The Total Willy-Wonkers

James doing some sweet bed jumping - "Please don't jump on Jovie, James..."

Yo - Yo. It’s good to be sitting here with you tonight. Jayson has three of the kids at a drama at school right now and Pirate and Obi are having a staring contest. They are really bothering me - the animals, that is. Obi is whining, Pirate is looking very stubborn. I thought animals were supposed to reduce stress, but in our home, they don’t. Let’s blame the people, not the animals. Alright, done with that subject. On to de-worming.

De-worming, it’s what everybody wants to talk about. Now, most of you with animals (here we are again, talking about animals...), have probably given your animals de-worming medication. But this past week, our family played a game of “who-can-drink-their-de-worming-medication-the-fastest”. Sweet family game, let me tell you. Sydney won, she has a special affinity towards medicine in any form. We have been told that it is best to de-worm every six months here. Totally gross I know. The thought of the potential gives me the total willy-wonkers. I can’t talk about it anymore, my stomach is ready to chuck up the roasted chicken from tonight’s dinner.

De-worm medicine, mmmm... bottoms up!

Oh, Pirate just jumped onto my lap. This is not fun, he actually smells a bit skunky or like one of Jovie’s cloth diapers after a use. He’s staring at the computer screen, I think he knows that I am talking bad about him.

I will talk briefly about another attempt at growing basil. This is my third time - something is up. It may be weeds, it may be the first leaves of a truly sensational pesto or basil and tomato salad. That’s all - I told you I would be brief.

Not so much basil, so much weeds. Any green thumbs out there wanna weigh in on this?

Pirate is still staring at the screen.

Well, it’s Gandhi Day tomorrow. A national holiday, even school’s off. Last year, I did not celebrate Gandhi day, school was not off for it in the States. I think Columbus Day is coming soon, and I am pretty sure the Post Office is closed for that. Anyway, I am interested to see how the town celebrates. We will keep you posted.


Pirate is now sleeping on one of my legs, as I sit crossed legged. Even if I moved just a half an inch he would totally fall off. It’s almost too much temptation for me to handle.

My children’s spelling is doomed. Not really, but they are going to be corrected by teachers in the States someday. First off, instead of saying “h” when reciting the ABC’s they say “heytch” and “Z” is “zed”. Funny. Who knew this about the Brits? Also some of the random spelling words that Ani and James come home with are Colour, Mum, Aeroplane and Yoghurt. And all the kids use words like brilliant, instead of awesome; smart, not like intelligence but like nice-looking; and pardon me, instead of excuse me. Ani also says maths instead of just math. “Maths was just brilliant today, Mum.” What was that Ani?

Note the spelling.

Thank you to everybody that has been sending me some new recipes to play with. I appreciate the thoughtfulness. I have been using Chickpeas a lot in the last two weeks. In some form I used them every day last week. And by the end of the week, my kids looked at their plates with complete befuddlement. I promptly made pizza the next night. Hey, can someone give me props for my use of the word befuddlement...

It's official I have barely said anything deep or meaningful for this blog entry - love me and my ability to ramble on... Cheers friends.