“Lala,” he called with concern
as we drove away from the school
But there would be no time to miss her,
for we were off on our own laundromat adventure
the place was smaller than I’d imagined;
clean but industrial
with huge machines that would wash
sleeping bags two at a time in under 25 minutes.
He helped me close the doors and insert the coins
and we sat down to wait. . .
Three board books and five minutes later, I was worried
Could I keep him busy and happy long enough?
But I had forgotten that everything is a toy to a child
we growled as we marched the dinosaur and the lion
over each chair – then all over mom
after determining that the washers were still washing,
we opened and closed the doors of all other washers
then finally put our bags in the dryers,
playfully stuffing our quarters in,
and opened and closed all the dryer doors
next was a lively ride in the wheeled basket
for our friends dinosaur and lion
then another sit down to enjoy our vending machine fare.
with gorillas among the animal crackers
we could not avoid an encore reading of
Goodnight Gorilla, after finally deciding that
the mystery cracker was an owl.
as we said goodbye to the laundromat
he grinned at me and declared “FUN!”
and it was indeed
it came with the tea set she got for her birthday;
made from recycled milk jugs and phalate free
it was safe for all uses
so naturally there was no reason to panic
when she thrust it toward me and proudly announced
“Mom I can pee in a cup!”
the sample was a day late for the doctor,
but if one is to believe
the environmental marketing mojo,
it may have been the perfect
collection container.
It began in the Spring with 24 tomato plants
On Thursday, after having picked all the red and
nearly red ones out of my garden
I determined to cook and can salsa.
Despite being a complete novice at both cooking and canning and
despite being short a car for the week.
I borrowed a recipe from my sister. I bought jars (I even used coupons!).
This was my prep day so I read the recipe to make sure I had all I needed.
22 pounds of tomatoes?!?
I had a lot of tomatoes but I was certain I didn’t have 22 pounds.
And how was I to measure their weight anyway?
Plus I’d need some peppers.
So it was on to the U-pick farm for peppers (and more tomatoes).
Except I didn’t make it there until Friday morning,
after having driven Joe to work and
picking up a kitchen scale that could measure to
exactly (you guessed it) 22 pounds!
After a long hour in the hot sun, and enthusiastic toddler "help"
we had nearly one full box
We paid our $7, grabbed a slushy and ran home to start chopping.
Did I mention that I have a glass top stove?
glass top and canning don't mix
I would have to use my in-laws’ kitchen.
First I would chop everything at my house while the kids napped.
I anticipated arriving at the canning kitchen by 2 pm Friday.
But I underestimated how long it would take to core, weigh, skin,
and chop those 22 lbs of tomatoes.
It wasn’t until the last five pounds or so that I got smart and put them in my blender.
At that point I realized
my 16 quart pot was not nearly large enough for this endeavor.
I threw the processed tomatoes in two separate containers into the fridge,
threw the kids into the van, and set off to buy a bigger pot.
the time was Friday 4 pm
Saturday morning dawned
I knew this was the day I would achieve my salsa dream.
I planned to start cooking in my borrowed kitchen at 9 am.
underestimation again
It wasn't until an hour past that goal
when I had chopped my last pepper and onion and
loaded everything (and everyone) into the van
The salsa started boiling at 11:30
and by 3 pm Saturday Joe had a new honda civic
and I had 14 pints of salsa canned and hot
