The Tangled Web That Led To One Lone Spoon....

To say that the child has an imagination would be an understatement.  This child can scare his own self so bad at night by thinking of the bad dreams he might have he begins to cry and runs to me to me for consolation.  He wakes up almost every morning with a new character in his head and his whole morning, or until he thinks of something else, will be devoted to living out that character or scenario.

So you can imagine the tension I encounter almost daily between trying to explain to your six year old what is a lie and what is a fun story you made up for entertainment purposes.  And how the older you get it is very important to be sure to differentiate between your entertainment stories and your flat out lies.  We need a code word for the entertainment side-Maybe, "Mom, I'm making this up, but it sure is funny and cute."

So, one spoon was found in the yard.  Along with a bowl so as Ma from Little House would say, "There is no great loss without some small gain." 

 I lost about 15 spoons, but found a bowl.

Apparently when I declared that all my spoons were missing this prompted James' little mind to go into overdrive and things go all "confused in his head" (his exact words) about things his Aunt Mollie had told him, his actual taking of the spoons outside (I believe now it was the one lone spoon that was found), and something he buried a long time ago in memory of our former dog Sadie, who now lives with the said Aunt Mollie. 

And I am up to four spoons in the house.  We found two in the boy's room and Tyler found the one outside.  We are moving on up in the world now.  Only two more and we will all be able to eat our cereal at the same time. :)

So now I can add crime scene investigator, lawyer, judge, and lie detector to my mom resume.  And spoon purchaser.

 Walmart loves families like mine.

Actual Event That Is Taking Place At My House Right Now....

A little earlier I was loading up the dishwasher and noticed that I could only find one spoon-clean or dirty.  I yelled at the children to do a spoon hunt in their room as well as any other dishes they could find and bring them to the kitchen.

James looks up innocently from his breakfast and casually says, "I know where they are."

"Where?", I innocently replied.

"In the backyard.  I buried them out there."

After a round of questioning in which I received no answers that made any sense, I sent him out in the yard to dig up my spoons and bring the inside. 

I continued to load up the dishwasher.  I got everything in except the missing spoons and still no sight of James or said spoons.  I go to the back door and he is wondering aimlessly around the yard. 

Upon my questioning on why he was not digging up spoons he replied,

"I can't remember where I buried them."

So I have the children combing the yard for buried spoons. 

You just never know what the day will hold around here. 

I will update as the Saga of the Spoons unravels.

New Favorite Song of the Day....

Freezer Friday....

I have been out of the freezer loop for various reasons, but I have been waiting for the day when I could get back to it.  The freezer was looking mighty empty.  This morning I spent some time filling it up just  a little bit.

 First, I got out my Crockin Girls cookbook to make up two batches of Zesty BBQ Chicken.  They were not sideways like that on my counter by the way. 

 As The Pioneer Woman would say, The Cast Of Characters.  Aldi had their BBQ sauce for 79 cents yesterday so I bought four.  I also made up some Italian dressing in the mason jar.  So yum.

 The zesty sauce all mixed together.  Oh look, there is Abbie in the background doing her schoolwork.

 I made two of these and one went directly into the crockpot for tonight's supper.

 Then I began on the Spaghetti Sauce. I had two pounds of ground beef and the sauce pictured above.  The goal was to see how far I could stretch it with all these yummy veggies.  I ended up using three carrots, three bell peppers, and one container of mushrooms.  And two onions.

 I used my new skillet which hello baby, I love.  You can cook about 10 pounds of meat in there at one time.  I am trying to think of a good name for her-I'm thinking Audrey-a true beauty.  I hope the other appliances don't get jealous and quit working for me.

 This is my old workhorse Angie.  She worked for my grandmother and this baby can get the job done. 

 I had two pounds of beef I wanted to use for taco meat, but first I had to make up some seasoning.  Super easy to do. 

 The veggies and sauce simmering.  It smelled really good in my kitchen today.

The grand tally-three meals of spaghetti sauce, two meals of tacos (we had one for lunch), and two Zesty Chicken meals.  I also made the Taco Seasoning which will last us for about three months and there is enough Italian dressing to make Italian potatoes sometime this weekend.

He Did It....

 The little scamp went and graduated from Kindergarten.

 I don't think this should be allowed.  Last born children should always stay in Kindergarten, right????

 Of course he was adorable in his little cap and gown although as you can see below he wasn't too happy about me adjusting it over and over.

So, onward we go.  On to first grade.  Excuse me while I go wither away.

At Home Happiness....

 The first "hanging out" of the year.  Happy Happy!

 

 Matt and I spent the afternoon transplanting tomatoes from their small containers to their larger ones.  Today we start hardening them off and getting them ready to move to the garden.  Happy Happy!

Waking Up On A Dreary Weekend Morning...

To this.

 Isn't that lovely?  Our pecan tree fell .  Went through all the thankfuls-thankful it did not fall while a child was in it or under it, thankful it did not fall the other way and hit our house, thankful it only did minor damage to the workshop, and then went, "ARGGGGG!!!!!"  As my sister Jill says, "Its always something."

And this boy had his first official driving lesson with his father Saturday.  We toughed it out at the courthouse for 3 1/2 hours and left with a permit to drive. 

Mark said he did very well. He's been driving in the pasture for awhile now, but this was his first time out on the road.