Juggling

This has been an insane week. Seriously.

 

I'm very, very grateful for Russell this week, he manned the fort on Tuesday and today, and got the girls to school on Thursday. (I've been working a lot... ) I couldn't have made this week work without him.

 

So. The girls were off on Monday and Tuesday. Monday because it was a holiday -- we hung around the house, watched movies, played outside, went swimming, and hung out at the Austins; it was a good day -- and Tuesday for a teacher in-service day. I think they just hung out and played at home while I went to work. We made jambalaya and had dinner and whole pints of Ben and Jerry's for Fat Tuesday. We know how to do up our holidays, I guess. Tuesday night there was yoga and all-city band practice, as well. We'll be glad when all-city band is over; it's made our weeks a lot crazier.

 

Wednesday, we were back to school, but because we had parent-teacher conferences in the elementary school, so they were off at one. So, I had a blissful day off, which I spent going to one of my favorite zumba classes, and working at the library. Then, after picking kids from school, we ate and played and then went back for my semi-annual ego-boost. They're doing great. Alison's teacher shared a cute story that Alison wrote about dancing... at one point, it said, "And my favorite kind of dancing is, pause for special effect, Irish dancing!" It was the "pause for special effect" that cracked us up. And Kristen's teacher called her "exuberant" which is a good adjective for her. Wednesday was also the Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet. We went, even though we don't have any boys, because Russell is the dude in charge (I’m sure he has a name, but I don't know what it is), and they said we could come along with him for the food. The girls ran around (well, the ones who are still young enough to run around) and had a grand time with their friends who have brothers in cub-scouts. We all felt a bit out of place, but, hey, I'm not turning down free food.

 

Thursday, I went to work early because it was the best way to get off before 1 p.m., when I needed to go get the girls. I think something else happened, though by this point, I was getting a bit tired, so something might have happened and I missed it.... Oh! We had piano for Alison, Girl Scouts for Caitlyn (I was supposed to help but honestly, I was falling asleep in my chair. After that, we dropped Alison off (she came to Girl Scouts -- "Caitlyn's is more awesome than mine!" -- to play with the Dumler kids), and then headed to mother-daughter book group, where we talked about zombies, fears, and roller coasters. (We'd read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls. Well, we were supposed to have read it. We got about a third of the way through and then bailed. Most people had bailed, too, so we didn't feel bad.)

 

Friday (are you tired yet?) was another half day, but one in which Russell stranded me at home. He was asked to give a convocation talk at a private school across town, and since I had the day off, he took the car and left me at home to write. I didn't mind.... much... it was good to get things done. That evening was Peterson's bingo night/fundraiser, which started late and went long. We didn't win anything, though we came close a couple of times. I don't know which is worse for the kids, not being close enough to win and being frustrated with that, or coming sooo close and not getting it. Either way, we were done by 10 p.m. and dragged the kids out of there crying (Kristen because she wanted to say goodbye to her teacher; Alison because she wanted to play that LAST bingo game). It's a fun fundraiser, but it's also a lot of hassle. (I have yet to have kids go to this and not come home crying...)

 

Saturday, I went to work. We're doing inventory (only the second time in 11 years), and it was all hands on deck. I was only there for 6 1/2 hours, but it was still a lot of work, hand-counting everything in the store. I spent the afternoon there today (the irony of sitting in church listening to talks on keeping the sabbath day holy...) as well, and will go in early tomorrow for another full day, but then we should be done. Perhaps someone should mention that it'd be less work if we did it more often??

 

Russell handled the kids and shopping and keeping the younger kids away from Megan's friends (who were over for an Om Shanti Om party) and then getting Megan off to see a friend in Romeo in Juliet (which turned out to be a farce; who knew?). And today they've been hanging at home (though at one point, a TV reporter dropped by to interview Russell about the election we're having on Tuesday). And now, we're about ready to crash, looking forward to another week.

Busy is Good. Right?

