I am so grateful for Chris. While I’ve been shuffling through this pregnancy, he’s been busy taking care of life around the house. No small task is going undone – broken window blind: replaced, mismatched door handle: replaced, rusty front fence: repainted, broken towel rack: fixed. Much to the kids dismay, he often employs them in his to-do list.

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I think all these home repairs are his own version of nesting. He knows (from experience and intuition) that once the babies arrive life will go in to a bit of a tailspin, so he is getting as much done now as he possibly can. Plus, we have the added excitement of twins which means they can realistically come any day now. We have to prepare.

The other night, after another hard-working day, we had a few quiet minutes to ourselves while the kids watched a movie downstairs. With four kids, the odds are like 99.9% that one of them is always hanging around us, so when we recognized the moment of quiet we created a last minute dinner “date” on the balcony. Chris mixed a batch of drinks – a mojito for him and a mock mojito for me. A well deserved drink on a perfect summer evening.

I am so lucky.

Chris’s tips for a perfect mojito:

6-8 mint leaves from the garden
1 oz simple syrup (we always have some in the fridge)
1.5 limes
2 oz Rum (0 oz. if virgin )
crushed ice
Splash of soda water

Some execution tips he picked up from our bartender at Sparrow, which is our favorite rum bar/speakeasy in Chicago:

1. Don’t muddle the mint aggressively. Simply roll it into a ball and “break it” a couple of times. This should be easy to do with fresh mint.
2. Let the mint, lime, and simple syrup hang out for a moment before adding ice.
3. Use lots of crushed ice.
4. Don’t top with soda until the glass is entirely packed with ice. You shouldn’t be using much soda.
5. Try the drink and adjust as necessary.