tifi

So I came upon this recipe at one of the blogs I mentioned last week and knew I had to try it right away. I had all the ingredients, and that is mostly how I cook, I rarely go out of my way to buy specific things a recipe calls for. I’m a winger. When I bake, with the exception of a few items, I am not quite sure what I am doing. But I made these pretzels…and they came out perfectly! Everyone liked and ate them…not just to appease me either. Wow! We did some with brown sugar, some with garlic, some with sea salt. All fabulous. With lemonade to drink. The kids had a blast deciding what shapes to make the pretzels in, and we talked about why dough rises, so we had a little science thrown in there too. Best of all, it was super simple, my favorite kind of project.

Next stop: First Grade!

There hasn’t been a very good bluebonnet season near me this year, but that didn’t prevent us from going to the field closest to us last weekend. Note to self: find Girlie’s sandals. She just can’t go out in flip flops again!

We went to see the bluebonnets after a puppet show Saturday. It was a cool adaptation of Cinderella with The Harms Marionettes.

We also had two picnics: one on Friday, one on Sunday with Isabelle in the park. And we played lots of soccer and my team always won. Yay. The kids are off tomorrow and my birthday is Saturday, so this weekend better be even more fun than the last. Or else!

DH broke a mirror last week, and though I am not spooky when it comes to that stuff, I did

• drop my phone in the toilet
• hit my head on a door
• had no one show up to my meeting…again
• slam my finger, removing some skin, in another door
• and didn’t get a job that I really wanted, all in the space of three days!

BUT, I made it through the week, and look at me, I’m on the other side now, yay! I went out daily and just enjoyed being alive and healthy even though there is plenty else to make me miserable. I’m here. I’ve been spending a lot of time baking, and trying new recipes which has been cool. Especially getting compliments from my children, the flatterers. I haven’t posted pictures in a while…well, it seems like that anyway, so, here we are:

A heart shaped potato! No, doesn’t take much to thrill me.

While waiting at my meeting. Hey, life is better with color. I know everyone will be jealous of my drawing skillz.

After the meeting that wasn’t…

Girlie’s chalk drawing of her and Bebe…hooray, sidewalk chalk season has returned!

Happy First Day of Spring!

Shorts, umbrellas, parkas, mittens, sandals: all items we’ve needed to wear one day or another in the past week. We’ve had spring, summer, fall, and winter in the past seven days. It even snowed last Friday. Nuts. Oh, I got that job, but I’m not going to take it. Long story short, it’s just not a good fit for my life. I had a meeting for my group yesterday, and it was quite disappointing (only one other person came). I’m the sole person responsible for it right now, and it takes up a fair amount of time, and for what results? Hopefully, things will improve with time. Anyway, pics…

Iz. She probably thought I had a treat for her or something, lol.

Spirit, a.k.a Green Dog. We have a love/hate relationship. He loves me, I hate him, heh.

Girlie loves to paint. She told me this was the two of us, and I was holding a tennis racquet. Otay.

The kiddos in our “snow”, lol.

I found Girlie wearing my cardigan and we decided to kick it up a notch, hehe. The suitcases behind her hold fabric. The one with the stickers is my fav, and I got it for $1!

Mine

Bebe’s

I had a really busy second half of the week and even though it was stressful, it was a load of fun. ZB had a huge project due Thursday. A report on a Great “African-American” for Black History month. He had to hand write the report, give an oral report in class, and also dress up as the person or have photos available. It counted for both a Social Studies grade and a Language Arts grade. He chose Wendell Scott, the first black Nascar driver, as his subject. We spent a lot of time working on it, and I grumbled under my breath about it. In the end, it was worth it, and I was so proud. He got an A.

Here it is, if you’d  like to read it:

Wendell Scott was the first Black stock car driver in America and the first African American driver in Nascar. He was born in Danville, Virginia in 1921. He was 14 when he started to drive. He drove his mother to church and to the store every weekend.It was illegal for him to drive at age 14. When he was young, he was a moonshine runner. Mr. Scott was almost arrested once and stopped being a moonshine runner after that. Other jobs he had when he was young were as a mechanic and taxi driver.

He drove jeeps for General Patton during World War II. After he got out of the Army, he married his best friend, Mary. They had six children. Scott began to race in 1947. His family was his pit crew because he couldn’t afford a pit crew. No one else wanted to be on his pit crew because he was African American. He won $50 and came in third at his first race. He went on to win many races in the Nascar lower divisions.

Even though he won a lot, he still didn’t get paid much. This was due to discrimination because he was black. He couldn’t eat inside restaurants or rent motel rooms for himself and his family. Drivers would try to force him off the track.. No one would sponsor a black man either. Wendell Scott had lots of hard times but still raced, and raced. He moved up to the Nascar Grand National division in 1961.

Two years later, in 1963, he won the Grand National in Jacksonville, Florida. That made him the first and only African American to win a Nascar race. He had to argue his win which was given to Buck Baker. Wendell won by two laps. Nascar officials didn’t want him to be the winner because of how the white crowds would react. He never got the real trophy, but he was declared the winner after all. In 1973, Wendell retired from racing because of a near death car crash. He had one win and 147 top ten finishes in his career. The movie “Greased Lightning” was based on his life.

Wendell Scott never made a lot of money racing, but earned respect and admiration from other racers and fans. Some of the awards he received include induction into the National and International Sports Hall of Fame. He worked hard and did his best even when other people didn’t believe in him or want him to succeed. With the support of his family, Wendell Scott made racing history and black history.  He died in 1990 of spinal cancer.

We live for the weekends. While Saturday is usually spent taking care of errands and doing household stuff, Sundays are usually outing days. In the past few weeks we’ve:

• gone bike riding (ok, the kids rode, I walked the dog)
• gotten dressed up and had a tea party
• visited our favorite park for hours and hours

Being from NYC, I’m definitely of the mindset that you don’t have to pay for something in order to have fun. As a child, I enjoyed some of the world’s best museums, music, theatre, and dance for absolutely free. Yesterday, I turned a regular errand into something fun. Bebe and I went to the recycling center and I let him help. He enjoys being picked up and peering into things like bins, or over counters, etc. While we were there, a train was passing nearby, and so he got to see the railroad crossing arms go down, which he had never seen before, and thought was fascinating. The kids are interested in seeing how voting is done, so when I go to vote this week, I will take them with me. You don’t have to have gobs of money, travel far, or even spend lots of time to have fun. You just have to look around. And you don’t have to be patient, a supermom, or even social to make any of this happen. Trust me, I am none of the above. So without further ado I present “Weeekend at Tifi’s”:

I was dressed up for the tea party too, you’ll just have to take my word for it, hehe.

I pretty much forced Girlie to wear her hair out one day. She actually liked it!

Peep ZB’s steeze in that pic! Haha. He said he just made it up. Uh huh.

A rare photo of all of us together.

Something about these shoes always inspires me to take a picture.

The kids are playing in a little sand pit here, ick. I think public sandpits are gross.

My husband is a grown up kid.

I have my shoe loves, Luis has his.

Someday, I’ll have a DSLR and be able to take fabulous shots. Until then, I make it work.

Girlie strikes a diva pose while I…look like I hurt my back? LOL.

Mommy’s little (not quite) stairsteps, hehe.

The end!