A Good Day for Ducks

It rained most of the night and all morning.  All the games were cancelled (and I just gained 6 hours of prep time for our gathering this evening!).  Here's where I found John spending his newly freed time.  He is watching two ducks (according to Kate, the one with the abnormally large orange feet is named Socks and his wife is Martha), in the yard.  They have befriended a male cardinal who is kindly discarding all the seeds from the birdfeeder that he doesn't care for onto the ground where Socks and Martha are gratefully, and non-fussily, eating them up.  What you can't see in the photo is our crazy hunting dog who is running from door to window and back again, whining, and going quite bonkers in his effort to get to those ducks!  John is ignoring him.

During the year we lived in California, we were close enough to San Francisco to drive in for the evening.  When dining on the Wharf, it seemed essential to have clam chowder, which I'd never been a fan of.  At Pompei's Grotto, however, I discovered Manhattan Clam Chowder which became my new favorite when visiting the city.  Since then, and especially after our road trip to Maine last summer, I've learned to love the New England version just as much, maybe even more. 

I went to bed last night wondering what on earth I would make for our book club dinner tonight and woke this morning knowing the answer - New England Clam Chowder!  In the book, The Sign of the Beaver, the characters enjoy a good fish chowder and the story is set in Maine so...clam chowder!  And it is tasting really yummy so far!  We don't always serve dinner with our meetings but it has become more usual than not.  And we don't always serve a book-themed dinner.  But the other moms in this group are fantastic cooks and I don't always pull my weight in that category so I'm very happy that things just worked themselves out. 

With the rain canceling games, freeing up six hours of prep time, I even made corn muffins, prepared two activities for the boys, dusted, vacuumed, and dug out some nice-smelling candles to light before the guests arrive.  Okay, so a bunch of 10 year old boys probably won't appreciate the candles, but us moms will!