Doings

Ah, this week is about secrets and making and snot. A lot of snot came through this week, a few pounds or so, and we are bound and determined to be moving it along quickly. So this week is also about elderberries, echinacea, and my dear neti pot. Last night was about sewing, for Dan, and working on letters for me, as we listened to a couple of episodes of This American Life and he drank wine, I peppermint tea. Sigh. I am looking forward to more evenings just like this one...

It has also been about more decorating - snowflakes and crazy popsicle stick stars (and cats and rabbits, funny enough), and paper wreaths - and listening to stories, stories and more stories. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Jim Weiss' entertaining animal tales on tape, Pippi Longstocking, Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox, as well as all the Christmas and Winter books that came home from the library with us.

There has also been chicken tortellini soup - twice - because we think it might make us all feel better, and it is so delicious and simple. Squash muffins, rosemary bread with avocado, and clementines. I think Sugar invited Snot to join us this week, so we've banished her to the middle of next week (the peppermint bark will keep, right? and the chocolate-covered apricots need not be a solely Christmasy treat...).

I snuck outside when I saw the sun breaking through the clouds and hitting the neighbor's house, out my kitchen window, with such golden fury that I just couldn't miss it. Put the soup on simmer, called to Dan, left the girls with Alice in Wonderland, and followed the pink strip just visible beneath the descending dark. It was worth it. My head and its extra pounds slowed me down, but that was fine, 'cause when the shuffle of my boots stilled, I heard an owl. I long for moments like these and haven't heard an owl since we moved here, and there it was, the reward for getting out in spite of impending dinner and a sloshy head. Pink sky and a hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo.