Much of last week was spent preparing for my first cake order since I my cancer-imposed hiatus. Luckily I had, um, some help to make things easier.
Speaking of which, this was from the first time he helped Daddy bake cakes!
The good part is now he can help with cleaning up (while watching TV!)!
Of course that still leaves me the job of cleaning HIM up.
Then on Friday we did a dress rehearsal for Halloween in the new cowboy shirt Daddy made him (and almost didn’t live to tell about! Faux suede is NOT FUN!).
Saturday Oliver and I delivered the scary (in more than one sense!) Halloween birthday cake.
And after a short nap, it was time to walk the horse and prepare for the Trick or Treaters!
This year Papa spooked-up the fountain by adding some dry ice. Oooooh…
And Daddy sported red-eyes to give add to that scary, Halloween look.
And Oliver did well at distributing treats with the exception of to those wearing masks, which freaked him out too much.
Sunday was a mellow day which ended with us eating the top tier of our wedding cake to celebrate our first wedding anniversary!
I made these easy and adorable Halloween cookies for Oliver’s daycare and my students. They were super easy to do.
I used the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe, cut them out into large rounds, and baked them.
Then I whipped up a batch of cookie glaze which is 1 pound of powdered sugar, 3/8 cup of whole milk, 3/8 cup of light corn syrup and a dash of almond flavoring (I didn’t have vanilla). I took out about 1/2 cup and mixed in black gel food coloring and then put the white and the black glazes into piping bags.
Then I iced the cookies with the white glaze and then drew a spiral with the black glaze. Finally, I drew a toothpick from the center to the outside of each cookie several times to drag the black and white glazes together. (The cookies in the photo go from left to right, obviously)
Halloween isn’t for a few more days, but we just had a Halloween-packed weekend.
Saturday we headed up to Santa Clarita to visit Lombardi Ranch (the closest thing to a “real” pumpkin patch as I’ve found in Southern California). Unfortunately it was hot, Hot, HOT and therefore we lacked the fall-like temperatures of the pumpkin patches in Wisconsin (no hot chocolate or mulled cider for us!). But it was fun nonetheless!
There was climbing to the top of a pyramid of hay bales (with Papa’s assistance)!
Petting the (REALLY HUGE!) cow!
Laughing at the llama butt!
Petting the goats.
Running ON TOP of the hay bale maze with the big kids.
Contemplating the size of the horses that just pulled us on the hay ride!
Seeing how many pumpkins high we are!
Spending some time behind bars!
Taking a family portrait!
Playing peek-a-boo from inside a gian jack-o-lantern!
And climbing to the top of the hay pyramid, again!
Then Sunday we went to our friends’ annual Halloween party, complete with pumpkin carving, costume parade, lots of food, and sharing our sippy cup of water with the thirsty pumpkins!
Imagine how much fun the “real” Halloween is going to be!
In case you’ve missed it, the big news in Southern California is STORM WATCH 2009!
Which of course means it’s sprinkling outside. Granted it is a bit unseasonal in that we normally only get rain in January through March-ish.
Who says California is full of drama queens?!
The good part is that we got to pull out Oliver’s quickly shrinking (for him!) rain coat and play in the puddles.
I think he liked it!
And given that he’s just getting over being ill, allowing him to do this pretty much ensured I wouldn’t be getting a knock on the door for the Daddy Of The Year award!
Oh well, we had fun! (and we went home right after and got him out of his wet clothes and put him into dry, warm clothes!)
This morning Oliver woke with a fever and has been lethargic and mellow all day. Because it was a low-grade fever we didn’t give him anything since it means his body is fighting something and he didn’t seem uncomfortable.
Then after he woke from his nap the fever was up to 103.1 which is just outside my comfort level. So we gave him Motrin and put him on the sofa for another Thomas the Train marathon. I left him in Papa’s competent hands while I went out to my studio to do a bit of sewing.
A little bit later this is what I saw on the patio:
I LOVE it when I have days like yesterday (Sunday)! I got so much done that I didn’t have time to lament the fact that I had to go back to work today!
It started bright and early with Oliver waking up at 6:30 AGAIN! (and only on weekends!). We tried to bring him in to bed with us to go back to sleep but that didn’t work out as planned. So it was up for an early breakfast.
