Questions

Question 1: Has any child ever gotten out a Band-Aid and then ... not left that Band-Aid's wrappers (along with a pile of other unused Band-Aids from the box) scattered across the counter and floor? 

Do we have documentation of that ever having happened? 

Can we do a survey? 

Or ... surveillance? 

It's fine. I've fully accepted it as a matter of pure fact (though like I said ... perhaps there could be a survey). It's just ... nobody ever told me to expect it. No one ever advised me with "don't fight it". It seems it would have been a simple enough thing for someone to have said: "There's a chance (slim) that you might get them to make their beds. You can probably get them to take their dinner plate to the sink. Some kids can easily be taught to close the toilet lid. They might even learn to put their dirty laundry in the basket (on occasion--certainly not always), but they will never ever get a Band-Aid without leaving a pile of Band-Aids and wrappers in their wake. It simply isn't possible." 

And then, ... I would have known.

Question 2: Did I marry the best man in the entire world? 

Well? 

Did I??? 

I've long suspected of course, but today is his birthday. (48! What a good age for a man to be. Still as strapping and capable as ever, but with the experience and wisdom that one simply cannot acquire without 48 years of living. I think I quite like having a 48-year-old husband. [And me ... just a young lass of 47.]) 

In any case, as I was saying, today is Mike's birthday (and Mette's too I should mention), and do you know what he's done? He's gone and taken all of the kids roller-skating so I can rest! So. I. Can. Rest. Admittedly I have been feeling a bit under the weather. A sore throat and some head and body aches. But nothing that life can't be carried on with. 

And I doubt roller-skating is any man's top choice for how to spend a birthday. At least any 48-year-old man's.

Sunday evening I was just coming in from the garage (a bottle of spaghetti sauce in hand) as Mike was heading out into the garage. He hugged me and said something funny and there I was, laughing into his shoulder and squeezing him tight with a bottle of spaghetti sauce pressed to his back. Life has lots of hard things (this year, for a host of reasons--financial, work, parental stress and worry, demands, etc.--has been one of the hardest of our lives actually) but also ... how can I complain when I'm laughing in the garage while simultaneously clutching Mike and a bottle of spaghetti sauce? 

Question 3: Hummingbirds. (Oh all right, this isn't a question at all. I just didn't want to break the thing I had going here.)

We set up a hummingbird feeder last year and saw very little traffic. And not much early this summer (only the occasional sighting). 

But now? Word has gotten out? It's their season??? 

You can look out at almost any time of day and see hummingbirds at our feeder. We've seen three there at once! Today I even saw one on the opposite side of the house hovering in our front room window--as if wondering whether the nice people who'd hung that feeder had anything else of interest worth looking at. (Three bowls of porridge maybe? A bed that is too hard, a bed that is too soft, and a bed that is just right?)

I caught Biscuit watching them with altogether too much curiosity this evening. One hovered down right close to him--as if equally curious. Not very smart. But surely they are too clever to be caught? (That does contradict my last sentence.) Too fast anyway? (Biscuit ate a frog the other day. [I won't tell you how we know this because ... it is too too terrible.] But I know he would not be above eating a hummingbird--which would grieve me sorely! So. Fingers crossed.)

Question 4: Why did Darigold begin making all of their chocolate milk out of low-fat rather than whole milk? I'm not even a chocolate milk fan. But Darigold's whole chocolate milk was the exception. Occasionally I'd splurge on it and even the kids didn't steal "mom's special chocolate milk". But now? It appears to be no more. 

This is an odd (tragic) theme for me you know. I find a treat I really like. And it is immediately discontinued or impossible to find. 

I shall list some few:

• Snelgrove Rocky Road. My favorite ice cream ever. Gone. The entire brand.
• Dove milk chocolate with mint cookie pieces in it. (And don't try and comfort me with their dark chocolate with mint swirls. No. That will not do.)
• Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran cereal. Not a treat per se, but something I liked. So naturally it went out of existence.
• Dreyer's Swiss Orange ice cream.
• These tiny pumpkin flavored cookies/cake bites covered in chocolate and sprinkles they used to have in the Target bakery section.
• Lofthouse chocolate cake bites. Mike bought me several boxes when Starling was born. And they've never been seen since.
• Mother's Double Fudge sandwich cookies.
• Hershey's mint cookie chocolate bars. 

And I'm beginning to wonder if Bear Lake Raspberry taffy is becoming impossible to find!

I better quit being so obvious in my liking of Mrs. Cavanaugh's orange-cream chocolates and the chocolate-covered Bear Lake raspberries Mike brings me. From now on I will act nonchalant and disinterested in any treat I love. It might be the only way to keep them.

Question 5: Have we had more than enough questions for one evening? Yes. I think we have. Particularly as the questions were not accompanied by a single picture! (Though I did consider finding a picture of the corn bran crunch box. ... So.)

Addendum: Several days after posting this, Penny and I went to our local Macey's and practically walked straight into a seasonal display of Bear Lake Raspberry taffy! All is not lost. Yet.