Here I am! With a few hours left in the first day of November, I’m getting in a post by the skin of my teeth. Speaking of that, how many of you feel like you have socks on your teeth from all the sugar you’ve eaten today?

Halloween was kind of a bust around here, what with the rain and the FREEZING, but somehow my kids managed to get plenty of junk. The adults managed to drink plenty of beer too, because we roll redneck in Ohio. It makes the cold bearable. Almost.

I won’t lie. I didn’t craft together my son’s costume until about an hour before trick-or-treat, because of the wicked witch that blew through earlier this week, I just wasn’t into it this year. Hurricane Sandy kind of ruined the spirit of Halloween. Get it? Spirit. People, this is as good as it’s going to get if I’m posting every day.

Now that my kids have dressed up for Halloween a combined total of 25 times I am apparently tired of taking pictures of them in their costumes. I got one photo of my daughter with a glaring flash, none of my two kids together and two pictures of my son which, if pieced together, make his full costume. Take this duct tape covered parka…

…and combine it with this mustache (instead of the one above that I crookedly drew on with waterproof mascara)…

…and you have the total look.

I win at mothering, no? Don’t worry, I’ll make it up to them at Thanksgiving. I’ll give them all the dark meat and I won’t let their dad deep-fry the turkey again. You’re welcome, kids. You’re welcome.

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I am a fickle chef.

My cooking goes in cycles where I feel like stirring something up every night (quite literally) to not wanting to make a meal for days on end. There isn’t always rhyme or reason to these cycles, but often the urge to be in my kitchen is in direct relation to how busy I am at work, the amount of homework my kids bring home, or their after-school activities. If all three hit at once, there isn’t much chance that you’ll find me standing over my stove.

Because of this, I like to have pantry and freezer items that are easy to whip up in a hurry in case I get derailed and can’t get motivated to make dinner. I always have bags of frozen rice and veggies, pasta and beans, or if all else fails…cereal. I also keep frozen pizza and family-sized entrees at the ready just in case.

Of course, the convenience of a frozen entree doesn’t usually trump the unhealthiness of the food. I would like to offer my kids a variety of hot meals that don’t have to be reheated for someone else a couple of hours later AND I would like to be able to pronounce the ingredients.

Enter Kidfresh. Kidfresh is a line of frozen food for kids that started in a New York store, where they offered natural and organic kids’ food, and has expanded to more than 4,000 stores, nationwide. The best part? The labels aren’t scary.

Not only are they rich in vegetables and made without anything artificial, their “…packaging meets the highest safety standards with no BPA, no Phthalates nor other potentially harmful chemicals.” They use use recycled paper, carbon-neutral printing and recyclable containers.

Best of all, my kids like them!

Now a lucky reader gets to try Kidfresh meals for their kids. Just leave a comment on this post before 10/30/12 at midnight EST, and I will chose a winner, at random, to win coupons for three FREE Kidfresh meals. Enjoy and happy, healthy eating!

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Last night, my kids and I were traveling in our car when I looked into my rear-view mirror to see a small truck pull onto the street behind me. He had to turn left to get there and as his green pick-up crossed the other lane, a car going in the opposite direction nearly slammed right into him. The white compact car had to slam on his brakes and, rightly so, also slammed on his horn.

The green pick-up driver responded as anyone who is clearly at fault should do, which was to stick his hand out of his window and flip-off the driver of the little, white car.

As I watched the scene unfold in my mirror I said, “I’m sure! That pick-up truck driver just stuck his middle finger out at the guy who didn’t do anything wrong!”

And, as we passed through a busy intersection I turned to see my son in the back seat with his middle finger out of the window as he looked at me and said, “You mean, like this?”

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While helping my 10 year old son study for his spelling test I said, “Okay, spell mole. Like, ‘I have a mole on my face.'”

He replied, “Oh, I thought you meant the little animal that digs holes, but you meant the the thing on your back with the hair growing out of it.”

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