Crickets....and Rainy Days

This job isn't the most lovely and I must say that when I first tackled it, it GROSSED me out. But fast forward 8 years later and it's really not all THAT bad...except when I have to really touch a lot of them. I should do this about once a week, but it ends up being once every few weeks. Our Leopard Geckos will only eat LIVE crickets. It's the thrill of the chase and the feeling of being the hunter that I think they like. Hence, if it's a dead cricket, it's a worthless cricket. SO.....they're alive, sticky, dirty, smelly, and jumpy when we get them. If it sounds bad, it is. Believe me. UGH. This is one of the many chores that aren't so charming in my life.

And this is how they come. In a baggy, poop and all, clamboring to get out and go wild. I left them in the bag for a long period of time one day, and they actually managed to chew a hole in the bag and escape....ya. I didn't think it was actually possible but...it is. Since the reptile store gives them to us en masse for $1, I have to divvy them up and give them to the geckos in shifts. This means that I have a tupperware that is super smelly and I have to manually grab them the second time around to put them in the terrarium. Glamorous, no? I still manage a squeal once in a while when one gets out.

Here is the waiting recipient...one of them anyways. I believe this is Leo (they both look similar from this angle). Isn't she cute?

And you're probably wondering why I'm writing about crickets and geckos anyways. I was running around like mad the other day and realized I didn't take 5 minutes to sit down with all the stuff I had to do. Now that 3 choir concerts are over with, the Christmas Tea at church is finished and I've made all my goodies for our neighbors and Bryan's co-workers, I'm a little less harried. I thought I'd write about the little things that take up some of my time. This is one of them.

Ok I HAD to include a picture of what is now one of my favorite cookies of the season...the Chocolate Gingerbread Cookie. I discovered this recipe in the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook and LOVE it. I used hunks of DARK chocolate in the recipe, too. Look at that chocolate glisten....it's making me want one as I write this, but I have to remember that I want to be lighter when I run that half marathon....come on, Cara. Food is my weakness....especially pastries and bready stuff. MMMmmmmmm.

So it's raining today....did I say raining? It's POURING outside today. This is what I discovered my kids doing...playing horse? Or is it just Austin trying to keep Ethan from being bossy? This was before I heard Austin say, "I ate my vitamin, mommy." This was a little alarming considering I already GAVE him his vitamin for the morning. He had climbed up and eaten the other half off of the counter where I thought it was completely out of reach. Then he's eating this cereal out of a cup that was old and stale and I'd removed from the boys' bathroom minutes before. I had put it on the banister and he found it and started eating it. Austin is seriously into EVERYTHING.

And...I broke down and allowed Moon Sand to be played indoors. I know...GASP!! Note the amount of paper underneath the moon sand. It still didn't capture all the sand morsels. I say morsels because, yes, Austin was eating it. Everything has to be tasted. Nasty. So, that's my little rainy day in a nutshell. Hope you enjoyed it. Nothing like 50 degree weather in the good old IE.