I'm barely conscious, because I went to bed waaay too late this morning and Iyyar woke up at 5. I should be writing speeches, but I'm not quite sentient enough for that, so I thought I'd sort of warm up with a blog post.
About, um, something.
[...]
Oh, let's have a list. Why not a list?
1. Anybody have any idea what is up with the price of dairy? Is all dairy like this, or just cholov yisroel stuff? The absolute rock-bottom cheapest cheese I can buy, which is a one-pound block of cheddar, colby, or what I gripingly but more or less accurately refer to as extra-sharp mozzarella, is now $5.49. That cheese, which I can only find in one store, is very substantially less than the second cheapest cheese, which is $3.99 for 8 oz, or almost $8 a pound! And those are the cheapest cheeses I can get anywhere in town. (I am not counting "American cheese product" as a cheese, although even that has gone up--I think it was $16.99 for a 3-lb block. More expensive than the real stuff.) I used to buy Barak string cheese to take to school. It's never been cheap, and has always been verboten as a kitchen snack, but now it's absurd--$11.99 for a bag of 18! This is string cheese, not imported Parmesan.
2. Can I just say how much I love buying used toys for my kids? I don't spend much money, I don't have to feel (as) guilty about the environmental impact of the plastic, and they don't care a bit. Last week I bought a used Little Tikes Cozy Coupe car. I paid the woman I bought it from $10 for the car and an extra $5 for driving it three miles to my house. Before she stopped by, I told Barak that a lady was going to come over and bring a new car for him and Iyyar to drive. Barak was pleased, but perplexed.
"Who's gonna bring the car?"
"A lady's going to bring the car."
"Who's da lady?"
"You don't know her. I bought the car from her."
"You don't know her?"
"No, I don't really know her either."
"Shess gonna give me a car?"
"Right."
Pause.
"I like da lady!"
And he likes the car. So, of course, does Iyyar, who is now quite good at opening the door and climbing in and out. He also managed immediately to peel off the speedometer sticker and remove the steering wheel, which I still can't find. The sharing is going, well... it is going. Sort of. Sometimes we get nice cooperative play, and one kid drives while the other pushes (no motor, after all. Will I date myself if I tell you I remember my father waiting in line for gas in a blue VW bug during the OPEC crisis, and everyone pushing their cars along the line to save on gas?) Sometimes, the car gets a time-out, although come to think of it that's only happened once so far.
3. Yesterday was not one of Barak's better days. He was pretty whiny and cranky, didn't listen well and said "no" a lot. He missed out on a trip to Target with Imma because he wouldn't go to the bathroom. I had to send him out of the kitchen while I was cooking dinner because he kept kvetching for things. And when I went grocery shopping with him in the morning, all he did was pull stuff off the shelves and campaign for candy, which he knows perfectly well I am not going to buy. I knew rationally that he had not been getting much Imma time with all the water- and insurance-related, ah, distractions that have been going on--my psychic energies are pretty drained right now. By the time I put Iyyar to bed, he was sulking in the living room.
"Barak, do you need some attention?"
"Yeah. I need some attention."
"Okay, I'm going to go wash my hands [I'd changed a diaper] and then I'm going to come pay attention to you. Should we read some books and cuddle on the couch?"
"Yeah. I need you ta pay attention to me please." Pause. Then, in the labored and thoughtful, pause-ridden kind of sentence that comes out when Barak is really struggling to express himself at the outer limits of his vocabulary, I got this.
"I need you to pay attention to me. I didn't get very much attention today. I need you to come and pay attention to me a lot. I need you to pay attention to me or else I'm gonna cry."
Ouch.
Later, on the couch:
"Barak, did you have a good day today or not such a good day?"
"Not such a good day."
"How come?"
"I had not such a good day because I had a hard time."
"You were having a hard time? I'm sorry. Are you feeling better now that you're getting some attention from Imma?"
"Yeah. I'm getting attention and now I feel better."
Well then.
6 comments:
Is chalav yisrael new for you? I don't recall you keeping CY in the past...
(BTW, organic dairy isn't exactly cheap. $3.29 for my half-gallon of milk...)
I'm happy to eat OU-D, but there isn't a lot of OU-D cheese around. There's a supermarket in town that sells Miller's, for the same price as Haolam, but other than that cheese is chalav yisroel or bust.
I buy Horizon organic milk for 3.89 a half-gallon. TJ's has it cheaper but I can't get there more than a few times a year. Produce, however, is much cheaper here than where you are.
In-store produce is cheaper everywhere than where I am, except possibly Siberia. Farmer's market prices aren't bad, but now I can do that only once a week, June-Oct.
Ask your local store to stock Oneg cheeses. Very yummy, should be priced about the same as Miller's (not as yummy). Not CY (Kof-K and CRC D). They have bagged shredded cheeses, and 8 oz blocks of smoked cheeses. Can't remember whether Sugar River cheeses are CY or not, but they are pricey anyway so it probably doesn't matter.
With regard to cheese prices:
The price dairy farmers are getting for their milk is higher now than it has been since the early 60's. About time, too.
Grandma E's son-in-law recently told me he is getting almost as much per cwt.of raw milk as organic farmers are.
What I notice is that the stuff made in the US is still cheaper than any imported cheese.
Oh, and with regard to the attention deficit--I can identify with that boy. That is exactly how I feel sometimes.
And my kids, too:one of whom phrases it "I need mommy-time. Now." The other is just generally more annoying and then grabs me in a hug.
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