More Pictures

The birthday girl with our present.

Bug cakes! Triana sent the Nordic Ware pan to me for my birthday.





My party pictures are dark and blurry. I think Sobo got better pictures.

Six!

Fiona turns six today. We had a bash with a mix of her friends. We made fairy baskets--little homes for the fairies that we also made. I'll post pics of those later. We had a unicorn cake and bug cakes (thanks to Triana for the excellent bug pan!). I think she had a good time and it was over way too soon for her. I made her a fresh flower wreath. Which she promptly gave to one of her friends. Sigh.

I have pictures of the cute bug cakes, but blogger is having trouble loading pictures and I'll have to add them later.

The Whining Post

Sophia is totally healthy and Fiona has a trace of a cough left, but I feel like I've been knocked on my ass. I have that headache you get right behind your eyeballs, my whole body aches, my throat hurts, I have that knarly cough that sounds like horrible things reside within your lungs, I feel totally weak and to top it all off, my monthly affliction has arrived.

Oh, and the driveway is solid ice and there is no school today. Doug got down the driveway and safely off to work, but the car doesn't go back up the driveway.

Thankfully, Sobo is here. Otherwise I think I would leave the TV on all day and throw candy down the stairs.

The End.

35

My youngest sister was trying to figure out how old I am today. She said, "Okay, you're thiiiiirty....OMG!!!1111"

OMG! indeed. Actually, I had a good laugh at this. So today me and my old lady self will get down with some raspberry mousse cake, some lovely little gifties from Doug and the girls, and maybe I'll have a bath later.

I mean, hey, if I can remember drinking soda in glass bottles and playing vinyl records (you know, we just called them records back then), I guess I must be pretty old.

Then the planning for the fairy bash is on. Fiona and I spent the night last night coughing, so hopefully that will stop soon.

I Like to Move It

Yes, the song by Reel 2 Real. I cringed typing that in. Okay, I know. It's not a great song. It couldn't be more silly. But it is a great song to work out to. It's one of my songs on my workout list on the iPod for the stationary bike.

Why am I telling you this? After volunteering in Fiona's class yesterday, I was helping Sophia get her coat and boots on. Fiona and her classmates were getting their backpacks, and snowpants, and boots on, and while they were doing this, several of them started singing "I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT! I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT! I LIKE TO MOOOOOVE IT!".

I died a little inside (Damn, I should listen to fucking Mozart when I work out!). They may not have gotten it from Fiona, but it wouldn't be the first time she's taught her friends a new song.

I'm in good company, though, because this makes me remember that her friend Ellie taught her "We Will Rock You" back in the preschool days. I thought it was so cool she would sing that in the car on the way home.

Feverish Ramblings

So while my children's brains are melting under the fevers and the constant Sesame Street, I found myself taking a shower. This sounds so simple, but a shower makes a big difference in how I feel during the day. Maybe it's the feeling of clean, maybe it's all those negative ions. Whatever (I can hear you rolling your eyes and thinking get a life, you know.) I'm in the downstairs bathroom, which only has a sample bottle of Happy Hippy shower gel from LUSH (grapefruit, very nice) and an ancient, nearly empty bottle of "Feelin' Really GRAPE" Suave conditioner for kids. Every time I open this bottle, it totally reminds me of the glass bottles of soda at my dad's work we would get when I got to visit. The grape one, of course. Yes, you read that right. Glass bottles.

Oh, so anyway, I'm reading the back of this grape shampoo and even the kids' shampoos now have this deal on the ingredients where they do this: Water (Aqua), Fragrance (Parfum). Everything else is some chemical (er, not that the "fragrance/parfum" isn't) and isn't translated. Nothing else is on the bottle. (So thank goodness they've translated "fragrance" and "water", and not say, "conditioner" and "hair"). Why is this the latest fad? To make it sound better? It's not like the rest of the bottle has anything else but English (sometimes questionable English, at that). So aqua is Latin and I guess parfum is...French? I can't figure this out.

Since the phrase "screen time" is obviously going to be something to embrace today and not, as is normally the case, whispered with a guilty hang of the head, as in: "She has already had one hour of screen time today; she can't possibly use the computer now. Maybe tomorrow if we don't watch any show.", I am sure we will be going here. Thanks to Unmitigated Bliss for the link. Doug looked at me last night and said, exasperated, now we will have four people fighting for the computer. Sophia is a wiz with the letters and, really, I just had to help her with the mouse. I think what makes this more exciting than usual is that it is something that usually only her sister can do. Ah, the milestones of today.

