Work and the House are Winning

Over the past few weeks, Grace has started getting up around the same time that I do for work. After I get cleaned up and grab breakfast, I usually plop in a recliner for a few minutes in an effort to gather myself and take a deep breath prior to my hour long commute and full day of work. During this time, Grace usually snuggles with me and watches the news. It's one of the rare times where she sits still and doesn't act like a complete goof.

Yesterday morning, she decided to join me for our morning ritual, and as she climbed into the recliner with me, I noticed she was being very careful to properly position herself. After wriggling around for a moment, she said, "I don't want to make you spill coffee on your new belly." Thanks, Grace. I appreciate that.

It seems that every night when I return from work, there's a project of some sort awaiting my arrival. Some nights I do the laundry. Some nights I have to work. There's always something, especially given the current state of our house.

Tonight when I got home, Erin had purchased a composter. Our children repeatedly asked, "Daddy, what's a composter?"

"That's an excellent questions, kids. Ask your mother. I'm pretty sure it just makes dirt."

"Do we need a machine that has 5000 screws in it and takes four hours to assemble to make dirt when we already live in the woods where there's plenty of dirt, papa?"

"Again, young lad. Ask your mother. I'm sure this is a special dirt making machine that will make better...TASTIER dirt than what we currently possess. It came from Costco, so it has to be a wonderful dirt machine, right Grant?"

I'm sure someday I'll be saying, "How did we ever live without this wonderful plastic tub in which to throw our coffee grounds and banana peels?" But I strongly fear that that day will coincide with me loading the composter into a guy's truck who just purchased it from us via Craigslist.

Is there a category on Craigslist for "items purchased by girls from L.A. who move to Indiana and suddenly make purchases as though they now live purely 'on the land?'" Or, "stuff you impulse buy at Costco only to discover later, 'Hey, wait a minute...this is a freaking trash tub merely labeled as a compost bin?!'" There should be...