Mama Sutra

I don't think I'm laughing about it yet

I went to bed last night with a headache and a sore throat and did not feel good about the world.  I had a sore neck too, and was trying to remind myself that I probably slept on it wrong and did not have meningitis.  I couldn't sleep, thought I was never going to sleep, and only realized I was sleeping when my Little Girl woke me up.  I got her back to sleep, but it didn't last, and then she was up and yelling, and then she woke her sister up.  It was girls in the big bed and daddy on the couch.  Poor daddy.

Then morning.  Then the repeated urgings to get us all out the door.  I'd decided the night before that I would play hooky from yoga this morning.  I have two child-free mornings each week, but have "wisely" scheduled yoga for those spaces in my schedule.

Drop off one (Big Girl) reveals yet another substitute teacher.  Big Girl is dying to show her "real" teacher the space where lost tooth two used to reside, but it won't happen today or Friday, as teacher is out for the rest of the week.  Fortunately, due to her natural resilience or the recent reading of "Ramona the Pest," my girl is okay with another new teacher in her room.

Drop off Little Girl, and both of her preschool teachers are out sick.  I sat outside the room after she went in, chatting with another mom, complaining about being a grown up.  Impromptu coffee plans are made.  I'm thinking I should just go home and sleep, but I like me some coffee and talk with grown ups, so off I go.

I fit in a 45 minute rest on the couch in my quiet house.  Heaven.  This never happens anymore, an empty house and nothing pressing to do.

DaddySutra phones to say he is coming home on his lunch break.  I only have a few more minutes before I need to bring the Little Girl home from preschool to feed her and keep her occupied until Big Girl needs to get picked up.

Long story short (rather, first part of the long story cut down): DaddySutra parks in the driveway.  I don't look very closely as I back out on my way to pick up the Little Girl and back.  Into.  My.  Own.  Car.  The car that I drove back in my single days, the car I have had longer than I have known DaddySutra, the first big purchase I ever completely paid off as a grown up.  I ran into my own little car with my honkin' big Yummy Mummy SUV (I'm not a yummy mummy, but I have a great big car like they do.).  So.  Wah.  We park the broken car, the Daddy and I go pick up the Little Girl, then I drop the Daddy at work, then I take the Girl for lunch because I just need to sit really still for a while and drink some more coffee.

Home with the Little Girl for the afternoon, then back to pick up the Big Girl.  I haven't explained why we are carpooling with the Daddy today, but when I tell the Big Girl she is full of logic: "I would just look behind me before I drove, and then I would move the other car so it wasn't in the way."  Thank you so much, my darling. 

Pick up the daddy.  Head home and nuke something out of the freezer.  Force feed the children and remind them that it is soccer photo day and we need to hurry because Mama is an assistant coach and we need to get there to help the rest of the team.  Then my dad drops by, to check out some measurements for one of our home reno projects, then to check out the damage on my maimed car.

Kids fed.  Kids dressed in soccer gear.  Off we go to meet the team, the other coaches, get the photos done.  Did I mention that I have never ever played soccer, but I signed up because they are just little soccer players and no one else would sign up and apparently I need a new hobby?  So, yeah.  Photos went well, the other kids are cute, their parents friendly.  Back in the car, run a couple errands, stop by home, take the daddy to his hockey ball game, then off to Big Girl's school because I thought it would be a great idea for me to volunteer for her school's PTA group.  Yeeeeeeah.  Fortunately, my girls are friends with the principal's girls, and her brought his kids along, and the four of them had a lovely time in a spare room in the building drawing pictures and watching Shrek.  But by 9:20, no one is in much of a mood, unless you count hysterical giddiness (the kids) as a mood, or desperately in need of a drink (uh, don't know anything about that...) as a mood.

I ran into my damn car today.  Still can't believe that.  And the daddy is going out of town for the weekend, which never happens.  I'm tired, and I had too much and chocolate and wine when I got home, and this day was just too weird.

