. With all the crap people say freely around here - THAT sounded like a slam?! Seriously?! Wow. Ok.

Nobody Just Nobody wrote:

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DH won't allow us to use paper plates. He says it's a waste of good money. I guess he's right. We have Corelle too. They're cute. No reason not to use them. I think if we had paper our kids would waste them a lot of times when they didn't need them.

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 I have frost white.  I like being a plain jane.

I have so many sets of dishes it's really rather silly.

A really nice, second coming set of china. I've used it once. It sits in my China cabinet.

2 different sets of corelle. Our everyday dishes.

2 different sets of heavy stoneware. I love them. They are my favorite.

My glass dishes. We use them at Thanksgiving or Easter or other dinners like that.

My Christmas dishes.

And then my grandmother's dishes. Not sure how old those are. They are cream and blue and very pretty.

A lot of the time I am the only one using the paper plates. But the kids will use them too.

I like my stone ware for keeping thing hot in the oven.

I use to love the feel of them. Now they are too heavy for me.

I love my cast iron.

That's true. They are awesome for cooking. But, I cook on stainless steel and that is what I am used to now. Works for me. I have a set of Cusinart pots and pans.

I don't like cast iron either. I was so excited to get one but I hate using it, its heavy and I don't like that I have to oil it. Too much work.

Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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Mellow Momma wrote:

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lilyofcourse wrote:

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It's always been a group effort here. Even when the kids were little.

As soon as they could do something, I encouraged them.

I would pull a chair up to the counter and they helped me measure, mix and pour.

They carried things back and forth for me.

About the only thing I didn't give them were knives. If it needed cutting, I did it.

By 5 they could each make biscuits and cornbread almost completely by themselves.

As for meal times, it was easier for us to do family breakfast than anything. So I always got everything together and done while they were getting themselves dressed.

Even now, we get meals together as a family.

Dishes are hand washed, no dish washer.

---

 How are you hand washing dishes? You eat off paper plates? Do you wash them?

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 A lot of times, yes, we do. But not always. And you have to wash the pots and pans and other things used to cook.

Generally, by the time we sit down to eat, the only thing left to wash is what we are using. We clean as we go. 

And why do you care if I use paper plates? It's easier to clean up, easier for me to lift and carry. I also use plastic cups cause they aren't so heavy. 

I don't really care if you approve or what you think about it or anything else.

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I never said I approved or disapproved. I was just trying to keep the story straight. But you do seem to be defensive about what other people may think about it.

When people say dishes, I think dishes. Pots and pans are not dishes to me, they are pots and pans. 

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Well, to be fair MM, it did sound like a bit of a backhanded slam towards Lilly.  That is why I piped in.  Maybe you didn't mean it that way. 

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I didn't take it that way.

flan 

It's just me, so dinnertime doesn't really exist.  I do not prepare anything.  For the past month-and-a-half, I have just taken to having a small snack for dinner, but not a regular meal.  When my disabled friend was visiting, I did prepare food for them to eat, but I did not prepare anything for myself.  I have not used the stove or micro to prepare things for myself in quite awhile.  In the last month-and-a-half, I have found that my appetite has decreased quite a bit, and I am just not hungry.  I will eat stuff at work to keep up appearances, but once I get home, all bets are off.  It is not unusual for me to have a small appetite.  Perhaps some of it is due to the physical activity I do at PT and the 10-lb weight loss that resulted from it.  Perhaps it is just my physiology and the way I metabolize things.  I do make the effort to eat something in the morning to avoid hypoglycemia in the mid mornings.  I usually do not suffer from it during the rest of the day.  (And I am not seeking any advice, so none is appreciated, thank you  ).

