Assortment

Towel Tricks

If you happen to have three boys running to and fro and into and out of the shower and tub, sooner or later you have to come up with some Towel Tricks.  Not the kind of tricks that make them stand and watch you in amazement and wonder, "How'd she do that?" but the kind where they end up keeping the bathroom looking (halfway) decent without even knowing it. 

I've always been of the opinion that if a kid is able to get a toy out, he's able to put it back.  If he's able to pull a book out of the bookshelf, he's able to put it back.  If he's able to color an amazing picture with every crayon in the box, he's able to put them all back when he's done. If he's able to take his clothes off, he's able to put them in the laundry.  If he's able to lift up the toilet seat, he's able to put it back down.  And, if he's able to use a towel after his bath, he should be able to hang it back up.  It's that oh-so-necessary balance in life. 

Now, trying to get a boy to hang a towel on a towel bar that's high overhead is enough to send him to the floor in a heap along with the towel.  Hanging the towel has to be boy-friendly--as easy for him as stepping out of the shower.  So, here are my Towel Tricks (in a very particular order):

Trick #1--Buy dark-colored towels!  I say go brown, because any other color will be brown before long, anyway. (A boy's hands are never really that clean after he washes them!) 

Trick #2--Get rid of the towel bar!!  A row of hooks is so much better.

Trick #3--Pick a button that will guide your machine in making the perfect size button hole (love, love that feature on my sewing machine), and choose a thread to match your towels.

Trick #4--Hang the new towels by their buttonholes on the new hooks in the bathroom, and put a stool right underneath for boys to stand on.

Trick #5--Tell him it's a trick!!  Boys love tricks.  Even more, boys love doing tricks. 

Then, be ready to stand there in amazement, saying to your Towel Trick Masters, "How'd you do that?" 

Good For Me, Good For You

Once in a while, Daddy takes the helm on the homefront for the day so I can be foot-loose and fancy-free!  On days like this I might slip into my cute brown dress, spend extra time on my hair, add a little jewelry, and off I go.  Alone. Gloriously alone.  I listen to Nora Jones as I wheel about town, stopping whenever and wherever I have the notion, just to have a look.  Some thrift stores and fabric shops are usually on my route, lunch (if I remember to stop and eat!), and an hour or so at the bookstore, sipping a latte.  It's good for me.  

Now, speaking of latte, this is what I found on the counter when I arrived home to a quite house (the boys and their Daddy were off on their own jaunt by then). 

People, it looks like I wasn't the only one who had a latte.  Hmmm.  Four cups.  Four men in my life.  Now, I don't know about you, but that looks an awful lot like coffee swirls in the bottom of those cups.  I'm sure of it. 

And, I think I know how it happened.  I think that after some rough man stuff, like, wrestling, pillow fights, hide-and-go-chase, and maybe a little football outside, they all came in to catch their breath, sit around the table, and shoot the breeze over a cuppa joe.  My four guys shootin' the breeze over a cuppa joe?!  My 8, 6, and 4 yearolds shootin' the breeze over a cuppa joe with their Daddy? 

What can I say?  Only one thing. 

Keep it up, guys.  It's good for you.   

Art & The Sickies

The Sickies are after me!  First, there was one, then there were two, now there are three!  They're coming down in droves!  I intended to have this update written and posted several days ago but, alas--the Sickies!  They have their way of keeping sleep at bay, depleting the kleenex box and vitamin bottles, and keeping me running to and fro with the thermometer and fluids.  And, keeping me away from the computer.  So, here's what you would have known several days ago, if the Sickies hadn't shown up. 

The weekend brought Daddy home from a trip and landed the rest of us in a big, happy heap on the bed with him, everyone blurting out the latest news at once. 

New art binders were all the boys talked about.  All about. On and on about.  About how they have clear pockets that you can  put your drawings and lists (e.g. pictures of wonderful things cut from catalogs, pasted onto large pieces of paper) in, about how each boy has his own binder, about how you can add more pockets when you've filled up the ones already in the binder (which some of them had), about how the pictures drawn on the really big white paper can be pulled out of their pockets and opened up,  and, about how you can look at all your other drawings like pages in a book!

But just talking about their art binders wasn't enough, of course.  They had to show and tell.  For full effect.  A picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Aboslutely.  Actually, Daddy got both--each picture and a thousand words.  Okay, make that each picture and three thousand words.  Heck of a deal! And Daddy just laid there, loving it.  Said there is no place he'd rather be than with his bunch. 

We agree.