Organize this

Last weekend, I had one of those crises that amounted to "is my being at home with my kids the best use of my talents?"  Of course, it's a more complicated question than that.  I have days when I feel like my whole life has led up to this time in my life, that my four years at music school, and my time teaching school, and even the time I spent teaching Home Ec, all of it contributes to me being the best mom I can be to my kids at this time.  Which is not to say that every family should have a parent at home with their kids, etc etc, your mileage may vary. 

I have times when I feel very content in my stay at home situation.  I was feeling just great about getting the kids ready for back to school, and buying different coloured pens so I could make the wall calendar all beautiful, and entering all of our dates into my phone, and signing up to volunteer for stuff.  I loved going to my morning yoga class with the other mommies, hearing them talking about dropping their kids off, yadda yadda, while I just gawked around and felt very inflexible.  I planned out meals, I was going grocery shopping once a week instead of three or four times a week.  My Big Girl was taking a packed lunch with only a limited amount of garbage (and her kit has an organic cotton napkin, how eco is that?).

Yup, it felt great for a while and then I felt like crap.  Everyone was getting into the groove of things, moving forward.  My kids told me all the cool stuff they did in their classes, DaddySutra was doing stuff, using his brain.  I was the nutritional gatekeeper.  I was getting food on the table at appropriate times.  I was getting new high scores on Bejeweled.  I was losing all interest in reading books.  Counting my WW points was not gratifying. 

I fussed and I fretted, I crabbed and I cried, I slept and I shopped.  Still felt kind of annoyed with it all.  My friend was going through the same thing, I realized, as we sat and ate orange-pineapple loaf while the girls made necklaces out of beads. 

If I was working right now, I'd be complaining that I don't have enough time to get everything done, that I felt like I wasn't doing a good job of anything, that I didn't have enough time to spend with my family. 

I think I just need a new hobby, or something.  Some diversion a little more interesting than finding new iPhone apps and organizing methods and stickers and coloured pens.

So what did I do tonight?  I took a break from the meal planning so I could sign up for flickr.  Yeeeeeeeah, great idea.

Did I mention that my Big Girl lost her first two baby teeth in the space of 12 days, the first one vacating her mouth three days after she started kindergarten?  Gah and gah again.

last day of August: Big Girl goes to school

I did not cry, I just spent money.  (Pats self on back...sort of.)

After the months of trying to decide where we'd put our kiddo, we stuck by the decision we made back in April, and off our Big Girl went to her first day of kindergarten.  Actually, her first morning of kindergarten, and now she has to wait over a week to start for real.  Expect lots of adventures these next few days, as the child is so very extremely excited about going to school.

Big Girl went to preschool last year, four mornings a week.  That followed a year off of preschool which followed a term of preschool and a gigantic dose of distress about a preschool that did not quite live up to our expectations.  Fortunately, last year's preschool was awesome, and we had no separation anxiety (not on Big Girl's part, anyway, just mine), no real problems at all.

Along came kindergarten registration.  We had too many choices.  Public non-religious, public Christian, public Catholic, private Christian.  Schools in our neighbourhood, schools across town, bus service or not.  Schools with before and after school care, schools that might get before and after school care, schools near my parents' house (and thus with free before and after school care).  Home schooling, de-schooling, un-schooling.  French immersion and francophone schools (we're not francophone, but I'm haltingly bilingual).  Montessori program.  Full days or half days.  Teachers we were excited about, teachers we were...less excited about, teachers we knew nothing about.  New schools and old schools (old meaning about fifty years old here).  Every possible flavour of leadership, philosophy, tone, etc.: sports, community service and citizenship, music, early literacy.

It's not like we spent a lot of time thinking about this or anything.  It's not like I'm a teacher, child of a teacher, married to a teacher.

DaddySutra and I somehow came to consensus.  It was far easier than I imagined it would be.  I have my official reasons, but mostly I just went with my intuition or gut or whatever. 

I suspect that if I checked a map, I'd find that we chose the school that is farthest from Baby Girl's preschool.  Twice a week, I get to drop both kids off in the morning, and seeing that I'm chronically late, I'm not really looking forward to that.  It's not like it's any gigantic distance, we're not that big of a city (well under the 100 000 mark). 

