Watching: A tiger swallowtail butterfly outside my window. I've seen more tiger swallowtail butterflies this summer than I ever have before. I wonder if it has something to do with the drier weather.

Reading: The first Harry Potter book, still. It reminds me of both C. S. Lewis's Narnia books and Roald Dahl, a winning combination. I'm hooked.

Stuny

I went to the Farmer's Market today to pick up some more corn. I thought about getting peaches, but then the blueberries caught my eye. I couldn't resist the price: 6 pints for $5. I love blueberries, and I love making things with blueberries in them. Blueberries on cereal. Blueberries on ice cream. Blueberry pancakes and blueberry muffins. Blueberry pie, blueberry tart, blueberry cobbler, blueberry crisp, and blueberry cake. Yum!

I'll give one of the pints of blueberries and some of the corn to Nana and Rita. I hope these ears of corn are as tasty as the ones I bought there last week. That corn was incredibly sweet. I read a newspaper article about the drought, in which some of the local farmers confirmed that many fruits and vegetables are sweeter and more flavorful in a dry year. So that is one tiny blessing in this parched summer. Unfortunately, there won't be as much of the corn this year, so we're enjoying it while we can get it.

Conversations in the Car

As we were driving home after picking up Tab, the twins began fighting over a toy. Then Matthew yelled, "Give me back my car, Reno! You stuny!"

"What did he say?" Tab asked me.

"He called Stephen a stuny. Rhymes with loony. It's a word he made up because I don't like them to use the word stupid," I answered.

"I guess I haven't heard that one," said Tab.

Stuny is versatile. It can be used it as a noun, as in the above example, or as an adjective: "Daniel is stuny!" I haven't yet heard it used as a verb--"Go stuny yourself"--but it's only a matter of time.

The boys continued to bicker (there's one of those Mom-words again) back and forth in the car on the way home.

Finally, Stephen hollered, "I'm not talking to you, Matthew!"

"I'm not talking to you, Reno!" Matthew answered.

Daniel, who can't resist taking sides, added his two cents. "Stephen, if you're not talking to Matthew, I'm not talking to you."

"I'm not talking to Daniel or Matthew!" Stephen yelled.

"Great," I said. "Since you're all not talking to each other, maybe now we'll have a peaceful car ride."

And we did.

But only for the next thirty seconds.

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