Delectable Thought

We're waste-deep in chiggers over here.  I promise my little fellas could be 100 miles away from the closet chigger and it would somehow find my sweaty boys. Chiggers equal clear nailpolish applications to places other than our toenails and fingernails. They also equal little boys scratching themselves in awkward places in public and me saying constantly, "Stop doing that!"  I'm sure a good remedy to our chigger issue would be to stay indoors, but I'd rather you rip off all of my fingernails and toenails with tweezers and then dip them in rubbing alcohol than stay indoors with my two boys. My boys (and most likely your boys) are loud and proud and rowdy and rough and tumble. My house is not a jungle gym, nor does it muffle sound, so indoors my sanity is stretched and pulled like an overblown balloon that you know is about to pop at any moment. My remedy...we spend most ALL our time outside. We do have a few regulations, a few things that will drive us inside. 1) R...

Over there you can barely make out my stand mixer. My plan was to make cupcakes in that stand mixer, but as is the norm around here whenever my boys notice, which is always, that I've switched activties and am about to do something new, they flock to me, buzzing around like a bunch of flies wanting to be involved. Sweet, right? Of course it is and I soak up every moment that they want to be with me. Every moment like when I go to the bathroom or get in the shower or brush my teeth or step outside on the porch to have an adult conversation on the phone. They have a sixth sense that is better named the Mommy Homing Device. They just know, like I know the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, that mommy is about to do SOMETHING. It doesn't have to be something fun or entertaining, but just something. So Saturday this mommy decided to make peach cupcakes with cream cheese and peach compote in the center and peach curd in the batter topped off with cinnammon cream cheese icing...

Since we became a transracial family in 2013, there have been many unsual things to address, overcome, learn about, and conquer. Back in February of this year, exactly one year after we brought James home, I decided he needed to visit a barber shop. I know right now you have images of Ice Cube's classic hit Barbershop  flashing through your brain, but that's the movies and we live in Frankfort, so the barbershop we visited and by we, I really mean Zack and the boys, wasn't like that. There was no sign of Ice Cube...anywhere! Visiting a barbershop was uncharted territory for us. Why you ask? Well, because we're white and we grew up going to hair salons and if you're white, getting your haircut isn't really part of your cultural experience. I do understand that for black men and boys it is and I want this for my youngest son, so "we" headed off to the barbershop. Unfortunately, James HATED it. Like full on screaming, crying, flailing, etc.  The first cut...

I'm a fan of kool-aid. I drank a lot of it when I was growing up, but I'm not a fan of Kool-aid on my carpet and well...that's the sweet gift the Sons of Thunder gave me this past Saturday. I walked in to discover a red Kool-aid spill about the size of a mighty watermelon. I died a little as I thought about the permanence of it. Would I get it up? Was my carpet cleaner strong enough to suck the red Kool-aid out of my carpet?  Well, turns out it was and there is only a faint pinkness to the carpet now. I might be the only person who sees the pinkness because the image of that red stain is burned into my brain. This fun time called for swift action by Dad who quickly instated the "No food or drink other than water on the carpet from here on." We've abided by this rule this week obligingly, probably because the boys still remember the look on my face when I discovered the spill. But today, John Owen, Mr. Strongwilled Child USA asked for a snack of goldfish, which...

I took the notion to go on a road trip with my sons of thunder, solo. No other adult...just me. Yes, I am slightly crazy, but hey good times were had with our Virginia cousins---my nieces and nephews. Here's a few pics as proof. My sweet niece Abigail. She's eleven and quite nearly perfect.  Here's a picture of both my nieces. That's little Caitlyn...she's got more sass that anyone I know, but is so much fun and a barrel of laughs! The party follows her for sure! Throw in Austin. He's fourteen and little JO trying to be all grown up, too and the party's almost complete. My nephew Zach and my sweet baby James were both napping during this picture, I believe. Zach's twelve and JM's two, but when naptime calls, you answer no matter your age. Amen? Fun was had and then the fun came to an end and the sons of thunder and I packed up Zack's truck and began the eight hour journey home. This picture was taken at about hour eleven of our journey---a journe...