Eat your peppers

i have so many things... I mean SOOO many things that I want to write on this blog. Vacation at Allen's house, anniversary trip to Niagra Falls, Dad's annual Field Day, our actual 9 year anniversary date, etc, etc. I am constantly thinking about this blog and how I wish I had the time to post on it, but ever since we officially found out that we were accepted to Georgia State University, we have been so overwhelmed with our to-do list. We are officially moving to Georgia sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we have tons to do between now and then. We're working night and day and night and day to get the house on the market, so that's taking up all of my waking hours and most of my "sleeping" hours as well. I told andrew the other day that I have at least 25 "#1 priorities" that all are pressing and need done right now and I'm getting so overwhelmed that i'm almost paralyzed, not knowing what to do, when to do it, what is really the "#1 priority" and what is not, etc, etc. We both are just swamped. The verse, "the joy of the Lord is my strength" is constantly running through my mind right now.

But anyway... there was a little thing with Jasper that I had to record on here..


Because we had literally 75 green peppers sitting on our counter over Labor Day weekend, Andrew asked if I could make some stuffed peppers for dinner one night. I happily obliged, seeing as how I, too, love stuffed peppers and cooking for my family is one of my greatest joys. So sunday night, I made awesome, awesome stuffed green peppers. These huge peppers were stuffed with ground turkey, China Red whole grain rice, sauteed cabbage, sauteed peppers, sauteed onions, bacon, 3 different kinds of cheese, 5 different kinds of spices, etc, etc.

And Jasper refused to eat his. Absolutely, all-out refused to eat his. Our rule is this: We eat dinner for around 35-45 minutes. We set the timer for Jasper (and we set a generous amount of time on the timer). If he hasn't finished his dinner in 45 minutes, that's fine, but dinner is over and he will have what is left of his dinner for his bed time snack.

Well, Jasper refused to eat his dinner. So we moved on with our evening, had our family bike ride, had bible time, and Jasper had his left over stuffed pepper for bed time snack.

Only he refused to eat even a bite. I would have sorta felt bad for him, except we gave him such a small portion of pepper, and it was stuffed with his favorite things in the world. He loved stuff peppers! It was quickly turning into the battle of the wills. So we told him, you need to eat this for bed time snack. If you don't, you'll have it for breakfast. And he replied, "I jus' fink I'll have it for breakfast." ok, buddy. Game on.

So for breakfast the next morning, I said, "hey buddy. As soon as you finish your pepper, I'll get you yummy cereal!!" and he said, "Momma, I fought (thought) about it, an' I's decided I's not gonna eat my pepper. Ever."

oh my. I was laughin so hard on the inside. So I said...

"It's your decision of when you eat your pepper. But you are not going to get any other food to eat until you eat your pepper first. So babe, sit at the table for breakfast with me and Brody and eat your pepper."

Jasper said, "I'll sit, but I's jus' fink I'm not gonna eat da pepper."

so I set the timer. He didn't eat a bite. Breakfast was over. About 5 minutes later, "Hey momma, can I pwease hab some rasisins to eat?" and I said, "Sure buddy! as soon as you eat your pepper for lunch, you may have raisins."

Jasper... "No, I's not donna eat dat pepper. But I's so, so hungry."

me- "that's great that you're hungry! Because you have yummy pepper to eat. At lunch time."

Jasper... "I's so hungry, but I's not gonna eat dat pepper."

and on and on all day it went.

you get the point.

At lunch, during my phone conversation with Andrew, he said, "babe, you have to win this battle with Jasper." and I said, "oh I will."

It was a definite battle of the wills.

But...

It gave me a great opportunity to teach him A LOT that day about how our choices have consequences and our bad choices give us bad consequences.

it was almost a full 24 hours that Jasper didn't eat a bite of pepper until he caved and finally ate his original tiny amount from dinner the night before.

But at the end of the day, I'm pretty sure he got the message:

Eat the pepper. Momma don't play.

(this is the infamous pepper. It was on this hill that I took a stand, and it was on this hill that I won the battle. Momma don't play.)