We picked a Catholic school, which is publicly funded in the Great White North.  You don't have to be Catholic, but it makes things easier if you are.  By "are" I mean we have proof of baptism, which they ask for.  They don't ask if you have been to church recently, if you are married, if you say prayers with your kids, or if you intend to get the kids baptized.  By registering your child in that school, you agree to the religious instruction.  Are we totally on board with that?  I guess we have to be.

After the pondering, the meetings, the phone calls to the important people came the shopping for the first day of school outfit and the shoes and the supplies and the eco-friendly lunch kit.  Then the waiting, which is hard when you are five and want to be at school right now, and harder when you're...errrr...probably the oldest mom in kindergarten because you have little worry attacks and you just don't understand how your first born can be going to school already. 

Loaded in the car, actually on time, the girls cute as buttons.  We find a parking space and watch the local TV news van pass us to park even closer to the school.  I see a bench in front of the school and immediately think "photo opp."  My girls are even cuter in this moment.  I turn and see the TV lady with the camera on her shoulder and give her a big grin.  (I don't realize that she is filming us already.)  She approaches and asks if she can interview us.  I don't hesitate.  Squee!  Fifteen seconds of fame!

My Big Girl is shy, but still gives some answers, her enthusiasm showing through regardless.  I get my turn to answer and I hope that my marginally coherent answers compensate for my omitted shower. The camera captures us entering the school, my Baby Girl skipping, Big Girl dwarfed by her big backpack.

We spend twenty minutes in the classroom with our girl, then are gently sent on our way for the next couple hours.  Baby Girl and I occupy ourselves with errands, a quick coffee date, and a visit to the park beside the school.  An hour later, after lunch at home, I'm consoling my Big Girl who is just so sad because she didn't get to stay for a whole day, and will have to wait a whole week to go back and start for real. 

August 9: finally

It's been on my to-do list for several weeks, but I finally sucked it up and did some exercise tonight.  Finally!   And it was fifteen minutes of yoga, and I first I felt so not flexible, and then I got all frustrated because I would have to work for however long again to get back any of that (extremely limited) flexibility, but then I remembered that that initial improvement curve is much more motivating than the later very gradual improvement.  And now I feel remarkably great!  Little post workout buzz going here!

The remaining hours of today were spent cleaning house (another finally, I've definitely been putting that off), and playing iPhone games, and trying out recipes.

I made this crumb cake for dessert tonight.  (I also made these cottage cheese pancakes for brunch, same website.)  I used some apricots with the blueberries, but the blueberries definitely dominated.  I also made Mexican Slaw from my new Mark Bittman cookbook.  I picked the recipe out because the name intrigued me, and the ingredients are things I usually have in the house.  Then I started mixing it up tonight for supper (main course for me, the girls and DaddySutra were eating bug pasta (bug shaped, not flavoured) with chicken, peas, and pesto), and I was kind of worried because it seemed...weird.  But it was very very good.  Don't doubt the Bittman!

August 6: Welcome...to Catsh*t Manor

That was kind of funny.  I had been thinking about our darling new kittens and the joy that they add to our lives.  And the food that they take from our plates.  And the fact that human food seems to give them a bit of the intestinal disturbance.  Yeaaaaah.

Then I thought.  Cat.  Sh*t!!  Because we are catsitting for our neighbours this week and we usually let the cat in the house around 8:30 or 9 and all of a sudden it's 11:30 and the cat is probably sure we are leaving her out to fend for herself against the coyotes.  (Okay, I don't think there are any coyotes in our neighbourhood.  Also, there is a good chance that this cat outweighs the average coyote, so she might be okay.)

My diet book says that it is important to give yourself credit for the diet-positive things you do each day, rather than beating yourself up over the less beneficial choices your made. 

• I ate lots of fruit and veg today (two bowls of frozen cherries, cole slaw (homemade, lightly dressed), corn on the cob).
• I wasn't really hungry at lunch so I just didn't eat very much (I would usually eat just to keep myself from "starving" later on).
• I'm trying to catch up on my water intake now.

