Si, se puede!*

Twin day at school

The better part of life ... this year is shaping up to be one of those odd ones. Odd years are the years I bump along, expecting one thing to happen and happen and happen. That thing disappears and I end up somewhere else. I adjust, plan and start over only to find more detours and bumps. Now, I know you might say this happens all the time ... of course it does as we humans are frankly pretty lousy at predicting the future. Yet, there are times when almost all of life goes only slightly askew, almost tilted sideways. I am walking through the carnival tilting house. I am still on my feet, but the room is off.

I'm going to keep going though.

*attributed to Dolores Huerta

How could I?

Yesterday I had an on-site customer visit--the first in maybe a year or more. It started out well and then the system refused to restart. From there, I went into five hours of controlled breathing exercises while trying one, two, forty solutions with a customer over my shoulder, the clock ticking and the internal buzzing of re-scheduling a horse riding lesson for one daughter and needing to call two other parents who were graciously carrying for the kids.

In the end, the system came back up and I got to fight 5:30 traffic to get back to my children and the dry cleaners before it closed at 7 pm so that Mike would have blues to take on his trip today. I made it. The kids survived fine, a bit overtired, but happy to have played with friends and watched movies. The two wonderful moms who watched my kids for much longer than any of us anticipated survived -- perhaps barely, I don't know as they are both gracious.

My life is no longer setup for full-time work. I don't have the childcare structures in place nor the co-ordination of schedules. I can't really imagine making the sacrifices to go back to that schedule. Yet, soon we'll have to do so at least for awhile as we go to school next January. Yesterday was a dry run, a rather limp-along bumpy dry run.

Goodbye faieries and princesses

MeiLin, at least, has moved on ... to Star Wars. She is taking Maiya partway with her. Enjoy. (Oh, and they are modeling their new swimwear.)

Coming Out

Yesterday morning, I reached for the kitchen faucet to pull out the retractable handle and spray the sink's morning mess down the drain. Suddenly, a considerable water stream hit me in the face and neck, finding a great ravine down my sweatshirt neck. I had the handle in my hand, now no longer connected to the faucet by the retractable cord. I felt a moment's panic and then my brain kicked in. After turning off the water and cleaning up the puddles, I thought "great...what do I do now." Then, I slapped myself. Get it in gear and fix this problem. And I did. Not a great handy-woman work story, but somehow it reminded me that I can do these mechanical things I don't usually do.

Now, my sister had an even greater moment this week when she ran down and shamed a grown man who pickpocketed her cell phone on the streets of Rundu. She ran him down. Wow! My sister has true steel underneath, but even I was a bit surprised. She might have been too. But, sometimes, the moment, the emotion, the need pulls you through and you just do it.Seattle will seem so tame.

Carmel Crackers

My mother's family has an interesting family dessert. We call them carmel crackers. They have no caramel in them and no connection with Carmel, CA. Essentially it is a fudge sandwiched between two saltines, reminding me of a quick and poor version of a pain au chocolat. They provide a juxtaposition of sweet and salty with chocolate holding it all together. No one measures and everyone in the family does it slighly differently, all going by what "looks right". As in all candy making, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Today, I decided to start measuring. So, this is Carmel Crackers, Take #1.
1/3 c. cocoa - this time I used Hershey's Dark Chocolate blend cocoa. My mom always uses regular Hershey's cocoa, which makes a lighter chocolate, but I didn't have any
2 1/3 c. sugar
a little bit of salt
1 1/2 c milk (I used 2% today)

You mix this together in at least a 4 qt or larger pot as it will boil up eventually. The trick is to stir over high heat until it is a rolling boil and then keep going. You want the soft ball stage of about 238 F. I don't currently have a working candy thermometer and I am pretty sure my grandmother never had one. So, we do the cold water drop test. Drop some of the mixture in a cup of cold water. It will initially dissolve/make the water cloudy. Keep cooking and stirring until it rolls into a soft ball when it hits the water. This test is a bit iffy until you know what it looks like.

Then, take off heat and add in 2 Tbsp butter and 1 tsp vanilla and stir. Now, this time, I took it off too early (despite the test) and ended up re-heating it. That isn't ideal.

You keep stirring until it cools and starts to get thick. As soon as it starts to thicken, you put a Tbsp on a saltine and then top it with another saltine. The fudge starts to turn thick quickly -- so be ready.

In the end, this take showed me that I used too much milk and might need a bit more sugar to get it to set up. At first it was a thick syrpy consistency adn then started getting too granular. Next time, I'll try 1 c of milk.

Of course, the girls and I are not wasting them--they are still good enough to eat.

Conversation with a 7yr old daughter at the shoe store

Mom: You need some Spring sandals to wear to church, school and around.
Daughter: These! (holding up a pair of strappy glitter gold ones with a one-inch heel)
Mom: No, those would kill your feet and you are too young for heels.
Daughter: Why?
Mom: What about these white ones (leather, cushy, adjustable straps, secure).
Daughter: Hm.
Daughter: These! (holding up an almost identical pair of strappy, no cushion, foot killer shoes with one-inch heel, only in sparkly silver)
Mom: Um, no, those are the same as the other ones.
*Cell phone rings. Dad on phone from Hawaii to say hi to daughter.
Daughter to Dad: Yes, we are at the shoe store. [listen] Yes, but Mom won't let me get any of the shoes I like.

Not the same

The cat and I are watching a romantic movie, a "chick flick". This means Mike is gone on a trip, I have homework to complete and I am lonely. While the cat is warm and cuddly, he licks himself, smells a little off and shows little interest in the movie.