somebody's gotta do it

While waiting to pick up my daughter after school yesterday (remember: freshman in a Catholic high school where there is a dress code) my eyes are burned by the state of undress of one of the students, who I understand to be a senior. She has on a skirt so short that when she puts her arms straight down her side, the hem of the skirt hits at the palm of her hand. She is also wearing stiletto heels.

I had to write a letter to the principal. I mean, who else but the self-named Dress Code Nazi could (or would) step up and say something? Sadly, the response I got back was not much more than a patronizing head patting.

On a related note, "Butt-Head", the 15 year old son of a friend of mine said he'd be glad to recruit her for his high school.

in case you missed it

I finally got the cake recipe on (below the "what I like most about school is" post). Let me know, if you make it, how it turns out.

aha, this explains a lot

"My favorite part of school is spinning around and around"

the cake

So many people have asked me about the birthday cake recipe. An online friend of mine, Laurie, says she altered a recipe that she found online. She needs to write a cookbook. She definitely has a God-given talent!



So, here is Laurie's recipe for the world's most delicious (and low carb, sugar free, gluten free) lemonade pound cake.

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups Splenda

5 eggs

2 cups almond flour (you can either make your own or I recommend Bob's RedMill Brand in the Organic section of Kroger)

1 T baking powder

1 1/2 t lemon extract

1/4 t lemon zest

Cream butter and Splenda until fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, incorporating each egg into the batter before adding the next. (Trust me, it is worth your extra time!) Mix in baking powder and almond flour. Stir in lemon extract and lemon zest. The batter should be very light and fluffy. Scoop the batter into a buttered/almond-floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 50 min.

After the cake cools, move it from the bundt to a cake plate and drizzle a Splenda/lemon juice glaze over the top.

political cartoon

happy birthday to me

When King found out that I had a new low carb/wheat free/sugar free cake recipe that I wanted to try for my birthday, he told me I was NOT going to make my OWN birthday cake. He said he'd make it. So, after the kids went to sleep Wednesday night, he made me one. Have I mentioned that he is a saint?


If you have ever had a lemonade cake, or even lemon pound cake with lemon glaze, you will almost know how good this thing was. So, at 11:30 on the eve of my special day we had a slice of "birthday cake" and a decaf cappuccino.

Just look how gorgeous that cake turned out!

(ps- The star treatment was given to me throughout the entire day and it turned out to be a very special birthday indeed. I am so thankful for my family and friends.)

poor little dude

Here is a recap of my 4 year old's day today:
cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, yack.

nothing is easy anymore

When we went back-to-school shopping for our High School Freshman we had to buy a new calculator, which was atrociously expensive, but Staples tried to sweeten the deal by giving a $10 rebate. (I will not even go into the pain in the rear it was to actually register for it!)

I miss the good ol' days when rebates were in the form of a postcard check with no instructions. Everyone knows what to do with a check. Duh! Even better, I remember when prices were low enough that you didn't need to worry about a stinkin' rebate.

Yesterday, a month later, we get the rebate in the form of a Visa debit card. The envelope also contained a whole bunch of small print, legalese paperwork. Reading it gave me a headache.

Here are some of the topic titles:

• Definitions
• Authorized Users
• Using Your Card
• Returns and Refunds
• Receipts, Confidentiality
• Our Liability for Failure to Complete Transactions
• Amendment and Cancellation
• Information About Your Right to Dispute Errors
• Privacy and Data Protection (they are tracking where I will use this pittance!!)
• Arbitration Disclosure
• Arbitration Provision.

It's ten dollars, people!

I wonder how much money they had to pay the lawyers to come up with said legalese for my ten dollar Visa rebate card? Or the extra postage to get it here in a nicely-printed window-style envelope?

Wanna know the irony in all of this? click here.

la salle de bains = bibliotheque

Some friends recently invited me to join a book club. (laughable really) So, here are the two books I am currently working on.

