how to make oatmeal

lately the kids have been making a spontaneous effort to get up earlier than their usual dragging-sleepy-head late wake ups on school mornings. it started as a competition with one another to see who could be downstairs first, and it seems like everyone wins in that race (less shouting, less stress, more breakfast). this morning, they had another early wake up, beat both david and i downstairs, and were all dressed and plotting out some breakfast plans by the time an adult caught up with them. david found ramona drawing this schematic of the stovetop burner for james:

and sharing the instructions with james for where on the burner control dial the flame starts and how to lower the flame to the 4 for appropriate oatmeal-making heat. 

here's the real burner control knob. she nailed it.

and now that james has had a tutorial in controlling the stovetop we need to keep up with the kids in the morning. oooooor we just unlocked the secret to long sleep ins.