Our girls' birthdays are two weeks apart and this year we are throwing a party. Unusual because there are 32 people in our combined families - yes, that's just grandparents, one great-grandma, siblings, spouses and grandkids - and the last few years we have just had the grandparents over for dinner. This year we were crazy enought to throw an actual party.

The girls are really excited, they see most of their cousins pretty routinely and it's always fun to get everyone together. We own a total of 10 chairs and a couch so the party will be at one of the city parks. I think this will work out well, plenty of space and the grandkids can play on the playground equipment. We have invited everyone for lunch and cake though we're not exactly sure what's on the menu. Katie & Gretchen picked out hula paper plates and napkins which I though was hilarious given their cake demands.

Two things are definitely set - one 2 layer devils food cake with a Batgirl symbol, and one 9x13 white cake with a Supergirl symbol. This fascination with comics is not my fault. I'm not really sure that I want to encourage it with the cakes but it appears that I have no choice - no flowers this year, no hot pink cupcakes, not even a green Incredible Hulk chocolate chip cake.

Now the research starts, finding a good picture of each symbol, figuring out how the heck to map them out on the cakes. Batgirl seems pretty straightforward, Supergirl, not so much. I did just learn something from www.wilton.com - for black frosting start with chocolate frosting so you use less of the icing coloring and don't get a gross aftertaste. I'll make sure to post pictures of the finished product, even if they don't turn out that great.

Something has been not right with the universe lately. Natural and man-made disasters seem to pop up on a weekly basis. Maybe one more earthquake or volcanic eruption will provide a jump start to get everything back on track. Maybe this spring rain we have had more than enough of lately will wash everything clean, let us all start anew.

If there is anything to learn from the local, national, and family events of late it is that we should all be taking a little more time, making a little more effort. Slow down. Reflect. Spend meaningful time with your children, your spouses, your family and friends. Those e-mails and the stack of research will be there waiting for me at work tomorrow – they are tragedy proof.

Before going to bed at night I wander around the house, look out the windows, check the locks, fold the last of the laundry, set the coffee pot for the morning, give it all a good once-over before turning out the lights. Somehow I stopped walking into the girls’ rooms to check on them before going to bed, started to just peek in from the doorways. I’m not sure why, maybe I felt too busy, didn’t want to bother them, thought they were too grown up.

Don’t get me wrong, we have an elaborate bed-time ritual complete with face washing, teeth brushing, hair brushing, bed straightening, room pick-up, closing curtains, lights off, lamps on, one book to Gretchen, a quick chat with Katie, a hug and kiss from both.

This is the routine for them, checking on the girls before I went to bed was just for me. I know they are in their beds, I can see them from the doorway; see them when I reach in to turn off the lamp. At some point I got out of the habit of reaching out to touch them, brush the hair from their faces, pick up the bear that lost its spot on the bed, take in the beauty of a sleeping child.

A couple of nights ago I broke the habit of not and walked into Katie’s room to check on her, brushed the hair back from her face with my hand and pulled the blankets up a bit. Gretchen was hanging halfway off of on her bed. I picked up her tiny sleeping body and put her back in the middle of the bed, pulling up the blankets, tucking her in again. How did I ever make it through the night without checking on them?

Recent recipe discussion with my Mother

Sitting down at my parent's dinner table.

Me: "When I make this it never turns out right."
Mom: "You must not be following the recipe."
Me: "Well no, because the recipe calls for diced tomatoes and I know that you use sauce and it calls for the rice to be added and cooked in the sauce not separately like you do since Dad won't eat rice."
Mom: "It doesn't call for diced tomatoes."
Me: "Yeah, I just read it the other night, I swear it says diced tomatoes, and green peppers and onions. It was really chunky when I made it."
Mom: "I'm sure it says sauce."

At this point, Mom gets up from the table mid-meal to retreive her copy of the same old cookbook we all have to reveiw for my obvious errors.

Mom: "Well, I guess it does call for diced tomatoes. ... And, well I don't add much for green peppers 'cause your Dad doesn't really like them in this, and well I switched from onions to the dehydrated ones 'cause you don't like onions. ... Oh, and I always made 'this recipe' with 2 pounds of ground beef 'cause there were so many of us."

Western Hash from the cookbook v. how Mom really makes it
1 pound ground beef v. 2 pounds ground beef (used to be 2 pounds when the kids all lived at home, now it's usually 1)
3 1/2 c. tomatoes v. 12-16 oz. Hunt's tomato sauce
1 c. chopped pepper v. 1/4 c. very finely chopped green pepper
1/2. chopped onion v. 2 T. dried minced onion
1/2 c. uncooked rice v. 2 cups rice cooked separately and one baked potato for Dad
The last four ingredients are actually the same: 1/2 t. salt, 1/2 t. basil, dash pepper, 1/2 pound Velveeta. And the directions - brown beef, drain fat, add rest of ingredients execept cheese and simmer for 25 minutes, top with cheese and heat until melted. Serve on top of rice or baked potato.

Mom: "Well I guess I have made a few changes over the years."
Me: "Yeah, I guess so."

We could have similar discussions on lasagne, meatballs, vegetable beef soup, spaghetti sauce, and numerous other recipes.

