Brunch

What do you do for Mother's Day?

At our house every year, we have a brunch for all the mother's. Well, I have a brunch. (See invite above.) Jason wipes my sweaty brow, and holds my shaking hand and picks up and dresses the kids and mows the lawn and weeds the garden while I cook. And cook and cook and cook.

The mothers all come over here to my shining, spotless house on the Saturday morning before Mother's Day where I have spread on my vintage tablecloths a beautiful array of the most dazzling brunch foods that you have yet seen. (Love to make brunch food, love it!) And they eat until they are oozing with kindness and sticky motherly love and then we retire to the garden to sit under the shade trees until they are sleepy and then I give them their annual Mother's Day plant and the girls give them their homemade gifts and then Jason gives them their purses and they leave. And I clean up and go lay in the hammock and await my special day.

Here's what's on the menu this year:
Quiche
Poppy seed salad
Cream cheese danishes
Fruit tray with dip
French toast casserole
Sausage balls
Fruit pizza
Cheesy shrimp bites on grits toast
Shrimp salad on endive
Stuffed tomatoes
Warm baked brie and baguettes
Orange juice punch

If you're nice to me, I might give you some of the above recipes, because, you know me, these are not purchased items. They are made with the palms of my lily white hands. Less guilt for terrible person-ness that way.

Stressed Out!

And it's not me this time! It's my child. She had an absolute meltdown this afternoon. A roll on the floor, tears, pull her hair, whine and moan meltdown.

She's tired.

She is busy. Busybusybusy. Along with the rest of us in the family. And as much as I pride myself on our slow paced life, she's not used to a frenetic activity pace.

Will you be ashamed of me if I tell you that I gave into her meltdown? I did, indeed. Instead of pushing her to shovel her snack down, do her homework in a jiffy and run through a quick piano practice, change into her uniform and get in the Jeep for her softball game where we would stay for two hours and then head home for a quick dinner, bath, bedtime story and hurry up and go to sleep I said, okay. We'll skip it. "WHAT? We can't!" Sound of wailing and more tears and more rolling on the floor. "Why not? Will they fire you? Kick you off the team? Put you in jail? Hang you by your toes?" "Noooooooooo Mooooommmmmyyy!" "Well, then."

So, I'm doing what I said we'd never do. I'm a "you committed to do this and you're darn well gonna finish it and we're not letting your team down and music lessons are a privilege so suck t up and do it" kinda mom. No whining about privileges because we sit down and go over the commitment before we commit.

But tonight, I'm reneging. Signing over to the other side. The "do whatever feels right at the time no matter what the cost" side. Sigh. But my baby, my child, she's tired. And I'm going to give her spaghetti with homemade meatballs and cheesy bread and let her watch "Full House" and then I'm going to play Barbies with her and then I'm going to read her a story and put her to bed an hour early. And I'm packing all this homework back into her binder and telling her teacher she needs to stay in at recess tomorrow to finish it because she was too damn tired to do it tonight.

So there.

Sunday, Sunday!

Oooooh! I don't like Sunday nights. They dangle there with their devious slow pace tricking us into forgetting that a new week starts tomorrow and we'd better be ready. Lunches packed? Check! Backpacks ready? Check! Clean girls in bed early on Sunday? Check! Homework done? Check! Calendar reviewed? Check! Laundry put away? Check! Weekly supper list gone over? Check!

I'm exhausted already.

You know what? I'm ready for summer. READY! I think it's the sweet, lazy, SLOW pace that it brings. No more music lessons, no more athletics or cheerleading, no more school or homework, no more tests, no more obligations, and best of all for me, no more deadlines. Beautiful days that stretch ahead ready to be filled with fun! Love summer. Here are things that make me happy in the summer:


Clothes hanging on the line to dry.


My girls catching fireflies in the dusk, in their bathing suits and sweaty faces.

Blackberries that grow along our fence, so plentiful that we never fend off the birds, as there is plenty for all and we are utterly sick of them when the season ends. Sick, I tell you. But, oh, how I long for a taste now!

Roses on a picket fence.

Picnics! Oh, I love them, and (shhhhhh) I'm taking my sweetie on a surprise picnic next weekend. Girls to Gram's house and I have it all planned. Red checked cloth and all! More on that later! Pray for no rain to ruin the romance!

The Pinky Dinky Man (otherwise known as the Ice Cream Man) tootling down the quiet road on a summer night and the girls shrieking in excitement for an orange push up even though we have them in our freezer, its just not the same as when it comes from the Pinky Dinky Man. (Insert "The Entertainer" music here.)


The smell of sunscreen and aloe vera. (Keep yours in the fridge for those days when you've overindulged in UV rays!)

