What makes up a cozy Sunday afternoon?
~Reading "Romantic Home Sewing" in my favorite armchair during naptime
~Playing house with Addie while the boys swim for the last time this summer
~Eating spicy chicken penne pasta as an entire family
~Finishing a delicious apple hat for Addison
~Making cupcakes with Chris to enjoy after the children are in bed
The jacket came out beautifully.
Although it's too big!
She'll grow.
Late afternoon can be a scary time around here. Naps are over, but bedtime is a faint echo far, far off. By 5 p.m., we're all a little grumpy. To tame that monster called "Arsenic Hour," this is what I do:
1. Light a tea light under the peppermint oil.
2. Turn on Mozart or Vivaldi or Strauss.
3. Vacuum the family room and sweep the kitchen. I let Addie "help" with the Swiffer mop, and Grayson, who hates the vacuum, huddles on the couch.
4. Empty trash cans, fold laundry, put away any dishes.
5. Enlist Caiden's help to put up stray toys, shoes, and books that have wandered around the house throughout the day.
6. Start dinner and set the table--Caiden does most of the setting, with Grayson helping a little. Addie usually wanders around the house jabbering. If she's really cranky, I put in her in her highchair with Cheerios and milk.
7. And then, once the house is tidy, we either read together in somebody's bedroom, or I send all three into the yard to play until Chris comes home.
8. Just before he walks in, I brush my teeth, run a brush through my hair, and swipe on some mascara and lipstick. No use looking like I feel!
There's something about acting like we have it together that makes us feel like we have it together--and by that time, we actually do have it together. By the time Chris walks in, peace reigns. It's a good way to end the day.
Holy moly, guacamole! My husband laughed at me when I wrote a post about sewing, and look at all of you coming out of the woodwork! I told him real people sew! Well, I ordered my machine after spending several days researching (i.e. pestering several people about theirs, reading every article ever published on the Web, and comparing various sites and shops), and it arrived yesterday! I even made Caiden take a picture of me while I opened the box. Bless his heart, but he was excited, too--chiefly because the box it came in is huge, plenty big for three kids to play pirates. I'll accept any excitement I can get.
So last night, after assuring Chris that I will, indeed, become a master seamstress (thanks for the linguistics help, girls!) in time, and that I will, indeed, make adorable clothes for Addison (He's skeptical), I put on my comfy clothes, whispered a prayer, and pulled out the manual. By the end of the evening, I'd wound the bobbin, threaded the machine, sewn several relatively straight lines of various stitches, and read the manual. I'm good to go. Except that I still can't read a pattern and don't own any actual fabric. Details, details.
After reading your sewing wisdom in the comments, I see that I need the manual to learn how to do the mechanics of actually sewing, and I need a good reference manual to know how to read a pattern and understand basic sewing terms, like "selvage" and "bias." My mom has also recommended the book, "Bend the Rules Sewing" for cute projects, and because she defines the very word "detailed," she sent me an email letting me know in what order I should attempt the projects. And then she mailed me her own reference book! Hooray! So on Monday, I'm going to head out to the fabric store to find some cute fabric for place mats and napkins and take the plunge. Thank you for all your good wishes, advice, and funny comments.
On an entirely different note, Ashley Adams, a little girl who had a triple organ transplant last year, and who is listed in my sidebar because, although I don't know her, I just love her to pieces, is back in the hospital with a mystery illness and is in a very bad way. If you've followed her story, please be in prayer for her and her family. She was just starting to do really well, and they're taking this setback hard. I am really rooting for her; she has been through so much and is such a tough little fighter!
And Copeland, the baby girl born with Trisomy 18 on Tuesday, is still being held and enjoyed by her parents. They know she doesn't have much longer, and they're praying that her last hours aren't painful. Please join them in praying for her, and pray also for them--what a tough road they're following right now.
That's it from me for now. I hope your weekend is a good one, and I'll see you back here again Monday!
I am about to begin something I've put off for about 20 years: I'm going to teach myself how to sew. My mother has been sewing since she was a little girl, and my sister took advantage of the fact and got her to teach her, but I never really took to it when I lived at home. I was going to take lessons at the local shop, but the lessons are only during the day, and that's not going to work. (Besides, as nice as the lady was at the shop, when I told her I needed a "beginning machine," she put the hard sell on for an $800 model. I'm a little distrustful after that!) I called Mom and asked her, "Be honest. Do you think I can teach myself?" She promised me I can, and eyeing the knitting basket next to my chair--I've taught myself this year--to bolster my confidence, I took the next logical step: I called Bridget.
