Ten Things Tuesday - Picnic Day

A cool wind blows over the bay, caressing the complaining children huddling under polar fleece.

“Mom! It’s too cold. WHY’re we having a picnic TODAY??”

Well, dearies, I would respond if the above were a conversation that occurred anywhere except my head, it’s spring, a beautiful sunny day and if you’re that cold, get your butts up and RUN AROUND.

Today, we’re heading to the nearest coastal citylet to have a picnic on the grassy areas overlooking the bay, where we’ll watch ships and boats full of springtime keeners travel under a large raisable bridge. A huge horn sounds each time the bridge is about to rise, just as the massive motors start toiling to allow watercraft safe passage beneath.

We’re grain-free until Sunday at sundown, so we’ve flexed our imagination muscles for a picnic spread.

1. Our Passover Seder, which was WONDERFUL, was this past Saturday night and although I cooked for 23, there were actually leftovers. Among them is the concoction made of apples, nuts, sweet wine and cinnamon, called charoset. Spread on matzah, it’s delicious.

2. Although I’m told by Beanie that Mrs Chili ALWAYS has a blanket in the back of her car, there will be 8 of us, so I’m bringing another blanket so all our bums are protected from the dewy grass. Chili will meet us (our daughters are all on break this week) after she teaches, to dine al fresco.

3. I like a picnic with variety, so I have grilled some chicken, have a tub full of spring salad mix, am bringing maple vinaigrette salad dressing, and a container full of chopped carrots and toasted pine nuts to use as crunchy garnish. We also have some chunky apple sauce, some carrots and hummus, hard-boiled eggs and pistachios (also known by Beanie Chili as “smile nuts.”)

4. The sun, even at the 65 degrees we’ll be experiencing, is beginning to be powerful, so I am also packing our sunscreen. Normally, the O’family gradually builds up time in the sun until we have enough of a base tan to prevent burns, but since we’re spending most of the day outdoors today, I am packing my sunscreen. Our family uses screens whose only active ingredient is micronized zinc oxide, and fortunately, these products are MUCH more widely available than ever before.

5. Plate-wise, I’ve still got enough biodegradable and compostable paper plates and cutlery to serve us well. We went through a few hundred during last month’s Bat Mitzvah celebrations, but I still have PLENTY.

6. All the ladies coming on our picnic are between 8 and 13, and all enjoy playing and talking and imagining together. That said, there will inevitably be moments of conflict and hurt feelings among these strong personalities. Fortunately, we all parent similarly.

7. AFTER the lovely luncheon, I have to come home and prepare the grades for the tri-semesterly grade report due to my boss at our soon-to-be closing college. He and I will meet tomorrow to discuss each of the students I have so far not got a passing grade for. Most of these students are either not giving me homework (WHY do they not learn?), are racking up absences and therefore the grades counted as classwork, or are giving me work that is terrible. So far, of my 28 students, roughly 12 are failing.

8. Right after I meet with my boss, I’ll rush home, pack the car, load the girls, and head to the grocery store to pick up the items on an short list my mother has issued, before heading to see her and my dad, in Montreal. Since we use different plates - glass, in this case - during Passover, I am bringing my set of plates (I’ll leaves some for left-behind husband) for the two dinner parties my mother is having while we’re there.

9. The second of these dinner parties involve my in-laws. Last year, my MIL decided sitting my mother down and complaining about ME was a logic and understandable choice. My mother told me, of course, and since then my MIL has been an outright bitch to my mother - for betraying her, if you can believe it. Months went by since then and the Bat MItzvah where my in-laws made nice and my mother pretended it had never happened. When it was decided that I would take my girls into town for a few days, my mom and I planned to have dinner without my in laws, a move I applauded because it’s just so damn tense with them as they don’t speak to my sister and brother in law who also attend these dinners, but my mother decided inviting my contentious in laws was the right thing to do. Lots of tongue biting.

10. They still have snow up there (ok, mostly on lawns and mostly the nasty, black city iceburgs) , but the temps are likely to be on the warmish side, so we’ll bring a little bit of everything, packing Bob’s Prius to its limits. Boo and Monkey, my delightful daughters, have loaded an Mp3 player with a novel by Tamora Pierce, so we’ll be listening to a YA novel while we drive north. We’ve not done this before, but I am looking forward to the ability to stop the narrative at pertinent parts to discuss.

Happy Tuesday!