Tuesday, November 30, 2010

I'll be sorry later...

In 15 or so years, I'll probably be having this conversation with my daughter...

"Molly, many years ago, I posted some cute little pictures of you on our family blog.  It may have been in poor taste then, but I had a cold
   and I needed to post something that night
      and I had taken this cold medicine that affected my judgement
         AND you had gotten into the sugar bowl again that day
           AND pooped your pants
       AND...well it made me feel a bit better to laugh at your expense.

For that I should be sorry..."

But right now...I'm not sorry...I'm grinning...



...and she's bearing it!

Later however, say in fifteen or so years, I'll be apologizing to this face...

"You showed my WHAT?"

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

 For home and sleep

For food to eat

For family and friends

 and love without end.

 For laughter and fun

For rain and for sun

 For all this and more...
 we Thank YOU dear Lord.

 Oh give thanks to the LORD;
Call upon His name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples...
Oh give thanks to the LORD for He is good;
For His steadfast love endures forever...
Save us, O God of our salvation,
and gather and deliver us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to Your Holy Name,
and glory in Your praise.
~from 1 Chronicles 16:8,34,35~

Monday, November 22, 2010

Molly Did What???

My father-in-law came to our house today to fix us up a bit.  He arrived at 8 am with a box full of McHappy's Donuts and bundles of energy and know-how and proceeded to:

  • fix the upstairs toilet
  • fix a leaky basement sink
  • install a new faucet on another sink
  • supervise bath tub re-caulking
  • supervise grout application
  • fix a slow-drain in the kitchen sink
  • clean gutters
  • rake leaves
  • re-anchor the dishwasher
  • puddy cracks in walls
  • reseal shower tile and
  • patch a troublesome area on the roof
 As this fix-it super hero was leaving for home, I heard him tell my Man, "Well, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, but I'll be back sometime."  I'm not sure what else he could have accomplished, but next time he comes up, I'm considering handing him all of my undone cross stitch projects to see how fast he can get 'em all done.

While my father-in-law and his apprentice were accomplishing the vast list above, the kids were enjoying a half-day off from school and were playing with a playmate of Molly's who'd come to visit for a little while this morning.

Suddenly, I heard a rush of children moving in my direction shouting..."Molly pulled a piece of Kate's tooth out!! Molly pulled Kate's tooth out!! Moooooommmmmmmm!!!!!" I met them in the hallway and sorted a wailing Kate from the pack.

"Molly did what?"
"Sssshhhheee pulled a piece of my loose toooooooth ouuuuuuuutttttttt."
"Just a piece? Let me see."
"Nooooooo!"

As she cried I could see lots of blood and one less tooth.  She clutched the tiny baby tooth tightly in her hand and fought to keep her jaw clinched in just the same fashion. Seeing I wasn't going to get any further details, I turned to Meg and asked,

"Did she say that Molly pulled her tooth?"
"Yes."
"How."
"With a string."

I paused to imagine Molly holding a struggling Kate down long enough to tie a string around the teensie little tooth. Can't you hear it? "Hold thhhtill Katie, I can't tie thith whittle knot...open yo mouff bigga."

After confirming that Kate's entire tooth had made a clean exit from her gums I questioned Meg a bit further, "How did Molly get a string around Kate's loose tooth?"
"Ooooooh," said Meg finally understanding my confusion, "Kate put one of those plastic strings that we make necklaces with around her tooth and Molly wanted the string, so she grabbed at it and out came Kate's tooth."

TRANSLATION:
Kate, whose tooth I had just given a healthy wiggle an hour before, had decided to pull her OWN tooth.  She either teased Molly with the string hanging from her lips or Molly was in the right place at the wrong time.  Either way, Molly landed a lucky grab and scored Kate's first lost, or would that be kidnapped, tooth.  I'm pretty sure Molly was framed.

So, to wrap up today, The Wright Place is without:

  • a leaky faucet
  • a slow draining kitchen sink
  • cracks in plaster
  • sinks that leak
  • a dishwasher on the move
  • a drippy toilet
  • overflowing gutters
  • AND...

...Kate's tooth.


Definitely one for the baby book, that is if Kate had a baby book, but being child #3, we all know that she does not.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Hand-Me-Down Chili

"Do you love me?" texted I to my Man.

Seven entire minutes passed with no response so I texted again louder, "Do U love me???"