We'll ignore the fact that I had not one but two coffees (one at home with milk and sugar and one take out one with cream and way more sugar than I usually take) and a beer with supper.  And I still haven't done my Wii.  But tonight I almost felt like it...I just felt like sitting on the couch with my book a whole lot more.

In other news, I suspect that I have a Costco addiction.  I start getting all twitchy about an hour before it closes.  I invent reasons to go there.  I should explain that our Costco situation is not typical.  I lived in a much larger city where it was a day trip to get to Costco, and I think I went about three times total in the year that I lived there, as it took half an our to get there, half an hour to find a parking space, and once you'd made it through the crowds to get what you wanted, the lineups to check out were crazy long.  I can get to Costco in about five minutes at any time of day.  If I go towards the end of the evening, I can be in and out in about twenty minutes.  Plus, they have the best two seater carts in town (I have yet to inform my five year old that most kids her age do not sit in the cart while their mummies are shopping).  It is not unusual for me to go more than once a week.  Before my Big Girl's birthday, I think I went three time in a week.

Does this sound like the rant of an obsessive?

I got an idea that I really needed to go to Costco to get slippers, because of course fleecy lined slippers are on sale in August (snow boots should be out for sale in about three weeks, and will sell out in less than two...I really think about this stuff too much).  And we finished the last of the frozen Costco burgers at supper tonight.  So, really, I needed to go.  But I didn't.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I talked myself out of it.  No intervention needed at least for a while.

August 4: Controversy, discuss

Today was:

• getting the kids ready for day 1 of swim camp (younger) and art camp (older)
• hang out at swim camp, get younger changed, take her to the park to wait for DaddySutra to return with the car
• home to drop off family and pick up grocery shopping stuff (discount day at both the major local grocers so I do a monthly stock up at both)
• an hour or so of grocery shopping and unloading stuff while DaddySutra cleaned up the amazing diarrhea kitten (did I mention she's a long haired kitten?  should I have mentioned that I was going to  be this detailed sooner?)
• out for coffee with a friend who is going through a hard time; it was good, but I have a very heavy heart tonight
• grocery shop number 2
• home to unload groceries (DaddySutra took over this, and I collapsed on the coach)
• mediating various cat and child related issues
• a third, brief grocery run (I like to get the stock up finished once I'm rolling)
• over to the house we're housesitting to pick up mail and let the cat in for the night
• various iPhone and TV activities
• oh look, it's after midnight

Why itemize my day like this?  Funny you should ask.

Yesterday I read this article, by this woman, who is working on http://my168hours.com/.

In case you want to skip the links, Laura Vanderkam thinks that most adults are not making the most effective use of their time, and because she is able to work full time, write a book, write a novel, read, spend quality time with her 2 year old, maintain her fitness level even at 31+ weeks pregant.  She thinks that people (women in particular maybe?) shouldn't complain that they don't have enough time to "have it all" because they are probably wasting a lot of time.  

And I'm thinking, WTH?  With DaddySutra currently on holidays, there are two adults home full time right now, and I still haven't really cleaned house since...I'm not going to say when.  And did I get to my Wii tonight?  Ah ha ha ha ha ha!

Am I getting too defensive?  Does this woman have a point?  Or are you already too damn busy to get into a discussion like this?

August 3: 50 reasons

...give or take...

My "weight loss journey" is becoming a bit of a hodge podge of elements.  I'm doing weight watchers online after about six rounds of the weight watchers meetings.  I prefer it because it's one less thing to schedule each week, and I was not enjoying the dirty looks I got from the childless members when my generally well behaved children made any noise at all.  Anyway, WW online is also cheaper, but gives you all the neat-o online tools (you can calculate the points of any recipe!), and it still keeps me accountable.  I've skipped one weigh in since January.  Maybe I wouldn't have plateaued as long if I'd been going to meetings, maybe not.  I'm making peace with my plateau.

