The Saga of the Landlord & the Apartment

So, almost two months ago, our landlord died. We expressed our condolences to the family and figured that the estate getting settled would be the extent of the drama we'd have to deal with. We were sorely mistaken. Two days after the landlord died, the building inspector and the health department showed up to look over the downstairs apartments.

That was when things went sideways. The building inspector looked over conditions down there and condemned the apartments. Between black mold, rotted floors, and a burst sewage line, it was something of a no brainer, I suppose. The neighbors downstairs were given 48 hours to get out. Thus, they went through a marathon of packing and moving as the health department found them a place to stay for a week. I had heard something about the possiblity of the whole building being condemned and I became concerned.

A few phone calls later, I am assured that it was only the two apartments. At about this time, the rent check for August was due. So, I was talking with the handyman who has been doing work for the landlord (and is still doing so for the widow) and I asked if he had spoken to the widow. He answers that he had and explained that we were to write our rent check out to the real estate business that the landlord had run. Previously, we had been writing the check out to the landloard personally. So, we do so and continue on as though it is no big deal.

After some discussion between Beloved and I, we decided that we should start looking into a new place to move to if they weren't going to start work on repairing the downstairs apartments in the immediate future. As I did my bit of investigation as to what was going on with the apartments below, it became clear that while the claim is that they will be repairing it in the immediate future, there appears to be no intention to do so. Thus, I have begun searching for our next place to live.

And then last week a new layer of bullshit was piled on. The widow sent the handyman over with the check we had written for the rent in an envelope, uncancelled. Mind you, this check is made out to the real estate business, like the previous month's check, which was accepted and deposited no problem. The widow was looking for us to reissue the check in her name. Now, we currently have a lease that was signed by the landlord personally. We currently have no lease. I was concerned and suspicious when I was asked to reissue the check.

I asked why the check we had written wasn't good enough. I was then told that everything with this property and the business was tied up in the estate, which is currently being settled. I contacted Beloved once this was brought to my attention, entirely unsure what the correct thing to do would be. Beloved told me to hold on to the check and that he'd handle the matter. Then the handyman returned and asked if I was going to hand him a check or mail it.

I told him that we were going to handle matters by mail. This happened last Thursday. Then, Friday night, I smelled hot electrics coming up from the vent. After a quick bit of investigation, the possibility that it was originating in our apartment was ruled out. Thus, I called the widow (as I did not have the correct number for the handyman) and informed her of the situation after I spoke briefly with Beloved. She asked me to mail the check. I told her that Beloved was going to be contacting her regarding the matter by mail.

I then was most insistent that someone come and investigate what was the cause of the scent of hot electrics. The widow calls the handyman and then calls me back, telling me that he will arrive in a 1/2 hour. (The location he was driving from is 15 min away, when the weather is bad and road conditions are awful. Beloved was not pleased when informed of this. He had me turn off the main breakers for the apartments downstairs as we waited for the handyman to show up.) When the handyman arrives, he speaks with Beloved and the matter of the check is brought up again.

Then yesterday, the handyman is here doing something and he pokes his head in, asking about the check yet again. He tells me that the widow is willing to accept a check written out to her deceased husband and that she is willing to write up a new lease for us with her name on it (something which he said when he spoke to my husband that she couldn't do). I am doing my best not to get anxious over this matter. Beloved tells me that we needn't worry about them trying to boot us out. I am working very hard not to get upset over this but this repeated badgering is grating on me.

Meanwhile, I am discovering that it is quite challenging to find a two bedroom apartment in our price range in the school district. I have started going to view apartments and I am striving not to get to caught up in anxiety over that as well. Beloved and I have decided that if we can't find someplace to move into by the end of next month that we're going to wait until spring to move. My gut tells me that we need to find somewhere to move to by the end of October. I don't know how much of this is intuition and how much is anxiety.

But, that is the saga of the landlord and the apartment, as it stands now. I think this counts as venting. Or at least, I sincerely hope so.

Hey, look at that, I have a blog!

It's been a wild week. Last Tuesday, the boys started school. Things have been going full bore ever since 7:30 am last Tuesday morning. There was the excitement of starting school (which the boys have decided is awesome); the fun of spending the weekend with their aunt and cousins (and the new kittens!), and the thrill of another week at school. I'm really hoping that we can keep at least a smidgen of this excitement when a few months have gone by. It'd really suck if the boys decided that once the novelty has worn off that school sucks.

