Tequila & Tonic (and memes)

My biggest gripe with Kansas and grocery shopping is that you can't buy alcohol in the regular grocery store so when we run out of something, I just don't replace it. I am not ambitious enough to go into a liquor store because the idea of making a second stop is too much to handle. Usually if we need something, I'll ask Scott to pick it up. 

All this to say, we ran out of gin like 6 months ago. I do like a gin and tonic mostly because I love tonic water. With ice and lots of lime, it's the perfect drink. I realize this means I'm probably from the 1950s. 

We did happen to have a bottle of tequila on hand ...so I mixed tequila with the tonic and a lot of fresh lime and a splash of sweetened lime juice. It's not quite as good as a gin and tonic but it fits the need for something fizzy on a hot day. 

The back-to-school nightmare parents have hit the Facebook groups!

Unpopular opinions from around the internet

 Don't tell me they "learn a lot" and "develop bonds". It's a leveling up of hierarchy in the parents' social status. You are paying to be friends with other parents who happen to have kids playing the same sport. Not every person who enrolls their child in travel ball is seeking to be a social climber, but the literal purpose of travel ball has always been to separate the haves from the have-nots. It's not good for kids. It's just offering a different locale for moms to drink their latte and wine away from home each weekend. 

First of all, that's a lunchbox full of food-like substances, not food (save for the banana). 

Second of all, your job as a parent is to feed your child. If you are complaining about the cost of packing them a lunch for school, that's a you problem. Even if it means applying for free-and-reduced lunch, go for it. I guess that's why it's there (even if I don't agree with that either). 

But complaining that you have to "feed your children" is another level of terrible parenting. 

^^^ This HAS to be rage bait. It has to be. "Not luxury items"...they're Lunchables! "A basic meal kit" lol. If this person is sincere they deserve to feel how they feel for being so unintelligent. I don't have the patience for that. ....by the by, if you are giving your kids packaged snacks to "get them through the afternoon" instead of actual food, they are lethargic, hard to manage, and not paying attention in class (ask me how I know). 

There are two particular conspiracy theories going around out there right now. Both prove exactly how  susceptible the wine moms are...You know, the ones who also have their kids in travel sports and then they also don't understand how to pack a school lunch. 

I feel like I should draw some Venn diagrams at this point. All I'd really be drawing is one big circle though. 

The women who think Patrick Clancy killed his kids are the same ones who think that Tyler Robinson is innocent. 

The women who believe Lindsay Clancy is innocent is the same group of Candace Owens fans who believe Charlie Kirk was killed by his friends/Israel. 

The women who think Lindsay Clancy was failed by the system and is a victim also think that Candace Owens is actually investigating something and Erika Kirk is the villain. 

See, it can be stated so many different ways!

These women also believe youth travel sports "benefit the entire family" and also complain about buying school supplies and paying for the cost of packing school lunches. 

Did I forget anything??? What do you think? 

(My opinions on our current cultural climate are my own :)

Currently in August.

 PTL. August has arrived. 

I dropped the entire jug of dog water in the kitchen last week and everything was soaked. I looked up later and saw this is what it did to my wet-erase calendar. If that doesn't sum up the July Experience, I don't know what does. The can of wasp spray also adds a nice flair and hidden not-so-secret meaning to the photo. (See my recipe for homemade wasp spray here.)

I always feel bad hating July because it's Wells' birthday month but it's my least favorite month; let's go straight from June to August, that's what I say. Wells always says he wants to take Ohio out of the map, because it's the most annoying part of driving from KS/MO to PA. I want to take July out of the calendar. 

So between the heat, Scott's traveling, the heat, the lice, the broken appliances, the heat, and the lice....it was a month. I spent the entire month doing laundry over and over again and then doing dishes by hand for awhile. Scott had to make some major repairs to the house we bought 3 months ago from a man we not-so-affectionately call dipsh*t and ...well, I won't repeat the other name I have for him. 

