Miss Ernie

Does anyone who has kids remember this book? It's a book about how Ernie breaks the cookie jar, and ultimately ends with Bert needing to use a pot for his cowboy hat (because Ernie used his cowboy hat as a fishbowl, because he needed the fishbowl for something else, and so on.....all the way back to where he originally put the cookies because he broke the cookie jar.)

Hannah could be the star character of this book. She has perfected the art of making a short job long, or a long job longer. Every time she "invents" something, I am reminded of Ernie in this book.

She made me a deal again today. She wanted to be done school to clean her room. Because her room wasn't that bad, coupled with the fact that I had already decided that she had done enough school (although I didn't tell her that yet, hee....hee...), I said she could.

What really needed to be done was a thorough going through of her closet. We had too much stuff and not enough space. She decided to undertake this. She took down what she thought she had outgrown and brought it to me for inspection.

She put them in a "special" cloth bag, not originally intended for clothes. She proudly showed me where she stowed the goods, pretty pleased with her ingenuity.

I asked her, "So, what was originally in that bag?"

"My Bible," she replied.

"So where did you put your Bible?" I asked.

"In my purse," she answered.

"What did you do with the contents of your purse?" I asked, knowing that her Bible would take up most of her space.

She smiled. "Why are you asking me this?" she asked.

I replied back with a big smile of my own. "Maybe I should start calling you Ernie."

She knew immediately what I meant and laughed.

A little later she called me into her room. She was emptying out her drawers and getting rid of socks and tights that didn't fit or had holes in the toes. She very proudly showed me her unique way of folding tights. She took each leg, rolled it up to the top, folded them together and tucked them in. A job that took longer than necessary.

But I just smiled again. At least she was working hard, and enjoying her work.

And she proved my point exactly.