Clothing Optional - Unless Cookies Are Involved

Tess has turned into a little nudist lately.  I have no idea why.  One minute she's dressed, the next she's as naked as the day she was born.  (Not true - the day she was born she was only naked for a few minutes.  Today she's been naked for hours.)

There comes a point where I just don't want to get her dressed.  Again.

Perhaps I should keep the house at a cooler temperature.  ANOTHER polar vortex is coming in, so it wouldn't be that hard.  (I doubt it would change this habit, though.)

Cole decided to get in on the action today as well.  This is how it started.

It ended with two very naked (and very pale) hoodlums rampaging through the house.

While this was happening my finger started bleeding again.  I cut it last night on a dessert cup that Cole dropped on the floor.  The missionaries were over for dinner (both the elders and the sisters - full house) and I decided to be fancy and use the darling little trifle bowls I rarely get to use.  When I saw that it had broken on the floor and that both Tess and Cole were poised and ready to jump off their chairs and onto the shards of glass all sense left me and I grabbed for the biggest pieces and sliced my pinky right up. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

It bled and bled and bled and I asked Lance to get a bandaid for me, and he took forever because apparently Tess insisted on having a bandaid, too, and I don't think Lance realized how much I was bleeding.  And then I got the bandaid on but bled through it so he had to get me another one because I didn't dare walk across the carpet because if I bled on it who would clean it up?  (Answer: me.)  Between the blood bath and me yelling at the kids to stay out of the kitchen because of the tiny shards of glass all over the floor - and heaven forbid they actually listen to their bleeding mother - I think we probably gave those missionaries some good stories to write home about.  Good heavens.

Back to today.  So I decided that a good way to get these children dressed would be to have them help me make cookies.  Only children who are dressed are allowed to make cookies.  It worked, and both little imps helped me make these Flourless & Quick PB Cookies.  I really wasn't expecting much, but holy cow!  They're delicious!  And super easy!  The only thing I would recommend is to make sure you really roll the dough into tight balls, otherwise they have a tendency to crumble apart.  (I have to keep reminding myself that just because they don't have flour or butter in them doesn't mean they're healthy.  They're basically just sugar and peanut butter, which is why they taste so good!)

Well, between the mixing and the baking Tess and Cole were naked again.  Until Josh and Spencer came home, and they were told that little kids who weren't dressed couldn't have cookies.  Spencer and Josh got theirs first because they were already dressed.  Tess and Cole soon followed suit.  (Ha!)

Happy to be dressed?  No, happy to be eating cookies.

Spencer went AWOL before I could get a picture and this was the best I could get of Josh.  Why do my older kids not like pictures taken of them?

The house is a disaster, it's time to make dinner, there's a pile of laundry on my bed that's been there since this morning, my bed's unmade because Tess and Cole like to get in it and destroy it so there's no reason to make it, I have to take Spencer to piano lessons and then have a couple hours of Relief Society visits, my hair is gigantic today and refuses to be tamed, the polar vortex really and truly is coming back, and a dang home improvement project I've been working on is taking WAY longer than expected.

But I have cookies and - as of right now - all my children are fully clothed.  Life is good.