shades

(s)mothering

spelling has not come too easy for my little son.

he has struggled in that school arena.

last night we went over his spelling words and he spelled them right. I cheered and told him I believed in him. he said he believed in himself, too.

I wanted to go over them again in the morning to cement in his brain that he could do it, but of course were rushed getting out the door and I forgot to drill him.

in fact I didn’t remember about the spelling test until he was getting out of the car.

so what did I do?

what does a mother do for her baby? a smothering mother?

I follow along side in my car as he walks to the crosswalk in front of the school. I roll down the car window and yell out to him:

“Weston—remember your ending sounds are oo and ue” (if only I had yesterday’s smeared mascara to make this picture complete)

and what does the smothered child do?

he covers his ears and keeps on walking.

been an awful good girl

the song of choice while I showered and got ready this morning: santa baby by eartha kitt

I put it on repeat.

I listened to it at least 12 times.

And I sang along every time.

january 20th

I hosted book club last night.

I chose this book.

I quite enjoyed it. I love the characters, the storytelling as well as the themes of surviving and forgiveness.

I also loved that the characters referred to dessert as “hereafter”.

I served warm crepes for our hereafter. Filled with nutella, strawberries, bananas, topped with chocolate sauce and powdered sugar—the crepes never had it so good.

It was a good night.

boston cream cupcakes

For stephen and rachel’s new year party this year I brought these cupcakes.  they were kind of yummy. 

*I made white cupcakes from a box mix.  Once they were cooled I split them in half, horizontally so I had a top and bottom.

*The filling is a large box of vanilla pudding which I made according to package directions, then I beat in 8 oz. of cream cheese (I whipped the cream cheese first by itself, then mixed it in with the pudding).

*For the chocolate on top I (think) I combined about 1 part cream to 3 parts chocolate. I heated the cream in the microwave until very hot, then poured it over the chocolate chips; stir until smooth.

To assemble I just put a spoonful of cream on the bottom 1/2 of the cupcake then replaced the top. After they were all filled I spread the ganache on the top.  (I didn’t make the ganache until I was ready to use it). To finish I dusted them with powdered sugar.

Christmas Eve Soup

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

• 1/2 onion, minced
• 1 t. garlic
• 1 cup sliced carrots (heaping)
• 1 C. sliced celery (heaping)
• 1/2 C. flour
• 12 C. chicken broth
• 2-3 cups cooked chicken (rotisserie)
• 1 bag egg noodles

Sauté onion, garlic, carrots in celery in olive oil, for 2-3 minutes.  Add flour; cook a few minutes more.  Add chicken broth, stirring. Slowly bring up to a boil while stirring and cook until veggies are almost done.  Add chicken and egg noodles and cook 3-4 minutes more or until noodles are soft.

Ahoy!

I’ve said it before, I love finding these treasures in my house while the kiddos are at school.

it’s like they are leaving 3-d notes that say,”Don’t forget about me while I am away.”

and I think, “never ever.”

my son

bewildered, amazed, dazzled, thrilled, enchanted, bewitched, enthralled and enlightened by the firework display on New Year’s Eve.

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