De’ Nile ain’t just a river in Egypt. – Mark Twain
Good morning Everyone!
Today is my day to make confessions regarding cupboard doors and closet shelves. I never really noticed that I have a habit of leaving cupboard doors open after I pull something out of them, until I overheard a visiting family member mutter to themselves a few months ago something about “doesn’t anyone in this house shut cupboard doors?” I didn’t think much about it – I certainly didn’t leave cupboard doors open, after all – and then Mark, after a close encounter with one of the open cupboard doors said something else about it. I made the natural assumption, as any parent would, that Kayla must have opened the cupboard doors and forgot to close them, so kindly reminded her to close the cupboard doors after she opened them. After all, I certainly don’t open cupboard doors and forget to close them. Then one day about two weeks ago while I was blogging, and I was the only one home, I looked over to my left from the table where I do most of my writing, and saw this:
And this:
In legal terms, I think that counts as a smoking gun, and ever since that day two weeks ago have tried to do better.
I also try hard to put things back correctly in the cupboards and pantry, but in spite of my best efforts, sometimes I slip up. I know this when I hear Mark open a cupboard door or the pantry while I am in another room, hear the soft thud of something falling out – usually on his head – and then the sounds of something akin to “Behold! Yet another Tupperware container hath fallen on my head!” The practical part of my brain realizes somewhere deep down that balancing a bag of flour on a can of soup, and then topping both of them off with a bag of bread or a box of Mac ‘n Cheese is probably not the ideal arrangement for stability, but the other part of me looks at the pantry and can’t figure out any other way to make everything fit.
And the Tupperware shelf! Given the various size and shapes of plastic ware available, I am convinced that the people who design plastic ware expect the people using it to have mechanical engineering degrees to get it all to fit correctly. I can match round to round and square to square pretty well, but then you run into oval, oblong, rectangular and super size and any chance of a decent storage system is gone! I try (again) to keep things balanced safely, but every once in a while it seems impossible that it all will fit in correctly, so then I try to mush the unmushable bowl, and the gentle thud will happen soon after. Sigh.
I’m working on it though; at the rate I’m currently going, I should have both the cupboard door problem and the Tupperware organization thing fixed by the time I’m 90 – or I may just borrow my friend Emily’s 11-year-old daughter, who likes to organize kitchens on a regular basis. I’m not sure which!
Finally, here are some completely unrelated observations Kayla made this past week.
1) To Mandy: Mandy, stop chasing your tail! You won’t like it when you catch it.
2) To Me:
Kayla: Mom, I’ve finally figured out what “Accio” is. (This is a Harry Potter reference.)
Mom, originally: Oh?
Kayla: It lets you call things to you.
Mom: Yes, like keys and cell phones.
Kayla: I can see where that would be really useful, particular for you.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Nancy
Tales from the Mom-Side 