weekending

I could have sworn the sun was shining when I woke up from another crazy dream this morning. It's not. The sky is colorless. All the snow we were supposed to get the last stretch of days was mostly rain. This has been such a strange winter.

It's been a good weekend though. We had a marathon night out Friday and a Netflix marathon day in yesterday. We had tickets to a story slam. Mike, Candace and I sat under the twinkle lights at Turner Hall and listened to stories about middle school. The stories were not the best I've heard, and yet I cannot bring myself to imagine stepping on stage. I even blushed when two of my shorts were read. Two of the tellers were deaf and that was quite something really. To watch their signs and hear them rich with inflection and pause as told by the translator. We approached one young woman at the end of the night and did our best to communicate with her that we loved her story. She got it. It wasn't hard.

We weren't quite ready for the night to end so we stopped off at Jackson's for beer and a bite. I don't drink beer often, but I most often drink it here in honor of my Uncle Vic who was the very last man standing when the Pabst Brewery finally closed years ago. I have to tell you that the fresh draft beer tastes delicious in the hefty glasses they use. Glasses like my mom used to have. Those glasses are another of the night's stories. The beer also tastes quite good with fried cheese curds and grilled buffalo wings. Not the healthiest of late night snacks.

We dropped Candace at home and then Mike surprised me with another stop. Our local Cheers was filled with familiar faces. We were there so long that Lily texted to see when we'd be coming home.

And that is why yesterday was slow and lazy. Mike ran out for Kopp's cheeseburgers at 2:30. It was the only meal of the day, and incredibly satisfying. Tigger stayed by my side (or on my lap) all day and night. We had to force ourselves to abandon Outlander and get to bed. I fell asleep before finishing my prayers and I slept straight through the night.

Today I feel like a million bucks. The rest of the house is sleeping. Tigger is back in our spot waiting for me. He'll be waiting awhile. Today's list is long and I plan to tackle it. I love Sundays. 

This is January

Teddy is back at school two days into second semester and Lily is in the middle of her first semester exams. It's beyond my comprehension that we are already the better part of the way through January. When the kids were little, I often liked to say that the days were long, but the years short. At this point, I want to go on record to say that both the days and the years are short.

I know that the next few months will fly by and then we'll be a united family of four again, but I find this only mildly comforting. That's because I love this time...these days...and I would be happy were they to last much longer. It's been said that time flies when you're having fun and also that the years go faster as we get older. Both are true.

It's also true that this time of year makes me melancholy. I have to work hard not to become a shut in. I'm adept at hibernating, holing up with books and blankets, making stock and baking bread. That was all a perfect storm Friday when I hosted book club on the snowy night. We talked about Homegoing while enjoying hearty bowls of Patsa Fagioli and Zuppa Toscana with warm foccacia in my dining room still decorated for Christmas. I sent all the ladies home with soup and hunks of homemade bread. It always tastes better the next day, and we're still enjoying the leftovers here at Casa Wags. There are times a pot of soup seems endless. I made my frister's favorite Sunshine Cake for dessert in honor of her birthday. I've never made it before, but I too enjoyed it from time to time at Watts Tea Room. That Milwaukee icon is closed now. No more tea sandwiches or etiquette classes, which Lily took many years ago. (I still remember the look on her face when the instructor told her she could eat the flowers on her plate during the final tea. She ate mine too.) I underestimated the task of this recipe. I didn't have the right pan, the French pastry cream was fussy and I had to make the 7 minute frosting 3 times. It was at least 70 minute frosting, but I didn't mind because #foodislove #foodismemories. We enjoyed the meal and made memories that night. I will do just about anything for that.

I highly recommend Yaa Gyasi's debut novel that spans 8 generations and 2 continents. The prominent themes centered on family, legacy, language, freedom, forgiveness and power. The power of story and who tells the story. That's as relevant today as it was hundreds of years ago. I didn't agree with any of the criticism I read after I finished the book and I'm grateful I went into it without preconceived notions. I thought Gyasi accomplished what she set out to do and I'm still thinking about the book. For me that is a telling litmus test.

So everything is good. Cozy. Calm. I'm just feeling a little quiet. It's sort of a January thing for me. My fire will return. It just needs a little stoking.

Some Sparks...

 Tigger the watch cat

 All set. Soup's on.

Krissy's Sunshine Cake. Not a looker, but made with love.

Family dinner. A little pasta carbonara, A lot of broccoli. It's all about balance.

 Snow white roses in my Mom's vase..

