Things I've learned the HARD way.

Surprise, surprise, I'm a bit stubborn. Hard-headed, obstinate, willful, contrary, stiff-necked and good old fashioned PIG-HEADED! Lately, as I operate on less sleep than my body likes, I've learned a few things the hard way. I thought that everyone might enjoy a short list of what I've learned. Maybe I can help someone avoid a similar problem!

1. The more kids you have, the more your joy, but the bigger the messes around the house!
2. Bleach works wonders at removing color from clothing, it just never removes red marker.
3. When changing a baby's very messy diaper, make sure to have duct taped the child's hands to the changing table. Otherwise certain areas get touched, resulting in screams of disgust from the mother.
4. When using an immersion blender (aka. a stick blender) to mix a shake, make sure one hand is on the blender and the other is on the cup. Neglecting to have a firm hold of the cup will result in a very messy geyser-like eruption of milk and protein powder.
5. A gallon of milk, if dropped from a height of 3 feet onto a concrete garage floor, will burst open, spilling its contents.
6. My garage floor is NOT level. (I know this because of lesson #2.)
7. When grilling a high-fat meat (such as tri-tip roast from Costco) make sure the burners directly under the meat are turned off - or at least on low. Otherwise, dinner will resemble a charcoal brick.
8. If you have a tattoo, don't be surprised if your daughters play "Tattoo Parlor", instead of "Beauty Parlor" like most girls.
   

All of these life lessons have been learned within the past two weeks. I'm sure there will be many more over the next few weeks as we get ready for our cross-country trek. I'll share them as I learn! :)