Yesterday

At seven I woke up the kids then crawled back in bed. My mind kept going back to American Idol. I tried like hell to push the show out of my mind; since I couldn't, I decided to post about it and how exploitative it is. I haven't followed the show since the first season, but last year dh and the boys started watching the auditions only. As I walk by I always catch bits and pieces of whatever they are watching. Even from last season to this season the producers seem to be getting worse.
There is a knock on the door, Huggy Bear had arrived. I carried her back to my bed to cuddle. Through out the morning there is at least one other child in bed with us. All of them except Princess take a turn lying in my bed. Princess comes and sits in front of me so I can brush her hair. Over the years of having boys I have had to occasionally go into the bathroom and spike, brush forward, argue with a cowlick, even give a quick trim, but this daily brushing of the hair is new to me. I do like that it doesn't involve gel or water so I can stay in bed for it. I always thought I would be one of those get up get up and be helpful moms, I am not. For the first few school years I tried, but fighting nature was too hard. I am a go back to bed, yet still helpful mom. Lane said he needed $1.00 worth of pennies for pennies for patience. I cleaned out all of my dumping spots and came up with them before we left.
We loaded up the van and I drove them to school. It is Thursday so Curly top doesn't have school. The three of us stay in the van and watched the rest of them trudge toward the doors. Princess looked back at us. I picked up my hand and do that wave you only give people you are endeared to. That is the hand steady only the fingers bending wave. Before she could see it a red pick-up pulled in between us. The man who was looking at me is one of those skeevy married men that still think all women want him, yet I wonder how his wife stands him. He smiled. I realized I was still waving.
Curly top was hungry. She wanted grilled cheese. While I was making her the sandwich she finds a tub of yogurt. Not a conventional breakfast, but it worked. Huggy bear fell asleep. I turned on cartoons to babysit Curly top and ran for a much needed shower. Before I got in the phone rang. Miss Universe asked if I wanted to be mother of the year. I would settle for mother of the day I tell her. Her daughter, Mon, is supposed to take snacks to Girl Scouts after school. The reason I have Huggy Bear is that she is on her way home from a night shift at the hospital and I was keeping her so she can sleep. I convinced her that I really don't mind making the snacks and continued on my way to the shower. I was tempted to go with chocolate chip cookies for the snacks. They are my basic go to since I usually have all of the ingredients and with super sized cookie sheets they can be made quickly. Images of sheet cake drizzled with chocolate sauce and sprinkled with powdered sugar wouldn't quit popping in my head though so I decided on that instead. After my shower I decide to come here and post. Once on the computer I make the mistake of reading other blogs first. Then I couldn't remember what I was going to post about. It didn't matter though because I quickly got distracted by orboxb. Finally I passed level sixteen and decided I better not waste any more time on the computer, even though level seventeen looked fun. I logged off took two steps and returned. I had just remembered that I had a coupon for ten dollars on Ebay that expired the next day. I searched for teapots, wine, books, and chocolate before I decided I better check to see how to use it. I don't know how I got it mixed up in my head but the coupon was for Eastbay.
I have spent two days not doing housework and it was looking pretty bad in here. In the laundry room I started to wash a load of socks. Huggy bear wakes up and lets me know quickly that she will only be happy if she is on my hip. She and Curly top join me in the laundry room with their help the work goes much slower, but I was in no hurry. Curly top found the socks handed them to Huggybear who ran to me to be lifted up to put them in the washer. It didn't take long before my back was killing me. I couldn't complain though since it was likely to be the only exercise I got all day. The other good point was that I didn't have to laugh at myself when I noticed I was staring into the washer. On other days I will walk by the washer and I guess stop to check, I really don't know what I'm checking, and a couple of minutes later realize I have just been staring at the clothes going round. This time I had a reason to be standing by an open washer. And yes we did a whole load of just socks, and I don't have a small washer either it is the big fuck-off* size.
Finally that was done so we moved on to dishes. Curly top helped me load, but H.b. decided she would rather run off and try to sneak back in occasionally to steal silverware.
It was a ballgame night so I decided to try and make something for supper that could be left on the stove in a come in go fashion. There were the tips of chicken wings in the freezer waiting to be a soup. They were left over from the last two times Lee had made hot wings. So I decided on a vegetable stew. I had a bag of carrots and celery that needed to be used. I had been considering finely dicing them up and soaking them in vinegar and oil like I do cucumbers and tomatoes, but they weren't that fresh so a stew would be better for them. I started the soup then we took a break to watch As Time Goes By.
It was one of the early episodes and as we were watching it I thought it was odd how much my mom resembles Judi Dench. Just as I finished this thought C.t. said, "She looks like Grandma." Both are nice looking mature ladies, I hope those genes were passed on. Then I realized that if I was going to pass off vegetable soup as a meal to my family they would expect some hearty bread. It was too late start kneaded bread so as soon as the show was over I started herb method bread. I didn't have the dill or savory the recipe called for so I went with garlic and oregano.
For lunch I gave the girls left over tacos and I noticed something funny about H.b.. She took one bite of her tortilla and pushed it to the side. She ate all of the meat and cheese just not the tortilla. "You are the funniest little Mexican I have ever seen." Her paternal grandmother cooks the best Mexican food I have ever tasted and here was her granddaughter turning up her nose at a tortilla.
I looked at the clock and realized I had pissed around so long I was cutting it close on time. I hurried and made a sheet cake and chocolate sauce. I don't have a sifter so I filled my tea strainer with sugar and hit it with a fork over the cake to give it the right look. Made a quick pitcher of Kool-aid and was off to drop of the snacks and pick up my kids.
I don't know what possess me to think we needed 12 quarts of soup, but that is how much I made. I invited Miss Universe and her family to stop by and grab some on their way to the game. We left before they did, but I left the door open so they could come in and help themselves.
Later that evening I was sitting on the couch reading Lost in a Good book, (it is in the Thursday next series and I love it) While the rest of the family was flipping channels. I noticed that almost every channel was talking about how exploitative American Idol was becoming. I was glad I didn't get around to posting about it that morning.

*I can tell I've been watching to much Eddie Izzard when I start using fuck-off as an adjective.