10 Things I've Learned this Week and You Capture - Shapes

1. This week I learned that I am no Giada De Laurentiis. Well, unless the item on the menu contains flour or chocolate, preferably both, which would make it a dessert, which is my favorite thing on the menu. Alex requested barbecue chicken pizza, which contains flour, and it turned out beautifully. Michael requested brownies, which contain flour AND chocolate, and they turned out beautifully. The coleslaw which Giada featured on Everyday Italian, and which contains neither flour NOR chocolate? It turned out not so beautifully.

2. I learned that coleslaw is expensive to make, especially when the fancy schmancy recipe calls for three different kinds of cabbage.

3. But I also learned that honesty can pay off. The poor, young girl at the register rang up my Napa cabbage as regular cabbage. When I saw the measly $.99 charge for "cabbage", I pointed it out. She looked over her rolly price thingy for a couple of minutes, glancing at the head of Napa cabbage every so often. "What kind of cabbage did you say it was?" she asked a couple of times. Finally, with the line of customers waiting behind me growing, she passed the culprit cabbage on down and said, "I'll just give it to you." Of course I got it for $.99 either way, but at least I preserved my integrity.

4. At the grocery store, I also learned that being kind to strangers can make you laugh. An elderly gentleman in an electric chair (as in the grocery store version of a wheelchair, NOT the kind that you find in prison after you've had your last meal) was already waiting at the deli when I walked up to order turkey. "How are you?" I asked. He said he was fine and then, gesturing toward my Iced Grande Green Shaken Tea, asked me where I had purchased it. I pointed toward the in-store Starbucks.

"What is it, like Coke or something?" he asked.

"No, it's tea," I responded.

"WHAT?"

"Iced tea. Like sweet tea!" I said more loudly.

"WHISKY?"

I was just getting ready to yell, "NO. SWEET TEA!!!!" loud enough for all patrons to hear when the deli lady handed him his sandwich. Saved by the sandwich.

5. Upon returning home, I learned that every food processor is not alike, and mine is definitely not like Giada's. Hers delicately shredded the cabbage into light, springy, beautiful strips. Mine shredded the cabbage into mush. I ended up packing up 4 uncooperative children and making a special trip to Publix just to purchase some already-shredded-cabbage-in-a-bag after trashing my mush. (See #2 for additional lessons learned here.)

6. Also on the home front, I learned that my attemps to train the children to get dressed in the morning without being asked are futile when I do not put away the laundry. With two laundry days' worth of laundry piled on my bed or hanging out of laundry baskets, they are forced to come consult me in the morning anyway.

7. If laundry is a dreaded chore, ironing is even lower on the list. I learned just how much I hate ironing when I was reading an alphabet book to Audrey. We got to the letter "I", and I pointed to an iron. "What is that, Audrey?" I questioned.

"Uuuummmm...it's a....it's that thing you rub on shirts!"

I can't fault the girl for her ignorance; she has probably only seen me use the iron a couple times in her little life. How is she supposed to know what it is?

8. School will start again in a little less than 3 weeks. Until then, we try to fill up our days with fun activities like the pool. Today I learned that I can serve as Lifeguard just as efficiently from the patio table as from inside the chaos pool. This way, they can have some splashing fun while I scheme plan things to do in the 2009-10 Homeschool Year and in my Writing Workshop in the 'hood.

9. Of course, I learned already know that keeping my distance from the pool activity is yet another way in which I am not a fun mom. Maybe I'll learn my lesson and jump in the pool tomorrow.

10. And finally, I learned that it is probably more interesting to my few readers for me to include words with my You Capture photos. Because when the theme is Shapes, well, pictures of brownies, laundry, an iron, and a food processor just can't stand alone. Even considering my fabulous, professional-like photographs. (By the way, I got this "Lessons Learned" idea from From Inmates to Playdates. Visit her. She's funny.)