My Wheelhouse

Friday night I texted my brother, Ammon.  I asked him if he was busy.  It was, after all, Friday night and he is, after all, a young whipper snapper.  For all I knew he was out painting the town.

My home phone rang.  It was Ammon.  He was ready to field my questions.  He always is.  When I have questions for things he knows about (which is a lot) he is willing to explain (and re explain) to me.

I had questions for him about the curtain rod in our boys' room that jumped off the wall in an alarming display of recklessness that I'm not sure I can support.  That curtain rod is supposed to stay attached to the wall.

Ammon patched our drywall once after Braeden's foot punched a foot shaped hole in it.

Ammon knows drywall.

Ammon was carefully explaining ways to repair the thing to me and I kept saying, "Wait, I don't understand."  He lost me when he was describing ways that a house is framed and how I could reinforce the wall by inserting a new stud.  He wondered if my house was framed with 2 x 4s or 2 x 6s.  What?  He started explaining again.  At one point he said, "What does Adam think?"  (Which may have been his nice way of saying,  "Is there anyone else there I can talk to that would get this so I wouldn't have to keep re explaining it?")

I reported Adam was still at work.  Adam was ultimately the one that would be doing the repair and he gets that stuff better than I do but if I'm anything, I'm impatient and I wanted to query Ammon for advice rather than sit on my hands (or make dinner).

After I thanked my smart and capable little brother for his help and got off the phone (and while I was making dinner), I wondered if there would ever be a time when Ammon would need to ask me for advice or help.  I ask my parents for advice on Everything.  I ask my sisters for advice on parenting and sewing (no, not YOU Olivia, the other sister) and recipes and homeschooling and gift ideas and the like.  I ask my brothers for advice on home repairs, car repairs, purchases and the like.

No one asks me for much advice.

I decided maybe they don't realize my wheelhouse...what I KNOW.  (Then I had to decide what that was also...)

And here it is.

I know cake mixes.

I can make a cake from a cake mix in no time at all (multiple flavors too...that's how good I am).

I can make cookies and muffins from cake mixes too.  Recently when I made cake mix muffins, Mark said they'd be good with frosting.  Emma said, "No, then they'd be cupcakes."  (Therefore, illegal breakfast fare.)

So here's the word to anyone who would ever like my advice.  If you need help with a cake mix, call me.