Cinderella: Now with More Money

"You just sit back and relax," my son tells me. "I'm gonna vacuum for you because you work so hard." He sets about getting the vacuum out and plugging it in. He makes a big show about moving his kid-sized recliner to get to every inch, and even goes so far as to pull out the kitchen chairs to vacuum under the table. I snapped a few pictures just to prove it was true and sat back with the remote to channel surf. This is the life, I thought.

He wrapped up all of his hard work, put the vacuum back, and came to the living room to snuggle up next to me on the couch. "You know, Mom...people who do work need to get paid, right? And I just vacuumed the livin' room and under the table. Nobody works for free, you know. I'm gonna need a dollar."

I gave him a speech about how he shouldn't expect to get paid to participate in keeping a clean and healthy house, but honestly, that carpet was dirty and he is only five so I caved and gave him the dollar. He's been offering to vacuum every day this week and I'm running out of dollar bills.

A Boy and His Ocean

We took a day trip with some friends to Maine. Maine is not exactly close enough to day trip, but we did it any way. We left town around 9am (two hours later than we had planned) and got home at 2am. Three mamas and five kids in a 12 seat conversion van. We actually had a blast and I'd do it again tomorrow if I didn't have to work.

Every time I look at that picture of Lucas carrying his foam surf board to the ocean I want to pinch his little booty 'cause he's JUST SO CUTE. ("It's called the BEACH!" he'd yell at me.)

Barnacles

So, I spent the week sloshing about my basement trying to salvage what wasn't already ruined, and moving things that had escaped the flood to higher ground, aka: my living room. And yeah, a bunch of stuff had to be thrown away, but a good portion of it probably should have been tossed long ago. And I don't know about you, but I have accumulated the belongings of six families after having lived here so long, so if there's any of you out there in need of something, let me know, I probably have four of them in my basement.

And because bad luck seems to be following me like a little black rain cloud this week, I'll let you all know that I tripped over the power cord of my laptop, which sent it flying, and when it landed the LCD screen had gorgeous and colorful digital crack mark from one end to the other, rendering my laptop super pretty in a geometric sort of way, but also utterly useless. I'm not a person that gets angry as a general rule, but I was a pretty much miserable for most the day after that.

To turn my sad self around I packed up my kid and we headed to a friend's house. Hi Yvette! She's got a huge pool and Lucas had a new suit to break in. It was hot and sunny out, and the kid played in the pool without any drama or crying, which is awesome. Now, Yvette is the person who usually waxes my eyebrows for me, and I mentioned that maybe she could touch me up before we left. She warmed up the wax in the microwave while I got comfy in a kitchen chair. And then I heard her swear as the pot of wax tipped over and hit the floor...and the counter and the dish washer and the stove along the way.

If bad things happen in threes, I'd like the claim Yvette's wax pot explosion as one of mine, 'cause I'm not sure I can take much more.

Ending the Week With Ice Cream is ALWAYS a Good Idea

Starting the weekend with a flooded basement, however, stinks. My neighbor came pounding on my door this morning to tell me that his washer had flooded the basement. I didn't get that he was trying to tell me mine was also flooded until he spelled it out for me. So instead of spending a leisurely Saturday morning resting up for a long night at work, I get to slosh around my entirely flooded basement with every towel we own trying to stem the flow. On the flip side, my basement was really in need of a good clean out. I just didn't realize it would be this morning.

When A Boy Finds His People

Really, can any one person speak or think or recreate Stars Wars too much? And can you imagine the happiness that explodes from that one person when he finds a kindred spirit who is also five years old and maniacally addicted to Star Wars? Absolute nirvana, that's what.
We had to switch them to nerf swords because they were willing to beat each other to death for the sake of realism with the plastic light sabers. After the four hour playdate/bbq, I told Lucas it was time to go home and he wailed, "BUT WE JUST GOT HERE!"

Yummmmm, flour.

We took a road trip to King Arthur Flour. Um, YUMMMMM! Free samples are DELICIOUS. And we're not talking about Costco style free samples where everything is yummy but frozen and reheated in a toaster oven. We're talkin' home made, double delish, hot from the oven with fresh butter cream frosting kind of samples. I could have stayed all day. Instead I spent a bunch of cash on a bag full of things that HAD to come home with me. I now need recipes for dark cocoa and butter cream frosting.We spent the rest of the day playing nerf sword battles and wiffle ball, and my exhausted kid needed to be hosed down from the sweat and dirt that caked his feet and face before he could be tucked into bed. Summer has finally begun.