Cutting Board Carnitas

Everyone woke up on time today, and although Emmie and I were both a little grumpy this morning and went head-to-head over a silly water bottle, we got over it quickly. Then we were all fine and happy and drop-off went great as usual!

I had to make a super fast stop at Whole Foods again after work today (it’s the only grocery story I pass between work and school before I pick up the girls), because Emerson’s class is painting pumpkins later this week, and we forgot to buy one last weekend.

So I grabbed just two tiny ones – one to send to school, and one to keep at home.

At home, my tiny sweet girl helped me with dinner. My cutting board was all dried out (from the giant water spill last night), and I decided to finally use it the way it was intended, for the first time ever. It’s one of those IKEA ones that hangs over the edge of the countertop, and usually it just sits on the end of the counter as a catch-all space for random things. But tonight, I loved actually using it like a cutting board and toppings-central for all of our carnitas tacos! I used a store-bought thing of pork carnitas, and made homemade guacamole, and we had a delicious taco Tuesday!

However, I have no idea what happened to my yellow rice, and why the bottom of it got completely scorched…. I’ve made this SO many times before, but this has never happened!? I was able to salvage a good portion of it though, and just tossed the rest of this crunchy, blackened rice :/

I actually ate like five of these tiny little street tacos, and they were just so stinking good. Especially my homemade guac. So yum.

Jeff got the girls in the bathtub after dinner, and I spent a few minutes getting food put away and started on the clean-up process, before heading b ack to help bathe the baby girls. Emerson asked for dum-dum for her “bassert” snack, and we watched a little bit of the Chipettes (from the late 1980’s), while I fed Addison a bottle.

Emerson was extremely sweet at bedtime, and just gave me tons of hugs and kisses and wanted me to stay in her room and hold her hand for longer. So I stayed in there with her for a few extra minutes, just holding her hand and trying to pray over her and for her. Then she pipes up and says, “I love you 2,000 cites! No, I mean I love you 2,000 planets!” I started to tear up and said I loved her a million planets, and she gave me a big kiss. She was quiet for a minute and then asked, “Mommy, do you have a lot of dishes to wash?” When I told her yes, she said, “When I’m big, I’ll help you wash the dishes. The Tupperware, the plates, the cups…” I said, “Thanks baby girl, that will be a big help one day.” And then we did more hugs and kisses and I started crying for real, because she’s just the best little girl ever.

Oh, and one other super sweet thing Emmie said the other day that also made me tear up, we were talking about something that happened like 5 or 6 years ago, and she asked if she was there or if she was in my tummy, and I said, “No, you weren’t even in my tummy yet!” And she said, “I was in heaven with Jesus waiting on you to pick me.” And I almost died from the sweetness.

Baby Addie had fallen asleep after finishing her bottle, with just minimal fighting, and was more than ready to be laid down in her bed after we got Emmie down.

I spent 15-20 minutes cleaning up the kitchen and washing all the dishes, and Jeff has been busy finally folding all those tiny baby clothes we’ve been putting off the past three days. It’s now just past 10pm, and that means it’s my bedtime. Night, friends!