In other news, I have finally heard the full song and I have decided that this is awesome.

Relish and pickles? Yes, please!

I have been enjoying the process of making lacto-fermented pickles. I really am getting a kick out of how easy it is. I'm still fidgeting with the recipe to get them just right. My last batch of dill cucumber pickles came out well but I realized the boys and Beloved won't eat them. Snuggle Bug's bus driver, however, LOVES pickles and has decided that my homemade ones are the best she's ever had. So I gave the jar to her with instructions to give it back to me when they're gone.

I am trying out making zucchini pickles. I put them in the brine with several cloves of garlic. I expect this to be very tasty because Beloved and I both really enjoy garlic. (I got a STEAL on garlic the other day. I bought a sandwich baggie FULL of peeled garlic cloves for just $1.30!) I am going to get a few more cucumbers, another small zucchini, and a few other things to make some relish.

I am really interested in this recipe. I also want to try my hand at making salsa. I have been looking up directions on how to do small batch canning and I am seriously looking at just what it is that we will eat around here. I think it would be really awesome if I possibly got a few batches of soup put up, some other items that we would use in the winter, and some tasty condiments that I could possibly give away at Yule. It is going to take a little bit of planning to make that happen, I suspect.

First day of school!

The boys were excited this morning. Snuggle Bug practically ran to his bus when it arrived. Cuddle Bear was impatient for his bus and we watched, watched, and watched for it. It was running almost an hour late. When it did show up, we ran for it but the bus stopped long enough to honk before driving off. Beloved's mother, the glorious woman she is, came over and loaned me her car. (A short conversation with transportation for the school got the bus situation figured out for tomorrow, thank goodness.)

Thus, we arrived at the school just in time for the other kindergarten kids and their parents to be making their way to their classrooms. It was a delightful surprise to find that Cuddle Bear's teacher is the same woman who happened to have taught Beloved and I in 4th grade. He was quite charmed with her and quite excited to be there. I must confess, it surprised me to no end to learn that Mrs. Smith was still teaching and at this different school district no less. (She confided in me when we were chatting on the side after Cuddle Bear's testing a little while back that she is beginning to think about retirement, but absolutely loves teaching so much she's reluctant to do it.)

The boys both had half days. They're napping right now. I think the excitement just wore them right out. Now I'm tempted to start doing cleaning, though another part of me says I should take this break while I have it.

Rocker Chick started school yesterday. She says that it went well and it was good to see her friends. I'm really hoping that things continue on a good note for her. I'm thinking that I may want to surprise her with something in a few weeks to help keep her spirits up. Who says that you have to wait until a kid's in college to send them care packages! She's expressed some interest in a few subjects that I happen to have books about kicking around here. So I'll be sending them to her soon. It may help make the more boring classes tolerable to have those books to look forward to later in the day.

It looks like my other nieces are starting school later this week. Again, I hope that they all get off to a good start. I think I am going to do something special for them in a few weeks too. I am thinking about crocheting them bookmarks or something else nifty. I am fast with a hook and I don't have EVERYTHING packed right now. I can't believe that it'll be time to start working on Yule stuff in earnest. Where did the time go?

Chutney Chili

1 8 oz jar of Major Grey's Chutney (I like the Patak's brand.)
3 16 oz cans of red kidney beans
1 lb beef, browned and drained
1 rib of celery, diced
1 sm onion, diced (opt)
5 cloves of garlic, diced
1 sm bell pepper, diced
1/2 pt of stewed tomatoes, chopped

When you brown the beef, that's a good time to cook the onion if you want to make it less potent and it's also a good option to saute the garlic then too. It helps mellow the flavor.

In your crockpot, combine all of the above and mix. Cook on low for 24 hours, stirring at the 8 hr mark and adding water as necessary.

Your chili will be thick enough to stand a spoon up in it. This is what you want. :)

Preserving foods the 'old' way?

I am starting to get tomatoes off my plants. I am looking at a decent sized batch. As such, I have started planning what I will be doing with them. I don't have what I need to do much in the way of canning, though I must confess, I am more then a little bit in love with the process of making lacto-fermented foods. It is incredibly easy!

