Better Left Unsaid

There are certain things that it’s okay to think but that we should never say out loud in front of our kids unless we’ve already decided on a course of action. Like if we’re thinking about possibly adding another baby to the family or about maybe taking a family trip to Disneyland. We shouldn’t say these things because children demand follow-through, and that means we either have to make them cry, or we have to follow through.

Even though I know this, I still find myself saying things like, “We don’t need to buy a kit. Let’s build a gingerbread house from scratch!”

Luckily following through with this better-left-unsaid statement involved neither establishing another college savings account nor cashing in one of our existing ones.

I didn’t have my camera on hand to capture all of the in-progress action, but here’s a taste:

We used a clementine to support the roof until the mortar dried, just like the pros do. (“Imagine how large a clementine you’d need to build a real house!” my nine-year-old observed.)

I used grated fresh ginger when I ran out of dried, and the little fibers from the ginger had the unintentional effect of making the house look kind of like it was made of straw and mud. So very rustic (and appetizing, too)!

And the final product:

This is the best use I’ve found so far for leftover Halloween candy.

While I’m not enthusiastic about making another from-scratch gingerbread house, this photo doesn’t make me cry, so I consider it a win.

(If you’ve made the same mistake I did and are now wondering how the heck to make a homemade gingerbread house, here are the recipe and instructions we used.)

(This isn’t the first time I made this mistake, by the way.)

(Another related/update post here.)