Using it to my advantage...

So Alex is in Scouts. And part of being in Scouts is doing all sorts of little activities in order to move up the ranks.

I admit that we've been pretty lax in getting things done. Life is crazy, and it's hard to remember to do things like this all of the time. But I went through his book earlier today and discovered that two of the electives that he could do at home could definitely be used to my advantage.

One was helping in the kitchen, and one was helping to make a snack.

Can't have too much cheese....keep adding!

I knew that this could either be a good thing, or be a disaster. Patience and listening are not two of this kid's strongest qualities. But, we gave it a shot tonight.

If you were to ask him, he would say that he made supper all by himself. He'd be close to right. He did pretty much all of the work, with me telling him what to do and only helping him when he needed it.

After we got supper made, he helped me to make some banana bread too. Of course that was more fun because that involved smashing things and breaking eggs.

Smashing bananas.

He actually had a good time helping, and did better with it than I really thought that he would. Like I said, he's not the type of kid who will sit and listen and follow directions, so I thought that he would get distracted after a few minutes and want to go and do something else, but he stuck with it.

And he didn't get into quite as much trouble as he usually does.

Maybe I've found something that will actually keep this kid occupied. All I know is that if it works, he will be my permanent helper in the kitchen.

Breaking eggs - and not getting into trouble for it.

Making brownies for his birthday
treats for school tomorrow.

 So now I get to go finish a couple more loads of laundry, get lunches packed for tomorrow, package up the brownies to go to Alex's class in the morning, and maybe get some sleep. Tomorrow involves getting the kids to school, going to a geography bee, getting The Flu-Ridden Dude to the doctor, and about a million other things, as usual. Yay.