What's -a-doin?

Thursday night L came home from dance and t-ball practice and asked for help getting changed. She doesn't usually need help, but help I did. I noticed the unmistakable blisters of chicken pox. Oooops! I guess we exposed the under 7 crowd in town. She hasn't felt bad really, nothing benadryl and oatmeal can't fix. Now we wait to see if F gets them.
Friday I spent in reading. I got my new Elizabeth Peters book. Now the truth is out and you all know I have plebian tastes in reading material. I did drop S off for a Boy Scout camping trip. He was engaged in a riff on gazing balls in people's yards. It might be a nice respite from his monologues.
This morning I went to yoga class. I stopped afterwards and had a latte. I feel absolutely decadent. Tonight I need to attend the middle school's production of Cinderella. E has a part. I'm expecting it to be a brutal hour. I'm afraid the best thing about the musical will be the t-shirts "Cinderella is proof a pair of shoes can change your life."

Another Advantage to TOK

I was called for jury duty today. The case is 70 miles away and I would have been bussed each day. Now, I have no problem with doing my civic duty but a 7-6 day for 4 weeks is a bit more duty than I had in mind. When they asked if anyone had a reason to be deferred I raised my hand. I explained that there was no babysitter, no daycare, no relatives close by. It was either me or pull 7th grade dd out of school for a month. After the usual attempts at humor by the judge and prosecutor (Gee, that's a full time job. You must have to lease a cow.) and gasps from the room (sigh...yes, SIX) I was excused. I wanted to turn around and tell them about all my cyber-friends with LOTS more kids than me, but it seemed prudent to say thank you and scat. And so I did.

Errandsville

I went to Ft. Wayne this morning to pick up my old iMac which had been repaired. It's hard drive had been corrupted, which to me sounds like it met a floozy cell phone and lived a dissolute life, but I digress. I also stopped by the Boy Scout store to pick up a compass for ds who will be going on his first Boy Scout camp-o-ree this weekend. I hope the weather dramatically improves or it will probably be his last. We had snow on Sunday morning and now it is just damp, chilly and raining. The kids have a half day of school today so they will be home shortly. I had hoped to take them hiking at the reservoir but the weather makes that a no-go. I need to go start foccacia for dinner and I was informed this morning by several people that "We have no sweets because ___(insert name of child excepting yourself) ate them all." It'll be a good day for cookie baking I think.

Migraine

I am generally very healthy, especially for (can you tell this still bothers me? lol) my advanced maternal age. I do, however, get migraines. The past couple of days I had a doozie. Thanks to E and S who held things together here by making meals, taking sibs to T-ball, and practicing spelling together. I took what my kids refer to as "my happy pills" and am feeling better today, though with that weak, shaky feeling I hate. The weather has gone from 80 to 40 in the past 24hours. The weekend doesn't look promising. Perhaps a fire, some s'mores and a game of Euchre will pass the Saturday. Sunday is the Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta. I will go watch my sailors in an event they take as seriously as the America's Cup.

Spring Day

An altogether nice day. I'm going to get spoiled with this great weather and when it inevitably turns cold, wet and miserable again it'll seem even worse. I took my third yoga class this morning at the YMCA. I combined it with some errands so I didn't feel guilty about taking the time or the gas. I sure feel like I had a work out though.
We spent the afternoon hanging around the house doing not much. The kids got out the wagon (because as they pointed out, Mel had never even seen a wagon, let alone rode in one). They took turns pulling each other around so I didn't even have to do that.

Two Feet

That's approximately how far away from home dh was when he had an accident. Argh!!! He was turning into our drive when some 16yo kid (going too fast) passed him on the right, took out dh's tail light, then drove through our yard, narrowly missing our flagpole, porch and van. He made wonderful tire tracks through the front. Then came the two hour wait for the police. Ah, dh was in such a good mood by then. At least none of the kids were in the front yard playing. Dh now has an attractive swath of duct tape holding the light reflector in. We only paid $1000 for the car so it's not like it's worth putting $250 into repair.
The seasons are moving on. Next week starts baseball/t-ball/softball practice. Ds has a Boy Scout camporee to get ready for, dd is in a play at school that they are performing for an Arts Festival and the girls are finishing up for their dance recital at the end of next month. Before I know it I'll be complaining about heat and humidity and mosquitoes. but for today I sat in the yard and watched the 50lb of sand I put in the sand box mostly disappear. *note-most of it seems to have ended up on the laundry room floor and Mel's diapers. Seems to me that would chafe!

