The Queen's Rambles

I had an excellent Mother’s Day yesterday. Mike made sure I had gifts, plus I bought myself a new camera. The new camera isn’t blurry! I am taking clear pictures! You have no idea how happy this makes me!

I’ve had craptacular cameras for several years. Looking back at the clear, light pictures from Erik’s toddlerhood reminded me that I wasn’t always a horrible photographer. It is not all my fault that I can’t take a decent picture of poor Elsa. Sure, she does move around a lot and won’t look at the camera and nothing can fix that, but look at the picture above. I never would have gotten such a shot with my past three cameras.

The new camera? Total impulse purchase on sale at Costco. Fuji, waterproof, ugly green.

Anyway, Mother’s Day. After a good morning of sleeping in and opening gifts we headed out to a petting farm. Click through the pic for the full set if you care to see my kids around a bunch of animals.

Elsa was really scared of the animals at first, but by the end she was enjoying herself. She fell in love with the Flemish giant pictured above and didn’t want to leave. She also had a great time chasing chickens. I guess they weren’t as scary as cows and goats.

When we got home I had several e-mails from people wanting to buy all my diapers. I finally got off my duff and took care of all my old cloth diapers. I cleaned them up, sorted them, and listed them as a lot on Craigslist for a fair price. I think I will have them out of the house by this afternoon. Here’s hoping! They take up a lot of room and mental space. Mental space because I feel like I should maximize the amount of money I get for them, but to do that I would need to do a lot of work and deal with a lot of buyers who want something for nothing. I finally figured out that getting less money with less work on my part was better than getting no money because I procrastinated so long that the elastic crumbled. I have heard a couple of horror stories of the elastic crumbling on diapers that sit unused.

I tried to make cupcake ice cream cone things last night. Bethany posted pictures of some and it inspired me. My mom used to make them all the time, so I thought it would be funny to make them and frost them to look like real ice cream and trick Erik. Unfortunately he chose to be curious about what I was doing. When I wouldn’t tell him he called my mom and asked her what I was doing. How would she know? He described the process and she told him. He thought it was hilarious. Too bad I had no idea how full to fill the cones, so every single one totally overflowed and made a huge mess. I also didn’t have much luck making the frosting look ice cream like, but that didn’t stop the kids from enjoying them.

And now my handyman is gone, so it is time to run to the store in the pouring rain. Why, rain, why? It’s been pouring down for several hours with no hope of a break. We are out of groceries so I guess I have no choice but to brave it.

I made a chile colorado sauce last week and need to add more pork ribs to it to make a delicious soup. I am seriously addicted to everything I’ve made from Aaron Sanchez’s cookbook. Elsa and Mike agree. Erik? Not so much. If it has any flavor at all he opens his mouth and starts screaming. Kid doesn’t know what he’s missing.