Who made YOU dinner?

Munchkin was home from school yesterday for the holiday, which is still a little scary for me. She is old enough to keep herself out of trouble for the day, but I still worry that she will burn the house down, get kidnapped or do something else. In reality she talks to her friends on the phone, watches TV and plays Wii.

Oh, and cooks, as it turns out. She must have been feeling ambitious yesterday, because she decided to make spaghetti and meatballs. Which means that she called our aunt to get the recipe, and did an inventory of the fridge and the cupboards to see what she needed...then she called our neighbor (the sweet old lady downstairs) to ask if she happened to be going to the store, and could she go with her. The neighbor probably wasn't, but figured the walk would be nice, so she took her to the market. Then she made the sauce, and made the meatballs and the house smelled delicious when I got home!

I did tell her to hold off on making the spaghetti because I didn't like the idea of her fooling around with a big pot of boiling water...and it only takes a couple of minutes...but we did that in very short order when I got home. I also stopped and got some Italian bread and salad stuff. Once we put some butter and garlic salt on the bread and threw it in the oven for a bit...voila...! The Boy walked through the door just as we were taking it out of the the oven:-)

And yes, bad Mom that I am, I let her have a glass of red wine with dinner (well, half of one). Whatever...it is the Italian way!

Change of subject...big day today, obviously. I am not sure I remember Bush's first inauguration, and I definitely don't remember Clinton's, but I get the feeling they were not nearly as big a deal as this one is. It is refreshing to see so much interest in civics, although I worry that we have heaped totally unreachable expectations on the man. He certainly projects an air of great ease and comfort that kinda makes people think everything will be OK...but the realities are probably more complex than that.

My hope is that he has the strength to focus only on the things that are really important, and that he may be guided by his own conscience and wisdom in addressing the challenges he faces. I think asking him to solve all of the world's problems is unrealistic...I just want him to lead.

And...did I mention that Munchkin made brownies, too? Maybe she plans on asking me for something big and she was just buttering me up...