Renegade Time Lord wrote:

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It's just me, so dinnertime doesn't really exist.  I do not prepare anything.  For the past month-and-a-half, I have just taken to having a small snack for dinner, but not a regular meal.  When my disabled friend was visiting, I did prepare food for them to eat, but I did not prepare anything for myself.  I have not used the stove or micro to prepare things for myself in quite awhile.  In the last month-and-a-half, I have found that my appetite has decreased quite a bit, and I am just not hungry.  I will eat stuff at work to keep up appearances, but once I get home, all bets are off.  It is not unusual for me to have a small appetite.  Perhaps some of it is due to the physical activity I do at PT and the 10-lb weight loss that resulted from it.  Perhaps it is just my physiology and the way I metabolize things.  I do make the effort to eat something in the morning to avoid hypoglycemia in the mid mornings.  I usually do not suffer from it during the rest of the day.  (And I am not seeking any advice, so none is appreciated, thank you  ).

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 Well, I for one, am not going to give you advice.  You are under the care of a physician, so hopefully you are following what they say regarding your eating habits.  My only comment is that giving your body the food it needs should be the absolute highest priority - even if you have cut elsewhere or take in a roommate.  And I've always been curious about this "keeping up appearances" at work.  Whether I eat lunch doesn't even hit other peoples' radar in my office.  And aren't salaries comparable where you work?  Shouldn't your co-workers have the same financial strains you do? 

Lawyerlady wrote:

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Lady Gaga Snerd wrote:

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I had some other Corelle pattern but I was tired of it. I got rid of all my dishes and use the Frost White and I got the serving bowls and platters and so forth. I like to keep it simple. I don't care for stoneware. Too heavy. I just love the lightness of the Corelle vitrelle glass. Maybe because I grew up eating off it or something. When I bought the white set, I was highly ANNOYED that the coffee mugs that are included are NOT Corelle glass and are just some cheap arse mugs from China. I sent those to Goodwill.

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 I had some kind of mental block related to Corelle b/c growing up we had the UGLIEST damn pattern ever.  Ugg.  Hated it.  But, I just bought two sets to mix and match that I really like b/c I needed new microwave safe dishes.   I couldn't decide - so I just bought them both and I love turquoise and red together - although the turquoise set came with weird green mugs that are going straight to goodwill (the little plates changed from turquoise to green, too and I don't like those - but buying the set was cheaper than buying them separately to get the 4 plates and bowls.  We won't use them for sit down dinners, so it doesn't really matter.

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 We had a really nice set of eight.  Over the years one piece of each had been broken.  We were at Target recently and they had all the individual pieces on sale.  We got some.

Renegade Time Lord wrote:

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It's just me, so dinnertime doesn't really exist.  I do not prepare anything.  For the past month-and-a-half, I have just taken to having a small snack for dinner, but not a regular meal.  When my disabled friend was visiting, I did prepare food for them to eat, but I did not prepare anything for myself.  I have not used the stove or micro to prepare things for myself in quite awhile.  In the last month-and-a-half, I have found that my appetite has decreased quite a bit, and I am just not hungry.  I will eat stuff at work to keep up appearances, but once I get home, all bets are off.  It is not unusual for me to have a small appetite.  Perhaps some of it is due to the physical activity I do at PT and the 10-lb weight loss that resulted from it.  Perhaps it is just my physiology and the way I metabolize things.  I do make the effort to eat something in the morning to avoid hypoglycemia in the mid mornings.  I usually do not suffer from it during the rest of the day.  (And I am not seeking any advice, so none is appreciated, thank you  ).

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Good thing you qualified that Advice Thing!  lol   

Nobody Just Nobody wrote:

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Well, I'm a nurse. You've stated several time that you have issues with your thyroid. Not eating on a regular basis is not good for that.

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I am not sure of all of RTL's issues.  But, I am not  a 3 square meals a day person.  I am good with eating twice a day.  I usually skip breakfast other than coffee.  If I have a big lunch , then I eat a very small supper, maybe a bowl of cereal or something.  If I have a small lunch like yogurt and some fruit, then I will have a bigger dinner.  I don't like to eat past 6 pm as it is too late and I don't like going to bed on a full stomach.  Then, I might have a small snack in the evening like a handful of nuts or something.  I am not a big eater.   

That sounds good!

Very pretty. Nice pop of color.

I like color. It makes me happy. And this new house is so beige and tan and brown. And it's all new so I can't really justify replacing it. So, the color has to come in with everything else.