Random Notes from a Sandwich Life Friday Morning
1. Friday. Huh. How did THAT happen? This week has flown by and it doesn't feel like a Friday to me. Of course we've been busy between work and holiday stuff and getting Mom's house cleaned out. Part of me wants to yell at myself for waiting until the final minute to do this....I mean perhaps it would have been more pleasant carting stuff out in say.....April or September. But then again, as hard on myself as I can be at times, I can't really be mad at myself. Even now I find this very painful. For me it symbolizes the end of my family. I have my sister Debbie and she and I bonded are as tightly as two sisters could be and I adore her....but I think she would agree that the two of us are now a different phase of our family, a different edition, Voelkl Family 2.0 or something.....it's the end of our family as a so-called family unit. So oddly enough, I'm giving myself a break on this.
2. Ernie, yet again, is the workhorse of the family. He's been carting boxes, filling the dumpster with trash, making phone calls all in between doing dishes, calling in prescriptions, setting up Christmas trees, overseeing homework.....and me. He always oversees me.
3. Occasionally the boys 'save' their homework until I get home. I'm always, uh....'touched' by this. Last night I looked at Owen's homework and my tired mind just could not compute tenths and hundreths and graphs so I asked Owen if we could get up early and do it then. Of course HE agreed and this morning I sat with him while he raced through it. I told Owen that we'd never wait until morning again. He nodded and said, "oh NOOO, we'll never wait until morning again, welllllll...probably we will" and smiled at me. Smart boy, smart boy.
4. Could anything be more beautiful than the Custard Cup with blue lights? There was even a bit of snow falling although you can't see it in the picture. I was driving home Monday night and happened to go a different route and saw the blue lights. I frantically tried to get over in the other lane so I could turn in to take a picture but I couldn't manage it. I tried the other night after work and they didn't have the lights turned on but last night I happily stopped at the blue lights....
5. In my tired state last night I looked blearily at the whole chicken Ernie had bought and asked him what he'd bought for vegetables. He stared at me blankly. We have to get used to not being able to go grab a bunch of kale from the yard. I poked through the refrigerator and found two carrots and a bunch of leek tops that I had planned to use for stock. I picked through the leeks and pulled off the outside leaves that were too browned or leathery and soaked them in some cold water for a bit. Then I sauteed them with the sliced carrot in a bit of olive oil. It needed a bit more so I tossed in a cup or so of nice rich turkey stock I had in the refrigerator and the vegetables braise in it until it simmered away. They were SOOO good. The roast chicken and potatoes were lovely....but it was the leeks and carrots that I couldn't stop nibbling....
6. And finally....I'd never gotten around to scanning this. Owen made this at school for me at Thanksgiving. When I look at how carefully he wrote out his letters and his sweet message (and how perky he made my breasts).....well, it makes me forgive him for the soap all over the antique mirror in the bathroom. As he explained, "WELL, I started to fall so I put my hand up on the mirror to hold on...." Uh, yeah Owen.....you started to fall so you raised your soap covered hand up as high as it would go and put it on glass so you could hang on.....oKAYYYYY......