My beet kvass isn't quite perfect but it has had a noticeable effect my my gut. I am far less prone to terrible bouts of gas and I am finding that my cravings for sugar have dropped markedly. I am trying to include more healthful foods into my diet (and possibly sneak it into the kids diet as well). As I eat (and drink) more probiotic foods, I am finding that my appetite is not as unpredictable.

It is actually working to make it more regular. I figure if I keep this up and continue to do more 'real' foods, I may actually be able to get a good start on losing this extra weight. I'm finding that I have more energy, even on my depressed days, since I made this small diet change. So, I have been busy reading and researching more recipes and ways to preserve what I am harvesting (and splurging on at the store).

I finally found a recipe that makes a small batch of lacto-fermented salsa. I am going to run out to the store tomorrow some time and in the course of picking up more pull ups (which I completely forgot about), I am going to get the missing ingredients for this salsa. I may even pick up more small pickling cucumbers and make up another batch of them. Pretty much everyone who has tried the cucumbers has liked them (with the exception of Cuddle Bear and Snuggle Bug, who are suspicious of anything not PB&J).

If I manage to get some more peaches, I'll probably be making this to keep by as well. Because I love to use a little bit of chutney in my chili recipe. I am considering promising to make my Mother in Law some of this chutney and a batch of pickles in exchange for helping me get the produce to use. The funny thing is, I feel like I'm finally doing what I should have been doing for years, putting up food for use later.

I'm still perfecting my technique but I'm really happy how things are coming out so far. The idea that I could use heritage recipes and heritage varieties of produce to make the same kind of condiments that my great-grandmothers did... it thrills me.

Grocery shopping day!

So, I took my WIC checks and I got my groceries for the next two weeks. I have two dozen eggs (+4 from the last dozen) that I have no idea what to do with them. I also have a dozen hard boiled eggs that I really need to do something with. I can only make so much egg salad and deviled eggs.

One thing I am going to do next week is bake a cake. I found this recipe that looks very promising. I'm thinking it could make for some wonderful cupcakes to send in to school with Cuddle Bear in his lunch box and to send in to work with Beloved's lunch. I know that some people argue that sending in regular sweets with lunch may not be a great idea. Cuddle Bear is such a picky eater at times, I think that sending sweets is going to be the only way I can get him to eat at times.

I have another bag of whole wheat flour, so the cake won't look like your box 'perfect' white cake. But I don't think that will be a problem. Wheat flour has a nice texture to it and I am sure that it will give the cake a nice bit of depth to the flavor. I am debating if I should throw some raisins into the cake when I make it. A part of me says this would be great for using up the raisins. Another part of me says I should make raisin cinnamon bread.

Yet another idea that is rattling around in my mind is that I should make some custard. I have never made custard before, so I feel a little bit nervous about trying this out. My friend Bean told me about how I can do a lot of things with eggs. He even explained to me how to safely make my own mayo. To say the least, this has given me a bit more encouragement to be braver in how I approach cooking with them. I think that the next time I head out to Buffalo and I see Bean, I'll be bringing him something wonderful that I made as a thank you for being so awesome.

Speaking of something wonderful, I have been making freezer jam! I sent a jar of strawberry jam off with my anam cara when he headed back down to school last week. He said it probably wasn't even going to last long enough to get to the airport. As I have been reading about different ways to make freezer jam, I learned that it is possible to do so with frozen fruit. As a result, I made two 8oz containers of bumble berry jam (black berry, raspberry, and blueberry together).

I have what I need to make peach jam. I am *really* looking forward to doing this. It's probably going to be another small batch, but that's ok. I don't have a lot of space in my freezer right now. And I think that one jar of each kind of jam is more then enough to get us through the next several months. If they're not, I can always buy a package of Sure-Jell and frozen fruit to make some more. :)

Fermented failure?

My attempt to make fermented beets looks to have gone sideways on me. Both containers have mold on the top. While the websites I read say that I can scrape the mold off and it will still be palatable, I'm a bit concerned about it. I am undecided on what to do about it. I was really excited about the idea of beet kvass. And the thought of having my own beet pickles struck me as really nifty. Now, I'm worried that I may have botched the whole process by forgetting to check them for a few days.

Update:

After doing a little research, I learned that beet kvass can still be made from this stuff. So, I did my best to get the film off the top of the contents of the jar. I then poured it out into a bowl (colinder with cheese cloth to catch the beets and moldy bits on top). This I then decanted into a sterilized glass bottle (with a coffee filter in the funnel to catch whatever the cheese cloth missed). I tried a little bit. It is salty and a touch sour with a subtle beet flavor.