Birdie ball! (Or badminton at some houses!) Get that net out, we're competitive at our house!

Midnight suppers under the stars.

Fourth of July!

Trips to the library when it's so hot outside and the inside is so cool and inviting, you don't want to leave. We leave with stacks of books and bring them home and read and read and read. Under the air conditioning, at the pool, on blankets under the shade trees, laying on the porch swing. Ahhhh....the books I get read in the summertime!

Harvesting my garden after all that hard work in the spring. Big fat tomatoes by the basketful. My husband always plants too many! Onions and peppers and squash and okra! All my herbs!

Lemonade.


Oh, that's enough! My eyes are watering! I'm ready!

Here is what I did today:

Planted the following: Lavender, chamomile, basil, zinnias, marigolds, Shasta daisies, common thyme, lemon verbena, morning glories and cilantro. These went behind the picket fence that my husband has just finished erecting for me (sound of gleeful shrieking) but is yet to be painted. My job that I am postponing until the girls can help me.

Held boards for Daddy as he added on to the girls wooden fort. Poor children. I wish they had some toys in this backyard.

Went to the feed store for, what else, feed.

Made pancakes, tuna salad and pizza. Not altogether, but at different intervals and three different meals.

Potted vegetable basket filled with cherry tomatoes, German purple basil, marigolds, chili peppers and sweet potato vines.

Finished the new Maeve Binchy book.

Painted twenty fingers.

Washed two heads of blonde hair.

Read a chapter of Summer of the Monkeys.

Folded laundry.

Ran the sweeper.

Unloaded the dishwasher.

Trimmed front bushes.

Can you believe I did all that in one day? Me either! And it was terribly windy here in the flat plains of Oklahoma and my allergies are screaming in protest! I've carried a box of Kleenex around all afternoon and my sweetie just made me a cup of tea with honey and lemon. Now doesn't he deserve a romantic picnic?

Oh, and I made sun tea!

And I aired my quilt on my bed!

So there!

"There can be no other occupation like gardening, in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling!"-Mirabel Osler

Obnoxious Mother

Now some of you may be obnoxious parents. You know, the ones. Everything their kids do are the best. They are the smartest. The most talented. The most athletic. And far superior to your children.

Well, I'm the worst of the worst. Not the far superior part, but I'm just so darn proud of my girls that I have to flaunt it. My husband and I are the parents who buy team shirts to match the uniforms and wear them to all the games. We buy buttons with pictures of the girls in cheerleading uniforms and wear those pinned to our chests as we shout and yell and blow bullhorns. We put bumper stickers on our cars and send mass emails out to every family member when they win an award. And attendance at all piano recitals, ballet recitals and major athletic events are required if you're related. And if you are absent, you better have a darn good reason, otherwise I'm bringing it up for the next six months.

So, Jacy's t-ball team wouldn't print out mommy and daddy team shirts this season. (How dare they?) So I have taken it upon myself to become more obnoxious, in yet another show of support to my child and have created my own shirt. (Well I can't very well wear a team shirt to Molly's games and not to Jacy's can I? I think not.) See image above. Isn't she adorable? Who wouldn't want to wear her on my chest.

So if you should see a chubby red headed woman in glasses wearing this....



don't sit too close, or I might start discussing my children! Off to softball!!!! Zoo pictures to follow!

Look at the ca-yute label I made over at Atomic Cupcake!!! Head over and make one for yourself!

Technical Difficulties

In the words of Charlie Brown "AAAARRRRGH!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm really close to tossing this laptop out the back door. But really its not the laptop's fault, it's you Blogger! Yes, you. You tempt us with your free webpage and tell us we have options and can express ourselves with free space and tons of uploaded pictures. But you won't let me show my friends the ca-yute label that I made on Atomic Cupcake because you are having technical difficulties, dadgum you.

So, dear friends, I will have to show you the ca-yute label tomorrow. After we get home from the zoo and in between the two softball games that two different girls are playing at two different fields because it would have been much too convenient to post it tonight when I'm luxuriating in a night at home and have plenty of free time to post.

Thanks, Blogger, you meanie!