So now, despite much ribbing from our husbands, Bridget, Brittani and I have decided to form our own sewing group of sorts. Once my machine arrives, the three of us are going to learn together. We're confident that with the promise of a monthly or bi-monthly gathering at one of our houses, complete with chips and salsa and chocolate chip cookies, we can learn. Each of us will become a multi-generational sewist (I've read "sewist," although "sewer" seems more natural. Who knows? I certainly don't.), because of course our mothers, aunts, and grandmothers all sew. So even if the chocolate chip cookies don't help, we can call our mothers when we panic.
My mother has suggested a particular book for us to learn with, but who can have only one book? I'm pretty sure a hobby isn't a hobby without several resources! (I call it "resources," Chris calls it "a reason to go to Barnes & Noble." Same thing.) So here's my question: If you sew, think back to when you didn't even know how to turn on your machine, and tell me which book you swear by as the very best help to the novice sewist. I've read a dozen reviews on Amazon and am convinced there is the perfect book for me out there. But I can't figure out which. I'll still buy the book my mom has recommended, but I'm wondering if there's a good reference manual that I can go to when I'm stuck. She'll be moving to Texas in about two years, and I've promised that I'll be able to sew by then. And then I can teach her to knit. I'm all for keeping the old arts alive, and I figure I'm going to need to teach her something in return for all the phone calls Bridget, Brittani and I are about to make to her, late at night, when we're full of chips and salsa and questions.
I can't wait! So wish me luck, and please pass on your reference manual wisdom.
UPDATED 9/18/07 at 4:24 p.m.: Copeland is here and is doing well right now. You can read her dad's newest post at their family site, www.conorbootheandgirls.blogspot.com. Trisomy 18 is a condition that is fatal, so please continue to pray for the family, that they will be able to fully enjoy every minute they have with Copeland.
I was sent an email today asking if I would post a prayer request.
There is a family, a husband, wife, and little girl, who are going to be joined by a new baby girl tomorrow. Her name is Copeland, and she has Trisomy-18, the same genetic condition Eliot had. If you are unfamiliar with Trisomy 18, you might want to read about it here so you can know how to pray for them. Copeland's mom and dad, Boothe and Conor, are going to need huge prayer support and encouragement over the next days and weeks. Here is the link to their family blog. Thank you.
I called my mother the other day with a demand: "Mom, I need you to make us popcorn balls and fudge and send it to us for Christmas. And they have to be just like Grandma's. No tweaking, no changes. The popcorn balls must be made with pink-tinted sugar, each one wrapped in wax paper, and the fudge has to be sent in the old Russell Stover boxes. And even when you retire here, you need to mail them to us, not just come over with them. Okay? Do you promise?"
Like all good mothers, she accepted my unreasonable demands, not because she's a pushover, but because she understands my love for roots. And because she values time-honored traditions as much as I do, she's willing to take my grandmother's place and start making these Christmas staples to send to her grandchildren. Even if shaping the popcorn balls means she's going to burn her fingers repeatedly. Because that's what my grandmother did, year after year, and that memory needs to live on. She will be 95 this year, too old to burn her fingers making me popcorn balls, so my mother has agreed to stand at the helm and pass the tradition down.
I have noticed lately how many reminders I have of my grandmother in my home:
Two quilt tops, both intensely feminine and lovely--one a delicate rose I slept under every time we visited her and my grandpa, and later given to me when I graduated high school. The other is a beautiful purple and white, with butterflies in assorted calico, blanket-stitched in thick black thread. It reminds me of a lively Amish quilt;
An old, old, old blue glass toothpick holder given to her when she was a young girl;
Salt and pepper shakers that sat on her kitchen table for years;
Piles of old sheet music, including an Irving Berlin's White Christmas original--I have happy memories of playing her ancient piano in the basement of her home;
Pillowcases with embroidery so exquisite I didn't believe she had really done it herself, until my mother told me that my grandmother made them for her trousseau and won a blue ribbon at the fair for her work. (They must be around 70 years old?);
Two strands of pearls and a gold locket on a long chain;
A set of tin biscuit cutters;
An apron that would now be "vintage," but was then just "an apron."
An old, beat-up metal flour sifter.
