Cinquains of Love

You may not remember what a cinquain is, but I wouldn't be surprised if you were forced to write one or two at some point during your elementary education (thanks to Adelaide Crapsey, the poet who made them popular. That is one very unfortunate last name).

Here are Mason's poems (typed on heart-shaped paper) written to Ryan and I:

Mom
Nice cleaner
Loving caring helping
Stirct nice tired happy
Miracle

(I thought the "miracle" at the end was a nice touch. And yes, I am tired. A lot.)

Dad
Nice professor
Loving caring helping
Strict mournful happy helpful
Workful

("Mournful"? That's not usually the word people think of when they think of Ryan. Mason explained to me that he picked that word because "when Dad does something bad, he always repents to us." Very sweet. And I have to say that although "workful" isn't exactly a word, it describes Ryan very well.)

Katie's Music Performance

Katie had her music performance last night, and she did awesome. It's one of my favorite things they do all year. This was my favorite song, mainly because the girl right in front on Katie took on the role of lead dancer. The lead dancer, and only dancer. But she had no reservation doing a solo--which made it all the better. The song has a pretty good beat, so I have to admit I was doing a little dancing myself.

The Absent-Minded Professor

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, the kind when you don't realize until half-way through the day that the shoes you are wearing don't match?

Lucky for Ryan, they aren't so different that anyone noticed. Lucky for me (and my blog) a colleague of his was in the room with him when he made the realization, so I got a picture of it.

Ryan's Pain, My Gain

Last night was a blur (but when isn't it?). I remember Chloe crying for a while, Ryan getting Chloe, me feeding her, and Ryan saying something about Andrew having been up half the night.

Ryan has the very, very unfortunate situation of being a light sleeper. Married to a deep sleeper. When morning came (change the word "morning" to 5:45 am) and Andrew was already awake, I was bracing myself for a rough day. But somehow that never came. Instead, I got this at 12:30:
Which didn't last very long, since I thought I could move him to the couch without having him wakeup. I was wrong.

But when I put him in his room for quiet time an hour later, things got really quiet, and I went upstairs to find this: Unbelievable. He hasn't napped in a couple of months. AND, I had managed to get Chloe to nap at exactly the same time. It's a first. I had over 1 1/2 hours of quiet in the middle of the day. I hardly knew what to do with myself. Having Andrew so tired made for quite a nice day--at least for me :).

Roll Recipe

Back when I did a post about cinnamon rolls, a couple of people asked for the recipe I use--so here it is. It's Ryan's aunt's recipe. I think my clothes would fit a little better if this recipe didn't exist.

BASIC ROLLS
Mona Prestwich

Mix and let stand 20 minutes.
4 T. yeast (4 pkgs.) in 1 cup warm water and 2 T. sugar

2 c. scalded milk
2/3 c. shortening
4 t. salt
2/3 c. sugar --- 1 c. sugar for cinnamon rolls
4 eggs beaten
1 t. vanilla
8 rounded cups flour
(Don’t make the dough too stiff--very important!)
Knead
Let rise to double.
Roll out. Spread with melted butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.
Roll up and cut into rolls. Let rise to double. Bake at 350 for approximately. 20 min.
(For rolls, make in whatever way you want and bake)

Happy Day

I went though all of the random paperwork and "to be filed" things that I've had laying around piling up for...oh...say a year or two and finally got out my shredder and went to work.

I only jammed my shredder a couple of times through the whole event, and Andrew was thrilled with our magic little chopping machine. I was so happy when I got it all done. And then I realized that after 8+ years of being a stay-at-home-mom, I must have pretty low standards for what constitutes a happy day. All I know is that having a clean desk and clean file boxes is a GREAT way to start the week.

We Got Had

The other night, since Ryan was out of town, I devised a plan to help me accomplish everything that needed to be done. It hinged on one secret weapon: ice cream. We don't buy it very often, so I offerred to take my kids to the store to get some if they did everything on my list.

I've never seen Andrew eat broccoli like that before. Or take his bath so willingly. Or clean up his toys. After each one, he'd ask "I have ice cream now, Mama?"

Eventually the list was completed and they got their ice cream. Or at least I thought they did. I read the package a little closer, only to discover that we weren't even eating ice cream. We were eating "frozen dairy dessert." What happened to my ice cream? Luckily, Andrew can't read or he might have felt as gypped as I did. I don't even buy the lowfat kind anymore usually. I like the real deal. And this was anything but. "I scream, you scream, we all scream for....frozen dairy dessert"? Sorry, it just doesn't have the same ring.

I

We woke up this morning...

...to this.Which, in Virginia, translated into this:

For real. That in turn translated into a lot more time in these:

I think chocolate chip cookies are next on the agenda.

Parameters

Quote from Mason in the car yesterday:
"Mooommmm! Katie elbowed me 35 to 40 times in the chest and I only elbowed her 3 to 5 times!!!!"


He's all about parameters.