Slow-cooked pork ribs, broccoli, carrots and onions with garlic

The cook-up went well. My husband cut up all of the veg and I did all of the cooking. It took about 3 hours total of actual work between us. I didn't get to the sauces or muffins yet, but it is in the works for today or tomorrow.

We started out with me getting the ribs and roast in the oven to slow cook while Matt cut up the long list of veggies. About halfway through, I had to nurse and fix lunch for the other munchkins. When I was done, I cooked up all of the vegetables with the steam-sautee method. Then I got two burners going and grilled all of the chicken-- this was the most time consuming part.

Things I will do different next time-

• We will both work at veggie prep on Saturday and have them ready to cook on Sunday.
• I will get two burners going with the veggies to make this process even faster.
• Peas. I forgot them this week.
• More carrots and cabbage.
• I will pound the chicken thighs flat to cut the cooking time and probably add white pepper to the seasoning.

It was tiring, and a pretty big job, but dinner took less than 20 minutes to make last night. This is going to help keep us away from take-out and reduce stress during the week. I am totally on board for next week.

I had every intention of writing here, but suddenly everything felt so mundane and so unworthy of blogging. It seems that the kids and I have a routine. Maybe "rut" is more accurate.

We get up in the morning. Ry gets breakfast for herself and Sean-- usually waffles or muffins from the freezer. The kids watch something on PBS or Netflix, I drink my coffee and nurse the baby. The kids play or color until lunchtime.

I make lunch. After lunch is electronics play-time. The kids got iPad minis for Christmas. I loaded them up with educational games. Things that I thought would help the 4 year old learn his letter sounds, more about shapes, something. Do you know what he does? He plays Angry Birds and Bad Piggies. He is obsessed with them. My husband was getting frustrated with it. Shouldn't he be learning?

As we watched Sean play, we discovered something. He is really good at these games that use physics and invention to get to the finish line. He builds rocket and soda water propelled go-carts. He calculates and measures the arch for certain sized birds, accounting for weight and gravity, to hit in the exact place he needs to make a structure topple. He is learning about force, gravity and trajectory. Beyond the physics, he is learning to be persistent. Having a rough time and can't get your piggy over the hill? Keep trying!

Our older child is starting to gravitate away from electronics, which is somewhat surprising. I always thought that she was as much of a technophile as I am. After lunch most days, she gets out her scrapbook or her drawing supplies instead.  I am encouraging her to slow down and spend time telling her story on each of her scrapbook pages.When she does get on the computer, she enjoys BrainPop Jr. and building games on Scratch. When she says she is bored, I tell her to get out her Brain Quest workbooks, and those usually keep her busy for a couple of hours.

I think that my goal as the weather improves is to get out of our rut and get out of the house more.