Tag Archives: children

Coffee Cake and Two Days of Running

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Kid Pic of Morning Goodies

Kid Pic of Morning Goodie

(Originally posted 1/25/2009)

I rose early to rekindle the fire in the stove, to get coffee started for my beautiful wife, and to bake something. I had purchased sour cream yesterday and dumped into the cake above. The photo was taken by my daughter, who ran upstairs to tell me she took a photo of the coffee cake.

It was fairly tasty, although I left off the icing and did not add lemon, which I prefer, since my spouse does not prefer. All in all, however, a fine breakfast food item. It was my first item of the day, the other major kitchen project being the tofu pot pie, which is hard to beat on a cold day.

I ran again today. I have not run two days in a row for quite a while. Leavensworth Road is perfect at the moment, the right combination of temperature, snow and traffic making even the class four section runnable. It was not as cold as yesterday, but cold enough. It was below zero last night but got into the teens by this afternoon.

Since I pulled a muscle at the end of the summer, I have had to take it easy as I slowly recover. I figure I need to keep it down to 20 miles per week for another month. By spring I should be able to turn it up, as long as I take it easy. By the time it gets warm, and running is easier, I am hoping I can get in some long runs. We’ll see.

We have plenty of coffee cake left, and some pie, and even some bread from yesterday. I have an easy breakfast and an easy lunch. Which is a good thing, since I need to be out of here early, and I need to work late. It will be a long day. A long week, even. But I have a new soup recipe I’d like to try. I made some stock today and I have a lot of celery left. That will be a good project for maybe Tuesday. Since my wife works late that day, I won’t be able to run anyway. Might’s well make up some soup.

What’s for Dinner

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Last night I had the time to make a good dinner.  I whipped up cream of celery soup and fresh dinner rolls.  With fresh pears on the side.  It was wholesome and tasty.  The kids hated the soup, of course.  “This looks like throwup,” says the boy of joy.  He was serious.

OK, it did look a little like throwup, but only some kinds of throwup, not the gross kind.  Well, not the grossest kind.  But it did taste good–salty and fresh and creamy.  I guess you can’t have everything in a soup.  Especially one that your kids think looks like something your body already rejected.

At least the rolls were good.  They ate plenty of those.  So tonight I wondered what to make.  I had a lot less time.  The rest of the fam was off to the library where my daughter met a friend from school for some friend time.  It was me deciding and me making and I had had a long day.  I didn’t feel like making anything complicated at that point.  I just wanted to eat it.

But of course I wanted my family to have a quality dinner.  I had to make something fast that had no resemblance to bodily fluids.  So I made spaghetti.  We don’t have that all that often.  It is easy and we all like it but I tend to make things that are fresher if I can, or that are just more fun to make.  Spaghetti is just too easy.

My savior was the table.  Instead of the easy pour it into bowls at the stove approach, I set places and we had some spot lighting and we sat together and talked about our day.  I love that.  I remember eating spahetti as a child but more than that I remember eating together as a family.  I want my kids to remember that.

The bummer is that I had really been looking forward to making the soup yesterday.  I had never made cream of celery soup before.  Mostly because, well, it’s celery for god’s sake.  But I had all this celery since you can’t buy just what you need and I needed to make something with it.  I’m thinking next time I toss in a few carrots.  It will give it a little sweetness but, more importantly, some color.

But then again, do I want to hear my boy of joy say “This looks like…?”

Best Part of the Day

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Today this was waiting for the bus in the afternoon.  I had two meetings cancelled today which meant I had time to go home before I worked in the evening.  I walked down our long driveway with my wife and my son, the sun shining on the snow, the air cold but typical for late January.  It was beautiful.  I thought of nothing else at that moment.  I watched my son run and jump in the snow and I was content.

The school bus has given me that–time to just be outside on a fine day and look around and be with my family.  And then my daughter gets off the bus and she is such a big kid and I am a proud dad and we walk back to the house together.

Today, as on many days, it was the best part of the day.

