Aurora Borealis

My Mothers Day celebration started Saturday evening, when for date night Mr. Tldz made a lovely dinner — moussaka and lemon oven potatoes, neither of which we’ve had in a while; and then he made baklava!  Yummy!  (Holy cow – do all those items actually go together?!?  We’re usually famous for weird combinations of ethnic foods.)  It was fabulous — especially when followed by a nice back massage!

For breakfast Sunday we had freshly made blueberry scones and steel cut oatmeal.  Agent Murphy was  good during Mass.  (We didn’t have to make a break for the narthex at any point during Mass, so that counts as good.)  I got my presents when we got home — God and the World, a written interview with Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict), a John Michael Talbot CD, and from Agent Murphy Dr. Laura’s new book, In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms.  Looks like both books will be good reads.  As Mr. Tldz said, the interview format with Ratzinger is probably the best way for me to read his stuff these days since it can easily been done in tiny chunks.

During Agent Murphy’s nap, I went out and picked up an umbrella stroller for our upcoming trip to Chicago.  We’re looking forward to that!  We actually really like our full-size stroller.  It’s nicely light weight, but we were looking for something with a smaller profile when folded so it doesn’t take up so much room in the trunk, and we found an umbrella one that doesn’t seem to be built for midgets to push.  After Agent Murphy’s nap, we called the grandmothers.  I had a nice chat with my mom, and Mr. Tldz left a message for his.

We got all of our cooking (including a couple of pies) and laundry done for the week.  (Ours, anyway.  Agent Murphy always has more!)  And we still managed to retire at a normal hour.  A very good weekend.  I hope all my mom friends out there had good Mothers Days, too.

Now my boy is clamoring for help with his puzzles and for story time, so I must go be Mommy.

Mr. Tldz and I woke up yesterday morning inexplicably exhausted.  We don’t know why.  We hadn’t gone to bed late.  But anyway, we were thrown off our normal schedule and didn’t get to Mass.   So we had a more leisurely breakfast than normal, and then swung into high gear getting the house cleaned up for the open house before we left for our “exile.”

First, we delivered a meal to a couple from church who just had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago.  They happened to be one of the presenting couples on our Engaged Encounter weekend.  Then we went and visited J^3, an older couple from our church.  He, Dr. J., was a longtime biology professor at UK-Lexington, an anomaly in that environment as a staunch pro-lifer.  They moved here a few years ago because one of their daughters lives here, and her oldest of 3 children has pretty significant special needs; so they moved down in retirement in order to be able to help.  Mrs. J. has been involved with the pro-life committee a little bit, but Dr. J. is in rather poor health, and I think it has declined rather precipitously since they’ve moved here.  He’s now confined to a wheel chair, so they don’t get out very much, and hadn’t really been here long enough before his health took a turn to establish a big social network.  (Unfortunately, our parish is not very good at welcoming in these sorts of situations.) So they feel some sense of isolation.  Finally, in February, we managed to take a meal over to share with them.  And it has worked out nicely, because we’ve been able to go over there both times we’ve had Sunday afternoon open houses.  Those are scheduled from 2-4 — prime Agent Murphy nap time.  Fortunately, J^3 have a nursery set up for their grandkids.  (One of the three here in town is just a few months older than Agent Murphy.)  So Agent Murphy has a place to nap during the open house and we have a chance to visit.

They are neat folks who’ve lived an interesting life.  They are devout Catholics and have experienced a number of parishes, including helping to grow a Newman Center.  Dr. J., because of his field of study and experiences trying to convey information about human life to students over a long number of years, has noteworthy insights into the pro-life movement.  He survived great evil and tragedy (as in concentration camp) as a child and came to the U.S. at the age of 11 or 12 to be raised by, I believe, a great-uncle.  I guess one sentence from yesterday’s conversation sums up: “When we were returning from Switzerland in the ’70s with a suitcase full of cloned frogs…”  My response to that: “Now not many people can say that!”  We enjoy their company, and I believe they enjoy ours.  We’ll need to make a point, sometime in the next few weeks, of going over to visit “just because” at a time when Agent Murphy can be up and about and get to know them better.

Unfortunately, we had no activity at the open house.  Will have to discuss ideas with our realtor this week, because we’ve had absolutely no activity since the last open house 2 weeks ago.  But we had a lovely afternoon.  We stayed with J^3 longer than we planned, so we didn’t keep to our cooking schedule and ended up going to JR’s for barbecue last night.  Another lovely touch to the day.  But Mommy forgot to bring Agent Murphy’s sippy cup, and I’m not sure how to go about teaching him how to drink from a straw.  We tried last night, but he ended up having to wait until we got home to drink his milk.

