quietness...

I am sitting here in the living room with just Rosie-the-dog, Benjamin, and Paul. Rosie is taking a nap, and the other two are watching basketball. Camille is sleeping. Joseph, Aaron, and Samuel are over at Susan and Thomas and Will's house watching a movie. Emily, Abigail, Mirielle, Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire, and Stine went to the library, and to a Christmas Lights display, and to use the last of the free fries coupons from BurgerKing. So it is quiet.

I have to get dinner made for when they come back, but it shouldn't be too hard. I am just going to heat up the jerk chicken and make some olive oil-parmesean-garlic pasta and some broccoli. If Joseph, Aaron, and Sam don't come home for dinner, we will have 16 for dinner, since Stine is here. I am thinking foam plates, since we have some leftover. The kitchen is all cleaned up from the massive food prep and serving last night. Benjamin was a very nice boy last night, cleaning things up. I was pretty impressed when I got up this morning. I ran the dishwasher again and washed up the counters, and it looks good. But I have to go make another mess, I mean another meal.

One of the kids asked me today if I were going shopping. Excuse me? Shopping? Nah. I am not going Day-After-Christmas-Shopping. Not this year. Ouch, I feel like I should never shop again. I only buy things that are reasonable or down right cheap, but still. It adds up. We have had such good things to eat lately, I feel like we should just wait 'til we run out of everything, and then when we DO go shopping, just get really cheap plain food. Is that called saturation? I have been thinking of the proverb 27, v. 7 "A sated soul loathes honey, but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet." We get spoiled too quickly. For example, when I was growing up, we went shopping every other week when my father got paid. Kielbasa, or polish sausage, was a super favorite for us. My kids are like, "blah"....they are too spoiled. (funny, isn't it, that I managed to spoil 16 kids?) No, they are thankful for things, but pretty picky eaters.

I am thinking of going out to the kitchen and making something nice for dessert tonight. Stine is going back to Norway tomorrow, so maybe I can make her some brownies or something. hmm. That means I have to get up and stop writing in this lovely quiet....