So it has come to this. I never thought I'd say the word hate and library in the same sentence, but this past Thursday during storytime, Liberty's class learned how to make stone soup, a mixture of water, a stone and various donated ingredients. Miss Bobbie read the story while cooking the ingredients that we had brought from home, and she stressed the idea that ANYTHING can be included in stone soup. That's what makes it so much fun.

We moms had been instructed ahead of time to bring a half cup of any chopped vegetable that we had on hand. I thought about bringing carrots, but since I don't like cooked carrots much, I nixed that idea. Then I decided to bring an onion. I reached into the bag and touched something slimy. The bag and all of its contents quickly hit the bottom of the garbage can, and Liberty brought chopped potatoes -- as did most of her classmates. Thankfully, we also had celery, corn and macaroni in the pot. And the stone. It all tasted lovely!

Three days have now passed since our trip to the library. My plastic bowl cabinet is empty. My carpets are drenched. My stuff is missing.

Anything and everything has become an ingredient in Liberty's Homemade Stone Soup. Her latest batch included a medium-sized stone from outside, two beaded necklaces from Grandpa and Nonna, a plastic measuring cup (I reclaimed it), a fuzzy pom-pom, my hair clip, Kimmie's miniature barbie from McDonald's, two of my good silverware spoons (reclaimed), a plastic chain link, particles of what used to be a square of clean toilet paper, four animal crackers (I stopped her just before those met their watery demise) and Mercy's foot.

Mercy was not pleased.

But, it has kept Liberty quiet and busy for DAYS. That's where my love part comes in.