Mr. Tldz and I read more of Miss Betsy: A Memoir of Marriage last night, and then again this morning, as we decided to be a little bit lazy.  We had breakfast.  I went to the grocery store.  (Normally a Friday night task, but yesterday’s normal schedule, as you know, was interrupted.  On that note…  My lips aren’t really tingling.  I’ve been using a lot of lip gloss, because I think what I’m feeling now is the burning/stinging of chapped lips.  I suspect yesterday when they were a little bit numb, I kept biting or licking at them to make sure they were still there.  Shoulder is sore, but very bearable.  Pain killers a couple of times a day it seems will suffice.)  We unloaded groceries, had lunch, put Agent Murphy down for his nap, I did a little cleaning around the house.

I headed out to check our local children’s consignment store.  I got Agent Murphy a number of spring/summer items there last weekend, but the stuff for boys is always pretty slim pickings.  They said they were getting more stuff ready to put out, so I thought I’d check back today.  Hooray – several more cute items, including one I’d meant to pick up last week that we’ll hopefully be able to use for 18-month portraits.

Since I’ve returned, I’ve made most of the meal we’re delivering tomorrow to church friends who recently had a little girl.  Mr. Tldz has dessert for them (blueberry cobbler) in the oven and is working on a blueberry pie for us.  (Time to finish off our blueberries from last summer before blueberry season rolls around again.  July will be here before we know it!)

Agent Murphy is awake now, so I must go tend to him and help Mr. Tldz in the kitchen.  And there is much more cleaning to do tonight and in the morning, as our realtor is holding another open house tomorrow afternoon.

We are now the proud owners of an 8′ pew from our old church.  It’s stashed in the basement.  Hopefully whatever house we move to will have a nice spot for it.

Just got done icing a batch of Almond Joy Biscotti.  It’s our first flavor experiment, working off the basic biscotti recipe we have.  The author of that cookbook (all desserts) suggests one have an icing spatula, so we procured one around the time we got married.  Never actually used it until today.  What a great thing!  Now we’re waiting impatiently for the chocolate to set so we can try these guys out.  The half-baked ends of the dough rolls tasted pretty good, though, so that’s promising.

Agent Murphy woke up Friday with his nose all coated over with snot.  He’s had a runny nose ever since, but at least this morning his nose wasn’t all caked up; so hopefully he’s on the mend. (He’s currently nearing the end of a much-needed nap.)  I seem to have come down with a bit of a cold, too.  I don’t know if I gave it to him or he gave it me or we caught it together.  I ought to be napping, too…

We were concerned about the length of Palm Sunday Mass (officially Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion) with the Agent’s not feeling quite up to snuff, but he did amazingly well this morning.  Maybe this bodes well for a good Holy Week.  We’re actually planning to go to Easter Vigil Mass, hoping we can get Agent Murphy to go to sleep once we get there and sleep through it, since it starts after his bedtime.  (We’d love to participate in all of the Triduum services, but we figure that would be pushing our luck.)  We may be leaving Mass after a brief time, or we may make it through all three hours.  We shall see.  I should probably go find him some cute Easter pajamas to wear for the occasion…

So, we made an early New Year’s resolution.  Late last year we decided we needed to do better at seeing our friends.  We resolved to have someone over for dinner once a month or so.  We went ahead and got people scheduled for January and February.  Our first dinner was to happen this evening, starting around when Agent Murphy goes to bed, with a co-worker of Mr. Tldz’s and his wife.  But our guests had to cancel.  Dad isn’t feeling all that well, and more importantly, they couldn’t find a babysitter.  Our planned menu for tonight isn’t kid friendly, and we don’t really have the space to entertain their 2 older kids very well.  Yet another reason it would be really nice to have a larger house.  The square footage doesn’t need to be tons larger, we just need a layout that is more suited to our current needs.

Well, they’ve tenatively rescheduled for next Saturday, assuming they can find a sitter.  And Mr. Tldz and I will have a very nice dinner this evening.  (Too bad for our guests – they’ll end up with “plan B” next week.)  And I have to remind myself that we can only keep our part of the resolution; actually showing up is on the people we invite.

And I guess, if you’re among our local friends, take this as notice that you’ll be ending up in our “dinner club” rotation this year. 

The plum pudding was a success.

We had fun lighting it on fire and serving it up with a very smooth-tasting hard sauce on Christmas Eve. (Mrs. Tldz will get to uploading a picture of same just as soon as she can get a moment away from keeping Agent Murphy out of whatever trouble he tries to find to get into.)

The pudding makes about twenty slices, which is great, except that there are only two of us who can eat it. Agent Murphy is too young by a decade or so and Mrs. Tldz’s mom has gone back home after her Christmas visit. To help out the spirit around the office, Mrs. Tldz drove me and the plum pudding to work on the Monday after Christmas. Several people commented on it, happily and a good half of the pudding disappeared over the next couple days.

We’ve written down a recipe for next year. It’s not quite what we did this year, but the changes are minimal. Mostly, it consists of using a touch less cognac in plumping the fruit and being more definite about how much to pour over the pudding before we light it on fire.

