All ye know on earth, and all ye need to know

Oh, you guys. April and May are such busy months here in the saltycrunchy household.

Last month P turned 49. I'd be all "mwahahaha" about that, but I'm a year and a half younger than him and payback is a bitch.

Also last month, my boy C turned 18. EIGHTEEN. He is officially an adult now and he takes that responsibility very seriously. He is doing so well now, really extraordinarily well, and I am so excited for his future (the specifics of which are still up in the air, but I know it will be fantastic).

We finally got to see H perform onstage for the first time in two years and she was fabulous as Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream. I keep forgetting how talented she is. I mean, objectively I KNOW she is remarkably talented, but every time I see her perform, it's like I discover it all over again. So proud of that kid.

I've been cooking, paleo-fying favorite recipes from Martha Stewart and the like, and drinking lots and lots of mocktails because alcohol has turned on me, you guys. I know. First Vicodin and now booze. It's like I'm not allowed to have vices! What kind of world is this?!

I've also been going through a phase of starting books, reading a couple of chapters, then getting bored and tossing them aside. Rinse, repeat. Right now I'm reading The Good Earth and I think I'ma stick with that one to the end but I'm not making any promises.

I have 22 herbs in the garden this year. Do you want to know what they are? Of course you do.

1. some ancient mint I've had forever that keeps coming back
2. cilantro (this has already gone to seed)
3. cardinal basil
4. serrated basil
5. large-leaf basil
6. amethyst basil (all of these basils are from my dad, who is a Master Gardener with the county)
7. some really old sage that keeps coming back also
8. bay laurel
9. two different pots of flat-leaf parsley; not sure how that happened
10. some sort of lavender or other
11. last year's oregano
12. last year's chives
13. last year's garlic chives
14. a new kefir lime because the old one died over the winter
15. chocolate mint
16. pineapple mint
17. creeping thyme
18. German thyme
19. French tarragon
20. dill
21. fennel
22. stevia

And four oxheart tomato plants, also from my dad, currently sporting a grand total of ONE tomato between the four of them. But who's counting?

We're having kind of a wet spring, which is good in the aquifer/horticultural sense, but not so good in the fun-in-the-sun sense. H and I are planning a mother-daughter trip to the beach sometime in July and all I ask is that it not rain for those few days, please. Just those few days. Mama needs some sun.

I have no idea what month it is

I am so bad at this blogging thing now, you guys. I'd blame Facebook but I'm not really posting much over there, either. There's just not a lot going on lately, you know? Life goes on. Which is good. Beats the alternative.

I've been cooking a lot, and wearing shorts when it's warm, and drinking kombucha and sidecars and taking too many photos of my dog and the sky. And hanging out at Mayfield Park with the peacocks. And re-reading Siddhartha. All the trees in my yard are leafing out except for Ferdinand the fig tree, who died over the winter. Now I have a new fig tree named Fulgencio! He is pretty awesome. I'll show him to you soon.

Procrastinating the procurement of victuals

Right, that's two weeks of summer vacation down. I'm supposed to be out grocery shopping right now but I'm talking to you all instead. Because: SUMMER!

There have been highlights: taking P's sister and brother-in-law to the lake for enchiladas and a spectacular sunset, H getting her learner's permit (for driving), P and C and I attending a mini-Maker Faire in our little town.

And there have been lowlights: mostly the fact that H was sick as a dog from the time school let out until just a couple of days ago, and that I have been suffering from Yet Another Malady that shall remain unnamed but rest assured that I am not dying. Not from this, anyway. Oh, and P has been working CRAZY hours. So yeah.

I've gotten emails asking about C and his misophonia and how things are going there, and I have to tell you, things are (knock wood) the best they've been in a couple of years, really. We've discovered that managing his anxiety is the key to managing both his misophonia and the depression that goes along with it. Right now he's taking 10 mg of Lexapro and 7.5 mg of Abilify per day. He's not doing any therapy in addition to that because he started getting a weird rebound kind of thing from the neurotherapy he was doing, where he would be fine all week long but then be SUPER anxious and sensitive for a good 24 hours after his therapy session. So we stopped that. He has good days and bad days but on the good days he can have conversations with both P and H, which is just unbelievably fantastic considering there was a time not too long ago when he couldn't stand to hear either of them breathing. So that's all good.

I only managed to buy one tomato plant this year and it has exactly one tomato on it. One tiny, very green tomato. The blossoms keep falling off without making any fruit. My dad the master gardener told me to sprinkle some epsom salt around it but either I didn't use enough, or I used too much, or I suck at growing tomatoes. Probably that last one given my track record. Oh well. At least the herbs look pretty good, except the dill and the Thai basil. The kaffir lime looks AMAZING but now I can't remember how I'm supposed to cook with it. Oy.

Alrighty, then. Those grass-fed ribeyes that P requested for his Father's Day dinner aren't going to buy themselves. Have a great weekend, and happy day to all you dads out there. Especially my dad. And my sweet P.