Just like her mother
Check out the contents of the paper bag
Is it a mess? Or a process of entropy returning to order against all natural properties??? Hmmmm.
No. It's a mess. A total mess.
Happy Friday!
Thank you, Chicago, for always making your parking restrictions so clear.
When it finally starts coming together...
I have always really loved Easter. It is spring, always such a happy time. Easter Sunday brings back memories of egg hunts organized by my grandmother, who always whispered into my ear where the eggs containing the $20 bills were hidden, and of blowing out my birthday candles alongside my grandfather, since our two birthdays always revolved around Easter time. What kid doesn't love the time of year around her birthday, I ask?
We just spent two very nice days with my parents, sister, and sister-in-law. Ellie had to do her egg hunting on her own as her little cousins unfortunately wound up with tummy bugs (poor kiddos!), and I didn't have to repeatedly warn, "Share, Ellie! Share! SHARE!"
Ellie has had such a blast the past two days and it is apparent to me that Jim and I must be very boring, given how squirrely she has been recently at home. This kid practically cartwheeled across the floor to the oohs and aahs of her grandparents and aunties, over and over again. It has been really cute.
While the crew watched the child, Jim and I made a tasty Easter mid-afternoon dinner so the aunties could take off early for their trek back to Kzoo. Half of it was prepped yesterday, and the rest of the preparation and cooking really did not take too long, nor was it too labor-intensive. I thought I would share the recipes that we used for many of these dishes.
For breakfast, we made our favorite casserole, recipe here. We doubled the recipe, which gave us eight large portions. We used regular sausage instead of maple. It was yummy and required no early morning cooking since we assembled it yesterday.
For dinner
Ham
Pineapple chutney
Made-from-scrach green bean casserole
Wild rice salad with celery and apples- we subbed dried cranberries for raisins. I doubled the recipe, including the dressing
Parmesan asparagus- just a simple way to prep asparagus, my favorite veg
We also made cheesy potatoes using a standard recipe from a fundraising cookbook (it seems that many cheesy potato recipes are similar to each other), and my sister whipped up some lovely deviled eggs.
Ellie received a big gift from the Easter Bunny- a Radio Flyer red wagon! We took that out for a spin. The Easter Bunny then returned about 5 times throughout the day for additional egg hunts in the living room. Is there some rule that says that egg hunts can only occur on Easter? Because this may be a good game to keep going in our house!
I hope that everyone had a lovely holiday weekend!
I returned from the ACMG conference in Charlotte Saturday evening. I walked in to our apartment with my arms outstretched, ready to receive my little girl, who, rumor has it, was a little clingy and seemed to miss me while I was away. It's funny how movie reunions tend to ruin our fantasies of how our own reunions will likely play out. Ellie is just 16 months, after all, and what I encountered upon my crossing the hearth was instead a wee timid girl, slowly ambulating in my direction with a very coy air. Once I was close enough, she pointed her little finger to one of her toys across the dining room, said a little, "ba ba ba!" in explanation, and scampered off. I was home.
On the counter was my pile of mail which Jim had set aside for me. Beneath the Bank of America junk mail and other business was a very large padded envelope, addressed to me from some "Writers' Collective" group. I'm looking into doing some freelance writing and have been signing up for sample magazines here and there, so judging from the weight of the package I assumed perhaps that I had received some sample issues. There was so much else to do at that moment. I can't speak for her, but I had missed Ellie, and needed a hug whether or not she wished to give one (Moms do win out on some things, occasionally), and after I had slobbered over her a bit I had my husband to kiss, my cat to pet, and was ready to dole out some of the trinkets I grabbed at the conference exhibit hall thinking Ellie might like them as toys. I kicked my shoes off, we played in the living room, and as we were venturing back to Ellie's bedroom to put her to bed, I remembered I had that big package to open. I cut a couple inches into the side of it when I was distracted by something and set down the scissors. I made another attempt, was distracted again, and then forgot to get back to it. We watched basketball and went to bed.
It wasn't until Sunday morning when Jim was at the counter making coffee that I saw the scissors and remembered that I still hadn't opened that darn package! Finally I dug into it, and pulled out my own computer jacket that I use with my current laptop.
"Jim, what on earth?...." my first thought was that I had left my computer jacket at a coffee shop and that they were sending it back to me. But I pulled back the zipper, and wouldn't ya know but inside was a sleek, beautiful MacBook Air.
Yup. Hubs got me a new laptop! Without a doubt I don't deserve it. But, it is beautiful. It is so lightweight and sleek that when folded you might almost mistake it in your bag as a folder or notebook. And, since the screen on my old laptop was dying fast, I no longer need to keep my laptop open to only 45 degrees in order to see the screen (which, as you can imagine, looked odd to anyone observing me nearby).
He's a good egg, that one. :-) xo
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