Our to-do list looked something like this last week:

 

All-City band practices (both going, and picking up from)

Valentine's parties (and making goodies for)

Going to St. Louis (only Russell. Though he ate at a Bosnian restaurant. I have no idea what kind of food they eat in Bosnia.)

Science projects (making a presentation)

Parent-teacher conferences (Caitlyn. She's great. I didn't need to go, but she bugged me about it. Oh, and we have to buy a trombone by next fall. Whee!)

Working for a sick co-worker, on top of my regular schedule (the upside is that I made peace with a manager who was, shall we say, less than happy with my helping out...)

Cooking 300 Russian teacakes (for a Girl Scout program)

Going to the Girl Scout program, and doing a presentation on Russia (which was received really well)

Watching Merry Wives of Windsor (for an English project that needs to get done over this three day weekend) (You Burbury cheese!)

Not sleeping (see above reference to St. Louis)

Zumba and Cardio Craze (zumba in English) as survival mechanisms

Cooking and Art lessons

Piano lessons

(No clarinet lessons, though)

Cleaning house

Spilling a half container of orange juice

Reading a couple of good books (and kind of lame books, too; the book for the mother-daughter book group is the "prequel" to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is really kind of weird, if you think about it.)

Watching TV (Castle, Downton Abbey (only one more episode?? Nooooo) and movies (one Hindi -- a Mary Poppins type one -- one Shakespeare -- see above -- and one early-90s -- Benny & Joon -- which is still very cute.)

Yoga

Picked up Girl Scout cookies (only Alison's order; Caitlyn's we'll get later this coming week, so we should be mailing them out either late this week or early next)

Slept

Ate (no Indian food this week, though)

Shopped

Cleaned

Did Laundry

Went to Stake Conference (I almost titled this "my bum is sore" because of sitting on metal folding chairs for two hours. The conference was nice; a lot of talk about doing service.)

Looked forward to two days off (holiday and an inservice day) this week. 

 

We're glad for the days off!

It's Hard to Hate Valentine's Day

When your entry way looks so happy (sure, we put it up, but it really is quite cheery at 6 in the morning!) and

You are greeted by a lovely valentine by the pre-teen in the family.

(It says, "Every day you work so hard for me. I hope someday I will be like you. I love you!!")

It kind of almost makes you like the holiday. Almost.

Ohm

I wonder if I just close my eyes and chant, if the week will go away. (I didn't go to yoga this week; can you tell?)

 

I think the January blahs have spilled over into February this year.

 

Kristen said the week was nice. But she was sad because she didn't get to go to Sarah's house.

 

Alison spent the week sick with the cold sores from Hades. It took over her lips, her mouth, and her gums. She was sad most of the week, even though she had to go to school.

 

Caitlyn spent the week obsessing about this Russian project they're doing for Girl Scouts. She baked a couple of Russian treats, and worked on a display. And got very snappish with anyone who touched it.

 

Megan had all-city band twice this week; I was supposed to pick up once and forgot. Oops. 

 

Russell had an okay week; he's busy trying to get things done before leaving for St. Louis this coming week.

And me? I'm trying to survive the cold (and snow!), and remember that spring will come. Eventually.

And on the upside, there's chocolate fondue and Downton Abbey.

Here's hoping this coming week will be a better one.

Random Pics

Or... things I found on the camera.

In the category of food we have:

Russian teacakes that Caitlyn made

The girls made a face out of the leftover breakfast. Didn't their mom tell them not to play with their food??

 In the category of Caitlyn's self portraits:

No, she doesn't have her ears pierced.Yet.

In the category of dress-up, we have:

Alison being rich and fancy (even with a cold sore on her lip)

And Kristen being poor and destitute.

The Great Indian Food Quest 2 and 3

I missed putting up our Indian food post last week because Russell had the camera, and I'd neglected to pull the photos off it before he left. Silly me.

Anyway.

We made a red bean curry, mostly because we wanted to try something vegetarian. We also threw in some Indian flatbread, naan, and a mango lassi.

Shall we start with the lassi?