 My beggar boy staring at the frig waiting for tuna.

 Snowy Saturday. Snow and Saturdays.

 Morning routine and this book...such a gem. Coffee and tulips too.

 Sunrise on a chilly morning walk.

Grateful Friday

Today I give thanks for...

It's Friday. Mike is home from Miami and Ted is on his way home from Colorado. He was scheduled to fly home tomorrow, but we are expecting snowmageddon so his flight was cancelled. He was persistent until he was rebooked. I didn't have to get involved at all. In fact, he even arranged for a ride from the airport. The boy is growing up. Oh, and he had a fabulous time skiing with friends. Keystone was his fave.

Lily and I had a nice week together, and on our last night Jess joined us for taco salads and talk. We asked questions and she talked. And talked. And talked. A chatty teenager is a rare thing and so we considered ourselves lucky and listened.

Heat. Our furnace is fixed.

Our first big snowstorm of the season. We're supposed to get close to a foot in the next 24 hours. I plan to be a shut in this weekend. I left work early and went to the store like every other person in my city. I stocked up on the ingredients for some new recipes I want to try. I have a stack of books I picked up from the library yesterday. I have no place I need to be for the duration of the weekend.

Hygge. I thought I might take down the live tree this weekend because it's dead, but I just couldn't bring myself to deChristmas yet. Tigger and I are still enjoying our tree time and it's my favorite to bask in the twinkle lights in the middle of a snowstorm. 

Soup weather. A bowl of soup is so comforting and warm. I've been on a roll: Lasagna Soup, my Lentil Soup with Kielbasa, which was the first thing I made in my new Instant Pot, and a delicious French Onion that Lily and I enjoyed this week. When the boys are way, the girls eat onions.

 My new Instant Pot. It was a gift from my dad and step-mom and they were there for the maiden offering.

Little Mister Mischief.

Amy's mushroom and olive pizza. We add jalapenos and it's perfectly earthy and briny and spicy. It's what's for dinner tonight...Friday is pizza night.

Ted just texted me before he got on the plane and asked me out for a date tomorrow. He wants to see Just Mercy. I guess I'm going out in the snow because how can I possible say no to that.

Now I'm heading up to bed to read some of Homegoing. Yaa Gayasi's novel is a to read. I've been hooked since page one, but I'm taking my time with it because I need to sit with these characters and their legacies. The multi-generational tale is not always easy to read, but it is moving and illuminating in a way that only powerful writing can be. I'm hoping it inspires a thoughtful discussion next week Friday when my friends and bibliophiles gather for book club.

Is It Friday Yet?

There's no heat in the house this morning, but the sky is on fire. It's a bone chilly 53 degrees so I'm sitting here with a hat on sipping an endless mug of steaming coffee. I thought Tigger was just being sweet for staying by my side all night long. I never considered that even with his authentic fur coat he too was cold. Cold to the touch this morning. His poor little nose was ice. Lily was hard to find under her pile of blankets covered from head to toe.

It's become a running joke here at Casa Wags that whenever Mike travels for work, some sort of crisis of some degree occurs. It used to be sick kids. Not with common colds, but strep or the flu or some obscure ailment. It's been the car. The garage door. Blizzards. Once it was even an intruder I scared off the roof as he peered in the bathroom window at me. I came face to face with him in the open window. I believe he was more scared than I was as he tumbled off his perch. Then I raced down the stairs, out the front door and chased him down the street nine months pregnant while toddler Ted slept soundly in his bed. Never poke a mama bear. Then my mom came to stay the rest of Mike's trip to protect us with her fierce shih tzu, Charlie. I can't explain it, but I never felt so safe.

Ah, I digress. All to say that a faulty furnace is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I mean really, just watch the news.

Mike went south and Ted went west so it's just the girls this week. Mike's in warm and sunny Miami and Ted is traipsing around Colorado from ski slope to ski slope. I had big plans for us, but it turns out that what we both were craving was just a quiet, low-key week. I'm just happy that we are on the same wave length. It's been a week of easy dinners, editing papers, watching the Jeopardy championship, chatting before we go to bed at the same time.

We're getting up at the same time too. I've been grateful that she, who is impossible to rouse, has been getting out of bed after a single wake up. She's been pleasant in the morning, chatty in the car on the way to school and spending less time in her room after school.

Mike has been working hard - long days that go into the night with dinner and drinks. Teddy has been in his element. Skiing under the sun on fresh snow not wanting the days to ever end. I get it, but I'm glad tomorrow's Friday.