Friday List!

Sarah's List:


I might regret sharing this trick with everyone, but from now on I'm using the kindly brontosaurus.

See, who wouldn't want to do a favor for this guy?

Did you know there are websites for swapping and buying for-cheap nice kids clothes? It's like an online yard sale. If only we didn't live in the Congo...

From Moxiejean.com.

It's true. Spoons have no place in public. Please read if you agree. 

These guys are just asking for trouble.

Last night we had an intervention and convinced Jill to "read" her 18,000+ unread emails. This reminded me to check that weird "other messages" folder in Facebook. It's been a few years since I last looked and among the garbage I found a nice note from an old friend of ours in Lebanon, someone offering to publish my Master's thesis and someone calling me a "slt!!!" I think only one of these messages is real.

PSA: Check your "other" inbox. Credit: Matt Elliott.

Even when you leave Egypt, you never really leave Egypt. Do you? Nobody wins.

And guess whose children told the Mamas that syrup is honey? And that it must been eaten on everything. Back in Congo less than 2 weeks and we're down a bottle of freshly imported Aunt Jemima's. We'll just call this Charlotte's first translation error.

The baby benefactor when "syrup" is lost in translation.

Jill's List:

This week's exciting South-African-import score from Shop Rite was Baby Brinjals.  Don't know what those are?  It sounds much fancier than it is, but you can turn to this informational page from Woolworth's (source of all fancy South African things) if you care to learn more.  Best yet: these babies were only 5000FC!

All of the middle school teachers met together to discuss a very important topic this first week of school: handwashing.  Or the lack thereof.  Turns out that our student post-bathroom handwashing rate is pretty gross.  I'm positive that this unfortunate trend persists in middle schools throughout the world.  Now, what's a school nurse to do?  Lobby for liquid soap (the kids say they aren't going anywhere near those dirty-looking bars) and laminate some reminder posters, I guess.  Do you know how hard it is to get people to wash their hands?!  Hospitals can't even seem to figure it out...

Image from here.

Following Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Twitter for news on Egypt.  Like this:

Sharif Kouddous ‏@sharifkouddous1hPolice and army firing heavily at mosque minaret. Mayhem inside. Loud booms. Absolute chaos.

Check out this IndyKids article on why he became a foreign correspondent.

Image from Sampsonia Way.

Sarah outted me about, but it's true, I did have 18,0002 unread emails in my inbox.  Want to clean up your life too?  Here's the tutorial I used.  As part of my therapy, I've been reading up about others with a similar digital hoarding tendency.  But, really, I think my issues aren't very deep seeded.  I'm just lazy.

Yeah.  Why is it that U.S. moms are missing out?


In 1776, many of the "founding fathers" ages ranged from 18 (James Monroe) to a ripe, old 25 (James Madison)!  Bonkers!  Granted, life-expectancy necessitated early success in the 18th century, but still...

Teenybopper.

Here's to a much-deserved weekend after a wild first week of school! We had breakfast for dinner to celebrate.  Do you have any back-to-school traditions? Also: are you smarter than a 1912 8th Grader?

Awesome shirt from the best place to buy boys clothes (in my opinion), Bobinette.