Pollyanna

Tonight I broke one of my cardinal culinary rules. In an attempt to provide the preferred comfort food of each member of my still sick family, I cooked three different meals for supper.

It was nothing complicated, but I usually refuse on principle to start conjuring up alternative options when anyone doesn't like the proposed meal. They can eat part of the meal or have some bread or yoghurt if it is really impossible for them to swallow.

Youngest and Oldest have been sick for nearly a week though, so some pandering (à la Pollyanna and the calfsfoot jelly) was in order. Our son always demands rice and baked beans, his idea of a perfectly rounded meal. Youngest likes pasta. Middle daughter, the only one not sick, but suffering from a sore tummy (maybe so as not to feel left out, who can tell!) really wanted an omelette and isn't too keen on the other options. I made a deal. She could have an omelette if she laid the table and then I would tell her how to cook it herself.

This solved the problem of my brain fusing as it can do when dealing with too many different saucepans at once… I am definitely not applying for the post of short order chef any time soon.

So to the chorus of coughing, she turned out a very respectable one egg omelette, while the invalids languished and waited for their appetites to be tempted.

They've both had three days of a fierce flu, knocked out on the sofa. Both recovered briefly only to relapse back into a temperature accompanied by cough and loads of mucus and congestion. A visit to the homeopath today provided us with an array of remedies, so I'm hoping we can get by without resorting to antibiotics. We'll see how they are doing tomorrow.

Oldest is desperately disappointed to be missing school. His class had just embarked on a project to do with animals and he was really looking forward to it all. A foray into Google today to research his animal - the zebra - turned up enough information, but he wasn't too impressed when I suggested that he should write in his own words and not just copy the whole site!

I've just realized that with all the coughing and doling out remedies and presiding over a stoveful of saucepans, I've completely forgotten to go to my belly-dancing class tonight. Bother!