We had planned a party for Baby C today, but she was up with a fever all night so we are postponing it until next Saturday.

Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, was a no good, very bad, horrible day so the party cancellation makes a nice holiday bookend! Thanksgiving was good, though.

I'm out of the bloggy mindset, so I will leave you with some highlights of what you, my readers, missed while I was in modem exile.

The Great Lego Debacle
The children are not supposed to have food or drinks in the playroom. So when one child spilled her cup of milk in the Lego bucket, the natural thing to do was to quickly replace the lid and put it back on the shelf so nobody would find out - no harm, no foul. Until the foul odor, that is.

You know you love your children when you individually handwash 400 million Legos. I thought about putting them on the cold cycle in the washer in a pillowcase, but I was afraid the chunks wouldn't wash out, and the dishwasher is too hot.

The washing wasn't the hard part, the drying was. Leaving the little plastic bits in the bucket didn't work - they were still wet two days later. The salad spinner was only marginally successful. Finally I hit upon spreading them out on cookie sheets lined with a towel - great, but it still takes time. And we have to dry them in shifts. I spent the entire week prior to Thanksgiving with a kitchen covered in Legos, all in various stages of processing - dirty, clean but wet, drying. I also knocked trays, buckets, and a salad spinner of Legos onto the floor approximately every 37 minutes. The fun never ends around here, folks!

A few slipped through the cracks and broke the dish disposal, which we found out about in the thick of the last frenzied Thanksgiving day feast. I have a knack for timing! Fortunately, my hands are small and I was able to pry it loose with a screwdriver and my fingers.

The Oven Repair
We spent $30 on a new oven element, which husband dear installed, so we had pie. We also discovered that 1) the kitchen shares a wall with the bathroom and 2) the people who fixed up this house didn't bother to put flooring or walls in where they wouldn't be seen, so the oven backs up to the shower stall. We don't need no stinkin' drywall at Mama's house! At least we are renting, so it's not our nightmare.

Oh, and there only plywood subfloor under the stove. Husband dear thought he was going to have to get the car jack to lift it up but he was able to bench press it. That's my man!


Where Did All These Hoodlums Come From
And why do they keep calling me Mom?

Wednesday found Mama awakening to the dulcet tones of her oldest boy and oldest girl fighting. Then a thump, then a *Crash* Tinkle Tinkle. Appropriately, it was our family picture that was knocked to the floor and shattered. I also learned that the dustpan was lost (it turned up later in a tree outside.)

Keep in mind I had not even gotten out of bed yet. The day went downhill from there and included several episodes of Lego spillage, a teething baby, a spitting up baby, V-8 juice being clandestinely consumed on the living room carpet, my pulling the gadget drawer all the way out and dumping the contents on the floor and the drawer on my toe, and the refrigerator door breaking, sending salsa, dressings, and condiments all over the aforementioned kitchen gadgets. That's just the highlight reel, and doesn't include all of the non-exciting every day mishaps that combined to make the perfect storm.

And the fighting. The Fighting!

The kneading blade to the bread machine turned up missing, by which I mean, it didn't turn up at all. I ended up handmaking the rolls, but used a new recipe that was too dry.

Husband dear came home early because of the holiday and I threatened and cajoled convinced him to take the boys to the store to shop for a new digital camera card. While they were gone, I thought I'd work on an apron, so I'd at least look Martha Stewart-y for Thanksgiving. I got the pattern for a dollar on sale and it's so cute and retro! I splurged on fabric, which is to say, I got it from somewhere other than the dollar bin.

And as I laid out the pattern, it became clear that the envelope lied when it said 1 5/8" yard. I even measured my fabric to see if they miscut it at the store. Nope. It's about 2 inches too short. I can fix it - I have some fabric that I can cut some pieces out of for a nice contrast - but that fabric has to be washed, dried, and ironed before I can sew it.

My cute little teapot I bought online last week arrived as well. In a hundred pieces.

A thought I want to keep for posterity: Baby C calls the cranberry sauce "ball berry sauce". An apt name, that!

So it's Black Friday and I'm at home hanging out and watching the Women's Ninja Tryouts on the Game Show Network. That obstacle course looks easy compared to my bon-bon eating stay at home lifestyle.

Labels: cooking, Family Life, holidays