Rock To Wind A String Around

Popped over to Habesha Child to find this short little meme.  Always late to ride a trend wave, I thought I’d do this now, so as to be one of the cool kids.

I am reading:

Searching for Whitopia by Rich Benjamin.  It is fascinating, well-written, and more than a little scary.  I just finished  Homer & Langley by EL Doctorow, and it was pretty fab too.  Living in the neighborhood with the best library in the country, I am spoiled rotten.  I hear about a great book and can instantly put it in my book bag of reserves.  The books fly my way pretty quickly, so right now my shelves are groaning–I have the newest Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro volumes, and I’ve got more than a few other gems in my reserve queue.

I am drinking:

a little water in a disposable cup.  Elliott’s inability to load the dishwasher properly led me to ban the use of said dishwasher for one week.  Sadly, he is no better at washing by hand.  Sometimes refining behavior through the use of natural consequences is very taxing…

I am listening:

To  The Killers–the Hot Fuss album at the moment.  They are a welcome break in the endless loop of Black-Eyed Peas served several billion times daily for my aural enjoyment.

I am watching:

the latest season of Big Love,  Ugly Betty, and Masterpiece’s brilliant presentation of Clueless, I mean Emma.  I am also waiting for season 6 of Mary Tyler Moore to arrive–the depth of my love for that show cannot be denied!

I am loving:

this cozy winter day.  Sad that Albert is away for an extra day this week, I’ve ‘turned my frown upside down’, and have begun to splash a beautiful yellow (one shade darker than the new kitchen paint) all over my dining room walls.  It is an illness, but I love to paint and I’ve waited far too long to cover those bland walls.  This is the first day at home in an eon–it’s nice to get the impromptu painting done.

Good news abounds here on the internets.  Go share some joy and love with some of our California pals.

Hooray–such good news!

In a few short hours, my dashing spouse will meet me for a hot rendezvous at The Fencing Alliance of Ohio (ooh la la!).  After, we’ll caper home for a late supper.  Lark’s tongues and ambrosia seemed fitting, but so predictable, so instead, we’ll tuck into a frittata with a side of spinach:

sauteed with a little olive oil and fresh garlic, dressed with some raisins, it brightens a January day or evening.  So, inevitably, will the children who will come along for this fencing journey followed by late supper

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the cookies that will follow for dessert.  I tweaked a favorite recipe to make it gluten free–yummy!

Bev’s Oatmeal Cookie of Deliciousness (adapted for gluten free cookie snatchers)

3/4 cup softened butter or margarine  (Bev swears by butter flavored Crisco, but I can’t do it, so I use gf Earth Balance)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar (For gf cooking, I switched to all brown sugar, Sugar!)
1/4 cup milk (Almond milk seems fine here)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour (ahh, my special blend of 1/3 c gf baking mix, 1/3 c coconut flour, and 1/3 c corn starch add 1/4 t of xanthan gum if desired)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick or old-fashioned oats (I use Bob’s Red Mill gf oats)
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

Mix the wet ingredients, add the flour, salt & baking soda, and then the oatmeal.  Stir in raisins and nuts.  Bake at 60 degrees for 12-15 minutes.  Makes about 3.5 dozen

Our besties drove down from Chicago to spend the long weekend with us.  When they left this afternoon, AM cried and cried–she loves Aunt BeeBee and Uncle Erik (and baby Jacob, who out weighs her by a  good 5 lbs or so) as much as the rest of us do.  We cuddled in the car after they left our lunch spot, and I soothed her by saying how much we all love them, that in fact, I’ve loved Aunt Brandy for longer than I’ve loved daddy which both puzzled and distracted her.  ‘Tis true though–Brandy and I have been friends for almost 20 years.

After years of living in one another’s pocket both in Tallahassee and in Chicago, it’s nice to know that our friendship endures, even after lengthy separations.  Neither one of us is a phone person, so we don’t call, and we rarely email, but when a get together happens?  It’s like we met for lunch last week–old jokes are remembered, new ones are made, and in the meantime, we play a million games (now currently dealing with Carcassone and Settlers of Catan withdrawal) adore each other’s children, and eat a lot of icecream.

We were spoiled when Albert worked in Chicago in 2008–after years apart, we were treated to weeks together, giving us lots of time to properly meet the newest members of the tribe (Jacob was adopted by B & E in February of 2008, and AM had come home the year before, so there was a lot of hand shaking to be done) .   This visit was the first in 15 months, but another is promised later this winter–we can’t wait!

3 crashing boars (and their riders) at the Cowtown zoo.

Glad I didn’t plan to blog everyday when I made my resolutions.  Seriously, between my stupid arm and January ennui, I can’t seem to find much to blog about these days.  There are some potentially big changes on the wind, but for now, we trudge on.  I’m feeling Albert’s absence more acutely than I normally do.  It happens every time he’s been home for an extended period.  Rather than being pleased with our lovely 2 weeks together, I linger over how much we miss by being apart each week.  A small part of my brain is pleased that after 17 years of lurve we like each other so much, but it was small comfort when he left at 6am.

A few updates:

Elliott’s birthday and the party 2 days later were both terrific.  We managed to enthrall 10 rowdy kids with extended rounds of ‘pass the present’  ‘freeze dance’ and ‘jump the river’ (which was the favorite by far). They didn’t really care about prizes, pizza, or birthday cake if we could just fit in “one more jumping game, please!”

Fencing continues to chip away at our available hours–Elliott practices 2x a week (for 2 ish hours each time) and we throw in a private lesson every 2 weeks.  Fencing both delights and motivates.  Much schoolwork is completed before I am willing to drive to fencing–I hope the trend continues.

The small girl is firm in her resolve not to remove her seatbelt, although more than 2 months after this all started, there are occasional lapses.  A driving trip to Florida is scheduled for February.  I’d be lying if I said this causes no anxiety.

The small girl has many crushes these days.  She loves Sergey (Elliott’s fencing coach) best, but she also adores my physical therapist.  Today, she demonstrated all sorts of physical skills (either mimicking me, or improving upon my task by jumping or doing pushups–she loves those) all the while yelling, “Look at me Eric, I am exercising too–I’m building my core.” Because you know, between pt for me, and fencing workouts, there is a great deal of chat about core building around these parts.

Tomorrow kicks off the start of the Enkutatash planning season.  The meeting is here over dinner.  There is always plenty to do, but it’s so much fun with the tribe.  It is the bright spot this week.

Still thinking about project 365, but I’d keep it here, rather than start a second blog. Hmmm…