Apple Pie and The Attack of the Picnic Table

The other day at lunch Kirby asked Greg if they could make apple pie. I had given the boys some grape tomatoes and they were eating them as Kirby was saying, "Apple pie! Apple pie! Apple pie!" The next day I had the tomatoes out again and was putting them back in the fridge and Sam started pointing to them and saying, "Apple pie! Apple pie!" Apparently he thought that's what we had been referring to.

Greg decided it was time for Sam to find out what apple pie REALLY is, which of course meant he needed to make one from scratch. No complaints here! And if you're going to have homemade pie, you of course need homemade ice cream to go with it... And if you're going to have a nice homemade dessert, you need a nice homemade dinner first. So Greg did some research on the Food Network web site and came up with some recipes (and then tweaked them) for some great fish and a potato zucchini gratin. Fabulous! It's been really nice having him take over the cooking since my c-section! Anyway, now Sam knows what apple pie is and we have some new recipes to add to our dinner routine.



And are you wondering about the picnic table reference in the title? Well, Greg was cleaning up from said Fabulous Dinner, which he had slaved away at all afternoon, and he really deserved a rest but I am still not up to getting on my hands and knees to clean up under the boys' little picnic table so he was scrubbing the floor and leaned up on the top of the picnic table to stand up. It wasn't completely snapped on so the physics of this worked like stepping on a rake, and suddenly Greg was back on the floor, wondering what had hit him. I heard the crash from the other room where I was feeding Jiorji and asked if he was ok. "What happened?" I called out. "Don't ask!" he replied. Later he confessed that he'd been whacked in the head by the picnic table, which, for some reason, made me laugh for five minutes straight. Which was a little painful as I'm still healing, but worth it. I guess I just needed some comic relief. Thanks, Greg, for the comfort food and the entertainment!

"We Are A Happy Family"

That is one of Kirby's favorite songs. He generally doesn't like me to sing, but he has never yet told me to stop singing that one. I sing it often and I think it gives him security because it is cheerful and familiar. The world may want you to believe that happiness comes from being "free" and "independent" with "no strings attached." But I find happiness in the security of family ties. There is deep abiding joy in healthy family life. Nothing can compare with a happy feeling of belonging and being loved and knowing that that love is unconditional.