Yes you can

pop popcorn in a half a stick of butter. The butter browns and the popcorn kernels pop and turn a lovely caramel color. Put some really fancy sea salt on top and oh. my. goodness. It is the epitome of popcorn. A popcorn sonata. Popcorn perfection.

2,000 calorie popcorn is really what you need when you have a serious case of the Tuesdays. It's pretty sad that a bowl of popcorn is the highlight of my day. I have a summer cold, which is always worse than a winter cold because warm sweaters and hot tea just don't have the same effect when it is 90 degrees outside.

Being sick is a good excuse for oversleeping, and this morning Dear Husband and I managed to do just that this morning. We overslept despite the fact that we went to bed at nine p.m. Cheeks McGoo woke up around 4 am and snuggled back to sleep in the bed with us. Max the dog must have come into the room around 6:30 because my Dear Husband and I woke up simultaneously gasping with horror as we saw that I was supposed to be leaving for work in 20 minutes.

I made it to work, mostly washed and dressed, but spent the morning in a complete fog. I poured dish soap into my tea instead of honey! (Not so good for a sore throat.) I wandered over to the wrong office for a meeting.

So, It was a generally disastrous day, but I am optimistic that tomorrow can only get better. And if it isn't, we'll make more popcorn.

Community

So it is rather embarrassing that it's Saturday night and I am in my pajamas and ready for bed before nine o clock. I have heaps of excuses though:

Miss Cheeks has given me her cold and the massive amounts of antibiotics I am taking for strep have wiped me out. Plus, my two little ones keep me busy; my Dear Husband and I played parent to daughter defense all day.

Did you know that we suspended our Netflix account because we couldn't even manage to watch one movie a month? At home.

Despite my ongoing battle with exhaustion, today was a wonderful Saturday and reminded me of how much I love my little community and my extended family.

This morning, I was walking to the farmer's market with Cheeks when my father-in-law drove by with my niece. We met up among the vegetables and I convinced him to stop by our house for a little while. So the girls had an impromptu cousin party.

Dear Husband was outside mowing the lawn when our neighbor down the street came over in a panic. A chipmunk had gotten loose in the house and could we please help. Hubby tried, but the chipmunk took refuge behind their dishwasher. I believe it had been gravely injured by the family cat.

Later on, my Mom came by to go to Michaels--because there are some stores that my Dear Husband flat out refuses to set foot in and Michaels is one of them. It's no fun to look at craft supplies alone, so I brought Cheeks and Bee and my mother.

Later in the afternoon, I took Bee to the grocery store. While we were there, we ran into my sister-in-law and the aforementioned cousin and had a nice chat in the milk aisle.

Then this evening evening we went over to my in laws for dinner and saw everyone again. I love having a little community to call my own.

Sidelined

So this week has not turned out exactly as I planned, but then, no week ever really does.

I had a sore throat last weekend, which has mostly disappeared, but starting on Tuesday night it suddenly reappeared. By Wednesday evening it felt as though I was swallowing knives. I lay on the floor of Miss Bee's rooms, trying to make her puppets talk, but could only manage a few whispered croaks.

"You're going to Urgent Care," my husband declared. Both he and my mother strong armed me into going to the doctor, and I hate the doctor, but it proved to be a good decision--diagnosis strep throat.

I went to bed Wednesday night with the intention of staying home the following day and focusing on getting well. Then Miss Bee woke up in the night with a fever. I assumed that she had strep too and so the next day my husband took both girls to the pediatrician to be checked out. No strep. Mystery fever. But not a particularly restful day for anyone.

Fortunately, I am feeling much improved after taking a few large doses of amoxicillin. I was back to work today and allowed in the office after assuring my colleagues that I am no longer contagious. Bee's fever vanished as mysteriously as it arrived.

And now Nora has caught her first real cold. She recoils from a proffered Kleenex but loves wiping her nose on my shirt. Repeatedly.

Poor babies.

(All of us!)

Luminous

I am reveling in the feeling you can only get at the end of a very long, but very good day. It's the best kind of tired--the kind where you curl your toes, crinkle your eyes shut and sink into a pile of pillows.

Today was a family reunion of sorts. My mother has four siblings. I have ten cousins. The entire family, with the exception of my sister and one cousin, gathered to surprise my grandfather for his 86th birthday.

There used to be a time, when I was a child, that most of the family lived nearby and we were able to get together regularly--for pizza nights, football games on TV, holidays and birthdays. As the years went by, our family grew more and more spread out. (We certainly did our part by moving to Romania.) The last time that I saw so many of my relatives all at the same time was at my wedding.

We are an interesting mix of people--equal parts boisterous and reserved. A little bit quirky. Very loving. It's a good mix.

It's amazing how we have all grown older, yet still remain so unchanged. My dear husband and I are making our own family traditions--with his sisters and their children and with my parents and my sister. Those are the the gatherings that Bee and Cheeks will remember when they are grown.

But tonight, bringing my two little daughters to my very big family was the best sort of reunion. Old and young, past and future--a night to remember.

How I spent my summer

I am typing this post with very guilty fingers as a dormant blog is a sad sad thing indeed. I have been wanting to carve out some time to go back to writing. I have been wanting this every day for the past three months. But it has been a spectacularly difficult summer for me.

First, I had to go back to work and leave my baby. I was missing her all day and she was frantic by the time I came home at night, nursing for hours and hours.

Then, all of our household effects were delivered and dear husband and I spent weeks and weeks sorting through piles and coming to terms with the fact that we have neither an attic nor a basement. Although we do have some nice shelves in our garage. Thank heaven for that.

Next, we received the somewhat good news that Baby McGoo was accepted to the daycare at my work. She now commutes downtown with me, riding the metro in her Ergo carrier (it would be impossible without the Ergo, really). But for me to bring her along and make it to work on time means I must leave the house not one second later than 6:50 am. And that means waking up at 5:15. Which is an ungodly hour.

Finally, I realized that none of the above was really going to be getting any better any time soon. I could no longer labor under the illusion that going back to work was only temporary. It's not. Work is the big hairy elephant in the middle of my family life and he's not going anywhere anytime soon.

So, I have decided to fight back. I am savoring my evenings. Reading books! Making complicated recipes for dinner from Cuisine at Home. Baking sourdough bread. Spending time with my parents. Being present for my daughters. And writing in my blog.

Speaking of blogs--this one manages to make me feel humble, grateful and fashion inspired every time I read it: http://www.reagansblob.com/

Transported

Yes, this is where we'd all rather be. . .transported back in time by a few weeks to the beach . . . my sister still here, watching the World Cup, eating the best donuts for breakfast (two days in a row!), making sand turtles under the beach umbrella, and teaching Bee how to fly her first kite.

I can't believe it's August already. I need more melty ice cream with extra sprinkles. A an early morning jog in the sand. More time to just be a family--not a three ring daycare metro commuting circus of a family. . .

We're going to have make it back to the beach sometime this summer, before the leaves turn and autumn creeps in.