Nose Pads and Muffins

Sadly, my most exciting news is that my life has been revolutionized by new nose-pads for my glasses. Seriously tho, my old ones were plastic, huge, and yellow from age. So I ordered some fancy shmancy "never-slip-and-make-all-your-problems-go-away" ones online.

So far so good. Very comfy. No slipping. Me likey.

Aila is into baking lately. Everyday she says "Can weee bake?!?! I WUV to bake!". She's evidently NOT my child. Yesterday we made brownies (at her request) and today muffins. She goes to the baking cabinet (yes, I do have one...) and says "okayyy...do we need baking soda??" I was impressed that she knew what baking soda was. I'm just hoping she doesn't ask "Why do we add baking soda?" because frankly, I have no idea. "Because it tells us to! Now stop asking Mommy about things she knows nothing about."

When Renee was living with us, we went away for the weekend while she stayed home with the girls. When we came back, the big news was that Ren had baked cookies with the girls. Anneka looked me square in the face and said "Mommy....she made cookies....WITHOUT a package!!!!"

This says a lot about my domestic skills. Anneka had NO IDEA that you could bake things without a package. The idea of "from scratch" was foreign to Anneka, and honestly, the whole concept was as fantastical as pulling a rabbit out of a hat. MAGIC! No Package!!

The only thing I make without a pkg is my brownies. And that's only because they stopped selling No Pudge mix in our grocery stores here. But everything else is package-city. It's only because I'm so domestically challenged....and I hate the 'from scratch' clean up. What a mess! Don't get me wrong....I COULD do it...I mean...how hard could it be? I'm not retarded...I just really hate doing it. Thank you Jesus for "just add water" muffin mix.

I try to hide my baking-hate from the girls...because they just love doing it so much with me. And the delight of a 5-year old, standing on a chair by the counter (in her underwear), sneakily sticking her fingers in the batter everytime I turn around...well...that's just priceless. My dislike for baking is eclipsed by my delight in my Aila. : )

But before you think I'm a total dud, I can tell you that I don't buy packaged sauces or dips. I make my own. I have recipes for Sweet and Sour sauces, Teriyaki, BBQ sauce, honey dill dip...you name it. I'm the dip-meister. I think I like sauces because you can toss em over chicken, and "voila!" you've made something interesting. Who doesn't love that?!

That...and new nose pads....