Zoo day with the kindergarten tomorrow. You know, where twenty schools are having their annual field trip to the zoo and you, as homeroom mommy and teacher's most dependable volunteer, are in charge of two groups of children whom you stress out because you fear losing one of them and having to tell one of their mommies that yes, you are a terrible person and lost their youngster at an overcrowded zoo. And they'll touch everything in sight, having also been touched by the twenty other schools' children and then they'll settle down at the playground to eat their warm sack lunches and you will realize you have left the hand sanitizer in the car and you will encourage your daughter to "hold it" when she needs to visit the facilities next to the jaguar because there are twenty other schools' little girls in there all touching said facilities. And she will whine and you will stand in line of the toidey and warn her under your breath not to touch anything and pray to the good Lord that she doesn't catch diphtheria or scurvy or whatever is lurking in public restrooms. And then you ride the noisy school bus back to school full of tired and dirty kindergartners and smile because you know you have created a memory for your own little kindergartner and you're so glad you didn't miss it and then you feel a pang for those other kindergartners who didn't have their mommy there creating memories and then you wince because you still have to pick up a third grader and do homework and pack lunches for the next day and cook dinner and pack softball bags and don your hometeam shirt and yell at the top of your lungs for both girls to play their hearts out and really you just want to go home and lay on the couch and watch Dr. Phil.

And this of course, is all Blogger's fault.

Let them eat cake

Do you eat cake?

We can't be friends if you don't.

Sorry.

I feel very strongly about that.

I love cake. Too much. Chocolate is okay. Delicious with a big glass of milk and warm from the oven with the icing melting just a smidge and you take a bite and the icing gets on your lips and you have to wipe it off with your fingers and then lick your fingers! Ummmm....

Oh, and I love just plain white cake with no icing. Warm, of course, with a little butter spread in the middle! Oh, and milk. Naturally.

I love lemon cake with powdered sugar icing.

I love angelfood cake with no icing and I love it with seven minute icing piled in huge poofy dollops all over the outside. I like it with strawberries and cream, too.

I love German Chocolate cake, pound cake, carrot cake, almond cake, really, just about any cake at all, which could be part of the reason I'm (cough) pleasingly plump. (Not really. I'm actually tall and willowy with defined cheekbones and when you pat me on the back you can feel my shoulder blades sticking out. Seriously. What? You don't believe me. Fine. Back to the cake discussion.)

I don't understand these people who, when they are offered cake at children's birthday parties, they politely refuse. Are you kidding me? If I have had to sit through your child's loud, obnoxious birthday party, then the least you can do is give me a piece of that delicious cake. Corner piece, please. I mean really.

Cake signifies a special event. It means something. Birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, get togethers with friends, they all have cake. Or should. People don't bake many cakes anymore. Why is that? I don't mean cake from a mix. I mean sift the flour, crack the eggs, whip up your own frosting cakes. Dumping a mix in a bowl doesn't count. That's not your cake then, it's Betty Crocker's or Duncan Hine's cake. Not "I love you so much I baked you this delicious homemade concoction with no preservatives and no aspertame in it!"!!!

Cake! Get it out of here! I'm on a diet! I don't want it in the house!


Send it to my house! I'll take it!

Thinking Blogs

Oh, I'm so flattered! The new "tributes" going around for naming your favorite five thinking blogs...I got mentioned in several of my new friends favs. Sweeties all of them. But, in trying to do the same, I had quite the quandry. I have more than FIVE, girls! Only five? How about ten? Or fifteen?

But if I must, I must.

Well, my best gal pal Ashley must be first on the list. Her little one is my youngest's best gal pal and she inspires me. I get mad at her when she doesn't post every day and talk to my computer and say "Ashley. What are you doing? Raising two kids and growing another one in your body and running a house and shuffling kids to school and grocery shopping and cleaning house and being a supportive wifey and chauffeuring to ballet and soccer? Pppppssssh! Post something!" She makes me think about things more than most people and I adore her.


Aaaaand Alison at Brocante Home. I love her. You know that. She and Ash inspired me to start my own mindless tripey blog and look how many friends I've made! Yay for me!

Okay, the other three were HARD! Because I want to list like seven more! But I LooooooooVE my new friend Allison at My Cozy Home! Love her! And no, Allison I did not list you just because you listed me. I don't do that. She's just a doll and I love her inspiration Fridays and her pictures of her home and she's fab-oo!


I also love Posy because she posts pictures of her animals like I do and she is infatuated with rock stars like I am and her children write posts on her blog on her birthday and talk about how much they love her eccentricities and I think she just may be a wonderful person. As Meg would say to Tom "Do you think we...should meet?"


And Shabby Miss Jenn because she inspires me and I inevitably wander over to her website and buy things from her.

So there ya go!

If I were give the choice I would list The Cottage Nest, Cherry Hill Cottage, Cottage Bethy, Nostalgia at the Stone House, Everyday Beauty, PresentPast Collection, Folded Gingham and turkey feathers. What? I can't list my entire bookmark list? Not fair. Love all my friends. Love them!

Luscious Links for Big Fat Friday

Odd assortment of flutter it may be, but it is definitely delicious! Visit Murval Paris and stroll through the yummiest kind of trinkets.