If I were a month I’d be September
If I were a day I’d be Friday
If I were a time of day I’d be 11:00pm
If I were a font I’d be Georgia
If I were a sea animal I’d be a starfish
If I were a direction I’d be East
If I were a piece of furniture I’d be a lawn chair
If I were a liquid I’d be water
If I were a gemstone I’d be a sapphire
If I were a tree I’d be a magnolia
If I were a tool I’d be a screwdriver
If I were a flower I’d be a white dahlia
If I were an element of weather I’d be sun
If I were a musical instrument I’d be a guitar
If I were a color I’d be brown
If I were an emotion I’d be a little worried
If I were a fruit I’d be a sweet dark cherry
If I were a sound I’d be laughter
If I were an element I’d be neon
If I were a car I’d be a reliable one
If I were a food I’d be a blonde brownie
If I were a place I’d be home
If I were a material I’d be cotton
If I were a taste I’d be cinnamon
If I were a scent I’d be lilac
If I were a body part I’d be a hand
If I were a song I’d be Oh Heavenly Day by Patti Griffin
If I were a bird I’d be a red winged black bird
If I were a gift I’d be homemade
If I were a city I’d be one nearby
If I were a door I’d be painted bright red
If I were a pair of shoes I’d be sensible ones
If I were a poem I’d be anonymous
So, what would you be?

Easter pictures

We had a busy Easter weekend, hopping here and there (haha!). Here are some pictures from the King gathering. While I did manage to show a couple people how the new camera works, I failed to take any pictures at the Faust haus. Next time, I promise!

My Dad and Mom.
My sister Julie and her family, Jamie, Ashley, Natalie, Ryan and Elizabeth with Julie in the back.

My brother Dan and his family, Sara, Paul and Charlie.

Erik, Gretchen, Katie and me.

Mom and Dad and all but three grandchildren. We were missing Violet, Jessica and Mr. Joseph was in the middle of a much needed nap. Notice that Dad cannot sit still and behave himself, he must tease a grandchild. Here they are, left to right, front to back: Ashley, Paul, Natalie, Katie, Gretchen, Grandma with Charlie, Emma, Grandpa, Elizabeth and Ryan.

Katie used some of her savings to buy a new book bag at Target. It’s a satchel-style over the shoulder bag and the strap is long enough that she wears it across her body rather than over one shoulder. This morning she bounced out of the car - excited for a field trip today and the 3rd grade concert tonight – wearing khaki capri pants, a robin’s egg blue hooded sweatshirt and her new pink paisley bag. This past winter was long and harsh with lots of trudging through snow and carefully walking up the sidewalk to school. Usually we park pretty close to the door where she enters the school, it was a beautiful morning and she got out of the car and walked further than usual. Today she was head-up, bright-eyed and ready to go, she looked like springtime.

Watching her walk up the sidewalk to school, mid-stride she glanced over her left shoulder, brown hair shining in the sun, flashed me a million dollar smile and waved. I had one of those split second moments when you realize how much your child has grown and are truly thankful for how great they have turned out.

Gretchen brought be back to reality, down off the cloud I was floating on, when she said from the backseat, “Look how big my nose has growed!” I looked back at her to see that she has curled up her finger and put it the shadow of her profile on the car door – making her nose look like the old lady/witch from Snow White. “Oh my, it’s huge!” I say and she bursts into giggles, immediately followed by her typical nonstop chatter.

I sit here tonight dumbfounded at how quiet it is in the house. It has been a rowdy week around here, the girls were on spring break and we weren't sticking quite as close to bed time as usual. This was kind of hard on me, not getting my relative quiet time before heading to bed in the evening, and I was the only one getting up at the same time everyday. It will even out again in the next few days as we get back to our normal routine.

After the girls went to bed a couple of hours ago, Erik and I played Mario Bros. on the Wii and then I made it through 2/3 of my Evidence take home mid-term test before stopping for the night. Rommel has been wound up and has just now collapsed in a 90 pound pile on the couch.

Although we got quite a bit more snow than was called for last night, apparently it's the first day of spring. This weekend I have put off the regular Saturday housework in favor of some fun stuff. I took Friday off of work to spend the last day of spring break with the girls, thankfully they slept in a bit for me. We had a play date with my friend Angie and her wonderful boys - her almost 2 year old snuggled up to me and spread my shirt and chest with slobbery cookie crumbs. Note to self - don't wear a v-neck t-shirt if taking cookies to Angie's house because you definitely intend to get some love from the G-man. :-) It's so nice to be able to sit, chat and have a cup or two of tea while they play quietly, or not so quietly, but really play well together.

We have been to Hy-Vee, Walmart, Target, O'Reilly's and Toys R Us in just the last 48 hours. Katie scored her early birthday present in a new bike and Gretchen was really pumped to pick out paint for the custom paint job Erik will give her new (Katie's old) bike. After being sure for the last couple of days that she wanted a purple bike, she picked out sparkly royal blue and silver colors. Today we had my niece's bridal shower followed by picking out library books and a very short nap for me. I didn't mean to nap, we read the library books and "The Big, Big World" was on - they have the best nap time voices and I just couldn't help myself. Thankfully, the grating voices of "Dragontales" woke me up or I would have slept through dinner.

Tomorrow I'll have to settle down and do the usual weekend stuff and cram it all into one day. Clean the floors and bathrooms, plan out a few meals for the upcoming days and work in a few loads of laundry, well maybe more like half a dozen or so. Oh, and finish that Evidence mid-term. It's nearly midnight and with all of that work ahead of me tomorrow I had better get to bed. Goodnight.

This weekend it was so nice to take off the plastic, open the windows and do a little spring cleaning. The sunlight a warm sparkle to stream through and light up the house. It feels good to get some fresh air in the bedrooms, though it may be causing a little bit too deep of sleep - Gretchen just fell out of bed.

I wanted to pass along a really great window cleaner recipe that my mother-in-law found somewhere. I was a little worried about pouring ammonia into alcohol, but there wasn't a cloud of toxic fumes or anything. Happy spring!

Window cleaner

1/2 cup ammonia
1 pint alcohol

Pour ammonia and alcohol into an empty (clean) gallon size milk jug then fill the rest of the way with water. Pour into spray bottle.