I always thought

--that I exercised more than average
--that I ate healthier than average
--that I'd get to bed early if it weren't for my computer-crazy husband

Isn't self-delusion a wonderful thing?

Saturday's wardrobe

Outfit #1: fiberglass-speckled grubbies for crawling around in the attic to remove spotted insulation
Outfit #2: flattering shirt and stylish jeans to boost my confidence as I delivered Katherine to round one of school testing
Outfit #3: sweatshirt and old jeans for sanding cabinet Laramie is building for our closet (which I wore back to Katherine's event, since I realized the counselors were not going to be basing their opinions of her performance on my outfit)
Outfit #4: different flattering shirt and stylish jeans to wear on an actual date with my husband.

Four costume changes in one day, and I'm not even a supermodel!

An Auspicious Monday Morning

Lar headed out on another trip this morning, leaving me to get three kids out the door by myself. Of course,
--Alex refused to get dressed
--Katherine put on capris with long socks, so I had to send her for a costume change
--Alex deliberately broke the bear bank Katherine had given him for his last birthday, causing Katherine to sob uncontrollably all the way to school.

And it's only Monday morning.

Standing On?

Rebecca has learned all sorts of new words lately. One of the latest, since we've been going up into the attic so much to deal with roof problems, is "ladder."

So today when we were reading "There's a Wocket in my Pocket," I saw a picture of a boy standing on a ladder. "What's he standing on?" I asked Rebecca.

She knew the answer, all right. "Feet!"

Look somewhere else for a minute...

...and you've got black crayon scribbled all over your walls and your floor, while your toddler's sticking her hands in the toilet to scoop out toilet paper.

Funny how...

Even when I have lentil soup in the fridge
And cheese bread ready to be toasted
And carrots that just need to be chopped
I still want somebody else to bring me dinner

What do you do when your husband's away?

Whenever Lar is gone, I put myself to sleep with Clare College Cambridge's Compline Service. I love this CD so much I made a copy several years ago of all the best music to make it twice as long and not jeopardize the real CD. Then my 1-year-old found the copy in the CD player and chewed the music right off.

Since then, I've had my heart in my mouth every time I put in the Compline CD to listen to at night. Would the CD survive past the next morning? How could I sleep without it?

Tonight I did what I should have done a year ago: burned a new copy. Now Renaissance polyphony is echoing down the hall, and I can sleep peacefully knowing that the original is safely out of range of button-loving baby and her sharp little teeth.

In Bed: An Accomplishment

Brisket

Cooking brisket from my Utah beef:

In your enameled cast iron dutch oven, starting over the burner on medium heat:

1. Dice 1 onion. Sautee in 3T butter.
2. Add a few cloves garlic. I used 2.
3. Add Pepper and some salt.
4. Add about 1 tomato, seeds removed & peeled (or 3T paste, or ...).
5. Add ~2 cups water or beef broth.

Trim brisket, and add to dutch oven.
Braise in the oven at 325 for 3 hours, turning every half an hour.

Remove brisket, slice crosswise to the grain, cover with sauce, and serve.

Enjoy.

A New House Rule

"If you're picking at your belly button with a spoon, you have to do it in the bathroom."

Soaked

So maybe January isn't the best time for dodging the Seattle Center fountain. But when you've rushed to the theatre and paid for parking, only to find that your show is sold out, what else are you going to do?

At least in January, you're already wearing raincoats.

Toothiness

 

Quiet Come and Gone

On our last trip to Utah, our little family spent almost 24 hours snowbound in the Leavitt mountain cabin. (Mostly snowbound, anyway; we had one escape snowmobile). No TV (which we didn't miss at all), no computers (which we missed a lot), no phones, no cameras, not even a clock. The only way for us to check the time was to tune into the local radio station.

It's amazing how much time you can spend together with so few distractions. Laramie and I played a game of chess--our first in about 5 years and only the 3rd of our married life. Laramie read 37 pages of Call of the Wild to our children, who were entranced. I enjoyed it too, although I was newly shocked by the club-wielding dog tamer--this was obviously this book book was written before the rise of the SPCA. At night Laramie and I talked for hours, staying up well past our bedtime (at least I'm guessing; we didn't have the radio on to know for sure). The next day we piled on snow gear for sled runs and snowmobile rides. Katherine decided to explore the run-down shacks of the adjacent gold mine, and knelt to pat down the snow so she could help break me a path. (I was sinking past my knees). Then we ran back inside to pull off the gear and get warm again. No phones, no urgent emails, no bills, no laundry except for recurring stains from spilled cocoa. It was lovely.

