This is what I am experiencing at this very moment:  The boys are doing science “experiences”.  Mama Syd brought the set with her when she came.  It was awesome …  while she was here.  I don’t like being responsible for the mess.  This fact annoys me even more because I’m a mess kind of person.  But as the boys “suck all the colors” out of pots and tubes, it sucks all the life out of me.

At this moment, I am biting my lip, trying to keep from telling them how to do it right.  In my mind – and I believe all girls minds – it would be fun to try and make all the hues of the rainbow.  Instead, the boys are shouting “Yay!!!!  More brown!!!”  Then they get back to the task of formulating what makes the most “brown brown.”  This tries my nerves.

Meanwhile, Tess is biting off the tip of the wooden lipstick Mama Syd bought her.  And while we were at the mall last night, searching for a winter hat for Jac, she was overcome by the lace and baubles she saw.  “Mama!  I yike DIS!!!” she’d say passionately and clutch them in her mitts. 

Making brown versus loving lace.  That’s the difference.