I was supposed to have this weekend off, my first since April, but got called in for both days, partially. We’ve been busy at doing nothing. Socializing with the neighbors, multiple birthday parties, watergun fights, mowing, tying tomatoes, training roses, cleaning the garage, training Maude to “drop it” near me when playing fetch…watching the John Adams HBO miniseries, thus far excellent, and going back and forth between reading Persuasion by Jane Austen and Love in the Time of Cholera. Oh, and I took Kham out on a long-overdue date for Sushi and Star Trek (quite entertaining). It was a lovely evening. I made all the arrangements ahead of time, babysitter and buying the tickets on Fandango so there was no backing out. I even put all the clean laundry away in our bedroom to make for a little more romantic ambience. Ah, the things you do for love.
While giving the kids a bath the other night, on a whim, I started singing a song from the old movie, “Darby O’Gill and the Little People” starring Sean Connery called “My Pretty Irish Girl.” Don’t know if it’s a real Irish tune. Anybody? It was on a 3 disc set of Disney songs which I own because it has my Dad singing “The Wonderful World of Color” (Disney’s original show song). Kosette and Kellen latched onto it immediately and requested it at bedtime too; tonight, as well. So I guess it’s out with Edeilweiss and IN with this. It’s very jaunty and can get stuck in your head:
Either way, I’m very intrigued and simultaneously amused and appalled at the trailer. A miniseries based on a modern British woman transported into Pride and Prejudice. Me thinks I’m going to have to gawk at this – will it be a train wreck, or a spectacular near miss collision?
Any Corvallisonian interested in joining me for a movie night?
One of my personal goals was to read more Austen novels since I adore Pride and Prejudice. I recently started Persuasion and have liked what I’ve read thus far. If only I had more brain power at the end of the night.
At the end of the school year, Kosette’s Kindergarten class hatched and “raised” chicks. The teacher used it to inspire some Language Arts and Art activities. They made a chicken mask out of a garbage bag and cut holes, added a beak, decorated with feathers and yarn. Cute. She also had them dictate a story to her about this egg process and then title it. So here’s my baby’s first writing attempt. Ahem…
The Little Egg By A Chicken
Once upon a time there was a hen and she laid an egg. A magic egg. Well, the hen gave it to a fairy. So the fairy gave it to a friend of hers. It was a human and it was named Wendy. So Wendy kept it and she warmed it until a magic chick sprouted out of the egg.
Our friend came across these videos on YouTube where someone redid the lyrics to comment on what was literally happening during the video. Pretty silly and funny and you realize how completely random and weird some of those 80s videos truly are. They put the new lyrics as subtitles too. It’s like Mystery Science Theatre 3000 for music videos. So if you like that kind of humor, you’ll like this.
Kosette’s birthday party went pretty well. 6 girls total plus 2 little siblings plus baby plus little sibling friend. Put Maude in the garage to stay out of the way and Kellen at the neighbor’s. Managed to pull it off by the hair on my chinny chin chin thanks to the help of Mrs. Robinson and the other moms I knew. But there was a moment there when I was crazed readying the house, and amidst the chaos of the party where I thought to myself, “Calgon…Take me away!!” All I wanted was to soak in a deep bath for an hour with a glass of wine and quiet. I have a kickass bath too (too bad it runs out of hot water before it’s full enough to my taste). You remember that old 70s/80s commercial where the bath product looks like the boxed form of Cascade for your dishes? Here:
I Love It! And I cracked myself up. That’s one of those times when you realize you’re alone with kids all day and you’d really like to share the joke/laugh with others. And you feel kinda lame because you’re laughing aloud and your kids think your nuts, and you can’t explain the joke, and you actually make a mental note, “Need to remember this funny joke to tell Kham when he gets home.” But you feel like you’re searching for a laugh, or just some understanding of your physical and emotional state during the day.
Kosette turns 6 years old on the 6th day of the 6th month of this year. June 6th. It would be truly scary if she was born in ’06. Happy Birthday My Precious! I love using my Gollum voice. It always makes her giggle. I can’t believe that 6 years ago today, I was watching American Psycho on the couch in Vista with Kham and starting to feel the first pangs of labor and second guessing whether it was just the spicy pasta or the beginning of her birth process. Where does the time go?
