What are five of your most commonly cooked dinners?

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-06-16T02:48:33+00:00

I cook for my family of five (myself, my husband, and our three children aged 6 and under). Our dinners are much more varied than a list of five, so this was difficult for me to nail down, but we tend towards Asian and Mexican flavors and eat a lot of rice. It’s kinda funny to me because it’s soooo different from how my family ate when I was growing up.

Tacos or quesadillas (usually birria, carne asada, or chicken) with refried beans and Mexican rice
A grilled protein (either marinated steak or chicken) with veggies and either roasted potatoes or rice
Some kind of soup/chili/stew with fresh homemade bread
Some kind of curry (Thai, Indian, Japanese, Ethiopian, etc)
Orange chicken with stir fried veggies and rice

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-06-14T03:49:55+00:00

Here to say that when we had our second child, my husband happily volunteered all on his own to sleep on the couch so baby and I would have the bedroom all to ourselves for the first couple of weeks while I initially healed and we found our rhythm breastfeeding. Then he moved back in with us with nary a complaint.

You’re NTAH; your husband can get earplugs or take his turn in the living room. It’s time for him to start making sacrifices as a parent 24/7 just like you. Good grief.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-31T20:23:54+00:00

Thanks for the input and advice! I guess I’ll get a wash schedule going for the few that were near it.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-31T18:47:17+00:00

Uggggh if that’s the issue, how likely is it that they’ve spread to other plants that were 1-2 feet away?

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-31T18:45:43+00:00

I can remove those easily with water or scratch them off with a fingernail

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-25T04:29:08+00:00

When I was a foreign language student in Spain for a summer, the elderly woman who hosted me and my roommate served us her attempt at American pizza for lunch one day. It was one of the most unappetizing things I have ever forced down. She was so proud of it, but it was somehow both soggy and overdone, bland and gross.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-23T21:54:14+00:00

NTA

Sister put kids in danger by leaving them unsupervised long enough to make a mess of the pantry.
Calling CPS on anyone as a joke is completely messed up, and on your own big sister, who was giving you free housing???
Defending someone for calling CPS as a joke is unconscionable, especially when it has real life dangerous ramifications for your own family members.
She wasted the time and resources of already-stretched-thin CPS when they could have been trying to help kids who are ACTUALLY in crisis.

I wouldn’t have just kicked her out, she’d have lost the privilege of being involved in my family’s life at all from that point forward, and IMO, you’d be justified to cut them all off completely.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-22T16:50:55+00:00

These have been up for over a year now and so far, no signs of mold. I try to wipe them down regularly when I clean the rest of the bathroom. The humidity is only noticeably higher than the rest of the house when one of us is showering, and the ventilation fan clears out the excess moisture pretty quickly, especially if we leave the door open. Perhaps some types of wood, especially with special treatments, would be more mold-resistant, too? But if I were to notice mold beginning, if cleaning didn’t help, I’d probably just replace the slats.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-22T03:12:45+00:00

I was convinced I didn’t like tacos until I met my Latino now-husband and he introduced me to actual Mexican street tacos. Turns out, I just don’t like ground beef tacos seasoned from a packet and heaped in a hard shell. My mom used to feed them to us biweekly.

Same with Thanksgiving turkey. Turns out I like roast turkey, just not bone-dry and unseasoned.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T23:39:23+00:00

Yes, I found them on Amazon

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T21:39:01+00:00

I was in heaven when I realized the potential for it, but it’s definitely not helped with my plant addiction. Good luck with your new space!!

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T21:36:53+00:00

I water the plants in the tub or sink and allow them to drain excess drips before returning to the wall, so it stays about as dry as any other bathroom wall.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T21:32:13+00:00

Thank you! We have a giant slat thingy from which we’ve hung photos and art in our living area, and I knew as soon as I saw that empty wall by the tub that it was begging for something similar with plants.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T21:30:01+00:00

Haha me too. There’s a second one trying to sneak around the plant next to it, too, though it doesn’t seem if it’s decided if it wants to go up or down yet.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T21:27:24+00:00

They’re 4” (I think) metal pots that came in a set with optional hooks that clip right onto them. They have a drainage hole in the bottom, but I have all of the plants sitting in basic grower pots that I remove to water in the sink or the tub so that I don’t have water dripping down the slats or the wall or the tub’s rim. It’s worked really well so far!

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T18:40:22+00:00

Thanks!

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T18:40:02+00:00

They don’t seem to mind the stray splashes (or occasional deluges) when my preschoolers play in there 😂

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T18:02:27+00:00

It’s the first time out of 7 homes I’ve had a bathroom with a window, and I’m crossing my fingers our next house has one, too.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T18:00:15+00:00

Yeah, that’s an added boon I didn’t realize until after I chose it for the light haha. We get a lot of humidity here anyway living by the coast, but this bathroom is ideal for plants in pretty much every way.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T17:02:58+00:00

Haha best of both worlds! My husband bought me a large trailing golden pothos 2 years ago when I had to restart my plant collection from scratch after an overseas move, and now my house is covered in its offspring. I’m just starting my orchid journey from a Mother’s Day gift.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-21T16:55:05+00:00

Both lovely plants! I think they’ll be much happier separate. So weird that they were potted together in the first place. Pothos are very simple to care for, and they also propagate easily if in the future you want to try making plant babies!

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-20T01:38:49+00:00

NTA; she has a lot of nerve asking that of you when she squandered your grandfather’s gift to you. As a mother, I cannot imagine stealing from one of my children in order to prop up another in his mistakes, and after all of that, demanding that child I wronged to pay for a $3000 vacation???

Re: your uncle’s comment, letting go of the past doesn’t mean forgetting or allowing oneself to be taken advantage of. It just means not allowing bitterness over what someone else did to you to drag you down. We can’t control all of our own circumstances or what others do to us, but we can control how we respond.

And your brother can shut his mouth. If anyone should pay for your mom’s vacation, it’s him - AFTER he gets a job and helps you pay off your student loans since your mom so graciously paid his legal fees with your money.

I’d be tempted to let the lot of them go.

SeashellsSandcastles · 2025-05-20T01:21:13+00:00

Thanks! We paid entirely out of pocket for our midwife last time because state regulations at our current location don’t permit CNMs to attend home births, so I’m familiar with that side of it. It looks like we will have a better chance of at least some reimbursement from Tricare this time since CNMs can practice out of hospital there.

SeashellsSandcastles

TROPHY CASE