In Which We Get Pizzas From The GDDG And Are Not Ashamed

Hoo boy. Another day. Vergil spent it on our roof and Mr. Moon spent it cutting boards and handing them up to Vergil. I am sure there was more involved than that but that was the gist of it, I think. 

The boys and Jessie and I hung out all day. We started out playing "Life" which August is obsessed with. We didn't finish the whole game but we had a rousing time for a while. I never played Life before my elder years and it's sort of a lot for me. Insurance? Taxes? Careers? Salaries? Deeds? Education? Plus a lot of other stuff. It's a lot like...Life. But as with Monopoly it's good for the boys as the money aspect teaches them math and they can practice reading as the game goes along. 

I forget why we took a break. Maybe just because we wanted to. Jessie got in her Daddy's chair with some pillows and a heating pad and she and the boys and Sophie watched some TV. 

I swear, Sophie's face is in there somewhere. 
While they were chilling, I took the trash to the dump and stopped at the post office where they have put up a Christmas tree. 

This is the first Christmas tree at the Lloyd post office I can remember. Now, the dump always decorates but the post office? Not so much. 

When I got back, the boys and I walked down to the GDDG to get a glue stick which they needed and some frozen pizzas to heat up for our lunch. 

 This, my friends, is August and Levon. August danced all the way down the sidewalk while Levon marched along like a man on a mission. We got our pizzas and I got a can of black beans and a can of pinto beans to make chili with. I also bought them each a Nutty Buddy, not realizing that the ones I bought them were the most GIGANTIC NUTTY BUDDIES in the world. 
Sigh. 
I just wanted to get out of there. 

We walked home and I cooked the pizzas and the men came in for a delicious gourmet (hahahahahahaha!) lunch and then went back to work. I finally got Jessie to really settle down for a nap and Levon needed one too so he snuggled with her in the Boppy chair and August built a terrific Lincoln Log house and I made the chili. 
Then he showed me some magic tricks he knows involving cards and then I showed him how to play gin rummy. 
Oh, Jesus, y'all. 

I am not even kidding you. He grasped the concepts and developed his own strategy in thirty minutes. 
I give up. 

I didn't even bother to tell him that you usually play until one of the players reaches 500 points. I just went and stirred the chili. 

By then the men were about ready to call it a day and began to pack up their tools. August ended up playing Life with Levon, making Jessie's and my moves himself. 
He won that too but I am a bit suspicious of that. 

I sent them home with chili and Mr. Moon has made us a martini and I could not be happier. It was a good day but I wish I'd been able to help Jessie rest more than I did. I know she's doing too much. Even Vergil says that when he was three days post-op from his ONE hernia repair he was still in bed, moaning. 
Women. We don't stop. 

An interesting thing that happened today was watching what was happening between Sophie and the cats. At first they were incredibly suspicious of her, hissing and freezing in their tracks whenever they saw her. But by the end of the day, both Jack and Maurice seemed more curious about her than anything. In fact, Maurice was making an appearance far more than she ever does when just the children are here. She allowed Sophie to get quite close to her. Closer than she lets Jack approach her. And Jack was acting completely chill about and around her by the time they left. 

And I will not lie- Sophie did manage to inhale a bowl of cat food. So- good associations for her of the cats in this house. 

She is a good dog, that Sophie, never trying to chase or harass the cats at all, keeping her distance politely. 

A few people have asked me my recipe for dumplings and of course I do not have one but here's how I basically make mine:

I take some self-rising flour (let's say maybe a cup and a half) and add a very small pinch of baking soda. I mix that up with my fingers. Then I add buttermilk, carefully, stirring it in until I have a not-too-oozy but not-too-stiff batter. Don't mix too much. Just make sure all the flour/baking soda is mixed in. You can do a trial run with just a tablespoon of the mixture in the simmering broth. If the dumpling falls apart, you have added too much buttermilk, so mix in more self-rising flour. If the dumpling doesn't puff up and seems dense, you need more buttermilk. 

That's it. 

Now I'm going to go make some cornbread. And I think I will sleep until 7:45 tomorrow! Thank you, time change, for making me feel less slothful. 

Be well, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon