Emma Got Glasses!

Look at my little librarian! She's so darned cute!

She has been playing "librarian" for the past several days -- ever since she got her glasses. I told her that librarians don't have to wear glasses! She agreed, but informed me that most of them do. (I haven't done any surveys, so I'll just take her word for it.)

A question for my readers...

As I work diligently on writing my book, I find myself stumped on different words to call "senior citizens". Everything I come up with sounds so pejorative.

I want to indicate respect and humor and I can only use the word "senior" so many times without it going completely stale.

So what would you call a senior citizen? I know several of my readers are seniors, so please, please, please chime in here! (You can comment by clicking where it says "comments" right below this text.)

I did a quick google (don't you find it amusing when brands become verbs?) on euphemisms for older people. I found one humorous forum discussion where several names were tossed about, but the only one I really liked was "recycled teenagers". That made me laugh!

Another I term I found amusing was from a poster in England: "twirlies". This stems from when seniors try to board the buses with their senior pass before it's time. The drivers always say, "It's too early." Say that fast! Sounds like "twirly", doesn't it? I'm not sure that name would fly over here in the States, though.

Help me out, readers! How do you respectfully refer to senior citizens?

(As an added incentive, if you comment with a suggestion, I'll put you in the acknowledgements of my book!)

Something so funny that Emma and I were both in tears!

Scott was heading out the door to work this morning. He kissed me, kissed Emma on the head, then started walking towards the front door. He came back to stand next to Emma and he asked, "Do you know what Emma makes my heart do?" We said, "What?" Very slowly he replied, "Emma makes my heart... sing!" At the exact same moment he sang the word "sing", his cell phone turned on playing its funny tune.

I had already figured out what he was doing, but Emma hadn't. She thought it was coincidence and she busted out laughing. The funniest part, though, was that her mouth was full of cereal and she was trying not to spit it out. She was laughing so hard -- it was one of those deep, unexpected belly laughs -- and the expressions on her face were so comical and priceless!

Her laughter was infectious. I started laughing and she laughed harder and pretty soon we were both wiping tears from our eyes.

You probably had to be there. But suffice it to say, I won't forget this one for a very long time!

Time to make a new bottle of all-purpose cleaner...

Early December, I bought a bottle of castille soap (future note to self -- it's $5 less expensive at Trader Joe's than at Target) and some tea tree oil and went to town making my very first bottle of homemade cleanser/disinfectant.

It took some mental convincing to actually forego my much beloved bottle of 409. I finally decided to that I had nothing to lose except a few dollars and hopefully, some grime.

I had just finished reading "Gorgeously Green" by Sophie Uliano, so I decided to use her formula for kitchen cleaner. It was fantastic!

Here's the recipe. I give full credit to Sophia Uliano and her wonderful "Gorgeously Green".

32 oz. spray bottle

2 cups of water (I used filtered)











3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide










1/2 cup distilled white vinegar











1 tsp. pure castile soap

20 drops tea tree oil





Shake well and there you have it! The vinegar smell doesn't take long to dissipate, so don't worry about that.

The purpose of the peroxide and tea tree oil is their fantastic disinfectant properties. That makes me feel better than using just straight vinegar, which any number of people do with great success. I'm just kind of fussy about those kitchen germs. Eeew!

So give Sophie's recipe a try and see what you think of it. Check out her website, too... www.gorgeouslygreen.com. She's got some great information there!

Three-thirds makes a manicotti

Isn't that a great title? I should write a children's book based on that. Hhhmmm... The fraction teaching market has been covered by Goldfish, M&M's and Hershey's, so I'll have to go another route.

Emma actually said "Three-thirds makes a manicotti" last night. I thought it was such a great line that I wrote in down in my ever-present notebook immediately. She and I had the unexpected opportunity to go out to dinner alone together. Scott was at a church function; Hayley was out with a friend.

Em chose to go to Olive Garden, but when we got there at 5:45, there was a half hour wait. I looked at her and said, "It's up to you, kiddo." She looked agonized for a few seconds before saying, "Breadsticks are worth it!"

We shared an order of manicotti, so the kitchen put one, cut into thirds, on each of our plates. I ate one third of mine. Emma ate two-thirds of hers. We asked for a box and while we were waiting, she looked at what was left and said, "Three-thirds make a manicotti."

Too bad for us that we left those three-thirds of manicotti sitting on the table when we left the restaurant. But what an unexpected joy to have some time to spend with my funny little girl!