Today's thankful: Middlest's ability to fend for herself a little bit

Today has been one of those days. Too much to do at work, not enough time, kids to run to and fro and fro and to. Today it was, I have to admit, a little bit hard to come up with a little thankful. Between running children hither and yon, squeezing in a meal can be pretty tough. Couple the time constraints with the fact that I usually don't go for fast food, and the schedule gets a tiny bit tighter. Here is where today's thankful comes in. Middlest is old enough to finish her own pasta and eat it while I am on the road picking up Tiniest. The ten minutes it will take Middlest to fend for herself a tiny bit is the difference between getting to daycare pickup on time and getting Middlest back to band practice on time. Would the world stop turning if I was a little bit late at one point or the other? No. Will I get to feel better about myself for managing to get it all done and on time? You bet!

Today's thankful: Express shipping and corn memories

I bought sweet corn to can. Then I realized I couldn't get a pressure canner locally, as everyone else apparently had the same idea. I got online and ordered one. I paid the express shipping (as opposed to overnight), paid a few extra dollars and got my canner today. Yay quick! I am SO excited to fly solo on putting up corn. The last time I participated in putting up corn was when I was about 12 years old with my mom. She was always kind of a messy bessy, and there was corn all over the kitchen by the time all was said and done. In spite of the fact that we didn't have any air conditioning, it was a good time.

Today's thankful: Hot summer days

The midwest has been under a heat wave for the last several days, and it isn't likely to end anytime soon. So the obvious thankful would be air conditioning or that I work inside, both of which I have already been thankful for. Today's thankful is still heat related. I am so thankful for the hot summer sun because it helps all of the wonderful summer produce grow and ripen. Last night we had sweet corn, cucumbers and tomatoes. I fried chicken at lunch and saved some of that for the meat lovers. Tonight we are having BLT's, one of my personal favorites. I LOVE BACON! The tomatoes, which I had to taste to ensure they were high quality enough to feed my family [wink, nudge], are knee weakening good. So while it may sound counter-intuitive, today I am thankful for hot summer days.

Today's thankful: Making new friends

When Middlest was in three, she was upset by the fact that she didn't have any friends from school like her big sister did, mostly because I was a SAHM and didn't do the preschool thing. I constantly reassured her that when she started school she would make new friends. That summer, at the end of the first day of vacation Bible school she came running to me, beaming, and said, "Momma! I made up a new friend!" That friend turned out to be real instead of another imaginary friend as I had feared, and was the first of many. She actually is pretty good at making friends now.

I was forced to make friends when I was young so I would have someone to play with all day at the pool, but making friends isn't really something I do well and, now that I am an adult, I don't really make the effort very often. I am thankful, therefore, for my new friend. I am so glad I made the effort for this one. She's a keeper!

Today’s thankful: Indiana sweet corn

If I need to explain today’s thankful, you have never experienced Indiana sweet corn. You should.

Now for a public service announcement. I work in a smallish regional hospital in the suburbs of a large city.  Today as I was walking toward one of our information desks, I noticed a woman standing on the visitor side wearing flip flops. They were black on the bottom from all of the outdoor walking, as one would expect. Then she flipped her shoe down by flexing her toes, thereby exposing the bottom of her foot. It was easily as dark as the bottom of her shoe. I would have to walk around barefoot for several DAYS to get my foot that dirty. So my PSA for the day is to be sure to wash your feet before going out in public if you intend to wear flip flops and expose the bottoms of your dirty feet, because not doing so is just nasty.

Today’s thankful: I don’t live in Oak Park, Michigan

I was cruising around the Mother Earth News website today and came across a story about a woman in Oak Park, Michigan who has a court date and may have to serve up to 93 days in jail for growing vegetables in her front yard. Apparently, growing vegetables in your front yard is against city ordinances.

Okay. I get it. Some people don’t want to see vegetables being grown in the front yard. What I don’t get is why they are insisting that she uproot all of the plants. It would be a lot more environmentally friendly to charge her a fine for violating the code and let her veggies continue to grow, so long as she agrees to keep her veggies out of the front yard next year.

