Happy Friday everyone.  (It’s been a good week – and a long week.  But a productive week.  And a mostly stay-at-home week which pleases my Stay At Home child immensely.)

 

 

FUNNY

 

Sometime during an evening of games and soft trash talk and bad jokes, some kid said some thing that made some other kid say “Some guys have all the luck” to which I responded, in a sing-song voice, “Some guys have all the pain.  Some guys do nothing but complain.”

(Which both ages me, of course, by making a reference to a Rod Stewart song and makes me wonder what on earth else is hidden in the recesses of my brain.)

Naturally I had to show my kids who Rod Stewart was and what 80s music was and I pulled up this terribly classic music video of Mr. Stewart singing with its classic video footage and weird and “edgy” graphics.

 

 

It is bizarre.

Otto watched for a few minutes and then wisely asked, “Can we stop looking at this person?”

Yes, son.  We can.

 

FASHIONABLE

 

I can’t decide.

I saw these little rings on Pinterest.

 

 

I sort of love them and I sort of think they’d be a pain to actually wear.

I’ve never seen rings placed mid-finger on any living human before.

Does anyone actually do this?  Or is it like the hairstyles of the women in the magazines? The styles that only look awesome because a wind tunnel is being pointed in the model’s direction during the photo shoot.

Would they stay on or keep falling off?

 

FLAVORFUL

 

Apparently this was the week for the Instant Pot.  Man, I tell you – I have still not regretted that purchase.  Again – it’s not so much the speed as it is the hands off cooking of the Instant Pot.  Just this week I’ve used the Pot to cook hard boiled eggs, chicken noodle soup, broccoli cheese soup, chicken fried rice and meatballs and sauce.  (The people in this house eat SO much food. I’m afraid it is only going to get worse.)

That’s the recipe I’m sharing today.

Meatballs for spaghetti.  Meatballs – easy peasy – cooked with the sauce in one pot with zero effort.  (Aside from shaping the meatballs.  But, you know.  The pot cannot do everything!)

Meatballs in the Instant Pot recipe.

 

 

FAITHFUL

 

The opportunities for one on one time with my children is precious to me.  And hard fought to make the time for those one on one events to occur.

Recently London and I took a local cooking class where we learned how to make all sorts of Chinese food.  Even tricksy little potstickers and rangoon.

 

 

It was such fun and she was such pleasant company and I am grateful for the ways I get a front row seat to watch this girl figure out some incredibly complex aspects of life and a handful of really raw deals that she’s been handed.  She’s thirteen and it’s beyond complicated, but she’s putting one foot in front of the other, she’s choosing bravely and she’s seeking good counsel and lifting her face up to search for that narrow path.

 

FEELS

 

I love the privilege of being around to watch my friends’ kids grow up.  It really IS a privilege to know them and to hang out with them and to have a relationship with them.  And – it’s fun.  I mean, aren’t we all cooler and more fun to the kids of our friends than our own kids sometimes?

 

 

I let all these kids up there in that picture help make our focaccia bread for dinner this week.  (Focaccia – a word I have apparently been mispronouncing all my life.  Whatever.  One of many mispronounced words.)

This week we celebrated one of our young friends getting her braces off.  And it was such fun to be excited with and for her.  (And to eat all the sticky foods that were outlawed before.)

And Otto wrote a journal entry and drew a picture of one of his buddies.

 

 

Friendships.  Sweet and true.  Right into the next generation.

 

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