A Tuesday

It's TUESDAY.  We don't do anything on Tuesday.  It's the best day ever.  Colin doesn't have school and it always feels like the first chance we have had to do absolutely nothing.  Sometimes we get dressed, sometimes we don't.  We always make a giant mess.  And by "we", I mean Colin.  My brilliant son is not satisfied to just lay out some trucks or play with his legos.  Nope.  My son likes to turn the living room into a city/zoo/pool/construction site/hotel/school...you can really change out any of those options on any given day.  He turns the stack of dirty clothes into a mountain on top of his trampoline and plants a flag there.  He takes out every tool bench he has to create check out lines at his grocery store.  Today, he dumped his entire craft box onto the living room couch and created "art stations".  He used popsicle sticks of various sizes and glued them TO my kitchen counter.  Granted, there was paper there somewhere, but everything got glued to the counter regardless.  I don't care a bit...Elmer's Glue wipes right up and I hate standing over him when he is trying to create something and bark in his ear about making a mess.  Kids are supposed to make messes.  He is having a great time and I shall clean it up later.  No big shakes.  It's a good thing for Colin that he was born with a mom who was not worried about disasters.  ;-)  He asked me to bring his table from his playroom into the kitchen so that he could arrange a battle.  The battle is between the creatures that he made out of Playdough and his army men.  My house looks like a large bomb exploded.  When Jer gets home from work, I plan to send the boys to the park so that I can clean up the mess.  We always like to have a clean slate for another day of "creating".  But in case you are curious, or have only been to my house when it is tidy (in other words, when I was expecting company and pretended that we don't live in a trash heap), please enjoy this window into our Tuesday.  ;-)

The "art stations".  So lovely.

Notice the purple sticks glued to my counter? 

The constructed battle scene with playdough creatures and army platoon.

This makes sense to Colin...I am doubting the need for chocolate eggs and Christmas microphone, but whatever.  ;-)

While all this was going on, I cooked.  I have just taken up Thai cuisine.  Thai is one of my most favorite things on the planet and I have been trying my hand at more Asian stuff these days.  It's the most delicious food, but usually requires a trip to the Asian market or Central Market at the least.  I've been working on my Thai pantry and things are coming along nicely.  Just moments ago, I completed the most delicious thing I have ever made.  Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration.  Wait, no it's not.  I crafted what is basically a cheaters version of sticky rice with mango that is the Thai dessert staple.  I could live off the stuff but there is no way that I am going through the actual process of making sticky rice, which starts with soaking rice for 3 hours.  UM, no.  I made this with orzo pasta of all things!!  It turned out AH-MAZING.  It is going to take all the willpower in the free world not to finish the whole batch this afternoon.  I have also perfected my peanut sauce, which I made a big batch of last night for a chicken cabbage salad.  I saved the rest for today and have my chicken satay marinating as we speak.  I am making chicken satay "sandwiches" for dinner, using the marinated grilled chicken, cilantro, a cucumber/jalapeno salad, and the peanut sauce.  I was going to make them on ciabatta bread, but ran into some naan at the store that spoke to me, so I am going to serve the sandwiches open face over a warm piece of naan bread.  I am pretty sure that I just combined cuisines from more than 3 countries there, but whatever.  I love to cook.  Have I mentioned that lately?  ;-)

HEAVENLY!  This is seriously some of my best work. 

The weather is absolutely stunning right now and I know that we are heading back into the 110 degree hell known as Texas summer, so I am trying to soak it up.  You know, by staying in the house in my pajamas and cooking.  ;-)  We did manage to spend some time outdoors and we were shocked to see that one of the bushes in our front yard is covered in different kinds of butterflies!  I LOVE IT!  I got the camera out and used it as an excuse to do a little photography practice.  Colin tried so hard to catch one so that he could get a closer look, but they were not having it!   

So there you have it for one random Tuesday in April.  And now, since it's 2:26pm, I think I will go get dressed.  And eat another piece of that dessert.  And peel the popsicle sticks off the counter.  Or something.