Lessons Learned Lately

I am either delusional or optimistic.  Either way, I never finish my to-do list.  Maybe I will again someday when I don't have so many beloved "distractions" around who need such constant attention.  Then again, maybe I put more on my to-do list than anyone could actually accomplish, ever.  And really, I am not necessarily looking forward to all my "distractions" leaving.

Having someone else do your remodeling costs a lot of money.  We have received multiple bids for flooring, windows, garage doors, totally re-doing our master bathroom, replacing our all-galvanized water pipes and doing some electrical updates.  We are sitting back and letting the high costs absorb until we are willing to cough up the dough.  If the shock doesn't wear off, we may have to figure how to carve out time in our hectic lives to do-it-ourselves.  Noooooooo!

Costco shopping is a 4-hour chore, if you count putting it all away.  I love Costco, but it is very time (and money :) ) consuming.

I love hand-me-downs.  I have been getting the next size of clothes out for Lucy, and it has been fun to see lots of cute things that Sophie used to wear, as well as donations from cousins and friends.  It's also been fun to package up the things she's grown out of to give to some friends at church who are expecting baby girls.

Volunteering at school is fun.  I was an art docent (taught an hour-long art class) in Lukas' class this week and it was precious.  We did chalk drawings of leaves in the style of Georgia O'Keefe.  Some of his classmates made me drawings and notes to say thanks.  One of the kids (who had chalk all over his face and on his arms up to his elbow) came up and said: "This is the funnest thing I've done all week."  Awesome.

80's sitcoms sure were innocent.  We've been streaming "Alf" from Amazon (lots of free content with a Prime membership) and our kids think it's hilarious.  It is definitely in the "so-stupid-it's-funny" camp, but I was struck by how much edgier/raunchier lots of prime time T.V. comedy is now.  Times they are a changin'.  

Getting anything extra accomplished around my house takes a looooong time.  It seems like a two steps forward, three steps back sort of deal.

Trying not to eat sugar for a month is hard, but I feel a lot better when it is a very restricted part of my diet--doh!  One of my good friends threw down a "No-sugar November" gauntlet and I couldn't resist.  Yes, if she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, I would be right behind her :).  I am definitely a sugar-a-holic.  I need a 12-step program, but I am doing a pretty good job myself, one day at a time.

When your newly daytime potty-trained 4-year-old (hooray!) falls asleep on the couch sans pull-up, and a voice inside you tells you to put a pull-up on him "just in case", you should listen to that voice.  Just sayin'.

And last, before climbing on sculptures in parks and having a fun photo-op with your family, you should really read the signs nearby.  People walked by and I thought they were just smiling bemusedly at my cute family's antics, but I think they were thinking, "What a bunch of idiots!" to themselves.  I can hardly blame them.

I have a few fun posts planned for next week (I've been sewing up a storm!), so stay tuned!

When the Mice are Away, the Cat will Play

Summer has been fun, and for the most part, successful.  All of my kids, sans Lucy and Sawyer, went back to school this week.  Next week, Sawyer will start preschool a few times a week.  I felt a huge heart pang the first day as I watched them walk up to the bus or to school, thinking about how kids growing older is both thrilling and ever-so-sad.  But then, I immediately started mentally listing all the things to do that are easier with only a portable baby around.  Woo-hoo!

I felt a bit guilty about my feelings of happy relief that the kids are back in school when we had family prayers that night, though.  Sophie, our sweet 9-year-old, was saying the prayer.  She was asking for help or blessings for each family member in turn (i.e. "Help Damon to do well at his new school, help Brendan to do a good job in high school," etc.).  The last people she mentioned were Lucy and me.  She said, "Help Mom and Lucy to not miss us too much while we are all gone to school this year."  I had to stifle a little chuckle.  I think I will manage ;).

How about you?  Does back to school bring tears....or tears of relief :)?  Or both?

This is how we roll...corn buttering at the Smith's

We had corn on the cob for the first time this season just last night.



I bought it from the Farmer's Market, and it was delicious--and cheap!  Just 3 cobs for $1.  I got 9.

Anyhoo, it brought up something that has been an inner (and sometimes irritatingly outer) struggle for me for some time.  

Namely, how should we butter our corn?

There is the hygienic and pretty method, which entails taking neat little individual pats of butter from the butter plate and using your own pat to butter your own corn.  This method is much better from an aesthetic point of view, but way harder from a practical standpoint.  The pat of butter never stays stuck to your knife, so you have to keep retrieving it, and your whole cob is usually only unevenly buttered at best.

