So it's been about a month since I wrote here. Honestly, it only felt like a couple of weeks, which is weird, because in our new dystopian reality, every single day feels like a month, lately. Still, I knew I'd been remiss when my father called me to make sure I was still alive. When I go Dad-wondering-if-I-still-exist many days between writing, that's when I've been a jerk. Er, a bigger jerk than normal. Hi, Dad! I'm alive! This is the part where I tell you how thrilling my life has been that I just haven't had a SINGLE MOMENT to come here and detail it for you, what with the EXCITEMENT and...
Today's the day, people. We made it. Election Day! Now we all just have to make it to tomorrow, sans heart attacks. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.... In the meantime, may I remind you that it's Tuesday? As in... TACO TUESDAY. I can think of no better Tuesday in the history of (wo)mankind to well and fully commit to Taco Tuesday. Can you? I've got your taco recipes right here, in case you need some inspiration. Until there's a taco truck on every corner, you can just make yours at home, I guess. Enjoy!
Welcome to another episode of, "Well hello there, I am not in fact dead, I have just been busy elsewhere and also I suck." I have baked things for Nerd Night! I have fitted one hundred smelly teenagers for band uniforms! (That's not a slam; we do fittings during practice and they're practicing outside and it's hot and seriously, please send air freshener.) I have Cleaned Things and Dealt With Broken Things and said "let me know how I can help" and actually meant it, which means I have been doing lots of things which are probably uninteresting to anyone other than the folks I am helping, but...
Otto has this thing about asking me how my day was. I mean, he really wants to know, I'm sure. But he asks when he gets home and he often asks at dinner and sometimes he asks when we sit down on the couch later to watch TV, and he almost always asks again when we turn out the light and get into bed at night. It's endearing the first fifty-seven thousand times. Last night when he asked me for the third time that evening I snapped, "YOU ALREADY ASKED ME THAT" both because I'm a terrible person AND because half the time, I have no freaking clue how my day was. How was my day? What did I do all...
Chickadee leaves for college in two weeks, in case you're counting. I was counting, for quite a while there---I was counting down until a wonderful, mythical day when ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER as we worked through that less-than-halcyon time when your college-bound teenager suddenly morphs into a prickly, cranky, spoiled brat. I hear this is perfectly normal, and that my reaction of wanting to strangle her with my bare hands was also normal. That time came, and went, and now we are just finishing getting her ready and enjoying each others' company. And realizing we are going to...
If you've been feeling let down because I haven't been writing here much this summer, know that you're in good company---most of my family is annoyed with me as well. First I received a phone call from my father asking me if I was still alive, and if so, if everything was alright, because "when you don't blog for more than a week I get worried." Next, I received a text from my eldest (who was in the next room at the time), because although she will happily walk miles to catch Pokemon, apparently ungluing her ass from the couch to speak to me in person is too much effort. I guess what I'm...
Hey, remember last year, how the squirrels got into my tomatoes for the first time in forever, and I had unfairly blamed Licorice for a while before I figured it out, and then it became clear that the squirrels were just looking for water? Good times. And by "good," I of course mean "rage-inducing." By the end of the summer we'd already used up all of the tomato sauce I'd made, on account of having only made a few pitiful batches. Most of my tomatoes were stolen. Well. THIS YEAR would be different. Sure, it was dry out for a while, but then it rained for, like, a week straight. NO PROBLEM!...
I had grand plans for this summer. I did. This is the Last Summer, our last chance to operate as a family unit of 4 (if you believe the books with titles like Letting Your College Freshman Go and Once They Leave They're Gone; Whoops! Just Kidding! They're Back and Still Ungrateful and It's Perfectly Normal: Why Your Child Becomes an Asshole Before Moving Out) and Do Things. Except. Well, hey, we're Doing Things. Many things. ALL THE THINGS! Just... not so much as a family unit, it seems. Everyone's working. None of our schedules seem to sync up. When we finally have a day when no one has to...
Summer is in full swing! I know this because 1) it is hot and sticky outside and 2) I spend a fair amount of my life wondering why I don't have more time now that school is out and DEAR GOD WHY AM I STILL PACKING LUNCHES?? Ahem. So some things have changed, and others remain maddeningly the same. In no particular order, here are some of the things our family now does: Update the calendar in the kitchen. Remember how summer is relaxed and easier? HAHAHAHAAAAAAA nope. My school-year routine is to take down the calendar on the first of the month and fill it in, but now that both of my children...
