Reasons To Stay Sane and Flash a Smile.

* Baking waaaay too much zucchini bread.
We had several zucchinis (zucchinii?) that were teetering on the brink in our refridgerator, so yesterday I bit the bullet and baked my little heart out. I used to bake all the time, but have got out of the habit in recent years. So! We now have zucchini muffins, zucchini loaf, and a yet another zucchini loaf baked in a bundt pan. I'm stocking the freezer, and we'll be eating it for breakfast from now until New Year's, I expect.

* Funky Beaded Necklaces
I have quite a collection, now. I love the way the beads rattle together when I run down the stairs to grab something-or-other that one of the boys forgot (and absolutely must have in time for bedtime). I like fidgeting with them when I'm watching t.v. or thinking really hard about something. Like today - I was thinking really hard about what the hell I was going to do with all that zucchini bread. And there they were, handily around my neck, clickety-clacking between my fingers as I pondered this earth-shattering question. And then - BAM! - the answer came to me. This, THIS, is why we bought the World's Biggest Chest Freezer and stuck it, half-empty, in our basement. Tah-dah!

* Sudden rain showers
It was overcast most of the day yesterday - not to mention muggy. It's that antsy sort of weather, the kind where you know that the intent is to rain, but Mother Nature just can't seem to get on with it. Then, unexpectedly, you hear a timid rapping on the back door. You turn, thinking perhaps it is an uninvited guest - maybe a neighbor coming to tell you that the fence is falling apart into his yard again. But before you have the chance to finish the thought - or rise from your chair, you hear the rest of the downpour and realize it's a thunder-boomer. Also - if you happen to be me (and I do - happen to be me, that is) you remember that you left the windows of the minivan cracked open and then you go running out into the storm in order to roll them back up. Of course, you get soaked to the skin in the process and spend the next half hour looking like a particularly bedraggled form of drowned rat. But you don't mind, because it's the first time in a long time you remember being out in a summer rainstorm.

* Fried Green Tomatoes
Thanks be to T's mama and her stop at the Sweet Corn Man's veggie stand. 3 green tomatoes have been camping in my fridge, just waiting for me to get up the gumption to wash them, slice them, and dress them in raw egg and cornmeal wrapping. Today? I had gumption to spare. And they were delicious.

* My Better Half
The bad news? T's Czech adventure was extended by another week, and I won't get to see him tomorrow as planned. The good news? He calls just to hear my voice and regale me with tales of eating pork knuckle and wandering the streets of Pardubice. And he insisted they get him back in time for Jack's birthday on the 24th - because it is important. As much as I worry about him being something of a workaholic, he's setting a good boundary line between work and life at this new job. Just knowing that he's spending half the time thinking "This would be so much cooler if Mel was with me to see it" gives me a really, extraordinarily, spectacularly big smile. Love rocks.