Excellent Birthday

It was a banner year here for me! Dirk made me my favorite breakfast: grits and eggs. But he doctored the grits with Parmesan cheese, sharp cheddar, jalapeños and goodness knows what else. They were the best grits I have ever had. Someday, children will sing songs in the streets about these grits. They will be served to kings (um . . . the grits, not the children). That is, if he is ever able to reproduce them. I think he took a 'little of this, little of that' approach. Anyway, I will move on, for those of you not as passionate as I about this great cuisine of the South. Incidentally, isn't there a festival for just about every kind of food somewhere in this country? I'd like to sign Dirk up for the next grits festival. Moving on.

Dirk took the kids out shopping (while I lounged around luxuriously and read a book) and each got me something special that they thought I would like. So sweet! That meant: nail polish from Gigi, peanut butter M&Ms from Isaac, lip gloss from Brody. Then Dirk gave me the best gift ever, which was a bunch of pictures of all of us that he had edited to black-and-white and worked other magic with that I cannot fathom and put in a sleek black frame for me. It was something I had been wanting for awhile. I used the bacon grease from breakfast to make some roasted butternut squash risotto for dinner. Yum!



In the evening, we painted our toes, the boys helping by choosing the colors and my mom took us out for Nielsen's Frozen Custard (which should also be sung about and served to kings).

Oh, and the pictures! They slaved away in the office doing their top secret birthday cards.






Overall, I think we had enough fun (and saturated fat) to last us 'til Christmas. Thanks, little family. Best birthday ever.

Road Trip -- Part 1

We recently completed a road trip to Houston, Texas, to celebrate Dirk's sister's wedding. It was lots of fun, and went amazingly smoothly, considering the number of small people involved. Our first night, we stayed with friends in Phoenix. It was so nice to see the Bennett's! The kids all reconnected right away.

Brody and Claire had fun on the water table.

Isaac and Charlie really enjoyed playing Charlie's video games. Clever Charlie convinced Isaac that the lemmings would only work when Charlie was playing, so Isaac did a lot of watching. He asked me if we could get a lemmings game that would obey him, too.

Gwendolyn and Jack

Brody found the idea of tricycles in the house novel and wonderful.

Thanks, Bennetts!

Millionaire Women Next Door: The Many Journeys of Successful American Businesswomen by Thomas J. Stanley


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was very interesting and inspiring. Someone had recommended The Millionaire Next Door to me, but my library didn't have it in, so I got this one. I think his title including the word "millionaire" gives the impression that perhaps he is going to preach about chasing wealth and getting rich, which is not at all the case. He profiles the conservative and hardworking behaviors and lifestyles of people who are actually financially independent and contrasts that with what symbols society usually interprets as denoting wealth. He is heavy on the statistics, which tends to make my eyes glaze over a bit, but it definitely lends validity to the conclusions he draws. I am inspired this week to finish up my budget for the year and make some savings and investing goals, so I would say it was a very successful read.

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A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. There is something magical about a book that takes about 100 pages to even get interested in (and made me a little cranky in the trying), then suddenly becomes a neglect-your-kids-and-stay-up-too-late-reading kind of book. I actually woke up this morning and was so sad that I was finished.

I don't even know how it happened. One day I'm complaining about it, the next I am irritated with my husband for interrupting my reading to ask where I'm keeping the diapers these days. So confident is Dickens that he will capture you eventually, but completely, he doesn't work too hard at the initial hook. AND, I knew the ending about 80 pages before it happened, could see it all clearly, and I still couldn't tear myself away; would in fact read paragraphs twice because they were so good.

I thought his portrayal of the opposite sides of the French Revolution was spot-on, and brilliant. He illustrated perfectly the fact that, when people are so viscously oppressed, their reaction to it, when it finally boils over, will be just as evil.

I know that people say that Dickens is sentimental, but maybe a novel isn't supposed to be so realistic. It is fiction, after all. Maybe it is just as high art if it is beautiful and extravagant as it is if it is beautiful and minimalist or cynical or whatever serious literary people love. This is good stuff. I give it 4-and-a-half stars. No, five. Yes, definitely five, and I am off to read the Scarlet Pimpernel. Amen.

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Conversation I just had with Isaac

Him: Can I play the Wii?
Me: Not today.
Him: What can I do?
Me: I dunno. Use your imagination.
Him: I can't! It's not working today!

My List

I was having a little bit of a breakdown the other day and happened to be on the phone with a friend on whom I unloaded my stress and anxiety about living with my mother forever, being poor (not in spirit, but the bad kind of poor), raising kids who worry about money the same way I always did, being stuck in the waiting place, and on and on. I am grateful that she comforted me through a few things, and bashful that my brave face cracks so easily.

Anyway, she suggested that I pray about what Heavenly Father might have me do as I wait for our situation to become more permanent. What a concept. Pray? For something specific that I need? Instead of freaking out and wishing we had sent me to law school instead of Dirk? Kidding, there, I promise.

So, here it is, and I am adding to it all the time, since my prayers have not been what they should lately and I am trying to humble myself:

My List of Things To Do While I Wait for My Life to Get Going Again
(If reading this makes you relieved that you are not in my situation, please keep that to yourself. I'm fragile just now.)

Learn Spanish (inspired by my time in the Mother's Lounge on Sunday during the Spanish sacrament meeting and understanding more than I would have thought I would)

Figure out how to start my own property management company and make a plan and a timeline to do so.

Make some efforts at missionary contacts.

Work on Family History (My mom gave us all assignments for the next family reunion).

Learn how to edit my own photos so that I don't have to always ask Dirk to do it.

Work on my menus-by-season for the year.

Read a book about the French Revolution.

Budget.

Draw up some plans for our kitchen remodel for our townhouse in Ellicott City.

Organize my mom's food storage.

Okay, that's it for now. I am also going to go ahead and sign my girl up for dance class because she wants to so much and because the city has really cheap classes and because she needs something of her own outside of the house and because Dirk's security clearance may take another six weeks to process anyway.

He has been offered a job in D.C. that he wants, but is pending his security clearance renewal and meantime he is working on getting an idea of his own off the ground. It's all very exciting and I need and want to suck it up and be patient and all that good stuff (I just replaced another word with "good stuff" -- am really working this evening on my attitude).

Isaac's Birthday Party

We had a very simple party for Isaac's 6th: fill two hundred water balloons, plan elaborate games for the kids to play with said water balloons, and have them ultimately abandon these games in favor of pummeling Dirk with water balloons. It was great! Then we came inside and made pizzas and had cake. Although, after I saw how much fun they had with the volcano cake, and then playing with the leftover dry ice (carefully supervised and gloved by Dirk, of course), I think next time I will do a mad scientist party instead. I got the cake idea from familyfun.com. It was a huge hit.