Bowl Buddies for the Win: Fly on the Wall

 

 Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 3 bloggers are inviting you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.

The worst part of aging, for me, is the problem I sometimes have getting the right words. I can often get it figured out, but if I somehow get the wrong words stuck in my head, it blocks the right one from coming through.

 

College Boy and I were talking about a story about the people who can't get surgeries or even emergency care because unvaccinated people are taking up all of the hospital beds.  

College Boy: They shouldn't let unvaccinated people take up all the beds. They should send them to veterinarians, that's who has the medications they want anyway.

Me: I agree, but, of course, doctors can't do that. It's against the . . . ummm . . . not pythagorean theorem.

College Boy (laughing): You mean Hippocratic Oath.

 

Yes, I did.

Often, when I think of something I need to do and/or have an idea for the blog, it's at a time when I'm indisposed. Most often in the shower, and frequently more than one thought comes to mind. What I've always done is remember a key word for each thing I need to get to later, and just keep those words in my head as prompts. It always works. Well, it always did.

Me: Do the words "towel" and "temperature" mean anything to you?

Hubs: No, why?

Me: I remembered them to remind me of what I wanted to do but now I can't remember what they were supposed to remind me of.

Hubs (laughing): I think you need prompt words for your prompt words.

Oy.

 

 

Hubs and College Boy both like to tease me about my forgetfulness. Normally I can take the joke because it really doesn't happen all that often (despite what you've read here so far), and when it does, I often laugh about it myself.

 

But sometimes I'm just not in the mood for it.

 
College Boy (walking in the house): Hi Mom, what's for dinner?

Me: I forget.

College Boy: You forget?
Me: Well, I'm sure I took something out to make.

College Boy: But you forgot what?
Me (sternly): Actually, I did not forget. And don't you forget it!  

 

Me: I'm trying to think of a dessert recipe to make.

College Boy: How about . . .

Me (interrupting): It's for the blog so it has to be something new. I have some pears I want to use . . .

College Boy: I have an idea.

Me (really excited for the help): Great, what is it.

College Boy: Make a cake . . .

Me (interrupting again): with the pears, or apricots, or?
College Boy: With whatever you want. 

Me: Okay???

College Boy: Go to the bank, take out all of your money, bake it into the cake, and give it to me.

Me (frowning): Damn, I thought you had a serious idea.

College Boy: I did.

 

I've frequently told you of my inability to get College Boy to write me guest posts. He's thoughtful and intelligent and has a unique perspective. No matter how many times I ask though, the answer is always "no."

 

The day after I'd asked for his suggestions for a pear recipe, I was still working through a lot of options in my mind. 

 

Me: I'm still trying to think of a new recipe, I really want to do something with pears.

College Boy: Go to the bank, take out all of your money, bake it into the cake, and give it to me.

Me: I have an idea, why don't you incorporate your recipe into a guest post.

College Boy: I'll write it if you make it.

 

Damn. Foiled again! 

 

 

Pear Mini Pies

We're still ordering a lot of our groceries (the staples) online. For some reason, they've been out of the diet sodas I drink. It's unusual for them to be out of both of them at all, let alone for an extended period of time.

They do, on the site, suggest similar items you can purchase, I've mentioned many of them in past Fly on the Wall posts because they make me laugh, they're frequently nothing like what I'd been attempting to order.

 

This time they got it right, they recommended an item that looked similar. 

 

 

But at that price, this stuff must be shipped directly from the sun. 

Hard pass.

I've mentioned before that I have a land line. I keep it because whenever I have to give out a phone number, I give that one, which keeps the spam calls on my cell phone down to almost none.

When the land line rings, I get up and go look to see who's calling just in case it's either my mom or a prescription ready for pick up. 

Lately I've been getting a lot of calls that are just 3 rings and as I'm about to get to the phone to see who's calling, they hang up. This happened the other day when College Boy was in the kitchen eating breakfast.

Me: That's so annoying, I get up, go over to the phone to see who it is and they hang up just as I'm getting there.

College Boy: It's probably a secret exercise program.

It's not. Right?

 

 

Just like with telemarketers, I hate going into a business and being accosted by sales pitches. 

I had gone into the bank and between the door and the teller, was sidetracked by a financial advisor, trying to explain to me why it was important that I set up an appointment with him to review my financial situation.

 

Although I tried to interrupt a few times, this guy just wasn't having any, and I ended up having to listen to his whole spiel (or be rude, but I hadn't done my business there yet). 

 

He finally took a breath and asked a question:

 

Him: Do you work?
Me: No.

Him: Can I ask what your husband does?
Me: Yes, he's a financial advisor.

And just like that, Mr. Talkative becomes Mr. Dead Silent.

 

Hubs is an understanding-the-logistics guy. I'm a don't-care-just-make-it-work girl. We're opposites and that works in many instances.

 

Hubs bought me a new iPad for my birthday. I was really excited because my old one was really old. Getting new electronics can be frustrating too, though, I want it to just set itself up according to my needs and start working in a way I can understand the minute I get it. Of course, that doesn't happen, quite the opposite, in fact.

 

So I do what I always do, tell Hubs to make it work. He's no techie, but between the two of us, we got it going. The next morning:

 

Hubs: How do you like the new iPad?

Me: Love it.

Hubs: It's so much faster than your old one because . . .

Me (interrupting): Don't need to know.

Hubs: The color is so much better because . . .

Me (interrupting): Don't need to know.

Hubs: If you understood it a little, it might help you do some of the things you're trying to do more easily.

Me: But then what would I need to keep you for?

Hubs: Inspiration for your blog posts?

 

Touche.

 

 

My boys are grown, and I really enjoy interacting with them and conversing with them as the grown adults that they've become. Well, most of the time anyway.

But I'm not going to tell you that I don't miss those little boys, all the fun and laughter and learning and growing and changing and outings and playing. 

The other day I came down to the kitchen to find College Boy was here and about to have breakfast. And what I saw made my nostalgic heart smile:

Bowl Buddies for the win!

 

 

 

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Menopausal Mother 

Wandering Web Designer 

Pear Mini Pies

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients (makes 6):
1 refrigerator pie crust

1 TBSP butter

2 TBSP brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 pears, cored, peeled, and chopped

1/4 cup caramel baking bits

1 TBSP sugar

 

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease the wells of a 6 well muffin pan.
*Unroll the pie crust and cut out 6 circles, about 3 inches in diameter. Press the dough circles into the wells and up the sides of the muffin pan. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and set aside.

*Using a small cookie cutter (can make a cardboard template), in any shape of your choice, cut out 6 smaller pieces of the remaining dough, about 1 inch in diameter each. 

*Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat. Stir in the brown sugar, cinnamon, and pears. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and mix in the caramel bits.

*Divide the pear filling into the prepared crust in the muffin pan. 

*Using a pastry brush and water, lightly wet the top of each of the small shapes of dough and sprinkle them with the 1 TBSP sugar, then place on the top of the mini pies.

*Bake for 25 minutes, until the crust browns. Cool for 10 minutes in the muffin pan before gently running a knife around the edges. Cool for another half hour before removing from the pan.