For Mother's Day, The Gift Of Time

When my husband first asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day, I couldn't decide. A bottle of that perfume I've been wanting to try? A dinner out? A mani/pedi? A new plant for the garden?

Then I decided what I really wanted was the gift of time. Not a watch, nor the still impossible act of freezing time, but the opportunity to cross a major project off my never ending list.

Way back in January, I decided the time had come to redecorate the kids bedroom. I asked for theme ideas on Facebook. I got Maureen new bedding. I decided on a color scheme and accessories and such, but that's about as far as I got. We had a party in April, and one of the kids broke one of the blinds on the windows, so that forced me to make a decision, and I bought and installed new shades. But nothing else was done.

Between January and now, we've been busy. I was looking for a new job, then I found a new job and needed to settle into the new job. I ended up in charge of the effort to repaint Maureen's classroom, I volunteered in Johnny's classroom and softball started. Valentines Day and Easter and St Patrick's Day.

Sitting on the floor in there a few days before Mother's Day while braiding Maureen's hair, I decided it was time to do it NOW, before it got to hot to paint with the windows open.

So for Mother's Day, my hubby took the kids to camp in his brother's yard and I stayed home and painted.

The room is far from done. I need to touch up a couple of spots where I got blue paint on the ceiling. The dark wood baseboards need to be sanded in places and then restained. I have storage solutions planned for Johnny's immense Lego collection and picked out a quilt rack to show off the quilt my mom made for him, but neither of those has been ordered. I scored some frames from Freecycle and painted them and framed some of the kids' artwork, but haven't decided where to hang them yet. I bought cork squares, but haven't decided where to stick those either.

But the bulk of the painting is done and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm very pleased with how the painting turned out and I think the kids will love the room when it's finally finished. Of course, I'll share photos when it's done too.

Impulse Shopper

I went into the grocery store the other day for 5 things and came out with half a cart of stuff. Funny how that happens.

Anyway, in the produce section, I spotted rhubarb, which I rarely see, so I bought it.

I don't even really care for rhubarb. But look, isn't it pretty?



A voice in the back of my head reminded me that rhubarb is sour, so I also bought strawberries. And I then, because of my aversion to baking and measuring flour and rolling pins, I bought a prepared pie crust.

Then I did some research, found a whole bunch of recipes and mashed them all together to come up with this pie, which I promptly sent to my dad, who loves rhubarb.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie
2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced
1-2 pounds rhubarb, washed, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups sugar plus extra for dusting
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
1 egg white, beaten
2 prepared pie crusts (for double crust pie)

Mix the strawberries and rhubarb with the flour, vanilla and sugar. Stir to coat, then let sit.

Leave one pie crust frozen. Invert the other onto a baking sheet. When thawed, about 20 minutes, roll out on a floured surface and cut into one inch strips with a pizza cutter.

Pour fruit mixture into frozen pie crust. Dot with the cold butter. Use crust strips to make a lattice top (find a tutorial here).

Using a pastry brush, brush the lattice strips with egg white (but not the outer edge of the crust) and dust with remaining sugar.

Bake at 425 for ten minutes, then turn temperature down to 350 and bake for one hour. When crust is golden brown and filling seems thickened, pie is done. Let cool before serving.



I was impatient and didn't wait for my top crust to thaw completely, nor am I much of a weaver, so my pie looks not as neat as it could be. And as a side note, I've never been able to make a fruit filled anything without the juice boiling over. So I'd highly recommend lining a baking sheet in foil and baking the pie on top of that.

Breaking News! Tooth Fairy Breaks Leg!

Johnny was a super late teether as a baby. He was ten months old before he had any teeth at all, and was closer to three before he got his two year molars. In his last year of preschool, some of his classmates who were almost a year younger were already losing their baby teeth. Our dentist said it didn't matter at what age the teeth started to come out, rather the order in which they fall out is more important. But still, at 6 1/2 with nothing happening, I was wondering when his teeth would start to loosen.

About a month ago, his first tooth started to loosen. And it finally fell out yesterday.

He's been wiggling it and wiggling it, and in the morning it was basically hanging by a thread. "Johnny, pluck that thing out of there!" I told him, but he wanted to show his grandparents how loose it was. A little while later, I sent him to brush his teeth and it came right out.

Truth be told, I wasn't sure when he was younger if I wanted to do the Tooth Fairy thing. But of course he heard about it from somewhere, maybe school, I'm not sure, and I decided it wasn't that big of a deal. And yesterday, when he was talking about the Tooth Fairy and magic and stuff, and he looked just so stinking cute, I was glad. Why force them to grow up early? (He also asked a good question, what does the tooth fairy do with all the teeth? And I'm not sure. Make necklaces out of them and sell them on Etsy?)

Anyway, I didn't really break my leg, but I did trip over a stuffed animal that was on the floor. Thank goodness for city noise, because both kids could sleep through a tornado and neither one woke up.

The Tooth Fairy left him a dollar. I figured with inflation and the state of the economy, that's pretty good.

Do you do the Tooth Fairy? And how much money do you leave?