The No Sweets Challenge was back on the after Valentine’s Day dessert. And with the taste of sugar fresh on my tongue, I was more than ready for Fat Tuesday. My mom had ordered a dozen pazckis from Nibo’s (The former Vinewood Bakery) to split with the family. I ordered two; one lemon and one raspberry, and Aya ordered two; one raspberry and one prune. (You’re probably thinking, “prune!?” Yeah, me too. It’s okay, you can judge her.)

With the order in, all I had to do was wait…

I did pretty well at first. The hot fudge brownie cake from Big Boy’s I had on Valentine’s Day totally hit the spot and really filled my sweet tooth for awhile. But on the eve of Fat Tuesday, the anticipation was killing me.

Ellie decided she didn’t want to nap. So instead of being force-fed fake sandwiches by a wide-eyed hyper toddler for the rest of the afternoon, I decided to run some errands at Target. And big surprise, she fell asleep in the car almost instantly. I knew it! But instead of wallowing in the scheduling disaster of the day, I decided I’d stroll around Target and let her sleep for a little bit.

Now when Aya goes to Target, she is in heaven. She can walk around and shop all day. She could be there for hours and not even buy anything, but still leave feeling fulfilled. She loves Target. Now me, I don’t mind shopping, but I need to buy something for it to not feel like a waste of time. When I go shopping, it’s a mission. And my mission required me to buy only one item. This could go bad. I was trapped in Target for at least an hour while I was cranky, hungry, and not needing to buy anything. So while I wheeled sleeping Ellie around, I talked myself in and out of purchasing just about everything in the store. You name it, I wanted it; toilet paper, bathroom towels, socks, and everything in between.

My wanderings eventually led me to the snack aisle where I saw that chips were on sale. Chips are allowed, I thought. Chips aren’tsweet. I’ve been staying away from junk food in general, and I’ve been good. I could reward myself with chips, right? But then the guilt set in and I talked myself out of it and moved on to the kitchen section.

I’ve been getting bored with the same dishes and placemats in my “what’s cookin’” photos, so I stopped to look. “Oh, these are on clearance!” But then I thought they were still too much. And I stood there staring at them thinking, “Do I really like these? Are these 40% off worth it? Or 50% off worth it?” After realizing Aya probably had a coupon in her secret stash I moved on. And plus, now after two classes, I knew with my mad sewing skills I could make those napkins for just a fraction of the cost. Ahh! What’s with me!? I went back to look at the chips again.

Long story short, I paced the aisles for a little over an hour always coming back to the chips to fill my pre-Fat Tuesday-no-proper-napping-day frustration. I’m happy to report I did not get the chips or any snacks for that matter. At least not at Target. I did when I went grocery shopping at 11pm later that day. It was a better deal too.

Anyway, I was cranky, agitated and soooo ready for pazckis. And finally, Fat Tuesday had arrived.

I had my first one before 9am. I knew I did NOT want to share with Ellie (don’t judge, I always share with her, but not this) so I made sure she was deep in her breakfast and distracted so I could enjoy it in peace. And it was perfect! But after I finished it, my dreamy-eyed expression on my face began to fade when I realized I only had one left. The day was barely beginning and I already consumed 50% of my allowable pazckis. Ahh! I didn’t get one for Ellie either and I for sure wasn’t going to share mine. So in an effort to head off any future mooching, I decided to buy Ellie her own pazcki. One of the fake ones from the Hort (Tim Horton’s).

Ellie ate half of her pazcki at lunch, and the other half after her nap. I may or may not have had a bite of hers. Just for educational purposes so she could see the proper way to eat one. This was a training pazcki. There was no need to waste premium goods on a little mouth that would not fully appreciate them. Maybe next year she’ll be ready for a real one.

After dinner, Aya had taken Ellie upstairs for her night time routine. I was left alone in the kitchen with my final pazcki. The sugary glaze glistened under the kitchen lights. The jelly filling was already partially oozing out as if running in fear. I knew it, it knew it, it was time. CHOMP! And then I ate it.

While I was overcome with joy and feelings of merriment, I was left feeling empty inside. This was not only my last pazcki until next year, but my last anything sweet for another seven weeks. Sigh…

Goodbye pazckis, goodbye sweets! We’ll be together soon! I’ll be thinking about you.

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