Middle of the Night

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In the middle of the night my son came into the room, as he does at times.  He was sleepy.  He asked me a question.

“Daddy, how come Santa never takes showers?”

“How do you know he never takes showers?”

“Because he doesn’t have a shower anywhere in his workshop.”

“I bet he does but you just haven’t seen it.  I’m sure he must get clean somehow.”

“Oh. OK”

And he went back to sleep.

Children on Inauguration Day

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Yeah, yeah.  I watched the inauguration like everyone else.  Let me tell you, I was inspired as all get out.  It was a double whammy of goodness.  First, Bush is finally out of office and he can’t get back in even with the Supreme Court on his side.  I mean, how could you not be happy about that?  The reign of incompetence has come to an end.  Watching his (tax-payer funded, can we please get this guy off the public trough?) helicopter carry him away from the capital, it was a sight of joy.

Second, we get a smart, eloquent, thoughtful individual into the White House.  After eight years of “I go with my gut cause God speaks to me through my gut,” that is a relief, let me tell you.  But we don’t just get someone who isn’t dumb, we get a leader who cares and gets it and understands he can make mistakes and can talk about and think about it.  Obama is going to do a great job.  He makes me believe that change really is possible.  Guessing by the number of people on the Mall today, I don’t think I am the only one.

But the point here.  I met my daughter as she got off the bus and the two of us went to pick up her brother.  Once we gathered him up, the three of us got in the car to head home.  As we pulled out, National Public Radio rebroadcast Obama’s speech from earlier in the day.  The first thing that happened was that my daughter said, “Daddy, can you turn this up?”  A little while later, my son, who wanted to hear about Barack Obama, said “This guy isn’t talking about Barack Obama.”  My daughter’s response:  “That’s cause this is Barack Obama.”

All that was good stuff.  I was happy that they were paying attention and might just understand some of what they heard and maybe even remember this day.  But here is the best part:  they actually paid attention.  They were looking out the windows but listening.  Maybe it was just Obama’s tone, but they were rapt.  I’m thinking if I want to get their attention in the future I can just play back this speech and they will start listening and then I can just slowly fade it out and start talking and all of a sudden they will be paying attention to me and they will do whatever I want just like I was the brain from outer space with my secret zombie army that will do whatever I command.

This is a historical day.  I want my children to remember it.  I wish I could just command them to remember it but I do not have the power of the space traveling brain and, as far as I know, they are not zombies.  So I will have to trust to more conventional means, like talking about it and listening to what they have to say about it.  Obama, in his speech, mentioned the importance of  “a parent’s willingness to nurture a child” to the fate of the nation.

I’m on it.  With these kids, it will be easier than it might.  As I write they are marching about the house chanting “O O Obama, O O Obama.”  I guess I get inspired more than once today.

Inside All Day

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Left the house at 8:00.

It is almost 8:00 again and I have yet to get home.

Long day.

I am out the door as soon as I shut this little black book type computer thing.

Said goodnight to the kids via telephone.

January is a long month.

At least tomorrow I get to head to town for a couple of hours for some surprises for my spouse’s birthday.

I have gone outside today only to walk across parking lots.

That ain’t right.

Consider my time card punched.

Fresh Snow and Cold as Nuts

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We had a couple children spend the night with us last night.  It gave their parents a chance to have some time to themselves.  The youngsters had a good time.  It was even fun for me.  I even got to tell them about the rooster who thought he was useless and so ran away from home and caused all the animals to sleep in too late and miss their farm duties.  They went to bed too late anyway.

When we all work the sky was white.  They ran in excited about the fresh snow.  They played outside, sledding, for a while, although we worried a tad.  They were bundled but it was 7 degrees.  And breezy.  Can you say frostbite.  We pulled them in before they got too cold.

Then, after dropping the two extras with their parents, we went skiing.  We last a while.  Our last run was a cheek biter, however.  The sun had dipped behind clouds, the wind picked up, and brrr.  We headed in after that.

