Boy Next Door is over here playing with Middle Sister and Little Brother. His dad called to ask him what side dish he’d like with the chicken he’s having for dinner. (Apparently it’s “just the guys” over there tonight, so his dad thought he’d give Boy Next Door a choice).
I wasn’t surprised to hear the answer: “Ketchup!”
Middle Sister: (in the other room, where she thinks I can’t hear her) “I have nothing to do for the next five hours.”
Me: “Really? How’s your room looking?”
(shocked silence)
Big Brother: (whispering) “Never, ever say that.”
While we were in the car earlier today, Little Brother noticed all the cars parked at the local Chili’s. He commented, “Mom, a lot of people are eating at Chili’s!”
I said, “Yes, it’s lunchtime.”
He said, “Why don’t they just eat at home?”
Middle Sister answered him, “Because they don’t know how to cook their own food!”
Tonight we sat down to our dinner of Beef Paysanne, noodles, and green beans.
Big Brother wanted to know, midway through the meal, if I had made this with the leftover Christmas roast beef. (I had immediately frozen what was left of that, because Big Brother cannot be trusted with leftover roast beef in the fridge.)
Middle Sister jumped in: “Mom, I read that recipe you were making, and it called for used meat.”
I thought that sounded pretty disgusting. “This meat isn’t used! It’s leftover!”
Big Brother defended the idea of making dinner from leftovers: “Leftover is not the same as A.B.C.!”
(By the way, I highly recommend the Beef Paysanne, and it’s even better if you add 2 cups of sliced mushrooms at the same time as the broth and the wine.)
“Little Brother, get your elbow out of your drink!”
“I was trying to get the spaghetti sauce off my elbow.”
“Who left their gum at the Nativity Scene?”
From the “you didn’t really want to know” department….
After Middle Sister told us that she learned about the finding of “Lucy” by archaeologists, and that “Lucy” was 40 years old and 3 feet tall (I’m not sure of this, but it’s what Middle Sister thinks), Big Brother responded: “There is no way a hominid of that era lived to 40 years.”
Enough of the scholarly banter. The conversation then devolved to include:
“Cloning sheep is genius! Think about it. You could have infinite lamb chops.”
“If you bought 4 hot pretzels at the school lunch and covered them in mustard, you’ve got a great lunch for $1.00! It’s got bread AND a vegetable!”
“Pepper comes from a special kind of corn called peppercorns.”
(I was given permission to write this only if I did not embarrass the owner(s) of the various quotes by identifying them.)