There's also the wii stuff I mentioned yesterday, though I still haven't got back to it and it's 11 pm now and feels pretty late for jumping about.

One more tool in my journey that I haven't quite started with yet (despite buying the books several months ago) is the Beck Diet Solution.  I read about them on the WW message boards, and I like that they coordinate with whatever program you are doing (the older program for sure, the newer stuff seems to use Beck's own food plan).  It'a all about "training your brain to think like a thin person."  I have never really been a thin person.  I've been able to achieve my goal weight, I've enjoyed it for a few months, but then my old habits have kicked in and I've not been able to maintain the weight loss.  I bought the books when I started WW, but I wasn't very motivated because I always start out keen, and the drastic changes in my eating and activity habits trigger quick losses.  Now feels like the right time to implement this Plan B.

One thing the book asks you to do is come up with the reasons you want to lose weight.  There is an extensive checklist as well as a big space for your own reasons in the workbook.  In the interest of greater accountability, I'm posting my list here!  Whoo hoo!  (Nothing like a pledge to post daily to really increase the interest level of posts!)  

Italics indicate items of my own invention, vs. the ones given in the book which are in regular font.

ADVANTAGES TO LOSING WEIGHT

• I'll look better and feel more attractive.
• I'll have more confidence.
• I'll be able to wear a smaller size.
• I'll be able to wear all the smaller size clothing I already own.
• I'll be able to keep buying my clothing at Costco, which is where most of my clothes come from right now.  I was/am on the verge of sizing myself out of there.
• I'll feel happier when I look in the mirror.
• I'll enjoy trying on clothes.
• I'll feel better in a bathing suit.
• I won't feel so self-conscious.
• I'll feel better physically.
• I'll have more stamina.
• I'll have more energy.
• I'll make a better impression on people.
• I'm probably going to be the older kindergarten mama, I don't want to be the fattest kindergarten mama too.
• I'll be able to keep up with my kids.
• I'll set an example to my kids about regular exercise and healthy eating.
• I'll enjoy physical intimacy more (ahem...this is right off the list...ahem).
• I'll like myself better.
• I'll feel as if I have accomplished something important (for me this does not just mean the initial weight loss but to maintain the loss for one year, something I have not been able to do previously).
• I'll be less self critical.
• I'll do more things in public, such as dancing or swimming (do you want to know how happy I was to hop into the pool at my daughter's party last week?  actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, as I kept telling myself at least I wasn't carrying the 20 lbs. I'd lost since January.  and I saw myself on video and wasn't quite as horrified as I thought I would have been.  but, still, not elated about getting into the pool in my swimmer suit (as my girls call it) in front of the rest of the party guests).
• My family won't remark about my weight or my eating (it's not like I get a lot of comments, but I suspect that there are some family members who talk about this when I'm not around, and I'd like to put an end to that, give them nothing to talk about, I guess)
• I'll be more comfortable eating in front of others (or ordering the venti latte if that's what I damn well want).

Okay, that's done.  Only took me seven and a half months.

August 2: Wii

I have been making these very ambitious lists the last few days.  I've done okay getting stuff done, but some things just keep getting pushed to the next day.  I would really really like to get back to working out, but I'm just not feeling it right now.  The weather has been weird...oh, never mind: I will spare you my list of excuses.

A year ago, we got the Wii Fit.  I thought it was the cat's ass.  I liked the little tracking graphs that showed your weight changes.  I liked the stamps to mark off each day you worked out.  I loved the games, especially the hula hoop, the running, the step aerobics, and table tilt.  I racked up the minutes the first while, watching my little time counter change to bronze then silver (still haven't managed to get to gold).  It just isn't the most time efficient work out, at least not for me.  I like the games, like I said, but those aren't the most intense workouts, and they are mostly less than five minutes each.  The strength training and yoga are all good, and I really like getting the feedback on, for example, how much weight you're putting on your hands in down dog.  But the starting and stopping was just frustrating to me. 