The snow is pretty amazing–beautiful to look at and fun to ski upon.  It was just right for a couple of beginning skiers.  They did great today.  Both of them seemed to take a significant step in their learning.  That was good for my back.  It won’t be too long before we can all ski together, and then they will leave us in a cloud of snow, zooming down the mountain.

This week it should get cold again.  Way cold.  Highs in the single digits for several days.  That’s nuts.  It is now zero.  I’m thinking that early morning run in the dark before work just ain’t gonna happen.  Some cozying in bed won’t be the worst thing.  Maybe I will be a good husband and wake early to make coffee for my wife and to crank the fire to make a warm house.  That will be as satisfying as a run.  And no danger of frostbite.

Getting Crap Done

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That was the theme of the day.  I was up earlier than I wanted this morning.  Our kids get crabby when they have to get up at 7:00 to get ready for the day.  Today they had the chance to sleep in.  They both were ready to get up at 6:15.  What gives?  So I was up early enough to stir the coals and get the fire going without matches.  Or even kindling.

Saturday has become bill paying day.  I get some satisfaction out of taking care of my debts.  I would prefer not to have so many.  I am working on that one.  Have you seen refinance rates lately?  Crazy low.  Should we wait to see of they get even lower?  If we do it now, we win.  If we do it later, maybe we win more.  Gamble gamble.  Anyway, I paid some bills.  Online and through the mail.  I like online payments.  Less waste, quicker, no stamps required.  But the plow guy doesn’t take online payments.

I baked bread again as well.  It was fair.  Maybe I’m not letting it rise enough.  It was cold today.  It think the thermometer rose to 15 but it was -4 when we rose this morning and stayed in the single digits for hours.  We went for a snowshoe, the four of us, around the front field.  The sun shone without wind so the ten degree air was fine.  We had toast when we got back inside, although the slices were not as tall as I would have liked.

Our compost bin is pretty frozen solid.  It is a tall peak of icy food bits.  Orange peels and pear cores spill through the grate.  C’est la vie, right?  Things will thaw at some point, although we are predicted to have a high temperature of five on Wednesday.  That is the high.  That should kill off some of those wooly adelgids and other invasive species.  Not to mention a few deer ticks.  The disease-carrying blood-sucking bastards.  I added some height to it this afternoon.

Any minute now we have friends on the way.  They plan to drop  off their children and take a night off.  A little sleepover for the tykes.  They should have a fine time.  Hopefully they will keep the strife to a minimum.  If they get too wound, we will plunk them in front of a video with a big bowl of popcorn.  I’m not too proud to say it.  We deprive them of television enough that it will be a treat anyway.  I have a dish of mac and cheese ready to pop in the oven.  That should be a hit, along with butter-soaked fresh bread.  Maybe they will even eat some carrots.

The temperature will get below zero again tonight.  I need to keep the stove stoked.  We’ll keep it warm inside while the vermin freeze to death outside.  I took a bucket of ashes out earlier.  They melted a little snow and they froze into a gray goopy mass.  It was like art.  Only not.  I will make some more art tomorrow.  You watch me.

What, No Snow Day?

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My wife is an educator and, come winter, is seriously crazy about following the weather for the purposes of discovering the perfect convergence of snow/sleet/ice/cold and a school day.  This ideal scenario means, of course, a snow day.  She only works part time so the quest to find this meeting of the weather and the educational system has even more significance than it would were she to work full time, as there are fewer days on which it might happen.

I have some of the same feelings, I admit.  A snow day makes me feel like a kid.  That feeling of another day in the old classroom, suddenly turned into a day romping through the drifts of white, now that’s something to celebrate.  Having my own children these days, I get to experience a little of that all over again.  Plus, I get to do some romping now and again myself.

My wife, however, gets way more excited than I do.  This is a reflection, perhaps, of my own surliness.  Or maybe I just have a little bit less hope, or I hate to get disappointed if it does not happen.  In any case, she keeps me up on the latest.

