Just a few things...

There are a few minor things I'd like to clear up with the co-occupants of my home today. Since my family doesn't seem to hear or understand me when I speak, I'll have to share them here.

1. Snow is wet and cold and it sticks to your shoes. If you do not wipe your feet, then the floor will become cold and wet. Apparently, as I learned today, a clean floor has a higher affinity for wet, cold, dirty stuff than a dirty floor. This does not mean I will stop cleaning floors. Also, large, man-size shoes carry more dirty, wet snow than do small child-sized shoes. I'm just saying.....

2. Little fairies do not come in the night and clean the kitchen, and the dishes do not put themselves away like on Beauty and the Beast. One person with one mouth who drinks one thing at a time does not, under any circumstances, need to use 6 different drinking vessels every day. When you, as a group, have used all the glasses, coffee cups and Mason jars to drink from, you are using too many dishes. Rinsing a cup between beverages is a great idea.

3. Previously worn socks do not belong under the kitchen table. Not even if your feet were cold and wet, you forgot they don't belong there, or you are more comfortable eating without shoes on. (Where does this quirk come from? How does your footwear affect your dining experience? This should be investigated.) By the way, there is not a logical reason that clean socks should go under there either, so don't even try to make one up!

Aren't they precious? This is what a happy family of children looks like on a lovely summer outing at the zoo. This kind of picture helps me on a day like today. It reminds me of the good times, when everyone is happy and smiling and eating snow-cones... and I didn't have any desire at all to kick them, and their socks, out into the snow with 17 dirty drinking glasses.......