Aidan Aiming High

Tonight I had the honor of Aidan's company as I went to run an errand. Avery had mangled my reading glasses something awful and I was headed to the optician to get them straightened out. Again. On our travels I asked Aidan where he wanted to work when he grew up. "Oh, I don't want to work anywhere. I want to just walk along the streets and have holes in my jeans." I explained to him that being homeless didn't pay very well. He went on to explain that when he got done with college he'd have a job, so when he was grown up he wouldn't need one. Oh, that's much clearer, thank you, Aidan!

In continuing with our conversation I learned that he wanted to be a chef. At McDonald's, Burger King or Taco Bell. "Because once they see my cooking skills they'll really want to hire me." Yes, those establishments care if you can cook. Currently his repertoire consists of scrambled eggs, toast and frozen waffles.

And then he continued on with his long term goals. "No, I mean I want to be a clown." No comment.

Finally he settled on his ultimate career goal. "I think I just want to work in the circus. I want to be the guy who puts the bar on you at the Ferris wheel. You know, so you don't fall out of the seat."

So, my five year old wants to be a homeless bum, a chef, a clown and a carnie.

**Official disclaimer: There is nothing wrong with any of those jobs. If you are glorifying God in your chosen vocation, that's what is ultimately important!

Just hanging out

So today was a big day for my kitchen. I finally got around to hanging "curtains" in the window above my sink!

Here is the window above the sink. Yes, those are vintage half aprons hanging by clothespins! I saw the idea originally somewhere online (if it is on your site, please let me know so I can give you the credit you deserve!)


And here is the view at my kitchen window.

I got the idea to "plant" pictures of the kidlets from Tiffany. She also has four kiddos, but she had all of hers in under three years!

Here is the completed look. And now my house tour is complete! Well, at least until we do something with the master bedroom....

First Ladies

I read *this post* by one of my favorite bloggers, Antique Mommy, this morning.

I have always felt a little sorry for the First Ladies. As Antique Mommy noted they are thrust in to the limelight. How many little girls dream of being the First Lady as they are growing up? And last night as Jim and I watched President Obama and his wife leave their Valentine's Day date I noted that they weren't walking side by side (and I wondered who had the girls!) :) I get a little panicky when Jim starts talking about running for local office because I know that would change my cushy job as teacher's wife dramatically!

Guest Posting!

A while back I was invited to be on a blogging panel for the Praise Baby. They are similar to the Baby Einstein series of videos but they use Christian praise music instead of classical selections. Today my post is up! You can go *here* to read what I had to say!

Well? What did you think???

Soup Update

Several of you asked about the soup. All is well. I had put the soup in a small section of the deep freeze. It all fit in there so nicely! And then the bags all froze. And it turns out that things expand when they freeze. Who knew that??? :) So, we thawed them out a little, defrosted the entire monster and got everything cleaned up.

Thank you for your concern! We are blessed to have been able to salvage the nine meals and are looking forward to the freezer meal swap on Tuesday!

If it's not one thing...

Woke up this morning with grand aspirations. I was going to tidy up the mess that "good enough" housekeeping for the last two weeks or more has left. And I succeeded. And then the boys woke Avery up about two hours before her nap was supposed to end. And that's when the stuff started hitting the fan.

I'm part of a freezer meal swap. A bunch (nine this month) of us make a bunch of batches of the same recipe and then we swap so everyone ends up with a variety of meals stocked in their freezer. It works great and my (most of) family (usually) enjoys the tasty treats. So, this month I made ten batches of taco soup and stacked them in the freezer where they, well, froze. Together. In a solid hunk of beans and meat and yum. Not only did they freeze together, they froze to the walls of the freezer (I have an antique deep freeze, remember?) So, I proceeded to empty the other sections of the freezer in an attempt to defrost this monstrosity of a beast and rescue my meals. After working on it for almost three hours now I'm no better off than I was when I started. In fact, I'm a lot worse for the wear. I won't go into the gory details here, but let's just say that my basement has seen better days!

Oh, and did I mention that Evan brought home a little (girl) friend from school today? Yup. So, they traipse in, we find a place for another set of winter gear, and Avery takes advantage of the situation by grabbing the cup of hot cocoa off the table and spilling it on the stairs. :) Yup. If it's not one thing it's her brother!

Tune in next time for another installment of, this life is crazy!

WFMW: Staying power

And here is a Works For Me Wednesday that 9 years ago I was certain would never come! I have figured out a really easy way to get those cute plastic clippy barrettes to stay in Avery's baby fine fly away hair! Someone told me to wrap the back piece with thread and that would make it non-slip. Great, but then I would have to go to the basement, put away the toys from in front of my craft cupboard and dig through it to find the thread. Instead, I did this:

I took one of the tiny little ponytail holders and wrapped it around the back of the barrette! Works like a charm! The pony holder grips the hair so the weight of the barrette doesn't pull it out and also creates just enough resistance that Avery's attempts at pulling it out are thwarted (unless she gets really determined which she usually doesn't).

See, works great! :) Isn't she cute???