random bits of March
Pimiento Cheese
I used Duke's mayo, Bubbies dill pickles, freshly minced garlic, and pregrated sharp cheddar, along with pimentos of course-and I added a bit of extra mayonnaise since the texture of pregrated cheese is dryer than cheese chopped in a food processor. Mmmmmmm...
Guinness is good for you
Let's all give blood in Ireland shall we?
St. Patrick's day dance yesterday was small but fun- and what a different place I'm in this year vs. last year! I told Patrick, after a year of readjusting, I'm starting to enjoy this. We celebrated our eleventh anniversary on Monday. He finished refinishing the dining room table and chairs, and the hoosier cabinet- and refitted the cabinet with all new brass hardware- and had them delivered while we were at dinner. What a fun surprise!
And St. Patrick's day would have been FIL's 75th birthday.
Dorie (MIL) has her 75th coming up on the 2nd of April and Abinadi will be 5 on the 4th- I'm thinking of having a cookout at Peabody Park for his birthday. He's bound to want to invite the world, people person that he is. Right now he's yelling at the top of his voice (and he has impressive depth and volume) that he hates me, and I'm stupid, because he already had his Saturday morning TV picks, and can't watch the next show. I'm so mean! We have an IEP meeting for him coming up on Wednesday after PT. Then urology clinic the following week. If he doesn't come out clear this time they'll want to hospitalize him to put him on IV antibiotics.
I'm thinking about sending the kids to a summer camp in NC for a week, for the siblings of disabled kids. Abinadi isn't old enough yet- and he is in such a mommy stage anyway. Isaac is reluctant to go though. I'm also thinking about seeing if he could do a summer workshop with swordmasters, he was asking about it.
Isaac tells me it's two weeks until April Fools, and he can't wait. Let's just live in terror, shall we? He is fond of pranks, like taping the handle down on the sprayer in the kitchen. I just hope he's not too destructive.
My kitchen is starting to come together! My mother bought me a huge cabinet, and with the Hoosier cabinet and a center butcher block island with a drawer and cabinet that Patrick bought a few weeks ago, I have moved almost all of my pantry into the kitchen. I still need to reoragnize the sweeteners that I've been storing on top of the fridge, and my spices, since there was no wall space left for my spice rack, but yippee! No more pantry three rooms over- all the food (except our food storage wheat) can be stored in the kitchen! And now there is plenty of room for linens to go in the linen closet, which no longer has to double as a pantry! And still, there is room for Abinadi's chair in the kitchen- it was really tight before with Jason's old dining table in there. I'm excited.
Had a lot of fun with Edie and anwyllyd and their kids, at the park last week. It was the kids spring break. It felt like a family reunion! I guess I've been building a friendship with Edie since Elisabeth and Violet were around 18 months old, and with Krista since Abinadi was a baby- so that's 5.5 and 4.5 years respectively. The kids really enjoyed playing with each other. Then just for an extra bonus, Unschooler's wednesday playgroup happened to be at the same park that afternoon, so we got to see Keely and her kids and Pamela and her kids, and other assorted homeschoolers as well. But after all the time with kids- helping out with her boys at her house Tuesday, the park Wednesday, watching her boys a little at my house Thursday- I was really out of kid energy- it was nice to go to the dance and recharge.
The dance weekend last week was a lot of fun, and I think I saw a whole new caliber of dancers- lots of moves I'd never seen before, like walking a hey backwards, maintaining eye contact, fancier spins, partner swapping mid dance, gender swapping mid dance. Memphis dances are very basic- we always have a lot of newcomers and rarely get to call really complex dances, and while we have men who like to twirl and flourish, the more playful aspects don't come out as much. I missed the caller's workshop at the weekend due to the time change and my oblivous nature. Alas! I arrived 5 minutes before it ended.
I'm looking forward to calling at the next dance, we'll have an out of town duo from Huntsville AL playing!
Patrick is fixing my computer as I type. Upgrading to a pentium 4 ht he says. It will be nice to have a second computer again. He really uses it a lot for work, it's hard to share with me and the kids.
Anna is 2 months old! I weighed her on Monday when she was 8 weeks, she's just shy of 12 lbs, so she's gained 1/2 pound a week. She likes to focus on a face, smile, grin, crack up, and coo! She sleeps through contra dances, facing out on my front or back in the trekker.
My hair is a vivid purple- the gentian violet worked really well- I keep meaning to post pictures.
I am missing our sweet kitty, Camille, she seems to have adopted another family, she is around less and less often.
We still have not made kites or planted anything, I hope to do both sometime this week. Forsythia, Bradford pears, Daffodils are all blooming.
I am so enjoying the new Cat Stevens album.
Time to do something useful around the house.