I'm marking that tomato soup recipe since DH succumbed to a tv add and bought a Topsy Turvy tomato grower thing. As soon as we get them and it stops snowing here, we'll have fresh tomatoes.

And he complains all the time about boring stuff in life. "I hate sorting the whites." "XYZ work chore is so boring, I hate it." "I hate cleaning the floor." I tell him he better start doing better in school or he faces a long life of boring work.

He'll eventually come around. I found that the summers of working in a bindery helped.

cereal:

Ellie has killed me ded of the cute!

Aww, Stephanie. That is so sweet!

Cutiehead babysitter Ellie.

Brendon will have a summer job. He needs to understand how fabulous it is that he can work for his parents. Summer teen jobs in the Otter Lake area are either restaurant help or the Enchanted Forest water park. Either of which are far more grueling than the computer work I have him doing.

Bobby is going to work as a helper to the local electrician/plumber guy. He is very mechanical and will enjoy learning and helping.

Last summer they both sat around playing video games while I worked. Ain't happening again.

She was lying next to him, holding his hand and saying "don't cry Fico, Mommy be right back" and then just telling him about going to school today, basically repeating stuff that I had been telling her. It was so sweet it almost killed me.

DED. FROM. CUTE.

Must squish Ellie's cute little face and smooch her!! SO CUTE!!!

Drunken meara is, indeed, cute on toast.

Beverly for Queen of the Universe! (would everyone get a tiara after their two years of service? please?)

Yay for Aimee's sister (boo for having to be at work).

Fay, I'm glad the holiday with lots of water is when it's hot (although it probably doesn't ever get really cold there, does it?).

And in regard to the privileged self-righteous - I went to college with some of them. Kids who couldn't understand that there were people - people right next to them, in their classes, in their dorms - who couldn't afford to drop bunches of money on things they didn't have to think twice about (donations to "important" causes, electronics, meals at nice restaurants, etc.). Some of them learned - and the school did try to create some kind of social conscience, but it didn't always take.

In regard to welfare, etc. - I look at some of the things the government funds, and I figure feeding, housing, and generally taking care of people is (a) a drop in the financial bucket and (b) something we ought to do. For all the people who complain about funding education, housing, medical care, etc., for poor kids, I would like to point out that those are things either we pay for today or we pay for - a lot more - in the future.

I wish my parents had made me work during school vacations. I'm pretty sure I had no discernable work ethic until I was in my 30s and I sometimes doubt it even now.

but I do believe every able citizen should spend two years between high school graduation and college entry performing service, either to their community or some other, away from home and everything familiar. And at the end of the two years, everybody gets a college education. If you qualify/want/can afford a name school, fine. If not, you get a good basic college education.

Where do I go to stage the palace coup, because I really want to see this happen?

Cash, I hope DH's cousin gets her SSDI. You have a good family.

Ellie is killing me ded.

Aimee, great news! The ~ma, she is indeed powerful.

My ideas are somewhat draconian, but I do believe every able citizen should spend two years between high school graduation and college entry performing service, either to their community or some other, away from home and everything familiar.

So what do we need to do to make Bev Queen of the World? I've said this since I worked with college students. I also think they'd get a lot more out of college with a little sense of perspective. There was an important social benefit of the draft: people of very different backgrounds were all shoved together into one place.

Ellie killed me with the cute.

I found that the summers of working in a bindery helped.

I didn't even have to do the work to know that if I didn't work hard, I could end up working in a packing plant. Whenever I faltered, I envisioned having to pack bacon on an assembly line in a cooler. (Thankfully, machines do that now. Back then, it was one of the jobs for women.)

My bout of stomach hell yesterday has left me feeling like I did about 300 sit-ups, minus the feeling of virtue. I don't know what that was, but I'd like to never do that again.

eta: Yay for the great news, Aimee! You can start calling her "Nearly Headless..."

eta: Yay for the great news, Aimee! You can start calling her "Nearly Headless..."

I'm going to cell her that RIGHT NOW.