FTSF: I deserve a medal for the time I....

It's that time again!  Finish This Sentence Friday.  Today's sentence:  I deserve a medal for the time I...

Hmmm.  That's a really tough sentence to finish.  I've never committed an act of heroism or saved a life or anything like it.  But, for the sake of writing this blog post, here are a few things that popped off the top of my head.

1.  I deserve a medal every time I get off the phone with Tricare and I resist the urge to either beat my head against the desk and/or break the telephone.  Seriously, who else wants to hulk-out after they've had a conversation with their health insurance?

2.  I deserve a medal every time my kids throw up on me, and I don't reciprocate the action.  It hasn't happened a lot, but it has happened, and I have never thrown up on them in return.

3.  I deserve a medal every time someone asks me to do something for them and I don't say no.  I just have no ability to say no to people.  Really, though, it's more of a strict sense of responsibility.  I don't know why, but I just feel like I have to help when someone asks me to do something.  I wasn't voted most dependable for nothing.  Now, that's not to say that I will do the things people ask of me without grumbling and complaining.

Ok, so those three things are meant to be kind of funny and light-hearted.  I honestly can't think of a specific medal worthy situation.  But, I would say that I have a personality trait that is medal worthy.  For me, can't is not an option.  You might say I have a "can do" attitude.  You really don't want to be the person telling me something can't be done.  Just ask Casey. 

Nothing annoys me like a laundry list of reasons why something can't be accomplished.  I just don't want to hear it.  Do not tell me why something can't be done, tell me how it can be done, because there is always a way.  Always.  This country was built on loopholes, remember?  But, seriously, where would this world be if everyone threw up their hands in defeat each time they are faced with a challenge? 

FTSF: If I Had A Magic Wand

I commented on fellow mom-blogger Kristy's FTSF post this morning and I thought I had it all figured out.  If I had a magic wand, I would fix all of the things that make Patty different than other kids her age.  There wouldn't be a lot of things to fix, but there would be a few.  Just wave that wand and take away all those little things that make life a little bit more difficult for her to navigate.  Then, as we waited for the elevator at therapy this afternoon, I had a wake up call.

You see, Patty, as loving and caring as you'll ever want, never meets a stranger and talks to just about everyone when she has a chance.  Today, she started a conversation with a little lady waiting for the elevator, too.  Come to find out this lady was accompanying her caregiver to the doctor.  They got separated and the lady didn't know where to find her friend.  When we climbed onto the elevator she asked me to phone her friend.  Well, the friend didn't answer and I couldn't just leave her on the elevator.  So, Patty and I took her floor by floor in search of her friend.  Of course, we found her in the last place we looked.  ;-}

But, after our little adventure, I wondered if my imaginary "fixed" version of Patty would have struck up a conversation with this little lady in need of someones help?  Actually, we wouldn't even have been there if Patty were just a regular kid.  Remember, we were on our way to therapy when we met this lady.  So, I kind of gave myself a mental slap for ever considering waving my magic wand at Patty.  Why would I ever want to change who my perfect little darling is?

Scholastic Mini Mission September Pt One

Have you heard of Scholastic Mini Missions?  JT brought home a paper in his backpack this week inviting us to participate and earn free Scholastic books and the chance for bigger prizes for teachers and schools.  Did you know I love free books?  The flyer was very vague on exactly what a "mini mission" consisted of, though, so I was skeptical about it.  But, after reading around on the website for a bit, I thought this was something we might be able to pull off...at least for one month.  I see this as a win-win: free books and fuel for the blog.

So, the September mission is to head outdoors on four occasions.  We are not fans of the outdoors.  Well, I am not a fan of the outdoors.  The kids actually really like to be outside, but lately they return covered in mosquito bites and that's not a good thing. 

I registered for the website and found a nature inspired scavenger hunt online (The Taylor House).  Then we headed outside.  Normally, my kids love being outside, but yesterday there was a little grumbling and complaining.  But, I was persistent and once we got busy finding items on the list the kids were full speed ahead.  Maybe it was just a new concept for them, this was our first scavenger hunt.  We skipped half of the list, I really wanted to avoid mosquito bites, but for kids my age, eight items seemed like a good stopping point. 

Here's my mission submission:

For our first mission, since we chose to accept it, we had a nature inspired scavenger hunt!  A quick Internet search and we had a list of items to search for and were headed out the door!  We did have to cut our search a little short and skipped several items on our list.  I opted to take a photo of the items rather than have the kids actually collect them and bring them inside.  My favorite item on their search list?  Something you think is beautiful!

 

I had just a little trouble getting everything uploaded to the website.  I'm pretty sure my photo collage was too big and once I chose a smaller photo, it seemed to upload okay.  It was slow, but that's probably my computer.  Next time I'll try saving a version of the photo at a lower resolution and see how it goes.  We're only three outdoor activities away from our first free book!

Ahhhhh...A Clean Stove Top

We traded out our old stove for a new ceramic cook top several years ago.  My mom has had a ceramic top for years and years and it's always shiny and clean.  My ceramic cook top has never been shiny and clean.  Well, it was the first day we had it.

That burner in the picture gets the most use and that yucky brown burned on gunk is the result of many boiled over pots of water and many nights of fried hamburgers. Yes, it's gross. Very, very gross.  I've had luke warm results using cook top cleaners.  Not even baking soda and vinegar really put a dent in the grime.  Obviously I had gotten to a point where I no longer tried to clean that nasty thing! 

The other day my cousin gave me a little tip. 
Use a razor to scrape off the gunk and then clean the cook top.  I thought scrapping would definitely work, but worried that it would scratch the cook top or scrape off the burner circles.  She explained that her directions said to do it.  Hmmmmmm.  I probably couldn't find the directions if my life depended on it!

This morning I thought, Ok, let's do it.  I found my trusty scrapper thingy and got to work.  And I really think her advise will change my relationship with my ceramic cook top forever.

The scrapper thingy I used came from Lowe's and I originally used it to scrape the paint from my back door window when I repainted it last year.  It's a razor blade in a nifty handle and it made scrapping the stove top very manageable.  I simply scrapped up as much gunk as I could manage and then used a Lysol wipe to wipe it away.  I'm sure a damp paper towel would have worked, too.

Once the scrapings were gone, I squirted on a nice amount of cook top cleaner and spread it around with a plastic scrub sponge.  Because the gunk on my stove was so over whelming, I used the scrub sponge to scrub up the remaining gunk on the stove top.  Seriously, I needed the extra scrubbing power!  You could use a paper towel and elbow grease, but why bother?  Then I used a paper towel to buff away the remaining cleaner.

I am utterly and completely amazed at how well the stove top looks.  There's still an area that I couldn't get totally clean.  It's an imprint of what appears to be the left, bottom edge of a box.  Maybe a pizza box?  Who knows.  But whatever it is, it isn't going anywhere.  And I am completely OK with that!