• Same Kind of Different as Me (please tell me the pace picks up soon) by Ron Hall
• Persuasion by Jane Austen

I am not a reader, per se. As a young person, I hated reading. Heck, I wouldn't even read the Cliff Notes. Now I would love to have the time to read. I'm a reader wannnabe. I have to be content reading a chapter here or there. As the saying goes, "so many books, so little time."

I did finish the last month's book: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. A good read. It flowed along like the currents of a river, slow and steady. No churning rapids, but still a page turner. The end was my favorite kind - everything tied in nice, neat, happy bows.

simple logic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldHF6PFUukw

oh yeah, guess what?

Number 5, who King has nicknamed "Self" because she is always wanting to "doitmyself" is wearing
Big!
Girl!
Panties!
All!
Day!

Oh yeah, very nice. I am loving all the money we are saving from not having to buy diapers/Pull Ups. Two very special people have given her Dora panties and she just loves them.

Also... are you ready for this?

Big!
Girl!
Bed!

Yep. Can you believe it? It is sort of bittersweet though. When King and I were taking the crib (which she actually loved) down, she looked dumbfounded and then with a wee, small, sad little voice she said, "but, that's my.... jumping bed."

Stab me with a knife, will ya?

I would have left the crib up, I promise. It's just that in the night, she was waking up needing to go potty (though she is not nighttime trained yet) and we figured that she could either "doitmyself" or come into our room and ask for help in the night rather than waking up crying.

hear that?

If there was theme music to each stage of my life, this would be my current song.

Fade to black.

Spotlight on a man in a tuxedo with a big top hat and a microphone......

Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Busiest Show on Earth!

(spotlight now on Ring One) "In ring one, we have the dad lion tamer running the oldest cub to the ball fields. Look at how he handily takes two other kids (the clowns) along with them. This is amazing, folks!"

(Ring Two is lit) "In ring two, the mom fat lady is preparing a semi-healthy dinner while the toddler is running around her ankles like a monkey on a tricycle. To make things more exciting, the toddler is also chewing gum and is whiny. How much more exciting can it get, people?!"

(Bam! Twirling lights on Ring Three) "Ring three has the girl on the flying trapeze who has just come home from dance class and is now attempting to (drum roll please) graph functions (crowd gasps) for math homework while also trying to hide her excitement for the next day, for it is Freshman Week at school (aka initiation)."

Back to ring one we see that the lion tamer has let the clowns play in the red clay from the baseball field. Oh wow, circus fans, see what a mess those clowns are!

"Checking in on ring two we see that the monkey has decided to throw her "chewgum" away and just after turning on her heels and attempting to skip back to mom's apron strings she tripped over who-knows-what and fell and cracked her forehead open. In one smooth movement, the fat lady scoops up the monkey, grabs a kitchen towel and a lunchbox ice pack and immediately gets that gusher stopped. (crowd swoons over blood stains on the fat lady's shirt) What a death-defying act we just witnessed!"

"In the meantime, trapeze girl hops from ring three to ring two to finish dinner preparations, however, she didn't know that mom was cooking TWO dinners at once (clever mom) and she turned off the stove. UH oh, what will happen next?"

..... stay tuned to see more of these amazing feats. Will the fat lady make chickens fly by throwing away six beautiful boneless skinless chicken breasts? Or will this amazing circus troupe have their next performance at the E.R.?

chicken salad anyone?

Y'know how the saying goes, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade".....

Well, what if your chickens come home to roost?

deep thoughts

Several years ago, Saturday Night Live had a regular feature: Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy.
Here are some deep thoughts I have had today:

If you chronicled every person's status messages on Facebook, you really get a glimpse of where their treasure lies. Sad when all the posts have to deal with being frustrated with children and/or husbands and how much they are looking forward to the next drink.

