I’ve become quite well acquainted with the local libraries, parks, and grocery stores. Perhaps I’m a little too acquainted with the grocery stores; I go about three times a week, and they ask me about my children if they’re missing.

Our trailer house is very large, nearly fifty feet long, but it seems to get smaller and the kids seem to get louder as the summer progresses. To combat cabin fever and to keep my children alive, we like to go out and do something in town most mornings. Today we visited the library. Most librarians, I have found, are more than willing to allow us to check out books, even if we are only in town for a month. In fact, the librarian here in Haskell recognized us when we walked in, even after being absent for a year!

Haskell also has a Dairy Queen, or “Fairy Queen”, as Gracie likes to say. It’s the only Dairy Queen we have along our harvest route, so we frequent it…frequently. We decided to go today after our library visit. Just because we wanted to. It’s nice being the adult, because if I want ice cream, then I go and get myself some ice cream. Oh yeah, I guess the kids had some too.

The crew was cutting all day today, so I cooked up supper and took it out to the field this evening, the kids watching Mickey Mouse on the van’s DVD player like a group of tiny, mindless little zombies. They watch a lot of movies in the summer. The menu tonight: ham and potatoes, salad, strawberries, rolls, and chocolate chip cookies.

I’ve said before that I make an awesome chocolate chip cookie, and I meant it. Seriously–I am patting myself on the back for this one. The rest of the meal is going to fill your belly, and will probably taste just fine. But those cookies… I tell ya. You’re missing out.