Thursday's thoughts...

Just spent over an hour with my head in our oven.  You see I've been 'Flying' for a week now.  Today's task was to wipe down the front of the major appliances.  Well I'm not an underachiever like that.  I thought I'd clean the insides as well.  It was clearly needful.  Really in some ways, a dirty oven is a badge of honor.  Means you've cooked meals for your loved ones, right?  Ours wasn't terribly bad.  Just sorta.  So I pulled out the spray can of oven cleaner and went to town.  Realized about 4 seconds into it that I hadn't gotten the fume-free stuff.  Egads.  Nasty.  My lungs were burning.  Eyes watering.  The can had a little quote on it:  "good food deserves to be cooked in a clean oven".  Sure that sounds nice.   But the caustic chemicals within leave you with lungs burning so badly that you probably won't live very long to care if your oven is dirty or not.  A couple things though.  Why can't you look up "oven cleaners" and have a couple people show up with smiles and gloves on to do that nasty job?  There's people to do anything else.  Not that we'd hire anyone or anything.  Another thing that puzzles me is why I am so distressed by a few remaining black spots I can't get off after repeated tries.  It looks LOTS better than it did, but I focus on the two spots left behind.  Not a good character quality.  And finally, I'm wondering what you all do to keep your oven's shiny-clean?  I'm not too proud to ask for advice.

Went to pick up some birthday cards.  The three I liked were all .99/piece which is nice since I'm so cheap frugal.  When I checked out the lady asked why I didn't use the coupon.  She tells me to go back to get the $2 off coupon if I bought three cards.  You do the math.  Good deal Lucille!

Chicken tortellini soup is on the menu for supper.  Dredged up the recipe from about 12 years ago.  Hope the kids like it.  Well, two will, one won't.  But that's how it rolls around here.

I could tell you how cold it is here, but you'd probably give me your torrid tales of frostbite from your corner of the world.  So I'll leave it at that.  Lucky for us, the forecast looks promising.

The other night we were driving past an assisted living place where one of our friends lives.  We haven't gone to see her yet and it has been bothering me.  So I tell the kids we should go in and see her real soon.  A voice pops up and says, 'don't you think it's a little too late Mom?'.  Um no.  It's never too late to visit someone that's lonely.  Even if they don't remember we were there.  It can make their family feel good and more importantly, make us feel like we did something for someone else (I was getting a bit heavy on the lesson).  'But mom!  She's in the grave!'.  No she's not!  Then another voice pops up, 'she's thinking of so-and-so (the sister of the one we were talking about).  Whew!  At least we're not too late... yet.

I spent four hours yesterday walking around a big mummy exhibit at our local museum with a pile of sixth graders.  It was interesting and boring at the same time.  I'm not into artifacts and intellectual things because I'm well, simple (stop snickering you mean older brother).  The kids were very, very well behaved.  So that helped.  And it is nice seeing your child  interacting with her peers.  I found that more fascinating than the mummies.

Well no one told Lisi that the wind chill isn't real favorable to a lot of outdoor activity.  So I must don my boots and head out to the frozen tundra....  still can't figure out how to tell her to go off walking on her own.