A picture of her sits on my kitchen counter--it has the high distinction of being the only photo in the kitchen. She looks lovely in a lavender sweater, smiling next to my dad. I look at it sometimes when I'm cooking, and wonder what life was like in the 20s, 30s, 40s. I cut buttermilk biscuits with the scalloped-edged cutter and am sure to tell Caiden that those were Grandma's. He looks at her picture and smiles, though he has never met her. He knows which apron was hers, and that my rose quilt is sacred, never touched without permission. I'm surprised, as the years have gone by, to see how many of her things, some special, some utilitarian, have collected in my home. Someday when she is gone, her memory will still linger, even among the hearts of children who will never meet her. They won't meet her, but they'll know her.
I wonder, as I look around our home, what Caiden's children will have of mine. Will my grandchildren or great-grandchildren value my jewelry, asking Caiden which heart necklace celebrated Aunt Addie's heart surgery? Did that sapphire ring really show up as just an extra gift in Grandmother Sarah's Christmas stocking? Will they treasure my books as much as I do, my copy of Robert Frost's poetry, once belonging to my husband's family? Will they know that my copy of Poems for Children held a precious place in my heart? Or will one of them have one of my mixing bowls, always placing it gently on the shelf, fearing a crack? I wonder.
Roots are important. We need to know our great-grandmothers' middle names; we need to see faded sepia photographs of our great-aunts, stiff and starched and unsmiling. We need something tangible we can show our children that proves that we are not the end-all of life. There were people before us; there will be people after us. Not just people, though, our people. They may not have known us, and we may not have known them, but we are inexplicably linked forever. The more of my own history I can share with my children, and even just enjoy myself, the more I realize the importance of my special place in time. I am constantly leaving a legacy for others to sift through, realized or not.
So this Christmas, hopefully around the 15th, a large package will arrive at the front door in handwriting already familiar to six-year old Caiden. In it will be reused Russell Stover boxes with individual squares of fudge, each one with a halved pecan in the center. And popcorn balls, carefully molded together by burned fingers, will be individually wrapped in waxed paper and used as packing material to cushion wrapped gifts. And then, because it's tradition, my own family will huddle on the couch and watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," or "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and crunch those popcorn balls together, knowing they were made with a Grammy's love, in a great-grandmother's tradition.
And about 25 years from now, I will take my mother's place in the kitchen and stir liquid fudge, and burn my fingers on popcorn balls, and I'll send them to my grandchildren two weeks before Christmas. They will huddle on the couch, celebrating their own roots.
It's amazing, the things that make up a family. When I realize how important those little traditions are, I am encouraged to keep on, even when my efforts and actions aren't received with gratitude. Someday my family will look back and understand I did it not just for them, but also for myself, and for those who will come after us all.
The beginning of a great birthday: a lizard visitor to play with.
Playing at the park with our closest friends:
Don't tell Grayson that icing and pavement don't go together. He'll protest. And no, I didn't make him stop. Germs don't bother me very much, and I was laughing too hard to do anything!
Opening presents from Grammy and Papa, who supplied us with plenty of science projects for school!
The birthday pirates at our family dinner that night:
The six-year old pirate:
And of course we didn't leave out Addie:
Even Aunt Janae dressed in a pirate scarf! With Uncle Dan, who enjoyed the pirate-y party as much as the kids:
A few days later, Caiden's first day of school was a much-anticipated one:
Completely changing subjects, here's the Menu Binder and cookbook with most of the recipes, next to the coffeemaker, so I can see what we're having for dinner, first thing in the morning:
Weeks 1 and 2, written down in pencil so I can erase any recipes we didn't like:
On the right is the master list for one week, with every item circled and all refrigerator/pantry staples (i.e. red wine vinegar, etc.) listed at the top. On the left are the grocery lists, ready for me to write on. This way I can make sure I have all ingredients without buying those that are already in the house. I also add anything we need that we don't eat, like diapers and Comet. :-)
And the last section holds the original list of menu choices.
I hope that these photos, combined with the menu templates and original post about menu planning (see below), help you come up with a system that works for you!
Wow! I had no idea so many people would want access to my menu templates! Obviously this is an area where I'm not the only one feeling the need for help! Even my own mom called today to get a more detailed description of how my six-week rotation works, so she can tweak her own. I feel like Martha Stewart. Except nicer, and I don't iron my sheets. (Or dust the tops of my doors, or re-caulk the bathtubs each winter, or flip my mattress twice a year. The list could go on, and on, and on.)
