iBeth

More Tiny Houses

Gulf coast residents are moving into tiny houses!  I love tiny houses.  Since I have small kids, though, it's more likely that I would indulge in one of these even tinier doors.  Though so far, the local woodland, forest and flower fairies have shown no signs of being displaced by urban sprawl, perhaps they have just been scared away by our procrustean homeowner's association.

Confusing Lawn Care Ad

This confusing slogan was left on our doorknob the other day: "We Take Care of Your Lawn. Not Your Neighbor!"  Huh?  The flyer arrived shortly after one of our  neighbors sold his lawn care business, but we don't think these expensive-looking glossy door-hangers were printed just for our block.

My best guess is that the company means to imply its service will make our lawn look so good, our neighbors will be jealous. 

I don't really need any more negative vibes coming from my neighbors, thank you. 

World's Cutest Teacher Bunny

The kindergarten play, Bunny Ears: A Story of Listening,  was short on plot, long on every kid getting a line.  Our girl was teacher bunny--the star of the show!  At least, that's how it looked from where we were sitting.

One oddity: The plot, such as it was, revolved around a visit to the bunny school by music star Michael Jackrabbit, a character based on everyone's favorite accused pedophile.  The kid who played Michael Jackrabbit performed a moon walk wearing one glove with longish black curls dangling from his bunny ears.

How long has the school been recycling this play, anyway? Are didactic, multi-charactered kids plays w/fragmented dialog that hard to find?  Or is there no other current celebrity whose name can be bunny-ized?  (And here my ignorance of current pop culture becomes woefully apparent, because I just couldn't think of one.  Suggestions?)

What to Wear?

Emma captures this question quite well, I think.

Two Views of a Rainstorm

Three-year-old Amelia colored a rainstorm.

So six-year-old Emma colored one, too.

Eating Like a Camel

"I'm going to eat this like a camel!" Amelia announced, holding up a noodle.

"That is NOT how a camel eats, Amelia!" her big sister Emma admonished.

"Really?  How does a camel eat?" we asked.

"Well," Emma replied, "He . . . It . . . . [long pause.]  I don't know."

Vegan Lunch Box, Here We Come

Emma has been asking me to join her at school for a meal, so recently I obliged and stuck around for breakfast.  She eats both breakfast and lunch in the school cafeteria.  The menus I reviewed at the start of the school year seemed adequate, I don't have to worry about her dawdling over breakfast and making us late, and it is just so much easier not to have to pack a lunch! 

(I wish my mom were alive to hear me apologize for all the lunch complaining I inflicted on her, and all the food I lied about eating when I really threw it in the trash.  She worked full-time, yet she made lunches for me and my sister every day.  It didn't take too many preschool lunchboxes for me to realize what a labor of love that was.  But I digress.)

Emma's breakfast tray shattered my equanimity: One large dish of frosted flakes.  One "biscuit" that was basically an uncut hamburger bun.  One tub of fruit jelly, which she licked clean after she spread the jelly on the bun with her plastic spork.  The only protein in the meal came from one small carton of 2% milk, which she poured over her cereal.  Then she ate the cereal and threw away the milk.  I grew sleepy just watching her.  How could she function all morning on highly processed carbs and no fiber?

Was there any wheat bread?  Any cheese? I asked.  No.  Any eggs? Yes, but she didn't like them.  Since the food is cooked elsewhere and reheated at the school, I'm not surprised that the eggs were below par. 

"But there was french toast!" she reassured me.  "I almost got the french toast too, but then I forgot."   

Um.  I may just start reading Vegan Lunch Box a little more carefully, so that I can try to pack a meal for her at least some of the time. 

BTW, I happened to notice that the VLB blog features an ad from my favorite cookbook author, Nava Atlas.  We wouldn't have managed the transformation to a vegetarian kitchen (at home, anyway) without her Vegetarian Family Cookbook and Vegetarian Express.  I highly recommend both.