Broccoli Soup and Its Unfortunate Effect On My Manners

Is that weird? Does anyone else put their cheesy biscuit on top of their soup like that? Like a lid?

Will I ever eat in a restaurant again? Will my children respect my lessons on table manners? (No. Duh.)

I'm in a soup kind of mood. Okay, since October. The cold weather always makes me feel soupy and cozy and grateful for warmth. One of the best things about homeschooling is the hot lunch every day. We do resort to PB&J every once in a while, but most days it's hot soup or homemade mac-n-cheese. None of which is found on any weight-reduction diet, by the way.

I make my broccoli soup with chicken broth, olive oil, pureed steamed broccoli, a little potato flakes, and some half-and-half added at the last moment. Then we make homemade baking powder drop biscuits with lots of grated cheese and garlic. I don't put any butter on them. Does that help?

The broccoli seeds we started two weeks ago are just sprouting. I am running out of frozen broccoli from last fall's garden and I can feel the panic setting in. It's the same with my stewed tomatoes. I used my last quart the other night and here it is only mid-January. What if we were pioneers with no grocery stores? I'd be failing miserably, that's what.

Not only would I not survive on the frontier, but I wouldn't have a blog to chronicle my failures. Oh! And there'd be no one but me to teach table manners to my children, who'd then be completely shut out of polite society when they dumped their biscuit on top of their soup.

But the French do top their onion soup with a humongous crouton (otherwise known as cheese toast). Am I right?

I can't decide whether to be grateful for what I did can and freeze from the garden or beat myself up for what I could have done and didn't. It's the same with my whole life, actually. I can't decide whether to dwell on what I should have, would have accomplished by this time in my life or just make that list of what worked, what didn't, and move on to try to do it better.

Since it's January, and a month of new beginnings, I'll give myself a chance to do better this year.

But I'm probably still putting the biscuit on top of the soup.

Probably.