Summer Day

"Mommy, what can I do?  I'm SO BORED!!!!"  I have heard that so many times in the past week, that I think I'm just going to start having them draw from the "punishment work jar" to pick their own poison.  Because you CERTAINLY can't be bored anymore if you're scrubbing down the baseboards....

With this week has come a welcome relief in the form of Summer Camp. With the older two boys gone, the two littler ones are much more content with their low-key play, and at the end of their first day yesterday, Sparky and Max were exhausted and happy.  Good stuff.

Yesterday my friend Lisa came over and we made dehydrated Kale chips (in my Excalibur 9-Tray Food Dehydrator, LOVE IT!), and also a quadruple batch of raw cashew "cookie dough" in my Vitamix blender.  I will share the recipe for both the cookie dough (because of course I've tweaked it from the original), Sweet & Smokey-Spicy Kale Chips, and Garlic & Olive Oil Kale chips sometime soon.







I love having healthy snacks around.  I am often so busy taking care of the children and our household that it can be difficult or impossible to stop and properly feed myself.  With a cache of wholesome snacks on hand, I can at least tide myself over to the next real meal -- or even just make a snacky meal-on-the-go, depending on what I need.


This morning, Daisy and I planned to give ourselves manicures, and of course Billy was right in the middle of it, choosing and arranging "his colors", rather seriously.  I have nearly always told him "no" before, but I knew it would make him sooooo happy....he was really angling for all different shades of red and pink, but we worked out a compromise -- he gets a full mani/pedi, but only in black/blue/green.  I painted Daisy's nails in a "Skittles" colorway with lots of glitter on top.  EVERYONE had a happy morning.





Today during Billy's naptime, Daisy and I realized that it had started raining violently outside.  We quickly made cups of hot tea to cuddle with and watch the storm...






I am loving the quietness of today.