I turned 33 this week. It feels much like 32--more like a negation--not young, not old. I'm fine with that. Joseph and I aren't people to cling to our youth, anyway. We already enjoy things that will make us happy old people; we like to sit and read, enjoy a nice chair on a porch with good beverage, watch high quality science fiction.
Right now Perrin is napping. I am out on the balcony resting my coffee on the cooler that has been cast out here since Christmas last week. It is one of those little sad life facts. Every time I look out the sliding doors, I see the cooler sitting there and I think about how it has been there for about five months instead of in the garage where it belongs. For some reason we seem physically unable to clean it out and restore it to it's proper place. This fact alone does not concern me. But it does feel like some sort of measuring stick for my general adeptness at life; particularly when I am having a bad day. Said measuring stick is coming up reading "less than enough." Humph.
I think it is this impending job search that has got me feeling crummy. Really not so impending now; I guess it is time to get serious. Looking for jobs just makes me feel so incredibly judged--as I'm sure is true for most people. But instead of motivating me or just pushing through it, I feel completely paralyzed. Having not interviewed for a job since my college days, the thought of a job interview makes me want to drag my family into the mountains to live like wolves. If it wasn't for J's pesky career plans...why care for people's health and get paid for it when you could huddle against the cold with your family in the wilderness?
This Saturday we are celebrating my birthday in the park with a picnic. Tara is making a vanilla lavender cake trifle. This is going outside of my normal--chocolate on chocolate--birthday cake request, but I am feeling summery and this sounds wonderful. I will try to bring you a picture of this creation, as trifle is so pretty!
The actual day of my birthday J worked from home and took me out to lunch and cupcakes. It was lovely. By evening there had been a misunderstanding between us and what was to be a dinner of chicken in mushroom sauce, ended with me eating a gas station burrito and J eating ramen. The details are not important. What is important is this lesson: Be patient with your loved ones. Usually when there is an argument, it is because of a miscommunication--not because after years with this person they have suddenly--as of today--turned into a complete ass.
One a lighter funnier note, Perrin has discovered the washing machine. Aaaand she likes it.
So our dryer is officially broken. Yesterday when I went to get the clothes out of the dryer and they were still not dry, I thought that maybe it was some kind of fluke--if I didn't acknowledge that it happened, it would not have happened. After the 3rd cycle that didn't end with dry clothes, I considered considering that the dryer may not be operating at peak condition.
After running another experimental load today, I can say--yes, the dryer is broken. The heating element is not heating the air. I now have clothes, diaper shells, diaper inserts, and cloth wipes strewn about the house to dry. Now to try and dig out those dryer warranty papers that--come on, does anyone actually know where those papers are?
Joseph just brought home sandwiches and ice cream, so of course Perrin just decided to wake up and cry 30 minutes after going to bed. And as you can see, we are doing really well with making more healthy dinners at home. It's just that Jimmy John's makes these sandwiches...and if you give them money, they just hand them to you, no questions asked. Next week we will hunker down and plan two meals for the week. That seems like a good starting place. Send food! we are starving! Wish us luck!
Tara took me to Cafe Terracotta for Mother's Day breakfast over the weekend. I love that place. Anyone here in Littleton should eat there. Seriously. Eat there. I had eggs benedict with artichoke and mushrooms and a side of french toast. We sat on the restaurant's front porch, talked, ate, drank. It was wonderful.
The next morning, on Mother's Day proper, Joseph made me breakfast and we all went to the farmer's market. I was off diaper duty all day. It was a great weekend.
Here is little P in another one of my old baby dresses that my mom brought to me when she visited in March. The sleeves were pretty tight on her chubby little arms, sweet sweet chubby baby. "D" is for double chin.
Yesterday Perrin and I had a lovely day. We took the train downtown to J's work, where Tara also met us on her lunch break, since RTD just opened up a new line on the light rail that goes right by T's work. It was such a pleasure to see two of my favorite people in the middle of the day during the work week. Plus Perrin did a wonderful job on the train ride in, sitting on my lap, smiling and babbling at strangers, and watching out the window. We had a wonderful lunch at Davita, which sounds strange, but they have an awesome cafeteria--seriously restaurant quality. I had Pad Thai with chicken. Perrin got to eat some of my chicken and veggies off of Aunt Tara's salad. It is good to have Aunt T around when we are eating out; we know someone will order something that is healthy/ natural enough to share with the little one, as J and I's plates of cheese laden, carb heavy plates arrive.
I had thought that when Perrin started eating solids we, as a family, would naturally start eating healthier, less processed foods since we want to be able to largely all eat the same foods. This has not happened. Instead our evenings look more like this:
Nurse Perrin at 6:30, put her to bed at 7. J gets home at bedtime. I haven't shopped for food for a meal. J and I are both worn down by our days so someone suggests, Want me to run and get Jimmy Johns? (Or to be perfectly honest, Taco Bell.) The other person's face lights up and decision is made.
Other nights we may have pasta (quinoa pasta, to counter act the Taco Bell) with jar sauce and if we are feeling our oats, and I have grocery shopped in the the recent past, we will throw in some sauteed veggies. This meal ends with one of us thanking the other for cooking.
The funny thing is that J and I both enjoy cooking. But we do not enjoy planning meals, grocery shopping, or compiling the list of magical items that when combined create a legitimate respectful meal, where everything isn't the same color and you could serve it to guests and not be slightly embarrassed/ashamed.
In order to prove that we aren't completely unambitious, I will brag on a few great things we do sometimes make...(clear throat)...
Homemade bread. This one is olive rosemary.
J makes great pecan pie, lemon meringue too.
We do Chicken Tikka Masala that we are both really proud of. It takes a decent amount of time, but keeps thus makes great leftovers. We make it nice and spicy with lots of cilantro sprinkled on top. The chicken gets coated in a ginger yogurt sauce before being baked and mixed in. Wish I had a picture of this one. The red with the green cilantro is very pretty.
On our 2nd date we made orange glazed pork chops with rice pilaf (from The Working Stiff Cookbook). We continue to make these dishes from time to time, as they are sooo good. It always makes me remember that date when we were still figuring out who the other was. I walked into the house he shared with three other guys in our little college town...the top of the kitchen cabinets were lined with empty beer bottles...Oh no, I was sure he wasn't one of those guys who act like they are in a fraternity for the whole of their adult lives...He wasn't. If anything, in that house they were more Dazed and Confused than Greek...anyway...
I guess the point of all of this is that I am not sure how to eat the same food together as a family, while making sure my daughter is getting healthy and natural food, even when J and I have both had long days. I fear the only answer is planning ahead, so I will continue to implore, how do we do this?
Joseph and I watched Shaun of the Dead last night. We were introduced to this movie by Merry and DR and if you don't know, it is a comedy zombie movie. We chose this movie after a pitcher of beer at our local Mexican restaurant; that is not to say it's not a quality movie. It's actually quite funny with a few of those zombie movie scary moments were you realize that you are in the minority and everyone wants to eat your brain.
Anyway, after watching this movie we discussed what to do in case of a zombie take over and I am proud to say the we quickly reached a conclusion and now have an official plan in case of such an emergency. The plan, I will share with you. GO TO THE WOODS. In these movies you will notice that they always take place in the cities where there are dense populations. We simply load our packs and head out as far away as we can get from civilization and wait it out.
This is also our plan in case of alien invasion which we discussed after watching War of the Worlds. I like to plan for emergencies and have it all thought out. All those elementary school fire and tornado drills were not for nothing. I got the picture.
Funny it seems like the safest solution is often to get away from people; I'm sure that is just a coincidence.
