The Committee Meeting

A recurrent problem in my life as a wife and mother has been that suppertime often creeps up on me and catches me unawares.  How can this be?  I mean, it happens every day.  You'd think I'd be better prepared for it.

Once I read an article by Rose Kennedy where she was asked her secret for feeding her large brood.  "Long ago, I made up a menu for two weeks," she said, "and I have been repeating it ever since."  She added, "Nobody has ever mentioned it.  They don't seem to notice."

As in love with the simplicity of this idea as I am, I have personally never been able to pull it off.  Not that anyone I ever should have fed regularly would have been more observant than the Kennedy Clan, but that designing and implementing the two-week menu has proven difficult.  I have attempted it more than a couple of times but somehow gotten distracted somewhere between the writing and repeating.  It seems to be a case of inner child rebellion.  (My bratty inner child acts up a lot.) 

Hope springs eternal. My mature self thinks it would be freeing to know what we're going to have for supper days in advance.  Organized me thinks this way I could be assured of having all the ingredients that I need on hand.  Frugal me adds that there would be less waste which translates into monetary savings, a delightful bonus. 

Apparently the whole "me" committee is willing to give this this brilliant idea one more shot.  My inner child will only cooperate if I allow her to bake cookies, but since it's December we all even agree with that idea.

Rose would be proud.

Our Computer Saavy Toddler

I used  to think that anyone under ten was a genius at technology.  Since I've been observing our grandson over the holidays, I've had to lower that age bracket significantly.  Brody has just started to take his first tentative steps but he's already a whiz kid at electronics.   

So it would seem that fourteen-months is the new age ten and my grandson can already do complicated things that I don't know how to do.  He's changed the screen saver on my computer twice since I've been here.  He does like to type a lot - so I chalked that up to chance.

Then I gave him my phone to play with.  The screen was locked and the phone was off.  I handed it to him upside down.  He turned it right-side up.  He turned it on.  He pushed a button to unlock it.  He slid open the screen.  He tapped the right icon to make a call.  Then he called his father. 

After that, he made a bunch of other phone calls.  Most of the time I was able to stop him before they went through, but he was pretty persistent.  Since it was December 24th, I figured any of the callees would just assume I wanted to wish them "Merry Christmas."

His other grandparents bought Brody a toy cell phone.  He looked at it carefully then tossed it aside and screamed.  His grandpa gave him an old flip phone.  That didn't cut it, either.  It was clear to me he knew the difference.

Jerry brought his new iPad with him but he hasn't been able to use it much because every time he flips open the cover, Brody crawls over and grabs it.  Katie had the presence of mind to take a video of him.  Watch it and decide for yourself if his actions are random or if they are calculated.

Even as I type this, my telephone is ringing and I hear my daughter laughing. "It's Brody calling Mom," she says.