Quick 5

Well, I'm hungry.  Really hungry.  All the time.  But I'll do my best to refrain from making the Quick 5 about all the things that sound really good to me right now.

1.  Last Friday I baked cookies for the first time in who knows how long.  Maybe even for the first time this year.  I've had a strong urge to bake for a few weeks now, and I was waiting for our island to be up and operational to do it.  Then I was trying to decide on a good time to bake them, because I get really tired so easily.  Afternoons are out, because I can't bake something and then make dinner a couple of hours later; I don't have the energy for that.  But last Friday morning we had nowhere to go and nothing to do, so I busted out the old tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie recipe.  According to Alaina, she's "easy at cooking" so she helped.  Joya looked on.

Alaina's stool allowed her to help.  Joya's stool allowed her to barely peek over the edge.

You don't have to teach a girl how to eat cookie batter off a beater.

2.  Much to our surprise, we have apple trees.  We bought the house and lived all summer believing we had crab apple trees in our backyard.  But those little apples grew bigger and bigger and turned from green to red streaked with gold.  Lee got brave and took a bite out of one, and lo and behold it was sweet.  Sweet and crunchy, like store bought apples (if store bought apples had bug marks on them.)  Most of the apples are actually salvageable, if we cut them up.  Now we have to figure out a.) how to cultivate apple trees and b.) what to do with all the apples.  The thing is, I don't really like apples.  I enjoy an occasional Gala apple, but if I had the choice between apple pie and no pie, I'd pick no pie.  And I've never cared for the taste of homemade applesauce.  But now it appears that God has given us many many apples that I need to learn how to be a good steward of. 

3.  Alaina had her first paying chore last week, speaking of apples.  Of course those apples are falling all over the backyard.  (They also fall on our roof, and since one of the trees is right outside our bedroom, I get to hear the lovely thunk...roll in the middle of the night.)  Anyway, Lee paid Alaina one cent per apple to pick them up last week.  She filled her bucket and brought them to Lee, who counted them and put them in a trash bag.  She made $1.04 last week.  And probably could make that again this week.

Alaina picked up apples.

Joya played with the soccer ball.

 4.  Last week I was doing dishes after dinner and I hear Lee ask Joya what she was eating.  It was after dinner, and she shouldn't have had anything in her mouth.  Suddenly he called, "Tori!  Joya has something all over her face, and she smells like fruit snacks!"  Upon further investigation, Joya had found and consumed approximately half of my green apple Chapstick.  She is now forbidden from our bedroom, unless we are in there.

5.  Wednesday night was one of the those long nights with a fevery baby.  Joya spiked a fever again and spent a good two to three hours awake.  However, she was not fussing or crying or moaning.  She was singing.  She started singing at about 8:30 and at 9:30 I told her to stop and go to sleep.  She said, "Okay, Mommy!" and proceeded to continue singing as soon as I shut her door.  Finally after another hour I discovered that she had spiked a fever, so I brought her in bed with me to try and get her settled.  Again, she wasn't fussy.  She was just singing up a storm.  She fell asleep around 11:30 (in her own bed) but at 2:00 I heard her singing again.  I gave her another round of meds and told her to go to sleep.  She did fairly quickly that time.  I have never heard a baby sing instead of fuss when they don't feel well.  But Joya did.  You would think that singing is much better than crying, but in the middle of the night when you have a tired, pregnant momma, singing is almost just as annoying as fussing, and that is something I never thought I would say.

If any of you ever feel the urge to bring me some fried chicken, don't fight it.  Just go with it.