Happy Valentine's Day

A warm Valentine's wish to the two I love most, and the many in my heart.

What makes it good

Dean and his classmates put on a matinee and evening performance of Midsummer Night's Dream yesterday to deservedly thunderous applause. The kids were fantastic -- believe me, unless you'd been holding tickets to the Royal Shakespeare Company or something you wouldn't have been disappointed in anything about this production (except maybe that you couldn't have gotten a seat because the place was jammed). They might even have had something on a professional production because aside from putting on a show worthy of an adult audience, they also managed to capture the rapt attention of the rest of the children in our school (ages 5 on up). Some of the younger children loved it so much in the afternoon that they made their parents bring them back in the evening to see it again!

The things that you can really boil down to identify that made it go so well were that the kids all truly understood what they were saying (it was the real thing -- not some Shakespeare-modernized malarky), they entirely enjoyed what they were doing, and they were completely confident and comfortable. Although Dean was initially disappointed in the poor quality of the "wall" costume, he got it once he thought about the fact that the play within a play that he and his fellow *tradesmen* were putting on was supposed to be cheap and goofy.

And counter to cheap and goofy, I present rich and gooey. On the premise that adding oatmeal to anything instantly makes it good for you: oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies. Yum.

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp.
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
2 eggs at room temp.
1 tablespoon (yes) vanilla
1 tablespoon water
1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 and 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375f. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Cream butter with both sugars. Scrape down mixing bowl, and add eggs, vanilla, and water til just combined. Add flour, soda, salt, oats and mix until all is well incorporated. Add raisins and chips, stirring in by hand.

Using an ice cream scoop or measuring cup, scoop up 1/4 cup sized mounds of dough and place 2 inches apart on parchment. Bake 16 or 17 minutes -- edges will be brown but centers will still be soft. Slide parchment off sheets and allow cookies to cool on parchment, on racks. Makes about 15 cookies.

Hard to know

I always find it so hard to know how to deal with these kinds of anniversaries.

It was one year ago that my mom died, and the anniversary of my dad's death was last week.

I don't know of any -- oh, what's the word I'm looking for? -- format? tradition? for these days. I suppose if I were religious I would go to church and light a candle, but that doesn't seem right to me for either of them.

And so I go through my day, thinking my thoughts of each of them, trying to comprehend that another year has gone by, trying to understand this life "after."

It snowed,

it snowed, it snowed last night.

The fence around our back garden is 3 feet high (36 inches, people).

Sewing Sunday

The snow days, and the post-holidays-let's-make-stuff urge, have compelled me to do a bit of sewing. This jacket is my first experiment with pre-quilted fabric (which is a little stiff, so I hope it softens up over time). No buttons yet, although I'm not sure I want them.

And this one, which I'm calling my gingerbread jacket, made from a joyful polar fleece. I didn't have *quite* enough fabric for this pattern, so I used some aqua blue polar fleece for the facing, which you can just see peeking out at the top. I realize I've made each of these patterns three times (but with entirely different fabrics); I do like going with what works and getting my money's worth from a pattern.

Meanwhile, t's funny to me how sewing/crafting stores have all seemed to rally around Superbowl Sunday sales and events.....

The game

I don't remember how it started, or when.

Did we play it in college? Did I invent it?

Was it something from that period after college -- the early career years when I got to be friends with a great group of people at work and we'd socialize all the time on evenings and weekends?

Or did it just come to me yesterday in the doctor's office, when I wanted to help Dean pass the time in an easy, enjoyable way?

I don't know. But now Dean and I are addicted.

You start by -- NOT saying that you are about to play a game -- but by simply saying two things:

Peanut butter or jelly?

or

Dogs or cats?

Any two things. As you'd expect, the person to whom you've said this is initially a little bewildered. "Huh? Peanut butter or jelly? What do you mean?"

"I'm just asking: peanut butter or jelly?"