This morning had real potential to be a snow day.  It started snowing last night and was falling heavily this morning.  The forecast was somewhat squirrely, so it had been continually updated over the past week as a couple of systems converged on us.  As of last night, it looked good for some poor travel.  Poor travel conditions are the key element to the snow day.  School gets cancelled if it seems unsafe for buses to make their way along the slippery roads.

Not only the severity of a storm has to be right but the timing has to be right.  If the roads can get cleared in time, well, forget missing a day of school.  It was seriously a tough call for those school administrators I am sure.  I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.  If you cancel school, some parent complains that it was fine and their little Einstein missed another day of fractions.  If you don’t cancel school, some parent complains that their kid had to risk his neck just for another day of fractions.  Not an easy business.

You might have guessed by now that we did not have a snow day today.  Frankly, that isn’t a terrible thing for me.  Making up a snow day is big fat hassle.  That doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy it.  It just puts a thorn in my tender side.  My wife, as you can imagine, was not exactly thrilled about this.  She even got a tad grumpy, but don’t tell her I said so.  Every school in the state, except for a few here in Chittenden County, was closed.  Apparently, they like to play it safe, while here in Chittenden County feel the need to risk a bus full of children in a ditch to keep the moaners at bay.

Don’t get me wrong, we have some stellar bus drivers around these parts, and I would trust them to make safety a priority.  It’s just that, couldn’t we have a snow day?  That would be so much more fun.  My wife certainly thinks so.  I am not home at the moment and I need to travel to get there.  It is snowing, ice covers the car.  It is slick as a booger rag.  But even if it were 6:00 am, I am sure schools around here would still be open.  Too many little Einsteins to educate.

Bowl of Snakes

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I used to remember my dreams a lot more than I do now.  I think part of that was that I had more restful sleep.  I wake up in the night more often now, and I have to get up, too often, before my body is ready to get up.  But last night I had a dream that was one to mark down.

I was in my house but it was really my parents house.  If you have ever remembered a dream, then you know what I am taking about.  The layout was my parents house but the stuff was of my house.  Anyway, that detail is really just to demonstrate the dream-ness of the dream.  On the kitchen counter was a box of cereal.  The box was labeled “Bowl of Snakes.”

I find it hard to imagine that a cereal named Bowl of Snakes would sell well.  We have a pretty solid irrational fear of snakes here in this great United States.  People kill snakes just for the sake of killing them.  There are snake festivals where hundreds of snakes get slaughtered (such as the Sweetwater Roundup).  So such a cereal would be shunned, I am sure.

In my dream, it wasn’t just the name of the cereal that was reptilian.  Pouring out the box into a large white bowl resulted in a large white bowl of live snakes.  There were three of them:  a rattlesnake of some kind, a striped harmless snake, and a pale green snake with a protruding forehead and seemingly no eyes.  This last one had exceptionally long fangs.

I was in the kitchen with my children.  We watched the bowl of snakes with interest, but not fear.  While we watched, however, the blind green snake stretched intself out toward us, mouth open, to a length of perhaps eight feet.  it was long.  It wasn’t threatening, perhaps just curious about us.  It did, however, startle the children a bit.

We looked away at one point and looked back to find only the striped snake in the bowl.  The other two had disappeared.  We searched all over for them, under the appliances, behind doors, in all the various cabinets.  We failed, however, to find them.  This resulted in lots of questions about what to do.  Should we call someone to help us find them?  Would they be dangerous if found cornered?  Did it matter if we never found them but someone else did?

After searching, we discovered that the third snake had disappeared.  Now there were three snakes missing, although the striped one we knew would cause no one harm.  We searched some more but found no snakes.  Our bowl was empty.  I was proud of my children for not being afraid, simply cautious.  They were curious and not scared.

I am guessing I will never actually encounter a bowl full of snakes, unless I attend the Sweetwater Roundup or something like it (see below).  Even if I do, I will likely refrain from using milk for that bowl of  cereal.  That would just be unkind.

Sweetwater Roundup Snake Pit

Sweetwater Roundup Snake Pit