Beans and Rice

So I've always wondered what it would be like to have more children. The last couple of days I had the opportunity to find out. Husband and I have been taking care of some friends children while they are on a short trip. Two children to be exact. So I've found out what it's like to have four children this week.

It's been rainy in our neck of the woods. Playing inside is the only option.

It can be loud.

Cooking has been a challenge...actually knowing how much to cook and what to cook for kids not used to how we eat. Of course, last night of all nights, I decided to prepare a new recipe. It was a bean and rice recipe and after all day soaking (according to the directions) and cooking in the oven for two hours the beans were still crunchy. Before serving Husband gave it a taste and pronounced it awful. Time for plan B.

Plan B was spaghetti. Guess who had no spaghetti sauce and no ingredients for making any. Yep, that would be me. Had I actually planned to serve this meal at some point? Yep. Had I remembered to buy the spaghetti sauce? Nope.

Did I mention I love Husband who immediatly grabbed his keys and jacket and headed to the store for the missing ingredients? Meanwhile I scurried around frantically thawing meat in the microwave (that never works like it's supposed to) and boiling water for the spaghetti noodles which I did have.

Finally, sometime around 7pm we sat down to dinner. The kids were very good natured about the whole thing. Actually I think they looked visibly relieved that they were not eating beans and rice. Husband stated he was relieved to not be eating it and suggested I contact my bean guru for help.

I don't have a bean guru.

If you are a bean guru and have any tips on soaking beans I would be grateful.

The kids have gotten along great though. We were even able to do school today (they are also homeschoolers). I was a bit challenged though when trying to explain the distributive property to Brother and our little friend was asking for help with his Exploding the Code work. Multi-tasking is one thing...multi-thinking is something else altogether.

So, while it has been a pretty easy couple of days around here, my hat is off to Mom's and Dad's out there of more than two children.

Huzzah!