When Life Gives You Lemons, Make....Porridge

Today was a beautiful day - like 66 and sunny beautiful. That we had one of these days so early in March is near inconceivable in and of itself, but the fact that I had a longing to spend some time outside is bordering on the miraculous. You see, I'm not the most "outdoorsy" person. One might say I'm more of an indoor cat. I've always liked the "idea" of liking the outdoors, but I just don't.  Abby, on the other hand, loves to be outside. It doesn't matter what the season, once she's outdoors she doesn't want to come back in.

Today I figured that since I wanted to be outside, Abby certainly would. The question then became: What could we do? Some of the easier things, like a walk or a bike ride, tend to get a bit tricky with Abby. She loves doing it, but it is usually at the farthest point from our house that she decides she's "all done". I wasn't up for carting her back home, so I wanted to do something here. Then I had a great idea - we would wash my car.

I started getting things together before she got home. I was just about to hook up the hose when her bus pulled up. I walked to the bus and waited at the bottom of the steps as the bus driver unhooked her and walked her up to the front. To keep her from running back to say good-bye to her friends, I told her I had a surprise for her. She immediately got excited...and closed her eyes. The whole time we walked back across the street, and even when we turned to wave to the bus driver, she had her eyes closed. Finally out of patience she asked, "Can I open them now?"

She was excited to hear the we would be washing the car, and even spent some time helping me look for the car soap - that was until she found her bike. Abby happily road up and down the driveway as I fussed with the hose and faucet. Apparently, sometime during the winter the adapter we had on the faucet broke off. The ring that was left behind was impossible to get off. Abby tried to help out by offering suggestions, and even her own services to try to get things to work. Finally, I just filled the bucket, splashed some water on the car, and let her at it with the cleaning cloth.

By the time Jason got home, she had gotten part of a door clean while I still fussed with the faucet. It was while we were both trying to get that silly ring off that I looked up to find Abby happily stirring the bucket of suds with the other end of the hose. She'd totally given up on the car washing (and at this point so had I) but she had figured out another way to use what she was given and enjoy herself. I asked her what she was doing and the told me that she was Mama Bear and she was making some porridge.

We finally decided that the porridge was "too cold" and dumped it out. Then, we hopped in the car and headed to the car wash. Abby laughed the whole way through as the water, soap, and brushes hit the car. She also told me that the "guy" directing me into the wash was, "So silly!"

The best part of the afternoon was that despite the change in plans, Abby didn't let the hang-ups get her down, she had a great time anyway. She took what she had and worked with it, enjoying herself the whole time, and so did I.

Abby prepares to mix up a "yummy" bowl of porridge.

By the look on her face, I'm not thinking this batch
is going to be, "Just right!"