Onto August:

Savoring: Any day that is below 85 degrees. I look forward to the very possibility of a 65 degree night and God bless it when it rains during the day. 

However, it's really nice and relaxing and regulating to come home from a day of work and swim for an hour. This is one of those "rich people" luxuries; going to the pool was always an event before. We're not rich but it feels like it when you have a pool to swim in whenever you want. 

Wrapping Up: My Missouri library card. Since we don't live there anymore, I had to officially let my holds on Libby go. I've literally been waiting months for some of these but my card needed to be renewed and I can't do it. So now I'm down to one card (Northeast Kansas Library System) and I've got holds to pick up today. I also had to switch library branches this summer since our new house is closer to a different one. This has thrown me off, for sure. 

Holds:

I did some browsing about best read alouds for 4th grade and I'm going to preview There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom. I've never read it!

Remembering: To take back-to-school pics. I'm going to do that this weekend, I promise. I've been told, you get the kids in their outfits and you get the pictures the day before or *when you have time*. 7am on the first day of school is Not The Time to make them pose for a picture and be outside reconfiguring the letter board. 

Sutton loves to play with the letterboard and I think I"m going to have to find it because I believe I hid it from her. 

Preparing: For school. I obviously swore up and down I wasn't going to "spend a cent!". Well, needs must, as Ma Ingalls would say. I'm not buying random things but I've had to pick up some very intentional pieces. I'll post pictures when it's all done. I love looking back on all of my classrooms. 

Organizing: A routine again. Packing lunches hits hard. Always will. Being prepared past the next 1-2 hours in my day is something that always takes practice in August. 

Linking up for Currently!

Memes and Homemade Wasp Spray

Today is the first day back at school. 

This is true. It's not even sarcasm or exaggeration.

I started rewatching New Girl. It never disappoints. Season 2 is sitcom gold. 

I follow someone online who recently started "getting up at 4:30am again!" and I cannot. 

I keep telling myself to do a rewatch...the casting in this show is so beyond anything I'd ever expect from network tv. 

I'm jsut ready to see football players walk down tunnels again. 

We watched Into The Fire the other night and it was so good. The book I recommended last week, Forget You Saw Her, was based on this true story. 

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Speaking of murder, we've been murdering a lot of wasps and hornets this last week. We had a nest of some sort of wasp near the pool....3 stings later, Scott ripped out an old umbrella stand and sprayed the nest and solved that problem. But we still had a wasp issue. Generally they just fly around and leave us alone but Wells did get stung once and it's unsettling and became really hard to get the kids to be outside when they were afraid. We couldn't find one singular nest, and we also didn't want to use conventional sprays because they can damage windows and whatnot...you're not supposed to spray them at individual wasps, apparently. 

I saw a reel about washing the outside of your house in Pinesol to keep bugs away. This is usually what i keep around to clean floors with anyway, so I made up a mixture to spray around the outside doors. Scott picked up the bottle one day to spray on a wasp. We discovered it killed them in seconds. 

So now we spend our days/evenings hunting wasps for sport. It keeps the kids from being afraid and it's super satisfying when you hit them. I've gotten a lot better at it. There's strategy involved. Wells treats it like a video game. 

Anyway, that's how country-living is going. 

1 spray bottle (this is 20 oz to the top line, and I fill it to the very top)

2-3 T. Dawn dish soap (probably doesn't have to be Dawn, just don't use some crunchy tox-free stuff)

1/2 cup Pinesol

After you add the soaps, fill to the top of the bottle with water, slowly so you don't create too much suds. 

When spraying, make sure the nozzle is set to "stream" for maximum effect. 

Bonus: it makes everything smell good and won't harm children, property, or animals and it's so much cheaper than buying toxic sprays. 

Disclaimer: Educational purposes only. I'm not responsible for anyone getting stung by a wasp. Also works on any flying insect. Wells likes to practice on flies.