Anyway, the volume of emails I'm getting requesting access has made it necessary for me to ask you to do something: Instead of me inviting those who sent me their email address, let's do this. Go to Google.com and create an account. It's free, involving only a user name and password you create yourself, and then you'll have access to all sorts of Google tools. If you already have a Google password through Blogger, you're good to go. Then, once you have a Google account, click on the link Here for my menu templates, and it'll take you right there. This is way faster on my end, so I don't have to enter an unending list of email addresses in the "invitation," and then you'll not only be able to see the templates, but you'll also have a Google account and can create your own Google Docs, Groups, etc. I've also found Google's free email, gmail, to be wonderful. I use it for my blog email account, and it's virtually spam free and very user friendly. And no, they're not paying me to say that :-) But I do think the Internet is an easier place to navigate if you have a Google account.
So I'm sorry to all of you who sent me an email with your address, although I did enjoy reading your emails! But this way will be faster all around, I think. After all, I do need to cook my family dinner tonight. Thank you!!
All right ladies (and the occasional man who reads--that's you, Tom C.!), here's the deal: I know I promised you a run-down of my chores system, but it has been one of those days. We have our first day of homeschool co-op tomorrow, which is a blessing but a whipping--I leave the house at 8:30 a.m., drive 40 minutes to church, spend the morning and early afternoon with kids and moms, eat lunch, clean up, and drive back home. We get home around 2 p.m. and all take naps. I'm a wimp; days like that wipe me out. To top it off, tonight I'm making brownies for all the moms for tomorrow, as well as setting out clothes and packing lunches and diaper bags. So a full post about my chores system isn't going to happen tonight. And have I mentioned that I still need a shower?
So here's part one: Taming the Laundry Monster.
Everybody has to do laundry, and the more people in your house, especially boys, the more you have to do. I actually like doing laundry because it smells so good, and my laundry room is not only pretty but also a room nobody else wants to be in (thus, alone time!). However, my idea of a good time is not spending an entire day doing a mountain of it. Unlike most families, we need our clean laundry on Saturday, not Monday, and I don't want to spend Friday doing it all. So here's what I do, and it's incredibly simple: Every morning while I'm waiting for the coffee, I throw in one load of laundry. Then after breakfast I throw it in the dryer. Sometime during the day I fold it and put it away. If it's Caiden's, he puts it away. I do it every single day, no exceptions. Otherwise, I get buried under dirty laundry. And I always do it early in the morning, first of all because I'm not worn out yet, and second because it's not hot outside yet, so it doesn't make the house feel hot. Doing a load a day is my secret to making sure nobody runs out of underwear.
Now, that said, there are a few tricks I have:
Several of you asked if I would post my templates for my menu planning. First is my template for each set of two weeks' worth of meal plans. I print it out, write in what we're eating, and use it to fill out my grocery lists. (See below for grocery shopping template.) Here it is if you'd like to be able to go in to the actual document and make your own choices.
I tried to link to my grocery list, but it's not in the right form, so I can't. I'll work on that one for you and try to post it later.
Here is the link to my list of meals and sides. The column to the extreme left has abbreviations of the cookbooks I used, with page numbers.
Obviously abbreviations and page numbers don't help much if you don't know what cookbooks I used, so here they are:
HHC: More Healthy Homestyle Cooking
SCF: Skinny Comfort Foods
S&S: Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Soups & Stews
WW: Weight Watchers Five Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook (This one is out of stock at Amazon, so you might try another online bookseller.)
I do want to mention that the vast majority of these recipes are untried by my family. I've found that I enjoy cooking either when I'm making family favorites that don't require a recipe (the ones above that don't have abbreviations), or when I'm trying something new. So I can't vouch for most of these. I've made quite a few of the recipes out of the More Healthy Homestyle Cooking book, though, and like them all. Obviously, if the recipe isn't enjoyed by my family, we'll ditch it and try something new the next time it comes around! That's why I use a pencil when I write in each two week plan. A system's no good if it's not flexible :-)
As for my binder, it's nothing special. Just a flexible, thin binder with three tabbed dividers that have pockets. I slip the menu plans and written grocery lists in the clear dividers and stick blank grocery lists in the pockets. Then I can flip open the pages without getting cooking messes on the templates, and I can grab a blank grocery list, circle what I need, and go shopping.
Bon appetit!
