Natural Consequences and (Lisa) Taylor Luck

It's been a couple weeks of kids home every single day, between alternating who is sick and who has random days off school.  I was afraid to even plan something to do today figuring that someone would ruin my kid-free Wednesday.  I pulled it off though and I wish I could report something productive that I did other than do a taste comparison between three different Harney green teas.  Not even I care what the results were,  so I won't bore anyone but I will say they smell much, much worse than they taste.  These are the snobby green teas, the one that guy recommended.  I feel like he was judging my love of tropical green tea so I branched out.  Why am I still talking about this?  Oh yes, because I had way too much caffeine and something lack of attention something.

So Megan signed up to do the science fair this year, optional for her grade.  I signed the permission slip but didn't really have any information or guidelines.  I did find some online this week and clearly Megan had no clue about that either.  What happened is that Megan and her friend just wanted an excuse to put worms in toothpaste to see what would result.  They have no concept of hypothesis, scientific method, variables, data, charts, reports, bibliographies.  Nope, they were focused on playing with worms, facts about worms, photos of worms, the life cycle of worms diagram, what font to use, what colors to use.  I am definitely a hands off parent when it comes to homework and projects because I already went to school and now it's their turn.  They need to learn the natural consequences of doing or not doing their work.  It would be fantastic if somehow, someday they ended up with work ethic because it seems a lot of people are missing that.  But back to the science fair, if we can ever get this angry printer to start working I will print out the random stuff Megan emailed me for this project and she can tape it to the board and turn it in.  I don't know if there are consequences for not turning in something that is optional or for turning in something that is not really what they want, but we'll all find out together.

Oh and in (Lisa, not Caroline and Andy) Taylor Luck, I posted on facebook about the lovely, thoughtful, romantic gifts I ordered for Sean for Valentine's Day.  He left his boots in Miami and no one could seem to mail them to us, no matter how many times he called, so I decided I would order him some new ones to replace those.  I picked out two pairs, figured he could try them on and keep what he liked.  I opened the first box and this is what I saw:

 My first thought was, "Are these Sean's old boots that he left in Miami?".  But those boots weren't this worn and dirty.  Sean wears his boots out to dinner and to church, not to someplace muddy to hike or whatever other people do in boots.  Then I realized that these were the new boots I ordered.  I was in total shock and disgusted really.  I immediately called Zappos to let them know what happened and that we did not put them in this condition and therefore do not charge me for them.  The lady wasn't surprised, just explained that they have such a high volume of business that they can't check them all.  She was happy to send out a replacement pair overnight but after seeing how these would look in a year, I didn't want them anymore.  The real point here is, WHO returns shoes in this condition???  A scammer, that's who.  Sounds like someone who would also deduct cat food off their taxes as "pest control". I digress.

In other Taylor luck I tried to squeeze in a quick car wash between school pick ups and the car wash broke while I was in it. It just kept spraying purple foam on the back.  I guess it wasn't total bad luck though because for once someone was actually working there and was able to refund my money, which I then took to another car wash after picking up the girls in a foam covered car.  Just made it look like I tore out of the car wash halfway through... the idiot who suddenly remembered to go pick up her kids.

Oh wait, I also wanted to show you all the awesome Valentine cards the kids put together for their classmates:

Yep, I let them pick out their favorite character cards at Target and I made them write their own names on them.  Look closely to see what contribution I made to the project: I poured two glasses of wine.  Both for me.  Just doing a taste test.  I was cooking and needed to finish one bottle and open another, what better time to see which one I like best.  Right?  Right.  And this is what I was cooking:

Made a kid-friendly chili (that everyone including Sean didn't like) to offset that Chicken Country Captain recipe I found in House Beautiful.  It's supposed to be a Southern traditional dish but I think it was a joke.  It's kind of like jambalaya in that it contains many random ingredients and is like a thick soup with rice.  I left out the raisins (that surely had to be a joke).  I'd include the recipe but no one wants it.  Hey Heather, I still have gallons of it if you want to try it!  Not that bad really, just nothing my kids would ever, ever eat.  This photo also illustrates that I need smaller pots or a bigger stovetop because the yellow one only fits on the middle burner.  I either have to alternate what I'm cooking or let one pot hang over the edge... the edge that the kids constantly run past.  There is a lot of yelling about this as they constantly ignore my advice to stay away and thus not catch their hair on fire as it flutters past.  I am all for natural consequences but hair on fire is taking it too far.  Next kitchen or kitchen remodel will include an induction cooktop and it will be in a safer location, surrounded by white cabinets and two glasses of wine.