When I forget...the children remind me!!

@Genipher Yeah I hate the pits!

I love cherries and strawberries. But I abhor being sticky.

Cherries really are the pits!

@TheHorse I don't blame you for that one! I have been known to get a touch p*ssy if I have to clean anything worse than pebbles or a little water out of my car or off my upholstery!

I don't allow ice cream or sticky candy consumption in my truck.

It's so easy to forget! Especially when a whole year passes until the next cherry or strawberry season. I'll probably forget next year, too. My kids are wanderers. We poorly trained them in this area. They go outside and the next thing I know, they're back indoors with a drippy Popsicle or cherry fingers. To keep them out, I'd probably have to lock all the doors.

It's like the kids turn into fruit vampires! They have fruit dripping off their fangs, er, chins and juice is everywhere! I do love that they love fruit. Now if I could just get them to demolish veggies like they do cherries...!

What good suggestions

Let me think...this was a few days ago. I had to help the littles with baths...they're not old enough to wipe the sticky off themselves yet. I believe my 7 year old attacked the pile of strawberry stems in the garage. But I admit, I probably cleaned up about 1/2 the cherry mess. I kept finding little stems all over the place... No matter how many times they clean their messes...or other people's messes...they still struggle with the concept that garbage goes in the garbage. Have you ever watched the skit by Tim Hawkins called, Dr. No? I think you'd like it.

@DaddyEvil Oh, is that what they're doing? Leaving me little "treasures"? On that note, my kids often hand me their trash even when their is a garbage can right next to them. My hubby was doing it for awhile, as well, until I expressed my, um, "displeasure". I understand if you fall into the Hawkins vortex. My kids and I have lost many an afternoon to that guy... Thanks for the You're a lot nicer than your name lets on!

@Genipher Hmmm... Okay, in reverse order.... First, will your dog eat mangoes? If he won't eat mangoes, then it won't do you any good to try to get him to eat a black mango... (Just sayin'!) If he will eat mango, then yeah, I suppose you could substitute your dog for your husband, one of your children and, I suppose, your mother-in-law. (You just took all the fun right out of seeing if you can get a mango to turn black, you know!) Uhm... I have gotten divorced twice, so I don't have any mother-in-laws, either... I never met my first mother-in-law. From what I've heard about her, I wouldn't have offered her any of the black mango, either. I did meet my second mother-in-law. Now HER, I would have fed the whole mango to... I would have had to think really hard about whether I would let her take a bite or if I would have shoved the mango as quickly and as hard as I could down her throat! Yes, I do know how to tell if a watermelon is ripe. Take a gallon sized milk container and fill it with water right to the very top. Leave no air space at all. Now, put the lid on the gallon jug. Holding the gallon jug by its handle, flick the jug with your fingernail. It will make a distinct sound. That is the exact sound a watermelon should make when it is ripe. I grew up on a working farm. We grew everything you can think of for our dinner table, including watermelons. It was easier for me to pick a ripe watermelon when the watermelon was still attached to the vine it grew on. Looking at the vine where it attached to the watermelon, you would see two small bare branches called quarrels on the vine. When those quarrels turned brown, the watermelon was ripe. Since a watermelon in the store no longer has any of the vine remaining attached, you must use the thump method to determine if the watermelon is ripe or not. Good luck!

@Genipher Yeah, I've used the milk jug to teach several people how to judge if a watermelon is ripe. After I teach someone, I ask them to pick out a good watermelon for me... I always pick one that has not ripened enough. If I have to pick one for myself, I either go to a watermelon patch so I can see the quarrels myself, or I get an old farmer to pick one out for me. I have no idea why the thump method doesn't work for me but I can teach other people how to use it just fine! It really makes me mad when I show someone how to tell but I can't do that myself! (Dad always told me that the person who can do it can't teach anyone else, but the one who can teach how to do it can't actually do it himself! I've always hated sayings like that! Dad was always laughing at me when he said it, too!) I avoid making mangoes turn black! Seems safer that way!

I can never figure out when those things are ripe!

Or just have multiple garbage bags around, let the "rules" be known, and dunk the kids afterward.

Ooooh, I love the sprinkler idea!

@TheHorse I could hose 'em off after. But I don't really have anything to dunk them in.

Thanks.

That's another thing I rarely buy. No matter how many times we've been over the mess issue, the popcorn ends up scattered from here to Kingdom Come. What really chaps my hide is when they leave the unpopped kernels for their baby brother to "find".

@Genipher I am glad I am not the only one with the issues with popcorn haha.

@shaggin @Genipher OMG! You two don't know what fun is, yet! My daughter (28 years old) LOVES popcorn, while I can't stand the stuff! She has no problem popping it, eating it and doesn't leave a mess all over the house! But she still leaves me a surprise every time she eats popcorn! I get the bowl with the stuck on un-popped kernels in it! I still can't figure out what is so difficult about dumping the un-popped ones in the trash while the bowl is still warm enough that they slide out instead of me having to scrub them out instead?! SMH! Uhm... Either one of you have a clue on that?

@Genipher

Outside would be better...rain or shine!

@Genipher @Jeanniemaries Uhm... I ate (sort of) a peach when I got home from work earlier... And then had to change my clothes and take a sponge bath! The peaches this year are really juicy and they squirt everywhere when you bite into them!

@Genipher True!

If we, as adults, have a hard time with juicy, messy fruit then how could we ever expect our kids to eat fruit without turning the area into a hazard zone?!