I think it will be better after it sits for a while in the fridge. My plan is to include beet kvass in my diet to help resolve some of the stomach issues I have been having recently. I figure if I introduce more healthy flora into my gut, maybe I will have less problems with stomach upset over stuff I eat.

In the garden

Today, after watering my plants, I took in a bunch of them. I started with my herbs.

I have a LOT of oregano. On the curtain rod over the closet in the hall, (left to right) I have, carrot tops (which taste a lot like parsley), oregano, sage, basil, more oregano, mint, and lemon balm. And then another bundle of oregano next to Cuddle Bear's first self portrait.

I also took in some of my vegetables. I didn't get much for radishes but this was my first attempt. My carrots only had green leafy tops. I think they didn't get enough light. My rainbow chard wasn't half as big as what I saw at the farmer's market last week but I have a plentiful amount of it. I have tiny green tomatoes on my plants, but not very many. I haven't taken them in yet, I am hoping that they will get a little bigger.

I am now going to look up how to preserve the chard. It really does taste like spinach. But it has some lovely color to it, so the boys may find it more interesting to eat. I have a bunch of lettuce that I didn't get to because the boys were causing mischief but I am optimistic that I will have a wonderful salad later this week to go with dinner when I take all of that in.

The politics of gender.

From Facebook: "The Clan Mothers ran everything and had the last word. I think that's the answer." - Floyd Red Crow Westerman;  A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership, moral authority, and control of property. The male equivalent is a patriarchy.  -- The comment that accompanied this shared statement was "This country [USA] could do with a bit more matriarchy."  (Italics mine.)

My response on Facebook: Matriarchy is just a swing in the polar opposite direction and will result in misandry, which is just the same as the current mysogyny except it would be focused on males. I'd prefer to see gender taken out of the issue of politics, in much the same way one's race, ethnicity, and religious affiliation should be.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The United States of America is a republic. There is supposed to be a firm separation of church and state. With the 19th Amendment and the acknowledgement of the right to suffrage for women and the 14th Amendment acknowledging the right of African-American citizens to vote (along with other civil rights), the issues of gender and race should have been removed from the sphere of the governing of the republic. 

The people who argue that the United States is a Christian country are ignorant of the fact that the USA is explicitly NOT one. Similar arguments can be made by the laws regarding who governs the nation. Socially, we see certain trends and those trends are sometimes argued to be supported by the laws of the land. As a result of such, things such as racism become deemed as acceptable in policy. We must adamantly resist this lazy logic.

When we permit the rights of one man be oppressed, we open the floodgates for the oppression of the rights of all. It seems to be a comfortable fallacy for people to say 'It doesn't affect me. I'm not one of those XYZ people." This forgets that much of the daily operation of our government is done on the basis of precedents. It is not the prevailing winds of public opinion that determines the shape of law, it is established precedents and logical developments upon the basis of them.

Organic food!

So, I've gotten stuff to do another batch of pickles. It was my hope to have them done by the time the party rolls around tomorrow but I didn't get the cucumbers until yesterday. And just one day of ferment time is not going to be enough to really get these puppies going. It's raining outside right now, but I need to go pluck a grape leaf to throw into my cucumber pickles.

I am trying something different with my strawberries. Upon looking through the container that I bought and discovering that a solid third of the package was questionable, I decided to take the good ones and throw them into a jar with a stick of cinnamon. I made some brine and poured that in. I'm going to start a second batch with a bit of sugar in the brine with the salt and cinnamon. If I had some ginger, I'd add that too but I only have powdered ginger.

I plan on starting stuff to make homemade soda. On my next trip to the store (later today), I will be getting what is needed for the birthday party tomorrow. I am also going to make a point of picking up more strawberries, containers to put freezer jam in, and some ginger. I am going to be making a ginger bug starter for homemade soda. Actually, now that I think about it, I should probably let that and the freezer jam project sit until the boys are in school.

I went to the farmer's market yesterday and brought home a sizeable amount of produce. I didn't realize that there were going to be apples in season already. I thought we had a month to go on that, but I was delighted to find out I was wrong. I purchased some apples, some peaches, heirloom beets, a pepper, green beans, and a big heirloom tomato. I also got a pint of cherry tomatoes and a cucumber.

