The green smoothie

In an effort to get Meg to eat a leafy green anything, I fixed her a green smoothie. She adores smoothies. I put it in a blue cup so the color wouldn't bother her. But I felt really awkward about it - not so much about tricking her, but because green smoothies what Those People make.

You know, healthy people. They probably run marathons before breakfast and wear Toms and fair-trade hemp tunics while organically gardening.

Vegetables are fine, but... we don't do that to them. Smoothie them, that is. It felt like a betrayal of my roots.

However, I might as well have saved the guilt, not to mention the produce. Meg didn't care for it.

I wonder if she'd eat fried okra?

Way out west

I've been trying to work up the energy to post about our lovely trip West, which we took at the beginning of June. First there was laundry and then the moment had passed. My pictures still aren't even downloaded, which is sad. I think I'll give up on doing it justice and just post already.

We really went out for my friend Anna's wedding in Colorado. We also celebrated a triple birthday party for my sister, dad, and brother-in-law, threw a surprise mini-shower for my sister, visited the good doctor and admired his new office, and spend a few days with my grandparents. Meg has only met them twice before, so that was especially important.

A secondary goal (totally accomplished) was to eat at as many of my old favorite places as we could manage. Behold:

El Pinto - Albuquerque
Ecco Gelato - downtown Santa Fe
Joann's Ranch-O-Casados - Espanola
Mimi's Cafe - Colorado Springs
Chili Works - Los Alamos
El Rancho - Portales
Leal's - Clovis
Cotton Patch - Clovis
Rosa's - Lubbock

We also tried to get Dad caught up on superhero movies, went to the dress shop in Portales, and did a spot of antiqueing in Clovis. But really most of our time there was spent eating, getting ready to eat, getting ready for the triple birthday party and surprise baby shower, and, in approved family fashion, going to Wal-Mart every day at least once. Mission accomplished.

Happy summer

Happy summer! Yesterday was The Day, and here in Leesburg it celebrated by getting up to 97. Meg and I had a few errands to run in the morning, and for the afternoon we holed up in our lovely, air-conditioned apartment and watched Sleeping Beauty and The Incredibles.

I felt like we should celebrate Midsummer's Eve and Midsummer's Day. It didn't really happen, except for fixing nice dinners. For Midsummer's Eve we had guacamole sliders, and then last night
I tried this amazing ginger-peach chicken in a soy-sauce base - I used fresh peaches and it was excellent. The recipe called for baking it half of forever, but I think it would be nicer crock-potted or maybe grilled with the sauce prepared stovetop. Or something.

Some of our young mamas from church really miss the company of weekly Bible study, so we're getting together once a week to go out and about and do something fun. Next week we're going to the Brunswick train museum. Today, we're supposed to walk on the W&OD Trail and have a picnic after, but seeing as it's supposed to be 97 again, I'm not sure how that's going to work. But if anyone is interested in joining us for future expeditions, let me know.

Anybody do anything especially summery?

Cowgirl hat

Meg and I went to Old Navy on Friday and picked out a straw cowboy hat for her. She's been needing a summer hat because I won't let her wear fleece headgear when it's 85 out, and more impressively she's been wanting a summer hat, possibly because I have a big raggedy straw hat with roses on it that I wear to the barn and the park.

So we picked out the little cowboy hat, and she plopped it directly on her head. It came off just long enough for the cashier to scan it, and back on it went. She wore it to a cookout last night, to great effect. Then this morning, starlet-style, she wore the hat with a pair of hot pink sunglasses clear into the church nursery. That, my friends, is panache.