Week in Review

Even though this week, in retrospect, blurs together into one cold, rainy, non-napping grouchy children mess, it turns out there were a lot of good things, too. Let's focus on those, shall we? Here, it must be Monday. I can tell because Jemma has Nap Hair, and Monday was the only day this week she napped. I would prefer to transition into this phase a little at a time (I believe it has been well-documented that I do not like change and require a good, long time to get used to it), but Jemma appears to have other ideas. So here, Monday, I was pretending to take pictures of the girls eating zucchini bread they helped to make, but actually I was taking a picture of Jemma's Nap Hair. Little did I know it might be one of the last ones . . .

Also Monday, I made this butternut squash and cheddar (and kale, and shallots) bread pudding. I roasted a chicken to go with it, and it was probably one of the better meals we'll have this fall. The girls hated it, OF COURSE.

On Wednesday afternoon, it was gorgeous - partly sunny, low 60's - so we went to Meijer Gardens. We try to go at least once a season, usually more in the summer, and we hadn't been since before school started. Between soccer and ballet and play dates and gymnastics and school and weekend trips and Sunday School, I feel like whole weeks go by when I hardly have any down time with them, just the three of us. Wednesday was perfect.

Jemma loved this sculpture. She walked all around the base of it, touching each letter she could read and naming it. She knows almost all of them. Annie helped her with the ones she doesn't know.

The girls found a fuzzy caterpillar on the ground and stopped for about ten minutes to watch it. It was not moving. There was much discussion about this.

Yesterday afternoon was one of the longest EVER, and suffice to say that two out of three people in our house were in tears when Jason got home (late) for dinner. The cabbage salad I made did not go over well, and the potstickers stuck to the pan. After the girls went to bed, I had to get in the car and just . . . drive around. I had to remember that this task, this giant, enormous, humbling task of raising small people and, as a friend likes to say, molding young lives, is not easy. Then I had to get chocolate pudding and bring it home to eat in front of good television.

Today was better. It was rainy, but we were happier. We tried harder. We ate chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. I went to the coffee shop to work, Annie brought a friend home and they colored happily and ate grilled cheese and tomato soup, I attacked the treadmill at the gym, and Jason painted twenty little fingernails. Today was the kind of day that's just right for soup, so I made some. Chicken rice, just like my mom makes. Annie peeled the carrots. The girls loved it.