Saturday, June 13, 2015

Romance Lives

Don't you just hate it when a beloved thing--whether it be your favorite jeans or the perfect pillow or the best flavor of chips--is suddenly nowhere to be found? Such has been the case this summer with my beloved Perry's White Lightning ice cream.

It just hasn't been in stores. I've had it once at a seasonal ice cream stand, but for whatever reason, stores weren't stocking it anymore. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing to not have a full half gallon of irresistible temptation in my very own freezer, but still. Bummer.

But then!

A. went to Pennsylvania yesterday to spend some time with friends and returned this afternoon with a bag. "I brought you a treat," he announced. And he pulled out a quart of White Lightning* that he found at a random gas station on his way home and of course purchased for me, because he's been married to me for 12 years and knowing your spouse's favorite kind of ice cream is just something that comes with a dozen years of marriage.

Wuv. Twue Wuv.

* Apparently Perry's has started marketing it in its special and smaller-sized "Escapes" line of ice cream. Probably so they can charge more for it, but whatever. I have White Lightning in my freezer.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

It's the Journey, Not the Destination

A. took the day off of work today, which of course means Fun Daddy Day for the small children. And that, also of course, means fishing.

I mean, what else do you do with Fun Daddy?

A. was going to go all the way (ten miles) to the general store that sells live bait, and I was all, "You need worms? It's been raining for five days. We have worms."

And then me and my big mouth spent the next half hour lifting heavy rocks and gross old rotting logs so the kids could pull nightcrawlers out of the ground.

We also found a lot of ants and way too many slugs.

The things I do for these children.

After a sufficient quantity of bait had been collected, the whoooole happy family loaded up and went to the village dock for some fishing. At least, A., Cubby, and Charlie fished. Jack and I sat at a picnic table listening to the village maintenance guy mowing the grass around us.

Big downside to summer: the omnipresent combustion engine and its roaring noise. Loud engines, I hate you.

Anyway.

The lake was too muddy from all the rain for really good fishing, but A. caught a few bluegills and Cubby caught a goby all by his ownself. Cubby and Charlie are even now setting up the goby's "habitat," by which I mean they're chucking rocks into the metal container outside that will be his home (and eventually his grave, as all gobies die in captivity).

Fun Daddy Day, indeed.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

We're Cool. It's All Cool.

Other than the three days of thunderstorms we've had, which has made for some cooped-up hellions and a lot of wet clothes. We did have the bonus of a rainy period yesterday with no thunder, so of course Cubby and Charlie ran around like manic ducks, soaking themselves and ending by shivering uncontrollably (it was only about sixty degrees) but NO, they did NOT want to come inside. Who cares if our lips are blue, Mom, our water bugs* want to play in the rain. They LOVE the cold!

Right.

Jack has slept more or less through the night for the past two nights. This is in contrast to the past, oh, two weeks, during which he decided to destroy his mother by waking up like four times a night.

Okay, so maybe he didn't consciously set out to destroy me, but that was pretty much the result.

But now I feel almost human again! Hooray! So I made some rhubarb sauce.

We had way too much rhubarb sitting in the refrigerator for way too long and our first CSA box arriving today to claim all the refrigerator space, so I made the recipe for Victoria Sauce in the Ball Blue Book. It has sugar and raisins and spices and hey! That's pretty much chutney. It's good, but a little too sweet. I bet it'll be really good with our pork, though.

Let's see, what else?

Next week is Cubby's last day of preschool. That same day will be Jack's six-month birthday. My sister is arriving the day before with her family for a short visit. She's coming on her birthday, actually, so I promised to make her a chocolate cake. Jack doesn't get any, though. Sucks having no teeth sometimes.

And I think we'll end here. Happy random Wednesday, my lovelies.

* A strange plastic bug toy that came free in a Wendy's kid's meal, and Charlie's sunglasses. Those were the water bugs. No one could ever call my kids unimaginative. Weird, maybe, but definitely not unimaginative.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Wow

I just spent ten minutes in the bathroom with Charlie, trying to calm down his raging tantrum long enough for him to pee and then get to the bed he OBVIOUSLY so desperately needed.

Ten minutes of mustering all the calm I could in the face (the literal face) of a screaming, shrieking, crying, writhing toddler.

Know what he was (ostensibly) crying about? His shorts. His filthy shorts that he did not want to deposit in the basket to be washed.

I don't know either.

This is three years old. And I'm oh so happy that it and its freaky, shrieky behavior arrived a whole month early.

(Sarcasm. So very much sarcasm.)