I Never Feel Like I Get Enough Bacon

Thanks to Triana for sharing what may possibly be a combination of the two most perfect foods ever. Bacon and Chocolate.


picture by Triana.

I can not be at peace until I have some.

The girls are home with fevers today. They are flushed...their cheeks are bright pink (actually, that was Sophia yesterday; she seems better today, but still a bit off). They both have a lack of appetite but still have plenty of energy. Hopefully, we'll be all better by next weekend!

BFF

So there is a new best buddy in town (I waited a few days to make sure before posting). We'll call him "J". Fiona and J are always coming out of the school together and she is always talking about him. We HAD to invite him to the party (he barely made the list in time!) I volunteer in her class on Thursdays and she just couldn't stay away from him. He doesn't seem to mind. Her teacher raised an eyebrow at me at one point and said, "this relationship sure seems to be blossoming". Apparently what happened was that her teacher switched everyone's place in the circle and Fiona found herself next to J. She hadn't really interacted much with him before this.

He came up to me at lunch and asked if Fiona had told me his phone number. No. So he told it to me (and I am very impressed he knows his phone number; I wish Fiona did).

Fiona tells me they are going to be best friends forever.

Oh, and I couldn't sit next to her at lunch! She wanted me to sit on the other side of the table.

Many Thanks To

...my sister Alexandra who made the new banner. Is it not awesome? I'm so excited!

So all the birthday invitations are mailed and Doug did most of the work there. They were really cool. We made flowers out of card stock and glassine paper (it was supposed to be vellum, but we couldn't find that and we don't know what the hell vellum is, anyway) and when you open the card, a little fairy pops up in the invitation. The cards were see through so you could see the flower. I even got flower stamps.

Now to figure out what to do at a 2 hour party for 9 five and six year olds and 2 three year olds. I assume everyone is coming. The card said RSVP, but, cynic that I am, I doubt I will get much feedback on that. I'll hear from a couple of people, definitely. I know there will be 2 unicorn chocolate cakes. That's all I've got.

I think Fiona is coming down with a cold, so hopefully that will be all gone by next weekend. She must have something because she actually thinks it's cold outside. Despite this, she still will not wear her coat from the car to the building for gym class. Maybe it's because she is so tired of carrying a bunch of crap to school every morning. She has to carry her snow pants (won't wear them to school, but must have for recess and gym), her lunch, her backpack, and on some days like today, the snack for her class (peanut butter and jelly muffins and carrots). It doesn't sound like a lot, but she is still little and she looks like she's going on a major voyage. The backpack is small so she can't put her lunchbox in. She'll need a bigger backpack next year, I'll wager. She doesn't need the back pack for much. I could be wrong. I see her classmates with these HUGE backpacks. What is in them? I have no idea. They don't even bring their lunch. They are so big and so full. It's very mysterious. They look very heavy. It looks like the center of gravy is totally off when they wear them and if it is very windy, they will fall backwards.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

So the house next to us has been for sale for what seems like ages. Someone bought it a couple of weeks ago and I finally met one of them today. Fiona asked to play outside, which thrilled me, so out we went. It was the kind of snow that adheres to itself really well so we (I) made a snowman. Our neighbor came out and shoveled the driveway and Sophia looked over and said "HIIIII!". So we have now met Dave, who went to NECI, and whose wife is an accountant. He seems very nice and the girls really wanted to spend the entire afternoon chatting at him. They have a dog named Misha, who seems nice enough so far. They moved from a different town and they seemed to like how quiet it was on our street. This sounds promising. He left for a bit in his car after chatting with us (no, I don't think we scared him away).

We finally went inside so the girls could relax after watching me build a snowman and so I could get accessories for said snowman. I decided to take pictures of the snowman. I also put my arm around him and posed for more pictures. Right at this exact moment, our neighbor drives back up (the snowman is pretty much right next to their driveway, but up on a hill...so you can really see us). Priceless: buying the house next door to the crazy lady who poses with snowmen.



Go ahead and mock the snowman. I've never really made one before. He's really lumpy. How does one get them all smooth and 3-ball like?