I chowed down on the cherry tomatoes and the cucumber for my dinner last night. A part of me felt a little silly for it, but I just couldn't help myself. And with my boys being picky eaters, I knew the only way I possibly could convince them to eat either was if they saw me eating it. I am pleased to say that all of the things that I purchased (with the exception of the bananas and the bag of apples from the grocery store) are organic.

I am beginning to get more produce out of my containers. My very leggy tomato plants are beginning to get fruit on them. My strawberry plant isn't producing fruit but it is just growing prolifically. I'm hoping that it will winter over well and I'll have LOTS of strawberry plants in that pot come next spring. My radishes are tiny but they're steadily growing. My herbs are just reaching the point of plain silly abundance.

The thing that has surprised me, however, is the pumpkin plant. It is a small cultivar. I thought it wouldn't put out a huge vine. I was totally wrong. It is rambling it's way across the deck and getting ready to bloom. I'm kinda excited about this. The other stuff growing in the pot with it is just about ready to harvest. I am looking forward to having swiss chard in a salad. I hear that it tastes really good. And I know the boys will be excited about the itty bitty carrots that we've got.

Unintentionally brilliant?

I've been reading about other women who have decided to go with a low shampoo / no shampoo lifestyle. I have times where I get self conscious about how when my depression hits I will go almost 2 weeks with out a shower. It just becomes excruciating to extend the effort. Out of sheer curiosity, I started reading about this 'no-poo' lifestyle. Imagine my shock when I realized that what I had been doing was actually good for my hair's health.

Tsh at simplemom.net talked about it on her blog. She even mentioned how they shampoo their little ones' hair only once a week (though they get regular baths to get stuff like ketchup out). noshampoo.org describes how and why other women (and some men) are kicking the shampoo habit. As I read testimonials from other people on various sites, I have become convinced that I am doing something healthy for myself (as gross or shocking it may sound to other people).

Now, this no shampoo lifestyle information lead me to investigate just how frequently we should be bathing to promote optimal skin health. It was another eye opening experience. This hub page was really informational. It isn't daily, like my Mom had told me. It's more like every other day, possibly even up to once a week depending on how much activity your lifestyle has and how exposed you are to germs and dirt. All of a sudden, I don't feel so bad about how depression can effect my personal hygiene.

Sure, I may be acting like a hippie, but I think I have more in common with hippies then I do with the people who are the target audience of Vogue magazine.

NaBloPoMo # 9

Prompt: Are there any candies that you just can't stomach?

I loathe liquorice. It literally makes me gag. I have always detested it. When I was small, I never ate the black jelly beans and I despised the black liquorice candy vines. The red liquorice candy vines didn't taste like the black ones, they tasted more like some super sugary version of strawberry. So, I did willingly eat those, but not very many.

NaBloPoMo # 8

Prompt: Talk about a memory tied to a certain candy, especially if it involves another person or a place.

I would have to say my clearest memory of cotton candy is tied to the time I went to the Allegany County Fair with my Grandparents. My Grandmother and I (along with a distant cousin of mine) had volunteered to help out at the booth for our chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. I had taken a moment to wander around in the crowd. I was uneasy due to my social phobia but I had decided that I wanted some cotton candy. So, in my stubbornness, I braved the crowds and an unexpected rain shower, to get myself some. I think that first bite was probably the sweetest because I felt that I had earned it. And now, when ever I think of cotton candy, I think back to that precise moment.

Garden Pics!

Here's a few pics from my 'garden'. These pics are about a month old.

 Above and on the first tier is a tomato plant that I gave to my Brother-in-law, a zinnia from the seeds that Cuddle Bear gave me for Mother's day, and a petunia that I rescued from Walmart. The poor thing was so dehydrated that I honestly wasn't sure if it would come back. On the second tier, I have a strawberry plant that really hasn't been doing much and a minature rosebush that I was trying to save. The thing has some kind of fungus attacking it and I highly doubt I am going to be able to keep it alive. I am, however, quite valiantly attempting to do so.

 Here I have from right to left, lemon balm in the green pot, another zinnia in the clay pot, and carrot (well, a carrot top) in the yellow pot. In the planter behind them, I have (again R-L) sage, rosemary, ivy, and a red geranium.

