Parents count down the minutes to nap time.  A time to take a little break from the chasing, from the snack requests, from the being on the watch. Nap time means we can get a few minutes to ourselves to check items off of our lists or just relax.  Once my second son was old enough to crawl, nap time was anything but relaxing. As soon as he could crawl, he could climb!

During the summer we spent a good deal of time at my in-laws home on the creek. We would put the Johnny Jump Up  and a baby pool for the boys to play on the dock.  Trying to wear them out so they would take a good long rest. Then at nap time, the boys would go up to the house, and I had a baby monitor on the dock.  One day we noticed the monitor was cutting out a good bit, so my father-in-law went up to check on the boys.  Poppie walked into the house and almost immediately reemerged asking me to come to the house.  Yep, that’s not good.

I walked in to find my precocious 14-month-old not just out of his crib, he was standing on the kitchen counter in nothing but his diaper and had dumped all of the spices out on the counter.  There he stood surrounded by a pile of garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, and heaven only knows what else.  He was having a blast and my father-in-law thought it was hilarious, which did not help.  However as most little guys do, Reilly had put his fingers in his mouth, and that is when we realized one of those spices must have been cayenne pepper because the screaming began! We rinsed his mouth out with water and got him some juice to calm him down then put him back to bed.

We couldn’t let all those spices go to waste, so what do you do? Scoop those into a pile and rim your glass for a morning Bloody Mary of course.

Bloody Mary

Juice of half a lime

8 drops of Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon horseradish

2 drops of sriracha

pinch of black pepper

1/2 teaspoon celery salt

1 shot of vodka

3 oz Clamato Juice

Pickled okra and olives for garnish

Salted Rim

3 teaspoons margarita salt

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Combine the lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, sriracha, pepper, celery salt, vodka, and Clamato juice in a shaker.  Shake and pour over ice in a glass rimmed with the salt mix. Garnish with pickled okra and olives.

Today my trip down memory lane has been rerouted.  The harsh reality that summer is quickly coming to a close and we have very little time left of our lazy summer days has hit. What is worse, it is time to kick into gear and actually do the SUMMER PACKET!

I never had a summer packet growing up, so I was not prepared when my boys came home with summer work.  Excuse me? I thought I would get a break from chasing everyone down and making them do homework.  NOPE! Before teachers chime in and tell me the benefits of the summer packet, please understand I am okay with the review portion of the summer work, especially for my third grader. I may not be okay with the volume.  A page of math a week, read a book a week, and some handwriting, no problem, but that’s not the assignment. We are talking about three pages of work a day, and we started in July. People!! We want to build sandcastles and boogie board, stay at the beach until it is shark feeding time, and then eat ice cream for dinner. We want to cherish the moments while they still want to spend time with us and think we are cool.

Speaking of not being cool, let’s move up to the high school boys. Six pages of math, a historical world map to label and learn for a quiz that will be given on day one, an article with discussion questions, four independent reading books, discussion questions on one, and one has to be annotated. (Need to look that word up? Yep so did I.) Annotation: notes or explanations made in the margins. Well, why didn’t you say so? We have exactly 21 days before school starts, before the first quiz of the grading period.  What is a little more stressful is that one of my sons leaves for camp in two days, which really means he has two days left to complete this! Time for a cocktail.

Margarita

Crushed Ice

shot of tequila

2 ounces fresh lime juice

two tablespoons grapefruit juice

1/2 teaspoon orange liqueur

1 ounce simple syrup (to make simple syrup dissolve 1 cup of sugar in 1 cup warm water)

Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Add tequila, lime juice, grapefruit juice, simple syrup, and orange liqueur. Cover and shake until chilled. Rub the rim of your glass with a lime wedge and dip in margarita salt. Fill the glass with ice and pour the margarita mixture over the ice.

For a lower sugar and calorie option skip the simple syrup and grapefruit juice. Simply mix tequila, orange liqueur, and fresh lime juice in the cocktail shaker and pour over ice then top with grapefruit La Croix. This is still yummy and refreshing.

What mom hasn’t had a moment when you think “this can’t be happening!”, “please God tell me I am dreaming”, or “Please tell me I am not the only one!”? In reading this blog you will hopefully find a community of mothers having a similar crazy life or perhaps crazier. For years, 16 to be exact, friends have told me to write a book and share my stories but I am not a writer. No need to let me know you caught a grammar or spelling error, I am sure my posts will be riddled with them.  I hope you can skip over the mistakes and take in the stories for the funny anecdotes they are meant to be and enjoy the cocktail recipe shared.

When my husband and I discussed parental responsibilities, he quickly stepped up to the plate volunteering to handle broken bones, stitches, and bloody injuries leaving illness and vomit to me (I don’t do vomit).  Here’s the thing, I am home and he is at work.  How often do accidents really happen after dinner, hardly ever!

Picture it, a beautiful summer morning my new born has gone down for a morning nap and I head outside with my 20 month old.  He is gleefully playing in the yard while I, of course, try to multitask and pull weeds.  All of a sudden the screaming begins and I look up to see my precious little one with a stream of blood pouring down his forehead all over his face! I scoop him up and run inside with him.  I don’t normally panic but I did because the man that told me he would handle the bloody accident isn’t bloody home! My baby is sleeping and God I don’t want to wake him up, so I call my neighbor to come over and sit with the baby. She walks in and immediately states “wow, that’s gonna need stitches, what happened?”.  Well, shit.  I hadn’t even bothered to ask the child that. Daulton then states through hiccuping tears  “I fell out the tree and hit my head on bashful Betty”. Mother of the year here had no idea the kid was in a tree much less had fallen out of it.

So off we go to the pediatrician where they glue his forehead back together, laugh at our mishap,  and send us on our way.  On our way home we stopped at the toy store and got him a prize for being so brave, the Melissa and Doug Castle which was completely appropriate for our brave tree climbing knight. Truth is, it was total mom guilt that sent me to the toy store. I mean really my less than two year old fell out of a tree on my watch! He loved that castle for years though and it was nice to have something new that day since I could not let him nap with his head injury.  After all the excitement of the day, momma needed a drink.  So when daddy got home it was cocktail time.  Here is my recommendation for a Child fall from a tree on a summer day.

Watermelon Mojito

a shot of rum

1/2 cup  watermelon puree

3 fresh mint leaves muddled in the bottom of your glass

3/4 cup Lime La Croix

crushed ice

watermelon wedges for serving

Muddle fresh mint and watermelon in the bottom of a glass. Add the shot of rum and crushed ice. Top with lime La Croix. Garnish with mint and watermelon wedge. Lock your kids inside, sit on your porch and enjoy.