Jelly Belly Pancakes

I moved back home for the first time in two years, thinking it would just be a pit-stop before living in Guadalajara, Mexico for a while. But when all the little piggies came back from market, they decided they needed more attention and started coughing and complaining of high temperatures, so naturally panic struck and the trip was canceled. The adjustment of being home has actually been a lot smoother than I expected.

The first day I was home, my daddy-o made pancakes for breakfast--not unusual, but definitely a perk. He asked me if I wanted a jelly belly one, and I said sure, thinking that he must be joking. Have you ever heard of anything so crazy as putting jelly beans in your pancakes and serving them for the first meal of the day? I didn't really believe it 'til I got my first taste of chewy, melty Juicy Pear right after a bite of the bland, predictable pancake. This is a good metaphor for how it's been to live at home again.

Predictable, normal, nothing exciting, until suddenly you get a blast of wall-ball with John E. (Watermelon), talking and laughing with mom on her bed (Chocolate Pudding), the satisfaction of mowing a lawn again, but picking all the dandelions first to make a crown and a necklace to match (Sunkist Orange), or the disgusting, familiar experience of my dad conniving at my brother's wedding reception with the other men his age, who have nothing better to do but try to marry me off to the next available bachelor. "I'll give you a car if you marry my daughter." (Licorice. Yuck!)

We got these jelly bellys for Christmas and the pancake idea was mom's, for the purpose of getting rid of them. She's always thinking of ways to sneak food into our stomachs, not wanting to waste a single morsel.

The moral of the story is: I love my family, I love being home, and mmmmmm, how I love those jelly belly pancakes.