Cruel Winter

This winter I have accepted the fact that I have SAD (well, and a doctor confirmed it). I also have PMDD (Premenstrual dysphoric disorder), which I guess is super PMS. It didn't really show up until fairly recently...now that I am neither pregnant or breastfeeding as I have been for about 5 years. December sent me to the doctor in desperation and I have joined the ranks of mothers on anti-depressants (Lexapro, if you're wondering. And I say "ranks" because it seems to be eerily common among mothers--but maybe that is because that is who I mostly talk to. And it's not just mothers in the dark North). I do not know if I will only need this in the winter, or if I'll need it year long. I guess I'll know in a couple of weeks how it affects the PMDD. I'm not wild about taking medication if I don't have to, but this really felt like, at the least, a bridge on the way to normal. I now also have a full spectrum lamp and an exercise bike. I know for a fact light and exercise help. I would love to eventually wean off the medication, if possible.

On cheerier notes, the girls love sledding and there is a fabulous sledding hill at Fiona's school. These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago. The snow right now is hard and icy and not great for doing anything with except melting.




Also, I am happy to report that our grocery store had cherries yesterday that were acceptable, but not stellar, at only 2.99 a pound. Funny.

Brought to You by the Color Distraction Yellow

So in three weeks, Fiona will be 6. Six. I think this is the start of the big kid years, no? Of course, when Fiona was a baby, 5 seemed just as remote as 15. We'll have a birthday party for her, and it looks like it will be at our house again. I think we'll actually have to come up with some sort of activity this year and I am totally at a loss. I can't even decide what to buy for her birthday present. All we know for sure is that she wants a chocolate cake. So as long as we have that, how bad can her birthday be? That's right, it will be just perfect.

Another food related oddity of Sophia's is that she will answer the question, "What would you like to eat?" very creatively (And this is what happens when I do not offer choices right away, so it serves me right). Sometimes she just announces what she would like to eat out of the blue. "I want some cherries", she will announce. We have no cherries. It's the dead of winter and if cherries appeared, they would be $8 a pound and look like grey red rubber balls. "CHERRIES!" she says. Still no cherries. "I'm sorry", I say. "How about some clementines?" "I want cherries", she says. "We don't have cherries", I say. "Yes, we do!", she says. "Oh?", I say. "Where are they?" "I don't know", she says. "Neither do I", I say. "I want cherries", she says. "Me too", I say. She makes her little "awwww" noise, sticks her thumb in her mouth for a minute (she really, really likes that thumb), then takes it out and smiles at me and asks to watch show. Then we have a similar conversation about how we aren't watching show right now. Favorite cabin fever activity is definitely trying to beat previous times for how fast we can make mommy's eyelid twitch.

I have paid for this post with Play dough. Neon yellow Play dough is scattered all over the kitchen in itty bitty bits. I don't have any idea how or why and I do not really care. It has served its purpose. It is ground into our too-nice-for-us chairs and our wood floor--which means it has melded with various bits of god knows what on the floor. Play dough, now with oats and macaroni. No one needed help with it, no one screamed at me that it wasn't wooooooooooooooorking and it's such a stupid poopy butt I hate it I hate it so much!!111 I will vacuum it up later with a smile on my face.

A Dainty Dinner

Last night Doug made cod poached in hard cider and dried porcini mushrooms. Side dishes of brown rice and green beans.

Sophia ate ALL of the porcini mushrooms (I keep expecting anyone under the age of 20 to spit out mushrooms) and 2/3 of the green beans.

I think she is really a fairy sometimes.

Bacon is the Fairy Dust of the Food Community

12 Years

Doug and I got married on Christmas Day, 12 years ago. We were married by a Unitarian minister, Don Fielding, at my parents' house in Texas. Doug's brother Sam was there, my bud Triana and her mom were there, and my parents and sisters and grandmother were there. Then a couple of days later we drove a U-Haul with our cat Merlot to live and work in Tampa, Florida. Note: it is hard to get a hotel room on New Year's Eve. We slept in the U-Haul on our second night on the road. Good times.

Our wedding contained these verses from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup, give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous but let each one of you be alone. Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping, for only the hand of Life can contain your hearts, and stand together yet not too near together: for the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

I love you, Douglas. Thank you for being my wonderful partner in life. I know we will be together forevermore.

Cynical at Five

Fiona's Kindergarten class recently had a section on America, including presidents. She brought home some of her work today, and I had to share it.




Really, what can I say? Let's just try to put aside how unsettling it is to find Dubya's face on your child's work for the moment, please. No, I can't. I found her statement so depressing, yet I laughed out loud (not in front of her, of course).

