All She Wants To Do Is Dance

Do you ever just want to party
and toss all the boring work of the day out the window?
I am kind of in that mood today.
I don't want to do school.
I don't want to cook.
I don't want to clean or do laundry.
I'd like to drive around in the country
and play loud music
and sing along at the top of my lungs.
I'd like to take the day off.
But we really can't do that today.
My little scholars are downstairs right now
slaving away on their spelling.
My kindergartner is dressed like a Jedi
and just asked me to fight with him
(as he handed me a light saber).

It's such a beautiful day outside today.
The boys ate breakfast outside.
Yesterday was beautiful too.
Yesterday was one of those ordinary days that just
filled me up to overflowing. We did school and
all the regular stuff. I was upstairs doing something
in the kitchen but I knew exactly when Lloyd Dobbler
finished with work because the three big kids came
racing into the house shouting that they had to put on
long pants and tennis shoes.
Daddy was breaking out the four wheelers!

And there was much rejoicing.

So I got my chicken in the oven and my potatoes
on to cook and Baby J and I went out to join the revelry.
I have to admit, I really like riding around on the
four wheeler. I took my turn(s) and
enjoyed it immensely.

That's me in the front with Lovely K following.

We had such a good time.
It was beautiful weather and just simple family time.
Everyone rode except Baby J. He was
entertained by all the activity.


I remember thinking while I was zipping across the yard
that I was a rich, rich woman to have the life I have
with the beautiful family that I have.
Like I said, full to overflowing.
Just enjoying the blessing around me.
I have so much to be thankful for.
Or...for which to be thankful....
let's not bring up the part where I was once an English major.

It was much later that I remembered
I had food in the oven and on the stove inside.
Luckily the house didn't burn down.
The supper didn't even burn.

If you look in the foreground of that picture,
you see Baby J's supper too. I think the top one
was green beans and the bottom one was sweet potatoes
and apples. Baby food---blech.

We had chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli,
and Italian bread. I had tried a new recipe
--Cranberry Catalina chicken.
It was okay. It sounded all fall-ish to me, so I jumped on it.
I always want to find these wonderful, savory tastes,
but few dishes live up to the ideal in my mind.
Does this happen to you?
I want the fragrant experience while it's in process
and then when I eat it, I would love for it to just make
my whole mouth happy.
But so often it's just like food puts my mouth to sleep.
Do you know what I'm saying?
I made it with thighs and I think it would be better
done with just breasts.
Everyone ate it---shocker.
And we had fresh semi-homemade Italian bread.
That was good.
It's that time of year when I want to
make breads and soups and desserts. I am making
a new soup on Saturday--hopefully it won't be
100 degrees outside! I'll let you know how
the soup goes. It's a black bean soup.
I've never made any version of that.
This one has keilbasa in it,
and carrots and onions.
I hope it'll be good.

Well, I must go bring an ending
to the academic portion of this day
so that we can par-tay.
'Cause if Mama doesn't feel like doing anything,
nothing will get done, I assure you.
Why fight it?
We might as well enjoy ourselves.