Smith Family Weblog

This summer has been crazy hot. As such, we’re spending quite a lot of time inside. It’s not easy to entertain a two kids under six when you can’t just say, “Please go be outside for bit so Mommy doesn’t have a breakdown.”

So, we’re employing some rather creative measures. There’s a tent—a real, live, actual camping tent—pitched in our dining room. Also, limits on TV? Gone.

Perhaps the best coping technique, though, is the simplest: popsicles.

My Mom gave Ava and Olivia this fabulous frozen box that makes homemade popsicles in under seven minutes. (That’s just enough time to say, “Are they done yet?” 112 times. I want to respond with, “When I was your age, we had to wait FIVE HOURS for popsicles.”)

In any event, seven minutes is super fast, especially when you consider all of the fun things you can do with this contraption. You can let the outer shell freeze, then pour out the liquid and replace it with juice of another color. Voila! Filled popsicles. You can make layered popsicles: also popular with the under six set. And, you can use vegetable juice and no one will be the wiser.

Lately, we’ve been making strawberry-lemonade popsicles. Despite warnings about low-sugar juices not freezing well, light lemonade works perfectly.

I’m expecting my royalty check to arrive any moment from Williams Sonoma. I’m going to use it buy more juice. And maybe some lawn chairs for our indoor campsite.