ahhh. melty goodness

Those of you not familiar with the Mid-winter thaw that some of us Midwesterners LIVE for know not of what I speak.

HOORAY FOR THE MELTING SNOW AND TROPICAL HEAT!!

It was almost balmy today - 38 degrees I think. The snow got all sloppy and slushy. Things began dripping off the roofs and down the gutters. I say things, because who knows what lies beneath the frozen snow all these months.

It was glorious. The sun shone so bright and warm that we opened the front door to the porch and read on the nearly forgotten summer reading couch.

We watched as the college boys next door flitted about in their burmudas and t-shirts like they were on some tawdry Spring Break beach - beers firmly nestled in chapped and chilly hands.

There was no fighting in our home today. We all did happy little dances around the dusty Saturday house in our slippers and happy hats! I dug out my long abandoned sunglasses, and then...

Guess how I celebrated? Go on, guess.

I scooped up slurpy dog poop!

Little known fact: Frozen dog poop thaws to the consistency of melted chocolate. So, the choice is chisel the frozen stuff out of the ice crusted snow or wait until a thaw...

And now, as I close the house for the second half of winter, I gaze across the rusty chocolate stained snow covered lawn and know that it was a good day!

Ahhh. Melty goodness!

a great recipe site for healthy foods!

101 Cookbooks

This is a beautiful site for those of you foodies out there! My dear friend, Mrs. Byrd, passed on the goodness that is 101 Cookbooks. Mama Byrd is one of the greatest foodies I know. She has kept me healthy, introduced me to the love that is a CSA, and taught me how to cook those strange and unnamed root veggis I did not know existed. Mama Bryd helped me pick out my first cast iron roaster and winced when I introduced a vintage pressure cooker into my kitchen (no accidents, yet.)

I love this site - and I think that you will, too.

january is done

I dont' know if I can tell you how happy I am that January is over. It's too damned cold.
Tonight, however, is bliss. I am watching the Littles watch "The Secret Garden." It's one of my favorite movies, books, musicals. You name it. It is heart filling to see them love it like I do. Heart filling.
It also makes me yearn for spring. Then summer.

I think I need to live in summer all year long. If I could just move my life here to somewhere warm - the dessert, perhaps... Mexico or someplace even more exotic! Ahh, that would be the life.

I would like that life very much.

I like my life very much.


Here's a little secret for anyone or no one.

I've been on Facebook lately. (That's not the secret.) I've reconnected with many old friends. (Here's the secret - not a big deal, really) It makes me yearn to start acting again. My soul needs it. My ego needs it. My heart needs it. I want to make that kind of art again.

Finding old friends again reminds me that I was once a girl. A woman. Not just a mom or a wife - someone that is needed, but rather, someone that is desired. Noticed. I have been shopping and redoing "me." Actually, uncovering ME. I wonder how my family will respond. It's still me, just a part of me that's been hidden for a long, long time.



I know that it sounds self-centered, but I NEED it!

extraordinarily talented child or idiot savante?

My daughter is singing some Garfield opera. You know Garfield. The cat. She knows the whole darn thing. I am getting the play by play - she's describing the scenes. She's singing every. single. word. All of the characters have different voices.

It's not really that cute. In fact, it's kind of annoying.

I didn't know that Garfield had starred in an opera. Did you? I no longer need to wait until the national tour comes to Minnesota, because I've heard the whole thing.

Oops. Took too long to write this post. She's started the whole thing over again. This time, including all of the dance breaks.

Did I mention that she is also eating a peanut butter, raisin bagel sandwich at the same time.

There has got to be some way to make money on this skill.



I think I need to get out of the house. I'm going to IKEA to be with my people.

some times, motherhood sucks

OK. So I am ignoring my children. Isn't it time that they started to pay a little attention to me? I mean, really. Do they have any idea who has been feeding them and clothing them for these many years? Is it too much to ask?

I am so getting mine when I am old and infirm. I am going to live with all of them for an extended time. I might even to threaten to die in their home if they don't love me. I will pout until I get my way. I will only eat the food that I want - causing them to make several different meals at one time. Then, when the cooking has ceased, I won't touch any of it.

I will have favorite clothing that I demand to wear on a daily basis, then, on a whim, I will only wear my bathing suit and rain boots with sparkly fairy wings. See how much they like that when they have to take me to the grocery story. In Feb. Boy, I can't wait to hear what they say to the lady behind them in line. Then, when I don't get the balloon that I want, I will throw a holy fit! I might even throw myself to the floor and flail about while screaming something like, "I'm not your REAL mother."

Oh, and bedtime. Just wait until it's bedtime. I will not sleep! I will demand that my children lay down with ME until I am asleep. And they cant just sit in my room, they must lay down next to me so that I can wrap my cold feet with long, scratchy toe nails around their thighs. Then, just for shits and giggles, I am going to join each daughter and her spouse in bed around 3 or 4 in the morning. Of course, I will demand that I sleep only with my daughter, sending the spouse to my now very wet - Oops! - bed to sleep for the remainder of the night.

I won't do anything they ask me to do. I won't listen when I am being spoken to. I will ignore direct requests for EVERYTHING! I will randomly take things out of drawers and scatter them boldly throughout the house. I will drop car keys into the toilet and wedding rings into the Dispoz-All.

But I will be cute, and their friends will find me charming, and they will feel incredible guilt for wanting things to change!

Ha. They'll get theirs in due time.