Not Magazine Worthy

You would think by the number of magazines that arrive in our mailbox each month my kids would have the perfect childhood complete with a gourmet meal each night that has earned the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Not so much. I love my magazines and usually have good intentions at using some of the ideas, but I rarely ever do.
Last summer as our family was preparing for 2 back to back road trips, I was trying to think of travel activities for our boys. I thought of a great idea. I would put magnets on the back of some of their puzzles and take cookie sheets along in the van. Brilliant! That idea was sure to earn me at least $25 when I submitted it to Family Fun! Well, we weren't 10 miles down the road when I flipped open the latest issue of Family Fun and there was my idea--only the puzzle was on that mom's fridge. Oh, well . . . but she hadn't thought of using a cookie sheet! Somewhere past Valentine, NN (enroute to Denver) I pulled out the magnet pieces and the cookie sheets for the boys. Before 2 seconds passed, they told me it didn't work. Guess what--Airbake cookie sheets aren't magnetic! Oops. I carefully took them away and distracted them with something else before they became too traumatized. Whew!
Right around Halloween, I read that some other creative mom had made a spider web out of clear lights. A perfect project for my boys and me! Nathan and I made the first one--tying the lights to the side of our deck and staking them in the ground. It looked great during the day, but we had strung them too close together and it only looked like a big glob of white light by night.
The next morning while Teresa napped, Landen and Nathan and I returned ready to make an even BIGGER spider web. We even made a big SPIDER to tie onto it! The results looked almost like the real thing and the white lights glistened in the sun.
That night I went to plug it in and neither of the outside outlets would work. I use them all the time and they always work! But I tried everything and there was no power. So, I got an extension cord. I plugged the lights into an inside outlet and a bad thing happened--only half of one string lit! I did some investigating and found a few lights were broken. I fixed those and still there was nothing. Then I saw it. Our dog Callie had chewed one of the stings. Oh, well, I thought. I would fix it in the morning. I would not be defeated!
I returned the next morning with a new string of lights (I always buy a new string every year if I need one or not). As I started to unwind the web to find the severed string, I saw there was another problem. Callie had chewed every possible string apart. There was no repairing this project. Our lighted spider web was not to be.
Since then I really intended to make that apple pie recipe in Good Housekeeping and to try that discipline trick in Parenting . . . but, maybe it's best that I didn't.