She’s old enough to be into something. She is currently “into” Abba, and the Mamma Mia movie. When I first heard the song, “Slipping through my fingers,” I fully cried. Kellen was about to turn 4 and Kosette will soon be a 1st grader and attending school for the entire schoolday. It is a beautifully touching song with the bittersweet flavor to its lyrics. This one is dedicated to Kosette, who is so quickly growing and slipping through my fingers all the time…. I look forward to this summer’s adventures with you.
If you’re curious, here’s ABBA’s rendition. I like Meryl’s better, surprisingly.
Lyrics to Abba’s song “Slipping Through My Fingers”
DONNA:
Schoolbag in hand
She leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye
With an absent-minded smile
I watch her go
With a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I’m loosing her forever
And without really entering her world
I’m glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what’s in her mind
Each time I think I’m close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sleep in our eyes
Her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake
I let precious time go by
Then when she’s gone
There’s that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt
I can’t deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
Well some of that we did
But most we didn’t
And why I just don’t know
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what’s in her mind
Each time I think I’m close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
DONNA & SOPHIE:
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers -
DONNA:
Schoolbag in hand
She leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
Kosette turns 6 tomorrow. Poor girl seems to think that her mommy’s gonna throw her a big bash like she did last year, every year. Uh, no. But since our birthday surprise guest (Kham’s mom) had to postpone a week due to emergency surgery of her mom, I gotta do something. So I invited 5 of the girls she plays with the most to come over to our house after school on Tuesday. Since I work on the weekend that gives me one full day to get ready.
I figured we’d do some sort of craft, freeze dance, pin the tail on the something, cake of some sort, and special drink of some sort and they could just freeplay the rest of the time in the garden, delve in her dressup chest, or raid our puppet collection. I picked up a package of polka dot notecards from Ross for $2 to fill the dots in with her age and details. I think that will sorta be our theme – rainbows and dots. Went to Michaels and bought a few plain white small canvas tote bags for the girls to design with fabric markers and puffy paints. Also scavenged the floor for fake flower droppings that they could glue on should they wish. Then I hit the Dollar store and picked up a blue straw circular hat with an elastic chin strap. Now I’ll run to the other craft store and get some ribbon to wrap around and hang down like Madeleine. They could choose from the fake flowers and have a grown-up help them glue gun them on in place. Bam! 2 crafts ought to kills some time. Then a game – Freeze dance is always easy. Since a few of the girls have newly discovered Abba or the Mamma Mia movie, thought we’d play it with their tunes. Then, I thought I’d piggy back on last year’s idea of handdrawing with a sharpie our pin-the-tail design and blowing it up at Kinkos for $4. In the car this morning we came up with pin-the-eye on the cyclops (guess what Kham’s doing this weekend). I love that Kosette was totally game for that. So then to figure out the food.
For drinks maybe Shirley Temples? Or lemonade with a little of that Rose’s syrup? Or sun herbal tea? If I remember I’ll pick some mint they could add too, since Kosette loves eating our mint.
She requested chocolate cake. Kham and I tried to rally her to vanilla or coconut but she shall not be moved. Ever since I heard this chef named Erin McKenna, owner of Babycakes in New York City on Martha Stewart’s show, I’ve been wanting to make her recipe. It’s for vegan chocolate cupcakes with soy frosting with no sugar, no eggs, no milk, no butter! Sounds sorta nasty right? They are supposedly THE best cupcakes ever and all these Hollywood people have boxes flown to them in LA. Or at least did until she opened up one more store in LA recently. I have two ideas for the frosting: I could a) have 3-4 colors going in my plastic baggies to pipe a rainbow of bulls-eye concentric circles, OR sorta cool b) Put on the big round piping tip and make a big grey swirl and call it Orc Poopcakes. I even have some clear luminescence to shake on top of the things. I pitched the latter to Kosette and she seemed excited. I’m very tempted. Maybe I should hold onto that one for Kellen’s birthday. But it’ll be a nice balance to have orcs and cyclops with the “girly” stuff.
Here’s a pic, I just found of someone who made poopy cupcakes. I don’t think I’m going to go with such a realistic doggydoo coloring though.