It didn't work. Now, that's probably because we didn't quite follow the recipe, using frozen mango instead of fresh or puree, but it's what we could get. It ended up way too thick, and no one liked the cardamom in the shake. But considering that's all that went wrong, it's not too bad.

Because the naan turned out wonderfully:

A friend of mine makes her naan on the panini grill; maybe we ought to try that and see if we can get a more fried look...

And the curry was just delicious.

It could be eaten in a bowl, like a chili, or put over some rice. Either way, it was yummy. And not too terribly spicy. That's the one thing we've really liked about this cookbook; the dishes are more flavorful than spicy. Which is nice.

The third dish was a shrimp biryani, which is essentially a one-pot rice dish.

You fry up the shrimp and some spices:

Add the basmati rice:

And cook. Like before, you need to soak the basmati for about a half hour to make it loosen up, but other than that, it's really easy to fix.

Unfortunately, even though it looks really good, none of us liked the shrimp and basmati rice texture. It was a lot like couscous, which isn't exactly popular around these parts. We all wondered if it'd work with plain old white rice. But other than that, it was okay.

Not bad for three weeks of experimentation. (We ended up buying the cookbook, since there was so much good stuff in it!)

And I Need a Google Map Pose

Have I mentioned we're huge fans of Nathan?

I have?

:-D

Edited to add: the video has gone away, but here's his "google map pose"

Doing the Hard Thing

A couple of stories to start:

First, I got in big trouble at work this week. I was standing around, doing nothing, while the other employees were doing a boat load of returns from a sale that had just ended. I thought, I know how to do returns, I can help. So, I did. But. (There's a but, of course, since I started this story out with "I got in trouble". Right?) I got home, and there was a scathing email from my direct manager that said "Thank you for helping BUT YOU DID IT WRONG, YOU WEREN'T ASSIGNED TO DO IT, AND BY THE WAY DON'T HELP OUT LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN." (Okay, not like that, but that's what it felt like.) The hardest thing I've had to do in a long, long time was not call in sick to work on Wednesday, but to (this WILL date me) get back up on the horse again. It wasn't easy, but I did it. And maybe I can even figure out what I did wrong (no, they didn't tell me) and find some sort of peace again.

Second, Alison has been wanting to bear her testimony during Fast and Testimony meeting ever since she got baptized back in December. She didn't get to in January, so she really, really, REALLY wanted to this month. However, while the heart is willing, the courage is weak. She spent the whole meeting saying "I'm going to bear my testimony next" and then the lull would come, and she'd try to get up, but her courage would fail her, and she'd huddle back in my arms. Finally, there was about 5 minutes left, and I knew that if she didn't get up this month, she would be really, really, REALLY mad at herself. So, I offered to go up with her. We got up to the stand, and she couldn't do it; she was huddled on the ground behind the microphone. I figured I needed to explain what was going on, then bore my testimony. As I  talked, she got braver, and held my hand. Then, I finished, and she bore her testimony. It was very short, and very sweet. But the point is, she DID IT.

The rest of the week was kind of blah as well. We did get some much-needed rain (no snow. I'm not complaining.), on Friday, which was nice. Russell headed off on Thursday to New York City for some sort of Mormonish History/Scholar/Something conference (yeah, I know: I really should care more about what he does, but if it doesn't interest me, I don't really pay attention. I'm not a very good wife sometimes.). From what I can tell (we actually got him a cell phone -- shock!!! -- so he could call. No, he doesn't really have a cell phone; it's a pay-as-you-go thing that he's only using for conferences.), he had a great, great time.

And we've been managing here at home. We went to see Puss in Boots at the cheap theater yesterday afternoon; it was okay. The girls came away saying that it was cute, but both Alison and Kristen had to hide several times (Alison was crying at one point, and then after she said, "That was cool!" Um, yeah.). It wasn't as fun/funny/entertaining as I had hoped, but it was enough of a diversion for a lazy, cold, wet Saturday.

And now, it's a new week. The problem with life is that it's so daily.