Our favorite smoothie, and why it's not just for breakfast anymore

Today Jack went down for a nap and started fussing after about ten minutes of quiet. Ellen took that to mean that he had fallen asleep, slept long enough, and now was awake and ready to get up. So she went right into his room and started her "welcome to the land of awake" routine. I was a little miffed with her. Since she doesn't have to take a nap, she's started protesting Jack's naptime, too. Talk about solidarity here! So I put Jack in bed again, and took Ellen with me to her bed where we read stories and sang songs. "No nap, Mommy." Okay. No nap, but you have to be quiet so Jack can fall asleep.

Then I fell asleep. Now, I don't like taking naps because I invariably wake up in a dazed fog and very irritable. So . . . some time later I woke up to Ellen telling me that Jack was awake. I could, indeed, hear him crying. He also wakes up irritable.

During my nap, Ellen had pushed a chair over to the kitchen to take a look around. She found an open bag of tortilla chips, which she dumped into a pile on the couch. She found she could climb from the chair to the counter top, where she could reach on top of the refrigerator and get the first aid kit down. She took every single Curious George band-aid out of the box and carefully affixed each one to another couch cushion. The she wrote on them, her legs, and my piano with a black sharpie marker.

Shortly after surveying the aftermath of my nap, I noticed (remember I'm in a literal fog and not quite firing on all cylinders) that Jack and Ellen were sitting on the kitchen floor in front of the open refrigerator door. Jack was trying to drink directly out of a water jug. Ellen had an egg carton, a bowl, a whisk, and three eggs already cracked and in the bowl. "Ellen's making eggs for dinner, Mommy!"

Then Ellen started crying for a "snurfee." I was more than miffed by this time, but I was trying to remember that I'm the mom, so I suggested juice instead. It's probably not a good idea to give Slurpees to your kids, anyway. We don't have juice very often, but when we do, it's usually in the morning, with straws, to keep the kids occupied so I can make the pancakes, French toast, etc. Today it was just the thing for an afternoon snack and to erase the brain stupor.

1/2 can frozen orange juice concentrate
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tray ice cubes (about 8)
1 teaspoon vanilla

This is your basic Orange Julius recipe. From here, we add any or all of the following:

1 banana
1 cup yogurt, plain or flavored
1 cup ice cream or sherbet
fresh or frozen fruit such as peaches, mixed berries, mangos, strawberries
If you use frozen fruit, add less ice.

Today we had plain yogurt and frozen peaches. And as always, straws. Once the straws go in the mouths, the kids' eyes glaze over and they don't move from the sucking machine position until the "juice" is all gone.

Enjoy!