No, I take it back. The MacBeth Collection has the yummiest trinkets. Fun, shabbiness!


Sometimes I get annoyed with Crate & Barrel's minimalism. But they do have lovely, cheap dishes. Oh, by the way...am I the only one out there who hasn't learned of the newest appetizer trend of placing delicious morsels on special little appetizer spoons for a one time use taste? Sounds delicious. Go and get ya some. Crate & Barrel's got 'em cheap!


After living in London for a year, my precious Ellie picked up some of their fun ways and has me hooked on afternoon tea. She drinks it by the gallon, the English way and I've adopted the habit. The Republic of Tea has fueled the fetish!




Which to pick? I can't decide! Clogs Online is enough to feed anyone's clog habit.

And last, but certainly not least is Stonewall Kitchen! Did you know that Ina has packed her famous coconut cake into a mix! Go see! Go see! Then go buy it and bake it and let me know how it turns out!

This is how I feel this week

No, I am not sunning myself on a tropical isle. No I have not run away with the mailman. No I have not flown the coop and begun the cross country journey that my sweetie and I have always talked about. No I am not in hiding.

I just hate the computer this week.

Hate it.

Hate the hold it has on me and how I will check my email before I check my phone messages. Hate that it beckons me to read fabulo-so blogs and visit scrumptious sites when I should be cleaning out my kitchen cabinets and ironing my ever growing basket of clothes.
Hate that it is slow sometimes.
Hate that it confuses me.
Hate that sometimes I'm, shamefully, addicted to it.

So I have taken this week to read books instead of blogs. (Remember those? They are the things with two covers and words in between that you hold in your hands and turn the pages instead of scroll through with a mouse.) I'm actually cooking the recipes I've downloaded and I'm doing the damned ironing, okay? I'm playing board games and catching up on Survivor and I'm taking bubble baths and I'm chauffeuring children to softball games where I'm sitting with my blanket and my mug of coffee and screaming until I'm hoarse. (My child hit a home run the other day. Yes I know.) And I'm not getting online.

Got it?

But I do love you and I will be back next week when I'm less manic so don't stay away long, ya hear?

Heeding my own advice

Taking my own advice last Saturday night we all spent a happy evening ushering in the sacred season. Even Daddy joined in the baking and crafting. We made these cute little cupcakes with green coconut grass and tiny jellybean eggs hiding in them.
I printed out the tags on the computer and the girls distributed them to all and sundry at school today. They are getting known as the cupcake girls at school because we love to make them so much. The bus driver, the office ladies, the piano teachers and softball coaches, and of course dear Kindergarten and third grade teachers and aides. I'm afraid I'm going to be hard put to keep coming up with cupcake ideas for each holiday.

Then we spent all night with glitter and Mod Podge and egg dye and stickers and crayons and paint pens decorating eggs which Daddy and I then about gave ourselves a stroke blowing the insides out of. Next year he's on his own. That's hard!

Jacy is crazy about pigs and look at her cute pig egg she made!
















Have you ever done Mod Podge on an egg? It's quite difficult (especially with a six and eight year old), but it turned out so cute! Here's Daddy's version of Jimmy Fargo nee' Jimmy Egg.
We had a great time, but I can't get the glitter out of my rug.

Tooth Trauma

Well. It's out. Finally.

Jacy had a tooth literally hanging from her mouth for about a week ready to come out, but she wasn't about to part with it. Oh the allure of the tooth fairy and the tooth cake that Mommy makes for all first teeth that are lost (see below) was all wonderful and enticing, but the actual removal of said tooth wasn't too appealing.
Here is an example of how last Sunday went with Daddy and Mommy and even Molly encouraging Jacy to pull her own tooth and then offering to help her pull it, gently, from her mouth so that her tongue would not bother it anymore.


Aside: there are few things that make me more squeemish than seeing a child with a tooth that needs to be pulled. You know, where they can almost twist it around in their gumline and then dangerously wiggle it with their tongue until you shriek at them to STOP before I vomit. Yuk!

But Jacy wasn't having it. So, being the kind of parents who tend to ignore a drama rather than add to it, we just nodded and said "Okay, whenever you're ready to pull it out or let one of us help you then you just let us know.

Seven full days went by. Seven days of "I can't eat that Mommy because of my tooth." And seven days of watching her carefully floss around the dangling tooth and noticing that she was now holding her mouth differently when she spoke because the tooth was in her way.

So Saturday afternoon while Molly was at a neighbor's house and Daddy was outside I conspiratorially approached Jacy with a "You know what would be funny..." scheme. And I pulled it before she could argue and hooray and hallelujah it's out.

Now its neighbor is loose.