WFMW: Trick or Treating and Cleaning Out the Pantry

Be sure to check out Works for Me Wednesday on Rocks in My Dryer for tons of great tips each Wednesday! I learn something new every week!

Here's something I have done for several years now, and I thought I would pass it along. I do some pantry cleaning every year on Halloween -- right into the Halloween treat bowl!

Okay, don't get the wrong idea, I am not putting in cans of pinto beans or packets of dry spaghetti mix. I look through the pantry and see anything that is (1) Still Good, (2) Something we just aren't going to eat, (3) Is appropriate for the treat bowl. If it meets all that criteria, it goes into the bowl.

For instance, this year from the pantry, I put in: a few packets of mini bags of microwave popcorn that will expire next month and we aren't going to use in time (we have an over abundance right now), a small box's worth of Cherry Kool-Aid single packets -- I picked them up once, but nobody was interested, an individual size of Coco Krispies from a time not too long ago when I splurged on a package of the single boxes of fun cereals (nobody will eat that one), some individually wrapped fortune cookies, some gummy snacks that were not of a preferred brand...I think that might be it for this year.

And, of course, I have regular candy in the bowl that I picked up for trick or treaters as well. But, as I said, I have been doing this for a few years now, and I have found out something interesting -- the trick or treaters always choose those crazy things from my pantry first. Sure, I get the kid here or there that will pick regular candy instead, but mostly it is those things from my pantry that are the first to go, and then the regular candy is left for later trick or treaters.

It works for us!

Certainly Something to Ponder On

An important reminder to teach your daughters (and I think your sons too!) that what society shows isn't necessarily what we should be striving for.

Oh...quick note about this video -- there is nothing on this video that can't be seen in magazine ads, TV commercials, and billboards. But, all the same -- it's not a video clip I would want to play with my kids around. It is a good reminder to watch though, but like I said, I would do it in a kid-free zone.

a tardy is a tardy is a tardy...kind of

On Thursday morning, I was already planning on driving the boys to school. They were having Fall Parties in their classes, and I was sending in a refreshment for one class and cupcakes for another, so I didn't want them to try to take them on the bus with them.


But, well...I'm sick. And, I'm tired. And, I perhaps, slept in just a tad. Then I thought, "Hey -- 5 minutes late is tardy, and so is 30 minutes late." And, so I slept some more. Hey...a tardy is a tardy, right?


Well, except I was reminded when I got to school that a tardy is not just a tardy where we are concerned. We bopped into the office to sign in, and we were noticed immediately. In my kids' school of almost a thousand students, there was a murmur of, "Oh, Noah is here today," and then a quick picking up of a phone.


You see, I am usually very good about calling if we will be late and always calling early if we will be absent because Noah has a one-on-one aide (paraprofessional) with him at all times. So, his aide had already been told to do some other task in the building, assuming that Noah wasn't coming. When they saw him, they knew they had to find her and have her head back to his classroom. So, apparently a tardy isn't just a tardy for us.


Oh, and then on a funny note, at least to me, was the look of absolute worry on the teacher's face in his room. His teacher wasn't present today, so there was a substitute who had never been in their class before. She said, "Oh...um...this is Noah???" Now, that wouldn't be funny that she was worried, except I knew she was worried that there wasn't an aide there right then, and really -- Noah is pretty independent. So, I could understand her worry without knowing him, but it was funny to me, because I knew he would be fine until they sent his aide back down. (But, I did pop by the office on the way out to say that I thought the sub was worried, and had they already found his aide.)


So, I need to make a mental note -- the next time I say, "Oh well -- 5 minutes late is the same as 30 minutes late" -- I need to call the school and alert them to my bad mothering habits first.

7 Random Things Meme

I was tagged by my friend Becca for the Seven Random Things Meme. I have done this before, and cannot remember what I wrote before. I will try to be sure to write things I think I would not have listed before.

1. I finally broke down and bought a pair of Crocs a couple of months ago, and I love them. The only problem is that I am apparently pretty hard on one side of them, and broke the "button" thingee on the side. Rather than return them, I used a hot glue gun to fix them.

2. When Eric and I were first married/about to be married, I told him I thought that I wanted us to have five kids. While I still don't think that would have been bad, it also boggles my mind at the same time. (Kudos to you Moms of 5+ kids!!!)

3. In my senior year of college (when I was about 23 years old), I laughed when the professor of my special ed class (the first one I had taken -- long before I ever, ever, ever thought I would actually go back and get a masters in spcial ed) said the term Asperger's Syndrome. I didn't laugh out loud, but I did chuckle in my head. Hey -- it sounds funny, especially if you mispronounce it just a bit. I only remember this specifically because I thought years later that God surely was chuckling at me saying, "Oh....just wait. It won't sound so funny later, Angela." (Yes, I think God probably did use my proper first name right then.)

4. Once, in a crazy pregnant haze (I do get kind of crazy during and after pregnancy), since I was mad at Eric, I bolted out of our on campus apartment around midnight one summer night and just started randomly walking around the outskirts of campus (after initially running to get a head start). It took him about 20 - 30 minutes to find me. Part of that reason might have been that I thought I would have to go home soon to go to the bathroom, so stopped trying to make myself hard to find.

5. I drink way too much Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper. Yeah...I know...no lectures needed.

And I tag...whomever wants to be tagged. ;)