All in an Afternoon

Broke Something

Yep, this is a normal occurrence around here. Sometimes I love the object, most often not. (Since you know I am training myself not to love material possessions that my children can break.) This time it was a jar that held small pumpkins. Although it was their home, the pumpkins are often found elsewhere and have a spirit of wanderlust, so I am sure they can move easily, unlike me and my hoards of stuff. (Read: Holiday decorations.) Pearl was the culprit. She was dragging the jar around and dropped it. Lucky for me, it shattered into a million fragments, as per usual. This happens often enough that I have a system. 1)Remove all children. Oddly enough, they are always there when it happens. Oh wait, things don't break unless children are present. Good to know. 2) Sweep. 3) Vacuum 4) Mop or use something wet to pick up the last little slices and slivers.

I swept, and then vacuumed which was good because my sweeping job stunk based on the huge chunks I got with the vacuum, but I didn't have time to mop before Daisy cut her foot on a wayward shard. Well, I'm glad she found it, and also can't be bothered to listen to me when I clearly state, "Please, no one walk with bare feet in here until I mop." She has only herself to blame. And she loves bandaids more than candy on most days, so I think she was secretly pleased to 'bleed' finally. It was the least I could do for her.

Defended the Ankle-Biters

Another bee flew in the house. Usually it is flies. We kill those. The girls love to watch us hunt the flies, and I must admit I was pretty proud of myself the other day when I hit one out of the air while it was flying and also killed one around a blind corner. I should have sewn myself a belt or something.

The bees like to fly up to the high windows because they are bright. I don't really like them up there, so today I decided to coax it down. Naturally I threw baby shoes at him. Every time I hit the window, it would startle, but it couldn't be forced to move. The girls all got a big kick out of watching me, but in the end, I gave up and didn't see it again. Come to think about it, that happened with the last bee as well. (Minus the shoe-throwing.)  I am sure that some day I will put up a ladder and find an abundance of dead bees on the window sill. Maybe this is their secret bee graveyard. No more shoe throwing for me. I will let them die in peace.

Lost a Biter

Yep, still not a happy feeling. We searched the neighborhood over only to find her right across the street in a neighbor's house. She plays outside over there sometimes, but I hadn't realized she had ever gone inside. Regardless, the rule is that she cannot leave without informing me. She was in trouble. Still is.

Did Something Stupid

Now, I submit that I do something stupid every day, but some cases are more amusing than others. Today's was worth mentioning. I decided today was the day to make these Pumpkin cream-cheese muffins that I have had my eye on. I am always cracking eggs when I realize I am missing an ingredient. (See with eggs, you can't go back. You can only move forward.) Today, it was sugar. At least it was a common ingredient, but I still scolded myself for my lack of preparation. So I called Becca and sent over offspring number one. Becca was more than happy to loan me a cup and a half of sugar. She is a good neighbor. I feel like everyone nearby is more than happy to sacrifice a cup of whatever, myself included. BUT, as I continued to work my way through the recipe, I noticed that it called for another half cup of sugar for the crumb topping. (No skimping on these muffins.) I was frankly embarrassed to call Becca again, so I availed myself of the friendly neighborhood and called Sarah instead and sent off offspring number two. (They were actually fighting about who got to go.) Feeling rather sheepish, I finished the muffins vowing to repay my neighbors with pumpkiny goodness wrapped around a warm cream-cheese center.

Muffins are baking, life is good. There is a knock at the door. There is Sarah holding a half cup of sugar for me. You can imagine my surprise because I had already received sugar from offspring number two and finished the baking. Why would I need more? Sarah was surprised at my face, because I had called and asked for sugar, right? That is when it hit me that I never gave directions to offspring number two and naturally she had gone right back to Becca for more sugar. My genius plan are not only gone awry, but it was more embarrassing than ever. My kids had bummed more sugar from Becca without a second request and poor Sarah had finally brought the sugar to my house because no one had shown up to get it. Sometimes I am beyond awesome. The good news is that the muffins probably made up for most of my stupidness. I should probably make muffins every day. Just to be on the safe side.

As you see, an afternoon can be very busy around here.