Boys, Boys, Boys

Though I am not a Twilight fan, I'm intrigued by the phenomenon. I've read the first book and listened to many friends talk at length, squeal with delight, and even decorate their homes with Twilight. Lots of people I know feel groggy today because they stayed up all night to be one of the first ones to see the new movie.

Stephenie Meyer intrigues me. First of all, she's a BYU graduate in English (like me) and she has three little boys (like me). She loves her (mostly female) fans, can't get enough of them, and says one of the saddest days of her life was when she moved out of her apartment full of girls to live with her husband, who happens to be nicknamed "Pancho." So is it any wonder that she would write such girly books? I will make no comment here about what I think about said books, but I do wonder what being the only woman in this family full of boys (did I mention they tell us our new baby is a boy?) might drive me to do.

Here's to hoping I seek other outlets (sorry, Twilight fans, but my writing aspirations don't include vampire books). Oddly enough, I've been into sewing lately (which I've always HATED) and I find myself smiling wistfully at and cozying up more to the little girls in my life. A friend told me that her mother-in-law who had all boys told her that they had been praying for their future daughters-in-law for years and years. Maybe I could expend some of that girl-longing energy with such praying. The most frightening outlet I can think of would be pro-creating over and over from now in hopes of finally getting that girl! With my luck, it would take twenty tries. Must think of other ways to connect with girls. . .

No, I'm afraid I just need to learn to love my boys and be happy with what I've got. Four missionaries, eight smelly gym shoes, four hungry and loud mouths, four kids who are in love with their mom, four daughters-in-law someday.

Summer Snippets

Graham: "Mom, I want to go to THIS preschool where I can learn another language." (after checking out a bilingual Spanish preschool where Graham might go instead of kindergarten next year, mostly because his late birthday would make my baby still four years old for the first two days of all-day kindergarten—so happy he's buying into the plan so far . . .)

Russell: "Didn't my lego ship turn out awesome? Thanks for helping find all the pieces, Mom." (after I spent a long 30 minutes on the floor combing through the legos for the bits his instructions prescribed)

Isaac: Silence. Because he was at scout camp today, where it rained all day but he still had a great time fishing, shooting, playing and learning.

We're on day three of summer. So far my house has been cleaner than it's been for weeks, thanks to boys motivated by dimes to do chores. But part of me can't believe this is only day three. The days certainly stretch long!

How Rozann Woodward (Wherever She Is) Saved My Day

My motivation and energy is almost nil these days. When does the second-trimester burst of energy enter? Any day now would be LOVELY.

This afternoon I was laying down after a long morning with first-graders at the swelteringly hot park. One by one, my mind drowsily browsed through my meager ideas for dinner. Baked potatoes? I'd have to scrub them and wrap every one . . . nope. Spaghetti? Ugh . . . I don't think I can ever eat spaghetti sauce again. Then it came to me, like a burst of light from heaven:

Rozann Woodward's Taco Soup.

Rozann was my amazing roommate my sophomore year of college. She had a car she'd bought herself (a blue sports car!), she had a sassy short haircut to match her short stature, and was majoring in business. She had this great laugh that got her lots of dates and made everyone want to hang out with her. And she came from a family with eight or ten children (can't remember which . . . I had several roommates from large families and I get their family sizes mixed up!). So her mom's recipe for taco soup was easy and cheap:

2 cans creamed corn

2 cans stewed tomatoes

2 cans red beans

1 pkg. taco seasoning

1/2 lb. ground beef (thanks to Katie, I had this in the freezer cooked and ready to go)

Heat and eat with corn chips and cheese.

This afternoon, this recipe saved me. There I was poised for another evening of exhausted failure to produce dinner, and within five minutes I had dinner simmering on the stove, ready for when Isaac had to rush off to Scouts and Rich rushed in on the way to a church meeting. I even fed the neighbor kid, who said with admiration, "When did you make this?"

"Oh, about an hour ago," I said casually, like I've always got dinner ready to go on the stove before 5 pm.

They gobbled it up.

And then, later, my sweet neighbor Kris brought me a gourmet zucchini tomato casserole from her farmer's market surplus, saying, "I remember you made me something like this a while ago," [I did?!?] "and since I had so many tomatoes, I thought I'd share it with you."

In one sweet gesture she fed my still-hungry stomach with vitamin-packed fresh vegetables, and reminded me that I did once cook good stuff and enough to share (and could possibly do it again in the future). Thank you, Kris.

And Rozann, wherever you are, thanks for the taco soup that saved me and my family today. I needed that.