With Apologies to A.A Milne

Last night, our little dog had a stroke of courage and ran up the stairs. In two years, he has not attempted this feat without one of his youthful owners standing behind him. All I can think is that the thought of being away from his two precious little boys gave him the adrenaline rush he needed to make the journey. But on his last attempt, he gave up. He stopped about midway up the staircase which caused me to remember a poem by A. A. Milne.



Halfway Down

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair
where i sit.
there isn't any
other stair
quite like
it.
i'm not at the bottom,
i'm not at the top;
so this is the stair
where I always stop.

Halfway up the stairs
Isn't up
And it isn't down.
It isn't in the nursery,
It isn't in town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head.
It isn't really
Anywhere!
It's somewhere else
Instead!

(If you own the copyright to this poem and would like it removed, please let me know.)

Enjoy your day.

Digital Scrapbook

These are pictures from our February visit to the Natural History Museum. The captions are taken from my 7 year old's scrapbook of the visit. The spelling is his.

The ruby pictured above he called "Werd."

"Thats a crstaly a blue one."

"thats the rope dimond o hell the hope dimond."

"thats a brainy rock."

"thats me touching a crsital."

"thats a quartz i almost past out."

Enjoy your day!

Victory Not Mine

As I've stated previously in this space, the alpha dog is out of town. He returns in two days and we are all very happy about that. The boys have been melancholy and I have been bored out of my mind without my friend.

Like many people, I do, from time to time, drown my sorrows in a nice bowl of Ben and Jerry's. I know enough, in times like these, not to have any ice cream in the house so I have steered clear of the ice cream section of the freezer aisle. No "2 for $6" deal was going to spoil my resolve. I had faith in myself and I wasn't going to let myself down. But as I was rooting through the freezer last week for something for dinner, I found a lone Haagen Dazs ice cream bar. If there had been two, I would have been safe because my adorable boys, who can afford the calories, would have eaten them. But there was only one. Crap.

I was so brave for many days. My tactics for avoiding temptation in the freezer are to either put something else in my hands, like a book or a knitting project. I've made excellent progress in my latest read! Or I simply go upstairs and remove myself from the vicinity of the temptation. This may seem absurd, but you underestimate my laziness at night.

Three nights left. I so wanted to avoid that stupid treat. I resisted on Thursday when my 12 year old told me that a classmate threw him out of his bunk at Outdoor Ed and kicked him several times. I was able to stay away from it Friday, when the dentist told me my 7 year old has to have an infected tooth extracted and needs a root canal in another tooth. I avoided it on Sunday, after fighting to entertain a child who had reached the peak of boredom, a boredom so intense that even his PSP couldn't entertain him. I had such high hopes for myself. But, last night, the temptation was strong. I was so brave for so long, but the pull from the freezer was mighty. I caved. And let me tell you, it was good, right down to the chocolate that I sucked out of the little wooden stick.

Enjoy your day.

Gardening Update

We have sprouts!! On Friday morning, I checked the vegetable garden and found that the radishes and lettuce were beginning to sprout. What a thrill! Now all I have to do is keep the rabbits, squirrels and deer away until the plants grow big enough to pick.

The grass is growing too. We've had a lot of rain in the past week so I haven't had to water which is good because I'm not sure when I would have gotten that done. The Pennington seed won't truly be put to the test until July, though. Stay tuned for more updates.

The tomatoes are not doing so well. I think I got my start too late and they weren't really big enough to go outside. I'll have to go buy plants at the garden center. Oh well.

I read an interesting article yesterday about businesses that are thriving right now. Burpee Seeds has seen a 30% increase in sales this year. Hormel Foods reports sales of Spam and their chili products are up. Kraft says that Mac and Cheese sales are increasing too. This is great! It's too bad that the tanking economy is what drove people back into their kitchens and yards, but how wonderful for our kids to be able to experience dinner as a family the way we did when we were young.

Speaking of dinner, we had my fabulous soy ginger turkey burgers last night with some delightful cucumber salad. I mixed ground turkey with Trader Joe's Island Soyaki sauce, and bread crumbs. If I had some cilantro, I would have thrown some in, too. The cucumbers were made with plain Greek yogurt, onion, garlic and a little salt and pepper. Probably too much onion, but at least two of us enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to trying some light and flavorful summer recipes.

That's all for now. Enjoy your day!