Coffee conundrum

 The saddest part of this story is that it happened yesterday and I didn't even have the built in excuse of, "oh, that's Monday." 

Yesterday I attempted to make coffee, something I do almost daily (though I confess to drinking my fair share of leftover coffee from the day before. I'm a mom. As long as it's hot, I don't care. That's why I often find my mug in the microwave, which has been beeping patiently at me, reminding me that my coffee is in there!)

First, I needed to reassemble my drip coffee maker with its grinder. No big deal, it's about six pieces in total. I slide the barrel into place that holds the filter and the bottom half of the grinder up top. I reach for my bag of beans from our local coffeeshop (which is excellent, by the way) and dump a spoonful into the barrel. 

"Waitaminute," I muse to myself. "I've done that before." When one attempts to grind coffee beans without a filter, one's kitchen is scented and sprayed with the delightful aroma and unbelievable mess of fine coffee grounds. Been there, done that, much to the kids' delighted mirth. They feel the same way about the story of my Pap Pap making popcorn on the stove but forgetting the lid, something none of us were alive for but a story we all find hilarious because my Pap Pap was just about the most organized and process-oriented man alive.

I dump the beans back out, add the all-important paper filter (I prefer the brown ones. I don't need bleached paper that's just going to turn brown anyway. Seems silly to me. Plus, they're cuter, like brown eggs and black sheep. I digress.) Then I poured the beans back into the exact same but now filter-lined spot. 

"Waitaminute," I sighed to myself. "Those are beans. They need ground first." Removing the beans again and redepositing them into the grinder where they belong, I try to make coffee for the third time. 

I finally get all the pieces assembled and pour in the rest of the beans and the water. I turn the thing on and ponder, "what does it mean when you need coffee in order to simply make coffee?" 

Getting bigger every day

Yes, she dresses herself. This girl is getting so big! I should take a picture of her in her swimsuit because she is absolutely all legs. This was taken before school one day this week.

And THIS monkey, (insert frustrated sigh here), is climbing everything. When met with a frantic, "no no nononononononooooooooooo!" from me or either of the big kids, he responds by throwing whatever forbidden object he'd been holding as far from him as possible. Usually it's not a huge deal. However, yesterday he was up on this chair (and no, it doesn't matter if we push them in or not, he'll just take the challenge if it's harder) and I'd left my 8 oz can of Pepsi on the counter. Because I never get to finish a drink. Or a meal. It's called being a mom. Anyway, I see him tentatively raising it to his lips, so I completely forget his usual reaction and sound off with the "no no no nonononononooooooooo!" while hurdling over every object in the living room to get it before he spills it all over himself. Naturally, he flings it to the ground, where it foams and fizzes and generally makes a wonderful, delightful, truly scientific mess all over our green carpet, the other chairs, the counter, etc.

This was two days AFTER I tried to grind coffee without inserting the filter OR the basket that catches the grounds. Um. Why is it that the coffeemaker beeps if you push "grind off" while the basket cover for the beans isn't inserted, but it apparently doesn't give any kind of darn whether or not you have the basket underneath to catch ANYTHING!? Clearly my husband does not work there in quality control. Thankfully I got to it before it added the water. Talk about a scientific mess. The big kids were delighted. I was not. But the kitchen smelled nice...

More colorful messes can be made my smashing Squid O's and decorating with them. What? You don't know about Squid O's? That's because one, they're from Aldi, and two, they have a sting ray on the box. However, at first Liam announced they were Squid O's. Then when he looked closer he realized it was a sting ray. That just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Even Triskal likes Squid O's. And I am convinced they had nothing to do with the fact that she threw up this morning. Outside. I got one thing right this week- yay, me!