Harvest time

This week has Nate navigating the exotic dietary delights (or stomach-turning horrors, depending on your palate and country of origin) of mainland China while I'm at home trying to work up the motivation to fix something other than mac & cheese and frozen pizza for the Things. Don't misinterpret my lack of motivation for complaint. Have no doubts, I'd rather be eating starchy, overly-processed packaged foods than these delectable dishes (all of which have been sampled, if not devoured by Nate on his previous trips):

Pigs' feet

Pigs' intestines

Fish - with eyeballs, scales, fins, and tail

Fish bones

Goose intestine

Chicken feet

Anyway . . . tonight I was out of ideas (energy, desire) and instead turned to a Penny Saver flyer advertising buy one/get one footlongs during the Grand Re-opening of a nearby Subway. The Things were almost thrilled with their turkey sandwiches, though Thing 2 whined about the lettuce on his, conceding (and more importantly shutting his mouth) only when promised half a cookie for dessert.

Thing 4 refused to cooperate entirely. It didn't help that the only highchair in the restaurant was being used to prop open the bathroom door while an employee mopped out standing water. I was irritated, holding a squirmy Thing on my lap while trying to both eat my sandwich and feed him pieces of another. It also didn't help that a second employee apologized for the backed-up sewer every time he walked by.

Um, I'm no expert, but considering there was no smell, nor color to the water on the floor, I doubt the problem was the sewer. In my opinion the real problem was Mr. ESL employee not asking for translation assistance before talking to customers who were trying to eat their dinner without puking.

Gratefully we made it home after soiling the restaurant floor with nothing more than shredded lettuce and rejected baby bites. I'm still trying to figure out what was so objectionable about a plain turkey sandwich . . . With nothing more than a 1/4 cookie in his belly Sketch was still hungry. I felt bad because the poor little Thing had lacked for green veggies all day. I sent Things 1-3 to bed and headed to the garden for a quick harvest job.

So far the peas are the overachievers of the garden. The carrots and radishes are stunted and the green beans are thin and scarce, but I'm not giving up on them yet. While I was picking, Sketch was sitting.

And happily eating dirt. With these culinary cravings he might be better satisfied in China with his dad.

For those of you concerned about the well being of my youngest, fear not. While in the bath, Sketch ate approximately two dozen fresh peas.