A Day in the Life, Hour by Hour

This morning, I thought it'd be fun to take a picture every hour on the hour during my day. Which worked at 7 and 8. But then I lost track of time, so at 9:18, it changed it to taking a picture during each hour of the day. And then I took the 1 o'clock picture at exactly 2 o'clock and decided that we weren't going to be hugely legalistic about this. I took a picture roughly every hour out of my day. I think it was a pretty typical day. Let's get going, shall we?

7:00 AM on the patio. James was out the door fast, so I didn't even have time to make hum breakfast (but I did make him coffee; that's important!).

8:00 AM outside Mal's window. The rabbits have more than doubled in size since we moved in!

During the 9 o'clock hour, we played at Windmill Run Park while it was still mild (but too humid for me to say "cool" because I was sweaty), and we might have witnessed a drug deal while we played in the van for a few minutes as I was procrastinating putting Mal into the carseat against his will.

10 o'clock hour, and we're on our way home from H-E-B. I was going to take a picture inside the store, but apparently my darling son had shoved my camera up under my seat during the aforementioned play session.

11 is an early nap for the guy on the left, but he's been feeling puny for several days. The guy on the right sleeps most of the time, so no bigs.

Noontime. Post-vacuuming. Carol hates it when I vacuum. Or when the landscapers come. This is her safe place.

Late in the 1 PM timeframe: Play time! Thomas looks a bit surprised to see Raggedy Ann.

2 o'clock hour brings a visit to the clubhouse on the walk home from the mail box. Even though I went to the store for two things, I forgot one of them: caffeine! I just got one 20-ouncer for my morning tomorrow, because I'm getting out at about 10 and will pick up some more after my activity.

3 M&Ms at 3 PM. I put them up on his slide platform to occupy him while I did a couple of things in the kitchen. He grabbed one, did this baby crack move, enjoyed it, and then repeated with each subsequent candy. This is the final piece.

4 PM and a stack of M&M "less unhealthy" brownies I made. The second thing I'd gone to the store to get, I also forgot: Brownie mix. But I was certain I could make brownies out of Bisquick. When no recipe showed up on the internet, I winged it. I used a can of pumpkin puree, 6 tablespoons of cocoa, and the rest of the Bisquick (enough to make a thicky cookie-like dough). Then I added one egg, which made it thick brownie batter consistency. I tasted it, and it tasted like biscuits, so I added 6 tablespoons of sugar. Not enough. I added 6 more, for 12 total tablespoons, and that was perfect, given that I also planned to add a cup or so of M&Ms. I spread the whole thing in a 9 x 12 pan, sprinkled turbinado sugar and M&Ms on top, and baked at 350 for 30 minutes. Very good. Low fat. We all liked them.

It's 5 o'clock. Do you know where your children are? I do. Daphne and I are listening to "Armada" by Ernest Cline, and Mal is crawling around fussing, mostly.

6 o'clock, when I answer my question: Can you make steamed dumplings in a rice cooker? Yes, you can. I couldn't find a recipe for what I wanted to do, either, so I made one up. I melted 4 tablespoons of pork fat (from having cooked a roast) in a pan, and grated one cucumber into it. I liberally sprinkled onion and garlic powders. After that got mushy, I added one pound of ground turkey. I cooked it until it released its juices and got pretty watery, then added 2 tablespoons of mint, torn into bits, some soy sauce, and some Worchestershire sauce. Then I cooked it until all of the liquid evaporated and I had a nice dry meat mixture. Then I took some left-over Pillsbury pizza dough, tore it into bits to make balls/flattened into disks, put a heaping tablespoon of meat in the center, pinched the ends, rolled it into a ball again, and cooked over water in the rice cooker for 20-30 minutes. So good.

7 o'clock, when hope springs eternal.

8 PM: Daddy's home!

9 PM, Mal does a final sweep to make sure everything's clean before heading (unwillingly) to bed.

Night, friends!