“Oh duh” moments are often some of the funniest events that can happen in a family. What is an “oh duh” moment? When you do something so obviously wrong there’s no hiding your hilarious mistake from anyone. One of my favorites while growing up was when my mom told my little sister to put a cup of water in the roast. My mom had meant she needed to add a cup of water to the roast, but she literally placed a cup full of water next the roast cooking in the oven. That day we had dried out roast and a lot of laughs around the table.

This week my daughter added another one for me to giggle about. Saturdays are often long days of writing for me, so my daughter offered to make lunch for her and her brothers. She’s lovin’ her home economics class at the junior high, telling me constantly what a great cook she is, so I figure why not. Besides, they want mac and cheese. You can’t screw that up, right? Wrong.

Water in pan—check

Bring it to a boil—check

Pour in the noodles—check

Allow to boil for seven minutes—check

Less than ten minutes later my daughter’s asking me, “How long does it take for this to thicken up?”

“Thicken up?” I walk over to the stove top and peer inside. It looked like an orangey, yellow soup nobody would want to eat. “Oh honey, you’re supposed to drain the water before you add the cheese powder and butter.”

“Where does it say that?”

I grab the discarded box out of the garbage and show her. “It’s the last part of step two.”

“Oh.”

“Yep—oh.” She’d done it, an “oh duh” moment I’d be laughing about for years to come.