Adventures in Babysitting

My neice Ally, aged 13 1/2 can't be bribed. I asked the girls what it would take to get them to go outside on a beautiful day like today. "So many times people try to encourage kids to do things that are good for them, but they forget the power of the 'almighty' dollar." But Ally answered for all of them, saying that she does what she wants to do without being paid, and no amount of money could get her to do anything she wasn't already inclined to do.

The shattering glass shattered my evening when a glass pot lid exploded in the kitchen. Big cleanup without the proper tools. Sad waste of food; fortunately, it was only the pasta that was compromised and had to be thrown out.

I had bought some food to supplement what my sister left me to cook for the kids. I wanted us to be nourished, but all she'd left us was pasta and French fries. The kids and I ate bananas, tofu, tuna, veggies, baked goldfish snack crackers ("the snack that smiles back") and some reasonably wholesome ice cream and cookies. They passed on the beans and yam. Amy (my sister) said I shouldn't have spent my money that way, that she had enough stuff in the house to nourish her kids, and that, well, OK, it was up to me if I wanted to spend the money. But what could I do? How can kids go eight hours with a diet no more varied and inclusive than pasta and French fries. I know we had that stuff when we were kids, but that's back in the day when people didn't know any better. The body knows how to heal itself, but it needs the right stuff.

Thank God for the food bank I frequented in Seattle. Unlike the food banks I had been used to (Hanover, Pennsylvania,) they provided fresh fruits and vegetables.

[This post was pre-empted by reality when someone else needed the computer. I decided to post it as written, without going back and trying to finish it; that way it's a more realistic slice of my life.]