"Tried-Too-Hard" Thursday

Yesterday was difficult. We had our trip to the hotel and waterpark and the whole thing was just difficult. Without going into too much detail or negativity, I will just say that everything about it was challenging. With the added stress and irritability, we really wanted to eat out. There were restaurants surrounding the hotel and they all sounded delicious. And so easy. But, we held strong! We managed to eat all of our food (dinner on Thursday and breakfast on Friday) at the hotel. It was nice that our hotel room had a little fridge, microwave, sink and dining table.

For dinner Thursday, I made popcorn chicken and tater tots. Or, I should say, I attempted to make popcorn chicken. I used The Pioneer Woman's recipe for chicken strips, but I cut the chicken into smaller, bite-size pieces. My first batch was a complete flop. I had to throw it away. I don't know if the oil wasn't hot enough or what, but the breading fell off of the chicken and it just tasted icky. The second batch turned out much better and that's what we ended up eating. Jack wouldn't touch it....but I can't say I'm surprised about that. He ate some of the tater tots and PB&J. I didn't take any pictures while I was making the chicken because...well...I didn't feel like it. I was a little bitter about having to make our dinner to take to the hotel - all I wanted was to be able to drive-through a fast food place and buy the same exact thing without the hassle of making it at home. Here's the one picture I got of our dinner -




Jack, mid-sentence -



So, here's what I learned yesterday...

1) Our son does not need a fancy hotel room and waterpark to have fun. His anxiety really got in the way of him having fun. We could've found something to do at home that would've been more fun.

2) Our meals do not need to be perfect. I could've easily just made sandwiches for dinner on Thursday. But I had to do better than that. And the stress that I put on myself was unnecessary.

3) Next paycheck, we are buying a deep fryer. I am so tired of "frying" things in a pan on the stove. It is messy, smelly, greasy and messy.