Jesse's birthday

I probably could have written a book about Jesse's birthday, if I had had the energy to do it on his birthday. Now that it's passed, it doesn't seem as important to write out.

Summary: It was an insanely frustrating day for me. The culmination of which was Melinda throwing one of her worst fits in months, and me giving a consequence I wish I hadn't. I took away the privilege of sharing Daddy's birthday pie and ice cream after dinner. I think I meant it more of a threat, a final chance (after many) to get her to snap back to reason and do the very small task I had given her to do (and stop throwing the monstrous fit) before we had to run out of the house. But it didn't work, and we had to leave the house. I immediately regretted it, I didn't want her to miss out on the best part of Daddy's birthday, and I didn't want to feel like a mean Mommy. I called up Jesse and explained the situation to him. He agreed that as unfortunate as it was, I needed to stick to the decided punishment so that I wouldn't become a liar. I called another friend, and she also agreed, and had done almost the exact same thing before and felt horrible about it. But she reminded me that what I'm aiming for here is a child learning that choices have a consequence, and I had made good and sure that she understood exactly what the consequence would be before I finalized it. Anyway, this is getting to be a long summary. In the end, it wasn't a big deal. We had pie and ice cream late enough in the evening that Melinda barely noticed it aside from Daddy blowing out his candles. Melinda understood and didn't fuss about the fact that she'd be missing out, she was promised to have some the next day. She took it well. And I learned a lesson, too. Don't give threats of punishments that you don't want to follow through with.

It was a very busy day. I had to make the special birthday dinner, and Jesse requested a birthday pie - apple pie. So I had to both take the kids to pick a few things for presents, and stop at the grocery store to get the ingredients I needed. It's been ages since I've tried making an apple pie. I ended up using a recipe from the Food Network for a pear and apple pie. With the multiple trips in and out of the house that day, and trying to take care of Alex who still has his newborn needs to be met, and all the other daily life things, by the time I had time for apple pie, I was feeling frenzied and exhausted, and certainly not like I wanted to peel, core and slice a million apples and pears. But I stuck with it, and the apple pie was in the oven before Jesse got home from work. I cheated and bought a refrigerated crust to minimize the work involved. But it turned out yummy! And apple pie with ice cream was a nice change.


Jesse got a bunch of filler presents while we wait for his real present to get off of backorder and arrive a few weeks from now. I can't say more on the chance that he might actually read the blog and spoil the surprise. ;) But he got two new ties (he hasn't had a new tie in several years, and it's starting to show), a new dress shirt, and The Complete Book of Sauces- he's been talking a lot about wishing he knew how to make sauces to cook meat in, similar to something like Sesame Chicken that you'd find at a Chinese place, so I thought we'd give that book a try. It doesn't have much in the way of Chinese sauce recipes (I've noticed a Sweet and Sour recipe, and a Ginger recipe), but it has about everything else under the sun!! We tried a very tasty cheese sauce (Gouda) with mushrooms, but somehow, even though I followed the directions, I couldn't get the cheese to combine with the rest of the sauce, which left curdled cheese at the bottom of the pan and runny (but very flavorful) sauce at the top. I need to figure that out.

Jesse was happy to hear from several of his siblings on the phone, and his parents of course! I think it turned out to be a nice evening for him... he really enjoyed his dinner and dessert. I just wished that the day had gone more smoothly for me!