After breakfast I went out to my Sewing Studio to work on something I’ve been thinking about for over a year now. My dear friend Kathy makes beautiful handmade cards and after seeing a tutorial from SouleMama I immediately knew I wanted to try to make (and perhaps market) some to wrap around her gorgeous cards. Unfortunately that was right smack in the middle of the whole Cancer/Chemo thing, so needless to say it got pushed off for a while.
Then Kathy called last week to say that she knew a little girl who had cancer and whose family was holding a fundraiser for her to get chemo. She asked if I still had her cards and if I could send them back.
So yesterday morning I whipped out these Gratitude Wraps, based on the ideas from SouleMama.
Unlike hers, mine don’t hold stamps, an address book, or a pen, but I still think they’re pretty neat. Hopefully they’ll make a bit more money for the little girl that Kathy knows.
So those were done by 11 and then it was into the shower and off to the Larchmont Farmer’s Market, a Sunday tradition. To help get us through we stopped for New York pizza at a little shop in Larchmont, and then walked down the street to get our weekly supply of local fruits and veggies.
After depositing our lode at home and putting Oliver down for a nap, I ran downtown to pick up some Amy Butler fabric to use as a binding on a quilt I’ve been working on FOR MYSELF! It’s the first time I’ve made anything this large for myself. Usually I gift them. But my dear friend Joan gifted me with a quilt kit that included a pattern and all the fabrics for the quilt top. I got that finished before we left for France last summer and have been chomping at the bit to get it quilted and bound. Last weekend I finished the quilting and yesterday, with the fabric purchase from downtown, I was able to finish the binding during Oliver’s nap.
A close-up of the quilting on the front:
The back, also an Amy Butler print:
A close-up of the quilting from the back:
I got the binding on just as Oliver was waking up from his nap and barely had time to throw it into the washer before I had to bake the FOUR LOAVES of whole wheat bread I had raising in the kitchen (two cinnamon raisin nut and two regular whole wheat) and shortly thereafter dinner (grilled burgers and corn on the cob).
I really can’t believe it’s been almost TWO WEEKS since I last blogged! My goodness, what kind of bad blogger am I?! For heaven’s sake, I traveled to France and blogged more than that! I guess that would explain why my readership is falling off…
Unfortunately it hasn’t been fun being around me lately. I’ve been running around like a mad man. Here’s a typical week for me:
Monday: up at 6:15AM, teaching from 8:00-3:15, meetings until 4:30, rush home, pick up Oliver, make dinner, eat, clean up, get Oliver ready for bed, and try to keep from falling asleep before 8pm!
Tuesday: up at 5:30AM (!!), teach from 7:00-3:15, go grocery shopping for the week at Trader Joe’s, rush home, pick up Oliver, make dinner, eat, clean up, get Oliver ready for bed, and try to keep from falling asleep before 8pm!
Wednesday: a repeat of Tuesday except that instead of shopping at TJ’s I’m usually at CostCo or Target getting household supplies, etc.
Thursday: up at 6:15AM, teaching from 8:00-3:15, rush to the university where I’m taking classes to clear my credential from 4:00 until TEN PM (!!) then rush home to get in bed!
Friday: up at 6:15AM, teaching from 8:00-3:15, possibly do a couple errands but usually rush home, pick up Oliver, make dinner, eat, clean up, get Oliver ready for bed, and try to keep from falling asleep before 8pm! (See a pattern here?!)
Saturday and Sunday are mildly less hectic in that I don’t have to rush as much, but they’re still chock-full of laundry, cleaning, errands, farmer’s market, visiting with friends, and trying to raise our own Tasmanian Devil.
Speaking of which, interspersed into the nights between those hectic days has been getting up to either soothe Oliver when he starts SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS! and/or putting him back to bed.
About a month or so ago he started waking up in the middle of the night, crawling up onto his rocking chair, and turning on his overhead light in order to be able to see better while he PLAYED with his toys and “READ” his books. Since he’s in his toddler bed, he’s realized he can get up whenever he wants and is definitely taking advantage of it.
So I took the bulbs out of his overhead light, leaving only his nightlight.
Didn’t work since the nightlight provided enough light for him to continue to PLAY and “READ”.