The next deep thought today has to do with the second coming of Christ. You know how history repeats itself? Well, I so much see humanity as the new Israelites in the desert. Our freedom from bondage, slavery into the promised land depends on us all being on the same page. We have become so distracted by golden calves that we can no longer see the goal. What if it is ME who is holding us all back? What if it is the homeless dude you pass on the way to work? What if it is the manager of the grocery store around the corner? What if it is you?


Finally, I would like to redefine for our government the definition of "poor". Poor is not the person sitting on the couch on their front porch screaming at their children whose only crime is acting their age. The one drawing welfare because they are too lazy to work, despite the fact that they seem to have so little.
Poor is that person we all have passed on the street. You know the one. The one whose leathery face is pinched and angry. Screaming and cursing at someone near. An invisible person. No one else is in sight. The person who is tormented by invisible demons.

Deep thoughts. Not too funny though.

wake up people

The children came home from school one day this week and mentioned that when they went to daily Mass the priest said that our Bishop has stated that we can no longer shake hands at the Sign of Peace. Nor will there be any Precious Blood offered at Communion.

Catholic or not, just think about that for a second.

Beyond sad. Obama's swine flu has made people scared of actually being a Christian. Scared to receive their Savior in the Eucharist because of germs.

Satan has entered the building people. Wake up!

Christ embraced lepers but we can't shake hands with someone who might have the flu? Where is the faith here? Isn't He bigger than germs? I don't even remember this kind of brouhaha when AIDS was rampant. For God's sake, have a Purell dispenser just before the Holy Water Font. Before Communion, ask those who are germy to refrain, but don't cut us ALL off from receiving Jesus in the Eucharist.

They'll know we are Christian by our love fear.

respect, it's a beautiful thing

Today on the way home from school, we were met by a funeral procession. I can't speak for the rest of the world, but here in the south, all traffic stops until the cars pass by.

Respect for those who are mourning: it's a beautiful thing.

Just one of the reasons I love living in the south ('cause it sure ain't because I love mosquitos).

animals now more important than children?

Oh yeah, there were some kids living there, too.

(disclaimer: this is an article and video about animal abuse and though I didn't think it was overly graphic, I just want you to be warned in case you are sensitive about that kind of thing.)

a conversation stopper

When I picked up the wee ones from Mother's Morning Out today, Number 5's teacher shared that the had read the book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish in class and had made a little matching game with red and blue fish.
One of 5's friends was standing nearby and I asked her what color the red fish was.... "Green", she beamed.
"Um, no. Not quite" I said.
Then I turned to 5, said "what color is this?"
"Mine."

mmmm Hmmmm... 'kay then.

three days

King and the kids (yes all of them!) are going to NC to visit his sister and her family for this upcoming long weekend.

I am nearly in panic mode trying to plan the hours from the moment they leave until the moment they return.

There is so much I WANT to do, so much I NEED to do (some of the items on those lists overlap). I think a girls' night sleepover party may be in the works. I should purge some stuff and bag up some cabin clutter for the local thrift store, perhaps I could dust the furniture. I need to exercise and want to spend some time in the Lord. Soooo many choices.

There is also this quilt I want to make but never have gotten to because as sweet as it is that my sewing room is also wee one's nursery.... well, you get the picture. Besides, the dining room table is a great sewing surface for big projects. I won't have to be clearing it off to have meals. Or homework. I could eat in the living room. On my broken-legged couch even!

I just hope that whatever I choose to fill those 60 or so hours will have me refreshed, renewed, and ready to see those sweet smiling faces bound through the door on Monday night.

it finally happened

I told them it would. They kept doing it. Over and over and over. For the past several years.
Like loose teeth, really. It was just a matter of time ..... until the couch legs finally caved in.

keep those gas-guzzling tanks on the road baby

Oh wowzer... if global warming is the reason that the past few days have been absolutely cool and crisp and beautiful, bring it on! Indian summer a thing of the past?!?! Fine by me!

(image found at pribek.net)

"I do believe in spooks global warming. I do believe in spooks global warming. I do, I do, I do, I do, I do believe in spooks global warming."