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Today, Friday June 11, is Cow Appreciation Day nationwide at Chick-fi-a. If you dress like a cow you’ll receive free food! Full costume gets you a combo meal; “partial cow look” gets an entree. For easy dressing tips, look here.

We had a mix of Halloween costumes and kids with white shirts covered in post it notes colored with black spots (an idea from the website). I took a black eyeliner pencil and colored noses.

It’s not too late to take your herd today for free food!

Somewhere between 11 and 13 (could that be 12?) must be the point where you balk at dressing like a cow for free food, because my 13-year-old son wouldn’t do it, but my 11-year-old daughter did (although she kept rubbing the black off of her nose).

I’m trying to be a sport and participate in Pensieve’s Poetic License, but this is really just awful.

Just who are these Five Guys,
Who lure me with their Famous Burgers and Fries
National Hamburger Month gives me a good excuse,
Although my husband will realize it’s just a ruse.

I never fail to be encouraged when I read the writings or cartoons of Todd Wilson. When I read his cartoons, I laugh so hard I cry. Literally. He has a gift for making homeschooling moms feel better when you’re having one of those “everyone else teaches/cooks/cleans/etc. better than I do” moments (or days, or weeks, or maybe years).

On another note: Does it make you a bad mother if you tell your daughter that V8 Tropical Splash is mostly made of carrot juice in an attempt to scare her out of drinking it all?

When I graduated from high school I wanted to become a psychiatrist. Generally, I’m a person people feel safe sharing their secrets with, a never-met-a-stranger type, the kind who start conversations in the check-out line or the waiting room. Although sometimes naive and a little heavier on book smarts than common sense, I tend to be a problem solver by nature.

Sometimes my desire to fix things creates interesting results, like when other customers at Ross ask me questions. Since I’m the one picking up and rehanging clothes from off the floor while the actual employees sit by the dressing room and look disdainfully at shoppers who emerge from the dressing room for the third time without finding a pair of jeans that fit (a hypothetical situation, of course), it’s an honest mistake.

Yesterday my fix-it tendencies combined with general lack of social inhibition almost got the best of me. I was in the parking lot at Wal-Mart when I saw a couple pull their cart, loaded with a brand new Sanyo TV, up to their car. First the man tried to load the TV in the back seat, but it was just too big. Then he tried the trunk. No dice. That’s when I thought, “Wait! I can help!” My van, the 15-passenger model most often seen as church buses or cargo vans, can haul a sleeper sofa or a queen-size mattress, box springs, frame, and headboard.

At this point the man rips open the box and his wife starts pulling out the Styrofoam packing. Before you know it the TV has been loaded in the back seat, the box is left behind in the cart, and they drive away. That’s when I started getting tickled thinking about my first impulse: that “I can fix it” moment. Can you just imagine me going up to these people saying, “I know you don’t know me, but would you like me to load up your nice new TV–the one you just purchased with your tax refund–and transport it to your secluded home on the outskirts of town surrounded by woods and large barking dogs? Trust me. I’m here to help.”

I think I need a keeper.

As you can see, I’ve had a blog break this week. I’m emerging momentarily to announce this exciting news: I WON! WOO HOO!

Thank you, No Cool Story - you rock!

My dear cousin, Laura, sent me an email with this message and a link to the following video:

“This is a real commercial that airs in Montgomery, Alabama.
It makes me happier than it probably should.”

I confess that it made me happy, too. Enjoy!