The post about one of my favorite things, that wasn't, because the picture won't upload so now it's about something else.

Blogger isn't cooperating so i will hold a picture post for tomorrow with hopefully some really linky love for us all to share.

In the meantime - i will do a non-picture post (ugh, these are SO boring. I know, I feel ya. But what are you gonna do....)

So, i thought i would share with you what is on the boys' chore list for tomorrow (insert evil grin and background music here).

1. Dust living room
2. Dust mom's room
3. Empty all trash cans in bathrooms, office and kitchen.
4. Clean toilets
5. Wipe down sinks and counters in baths.
7. Litter box
8. Move recycles from kitchen to bin in garage.
9. vaccuum - divide rooms.

Now, i KNOW it looks like a lot for an 8 and 9 year old to do. But trust me, it's not. They divide the dusting and the vacuuming and everything else... so it goes pretty smoothly.

Yes, it's not perfect, and in fact, i have to actually work the bathrooms with them, because they haven't mastered really cleaning the sinks and counters - they just smear the toothpaste around in the sink - BUT the good news there is that this week i actually heard Walker tell Nate not to be messy with the toothpaste because they were just going to have more to clean on Saturday. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA....now they know how I FEEL.

And while we're talking about raising up kids that can take care of themselves - here's an easy CHEAT dinner that we accidentally discovered because i was too lazy to really cook (do you see a theme here, because i'm not really trying to hide it...)

We love eggplant parmigiana - but it is not something quickly done. Unless you cheat. I was craving this the other night but was super tired and Walker wanted to help make dinner and as i have said, sometimes their 'helping' is a time sucker. So we improvised. was it perfect? no. was it edible? absolutely, tasty even. And he felt proud of himself for doing it. even better.

Slice an eggplant.
Grease a baking dish big enough to hold all slices.
brush slices liberally with EVOO
Salt, pepper and italian season the slices. (they have this great italian herb paste in a tube at publix in the produce section where the fresh pkgd herbs are and it's mixed with seasoning - outrageous flavor - buy it!)
Put in oven at 350 for about 15 or 20 minutes - enough to tell that it's starting to cook through
Pull out of oven and put tabs of butter or margarine on each slice - pat around so it's distributed around.
Take Vigo breadcrumbs and sprinkle lightly over butter until slices are dusted thouroughly but not glopped on.
Put back in oven for 5 min or so until butter and bread crumbs are toasty.
Pull back out and pour RAGU or any other jar spaghetti sauce over eggplant.
Top all slices with cheese. I know you're supposed to use Mozarella, but i only had provolone - and it was still very yummy.

yes, kids can do this. easy peasy.