Watching a rerun of an Oprah episode last week, my son informed me that I should buy that cookbook full of recipes whose premise involves sneaking vegetable purees into just about everything you cook for your kids.
As he said to me, "You know Mummy, that's a good idea because I hate vegetables too!"
Wisdom speaks at age 10.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Pocketful of Sunshine
We have friends in Pennsylvania (Rich & JoAnn and daughter Alyssa; Doug & Gina and twins Maria & Kristin) who we get to see two or three times a year and at the end of each too-short visit it strikes us yet again how very much we love them and how much we miss them because they are so damn far away.
They are truly wonderful, loving, kind, generous and the most fun-loving couples (and their kids) you'll ever meet. And because I can be selfish and as has been previously indicated have a capacity to hoard this is not an invitation for you to meet them because they are ours. As in not yours. And I'm not sharing. I digress.
Each year there is a summer song that all the men sing, screech, belch, bellow with great gusto (I swear it's not the amount of alcohol we consume together, although the argument could be made that that certainly increases the volume at which they sing). The thing that fills my heart with such joy it is near to bursting are the genuine smiles and happiness they just naturally exude from every pore.
Just being around them, laughing, remembering something funny that happened, the exuberant stories told around the campfire, the LOVE that soars through them is enough to dissipate a bad mood like a cloudy sky beneath a ray of bright warm sunshine.
All I have to do is close my eyes and I can feel their friendship and encouragement and support from many miles away. They may not realize it, but when days are long and hard they are my Pocketful of Sunshine and I treasure them for it.
They are truly wonderful, loving, kind, generous and the most fun-loving couples (and their kids) you'll ever meet. And because I can be selfish and as has been previously indicated have a capacity to hoard this is not an invitation for you to meet them because they are ours. As in not yours. And I'm not sharing. I digress.
Each year there is a summer song that all the men sing, screech, belch, bellow with great gusto (I swear it's not the amount of alcohol we consume together, although the argument could be made that that certainly increases the volume at which they sing). The thing that fills my heart with such joy it is near to bursting are the genuine smiles and happiness they just naturally exude from every pore.
Just being around them, laughing, remembering something funny that happened, the exuberant stories told around the campfire, the LOVE that soars through them is enough to dissipate a bad mood like a cloudy sky beneath a ray of bright warm sunshine.
All I have to do is close my eyes and I can feel their friendship and encouragement and support from many miles away. They may not realize it, but when days are long and hard they are my Pocketful of Sunshine and I treasure them for it.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Lions and Tigers and Bears, OH MY
I decided to take the kids to the zoo yesterday for one or two reasons.
1. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, they were going to rip each other apart from limb to limb.
2. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, I was going to rip them apart from limb to limb.
In a car trip that felt like it lasted 2 hours but in reality was only 20 minutes long, my son was very excited to be there, and little sister was happy too although she couldn't figure out what the fuss was all about.
We wandered around in the extreme heat and humidity and they fed goats and donkeys and baboons and capuchin monkeys. We saw silver and red foxes and white tigers and zebras and lynx and coyotes and timber wolves...and as is the case every single time we go, the lions and bears were hiding in the shade somewhere. I pictured them sitting back in their dens, clinking their bottles of ice cold beer together and laughing hysterically at all the humans who'd paid much money to see them and yet, did not because they were smart enough to do what the people were not - which was to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE SUN AND HAVE AN ICE COLD DRINK.
After a few hours and a couple of pounds of sweat had dripped off me and into places that I didn't know sweat could go, I decided it was time to go home. At that point, I felt sick to my stomach from the humidity and being the pale freckle faced individual that I am, could not take one more minute without air conditioning blowing directly on me. And for the uninitiated, air conditioning does not smell like sour animal piss and feces.
In the car, and even though my son was talking a mile a minute about the different species of monkeys we'd seen, it was obvious that he was going to fall asleep within moments, and my daughter was asleep before we left the parking lot.
And me? As soon as we got home, I headed for my own cave in the cool basement, frosty bottle of beer in hand and toasted those bastard lions and bears.
They had the right idea all along.
1. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, they were going to rip each other apart from limb to limb.
2. If I didn't get them out of the house for a little while to do something fun, I was going to rip them apart from limb to limb.
In a car trip that felt like it lasted 2 hours but in reality was only 20 minutes long, my son was very excited to be there, and little sister was happy too although she couldn't figure out what the fuss was all about.
We wandered around in the extreme heat and humidity and they fed goats and donkeys and baboons and capuchin monkeys. We saw silver and red foxes and white tigers and zebras and lynx and coyotes and timber wolves...and as is the case every single time we go, the lions and bears were hiding in the shade somewhere. I pictured them sitting back in their dens, clinking their bottles of ice cold beer together and laughing hysterically at all the humans who'd paid much money to see them and yet, did not because they were smart enough to do what the people were not - which was to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE SUN AND HAVE AN ICE COLD DRINK.
After a few hours and a couple of pounds of sweat had dripped off me and into places that I didn't know sweat could go, I decided it was time to go home. At that point, I felt sick to my stomach from the humidity and being the pale freckle faced individual that I am, could not take one more minute without air conditioning blowing directly on me. And for the uninitiated, air conditioning does not smell like sour animal piss and feces.
In the car, and even though my son was talking a mile a minute about the different species of monkeys we'd seen, it was obvious that he was going to fall asleep within moments, and my daughter was asleep before we left the parking lot.
And me? As soon as we got home, I headed for my own cave in the cool basement, frosty bottle of beer in hand and toasted those bastard lions and bears.
They had the right idea all along.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)