Good Morning, Vietnam

A typical morning at the purple house.

Sophia. In front of a plate of eggs. "I don't want this!" Me: "Then don't eat them." Sophia eats the eggs and asks for more.

Fiona wants to bring her fairies to show (the whole small suitcase of them) at school. I remind her of the recently reinforced rule of no toys at school. Fiona: "But I haven't shown anything at show and tell in a while." There is no show and tell. Me: "Your teacher's rule is no toys at school". Fiona: "But I want to show my fairies." Me: "No toys at school." Fiona: "I'm just going to bring my fairies." Me. Chewing off my arm. Doug: "This conversation is over". (Aside: we have said she can invite her classmates over to show her fairies. She is bringing her teacher and the one across the hall their own fairies tomorrow.)

Sophia: "I want juice!" Me: "We have no juice." Sophia: "Juice! I want juice!" Me: "We have no juice." Sophia: "Please?" Me: "We have no juice." Sophia: "UUUURRGGGG!!!" Me: "I'm sorry. We will buy more later. How about water or milk?" Sophia: "Juice." Me, leaving the room. Sophia: "MILK! I WANT MILK!" Me: "Can you ask for it a different way?" Sophia: "May I have some milk, please?" Me: "Yes!" Gets milk. Sophia: "I want water."

It's 7:28 AM.

Purple House, The Musical, with Cookies

Fiona goes around singing everything these days. She tries to communicate in song. She needs some background music. I feel like I have mentioned this already. Well, if I have, it's still going on and it's happening more often. She also rummages through her closet so she can dress up as each fairy from those Daisy Meadows book series (she has the rainbow fairies and the weather fairies series and now she would like to start on the gem series...she has the first one and we check the others out from the library).

So we got buried by snow Sunday and Sunday night, but school was only delayed by a couple of hours today. For Fiona, who is only in a half-day Kindergarten, it meant no school! It is way too cold and windy, however, so we didn't prance in the snow. Maybe tomorrow. Today was cabin fever day. Very fun.

I finished the Christmas cookies for our family and now I must mail them out. Mailing them out is not the fun part.

Almond shortbread with raspberry jam.

Caramel popcorn with peanuts.

"Trio". These and the meringues are from the December 2007 Gourmet.

Cocoa and vanilla meringues.

Dark chocolate for toffee.

Taste testers. It is very serious work.



These aren't all of them, but some. The pecan crescents do not photograph well, and I'll just leave it at that. I just didn't photograph everything. I should because it is the only way I'll be able to remember what I make every year.

Making cookies with a 3 and a 5 year old is not easy. They just love the fussy cookies. I usually make the drop and bake kind because they are so easy. They were enthralled with the pastry bag, the cookie press, the different ways a cookie can look besides round. It was fun.

Here is the cookie press. It was my grandmother's. I hear they make them a lot easier to use now, but I am quite fond of using this once a year.



I love it enough that the spelling of cookie as "cooky" almost does not make my eye twitch.

Christmas Cookies for that Special Someone

I love this.

Run, Run As Fast As You Can

So Fiona is home today because she said her tummy hurt. She looked a bit peakish, so after some temperature taking and going back and forth on the matter, I decided she could stay home. She is just fine, but I guess she needed a day off. Never mind she had the whole week off last week. The only thing is, they are working on their costumes at school today and Fiona has a fairly major part. She is the baker! (I'm so proud.) She has all her lines memorized, at least. The play is this Monday and so they have already missed a whole week of practice.

We had a good morning making gingerbread cookies and reading and doing puzzles. Now they are playing fairies and hopefully we will have some lunch that isn't gingerbread cookies and then work on some of Fiona's reading questions from school and some spelling.

Staying home from school today means also that I couldn't volunteer to be in her class to help with workshop, so Doug did! Everyone missed her (she hasn't missed a day yet) and was worried about her. Doug brought home a note from one of her friends and went back to work with some of the gingerbread cookies. He probably should have taken more cookies.

I need to make several different types of cookies for family and friends and it isn't really working out very well. I need to set them up with a movie or wait until they are asleep and get baking. They want to eat the cookies and I cannot deny them Christmas cookies. They love to help as well, and then we've got a situation where Sophia is eating as she goes and helping with the cookies. Yeah, those are definitely our cookies.

It's 11:48 AM and we are all still in our jammies. Okay, let's be honest here. The girls are now playing dress up, so I'm the only one still in my jammies.