A rainy day schedule

It has rained and rained the last few days. Just a few minutes ago I actually saw the sun's reflection on our backyard. It's a fickle friend, though, that sun. Here for a couple of minutes and now long gone. The winds have picked up again, flapping the tent around in our backyard. If it's not full of mold and mildew by now, I think it could stand up to a hurricane. Turns out it was bad timing to put that tent up a few days before a week of rain.

The cabin fever arrived in our home yesterday, perhaps more so for me than Karis. Anytime I stepped outside yesterday under the covered part of the home to do laundry or take out the trash, she was right behind me, ready to inspect the rains. She's taken to calling the rain "car wash." I think it stems from her recent experiences in a drive-thru car wash and the fact that I actually mentioned how the rain sounded like a car wash as we backed out the covered garage. She either got the joke I was making or is convinced the rains are just a larger form of the paid car wash she sat through with her dad. Either way, she sat on the front step of our door, stared out at the falling rain, and proclaimed, "Yay, car wash! Yay, car wash!"

Whenever the boredom kicks in high gear, I often turn to something I love to do and bring Karis along for the ride. I pulled out my cookbook, and we went to town making some crackers. I've been reading about crackers, and the recipe books all assure me that any bread dough can be used to form a nice cracker. I figured it would give us something to do together, provide teachable moments, and yield a healthy and homemade snack. Karis got a little carried away with the flour, and I had to pull out the camera. I love the footprints she made in the black chair with the white flour. It was a mess I didn't mind cleaning up.

I'd like to say the crackers turned out. Really, I would. But they did NOT turn out. Apparently, you could use any bread dough for crackers, except this one. They were dry. Oh so dry. I nearly choked on my first piece, and a crumb stuck to the back of my throat far longer than I care to admit before I realized it was there.

So what is a girl to do? As I always say, when the oven gives you dry crackers, you make thin crust pizza. (don't we all?) The dough wasn't much better as pizza crust, but all the toppings overshadowed the dry blah-ness. In fact, I used fresh basil from the garden, ground up walnuts, added olive oil, salt, and pepper, and we had ourselves a marinara and pesto pizza. It was a savory end to the whole rainy day.