What do you do when you have free time?

Hmmm... so I have a free afternoon and what do I do? Quarter a duck to make confit. It is sitting in a mix of herbs marinating right now. Hopefully it will be very tasty when I get done with it tomorrow.

My bedspread is tangerine

Your Birthdate: February 5

You have many talents, and you are great at sharing those talents with others. Most people would be jealous of your clever intellect, but you're just too likeable to elicit jealousy. Progressive and original, you're usually thinking up cutting edge ideas. Quick witted and fast thinking, you have difficulty finding new challenges. Your strength: Your superhuman brainpower Your weakness: Your susceptibility to boredom Your power color: Tangerine Your power symbol: Ace Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Here is my turkey in its brine. Yikes that bugger was heavy.

Yes this really is my disgusting fridge.... that turkey sat there for 15 hours.....

But it was soooo pretty when it came out of the oven.

Laundry -- Day 1

Muahhh ha ha haa!

My evil plan is working.

Les filles were VERY nonchalant about doing their laundry yesterday. "Oh, this is simple!" "I'm putting away MY clothes only!"

They were both soooo clever, self important and condescending.

This morning the trouble began.

"Mom? The socks are in the dryer. Can I borrow some of your socks?" -- Answer: No

"Mom? Where is my winter coat?"
-- Answer: Darned if I know. It should be hung up.

"Mom? Can I wear my jacket?"
-- Answer: No, it is 30 degrees out. You were told yesterday that you had to wear your coat and you said that you had everything ready to go.

As I watched hubby's blood pressure rise, I quietly walked over and whispered the magic words, "She needs to suffer the consequences of her actions. She is late. Not you!"

Yes, she was late to band. Again.

Yes, I am sure that she got yelled at for being late twice in a row. All part of the process, I guess. In the meantime, I am enjoying watching the mad scramble and not being responsible for the scrambling.

Cruel? I don't think so!

An Announcement

Hear Ye, Hear Ye,

A message to mes filles.

Your laundry is now your own responsibility. If you run out of clean socks. You may not take mine. If you have no clean underwear. I don't want to know about it. You can't seem to take care of your clothing. I am tired of the endless monotony of rewashing the same unworn clothing over and over again. I think that I could take that time and be more productive. Maybe even leading to world peace.

Please note.

All items of clothing must be worn. If it is below 40 degrees and I say you must wear a sweatshirt. You must each wear one. You may not fight over one. There are four, count 'em FOUR school sweatshirts in this house. Find another. Work together. I will not tell one to take a sweatshirt off and give it to the other. I will not find it for you. If you took care of your clothes properly you would know exactly where to find it. You are clever little wenches. Put those skills to use and dig yourself out of trouble and make it to school/band/basketball practice, etc. on time.

I will NOT be writing a tardy note.

Thank you for your attention. Please return to your regular programming already in progress.

Turns Out My Dad Was right?!

You are a Social Liberal (76% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (18% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Ahhh bite me! My sense of social justice comes less out of a sense of fairness and more out of a fear of revolution. But then I learned my history.

Perspective Regained

Now that I have had a couple of days, I think that I have regained some of my perspective or at least some of my sense of humor when it comes to les filles.

Yes, they are slobs and sometimes they are smart-mouthed and disobedient. But sometimes they are sweet to each other and to me.

Things have been particularly tense around our house lately. Hubby is in the process of selling his company. The deal was supposed to be finalized October 1st. Well, here it is November 11th and it still isn't done. Hubby is losing it. I am losing it. Naturally the kids are picking up on the tension too. Even though the deal still isn't quite finished, he has to fly to a meeting with the new company on Sunday. Supposedly everything will be finalized Monday morning. But obviously this isn't helping the situation around here.

Just for fun, we have added to our own tension. We are getting ready to begin a major renovation on the vieux maison. And by major, I mean that pretty much the first and second floors will be gutted and the ceiling raised in the basement to get some real living space here. Yes, it is extremely bad timing. But we really need to get this stuff done. We need more than one bathroom with girls about to be teenagers in the house. Blech.

I appreciate all the supportive comments that I got from my Mommy friends and from my friend, Jim. Although, I would like to point out to him, that while he is correct that it has been amazing cool to bring life into this world, everyone once in a while I still wish I had the Pratesi sheets and the hot guy. I think you can all understand what I mean! ;~)

Gizzards and giblets must be paid for in advance 

The Angel is no longer a Harold's Fried Chicken virgin. 

Receiving her new belt 

Removing her belt... why does some kid always have to move? 

As Promised

Imelda's face as she gets her high blue belt 

Failure

That is what I am feeling like.

A complete and utter failure.

I spent the day yesterday doing the piles of laundry that were dumped into my bedroom. In the case of the filles' clothes it is more like they are being re-washed. The life cycle of girl clothes goes something like this: Washed, folded, dumped on floor, stay on floor, laundry basket, washed, etc. Please note that the clothese are not worn. Apparently they consider it a way to keep me busy and out of trouble.

Then I went into the downstairs bathroom and found dirty girl clothes. Panties. Dirty panties. What level of subservience have I reached that it is just assumed that I will pick up the dirty, stinky panties of a 10 year old girl no matter where she decides to drop them?

In the upstairs bathroom, Imelda took her filthy socks and threw them into the garbage can. Also my job to retreive. Blech.

At that point, I just cried the rest of the day. I was so upset. They are disrespectful pigs. I am a complete failure as a mother. I gave up my career and my body for these girls and now I am their personal servant.

American Girls!

I was reading through my favorite daily blogs today, when I came upon Cursing Mama, who is clearly a kindred spirit when it comes to girlie matters.

She, like myself, is outraged by an allegedly pro-family group's proposed boycott of American Girl for their support of Girls, Inc. Girls, Inc. as I have mentioned before is an advocacy group that began in the mid 19th century and has continued to work for the literacy, health and economic wellbeing of ALL of our girls. Along the way, they provide information about birth control and abortion as well as sexual orientation. These alleged christians feel that to disagree with their slant on these topics should mark you as evil, apparently.

Frankly, since Girls, Inc. advocate parents talking to their daughters about expectations and beliefs I don't see what the problem is. Apparently the dissemination of information is the issue. They seem to be advocating that we keep this information from our girls and possibly even their mothers. Apparently smart, informed girls and woman are dangerous to their cause?

What made me so happy about reading Cursing Mama's blog was that she, like myself, sent a letter to the folks at American Girl. I think if more people sent their positive opinions to American Girl and their parent company Mattel we could quash this ridiculous anti-girl movement. To that end, I am listing the email addresses that I used for my email (as a note, these are the folks that the anti-girl group is targeting in their protest):

ellen.brothers@americangirl.com
jules.andres@mattel.com,
susan.jevens@americangirl.com

Hope a bunch of you join us! In the meantime, you rock Cursing Mama!

My scary halloween costume? l look like a buxom zombie... BOO!

Yucky... where is Uncle P.J. to barf at this when you need him.... oh, ok.. that answer was obvious

Digging out the guts

Concentration

concentration

 

Les filles working on pumpkins at Nana and Papa's