The other night we were eating guacamole with our dinner, and Brenna in her zeal for guacamole managed to get a nice glob of the green stuff on her nose hanging from her nostral quite like a large green booger. We noticed it and got tickled. (Oh, come on you know it’s funny.) So, C.W. is sitting nearest Brenna and I expect him to a.) wipe off the booger-like glob of guacamole with his napkin or b.) leave it until after dinner to be cleaned up with the rest of her face. C.W., however, chose option c.) scoop off the glob of guac with a chip and put it right back on Brenna’s plate. (I got so tickled and laughed so hard that it rivaled the hobbit feet incident, if you were present for that.) Perfectly good condiments don’t go to waste in this house . . . even if they do look like boogers.

Now that I think about it, what IN THE WORLD sounds good about split pea soup? Last week while looking through soup recipes I came across one for split pea soup and thought “mmm, that sounds good”. What?! Who would want to make soup out of PEAS? It was green. I think that my dad would refer to it as “baby s**t green”. (Not my baby’s, actually, his poop is yellow, but maybe that descriptor strikes a cord with some people). Don’t get me started about the smell. Thankfully, this was a crockpot recipe, so I saw the grossness coming well before we sat down to dinner. Also, thankfully, we had just that afternoon gotten a coupon in the mail for a free chick-fil-a combo meal. Can’t let that go to waste. So, we left the green nastiness in the crock pot, loaded up the family, and headed for the mall (which contains the Chick-fil-a nearest our house.)

Now dinner was much tastier than it would have been and the entertainment during dinner was also more interesting. This happened to be a Friday night. Do you remember Friday nights when you were in middle school? Did you also hang out at the mall? Oh my. Were we that odd, or are kids getting more strange? I went into the family restroom (the one with the diaper changing stations and nursing corners) to rinse out Brenna’s cup, and there were two girls (At least, I think that they were girls. One of them could’ve gone either way) standing infront of one of the changing stations, over which hung a mirror, doing something to their hair. I think that “fixing” would not be the correct term here. They had a huge can of hairspray and they were using it liberally. Then there was the guy walking around the food court with a hand made sign that said, “FREE HUGS”. He got a couple of takers. Not, however, from our table.

So, a couple of questions here….

Is Split Pea Soup supposed to taste like that, or did I do something wrong?

Am I going to look at Brenna and Joseph in a few (13) years and tell them to go to the mall where the rest of their kind are?

Girltalk posted a great post yesterday about beauty. The video was super interesting (can you believe that?), and the words about what beauty really is couldn’t be truer.

Some may call it Fall, but in our house it is the beginning of Soup Season. Cooler weather inevitably inspires me to make soup. Alot.

Thankfully, Brenna likes soup and C.W. rarely turns down food, so I won’t hear too many complaints. Let’s just think of the attributes of soup. It’s yummy, can often be made out of what you have on hand, ingredients are easily added or left out, can be made quickly, the variations are endless, you only dirty one pot, all your food groups in one bowl, plenty of veggies even make it nutritous, bay leaves, makes use of crock pot, it’s frugal, makes maximum use out of more expensive ingredients like meat, makes you feel all warm inside when it is cold outside.

On the menu for this week: Bean Soup, Potato and Sausage Soup, and Split Pea Soup. Mmm mmm. Anyone want to come to dinner?