I don't think I realized, when I had romantic notions of marriage and motherhood, that somebody would have to wash clothes, empty the dishwasher, manage the finances, and make the meals. And I certainly didn't realize that would be me. I didn't get off scot-free as a child: on the contrary, I was the first-born, so I did the bulk of the chores and even cooked dinner for my entire family once a week. But I couldn't realize, until it was my own life and family, that I'd be doing this day in, day out, for the rest of my life. It's a little daunting. And to do it well takes more than a haphazard approach. Hence, the system.
I am happy to announce that I have found, after much tweaking, a system that works well for me. Actually, it's a system of systems that includes most of my home/child management tasks. I've been scarce over the last few months because I have been researching, planning, and implementing these systems to see if they'd work. There is nothing worse than a system that doesn't work.
You know how it is: you realize you never get your housework done, or that your kids are watching too much TV, or that you're eating Lean Cuisine for dinner every night, and then you feel ambitious to change. You create systems that look great on paper but stink in real life. So you give up, falling back on dirty laundry, TV zombies, and frozen meals again. Well, that's worse-case scenario, but I think what I'm describing isn't uncommon.
So this summer I've spent much of my free time with a notebook, my library card, my laptop, and frequent trips to Half Price Books and Barnes and Noble. There were some areas I felt needed improvement in our family:
1. Meals
2. Household chores
3. Bill paying and checkbook balancing
4. Establishing my own alone time
5. Exercise
6. My children entertaining themselves without TV
Obviously, nobody can take on all six of those at once. Gradually over the course of the year, as we've adjusted to another baby, I've worked on making real food to eat every night--my husband does not consider a casserole "real food"--and sitting down with at least four of us to eat. (The baby's presence is negotiable.) In addition, I wanted it to involve eating at the table, no TV, and everybody eating the same thing (no special requests due to picky eaters). But despite my best intentions, the last thing I want to do on Sunday evening is come up with a meal plan for the coming week, and trying to craft a real meal at 5 p.m. with an empty pantry doesn't work well.
So I fell back on something I did before Grayson was born: a rotating menu plan. I had one in place then, but that was when I'd only been pregnant once and was far from thirty. This time, I needed healthier selections. Now, a word of warning: this is not for the faint-hearted.
If you're game, though, here's what I did: I gathered four cookbooks that meet several criteria: food we'd really eat (squash soup does not qualify) that is a sane level of healthy (anything with tofu also does not qualify) and is neither expensive nor terribly time-consuming to prepare. I made a spreadsheet and listed 36 main dish meals (about six weeks, since we have Date Night once a week), trying to balance chicken, beef, turkey, and quick, as well as making sure I threw in Italian, Mexican, and Asian for some flair. I also made sure I had favorite foods and traditional comfort foods. Then I found about 25 side dishes, balancing vegetable, grain, salad, and bread. Once I did this, I made a new spreadsheet of two weeks of meals on each page and then cut and pasted the meal choices into the blank spaces. I rounded out meals with green salads and an occasional dessert.
Then, and this is the part that made me want to quit, I printed out my grocery list template* and checked off each ingredient needed for each week's worth of meals, making one for each week's plan. I then took an empty binder with tabbed dividers and put the six weeks of meal plans in the first section, followed by the grocery lists in the next, finished off by the original spreadsheet of 36 meals.
Here comes the payoff: The next evening, after the kids were in bed, I grabbed a grocery list that had been printed but not written on yet and checked off each ingredient I needed for the week, plus any non-perishable ingredients for next week, leaving off anything on the list but already in my pantry. And because my grocery list is customized, I was able to put checks next to "hamster food," "wipes," etc. All household and grocery items were accounted for. With list in hand, I shopped for our family of five in under an hour. I only bought one ingredient not on the list and spent far less than usual. So far, so good.
Monday morning, before we started the first day of school I pulled out the binder, saw I needed to thaw meat, and opened the cookbook on the counter. Making dinner last night was far less trouble than usual, and my husband even mentioned to the kids how great supper looked--a payoff worth the work. There were also enough leftovers for all of to have for lunch today.