Turns out that the toaster oven is a great way to heat up a couple slices in the morning. Re-heating the hard sauce is oddly more difficult than it would seem, but the end result is good enough to slather over the pudding.

All the worry and fuss paid off and next year will make for a good repeat of our new tradition.

Yesterday felt busy, but it really wasn’t so much.  The big outing was to get Agent Murphy new shoes.  (He’s grown a half shoe size in just under 3 months.  They say this pair should last 3-4 months.)  And Mr. Tldz is on call and had to handle a few things.  But we wrapped up the day with a lovely date night dinner of leftovers.  Really excellent.  We made a nice dinner on New Year’s Day – marinated steak, carrots vichy, and a green bean-mushroom dish.  New recipes, except for the carrots.  Last night we finished off the steak.  Still very good, and the green beans really benefited from sitting.  We’ll remember that.

We’re feeling like slugs, today, though.  Still in our jammies.  I guess we’re not making it to Mass.  Hmm.  Hopefully getting there on New Year’s morning counts for something…

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Ours was quite enjoyable.  Agent Murphy is toddling around pretty well now, and Grandma enjoyed spending time with him.  The little stinker refused to nap on Christmas Eve, so we weren’t able to go to Mass together.  Mr. Tldz and I went Christmas Eve while Grandma stayed home with the Agent and got him to bed; then she went Christmas morning while we cooked.  In some ways, it was a nice treat to have a peaceful Mass without a toddler to look after.

We made food for an army, and we have loads of leftovers.  And the plum pudding turned out well, including the flaming brandy.  I’ll let Mr. Tldz fill in those details when he has a chance to post.  Good presents all around.  Agent Murphy particularly likes a couple of things Santa brought him – hammer balls (a bench with three holes that balls are pounded through with a mallet) and a Tigger ride-on airplane.  He hasn’t pounded the balls with the mallet yet, but he likes taking the balls in and out and banging the bench (and other things) with the mallet.  And he doesn’t like riding on his ride-on toy yet, but he likes pushing the buttons for all the sound effects, pushing it around, and putting things in the storage compartment under the seat.

Our Christmas cards have brought about a few re-connections.

Having Mr. Tldz home for a week was lovely, but it went too quickly, as usual.  At least New Year’s Day is coming up.  We’d hoped he’d be able to take vacation on the 2nd to make it a nice long weekend, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be possible.  Agent Murphy and I drove Mr. Tldz to work this morning so he could bring in the plum pudding in all its non-pre-sliced glory to share with his co-workers.  Fortunately, holiday traffic patterns were evident.

The day after Chrismas, I got a good deal online on the needlepoint Christmas stockings and pewter stocking holders I’ve been wanting.  So next year, when hopefully Agent Murphy will understand a little more about Christmas, we shall have stockings!  As a kid I always loved looking in my stocking on Christmas morning.  I wonder what Santa puts in a little boy’s stocking?  I guess we shall see…

We’re hoping to make an Advent tradition out of plum pudding. Yes, we mean the old sort of english plum pudding. The kind that isn’t really a pudding and that contains no plums.

We’ve figured out the schedule. On the first Sunday of Advent, start getting the fruit drunk. (Technically, this continues during the first week of Advent, but after the initial session with the bottle of brandy, the following bouts only take a couple minutes per day. And there’s beef fat involved in this too, but for the moment all that is mere “detail.”) Sit the empty pudding mold out on the counter. The second Sunday of Advent is the day for the marathon steaming process. The only real tip I can offer at this point is to keep checking the water level in your pot. On the third Sunday of Advent, we just wait, and go out to eat somewhere local-ish that we like. There’s nothing to do to the pudding since it’s just sitting “in a cool place.” On the forth and final Sunday, we make the hard sauce.

We don’t know if the “recipe” I cobbled together is any good. We’ll find that out on Christmas Eve. At any rate, with as much alcohol as has gone into the production of this little experiment, and with our plan to light a little more alcohol on fire, we will feel quite festive.

If it ends up tasting good, we’ll post the recipe and let you all know where to find it. Until then, though, we resume our waiting and hoping.

We made our first turkey, and it was a success.  Quite tasty, really.  My carving leaves something to be desired, though.  I didn’t really have any success getting the legs off as all the carving tips seemed to suggest they were “supposed” to come off.  Has me thinking we might just do a turkey breast for Christmas.  Except Mr. Tldz thinks he may prefer the dark meat, so I don’t know.

Agent Murphy had a little bit of all of the Thanksgiving food – just like a big boy!  We gave him just a bite of the cranberry chutney, thinking it’d be fun just to see his face.  But he really liked it and ate a bunch of it.  He really liked our yummy but very garlic mashed potatoes, too.

It was a good day and we’ve been enjoying our leftovers.