This week's new routine

Since the girls' camp was canceled this summer I have been letting them be kids - as in sleeping late, not doing anything structured, etc., sort of like things were when I was a kid. This week, however, that all changes. I have a brutal week at work and have to be physically in the office three days so I begged the director at Children's Treehouse to let me take them there this week. JiaJia is thrilled, Laura not so much.

I have a soft spot for the place because it has been a part of our lives since Laura was two. We've met so many people through their kids being there and I've enjoyed being a part of that little community.

So this week, the little people will be up at 7:00, out the door at 7:30 and Mom will be on the road by 8:00. It'll be good practice for the fall when the school bus arrives at 8:10. Hard to believe the first day of school is less than eight weeks away.

These pictures don't really have anything to do with this post but I liked them, even though JiaJia seems to have perfected the "cheese face." I think she thinks she's somehow being glamorous but really, she just looks silly. I loved finding Laura scaling the door jamb, though. I think they both are actually monkeys who somehow pass as little Chinese girls.

Sunday Routine

I always find it interesting that my children, products of Asia that they are, have distinctly Southern taste in food. Fried chicken? Check. Cornbread? Check. Hominy? Check. The funniest thing to me, though, is their complete infatuation with sausage gravy and biscuits. Barely a Sunday goes by that I don't make this for them (and then I recycle it through the week, although thankfully we're now going through a Honey Nut Cheerios phase - much less work for Mom).

I learned to make biscuits at the knee of the master, better known as Ellen Bell Tuohy, but got my sausage gravy training from Claire. I'm not sure where she picked it up considering the fact that her dear mother would probably have run naked down Old Georgetown Road before she would have served sausage gravy, even to the dog. Not for people of our class, dear. At any rate, it is more technique than recipe - brown a package of sausage (Jimmy Dean's is the preferred brand unless you can get homemade from someone), add flour and mix until you don't see white any more, pour in milk to cover the sausage, add LOTS of salt and freshly ground pepper (this is key), then simmer until it is thick enough to pour over the biscuits.

This is deliciousness of the variety that makes you want to go out and plow the lower forty after you've finished eating it. That, or go back to bed and nap until next Sunday...

p.s. It isn't possible to take a picture of biscuits and gravy that doesn't look like dog food, so for that I apologize.

Summer nights

One of the most wonderful things about summer is CORN! Yes, I love tomatoes but corn is right up there with them in terms of things that can only really be enjoyed when the time is right.

When we start getting local corn, which has finally happened, there is nothing I love more than taking a big bag of corn, the trash can, and a glass of wine out onto the deck. I shuck corn, occasionally take a sip of wine, and listen to my children and the neighbors running wild in the yard. We'll have corn on the cob tonight and an amazing corn salad tomorrow. I am in heaven.

p.s. My nails are not really that dirty - I canned cherries in red wine today and I can't get my hands free of the cherry juice. Can't wait to try to end result poured over brie though.

Routine, a bit late...

Okay, so I missed yesterday. Not such a good record when you decide to post every day for a month then miss the third day. Yeah, I know I suck at blogging but I'm trying, really.

Anyway, because I missed yesterday I'll do two posts today.

When Laura was a baby and Vince was working at the Clarion (which basically meant he worked all the time and we never saw him) she and I got into the habit of going to our local Chinese restaurant every Friday night. This continued well after Vince came back to the land of the living and we adopted JiaJia. One day, though, we just got tired of it and decided to devote our Friday nights to something different. Thus came pizza night.

Now every Friday afternoon I mix up our pizza dough using my favorite recipe from http://www.breadtopia.com/ and grate a secret blend of cheeses (0kay, if you must know it is mozzarella, a bit of white cheddar and a lot of parmesan) in preparation for the main event. I put the pizza stone in the oven and heat it to 550 degrees for an hour before the first pizza goes in. I make our own sauce but unbeknownst to the smaller members of the household I put it into a Contadina pizza squeeze bottle so they think it is filled with horrible stuff, which makes it much more desirable.

Laura and Vince like pepperoni while JiaJia and I are purists, preferring just cheese. When the night is over, we are in carb heaven and I am pulling out my Swiffer vac to remove the light mist of flour that covers the kitchen floor.

Summer Night Routine

When the weather is hot there is nothing kids like more than popsicles. In our case, the ante has been upped considerably by Aunt Cessy introducing "soda pops." Garishly colored and filled with unrecognizable ingredients, they have immediately become the frozen treat of choice in my house. The delicious and wholesome frozen fruit bars that I've offered in their place sit lonely and pathetic in the freezer, waiting for the phone to ring, metaphorically speaking.

So each evening after dinner, the girls take their hideous bounty and go outside since I fear if they dripped on the floor the chemicals might just eat through to the basement. Last night we had a huge thunderstorm so they got to have dessert in the garage. Do you suppose when they grow up and reminisce about their childhood summers they'll wax poetic about their mother feeding them artificial dye, chemicals and water wrapped in plastic?

Routine

Since I always say I'm going to be a better blogger and then I never seem to do anything about it, I decided to get serious about National Blog Posting Month. This month's theme is "routine," which I suppose is one of those things that people don't like to admit they are mired in. Me, I am a creature of routine and love to know exactly what should be happening when.

So here's what I do every morning on days when I don't go into the office. I get up before the kids but after Vince leaves for work (generally about 5:30 but sometimes as late as 6:30) and drink my twelve ounces of the elixer of life, better known as Coca Cola, while I check e-mail and figure out what the day holds. I absolutely love this time of day because it is the ONLY time I am ever alone any more since the girls aren't going to camp this summer.

No morning is complete without a visit to my tomato and herb plants on the deck to see what is getting ripe and what needs attention. Don't think the irony of having land but having to grow my vegetables on the deck due to our hungry deer population escapes me. At any rate, there's always something new to see or bugs to pick off or herbs to pinch back before one of my little people wakes up and starts yelling for mom.

As a lagniappe, here's a recent picture of the little people in question from when we visited the local horse rescue stable. Their friend's name is Smoky.

The Eagles Have Landed

Okay, this isn't officially about the family but exciting for us nonetheless.

Some background - JiaJia attends a pre-school called the River School on the National Conservation Training Center campus (of course now that I think of it, Laura went there too and Vince works on the campus so maybe it is a family thing...) One of the great things about the school is their emphasis on nature, which makes it all the more interesting that there is a bald eagle nest in plain view of the playground.

Some intrepid soul climbed up to the nest and put in a webcam which streams live into the pre-school classroom (it is also on the web at

http://www.fws.gov/nctc/cam/livevideo.html). It can be a bit hair raising to see the eagles in action (one very memorable day we got to see the mother eviscerate a rabbit to feed the babies!) but it is nature at its most basic and the kids really love it. Last spring the general manager of the facility set up the auditorium with the very big screen so the whole class could watch the chicks hatching.

So this year so far our pair of eagles has laid two eggs. There is some speculation that there might be a third but since I don't know much about eagle egg laying habits I can only repeat what I've heard and leave it to Tyler and Jane to tell me if this is even possible.

At any rate, we're all waiting for spring and the new babies, followed by many sightings of the parents teaching their children how to hunt. It is truly a sight to behold but not for the faint of heart.