After church on Sunday, our older daughter snapped some photos of my husband and me. We never pose just nice. Here I am, aggressively pointing out that I’m taller than him in my heels.
And then I went goofy without him knowing.
He figured it out, though, right quick. Probably because our daughter was laughing.
At which point he went all “don’t touch me” on me, which is his MO.
And thus concluded our brief foray into the world of couples portrait photography.
The End.
P.S. Today’s his birthday and I’m celebrating it by not wrecking his life by making him build a whole freaking barn (a gift which was as overwhelming as it was extravagant and from which he is still recovering/reeling). Today, we’re celebrating with birthday bagels for breakfast, and burgers on the grill with the kiddos tonight.
A little while back, my mother reported she’d had a long and involved phone conversation with my aunt regarding hard boiled eggs.
Apparently, the trick to easy peeling is to first boil the water and then add the eggs.
Done this way, the shells release easy-peasy. Maybe because the hot water made the eggs suck in their egg guts?
I was skeptical — if this method worked so well, wouldn’t I have heard of it by now? — but then I tried it and my head exploded just a little. Easy peeling. Smooth eggs. HOLY COW.
It took me a few tries to figure out the exact process — whether or not to return the eggs to a full boil, and how long to cook them for — and I made a few batches of soft boiled eggs in the process, but I think I’ve finally nailed it.
Now, making hardboiled eggs, or rather the peeling of them, has gotten infinitely easier. Thanks, Mom and Aunty V. I can’t wait to reap the rewards of your next phone call.
Easy-Peel Hard Boiled Eggs
Boil water. Place the eggs on a spoon and lower them gently into the water. Bring the water back to a full boil. Cut the heat and set the timer for 10 minutes. When the time is up, pour off the hot water. Run cold water over the eggs until they are cool to the touch. Peel — giggling wildly all the while — and then eat!
Note: a 10-minute steep time yields a jammy-set yolk. If you want a firmer yolk, go 11 or 12 minutes.
Remember when I wrote about my bedroom getting a facelift? If you don’t, that’s okay. It was three years ago, so here’s a recap: my husband tore out the teeny closet and installed a bigger and better closet on the opposite side of the room, and then, a few months later, he build a freestanding wardrobe, too.
November 2021
We still weren’t done, though: I wanted a box with drawers for under our bed. Our bed has always been perched on the floor, an arrangement I actually prefer to a raised-up bed because, with the bed directly on the floor, I don’t have to clean under it and nothing can grab my feet. But we have always been ridiculously short on closet space (old house charm!), so I figured a bed on top of drawers would be the perfect solution.
My husband agreed, or so he said, but then nothing happened.
So for my birthday this year, I put “bed box” on my list (along with “patio” and “cheese cave” because —pro-tip — if you ask for something big, make sure you put several other big, BIG asks on the list because then it will make one of the big asks look more reasonable). And you know what? It worked! My older daughter mostly built the boxes (she works with my husband so “make mom’s birthday present” must’ve gotten tacked on her to-do list), and this week they installed the boxes while I was at work.
When I got home that day, my daughter was giggling. “You gotta go look,” she said.
As soon as I walked into my room, I busted up laughing.
The bed is so high! As in, it’s so high the air feels thinner up there. As in, getting into bed takes some effort. As in, getting out of bed requires some actual sliding, and then there’s a wee drop, too.
finishing up the drawer handles
But the drawers, oh, the drawers!
They are absolutely massive.
That very night, my husband and I went through our closets, and I dug the boxes of my off-season clothing out of the attic (actually, two of them have been parked on the bedroom floor for months), and we organized and put away — PUT AWAY — all of it.
No more storage boxes for clothes! Our sheets and blankets are stored under our bed, and we still have room, lots of room, to spare.
The room looks a little weird — giant bed, tiny furniture — but I don’t care. Eventually I’ll figure out what I need to do to fix the “problem,” but for now it’s everything I ever wanted and then some.
Well, except for lighting. I really need to figure out a good bedside arrangement so I can read when I’m tucked in my nest.