There were moments, while gathering recipes and writing down lists of ingredients, that I wondered if it was worth the work, but dinner last night was the proof. And now, for the next six weeks, I don't need to think about what's for dinner. Every two weeks I'll buy all nonperishable items for the next two weeks of meal plans, as well as one week's worth of meat, dairy, vegetables, etc., and the second week I'll make a quick run to buy the remaining needed perishable items. Grocery shopping, a necessary evil, has been reduced to a relatively quick, purpose-driven task done no more often than once every week. To top it off, the list is flexible, manageable, and can be recycled throughout the year. Nobody's going to complain if we eat the same thing once every six weeks! One of my most time-consuming chores is now easily managed. Check.
Tomorrow, I'll talk about chores. This one is easier, quicker, and also works. As long as I do, that is.
*My grocery list template was created by my brother-in-law, bless his soul. He went to our favorite grocery store, noted what was on each aisle and in the freezer, meat, and dairy sections, and came up with a spreadsheet that lists each item by aisle or section. He even put the icon of the store at the top, which makes me laugh every time I see it. Each item has a checkbox and space to mark how many are needed of each thing. I simply circle each thing I need, then take the list and highlight off as I go. It makes shopping much simpler. Thank you, Jeremy!
ineed2change.com
Hi friends! I'm just checking in quickly to say I'm still alive. :-) School starts tomorrow, so I've been "nesting" today, feeling it quite necessary to file tax receipts, go through old baby toys, and clean bathrooms. It just seems important that these get done before tomorrow. That's about as rational as needing to defrost the freezer before having a baby, but it makes me feel better.
The supplies have been bought, the room redecorated and ready, lessons planned, and calendars synced. We are ready to go! In fact, there were a few times this weekend when Caiden asked if we couldn't just start school right then, and I was sorely tempted to say yes. But starting school on a Saturday just seemed weird. On the other hand, when my husband reminded me that tomorrow is a holiday, and we could just wait one more day, Caiden and I both had mild panic attacks. I'm not sure which one of us is more excited about him starting school!
To top it off, I just love September. It's my second-favorite month, riding closely behind October. I am an avowed fall-lover, and just hearing the word "September" makes me happy. If I could convince my husband to have another baby girl, I'd name her September. That's how much I love it. And I'm completely, certifiably serious. I even have "fall music," a CD I've listened to annually, starting in late summer. It stays in my car, and we listen to it everywhere we go, until the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is the earliest I'll listen to Christmas music. I have issues with holidays staying within their own time frame.
Speaking of Christmas, I noticed today that creativefrugality.com has wonderful ideas for creative, frugal (hence the name) stocking stuffers. You know, if you're one of those people who shops for Christmas starting in the summer. I'm not (see above for explanation), so I'm not sure how I even ended up reading about it, but the ideas were good enough I considered writing them down in my counter notebook to remember come December. If, however, you'd like to start planning now, go to the site, click on "Index of Creatively Frugal Ideas," and scroll down to Creatively Frugal Stocking Stuffers.
And since we're talking about frugality, I'd like to mention that Payless Shoes has a new selection of very cute shoes. I went in the other day looking for one pair of shoes and came out with six. (Two were not for me, but still. Six!) It was also BOGO time, so it didn't end up as expensive as you'd think. (It is, after all, Payless.) I do not have outfit/shoe-matching skills, and it frustrates me to no end when I see a cute outfit on a shoeless mannequin in a store window. I need all the help I can get! But anyway, their selection is much better than I've seen it be in a long time.
You know, we've had quite an entertaining life lately, so I am a little shocked and dismayed (Can you name that line?) that all I can write about has to do with cheap shoes. We had the Grayson and the Cupcakes Incident at Caiden's birthday park date, the Daddy as Jack Sparrow Event at Caiden's birthday dinner--he made Addie cry, he was so convincing!-- the Grayson the Sneaky Gum Thief Episode at a friend's house while swimming this week, and Addie's trip to the dentist for the molar I was convinced was impacted because it had been trying to erupt for two months and hadn't yet--until that day, when it apparently erupted out of nowhere and was perfect for biting me while I was sitting in the dentist's chair. But I'm fresh out of creativity, so they'll have to remain untold. (Although the Addie one might quality as having just been told.) Clearly, writing about stocking stuffers is the best I've got.
On that note, I'm calling it a night. Tomorrow's a school day, and only my own mother knows how excited I am about the first day of school--I think it was my favorite day of the year growing up.
I'll see you tomorrow, and if I'm feeling perky enough, I'll even include a few pictures of "Jack Sparrow." And definitely of the newest little student "going" to school--his Grammy might want to take a peek at that!
Happy Sunday, friends!