Next, in about February of this year, came My Fitness Coach.  This does not use the balance board, but it is adaptable for a number of home exercise gadgets, like aerobic steps and hand weights.  I didn't use anything beyond my yoga mat.  Loved this.  As you progress through routines, music and "environments" are unlocked.  You can chose the length of your routine in increases of fifteen minutes, from fifteen to seventy five.  And it tracks your personal difficulty level by asking for your feedback after segments.  You might find the core work challenging, so that level can be maintained, but if the cardio is too easy, the program will adapt that part for future routines.  The routines are "old school" aerobics, lots of moving forward and back, doing jumping jacks and other classic exercises.  If you like that, and I do, it's effective without having to spend a lot of time choosing exercises yourself.  I like the flow to the routine and how that helped keep my heart rate up. 

After that, a couple months ago, we invested in EA Sports Active.  A friend of mine, when shopping for her Wii, was told that she needed to have the balance board to use this.  Not true.  The balance board will enhance Sports Active for certain activities, but most work fine without.  In fact, I preferred to do the inline skating without the balance board.  There are many options for simulated activities, such as baseball and volleyball or dancing, as well as basic toning exercises.  Your performance is monitored by the Wii remote and the nunchuk.  For some activities, the remote is held in one hand and the nunchuk in the other.  Sometimes, you place the nunchuck in a holder that is strapped to your right leg, and hold the remote in your right hand.  There is also a resistance band that is used to increase the intensity of upper body work.  I liked this a lot at first.  I designed some of my own routines to get used to the different types of activities.  I found the sports ones were more forgiving than those on Wii Sports (suddenly I was hitting all the baseballs out of the park), but the dancing was kind of lame, not like the dancing in Raving Rabbids.  I did most of the thirty day challenge (with video pep talks from Bob Greene!), and I liked the variety they crammed into a twenty minute workout, but it didn't seem to offer as much of a challenge as My Fitness Coach, definitely not as much of a cardio workout.

Is all this thinking about exercising making me want to exercise?  Maybe it'll pay off tomorrow, it's time for bed here now...

August 1

"July was a write-off," I want to say.  "I didn't do anything."

Then I remember the 15 drop offs and pick ups for the summer camps the kids did.

And 2000 km we drove in under a week (first trip without diapers and there were NO ACCIDENTS).

And the morning that wasn't too hot to have the oven on so I made a pot of soup, a double batch of chili, 2 dozen muffins, and 8 yogurt popsicles.

What I didn't do was get back into my healthy lifestyle routine, that is, my WW online program and my various Wii fitness routines.  I started on WW in January and by February I'd lost close to 20 pounds, but have plateaued since then.  I started doing my Wii exercise stuff around the end of February and scarcely took more than one day off per week from then until the end of June, when we went on holidays.

I made a lot of excuses in July.  First we were on holidays.  Then we were recovering from holidays.  Then we were getting ready for our garage sale (yeah, add that to the list).  Then it was too hot.  Then we were getting ready for Big Girl's birthday party (I swear, 30 hours of prep for a 2 hour party).  Then it was August.

I also haven't been blogging, and I miss it, so I want to start that again too.  I'm thinking I might blog every day in August, but that might be too ambitious.  We'll see.

I have an idea for tomorrow's post already.  (Already?  Hell, I usually have blog idea epiphanies about three times a day, I just never actually start typing.)  Tomorrow I want to put in my two cents about my Wii stuff, which is much easier to do that actually use the Wii stuff, oh ho ho ho ho.

Reading, Recipes, and Regurgitation

1.  Reading:

That's what I do at night.  Used to be, I would knit, or embroider, or do something.  Now I read.  I'm sure I'm doing it as a form of escapism, keeping myself from thinking too much, but I have a long history of reading, and it's not like it's some terrible vice.  Except the book buying, which sometimes gets a little out of hand. 

