I took Thursday off from work just because I needed a day. I felt like I was drowning both at home and at work and I just... needed...a...day. I felt a bit guilty. Cali is not doing well (another post I can't even think of starting right now) and I will definitely be going out to California at least once if not twice in the next couple months and I feel bad just taking a random day off, but I needed it.
It was a lovely day. I had to get up to take the guys to school and Hope to daycare. Yes, I was home and I took Hope to daycare. As I said, I needed a day. I'm glad I had to get up to take them, it would have been easy to sleep the day away. I cleaned my kitchen, cleared off counters that haven't seen sunlight in a loonngg time. Didn't get into the cupboards, maybe next time. My MIL came over and we did some on line shopping. Up to that point, I'd bought one thing for Christmas.
I got to drink coffee and watch The View. I did some organizing, some laundry, and talked to my sister Jill while I was doing it. I picked up the kiddos early and we went to the biggish city to the south and had their picture taken with Santa. And we did some shopping together, always an adventure. The guys had appointments with JJ, who happens to be their occupational therapist. Afterwords we went the her house. Her son G and Joey are bestest friends, I think Joe was more excited to have supper at their house than he was about seeing Santa.
One area I organized was my recipe drawer. You have one of those right? When I find a recipe I like, I tear it out of the magazine, or whatever, and through it in the drawer. I decided I wanted to store something else in the current recipe drawer. If I was going to empty the drawer, I may as well organize it. So I filled a 3 ring binder with page protectors and I started sorting!
Besides the magazine recipes, there were some printed from on-line sources, and some handwritten. Mostly written in my quick scrawl, but some were in my mom's neat cursive. She had really beautiful handwriting. Mine can be neat if I take the time, but Mom's was always lovely. She didn't write often, I think the fact that several of her daughters were English majors was bewildering to her. She was proud of us, but it was not something she could imagine doing. So finding the recipe cards touched my heart.
It was a lovely day. I had to get up to take the guys to school and Hope to daycare. Yes, I was home and I took Hope to daycare. As I said, I needed a day. I'm glad I had to get up to take them, it would have been easy to sleep the day away. I cleaned my kitchen, cleared off counters that haven't seen sunlight in a loonngg time. Didn't get into the cupboards, maybe next time. My MIL came over and we did some on line shopping. Up to that point, I'd bought one thing for Christmas.
I got to drink coffee and watch The View. I did some organizing, some laundry, and talked to my sister Jill while I was doing it. I picked up the kiddos early and we went to the biggish city to the south and had their picture taken with Santa. And we did some shopping together, always an adventure. The guys had appointments with JJ, who happens to be their occupational therapist. Afterwords we went the her house. Her son G and Joey are bestest friends, I think Joe was more excited to have supper at their house than he was about seeing Santa.
One area I organized was my recipe drawer. You have one of those right? When I find a recipe I like, I tear it out of the magazine, or whatever, and through it in the drawer. I decided I wanted to store something else in the current recipe drawer. If I was going to empty the drawer, I may as well organize it. So I filled a 3 ring binder with page protectors and I started sorting!
Besides the magazine recipes, there were some printed from on-line sources, and some handwritten. Mostly written in my quick scrawl, but some were in my mom's neat cursive. She had really beautiful handwriting. Mine can be neat if I take the time, but Mom's was always lovely. She didn't write often, I think the fact that several of her daughters were English majors was bewildering to her. She was proud of us, but it was not something she could imagine doing. So finding the recipe cards touched my heart.
Mom baked a lot. I guess she enjoyed it, although I think it was more about enjoying the eating part. When I was growing up, we almost always had some kind of baked good in the house, chocolate chip cookies, brownies, no egg chocolate cake, or some such thing. I thought everyone did. Mom didn't get real fancy with her baking, some time she frosted the brownies, but often not. I only remember decorating cookies together a time or two when I was growing up. Maybe she did it more with the older kids. She was pretty busy after the last four were born in less than four years. I think she also baked when we were all at home because her simple brownies and cookies were cheaper than snacks at the store. We had a sweet for bedtime snack almost every night growing up.
As we got older, she still baked, although not as often. But if she came to my house to care for my kiddos she almost always baked with them. She didn't bake with me often growing up. I remember when Mom decided it was time for me to learn to bake. She got all the ingredients out, showed me where the measuring utensils were, handed me the recipe, and left the room. She told me to holler if I needed help, but it she stayed in the room she would end up taking over for me. Mom knew her strengths, and teaching baking wasn't one of them. Nor was teaching driving, but that's a story for another time.
I fancy myself to be a domestic goddess. I'm not, but I fancy myself to be. I will go months without touching my Kitchen Aid mixer, except to make my much loved pizza dough. But then occasional I will go crazy with the baking. I always make homemade cinnamon rolls on snow days. Again, Mom was a bit bemused about my desire for from scratch deserts. Last December I was planning how to make cinnamon rolls for the family at our Christmas gathering and Mom responded with, "You can just buy those you know!" Man I miss that woman!
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