The Wrap Up

1. I keep thinking about doing this kind of post on a weekly basis, but obviously cannot make up my mind since I’ve only done it a few times in the past year. It’s essentially a run-down of little (or big) things that happened in my life each week—mostly not book related, but there will be book stuff here as well. It’ll likely be little funny stories or examples of my neuroses. (And if that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will.)

If it’s something you’d like to read here on a regular basis, then I’d love to know. If it’s not…I’ll heed the sound of crickets and only do this once in a while when I have a bunch of little things to tell you.

2. We got a chest freezer and I’m so excited I can barely stand it. (If only I were kidding about that I’d be so much more cooler than I am. But, alas, I’m truly crazy-excited about my freezer.) Not only am I filling it with summer fresh goodness (went blueberry picking with the kids—yay! blueberries in the freezer,  LOTS of blueberries—and I’m smelling zucchini bread baking right now that is destined for the freezer for winter snacking) but we ALSO got to torture my son by telling him we were getting him a freezer for his birthday. So, it was like a win-WIN situation, you know? (Seriously, is there anything more fun than harassing your own kids? Or is that just my family?) When he and Steve went to the store to pick it up a couple days before the birthday, I called ahead to ask them to write “Happy Birthday!” on the box.

3. And lucky for the birthday boy that we DID get him a birthday freezer because he asked for a s’mores ice cream cake, which I created from a mash-up of two recipes I found online. This one was the first inspiration, but the birthday boy was not impressed with its size. So I decided to make a cookie crust following this recipe, bake it in a pie pan. (And, by the way, I’m totally making those s’more cookie bars next week.) Then I made the Toasted-Marshmallow ice cream from the first recipe (after having made the marshmallows from scratch—fun and easy, who knew?—and oh my goodness, they are SO much better than store-bought, WOW) and spread that over the crust. I poured homemade hot fudge sauce on top of the ice cream and put it in the freezer. Then I whipped some heavy cream up into the MOST AMAZING whipped cream, spread that on top and covered it with chocolate shavings.

(Why, no, I haven’t gotten much writing done all week, why do you ask?) (I should TOTALLY have a food blog because I LOVE to bake and I’m always tweaking recipes to make them healthier (with some ACTUAL nutritional value) or better, but then I’d never get any writing done (ahem).  And I’d probably grow in girth. Of course my family would be better fed and I probably wouldn’t ever forget to make dinner, but I digress…)

4. Speaking of sweets, is it just me or do you feel as if your whole parenting reputation lies in whether your kid’s teeth are in good shape when you take them to the dentist? I always feel as if I’m on the spot with each kid that gets into the chair and gets checked over. I almost literally heave a sigh of relief when each child is done and everything looks good. But when that first (and only, thank goodness) cavity was found—oh, man. I felt like the worst parent ever, that I’d totally failed.

5. I’ve finally admitted to myself that I must order new glasses and ACTUALLY WEAR THEM.  (It’s official. I’m old.) Of course I worry about things like: if I wear glasses and therefore don’t keep working my eye muscles, won’t it make my vision worse and make me actually DEPEND on wearing glasses to see? Doesn’t that seem like it would be true? Following the use-it-or-lose-it logic? (Turns out I’m TOTALLY wrong about that, by the way, and wearing glasses when you need them keeps your eyes healthier and your eyesight better.) (And I’m writing this without my glasses on. Yup. So I’m making good use of my newfound knowledge.)

Hope you have a great weekend, everyone!