🌽 Soul Snacks

2.5 min read

Dear Snackers,

This week my kids have been out of camp, and rather than sit around the house and pretend like I had the capacity to get work done and entertain them, I decided to take the show on the road. I love opportunities to take my kids back to Massachusetts, where I’m from. Between my parents being divorced, my brother and his family, all my extended family, and the majority of my friends from high school and college, we’ll be on a little “Tour de South Shore” (thank you for indulging me on that one), visiting the people and places I love. I ADORE that they will be making some core memories in the same places where most of mine were formed. As my mom and I watched my sun-kissed kids devour a big bowl of steamers, or “steamahs” as we say here in MA, last night, we smiled from across the table, knowing that experience would be locked inside the vaults of our hearts and minds until the end of time. 

If you’ve caught a glimpse of my stories this week, you will have noticed me poking some fun at my mother, who wears bright pink lipstick to the beach, is a master cocktail mixer, stores hard copies of movies and music galore in the form of CD’s and DVD’s, and brings a little bit of something magical to just about every damn thing she does. Later this week I will visit my dad, and he will over buy food for our visit. He will take us on a tour of his cabinets and fridge, making special note of the junk food. He will make quick witted jokes to my kids that go over their heads, but will keep me chuckling for days. He also loves to poke fun at my mom. He’ll probably say something like, “I heard you guys went to the beach with Nannie, I can’t believe she was able to get her wheelchair onto the sand.” And they will reply earnestly, “Grampa, Nannie doesn’t have a wheelchair,” and he will reply something like, “Well, it’s incredible she’s able to get around at her age without one.” Later I will tell my mom over the phone and she will laugh – she’s a great sport, and they are good friends. 

Being home and around my family is such a gratifying experience. My childhood was really good, but it wasn’t perfect, and I don’t mean that in any kind of accusatory or self-victimizing way, I just mean that its regular for families to be crazy. I adore observing the inner craziness of the people I love because it reminds me that, one day, despite how hard we all are on ourselves as parents, my kids might see my inner craziness in all its flawed glory, and still adore me, too. Sometimes people will comment on my Instagram posts and suggest that my musings on motherhood make me a bad or ungrateful mother, and I feel a little bummed out about being misunderstood that way. Yes, motherhood can be extreme in its challenges and frustrations, as can life in general, but it is my gratitude itself that allows me to chuckle at the absurdities of it all. The incongruity of an experience that is both extremely precious and batshit crazy all at once is, indeed, in my opinion, fucking hilarious. Life is so much more fun when you’re laughing at something. 

PS - just read this to my mom and she said, “That’s awesome. Let me go reapply my lipstick and make a cocktail.” She was not joking. 

— Caitlin

• LISTEN: Enjoy this smattering of my mother, Annie's, mostly alphabetized CD collection, which, in all honesty, I curated for my own personal entertainment.

• MAKE: You must try my mom's highly addictive corn salsa recipe. Mix all the below together in a bowl, marinate overnight, drain, and enjoy with tortilla chips on repeat until you run out or die, whichever comes first. 

  • 2 cans of corn (or about 5 ears of fresh corn if in season)

  • 1 can of black beans

  • 1/2 red pepper chopped

  • 1/2 orange pepper chopped

  • 1/2 c chopped red onion (more or less to your liking)

  • 1/2 c apple cider vinegar

  • 1/2 c avocado oil

  • 1/3 c sugar

• DRINK: If you missed grabbing Cure on Prime Day, use code BTA20 for 20% off here.