This story makes me even more thankful that my nasty HOA neighbors haven’t pitched a hissy fit about my veggie patch beside the house. I had to put it there because the dog owns the backyard and would tear up all of my hard work. I did plant marigolds in with the vegetable plants, making the argument that it is a flower bed which happens to have a few vegetable plants included. So far, so good.

Today's thankful: I work indoors

Easy thankful today. There is a heat advisory. Temps hit 90 by mid morning. I work indoors in the air conditioning. I am not sweaty. It is good.

Today’s thankful: Beer cheese fondue and chocolate

I took the big girls and Tiny Person to Build-A-Bear as the culmination of Tiny’s birthday celebration. Instead of a party, she wanted to go there. The big girls decided that they didn’t really need to drag home another stuffed animal. With the money we saved from them not purchasing, the four of us went for beer cheese fondue and chocolate fondue at The Melting Pot. It was delicious and we had such a good time. I am glad that Tiny has gotten old enough to change plans without freaking out. I am also thankful for the quality time I got to share with my awesome daughters. But today my little thankful is for beer cheese fondue and chocolate.

Today’s thankful: Youngest’s ability to use her words

Yesterday I was thawing a chicken in a bag in the sink. Middlest said, “Whatcha got in the bag, hag?” I told her it was chicken. Youngest yelled from her bedroom, “Ugh! We have chicken all the time!” She did eat all of said chicken at dinner. Tonight she is getting a new favorite of hers, porcupine meatballs. I know, they are extremely gross, but she LOVES them. It is my gift to her for putting up with so much chicken in her diet. I guess my thankful for today is that my darling daughter is capable of communicating with me so effectively. I would hate to have to wonder what makes her happy.

Today’s thankful: Internet recipes

hI bought a whole chicken last week, because I wanted the skin on to roast it. I had the butcher cut it up, because I HATE to touch raw meat, especially on a bone. So I thawed out my chicken and realized that I don’t really know how to roast a chicken. I am sure that I have seen it done on The Food Network, but not recently. So I got online and searched for a recipe. Tah dah! We are having roasted chicken tonight! Let’s hear it for internet recipes!

Today’s thankful: My tiny person

Six years ago, Tiny Person came tumbling into this world like a stunt woman. She did a forward roll on the way out, and landed with such panache, I knew raising her was going to be a wild ride. We went to Splash Island today to celebrate her day, then to Chili’s for dinner and are now home for cake. She wanted a helium balloon, so we stopped on the way home and bought her one. It was such a simple way to make her day. She said this was the best birthday ever. That is reason enough to be happy. She reminds me every day why I call her a surprise instead of a mistake. I wouldn’t trade her for the world, and am so very thankful that she is a part of my life.

Today’s thankful: Hair dryers

A number of years ago, maybe 10, I took a small group of my then Girl Scouts into an Indy Parks park to reclaim farm land. The process included traipsing into waist-high weeds and planting trees. It was a lot of fun. A few days later, all but two of us had to pay a visit to our dermatologist’s office for steroid shots because of the raging case of poison something or other we caught. I hadn’t seen any poison ivy, and didn’t know what we had contacted. The park ranger who led our expedition informed me that the leaves were gone from the ivy and he hadn’t thought the stems would bother us. They did. Since that time, I seem to be a magnet for poison ivy, which brings me to today. I have a raging case of ivy rash on my left forearm and hand. I got it from touching my dog, who had been in contact with the weeds at the back of our lot.

What, you may ask, does poison ivy have to do with hair dryers? Only this: My ex-husband taught me that if you direct the heat from a hair dryer at an itchy patch, the heat intensifies the itch until you almost can’t stand it. Then, right before the heat burns a hole in your skin, the itch magically disappears and doesn’t return for several hours. That is right. HOURS. I have tried all of the over-the-counter remedies, to no avail. This morning as I awoke I was jonesing really bad for a hair dryer fix. My hands were shaking, I had it so bad. I am so very thankful for the sweet, hot relief found at the end of my hair dryer.