OH, PLEASE BE CAREFUL!

Madeline has always been such a good "Little Helper" and the kitchen seems to be one of her favorite places to help me. I cant count the times I have rewashed dishes after bedtime, or gagged down egg shells with breakfast. I will tell you this though... it is worth it! She gets so excited when she suprises me with washing dishes or fixing breakfast, that I just cant tell her to do better yet. I really think she is doing the best she can do. Especially, since she is only 7.

A couple of days ago, the two of us decided to do something special with all the fresh produce we have from grandma and grandpa's garden and the lady who sends a basket home with Andy every few days. We agreed on making homemade spagetti sauce. Before we started though, she informed me that Grandma in NC taught her how to use a sharp knife and she wanted to cut the zuchinni. YIKES!

I relunctantly agreed to let her cut the squash, (oh my!) I was a nervous wreck. I thought for sure she was going to cut her thumb off, if not all her fingers, for that matter. I was so jumpy that she eventually called me on it. She held the the knife up as she matter of factly said "Mom, if you dont stop scaring me, I AM gona cut my fingers off. I'm doing a good job, now stop!". Yep, thats my 7 year old helper girl.

She didn't cut her fingers off, and the spagetti sauce turned out really good!... So, we were told.

It wasnt done by the time were supposed to eat and Andy wasnt home eighter. We decided to save it for when we could all eat it together. Then, we made zuchinni bread. It turned out SO GOOD! (I grated it though).

The next evening, I thought I would go ahead and pre make dinner because once a week, Andy and madeline are home all by themselves for an evening. Can you guess what I put out? Spagetti!

When I came home, Andy raved about how good it was. In fact, he said it was the best he had ever had. Then he asked me what I had thought of it. UM... I didn't try it yet. Poor guy! He thought Madeline and I had already eaten and because it was so good, he just finished it off.

Well, at least I made a good sauce and Madeline has all her fingers still.