Friday Confessional

It's been a long time since I've done one, eh?

1. Our Christmas tree is still up. It's been undecorated since January 1st but it's still standing in the corner, beheaded. Only the top piece is off. We started to take it down, but . . . well. You know.

2. The older kids had mid-terms this week. This was not my favorite week. They were done at 10:55 a.m. (Tyce) and 11:20 a.m. (Mary). Do you think they spent their extra time studying? Aha. That would have been nice. Instead I just had kids home for a reeeealllyyyyy looonnngggg tiiiiimmmeeee.

3. I had a Seminary inservice this morning and I skipped it. I've been to every single one so far and I just didn't feel like being church-dressed at 6:00 in the morning to hear what I could have read in an email. If I really did miss something--I'll probably have a message in my inbox tomorrow. See? Win-win.

4. I broke the top off the jar of molasses. It had been more than a year since I'd used it and it was stuck as can be. I whacked the plastic lid with a knife and . . . it didn't behave like a metal lid, that's for sure. But I got it off! I made my barbeque sauce (pretty good) and had a little molasses left over. So guess what I did? I made brown sugar. Mix molasses with white sugar and suddenly you have brown sugar. Cool, right? Wonder why I've never tried that before.

5. I am giving my second talk in church in a month, this Sunday. The first one was January 1st. The next one will be to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Seminary program and all the Seminary teachers are speaking in a ward. I get to speak in my own ward again--to the thrill of my own congregation, no doubt. In the last four weeks I've also sung in a quartet and given the benediction. January is all-me, all the time. It probably makes up for the last few years when I rarely did anything like that at all.

6. I have much reorganizing to do. The kitchen, the pantry, my closet, the garage, the playroom. The house may look clean but just don't open any doors.

7. I sometimes buy holiday socks for the kids--and then wear them myself.

8. That's all for now. I'm off to take Mary to her favorite place, Fresh and Easy. Blueberries are on sale and we can't go on without spending all her allowance on them.