Happy Day After Thanksgiving!

I was cooking and cooking and cooking yesterday - had a wonderful time doing it, too. My family was here (minus my brother in law, who was out hunting deer - we missed him!) and Chris' dad and stepmom brought Grandmother and the twins, so we had a houseful! Everyone talked and talked and ate and ate and would wander in and out of the kitchen while I was cooking. Lovely.

Chris is back at work today and I gave the kids the day off from school since we have Girl Scout cookie baking this afternoon anyway. My Brownies said they wanted to bake cookies for the Room in the Inn program at church, so that's what we're doing. Ten little girls in a kitchen with sugar and flour and hot ovens - I hope I come home sane! Actually, my girls are astoundingly good and sooo enthusiastic and fun that I'm sure we'll have a blast. I'll have a mess to clean up, but it will have been fun making the mess.

Now to focus on the Wine and Cheese party preparations. Whew!

When I am Empress........

there shall be no viruses. They will be exiled to lifeless planets far, far away.

So last week I was voiceless and squeaking, but felt fine otherwise. That cold travelled into my chest, where it still didn't harass me much but allowed me to share it with Lillie. Then it made me and Lillie cough and cough and cough yesterday, which made us both MISERABLE. Today the cough is gone, but I'm sore as all get out and now my throat hurts. UGH. Meanwhile, Meg has fallen asleep on the sofa, which has happened about NEVER, so I suspect Teflon Girl is fighting off her share of the bug. Isn't this a great way to prepare for Thanksgiving?

I love all the ideas for my pretty fabric! I think I'll be making some napkins in the near future with other fabric (I'm up for a fabric store trip, Christina!), but will probably make that sling purse with the prettiness I have now. Yaay! Thank you, ladies!

Okey doke, time for more tea.

Teach me something!

I have two pieces of lovely pink patterned fabric that Karen gave me to make into a skirt last year - remember that skirt project we were going to make that I got everyone all excited about and then I didn't get to do it? Yeah, that one - and I'm itching to make something for myself out of them. Each piece is about a yard, so I can do something but not clothes. So, crafty friends, what should I do? It needs to be easy 'cause I'm dumb at sewing. I would love a personal tutorial. We do NOT have to do it this weekend. :)

So give me your ideas. The winner gets to claim "I taught Kate how to sew."

Squeak squeak

If you know me, you know I like to talk. A lot. And it SUCKS having this cold because I can't talk for long without it either hurting or losing my voice. So I'm trying to be more particular about what I'm saying, especially to the kids. Yelling just isn't working or even possible, so I have to THINK about what I say before I say it. Which is what I ought to do a lot more of anyway. My dad's mantra when I was growing up was "Think before you speak." I hate it when I realize my dad was always right.

The lovely Karen made the best Indian dinner for us all last night and now all I can think about is Saturday night at Tandoor with Charly and eating more jasmine rice and naan and prawn pasanda and a mango lassi. Drool drool drool. My girlfriends are all excellent cooks, which makes me very happy to think about our future commune and all the good eating I'm going to do when we all move there!

One last thing: Why don't children understand when you say "NO roughhousing" that yanking on each other and pulling arms and sitting on each other IS roughhousing? Someone always gets hurt. (I seem to remember my mom saying that all the time too............)

Rockin' like it's 1987. Geez I'm old.

I was trying to save money by canceling my subscription to Rhapsody, but alas, I fell off the wagon and signed up again today. I can't stand not having my music!!!! Yes, it's all 80s alternative and sappy female vocalists and pop music, but it's mine and darn it I like it. As I'm typing, I'm listening to Echo and the Bunnymen's "Lips Like Sugar" and it's 1987 all over again. Pining for MRM, dressing all in black and borrowing Sally's hoop earrings for a night out with Curt. Good times!

Meanwhile, my husband is listening to someone singing "Muskrat Love" to her Guinea pig on YouTube. Yup, my $15 a month is WORTH IT.

I remember why I forgot....

I finished The Witching Hour yesterday and now remember why I didn't have any recollection of this book: The ending SUCKS. Hugely. Terribly. Wretchedly. I hated the ending (if you couldn't already tell). Most of the book is pleasant in the typical Anne Rice way: Over-written, but you don't mind because it's so gothy and dramatic and supernatural. But Witching Hour's end leaves the door completely wide open for a sequel - there is NO satisfactory ending to THIS story at all. UGH. Bleh bleh bleh.

And instead of jumping into a Jane Austen mystery as I had planned, I picked up A Maze of Murders by C.L. Grace. I'm on the last chapter and have thoroughly enjoyed this one! Yes, it's more medieval historical mystery, but it definitely holds up to Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael and Margaret Frazer's series. I'll be hunting for more of these Kathryn Swinbrooke series!

As for non-book related things, I have to recommend a movie to moms of girls ages 4-10 or so: the new Tinker Bell movie. Lillie got this for her birthday (good job Nana!) and I expected it to be garbage. HOORAY! It's a charming little movie! I stayed engaged and interested for the entire film and was pleased with the moral of the story. So much of what Disney puts out has pitiful excuses for "heroines" for little girls - smart-alecky, overly mature "it" girls that are certainly NOT what I want my daughters to be. But thanks to the influence of Pixar, Tinker Bell instead encourages girls to embrace who they really are and appreciate their own strengths. The only antagonist in the film is cocky and focused on popularity; Tinker Bell's friends are kind and gentle and more interested in excelling in their own fields than in being popular or "it." It's a refreshing little movie - consider putting it on your Christmas list.

Woah - I'm lame.

Geez, it's November 11 and I haven't posted since October 21? That's pitiful. And I have been reading a lot in that time period, so I guess I'd better catch up here.

I finished The Long Winter and went on to read Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years and The First Four Years. Little Town was MUCH more upbeat than Winter was; I suppose they were so damned happy they hadn't starved to death that everything seemed better. Happy Golden Years covers the beginning of Laura's teaching career and I find it hilarious since I can relate to teaching several age levels at once. This is also the book where Almanzo begins courting Laura, but reading it is bizarre, because Laura is much more interested in his horses than she is in him. I couldn't figure out why he kept coming to see her since she was so rude to him over and over. They were married for 64 years and went through incredibly difficult circumstances their entire married lives, so there must have been more there than is portrayed in the books. First Four Years is a bummer again; Laura told Almanzo he had 4 years to make it as a farmer and he barely scrapes it out. Again, glad I'm not a pioneer girl.

Now I am fully engaged in a dirty, guilty pleasure: Anne Rice. As I mentioned earlier, we used books to decorate for Halloween, and when I finished Laura, I grabbed The Witching Hour from the mantel. Chris gave this to me years ago when I was still recovering from my Goth period, and I'm sure I read it, but it didn't stick with me AT ALL. So I'm getting to enjoy it all over again. Nothing like Anne Rice to get your blood flowing and make you happy to be an insomniac. Witches, ghosts, crazy family bloodlines and really well written sex scenes. Oh yeah.

So, OF COURSE, what's the reasonable thing to read after all the supernatural sexiness? Jane Austen of course! Or Jane Austen mysteries to be more exact. Jane and the Wandering Eye is waiting for me on the bedside table.