You Live, You Learn

In the Cherry household, we have a saying: live and learn. We use this saying, whenever we make a mistake. We say it to indicate that in every mistake, there is lesson. Big and small, we are learning new things every day. As time has gone on, there have a been a few lessons (small lessons though they may be) that we have had to learn again and again. With some things, it turns out, the more you live, the more you learn.

One of those lessons is: being late sucks. We learned this when we showed up an hour late to pick up our marriage license at the county office as the doors were closing on us and almost didn't get one. We learned this when we almost missed our honeymoon cruise. We learned this when our family of then four DID miss a plane headed to visit family and friends at a wedding. Now, believe it or not, we try (oh how we try!) to be punctual.

Another lesson is: cheaper often just means CHEAP. We learned this with our clearance rack vacuum, which, once turned off spits back out all the gunk it just sucked up. We learned this with our scratchy target sale rack bed sheets, which if nothing else are bed bug repellent. (Who, other than us poor fools, would want to sleep on them?) We learned this with the Gingerbread Mini Village kit I purchased on sale a few weeks ago at a craft store.

Be warned: this gingerbread village LOOKS substantial, but "ant farm" would probably be a more fitting description.

This afternoon we set out to make our mini gingerbread village. I opened the box and was sure something was missing. The pieces were so small they were each about the size of Harper's hand, some even as small as her little fingers. The pieces weren't pre-cut, which meant Lucas and I had to saw our way through the delicate little dividing lines to avoid crumbling each little wall of each little house.

We divided into 2 teams to build our houses: Team Perfection, and Team Good Enough. For those of you who don't know, Lucas is a closet perfectionist. One of our daughters takes after him. They were kind of a grumpy team. Because, there was no way anything resembling perfection could be made from the pieces we had to work with.

Team Perfection working away. I have to admit, their houses do look pretty good...

I was on Team Good Enough with our other daughter. The one who unloaded a whole bag of sprinkles atop each of her structures with little concern for form. The one who, in this way, takes after me. Team Good Enough barely even got structures together, and in the end we ate one of the houses meant for our village. We just couldn't get the thing to stand. Plus, YUM. We were clearly the fun team.

This house just wasn't cooperating. We spread frosting over it, then commandeered it for eating.

A member of Team Good Enough caught eating on the job. Typical.

The baby was an honorary member of Team Good Enough. She attempted to find any sprinkle crumbs left in the wake of our building as she scooted her way across the floor beneath us.

So...we all learned a few lessons today. We need each other. Team Perfection needs a little more fun and spontaneity in their lives. (Relax, and stop trying to make a mountain out of an ant farm!) And, Team Good Enough needs a little encouragement to follow the directions (you know, that little packet that came with the Gingerbread Mini Village that we tossed to the side.)

Our two teams' houses came together to comprise this "village." It's a miracle any of the five (now four) houses are still standing.

On the practical side of things we learned that maybe paying a few extra dollars for a better gingerbread house next year would be a good idea. It's probably best for Team Good Enough's confidence, and Team Perfection's sanity.