Back to Reality

It was a lovely week of mostly warm weather, unrushed children and little responsibility. OK, dh was still doing his best Camille imitation, but with judicious applications of sleep inducing cold medications he caused us little trouble. Saturday was warm, we went to my dad's and he took the kids 4-wheeling. Evidently he is proof that men never outgrow their need for silly toys. One would think a 78 year old man didn't need a 4-wheeler, but he thought differently. We also went to eat at a church soup supper. For those of you that don't live in a suffocatingly small community, this basically means someone else cooked, everyone I knew was there and I only had to pay if I chose to exercise that free will. Sunday was a carry in at our church for lunch. (Do you see a pattern of me avoiding cooking?) The weather was even better. All the kids except E turned up the CD player loud and jumped on the trampoline and kicked soccer balls around. E went to play putt-putt with her youth group. Dh and I sat in the swing and drank (it was for his cold, I swear). Today when the alarm went off for dh to go to work at 5:30 I tried again to think of some way we could avoid work, school, meetings, etc. etc. but the only thing I came up with was early death so onward we trudge....back to reality.

Chocolate Lava Cake

Here is the recipe for E's birthday cake. I think I got it off a can of cocoa years ago. It is really best warm, and if you put vanilla ice cream on it I hear it's even better. (I don't like ice cream, so realize that is hearsay.)


3/4 cup white sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup Cocoa Powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup Cocoa Powder

1 1/4 cups hot water


DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 350 F. Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, flour, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, butter and vanilla; beat until smooth.

Pour batter into ungreased 9-inch square baking pan. Stir together remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot water over top; do not stir. This will look weird.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Let stand about 15 minutes.

I always double this recipe because a 9" cake ain't gonna cut it here.

A TEEN

Yesterday I officially became a parent of a teenager. E turned 13 at 7:37pm, but we let her celebrate all day, lol. I took her and 2 of her friends on a shopping expedition. A loooonnnggg day. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a store they didn't hit. They bargain shopped though, so that was good. I made a chocolate lava cake which was a big hit. They played basketball with the neighborhood guys until about 10pm and the last I saw of them they were watching movies. Now if I can just get through the next 19 years I'll be done with teens. Hey, I ought to be good at it by then.
Today I am at a La Leche League conference in Indianapolis. You've got to love computers in hotels. Mel thinks the sight of a 'puter means it's time to nurse so here we sit. Maybe I should vary our routine a little at home? But this is my excuse to be on line. If you can't nak where can you? ;-)
A side note to Paula. I rushed out of the house without your cell number. Somehow at 5:30am this morning I was just trying to get out the door.

Spring Break

The kids are on spring break this week. Amazingly the weather has been pleasant. Sunday S had a friend over. Monday we wernt to Pizza Hut (a big deal) and a park. Tuesday we went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It was even better than the last time we were there. They had added new exhibits and a "dinosphere" which was very cool. Today we ran some errands, ate at Ponderosa (can you tell eating out is a big thing for us) and went bowling. The kids are outside now. It is clouding up. Tomorrow is E's birthday. I'm taking her and two of her friends shopping at the "chi-chi poo-poo" shopping mall in Fort Wayne, then they will stay the night. Friday I'm going to a La Leche League conference in Indy, Saturday is a baseball game and Sunday is a carry-in at church. I'll need a break from all this vacationing.

10,000 Steps My ...

well padded fanny. The current theory is that if people will just take 10,000 steps daily they most likely will have a healthy weight. I bought a cheap pedometer a couple weeks ago. It kept saying 12,000 or more steps daily. "This must be a piece of junk" I said to myself. "Self, you must purchase a better, more expensive pedometer." Such a pedometer was purchased on Tuesday. I could have saved my money because it says , right now, (and I"m not even in bed yet) 15,316. I must be eating alot because today was a pretty average day. How depressing, what am I going to have to walk, a marathon daily, to lose weight??? Argh! I am down another pound but that seems pretty measly. Of course, I'm conveniently having a black out about Easter candy and birthday cake.

I'm posting a link to this site because I've had so many days like that, but blessedly this was not one of them.