I’m grateful to the weather this week – although it’s been rainy and humid still, it has not been hot.  And I, for one, will not complain about swinging into summer at moderate temperatures.

What I’m not grateful for this week is the major snafu I had with my Travelers Rest Here website.  Apparently the server for that website had a limit on emails you could receive.  Although they never made me aware of said limit.  And – what they do when you reach that limit is – nothing.  They do nothing.  They simply stop receiving your emails.  And those emails disappear for eternity.  And that’s not good for business.  It is embarrassing to send emails and then to receive a response but to never know that you did, in fact, receive a response.  Therefore you never respond because it was essentially an invisible response.

Also.  As if one ganked up website is not enough, this website has been acting wonky.  The banner of photos up top is all out of sorts.  The comment section has not been working properly.  Everything is just off kilter – and so am I.  Also.  My skill set is writer.  The end.  It is not trouble shooting or fixing or understanding.

When I was on the phone with tech support and the guy thought he had all the email issues squared away he asked me to send a test email, to see if the program was back in working order.  It wasn’t right then because I never saw the email come through.  But he could see it.  He asked, “Did you send the email?”  I said, “Yes, I did.”  He said, “Was the subject line URGH?”  I said, “Yes, it was.”

And, although most of my tech problems are getting solved, I still feel the same way about the situation – URGH.

 

 

funny

 

I don’t know if this is really funny – in fact, I’m sure it isn’t.  But it’s what I feel like typing right now.

In the evenings this week, after the other kids have fallen asleep, London and I have been sitting together in the living room watching Netflix’s “Anne with an E”.

I was forewarned by friends that there were some inappropriate scenes for younger audiences in this new series.  I knew I wanted to screen it before letting all of the kids watch the show.

Man, I don’t want to ruin it for anyone but I also want to rescue you from the train wreck.  Maybe train wreck is too strong of a word.  I don’t know.  But – here’s the thing – the books have endured in popularity for more than one hundred years because we readers love Anne of Green Gables.  The way L.M. Montgomery wrote her.  The novels (like eight of them) are so full of dialogue and creative scenes that an adaptation need never stray from the pages to find more than adequate stories and words.

London and I kept saying as we watched the series – they should have called this show, “A Girl Who Resembles Anne but Only in a Vague Disturbing Manner”.  I mean, the deviations from the script are downright absurd.  They are often troubling, certainly bizarre on occasion and of course, in our opinions, completely unnecessary.  And – pretty ridiculous.  The actors themselves – they’re actually great.  Marilla and Matthew are well cast.  So is Anne really.  Diana Barry was in Odd Squad and so that one’s a little hard to get over for my house, but I think the actress fits well really.

I think the writer who has adapted this story did not just take liberties or develop Anne’s story with depth, I think she ransacked it and threw Anne to the wolves – or to the house fire and the thieves and the attempted suicide she recklessly added into the story and the endless montages of flashbacks from which Anne (and the viewers) suffer ad nauseam.

Have you watched it yourself?  What are your thoughts?

 

fashionable

 

I love this cute little kid’s t-shirt I saw today when the kids and I were visiting Barnes & Noble.

 

 

flavorful

 

This week’s Family Night was a Game Night.  We pulled out Dutch Blitz, a card game Otto had just received as a birthday gift, and hannaH joined us and we played that high intensity game for a very very long time – like maybe two hours or more.  (Side note: I just searched for Dutch Blitz on Amazon to provide the link and I see that it is on sale – $10 cheaper than normal.  The universe is aligning and wants YOU to own this game.)

 

 

But this is an entry under the “flavorful” category.

Along with Game Night we all spent a long time in the kitchen making finger foods and dips and cutting veggies to go with those dips.  That was the dinner that paired with Game Night.

I checked out this cookbook at the library and it is full of dips and sauces and such.  London made a buttermilk ranch dressing and I made a spinach dip from the recipes in this book and those were both good, but the star was a simple herb dip.  (You guys – I am NOT making this up.  This cookbook is on sale at Amazon right now too.  That no longer seems like the universe helping you.  It seems like the universe spying on  you.)

 

 

Anyway – that simple herb dip is what I want to focus on here.  It was delicious.

 

 

It would never last five days in our house.  In fact, at dinner we served it with peppers and carrots.  And during “Anne with an E” time London and I finished it off with chips.

I didn’t have tarragon and couldn’t find it at Trader Joe’s.  I probably doubled the garlic by using fresh garlic – and extra of it.  And I probably had double the amount of arugula too.  (I’m not big on measuring precisely.)

 

 

 

faithful

 

This week I love this song – God of Battles Won.  It was written by two men from my church and I think it’s lovely.

 

 

feels

 

We visited Barnes & Noble while the middle schoolers in our family attended a youth event that involved water and chaos.  (Ah, middle school.)

 

 

And something pretty neat occurred.  Otto decided that he wanted to spend his money on the purchase of a book.  This is small, I’m sure, but it was all kinds of sweet to me.

This is the first book Otto has ever purchased on his own.  He rarely has any money anyway (he’s 8, after all) and so for him to want to spend his seldom-in-his-wallet funds on a novel was just too adorable to me.

 

 

I love that little guy and his smile and his laugh and his impersonations and his cuddles.  And his book buying ways.

 

 

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