A different angle shot of the western side of the back deck, you can see my peas growing up the lattice. They got really leggy and didn't put out much for peas despite the significant amount of flowers. I am not sure if it was because they were planted too shallow or if they were not getting enough sunlight. Above them on the deck railing, You see another shot of my carrot top, the lettuces, three mini pots of lemon balm, chives, and basil sitting in a larger cache pot, my begonia (which refuses to bloom), and my pot of nasturtium.

 On the south rail of the deck beside the boys' play house, I have a pot of mother-in-law's tongue and a trio of tomato seedlings. This spot gets a fair amount of shade, thus they haven't really grown much here. I did move them and now they are doing quite well.

On the eastern rail of the deck, I have another planter of nasturtiums (which haven't bloomed much because of insufficent light). A planter with multiple stalks of wheat (I didn't plant any wheat, it just sprang up from nowhere) and violas (again, not much for blooms due to low light conditions). And a third planter with some more wheat and a few more violas. I wound up transplanting a zinnia seedling into there as well. The fourth planter holds three little pots with lavender in them. Not ever happened with the lavender. I think I had a bad batch of seeds on that one. The fifth pot on the railing is also full of violas. I've got a lot of lush growth but essentially no blooms. On the deck itself, you see the big pot with the geranium cutting I planted. Sad to say, that cutting died on me.

From left to right we have a tomato plant (that is currently as tall as I am); spearmint; a planter with radishes, swiss chard, miniature carrots, and pumpkin planted in it (the pumpkin vine is now trying to take over the deck); another pea plant (that had marginally better yeild); and a pot with more petunias and some Japanese Indigo that my Mother-in-law gave me.

Under the west side of the deck, we have several hanging baskets. In the topsy-turvey planter, I have tomato, oregano, basil, and sage planted. The middle planter has some kind of flower that I can't identify. It was something that had belonged to my former neighbor downstairs. And the final pot has my strawberry plants in it. I didn't get any strawberries from it until just recently. It was previously in full sun. I think being in partial shade has done it a fair amount of good and I may get a few more strawberries before the end of the season. Alas, I know it will not be enough to make freezer jam, as I was hoping to do this year.

Here on the patio we have from left to right, more tomato plants (two pots of 'em); a pot with oregano, basil, and rosemary (the rosemary died); a pot with bell pepper seedlings and some radish seedlings in it (which were eaten by bugs); a second pot with bell pepper seedlings (which look almost healthy); a pot of zinnias; a pot of sorrel; and another random plant that was left from the previous downstairs tenant. I still haven't been able to figure out what it is yet.

NaBloPoMo #7

Prompt: What candy did you eat once that you wish you could have again?

Ah, the candy that I wish I could find again is totally not politically correct. I must confess, I LOVED the candy Lucky Stripe cigarettes. Part of it was because I got to imitate my parents, more of it was the fact that they were pure sticks of sugar. My brothers and I sometimes got into fights over who got the last package.

NaBloPoMo # 6

Prompt: What is the first candy you ever tried?

To be honest, I don't remember. My parents could probably tell me but we're not exactly on speaking terms. I can, however, tell you the first candy that my children tried. Cuddle Bear tried chocolate first. His eyes lit right up and he dove into his second bite. Snuggle Bug tried candy canes first. He gnawed on that for a bit, making happy smacking noises as he did so.

NaBloPoMo # 5

Ten things I am grateful for:

1. My health.
2. My husband and children.
3. My friends and family.
4. My therapist's support and encouragement.
5. My faith.
6. Having a wide array of scarves to cover with in my favorite colors.
7. Having new friends with common interests. 
8. That my nieces are happy and healthy.
9. Having friends who are willing to help me with my writing.
10. That I am half done with my major manuscript.

NaBloPoMo #4

I've got a new song that I just can't get enough of. It's Wide Awake from Katy Perry. I really enjoy her work. It is so full of life and she has a really good sense of lyricism.

The song that got me hooked on her was Firework. The uplifting message from that song really helped lift me up out of some depressive episodes over the last year. It makes me smile that the boys really like it too.

NaPloPoMo # 3

This entry is late, but I've been busy for the last few days. The sweetest thing that was done for me on Thursday was when Beloved brought home ice cream for me. I'd been having a very frustrating day. And that darling man brought me home chocolate ice cream. Not just chocolate ice cream but Brownie Fudge ice cream from Ben and Jerry's. It's almost as addictive as their Chocolate Therapy ice cream. (To return the favor, I got him a pint of that one when I was getting groceries yesterday.)