Until very recently, I have advocated the individual pat method, despite its drawbacks.  I airily dismissed naysayers, pretending that it was just as easy and efficient to use your own pat.  Yes, I was lying.  The reason for my lies was that I truly hated the corn buttering alternative.

 You know the alternative I'm talking about...  You take a cube of butter and put it on a dish.  Then everyone takes their cob and rolls it around on the butter.  What starts out as a normal cube of butter, ends an un-usable (for anything else, anyway), misshapen lump of sad-looking butter.  With corn husks and the odd half-kernel stuck to it, it isn't good for anything, ever again.  It is ugly, and it is wasteful (unless you are planning to eat corn-on-the-cob every night).  And I don't like ugly and wasteful.

But on the upside, the corn is buttered perfectly.  Every kernel has just the right amount.

Yes, I've given in to the dark side and mangle my butter in the the name of tasty corn-on-the-cob.

And it is....bliss.




So, how do you butter your corn 'round your house?

Flakamentals and Flakeries

I am a flake.

It is true.

In the space of two weeks, I have offered to do two favors for friends and completely, utterly, and blissfully (well, at least blissfully until I remembered) forgotten to do the favor.  It's kind of like that Seinfeld bit where he talks about the difference between taking and holding a reservation, with the holding being the most important part.  Anyone can offer to do a favor--it's the doing that counts.

Oh man.

The first was to pick up milk for a friend.  We buy milk from a dairy with a drop-off location near our house (cheaper than delivery).  The milk is really good, so we're willing to do it.  My friend has picked my milk up many, many times, so I offered to pick up hers for a change.

Nice of me, no? 

No---because I forgot I didn't need to order milk that week and so I didn't go.  And she had such a busy day, she figured I just had her milk in my fridge and didn't call me until the next morning.  So her milk had been sitting outside in a un-iced cooler for 24 hours.  And it was my fault!  Cringe.

But really, that was small potatoes compared to what I did yesterday.  At church on Sunday, I talked to a friend whose son is currently in the hospital.  I felt so bad for her that I immediately offered to bring her dinner.  Ironically, she is the head of the committee that usually organizes bringing meals to people after they have a baby or when a family member is in the hospital, etc.

Anyway, she graciously accepted my offer and said I could bring her something the following night.  Perfect.  Unless of course, you are flakier than a good croissant and completely forgot.  I even thought about their family a few times yesterday, sending up a little prayer for them each time--but my thick-headed memory was completely un-jogged.

This morning, however, I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten and felt like I would rather crawl in a dark hole somewhere than have to call my poor friend and admit that I forgot about her...

Really--am I that self-centered? 

I know I'm busy, but I don't think I'm busy enough to justify these two omissions in only one week.

I did take a casserole over today to make up for my lameness.  Maybe I need to make her some cookies, too.

I need to get a better calendaring system, clearly.  The embarrassed, pit-in-my stomach feeling is only now starting to subside.  Sheesh.

And tomorrow I have milk pick-up again.  Wish me luck!

Now I want to know (if only to make myself feel a little better): what have you forgotten recently that made you want to crawl into a hole?  Please tell me I'm not the only one experiencing early-onset senility when it comes to good intentions....

Be afraid...be very afraid

Warning: the following post contains subtle references/innuendo about excrement, so if you are squeamish or live in a fairy world where you don't have to deal with such realities, you may want to pass on this one.

This morning, I was was wasting time on the computer doing housework, when I noticed this pile of orange peels:

They were fresh, and they were all eaten by one person:

That is a heckuva lot of oranges for a three year old's system.  Especially one whose mom is still changing his diapers.   

I am afraid to see what the next day will bring, if you know what I mean... 

Decorators and Marriage Therapists afterthought

This bit from Jim Gaffigan's King Baby (transcript below) is hilarious:

00:21:55	I have a nice bed.
00:21:56	I don't believe in making the bed though.
00:21:58	My wife is always like, "why don't you ever make the bed? " For the same reason I don't tie my shoes after I take them off.
00:22:05	It doesn't make sense.
00:22:08	You know?
00:22:08	We're not putting this thing in storage.
00:22:13	I'm hoping to come back in a couple of hours and I would like it open, 'cause when our bed is made it's covered in 40 pillows like we're stockpiling ammo for the global pillow fight.
00:22:28	I ask my wife, I'm like, "what's the deal with all the pillows?" " how often are you giving a tour of our bedroom?"
00:22:36	And has anyone ever been impressed by pillows?
00:22:39	Like someone's gonna leave your bedroom, "i didn't know they were doing that well.
00:22:46	They got like 40, 50 pillows on that bed."

Perhaps my husband is right. I need a pillow intervention :)...