boom there it is

moments sneak up on you. today i walked over to the library with nate and chloe (why is it that 2 kids feels like 20 less kids than 3?) and on the way home we stopped at dunn bros for an iced coffee - yum. i love the iced dark roast. strong, no sugar with milk. slightly medicinal but delicious and i always silently congratulate myself for not getting their version of a frappucino type beverage with whipped cream...so not only feeling triumphant but also fresh and wide awake. here is something one could get addicted to. so while i am ordering chloe drops her book, nate drops some garbage, you know the drill and it does not occur to them to pick it up so i say guys pick it up....blah blah blah - they do! holy shit! anyways i say to the coffee guy - i am their sherpa. he looks at me and says sherpas are used to surviving without a lot of oxygen. pause pause pause. we look at each other. i smile he smiles, i pick up chloe's water cup and toss it in the garbage. take a deep breath and enjoy a little stumble into wisdom. who knew my coffee stop would fill me thrice.

slawlicious

here is a great recipe for coleslaw. HOORAY! i got a run in, the sun is shining. we have family from winnipeg coming over for a bbq...and we are headed to the pool for a dip. what could make the day better....well, mike took all three kids out to hunt for wetsuits - yes we choose to vacay in canada and the water is a tad chilly....so i am alone to putter and prep dinnah for tonight......satisfying and soooo tasty. just ate a huge helping of this - v yummy. i used 2 bags of the precut coleslaw mix and added a tbsp of hoisin sauce to the dressing bc even though i cannot say it properly i love it on pretty much anything.....so enjoy!

Crunchy Peanut Slaw

1 big bowl of slaw, serves at least 8

1 medium head green cabbage, outer leaves removed
1 1/2 cups roasted, unsalted peanuts
1 bunch green onions
1 cup chopped cilantro (about two big handfuls unchopped)
Salt and pepper

Dressing:
1/2 cup light oil, like canola
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar (or more, to taste)
1 tablespoon sesame oil1 teaspoon soy sauce (or more, to taste)

Shred the cabbage very finely. The fineness of the shredded cabbage is really what makes this salad; you want it in in threads, almost, and with the threads chopped into bite-size lengths. Toss with the peanuts in a large bowl. Chop the scallions, including the green and white parts. Toss the scallions and chopped cilantro with the cabbage, seasoning very lightly with salt and pepper.
Whisk the dressing until emulsified, then taste and adjust to your own preferences of sweetness and saltiness.
Toss with the cabbage. Garnish with a few more peanuts and serve.

a sigh of relief

mike has bought a boat (well, i guess i should say WE have bought a boat - chuckle) and ecstatic is not even enough to describe how i feel. this boat has an engine, i.e. is not powered by the wind, who by the way i loved for a good 36 years, this is the wind we are talking about just in case i lost you....anyways...a few years mike/we bought a 17 ft hobie cat - a sailboat he said that had coolers - images of lounging and white wine filled my mind with pleasure and satisfaction- HAH. is all i can say, would you like to see my scars? i was his ballast, there is no other word for it, and bless his heart he loved every minute of it (the way your kids love beating sibs up, i suspect?!?) anyways, it got to the point that i would wake at the cabin and hear the wind and think SHIT!!!!!!!!!!! this was the whole reason to have dyani at minaki for 2 summers, i know most thought it was to help watch kids, but truly it was to give mike a sailing buddy. hey - i will watch all the kids and make dinner, you go get in the harness and sail with my beloved....?....i loved the idea of sailing, kind of like the way i loved tennis, btw have you seen me in a tennis skirt? HEllo....but truly it scares the shit out of me. thank god my kids love it and will have the muscle memory (thank you kim for imprinting me with that concept) for sailing...and now anyone for a little water skiing and a booze cruise?

and the winner is

in the epic battle for domination, and no, i am not referring to nate vs chloe, that is a whole other story, one that would take some quiet and at least a whole bottle of wine to wrap my mind around. this battle i am referring to is laundry. what is a 7 letter word for defeat......laundry. btw i had to count that out on my fingers at least twice. i have come at this from all angles. monday is laundry day - failure! each day i will do a load - failure! i will just air fluff items and pretend they were laundered - stinky failure! how many times have i heard - mom/marla/honey/lazy fat assed w$%#e - do i have any clean underwear? to which i answer (at least in the month of july,) - oh honey it's summer go comando - alas failure! don't even get me started on the chewies - total utter and i fear unhygienic failure! so what's a mom to do? thank goodness for washers and driers for one, i do not even want to go there with the whole cloth diaper thing...thank god for my good natured spouse who i know likes to wear things a second or third time (that is a 7 child family thing, i am sure) and i suspect my daughter and son in laws one day will thank me for learned fondness for the whole free ballin/?? thing. well, likely they will never thank me - heaven forbid! it will, i imagine be an unspoken thing, not unlike the smile on my face as i roll over and go back to sleep and mike recycles his underwear.

objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

much much closer and much more volatile

in my next life i am coming back as one of my kids

seriously. there really isn't anything else to say on this. lucky little buggers.

too much of a good thing is in fact too much

so we have a sitter and what do we do.....go to costco. it seemed like a good idea until we were walking to our car after the carnage and we thought WTF !! why did we go to costco when we could have gone to the farmers market and had lunch? well, you can't get 48 individually wrapped bags of cheezits at the farmers market...we felt ill....could have been the copious sampling that we engaged in - potato salad - rice chips - frappacino - muffins! every time i go to costco i get to the ziploc bag ect area and i want to abandon ship - seriously just leave the cart and bolt. i don't however which inevitably leads to this. now you have it, where do you put it??? the excess just seems wrong...co-op, bike, farmers market here i come.

if looks could kill

hmm, how do i classify this look? it does seem slightly unfair that this is the closest he gets to outdoors while i lounge around at the pool sipping diet coke and gabbing ...livin the dream.