Elizabeth’s Journal

Sunday Morning Pancakes

Jonathan and I made pancakes together this morning—always a very fun thing to do. He helps me measure everything, he pours it all into the bowl, and then he mixes up the batter. I’m training him to be my sous-chef! (Hopefully a more tractable one than my father, who although an excellent one has the temperament of a head chef and must generally be coaxed into performing his duties . . . ) Doing pancakes on Sunday mornings together has become an on-again, off-again ritual for us, but we’ve done it both Sundays since returning from Kansas and will probably keep it up through Brian & Joy’s upcoming (hopefully) visit. It’s a fun thing to do.

Last week finally saw me have some productive days—I managed to do great things on Thursday and yesterday, including unpacking the Kansas suitcases and put everything away. I also did about six loads of laundry, woo hoo, cue the noisemakers. The Container Store is about to profit from me again; I seem to have some kind of fall cleaning bug, and all these things around the house that have needed doing the past four years all of a sudden need doing NOW, in my mind. So I got another file cabinet, more storage boxes (finally packed away my needlework as I can see I won’t be thinking about that kind of stuff again for a few years), cleaned out one of Jonathan’s toy boxes as well as the clothes that are too small for him, etc. My kitchen needs going over (too many gadgets shoved into the backs of drawers), the linen closet is a disaster, our bathroom closet no better, loads of family history stuff to do, more shelves needed for my books (and where will they go? yet to be determined in negotiations with my husband). And that doesn’t even touch on the daily things to be done—our bathroom hasn’t been cleaned in about six weeks, the house hasn’t been vacuumed since before I went to Kansas, the lawn hasn’t been mowed since the same time, etc. I see now why every household needs a wife (n.b.—that was very tongue-in-cheek)! It’s a full-time job keeping up with an investment like a house.

I read today in the paper that Bush has lost a lot of popularity with older voters, probably b/c of the deficit, health care situation, and poor interest rates on investments. That’s a crucial voting bloc if he’s going to have any hope of getting properly elected—wonder what he’s going to do about it?

Jonathan and I finally made it to the park on Friday when Jessica and Eamon were over. The day was beautiful, low eighties and not a cloud in the sky. We had a great time playing outside and enjoying the fresh air.

Yesterday after gymnastics Jonathan and I went to a school carnival at the Round Rock school that we are contemplating transferring into for kindergarten next year. We had a ball, even though we were there only about 40 minutes before it closed. Jonathan got a lollipop from a lollipop tree, had a ride on a pony, threw baseballs at bowling pins, did some spin art, tried to lift a heavy mallet and smack it down to make the bell ding, and went down an inflatable slide twice. Then we went to Matthew’s dorm room and delivered Dale’s old desk chair to him to replace the one that came with his dorm room. He said his butt would be much happier! The chair he had been using was a hard wood chair, no cushions, no wheels—typical dorm fare. He looks much more comfortable in his new one. Jonathan was most tickled to get to see where Matthew lives, plus M. pushed him in the chair all the way from our car to the dorm room (I had to close my eyes a couple of times) and then gave him some graham crackers while we were there. Cousins are good to have around!