Most recently, I've been reading Ian Rankin.  Late to the party, definitely, but it's fun to get to catch up on the books of a series, just like I'll watch entire seasons of TV shows in a week (or less).  I read it out of order, just to be difficult.  I got "Knots and Crosses" for Mother's Day, then tried to find the next book in the series with no success.  I did find an omnibus edition at the library (Let it Bleed, Black and Blue, The Hanging Garden), and read those next.  I also signed out "Witch Hunt" which is not part of the Inspector Rebus series.  Then DaddySutra started reading these.  Then we ordered a bunch online.  I'm now ready to start "Dead Souls" but I think I'm going to skip to another book I'm partway through because I'm getting a little crime fiction-ed out.

I also read "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs.  I read one of hers each summer, whichever one shows up in paperback at Costco.  I bought it on my second of three trips to Costco this week, when I set off to pick up my new glasses but ended up hanging around while they fixed my flat tire (and thanks to the guy who honked his horn at me to tell me my tire was flat, and also to the guy at the gas station who informed me that the air was not turned on while I was trying to temporarily re-inflate the tire).  I was going to start reading my book, but instead I just looked around, literally, enjoying my new glasses and liking that I didn't really have anything to do but wait. 

In the "completely different" category, I'm also reading "Little, Big" which is about fairies or something.  I want to be someone sweet and nice and charming who likes books about fairies, but I keep going back to the gory crime fiction. 

I have a bunch of non-fiction piling up beside my bed.  I bought a new book by Gabor Mate who is a physician working in Vancouver at a homeless shelter.  He came here (here!!  no one comes here!!) and talked mostly about his theories on ADD, but also a bit about addiction.  I'm reading the addiction book, which is quite fascinating.  He also writes about parent-child and parent-peer relationships, and the effects of stress on health. 

2.  Recipes

It's another festival of cooking and baking here, because what else should you do once the weather warms up but preheat the oven?  Mmmm...cozy.

On Monday, I made berry oatmeal muffins, pretzel buns, and potato salad, then the girls and I went to the park for a playdate.  And then I made red velvet cupcakes for the party we were going to on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, I made twice as much cream cheese icing as I needed, and then we went to the party (more on this in part 3).

On Wednesday, I made tabbouleh and lemon loaf.

On Thursday, I made raisin bread, and had raisin bread and lemon loaf for lunch.  Then everything got weird with celebrities dying and all, and DaddySutra phoned the pizza man for supper.

On Friday, we skipped another party we were supposed to go to and stayed home and ate leftover pizza.  And washed all the dishes I didn't get to earlier in the week.

On Saturday, we spent a whole bunch of money at Costco, I got my glasses adjusted, and we bought ribs to cook on the barbecue.  And we ate them with some sausages we already had, plus some brown beans, and some rice, and some broccoli, and we all kept well away from each other for the rest of the evening.

On Sunday, I made a very delicious strawberry-rhubarb cake to take to my parents' for supper. 

I know I said recipes, and I know I've provided absolutely zero.  Too lazy to do the linking tonight.

3.  Regurgitation

Things that you'd think would be a warning to me but apparently were not:
a)  You take your kids to the park and one spends most of the time "taking a nap" on the end of the slide.  My children do not generally lack energy.
b)  You have lunch and the slide-napper falls asleep on the table.
c)  The slide-napper wakes up long enough to snub every food item you offer but decides a smoothie will be okay (not so weird, she's pretty...particular about her food most of the time).
d)  The slide-napper who generally does not nap passes out on top of you on the couch for three hours (just wondering now why I'm doing this all in the second person...does that make it more "cautionary tale" ish?).
e)  Slide-napper had a fever, whenever it was that the temperature was taken that afternoon.  But it broke after the nap.
f)  Slide-napper shows little to no interest in the food at the party.
g)  Slide-napper throws up after eating about 1/10 of an olive (she usually loves olives).
h)  Slide-napper falls asleep after barfing.
i)  Slide-napper wisely chooses a juice box over supper foods...and then throws up again (over a different part of the patio this time, and only getting her crocs and socks).

(She was better after that, fortunately.)

Things that I did take very seriously:
a)  Younger sister had a fever three days later.

(See, I do eventually learn!  And younger sister had the fever, the need for sleep, the crabbiness...and didn't barf at all.  Touch wood.)