Quickly the return text read, "Yes...more than i could ever express." Sweet.

Unfortunately, my question was a leading one, so I texted back, "Could u attempt to express it with a delivery of about 6 cans of dark red kidney beans on your lunch hour?"
"Yes, do u need anything else?" he queried back.

I responded with a no and then thanked God for a man with a healthy sense of humor and a large measure of long suffering. Then I continued with my plans to make a double batch of the chili recipe that my mother-in-law handed down to me almost 16 years ago, when my man and I were newlyweds.

First, one of the best hurry-up-dinner-tricks I know: frozen chopped onions.  When a recipe calls for chopped onion, chop extra and freeze in a zip top baggie in 1/2 cup portions.  When you need it, just remove it from the freezer and add to the recipe.  The onion will thaw while you prepare your dish.

For a single batch of chili, you will need about 1/2 cup of onion (more or less to your taste) and 1 pound of beef (or venison if your dad is a skilled hunter who shares..uh hem...).  Brown the beef with the onion. If you are not using venison (uh hem...) you'll need to drain your ground beef to remove excess fat.

Return beef and onion to soup pot and salt and pepper to your taste.  
Next add a 46 ounce can of tomato juice,

2-3 teaspoons of chili powder,


 and 1/2 cup of sugar,


 and three 15 ounce cans of kidney beans, undrained. 

Now for the hard part...
 heat and stir. 


 The longer you simmer it, the better it gets AND if you have any left over chili, put it in the fridge overnight - that's where the magic happens. Second-day chili can't be beat!!

This is a basic recipe that can be customized to different tastes.  Use additional chili powder for more heat, more beans and less meat for a budget-friendly meal, or for a "smoother" taste drop a couple of chocolate chips into the pot like my sister does.  It seems just a few chips add that "little something" which makes chili special to my sister's gang.  They need something special in their chili, because they don't put any beans in it! Scandalous I know!

At the Wright Place, we eat our chili with crackers, sour cream, and cheddar cheese with a big fluffy piece of corn bread on the side.  Often we make a double batch of chili for the weekend and eat it while we watch football. Enjoy!

Here's the recipe for Hand-Me-Down Chili:
{Printable Recipe HERE}
1# ground beef (or venison...ah hemmmmmm!)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 -- 46 oz. can tomato juice
salt & pepper to taste
2-3 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 cup sugar
3 -- 15 oz. cans kidney beans, undrained


Thursday, November 18, 2010

Peek-A-Boo Gone Wild

It began as an innocent game of Peek-A-Boo...
 ...but Molly went all "ROAAAARRRRRRR" on her Daddy.

 Then they both got distracted with all the nose rubbing...
 Afterwhich it was Peek-A-Boo game on once more...

"Anyone home?"
  Again with the "Rooaaaarrrrrrrrrr-ing."


Lion-tamer needed, apply within.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Booger Week!

We knew it was comin' but it hasn't made it any easier.  Months ago my Man agreed to a four night speaking engagement at the church he grew up in which is a 90 minute drive from our home.  It sounded like a nice thing to do...a few months ago.

As the week drew nearer, the idea of driving 3 hours a day for four days in a row became less nice sounding.  The idea of juggling the kids solo for four evenings in a row, two of which were spent getting to and from church became a tad overwhelming too.  Yet, the week, affectionately named by my Man and I as Booger Week, is now upon us.

It has been every bit as tiring as we'd imagined and then some.  Would you believe that our "helper extraordinaire" had the nerve to get a vicious head cold?  I had to assign unexperienced volunteers to count the number of children in the family van to make sure I hadn't left any child behind on Sunday and Wednesday.  Would you also believe that the kind pastor hosting my Man this week has been the master of hospitality, taking my Man for a quick bite to eat after each revival service this week, causing his arrival time at home each night to creep dangerously close to midnight?

Communication between the Booger Week participants has been at a bare minimum.  As a result, our morning conversations have pretty much centered around which two shirts my Man needs ironed for each day, one for work and one for preachin'. If I'm feeling particularly bright, I may also aid in the choosing of the tie.  I grab a cup of coffee, the pair of shirts, and finish waking up in the basement over the ironing board.  It works nicely, it's quiet down there.

