The Simple Joys

There's a park near us.  Right downtown.  If you park on the far side of said park you walk past a little river before you arrive at the playground area.  One of the things I like about this is that we rarely end up at the playground area.  Don't get me wrong.  I like the swings and monkey bars as much as the next person.  What's even better is the small adventure I get to take with my children when we're not on the swings.

Every time we get near that river we stop to find rocks.  We can spend 45 minutes or an hour just standing there, looking for rocks and seeing who can make the biggest splash.  None of us have quite figured out how to skip rocks like Daddy does.  The baby spends most of her time trying to figure out what she can get away with putting in her mouth.  Usually, everyone comes home muddy and wet.  But we all have an amazing time. 

People believe that children reintroduce us to all the really fun things in life.  In my opinion, my children are someone to share all those fun moments.  To add their own little unique twist.  Here's a few of our favorites.

* We, as a family, received a large basket of craft supplies for Christmas.  My son decided we all needed to make trees.  You would be surprised at what animals live in trees these days, but they made a pretty cool forest.

* Legos.  Everyone got Legos this year.  One day, my husband and I waited for the children to take a nap just so we could have a turn.

* Having a picnic on the front lawn.  Don't worry if the neighbors think you're strange or the baby is eating the grass again.  Think of it as not having to clean the table.

* Playing in the mud puddles.  Yep, it's messy.  Yep, some days I don't feel like dealing with the laundry.  There's nothing better than the feeling of mud oozing between your toes and the happy look of little people as they splash in the rain water.

* There is no end to the combinations you can devise from Thomas' train tracks.

* Having a sleep over in the living room.  Make sure there's plenty of snack food.

* Running through the sprinklers.  Even better if you have an ice pop.

* Coloring is still a classic.

* Collecting sticks.  If you're really feeling adventurous, save them for later and burn some marshmallows.

* Have you ever built a house for a slug in the front garden?

* Watching the planter in the front yard to see if anything is growing yet.

* Finding out what's hiding back in our woods.

* Playing hide and go seek in our house.  Not many places to hide here, but we still manage to play.

* Chasing each other in circles from the kitchen to the baby's room to the living room to the kitchen to the baby's room to the living room ...

* Watching the same movie so many times that you can fill in the blanks on the dialogue.

* Picking every stray piece of clover or dandelion in the yard because they make a pretty bouquet.

* Wishing on a dandelion.

* Waiting until dark so you can lay on the grass and look at the stars.

I just realized that I could probably sit and add to this list all day.  I may even go back and sneak a few extras in after I post this.  However long the list gets, though, it's a good reminder to stop taking life so seriously and get back to the simple joys.  What are your favorites?

White Truffle Salt and Batteries

Batteries.  It's one of the reasons I absolutely despise moving.  Before you ask what batteries possibly have to do with the price of ice cream in Bulgaria, allow me to clarify.  Whenever we move we remove the batteries from our toys and other electronics so they don't break down inside the toy.  Of course, after we move, we are then forced to match up batteries to electronics again.  I'm sure the quick-witted amongst you have seen the obvious solution which is to pack away the batteries with their corresponding item.  Fabulous solution if you are moving from point a to point b and immediately unpacking your possessions.  Not so grand if you are not going to be occupying your new domicile in an expedient fashion nor unpacking all your worldly possessions in one fell swoop.  In fact, by the time we get around to unpacking everything, most of the batteries are now expired.  Which means getting new batteries for everything.

Batteries aren't like they were years ago.  There were a few standard sizes -- AAA, AA, C, D, 9 volt.  Now there is a plethora of different batteries.  Which is why batteries are like white truffle salt.  Bet you were wondering by now when I was getting back around to this.  Anyone who loves to cook can totally relate to this analogy.  Cooking used to be a fairly simple process.  You found food, you combined it together in an appetizing manner and then consumed said product.  With gourmet restaurants, cookbooks and cooking shows running rampant, exotic is no longer cooking Mom's Christmas ham.  Before you know it, you're trying to make a meatloaf which consists of 20 mysterious ingredients.  You are now out there hunting for white truffle salt at 11 o'clock at night just so you can make a meatloaf.  What happened to combining meat and bread and tossing some ketchup on top?

Same thing with the batteries.  Seems like everyone is going to these miniscule batteries that have their own unique numbers and sizes.  So hopping by the local Dollar General, picking up a pack of triple A's and loading up is no longer an option.  And of course, since the toys have now been in storage for seven months, I have a three-year-old boy wanting me to find batteries so he can play with his super powered construction digger (might have made that one up, but am I too far off?) which he "never got to play with in a really long time" (his words, not mine).  And it's not good enough to play with the truck minus the battery powered options.  Oh no.  We have to have the bells and whistles and the darling song concerning "that's what dump truck's all about".  Which means that here goes Mama to the store at 11 o'clock at night to track down a CR347.  Meatloaf anyone?

Chocolate Mocha Peppermint What??

I'll admit to enjoying a fancy coffee on occasion.  Yes, I've been known to haunt the hallowed halls of the local coffee bar hoping to get my decaf fix for the day.  I can say "hand over the grande decaf caffe latte skim, please" with the best of them.  Unfortunately, where we currently live, there is no such option located within a convenient distance.  Besides, sometimes I want to settle in with a cappucino while curling up with a good novel at around nine o'clock at night.  I'm really not motivated to climb out of my jammies and bunny slippers to venture into the cold, dark night.  Nor do I feel like hiring a sitter for my three sleeping children just so I can fetch said beverage.  The obvious answer is the home brewing system.

Here's where the confession comes in.  When I'm looking for that nine o'clock fix, I quite frankly don't care if the espresso beans have been freshly ground seconds before pulling my beverage.  If I am not standing there frothing the perfect container of milk I will somehow manage to sleep with myself at night.  Perhaps this makes me a rube in the coffee annals, but I just want my drink so I can get back to my book already.  This leads me to the lazy man's version of the cafe latte -- the home brewing system.

Now I know there is a very popular system that is making the rounds of every Walmart, Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond out there.  At the time I was looking to buy however, there was no milk frothing option on this machine.  Plus, as my brother is wont to say, I'm not looking for anything fancy like "Midnight Romance in Vienna" I just want the cup of coffee.  As a result, I ended up going with a less popular brand. 

To be honest, I am completely thrilled with my machine.  Both performance wise and product wise, it has lived up to my expectations.  Problem is, I feel like I was on the Beta side of the VHS showdown.  For the sake of simplicity, we shall refer to my machine as Beta and the other machine as VHS.  At this point, you could probably walk into the hardware store and pick up coffee for the VHS model.  Perhaps a slight exaggeration but not by much.  And there are any number of popular brands that are churning out beverage options for the VHS machine.  I, on the other hand, am forced to go online to order coffee for my Beta.  Which means when I've discovered the coffee carousel is empty, I don't even have the option of running out for a quick box.  To add insult to injury, I can only drink decaf.  The limited selection available online has fewer and fewer decaf options.  Maybe I should save the decaf bias rant for another day, but it seems to me that those of us not wanting to pump stimulants into our systems should still be able to enjoy a cup of fine roasted goodness.

Now, folks, I'm not some out of touch snob who thinks the lack of foam-topped beverages in my life is the end of western civilization as we know it.  Sometimes, though, it sure would be nice to have the small luxury of settling in with a frothy delight and the latest Janet Evanovich without having a 40 minute round trip or trying to remember which is the larger size, grande or venti?  Not wanting to invest additional coinage for another piece of machinery, I guess I shall have to wallow in my quixotic little coffee dream of a skinny decaf latte whenever the whim should strike.