INGREDIENTS
1¾ cups garbanzo–fava bean flour
½ cup potato starch
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup arrowroot
1 tablespoon plus 1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon xanthan gum
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup coconut oil
1¹⁄³ cups agave nectar
¾ cup homemade applesauce or store‑bought unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup hot water or hot coffee
chocolate frosting
PREPARATION 1 Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line 2 standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners. 2 In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, potato starch, cocoa powder, arrowroot, baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum, and salt. Add the oil, agave nectar, applesauce, vanilla, and hot water to the dry ingredients. Stir until the batter is smooth. 3 Pour 1⁄3 cup batter into each prepared cup, almost filling it. Bake the cupcakes on the center rack for 22 minutes, rotating the tins 180 degrees after 15 minutes. The finished cupcakes will bounce back when pressure is applied gently to the center.
4 Let the cupcakes stand in the tins for 20 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack and cool completely. Using a frosting knife, gently spread 1 tablespoon chocolate frosting over each cupcake. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Erin McKenna’s Vanilla (Soy) Frosting:
How to keep your sweet frosting healthy and have fun colouring it, too.
Let’s just dive in, shall we? Not only does this recipe produce a thick and creamy vanilla frosting, it also doubles as a whipped topping, and left unrefrigerated it becomes a vanilla sauce to serve with crumbs, shortcakes, or volcanoes. And why stop there? I especially love the sauce on savoury bites like the corn bread, muffins, and biscuits, where it acts like a decadent sweet butter. If you try to steer clear of soy, replace the liquid and powdered soy with the rice milk variety for both in equal measure—but be advised that the result will taste slightly sweeter. Please note: If it’s true frosting you want, be sure to factor in the full 6 hours for it to chill and set.
INGREDIENTS
1½ cups unsweetened soy milk
3/4 cup dry soy milk powder
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1½ cups coconut oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
PREPARATION
In a blender or a food processor, combine the soy milk, soy powder, coconut flour, agave nectar, and vanilla. Blend the ingredients for 2 minutes. With the machine running, slowly add the oil and lemon juice, alternating between the two until both are fully incorporated. Pour the mixture into an airtight container and refrigerate for 6 hours or for up to 1 month. (If you plan to use it as a sauce, store the mixture at room temperature for up to 1 week.)
Makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes
Here’s a clip of Erin McKenna on Martha Stewart’s show making them:
There’s something to be said for the ol’ tried and true little methods of distracting kids out of poutiness. I’m sure each of you have/had your own special technique. Well, one my parents used with us that I think came from my Grandma Patterson initially was smilingly, teasingly, upbeat say (which is sort of a comical opposite when you’re staring at the pissy expressions you might see on the listener’s face), “Don’t smile….It’ll crack your face! Don’t smile. Nope…Don’t do it!” Inevitably, they do, and laugh too. Well, that came back to me in a moment of parenting recently, and you know what?! It fracking worked! By Golly. They even have to slap their hands across their mouths and squish their lips together to try to stop themselves. Guess the simplest form of reverse psychology is an oldie but goody. You should try it sometime in a moment of desperation.
Thanks Mom and Dad. But man, it used to really piss me off that it worked on me, that I was weak. I’d try my best to hold out. Think I got pretty good at it too. I’m not remembering it ever working on my strong-willed brother. But Kelli, she was a total sucker. She still is the most jovial of the three of us; and Kalani the most jaded. I guess. Hm. Interesting. Where does that leave me? The most skeptical? On the sibling scale my brother and all did tend to tip the scales, leaving Kelli to float in humble piety and innocence way up high. What exactly that means, I don’t know. The post is just a quickie.
Came across this, and really feeling the pulls on both sides of this dilemma:
Cleaning and scrubbing
can wait ’till tomorrow
For babies grow up,
we’ve learned to our sorrow…
So quiet down cobwebs,
Dust go to sleep,
I’m rocking my baby
And babies don’t keep.
She’s old enough to be into something. She is currently “into” Abba, and the Mamma Mia movie. When I first heard the song, “Slipping through my fingers,” I fully cried. Kellen was about to turn 4 and Kosette will soon be a 1st grader and attending school for the entire schoolday. It is a beautifully touching song with the bittersweet flavor to its lyrics. This one is dedicated to Kosette, who is so quickly growing and slipping through my fingers all the time…. I look forward to this summer’s adventures with you.