Of course, as soon as we got back down it all started up again. We had double the laundry, suitcases to repack, bills to notice and plans to hammer out. But I hope we remember to turn everything off once in a while, to play a game or two, to set aside our things to talk to each other. To recapture that quiet time.

Laramie's already dug out our copy of Call of the Wild.

Highlights from our Utah Trip

--Listening to Rick Atkinson's remarkable "The Day of Battle," about the WWII invasion of Italy, which David gave us for Christmas. It was probably the first Christmas gift we used, except for the washcloths
--Making it all the way to Utah without any fast food, courtesy of Dad and Andrea's gourmet sandwiches (especially the peanut-butter-and-jam elephant, bell and umbrella. Real kid-pleasers.) They packed to feed an army; I still have bags of raisins in the car.
--Playing Super Mario on the Wii with Caleb, Katherine, and Ethan. My running and jumping skills started coming back, but my bubble usage was hit-and-miss--they didn't have that when I was in 7th grade!
--Isaac teaching Katherine checkers.
--Playing Chinese Checkers with a rotating cast: Isaac out, Alex in, Emily in, Emily out, until Katherine and I were each playing two colors. We never finished the game.
--Emerging the grand champion at Bang (after Laramie took over my cards) and beating Laramie at chess (with his advice; it was a cooperative effort)
--Sleeping in a cabin loft with 10 other people. We didn't sleep very well, but it was sure cozy.
--Staying up at the cabin when everybody else was gone.
--Having Val and Gerald show up at the cabin the next day for snow fun
--Brushing aside snow in Grandpa's meadow to uncover a prehistoric stone foundation. I'm guessing pioneer well or firepit; Grandpa's holding out for Nephite baptismal font.
--Trying fresh trout sushi at Julie Brown's while outside our children inched their icy recalcitrant sleds downhill
--Seeing all of Laramie's siblings, with a bonus encounter with Amy's friend Garren at 10:30 pm on our way out of Salt Lake.
--Meeting our friend Brandon and his wife for dinner (thanks for the help, Maria and Ed!)
--Bringing home beef (Lar's disappointed we weren't forced to buy a new freezer to fit it all), new dish scrubbers, and Grandpa's remarkable cold and flu herbal medicine (remarkable because it's not too nasty to drink!)

Measuring Cups

I've been looking for my one-cup measuring cups all week long. Yesterday I found them in the wrong drawer. I didn't put them there.

It reminded me of all the people who helped us out over Christmas week, cleaning up our kitchen after multiple meals, packing food for our long drive, washing dishes as we scurried around filling suitcases (and yes, possibly misfiling my measuring cups). You don't know how much this meant to me--how every dish washed was one less chore for me to face. But you know who you are. Thank you.

Becca & Grandpa

 
 

What a toddler can do

Yesterday morning, Rebecca spread dried raspberries all over her crib. Nobody knows how she got them. Katherine and Alex deny supplying her, although I suspect that Alex may have slipped her some raspberry granola. When I finally saw the disaster, raspberry crumbs were spread across the sheet, with a big purple splotch of raspberry drool. Thank goodness for OxiClean.

While I was finishing an article to meet a deadline, Rebecca sneaked into the bathroom and started ripping up toilet paper to float in the sink. Unclogging the sink took me twenty minutes and an emergency U-Bend-disconnection self-tutorial.

When I summoned my children to throw laundry down the chute, Rebecca ran right over to help. And this morning, Rebecca cocked her head at the far-off sound of the street-cleaning truck, demanded to "look," and peered out the window until the truck finally ground past. Ears in perfect working order!

What can a toddler do? Soon it'll be easier to say what she can't do.

Microwave!

The luxury I missed most when our microwave broke was my wheat bag: a cloth bag filled with wheat that you can microwave to heat. (Like a hot water bottle except more malleable.) To celebrate my husband's microwave repair job (thanks, Erik, for getting us started!) I have heated my wheat bag to restore feeling to my cold numb fingertips. Why am I so cold-blooded?

Having our microwave back will take a little getting used to. This morning when I wanted a cup of Grandpa's mushroom tea, I put the pot on the stove instead of heating myself a cup. Then I went and showered while the tea was on 'high,' and scorched my pan dry. Guess it's time to return to the microwave.