This was not the smoothest canning session I’ve ever had (not one damn peach released from

Blanching the peaches

Plunged into an ice bath

The cooled, drained peaches pre-peeling

Peaches simmering in sugar water

Almost ready for the final canning bath

This was not the smoothest canning session I’ve ever had (not one damn peach released from its pit without a fight), but the peach syrup that resulted from the stewing is divine, the peaches look gorgeous, and the cans seem to be sealing tightly in their water bath. I love the look of these new Weck jars but feel like I might need to practice with them a bit. They seem slightly less foolproof than the screw on tops…

A couple of things...

One: Did anyone watch Bill Maher on or from Friday night? Melissa Harris-Perry, a Tulane prof and writer for The Nation was a panelist and is one of my new favorite people. What a smart, sassy, awesome woman! Wow!

Two: Why did I used to be so anti-nap?

Three: I love my compost salads. Tonight’s was so nice, so healthful and satisfying. Have y’all gotten into these at all?

Four: although I felt every ounce of the overwhelmed exhaustion I wrote about earlier, I know too that I will someday look so forward to the time my boys still want to spend with me. Did anyone read this article today: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/travel/dominique-browning-on-a-train-trip-with-her-two-grown-sons.html?ref=travel
     4a: My biggest fear about having boys and the thing I most hope doesn’t come true is that they stop calling or wanting to spend time with me once they’re in college or beyond. T never calls his mom, and I will be crushed if such is the case with J & O.
     4b: If that happens (IT WON’T IF I CAN HELP IT!) and if it doesn’t, this trip sounds neat.

As Jack would tell me, four things is NOT a couple, so I guess in literal terms my title is incorrect but alas… :)

So, so tired

My dear hubbie let me sleep in the basement until 8am this morning and then brought me coffee. It was such an incredible treat. He is leaving town first thing tomorrow morning until Wednesday and then has to leave early Thursday morning and then I am taking the dreaded trip to Louisiana alone with the boys (not dreading the visit, just the actual travel, let me be clear) on Friday. So, long point short, I think I definitely deserved the good night’s sleep but appreciate it nonetheless.

The zen I felt upon waking was quashed not too terribly long afterwards though by the sheer amount of talking, bouncing, singing, jumping, questioning, brainstorming aloud and pleading that commenced immediately and did not let up one iota until we got in the car several hours later, Oliver fell asleep and we put a story-on-tape on for Jack. Seriously, by this point I was having heart palpitations due to the energy required to make it though the gauntlet that is a morning with the kids, especially #1.

Thank god we were headed to Annapolis for a birthday party on a pirate ship. It was great fun, and J was so pooped on the drive home that he looked gaga and hardly uttered a word. Because I will not see my DH much for the next 10 days, I had the foresight to schedule a sitter this afternoon from 4 to bedtime (cheers to my kids for going to sleep before 6:30). DH is sleeping now but perhaps we’ll actually get to have a convo tonight.

Extremely long point short is that I don’t suspect either of us have the energy for or interest in cooking tonight. Thus, I won’t have anything for you today. Tomorrow I intend to make a delicious middle eastern carrot-raisin salad though; do you know Claudia Roden? She wrote one of our favorite cookbooks, The New Book of Middle Eastern Food, from which this incredibly easy and good recipe hails. I’ll post that recipe at some point.

Off to attempt to read an article before joining T in the great snore fest he has going on.