I am addicted to recipe books. My gram likes to remind me that when I was a kid I told her “if you can read, you can cook” and I still believe it today. You may not have the best technique in the world, but a good cookbook will take you pretty far in the kitchen.I love to cook. I love to bake. I love to feed my friends and family. I love to go food shopping. It’s a wonder I am not twenty times the size of the house. I think I have over a hundred cookbooks all told, and my collection just keeps growing. Most are dogeared and written in and well loved. Some were my mothers (whose idea of cooking was dialing the telephone) and some we my grams. Some I picked up on a whim and turned out to be a gem. Some I’ve never made a thing out of but they sure are a good read. Some are stored outside in the garage because my bookshelf is overflowing. I read them like books. Some of the newer ones are books that just happen to have recipes thrown in for good measure. Those are the best kind. [Read more...]
83
I just called my gram to wish her a happy birthday. 83. Long run, hm? I wish she could be around for 83 more. I call every year, and every year for the past few she’s alluded to this or that. Most phone calls (I call at least once a week) allude to “only so much longer” or the like.
Somehow I call her up for happy, and wind up realizing sooner than I like it will be one less Happy Birthday call to make in the year. There are already too few.
Happy Imbolc everyone who celebrates it. Sorry to precede yearly wishes with morose thoughts. It’s how my brain works. Five years ago today I was in labour. I was miserable. Labour stopped. That child stayed in eight more days. She’s still stubborn, like her mama. I’ll probably ramble on about that later though.
Updatey Goodness
Hi!
Where to start… we went to Orlando this past weekend. Sorry local gals – we went up in one car and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get away so I didn’t even bother posting about it. I will be uploading pictures at some point, so expect a photo spam post.
We hit Animal Kingdom (something we almost never do), MGM (excuse me, Disney’s Hollywood Studios) & Magic Kingdom. We were up early enough to see them *open* on both Sunday & Monday. Not. In. Years. It was a real treat for the kids. We left around 2 PM on Monday and were home around 6PM (hit those rain storms headed up and back).
We’ll be back up in Sept or Oct, the boys want to stay at Wilderness Lodge – we’ll see. That will depend on if the work I am expecting comes through and a few other things as well. It’s their birthday trip, so I usually try to keep them in on the plans and such.
Tuesday morning we had M’s IEP. All is well. Again, we won’t know until the year starts if he gets his aid in the classroom for next year, but I hope so. Some goals were met, some are the same and we added some new ones. His speech went from being a profound delay at last years IEP to a mild, age appropriate delay. Whoo Fucking Hoo Mal! Our private speech gal is going to have her work cut out for her to keep him as a client, but I love her and she’s really awesome and I attribute most of his success to her. She said his /r/ sound really, really needs work
I hope she can find a legitimate reason to keep him. He performs well in the speech room, but not as well outside. I think that alone means he should keep it up.
Tuesday night he was supposed to read a story he wrote at Barnes & Noble. I have video. It didn’t go well. He was all ready to read, went up there, and froze. Poor kid. I sat with him, and tried to convince him to read. No go.
Wednesday I got my hair done. My girl went in at 8AM for me! She is a peach. I was done by 10 and we went to Target (aka that vast time suck) and bought a box storage thing for outside for my new seat cushions, a couple of fans and some misc. other things we probably didn’t need at all. Wed afternoon is therapy with all the kids, where they act like animals and irritate the fuck out of me. Then we had dinner with my moms twin brother, his wife and their daughter. We almost never see them (they live in Reno) and my dad is still livid he didn’t bother to come out when mom was dying (and by the time he was going to come out he told him not to bother, there was no time and we’ll see you at the funeral in a few days. Fucker.). I told my Gram not to expect me to rearrange my entire day for family who doesn’t really want to see us again as I had to break a promise to Dorian to make dinner at a reasonable time.
Today I have been working, just dropped Fish off at work, and I am uploading pictures from, well, all of May. I’ll be making a few photo posts later on. It’s going to take all day to upload.
Our fence is complete! They will come out tomorrow or Monday to inspect it. It’s pouring now, so I can’t go enjoy it lol We’re having a party on Sunday, so just in time! I hope it doesn’t rain
I think I “scheduled” it in between rain storms lol
Dor has his first sleepover weekend after next, so that’s exciting. We need to go get him some PJs and a gift to take with him.
And I think that’s everything!
Brainy Explody
My brain is exploding today. I can’t calm it down. I am well and beyond over stimulated.
This morning we went to Chabad for “graduation” ceremonies. Today was the last day of the year. We signed the boys up for next year. I chatted with Rabbi Denburg. We saw a slide show and took some photos and visited the year end fair.
Then weleft and went to Toys R Us and then visited Gram & Zaide. We were there for an hour or two, and as we were leaving, Malachai picked up a piece of cactus. Michael took him in and spent a good half hour removing tiny red cactus thorns. Microscopic. We’ve been taking them out all afternoon.
Went home, dropped the kids off and went to the food store. I did about half my shopping as I couldn’t even think while we were there. I had a list, but not a complete one. I need to finish tomorrow.
Long Day Today
Let’s start with last night. Michael phoned me around 9 or 10 to see if it was ok if he worked tomorrow (Sunday). Someone said if he couldn’t do this piece on Sunday, he’d go to another shop. I said fine.
So, this morning we dropped the boys off at Chabad for school and went to Target. I picked up a large (38 quart) Igloo cooler, bread, turkey, doughnuts (impulse buy), drink boxes and some misc. stuff. We came home and he went to work. I packed a picnic lunch and went to pick up the boys with Michael & Sara in tow.
We went to Lions Park (photos on my camera) and had a nice picnic lunch and the kids played a while. Then we left and came home. Dorian walked the dogs with me, and on our way back to the house my Zaide called. Gram had fallen in the tub and couldn’t get up and my aunt & uncle were out for the day, and he asked if I could come up. No problem, but I asked why didn’t he call 911? Apparently Gram wasn’t hurt, she was just stuck and he couldn’t pick her up. I told him I’d be at least a half hour but I was on my way and if she is hurt please call 911, don’t wait for me. I phoned my Dad, we put the dogs back in the house and the kids back in the car and hightailed it up to Delrey Beach.
We got there almost exactly a half hour after I hung up with Zaide (yah, I was flying low) and Gram was dressed, but still on the floor in her bedroom. She had managed to get out of the tub, but not into bed. Michael (my brother) and I picked her and got her situated in the bed. I was really stricken at how much she looked like mom – or how much mom looked like Gram. I can’t say I’ve noticed it before, but the shape of the head, the features, even the look… I must have asked half a dozen times if she was really OK. I sat and chatted with Zaide until 4 (we got there around 2:30?) to make sure she was OK and then we left.
I am exhausted. My shoulders hurt a bit. I am mostly just tired. I’ve not dealt with people getting old and dying, at least not when I was conscious that getting old and dying was what was going on. I can’t say I care for it at all. I was really taken back when I looked at my Gram and I saw my Mom in her last few months. It worries me. Dorian came in to her bedroom right after me to make sure she was OK. He was with me when I took the call and while I had assured him she was OK, he was quite worried. Even Malachai came in to check on her.
So that was my exciting day. We’re headed to the movies tonight. At the very least I can relax then.









