Kids repeat what they hear, or what they think they hear. What they think they hear is what is most familiar. For example, my 3 year old’s body parts are: “Finger, hand, elmo.” “Mouth, nose, eyes, ears, hat.” I thought I would improve things upon discussion of a familiar song. “Bah-Bah black sheep have you any wood yes, sure, yes, sure, three bags full one for my mister and one for my day and one for the little boy who lives down that way” At least he didn’t ask to “EIEIO place”, which is his way of saying where Old MacDonald and Happy Meals live.

I read the recipe in Good Housekeeping and was anxious to try it. It was very easy, just about four ingredients and everything was cooked on the BBQ, so clean up was also simple. We had a rice dish made with red and green peppers, onion, rice and corn. The combination worked very well together and again, it wasn’t too complicated and the fact that the veggies and rice were cooked in one frying pan meant that clean up was again very easy. Finally I steamed some asparagus. I don’t ‘scale’ the asparagus like some people recommend but I do snap off the tough ends. If you bend the asparagus close to the ends, it will naturally snap off where the spear is not longer tender. It was a great dinner without much work or clean up, what could be better.

When I have time to spare, I love to read. When I’m not reading and I have time to shop, I browse the bookstores and second hand shops for books. My book collection, including quite a few that I inherited, numbers in the thousands. I’ve read a lot of them. But I also collect books in hopes of reading them one day. Book clubs send me their offers and I forget to return the card declining the selection of the month. Recently, I have found very good deals on fairly current hardcover books at the local dollar store. The public library also sells books they have no use for, and I am a frequent customer.