Some mornings I just can’t get it together. Like yesterday. I packed lunch boxes, but then our 1-year-old hid our 5-year-old’s white turtleneck, which he needed for his school play.

So there I was, crawling around on all fours in search of it. Which she thought was hysterical. She grabbed my shirt and climbed on my back. Why pass up an opportunity to play horse? Or draw on yourself with markers? Where was I again?

Oh, yes. Our morning routine. Once we’re off it, I find it challenging to grab ahold of my day. Often that means we end up eating processed food. But thankfully I’ve got a few easy dishes to fall back on, so even if we order pizza, we’ve got a fresh vegetable to serve with it. Like roasted broccoli. Which our kids actually like.

Kids, you see, have amazingly sensitive taste buds. And sometimes you need to serve a dish multiple times before they adjust to the taste. (Or serve it with a heap of ranch dressing.)

Roasted Broccoli:

• 3 heads broccoli
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
• 1/3 cup fresh Parmesan cheese (optional)

Cut broccoli florets from the stalk. Toss florets with first 5 ingredients. Roast at 500 for 20 minutes. When finished, toss with Parmesan cheese and lemon juice.

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Our 2 y.o. insists he’s outgrown his toddler bed.  ”It’s too small for me,” he says, and, to prove his point, refuses to sleep in it at night.  Rather, he sleeps on the floor with his head on his pillow and his blanket wrinkle free.  ”I want it everywhere!” he proclaims when I tuck him in.  Because there’s nothing my boys like more than right angles.

Not that he sleeps.

Last night, at bedtime, I got on the floor beside him, hoping to coax him into closing his eyes.  Bedtime around here is like Dominoes.  You need to push the first one over for the rest to fall.

So I rubbed small circles on his back; I rubbed his head. I made up a story about a big boy with a sword, and then I sang a song about a bear. And then finally, I was so tired that I let him pluck out strands of my hair just so he’d be quiet while I slept.  Which probably isn’t a good idea once you’re in your thirties.  You never know if it’ll grow back.

It didn’t hurt. Much.

Then our 4 y.o. crawled out of his bed and curled up beside us on the floor.  Because if there was a chance his little brother’s ploy could result in a new bed, he wanted in on it, too.

But it was heaven holding their sweet bodies close to mine, with their breath on my neck, their fine hair tickling my face.  They won’t be my babies forever.  Oh, excuse me.  My big boys.

Now that I’m feeling nostalgic, I’ve decided to make roasted chestnuts.  Not that I’ve ever eaten a roasted chestnut.  It’s just that they were in a song I used to listen to, so they remind me of family and home.  And an open fire.  And snow.

Roasted Chestnuts, adapted from Start Cooking:

Preheat oven to 450.

Cut small X in each chestnut to allow the steam to escape.

Place the chestnuts in a baking pan with the X facing up.

Remove from the oven 20 – 30 minutes later, when the shells burst open.

Then peel; make sure they’re not too hot that you burn your fingers.

These were yummy roasted, soft and squishy and nutty.