Originally published at American Family. Please leave any comments there.

And on with the questions….

7) You have posted about not wanting to have a lot of toys in the house. What are the main ways your girls entertain themselves? Sports? Dramatic play? Fun with household items? We have a lot of toys and we still run out of things to do. I am curious.

I sincerely believe the more toys my kids have, the less they play with.  I suspect this is because they survey they playroom and only see piles of things and can’t see the individual toys.

When I force M to stop following me around saying she is bored, she is most likely to go draw, write letters or color.  This makes her art box one of the most used toys in the house.  She has also been spending a lot of time playing imaginary games with these toy horses which she received at her birthday party.  She also received a webkinz horse or donkey and she plays with it and her pegasus toy from Disneyland a lot too.  (She doesn’t know that there is any webkinz connection with the internet). 

M likes to push her animals/dolls around in a toy umbrella stroller while pretending things like they are all astronauts etc.  M also likes board games, though she usually plays with Mr. A because I dislike board games and I am mean like that.  Her current favorite is Caliboo.  M will occasionally play House with her little friends, but she has never once played dress up, despite owning several princess outfits. 

Now that she can read, M spends at least an hour or two every day reading to herself.  We try to go  to the library every week or two.  Right now, she is devouring the Bearenstain Bears.  (BTW, who the heck knew that the Bearenstain Bears often have a religious message to them?  M is now praying every night after reading it in one of those dumb books.)

L likes to try to play with whatever M is playing with and whatever M doesn’t want her to touch, especially the dolls stroller.  L also likes any toys that play music or make noise, particularly early in the morning while I am still sleeping.   L is much more interested in baby dolls than M ever was.  She likes to carry them around and feed them toy bottles.  She really likes stuffed animals and has a habit of biting them right on the face.  The tupperware drawer is also huge favorite too.

8)  I know you had a post a while back around Ashley’s question where you were looking for quick, easy and tasty dinner ideas. What ideas did you end up trying, and what worked well for you, Mr. A and the girls?

This is similar to the answer on the other question, but when I was originally looking for suggestions I think it was because L was a total wreck every time I tried to make dinner.  Now she is much less interested in hanging on me when it is time to cook.  She is also more easily distracted by the Wiggles when I really need her to give me a break.  

Another easy and relatively quick recipe I make is this Banana Bread.  I found it by googling “world’s best banana bread recipe” and it really, really is.  It looks more complicated than it is.  I only use the first set of ingredients.   God, I might need to make some tomorrow now that I am thinking about it.  I get compliments every time I take it to potlucky things.

9)  How do you answer (if it comes up) the “what do you do?” type questions. I hate them but I’m curious as to how other people answer them.   Also, what kind of work (paid kind) would you like to do in the future…nonprofit again….any specific field of interest.

I think I usually just say “I am not working right now, I am home with my girls.”  I don’t actually get that question very often because I am usually only found in places where other people are during the day with their kids.  When I do respond though, I say it with a bit of an attitude, like, “What? You don’t think that is a job?”

If I ever do go back to work (I imagine sooner or later I will do SOMETHING to help pass time), I would almost certainly do nonprofit work.  All my professional experience is in nonprofit fundraising, grant management and project management.  I can’t really imagine what kind of professional job I would have if it wasn’t in a nonprofit.

Most of my experience has also been in adolescent reproductive health and teen pregnancy prevention.  This is one of my very favorite charitable causes and I would work in that field forever if I can find a job doing it.  I also really loved the volunteer work I have done in the past with refugees, though I haven’t ever done that work for pay.  Our city has a very large and growing refugee population, so that is a viable option.  In a pinch, I would be willing to work for most liberal kinds of causes (environment, women’s issues, human rights, etc.).

I think I have only two more questions left, but I have a lot to say about them.  I will try to do that tomorrow or over the weekend.