After my Man comes out of wardrobing, he's off to work and I'm off to teach school or maybe brush my teeth. We've been existing in the fog that has descended upon us and as a result, the usual morning report (the moment when responsibility for keeping the children out of the emergency room switches from one parent to another) has died a sad death in the midst of Booger Week.  I'm tired and my Man's tired, poor guy, because after all of the late nights arriving home, he hasn't shirked his usual morning kid time.  He's first up with Molly and then with Kate and has breakfast well underway by the time I come schlumping down the hall (except for this morning when Cole fixed the little ones breakfast because he was awake and we were not. Love that boy.)

One day this week, after he left for work, Darrin called to see how our morning was progressing.  After I regaled him with stories of Molly getting into the sugar, (see last post) , and then getting into the older girls play makeup...



...and right before she peed a puddle at the top of the stairs and then sat on each and every stair on her way down to tell me what had happened which was right before I put her in the tub or her second bath of the morning. Booger Week I'm tellin' ya.

Just before I hung up the phone with my Man, he said, "Oh yeah, this is VERY IMPORTANT... see that passy beside the sink? DON'T give it to Molly.  She dropped it in the toilet this morning after she peed. I put it by the sink for you." (For me? Awwwww you shouldn't have...;-)

It appears that the morning report is important even when it happens well after the morning "shift change."  Molly was saved from certain doom (from a contaminated pacifier anyway) and Booger Week continued.  Revival services ended on Wednesday only to be followed by 2 meetings and a potluck dinner on Thursday evening for each of us.  Happily, Friday has arrived and Booger Week is over. My man has whisked me away for a night and a day, the children have been farmed out to various Grandparent Camps throughout the state, and all is right in my world...

...and in Molly's world too!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

When it gets quiet...

Quiet though blissful, is usually a bad sign.  The trouble with quiet is that by the time it has descended upon your formerly ringing ears, it's too late.  Just as you relax into the peace of the quiet it dawns on you that trouble is bound to meet you around the next corner because when it gets quiet...
she's looking for a make-over.

Sometimes when it gets quiet...
...she's found a partner in crime.

Other times silence brings...
  behind a closed doors,
 "What's in your mouth, young lady?"
...GUM and lots of it.

Then there are times of quiet that seem to be...
devotional time with friends.

There is always the quiet CLASSIC...
the hunt for lipstick...this time with a bonus:

 a Dum-Dum sucker.  Pretty huh?

Sometimes, quiet means concentrated effort at one's studies...

other times, it doesn't!
(There is a china cabinet in our home that suffered the same fate during a quiet moment.)

Quiet moments equal trouble.  Simple as that.  Times exist however, that make even those doom filled silences seem blissful...



***UPDATE***
The moment I posted the blog entry this morning, I checked on Molly who was happily watching TV, and decided to take a quick shower.  When I stepped from the shower Kate thrust her completed worksheets into my wet hands and announced, "I'm done, and Molly's in the sugar again." This is Destructo's latest "quiet project".  She's honed it well: climb onto counter, commandeer sugar bowl, lick entire hand, dip into sugar bowl to coat hand with sugar, lick sugar off of hand, repeat until discovered.



(Do you think she's confused by my fussing at her and taking her picture simultaneously?) 
Looks like it's gonna be another one of those days!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Anyway.

Though it may be difficult to believe, around here, there are seasons when one child seems to receive more "fussin' at" than the others do.  The child on the proverbial hot seat changes with each season.  Lately, I've been a bit remorseful about the amount of "vocal attention" this one...

...has been receiving.  I began to intentionally make certain my bright-eyed child knew how much she was loved.  I would stop her in the middle of one activity or another, look her straight in the eye, and say, "Kate, I love you so." She'd grin and continue on about her day.  At other times, I'd call her to my side and say, "Hey you, I love you lots." After a few days of this, I hoped she was feeling the balancing effects of my focused efforts.

On Sunday, The Wright Place Beauty Shoppe was in high swing when I called Kate in for her turn.  I turned her little head this way and that, placing a curl here and a curl there.  She wiggled and squirmed and then became still-ish, "I love you," she whispered. 

"Oh good," I thought, "she's feelin' the love. Not bad for a harried Sunday morning!" Kate is rarely so vocal on the subject of her undying love for me.

"Kate," I said with much feeling, "I love you too!"

"No Mommmm!" she said sounding like the teen she will someday become, "I was just reading that card Meg left in here for you the other day."

"Well," said I a tad wounded, 
"I love you ANYWAY."


Who taught this kid how to read??

(Answer: The one who loves her...ANYWAY:-)

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