Sunday, September 29, 2013

Things I Learned in September

I'm joining up with Chatting at the Sky again to give you a list of things I learned this month. The first and most important lessons were literally burned into my brain a couple of weeks ago...

1. Always, always make sure you double-check which burner you turn on.
2. Don't put flammable things on the stovetop, even on a burner that's not supposed to be hot.


YIKES! There were actual flames in my kitchen. Pretty scary. My firefighter brother will probably disown me if he hears about this. No harm done to anything but my recipe binder, thankfully (and the recipes themselves weren't ruined; the plastic sleeves just fused together along the top), but the house smelled like smoke and melted plastic all day. I am working hard to break the terrible habit of setting my cookbook, potholders, etc. on the stove when I'm out of counter space.

3. You can make green eggs and ham with kale (or spinach or chard). Your children will make faces and ask for yellow eggs. There may even be tears. You'll be all "You do not like them, so you say. Try them! Try them, and you may. Try them and you may, I say!" You may find yourself making up your own lines: "I will eat them at the table, and I will eat them with Aunt Mabel! I will eat them with my boys. I will eat them with my toys!" When you and your kids finally try them, you will be relieved to discover that you cannot actually taste the kale at all. Your six-year-old might just proclaim, "Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-Am!" And you might get a smile like this, and a request for more green eggs and ham the next day :)


4. Instead of those third-wheel bike trailers for little ones learning to ride, you can buy a simple bar that uses the same principle but converts a regular bike. It's called a Trail-Gator, and the great thing about it is, once you've installed it on the adult bike, you can easily attach or detach the kid's bike without tools. That means you can tow your child for a while, let them ride on their own for a while, then re-attach when they get tired. It also fits kids' bikes from 12-20 inches. Jude loves it. It was pretty pricey, but it was cheaper than the third-wheel style, and it's the kind of thing we should be able to resell pretty easily when we're done with it. Now to find a bike for Mama...


What have you learned lately? 

2 comments:

elizabeth said...

oh wow...the bike attachment is super cool!

Danielle said...

Yeah, I need a bike too! :)