Fa la la la la la la la la

I was sitting in my kitchen tonight and started to hear singing.

At first I couldn’t tell what the song was, but I knew the melody and then it became very clear.

It was KP, from the bathroom, signing, “Ohhhhh hooooo mo-o-o-m will you wipe me, fa la la la la la la la la!”  Over and over again.

Who wouldn’t come a run’n for that?

Advanced thinking

Because I am lazy, I decided to vacuum my coffee table today, instead of dust it.  Seriously…why not?

It went so smashingly that I think, in regards to cleaning, I will deem 2010 the year of GETTING IT DONE ANYWAY YOU CAN, it don’t have to be pretty.

Runs in her blood

Adam is an entrepreneur.  It is something that runs deep down into his core and won’t let go of him.  In fact, he tells this story of when he was young and decided to smash rocks, put them back together and then walk around the neighborhood and sell them as Rock Puzzles.  He moved onto shoe shinning, lawn mowing and oh so many other things from there.

So yesterday, when PJ came off the bus and told us she and her friend Claire had written some books on the bus and wanted to sell them, we just kind of nodded our heads.

I thought that was the end.

Nope.  She decided she needed to type it up and print it out.  Then she made 40 copies.  Then she made a container to hold her money.  Then she practiced what she was going to say when she knocked on the door to the neighbor’s homes.

And when she got off the bus today, she grabbed her friend Una and they canvased the neighborhood selling the story for 25 cents.

They ended the night $7.42 richer then they had started.

Neighbors…do you understand what you are creating?  Do you?

Look at her dad.

Random LOVE

We recently started running just a touch later on Saturday mornings, which means by the end of our runs the sun is trying ever so hard to come up and we can actually see where are feet are landing.

About two weeks ago, I noticed this little spray painted bit of graffiti on the bike path around Lake Harriet and I just couldn’t let it go.

It makes me smile and want to go spray paint some stuff.

The slightest breeze

My friend Jen tells me that I compartmentalize things.

I tell her I know, but that’s how I make it work.

She then tells me it’s ok to “feel” whatever it is I’m feeling and that I can be sad and sit in my sadness if I need to.

I don’t like to sit there often or for a very long time and I usually don’t go there all by myself.

Yes, I do compartmentalize, but sometimes those compartments open and it all spills out.

Which happened today.

Maybe it was the news of the passing of my old bosses husband or the sound of my dad’s tired voice on the other end of the phone or the In Memory of Jim band around a tree I saw when I was taking pictures at the lake or maybe it was the wonderful article my friend Ellen sent that her father wrote about one of his cancer patients or possibly is was the sweet card I got from my friend Megan, telling me she was thinking of me.

Maybe it was all of it washing over me, all in one day, all too much to take.

So I sobbed.

Wishing I could take the pain away for my dad or my mom for that matter.  Wishing I could change the future.  Wishing we could walk down a different path.   Wishing I had control, some kind of control over this, just one ounce of control…but I don’t.

So I sobbed even harder.

Then I gathered up all the emotions that spilled out, put them in their box and shelved them for later.

Baking with Julia

Every Christmas, since I can remember, my dad has given me a cookbook.  In all those years I have only requested two, The Joy of Cooking and Baking with Julia.

The Joy of Cooking has become our bible or manual to cooking.  It truly has every basic recipe or how to guide you could ever need.  Not that you can’t go all fancy pants with it, but you know, if you were to only have one cookbook on your shelf, this is the one to get.

Baking with Julia, which is based on a PBS series Julia Child hosted with other great bakers as her guests, has become my own in home class.

Once the kids all went to school, I decided to take it and walk through each recipe.  Learning the foundations of baking.  I’m not a bad baker, in fact I’m pretty good, but again there are basics to learn and master before you hit brilliance.

Our Family Dinner’s have afforded me a venue to bake and to get feedback.  And feedback I get.  My family indulges me by going around the table and offering up their thoughts, which then get written into the cookbook, along with the date.

This week’s baking class was the perfect Genoise, in which I chose to make a French Strawberry Cake.

Family Feedback:  delicious, dry-coarse, not too sweet, like the strawberry shortcake my mom use to make

Silhouette

Silhouette

Originally uploaded by sellke

Learning to use my big girl camera on MANUAL.

Lots to learn.

Midnight and beyond

To be honest, I am normally sound asleep before 10:30 pm.

But who could resist hitting the theater with a bunch of crazy woman for the midnight showing of New Moon?

And by the way, we were not the oldest people there but we may have had the most fun.

Have I told you recently…

how much I HATE cancer?

It’s insidious, crafty, cunning and sly.

It doesn’t care who you know, how much you are loved, how much money you make or don’t or what holiday is coming up next.

It has entered into our lives, taken hold and will not even for a moment relinquish control.

The game it plays is a funny one.

It takes it’s turn, maybe even two turns at a time (it doesn’t care much for the rules) and then we take our turn, almost always lagging behind but non-the-less trying to move ahead, catch-up to it and maybe even out smart it.

It’s a hard game to play.

And if you’re not the player, it is a hard game to watch unfold before your eyes.

My dad continues to play his version of the game.

His next move includes radiating two sections of his spine, starting next week and ending three days before Christmas.

Oh how I so desperately wish I could draw the card that allows him to pass GO, collect $200 and WIN.

Old Time Sunday Dinner

I’ve always loved the idea of sharing Sunday dinner with family.  The visual I get, is of this Grandmother figure with thick Polish sausage sized fingers, stirring her pot of homemade love and the rest of the family wrapped around the kitchen helping, talking and sharing what the past week held for them.

A couple of months or so ago, Adam and I talked about starting family dinners at our house.  With my dad’s ever present illness, it took us about two and a half seconds to come to the determination that Family Dinner was a fabulous idea.

So we have kicked this off with a few twists.  #1.  The meal must be simple (or reasonably simple-I have a tendency to make things much more complicated then they need to be). #2.  Come as you are (showered or not, sweats or slacks).  #3.  We have kept the numbers down for ease, so only Grandparents are invited (sorry siblings maybe you can make a guest appearance sometime).

These Sunday’s at 4:30 pm have come to be precious to me already.

Of course, it is all selfish and self-serving.  I want my kids to learn to sit at a nice table, enjoy good food and listen to stories their grandparents tell and spin tails of their own.  I want to plant the seed of family, caring, being there for each other and simply enjoying life together.

Here’s to hoping.