So I took out his nightlight.
Then when he’d wake up, instead of playing and reading quietly, he started screaming at the top of his lungs.
So I put the nightlight back in.
And he continues to get up in the middle of the night, sometimes several times, to PLAY and “READ”.
Part of me asks, “Do I really care as long as he’s not hurting himself or something?” And the answer is, “No, as long as I can sleep!”
Unfortunately he’s such a freaking little bear when he doesn’t sleep that we can’t stand to be around him.
I wish there was a happy ending to this, but we’re still searching for it. We have no idea what to do to keep him in bed and to keep him sleeping. I guess we could take out all his books and toys so there’s nothing to distract him, but that sounds like a major pain and a lot of work. (But if you have any thoughts or suggestions, shoot them my way!)
Aside from all this, I’m realizing that I may not be happy in my job. Don’t get me wrong, I love working with the kids and being the Yearbook Adviser is (mostly) great (with the partly being the whole trying to manage a staff of TWENTY-EIGHT YOUNG WOMEN!).
But it’s a definite drag having to deal with the adults, mostly the administration and the parents, well, and the teachers who don’t do their jobs and therefore leave me and the other like-minded teachers (namely those who care and want our students to succeed) to fill in the slack.
So I’m going through another mid-life crisis about what I want to be when I grow up. Unfortunately I can’t wrap my brain around some things I’m interested in (like having a bakery/cafe and sewing/fabric) because I don’t feel like I have the experience and/or education. Which keeps leading me back to what I do know and have experience at: doing hair. So I’m looking into what it would take to get licensed in California and to open my own salon. It’s all very preliminary at this point, but it’s the one thing I can see myself doing successfully (meaning I could make enough to live on and enjoy doing it while at the same time being independent and having time to live). I’ve considered it before but felt it was too late in my life to be making such a drastic change.
And then I read, “My Life In France” by Julia Child! She didn’t start her career until well into her 40s! If she can do it, why can’t I? Hopefully as long as I’m doing something I love and I’m good at, things will fall into place, right?
With that, I’ll leave you with this question: Who is that little boy sitting at my kitchen counter?!
During our visit to France, I got into the habit of drying our clothes outside since most of our friends don’t have clothes dryers. With the climate in SoCal, clothes end up drying rather quickly (usually within the hour it takes for another load to wash!) and it’s so much easier ironing shirts that have hung dry than shirts that are tumbled dry. And we’ll hopefully save a bundle on our electricity bill (which will help to pay for the CRAZY cell phone bill from using my iPhone in France!).
When not in use it folds up just like the photo above. To maximize the space, we installed two of them, one above the other. And with the eight plastic bars on each unit (they’re not really lines, but flexible plastic rods), there is plenty of space to hang up tons of clothes. I can usually fit about three or four loads on both of the units we installed on the side of our house.
The second Green Gadget is SO COOL! How many of you enjoy soda or sparkling water but hate dragging those bottles home from the grocery store and all the plastics that get wasted in the process?
Then Soda Stream is for you! It’s a basically a dispenser unit to which you attach a carbon dioxide bottle. Then you take the handy dandy (and arbitrary) water bottle filled with your tap or filtered water, attach it to the base dispenser, add the carbon dioxide and voila, carbonated water! And if you so desire, you can add flavorings to make lightly-flavored sparkling water or soda. There are all kinds of flavor options from cola and root beer to a Dr. Pepper-esque flavor. And most flavors come in no-calorie options that are sweetened with Splenda.
I haven’t taken an exact count, but in the two weeks since we’ve had it, we’ve gone though at least 2-3 liter bottles of carbonated water/soda every day. At a minimum of 79 cents a bottle, the total cost would be at least $33 for only carbonated water. The total cost of the dispenser, flavorings, carbon dioxide tanks, and four bottles was just over $150 and we’ve barely made a dent in the flavorings and carbon dioxide that we’ve used so far (as long as we don’t count the half bottle that Oliver spilled all over the floor last night!). In my book it was definitely worth the price.
(Although I wish I was, I am not endorsed by the manufacturers of these products in any way. If, however, you are a representative from either company and would like to endorse and/or reimburse me, shoot me an email or leave a comment!)