And the person responds. Maybe he picks one. Or maybe, as he did when I got to "dogs or cats?" he says something else entirely: "hamsters!"

And then maybe he says (as Dean did), "can I do that? Can I say something else?" Because now he's on to the fact that this is a game, and the game must have rules.

"You can say whatever you want."

The magic of the game is that it just starts, and it just goes. To me, the power is in the hands of the person responding. Indeed, say anything you want. Don't feel that you have to explain or justify your choice.
I will be bold and predict for you that the person you begin this with will quickly become immersed. "More!" he or she will demand, as you start to slow a little in coming up with questions.

Ocean or forest?

Good or evil?

Chocolate or vanilla?

Just as the responder has no need to defend or explain a response, so the questioner has no responsibility to explain or defend. We started this with Ken when we got home, for example, and he demanded, "context! I need context!"

My response was that it's in your hands -- it's whatever context you choose. This had come up with Dean as our game continued during our two-hour car ride back home from the doctor's (rush hour; should have taken less than an hour otherwise). I'd said, "Mexican or Chinese?" and he said, "food, right? You're talking about food?"

Whatever you want it to be, and you don't have to say.

But back to that point when you start to slow down, when it gets to be a little hard to think of things quickly. That's when you get to say, "now you ask me!"

Big or small?

London or Paris?

Today or tomorrow?

Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan?

Try it. I think it will be your new favorite thing.

Our mountains

Three tuxedo jackets, with tails, done, done, and done. Made for the upcoming school play (A Midsummer Night's Dream), although not to be worn by Dean. HIS costume, much to my sewing chagrin, will consist of clothes he already owns and a strip of upholstery fabric cut (not even hemmed!) into a long strip -- a rough scarf. I adapted a bathrobe pattern to make these jackets and hope to get pictures of the boys who WILL be wearing them, although the date of the play is now up in the air thanks to all the snow days we've had and apparently will still have....

Took this picture of Ken yesterday, with the snow pile at the end of our driveway. Ken is 6'2" (so admittedly my 9' to 10' pile estimates were a little high). Here's what that same spot looked like about 4 years ago after a big storm:

And we thought this was a lot of snow!

Back to now, and more of the pile. The thing curves around to the right (that picture of Ken and Dean just above is the view to the right, opposite the garage door opening) and the big challenge is keeping the area clear enough so we can get the car in and out of the garage.

Here was the view of the back garden after that snow fall back in 2007, and here's what it looks like now:
Forecast is calling for, yes, another 20" of snow for us this week.

One person is NOT complaining.

One person really and truly does know how to make use of this amazing natural resource! I'm looking forward to the possibility of some more time to sew, but only to make things OTHER than white tuxedo jackets.

What it is

This picture of Dean is from 4 years ago, during another snowy New England winter. I am continually reminded of the difference in children's perspective on snow from that of adults; joy, delight, adventure instead of frustration, resentment, and inconvenience.

I'm hoping to take a few new pictures today, including one of the 9 or 10 foot pile of snow at the end of our driveway. Apparently there's another storm brewing that could bring us more snow mid-week. The biggest challenge now is simply where to put the stuff; we're not getting any relief from the freezing temperatures so nothing's melting. And I'm a little worried about the roof.

But otherwise, I plan to finish up the work on the three white tuxedo-style jackets with tails that I'm making for the school play and to cook up some Asian-style mahi for dinner (with a whole tropical bent to show that we haven't given up hope).

And I'd like to formally state that I choose June 5th as the date by which that jumbo pile of snow at the end of the driveway will finally melt away.

