All the books are for about age 10 and under. We’ve donated one tonight while Jay and I looked through a book on dinosaurs.

Thanks, Amy! I wouldn’t have known about this if it weren’t for Facebook.

*That’s when authors make their royalty on the book.

• table runner
• pepper mill
• water bottle
• salt & pepper shakers
• more salt & pepper shakers
• even more salt & pepper shakers
• duffle bag
• locket

Children at play

Please be safe

On a related note, I want this cookbook–something I found before the meat gag-a-thon. Maybe the universe was giving me a hint this evening.

I only have an issue with one of them. The person who picked number 50 does not have a 2-year old. James does not stay in bed. He gets three strikes before he is put into the back-up pack-n-play to contain him. He can now just climb out of that. If he got up to get a book for some quiet reading time, that would be fine. He gets up to get all the books so he can throw them all over the room. He gets up to empty out the dresser so he can throw the clothes all over the room. He gets up to get all the shoes out of the closet so he can throw them all over the room.

Last night, much to Mac’s dismay, I brought him to bed with us because it is the only way that I can lie down and keep him contained to a bed. I finally get him to sleep, and am about to fall asleep myself when James rolls over and smacks me in the face. The last time I looked at the clock it was a little after 1:30am. I got up at 6:00am.

Between work and children, that is how much sleep I get on a regular basis.

ETA: Janelle brought up a good point: #30 hasn’t walked into the kitchen just in time to see her 2-year old squish a handful of blueberry pancake in between his thighs or left her 2-year old alone with a healthy bowl of oatmeal to come back and find the entire contents smeared on his chair. She probably doesn’t regularly use the phrase “How did food get clear over here?” when cleaning her kitchen. She doesn’t find surprise hidden cheese sandwiches stashed away in the living room or has mopped the bathroom floor because the water was already all over it anyhow or find an entire shelf of DVDs in a scattered pile not anywhere near the shelf.

This isn’t really a comment on not having choices. If I wanted to change #30 and #50, I could leave my family and quit my job. However, the consequences of doing that are worse than just wearily grabbing the towel when my 2-year old gives me that look before dumping his half-finished bowl of Cheerios and milk over his head.