The Best Day Ever

This morning began by dividing up a huge chore list by five people. Each boy had three chores, which seemed unbearable. The only comfort was seeing 10 or so in mom's list. It was an experiment and training time to help prepare the family for mom returning to work. I have an interview tomorrow, and a for sure job in January if it will work with Bill's new schedule. Both are temporary, less than ideal jobs that will just help tide us over for a little while.

So after vacuuming and dusting the whole house, starting laundry, emptying all the trash, shoveling the walks, cleaning the bathrooms, putting away clean clothes, and picking up our bedrooms, we began to bake. We did our traditional peppernuts, gingerbread men, and skillet candy today. I ran out of brown sugar, so the heath candy will have to wait. Later in the day, we cleaned the basement, organized a bunch of papers, sorted some toys, folded some laundry, and iced the gingerbread men.

The reviews from the boys, "This has been the best day of my life so far!" Which tells me that a LOT of work won't damage any boy, when you mix a LOT of fun in with it. We accomplished a lot, the cookie jars are full, the house is clean, and memories were made.

A few funnies...

Well, this isn't super funny, but it does speak of the life with boys. I tried to help Riley climb on the roof to shovel it off today, but he was nervous. I wasn't going to force him, so I helped him back down. Later, while I was in the shower, Clayton and his friend stopped by from playing in the friend's yard. Riley asked for *their* help to get up. When he got to the top, he began to throw snowballs at them below. Now, the logical response would have been to walk away - out of reach of the flying snow. But, of course, a battle had to ensue.
Older boys: Stop throwing snowballs at us!
Riley keeps throwing.
Older boys: Riley! Stop or we're taking down the ladder.
Riley keeps throwing. Older boys take down ladder and leave to go back to the other boys' house. Riley is on the roof for 30 minutes or so in the cold with no way down. Later the older boys explain that they warned him, and Riley obviously wanted them to take down the ladder or he would have stopped!

Last week, Clayton discovered that noone has ever been able to eat a plain teaspoon of raw cocoa powder. Don't ask me how he found this out, but guess what that meant? Challenge! Clayton needed to be the first one ever to eat a whole teaspoon of cocoa powder. I suggested he do it over the sink (predicting the outcome). Of course, spew! spit! sputter! "That's awful!" Yes, there is a reason noone has ever done it before.