Snow, squirrel, soup, science

Another snow day home from school yesterday (yippee!), and now about 3 feet of accumulated snow on the ground (uh, not so yippee!). It's funny to me how winters are either brutal -- storm after storm after storm -- or relatively snow-less; never a happy medium. Part of that whole jet stream business and all.
Mr. Christmas Squirrel kind of looks as though he's thinking, "sure, you can make me go to the party and wear the hat, but I'm NOT going to have fun." Sorry there's nothing to show scale; he's about 7 inches to the top of his hat. I'm going to have to figure out how to go into production mode with these Christmas crafts, or I can see that I'm going to end up with a lot of little things that we have to keep and nothing for the homemade gift supply.

Meanwhile, an absolute up-side to wintery days stuck indoors is the time to make soup! Lentils, collard greens, tomatoes, carrots. Yum. I adapted this recipe and encourage you to experiment with it, too!
And speaking of experiments! Dean needs to make a model of a human gallbladder this weekend and decided papier mache applied over a balloon was the way to go. I figured it would go most quickly if we suspended it and therefore could coat all sides on each pass. I always struggle to find the right level of support on these projects -- paving the way to make it possible, but then stepping back and letting Dean do all the actual work. He's doing a terrific job.

That whooshing sound

A week has gone by? A week!?!

While the beauty of snow days is obvious, the dark underbelly is that they make the remaining work days unbelievably frenetic; this is my busiest time of year and it's really, really hard to keep up even without losing days. I so dislike this constant feeling of so much to do, so little time.

Aside being waist-deep in snow, I'm also in the midst of a great deal of school play costume sewing, somehow having allowed myself to be suckered into making many kids' costumes. 3 white tuxedo-type jackets with tails? HOW did I get myself into this? Hoping to finish those up, get Dean's costume sorted, and get some photos up here.

Meanwhile, still plucking away at Christmas crafting; Jenny's elf shoe pattern is here.

Snow day!

A real, true blizzard descended upon us on Tuesday night. For the first time in my memory, school for Wednesday was canceled at dinnertime on Tuesday -- so rather than the traditional wake-up-on-a-snowy-day-and-wait-to-hear-if-school-is-canceled routine, we were able to do the dance-of-joy before going to bed and, wonderfully, sleep in.

Ken's school (he works at a university) was also closed -- another very unusual and wonderful circumstance!
When we went out to shovel at about 10:30 a.m., we measured 14 inches of snow; by the end of the day, I'd say we had about 18 inches or so.
The winds didn't really howl, and the snow stayed relatively dry (light) for most of the storm, so we were mercifully spared any power outages, although internet connectivity was spotty. But hey, who needs the internet when there's snow to romp in?
We played, we drank hot cocoa, and we relished the quiet, white world.

Is there anything more important?

Watch Jamie Oliver's TED talk and see what you think. Be changed, and change the world.

Winter crafting

There's nothing like the combination of Christmas, and wintery weather, and new craft magazines to get my fingers itching to make stuff. This swan ornament is the first of what I hope will be many, made in the way-BEFORE-Christmas months so that I can at least get closer to my goal of a mostly handmade holiday. (I was going to give you, right here, the link to the Dec. 2010 Cotton Time magazine where this pattern appears, but I see that it's no longer in stock at Superbuzzy.com -- a great source regardless for Japanese craft magazines.)

Yesterday's little guy is supposed to be a lamb; thanks for the guesses and seeing those helps me think about how to make it more lamb-y and less dog (or calf) like.

This is a test

But it is a test of me, not of you. I am trying to figure out a pattern for a new little felt animal and am working at the moment on the profile. Finished product will be three dimensional with a head gusset and under-side piece so that it stands on 4 legs, etc.

BUT -- what kind of little animal is it looking like to you? I appreciate your candid responses, and I promise I will tell you what I'm trying to make.

In a perfect world

Every time we have a first day back at school after a break of seemingly any size, I run into parents in the hallways who tell me how frazzled they are from all that time at home with their kids and how thrilled they are to have school start up again and to be back into the usual routine.

But for me, it's never long enough.
The two-week break went by in a blink. We all could have used another week or two or three or four. Dean's very happy to be back with friends, and loves school, but being home is always best.