These are all about a week old but still. I made this mini-chocolate cake for all three of my sweeties as seen here. Mine wasn’t quite as pretty but my girls thought I was amazing. Cate especially. The girls and I took a little trip on the bus down to the Bread Peddler and had such fun together. I love having these big girls that walk and talk and have opinions. Such a delight. Especially when pastry is involved. George is already doing so well on the leash. Henry was terrible on the leash as a puppy (and as an adult, ahem) but George just seems to get it. I love taking them both on a walk in our neighborhood.
Four Favorites
1. Evernote. I have been using Evernote for about nine months to keep track of my life – sending it recipes, receipts, contact information, to-do lists, random ideas and work projects. The possibilities are endless. I will say it took almost six months to even get Evernote completely. Now that I am a rabid fan I am trying to convert Telfer. I keep saying but we can share notebooks! So far he is not impressed. If you are interested, read this article. Title of blog aside, it is the best I have read on the possibilities of Evernote.
2. This little white pot. My Valentine’s gift this year from Telfer. The girls drink a lot of hot chocolate in the winter in little tiny owl cups and this white pot lets me heat up the milk on the stove and pour it carefully into their cups without dripping. I am on a campaign to rid myself of the microwave…
3. Project. On President’s Day weekend (and the week after), Telfer and I conquered our closet situation. Our closet in our room is spacious but it desperately needed to be painted and the lighting updated. The other thing we did was put together this PAX wardrobes from Ikea. I don’t want to be too dramatic but these wardrobes have significantly improved my life. Finally, I have a place for everything in my closet. My sweaters aren’t stored on the floor in bins where I can’t see anything. I can get dressed without making a huge mess. I could go on and on!
4. House of Cards. Telfer and I are obsessed with House of Cards on Netflix. We just started Season 2. I love so many things about this show – the lighting, the mood, the complete unlikability of the characters, Kevin Spacey’s direct asides to the audience, Robin Wright’s clothes. We are in deep.
Four Favorites
1. The 7-Minute Workout. We are both finally on board after months of talking about it. The girls like to do it with us which has been an interesting/hysterical experience. I really can't stand to have George in the room though. As soon as I start the pushups he is biting my hair, licking my face, behaving like a puppy. We have the apps downloaded on our phones and iPADs.
2. This graphic novel. An adolescent girl going through a rough time reads Jane Eyre. Pretty lovely.
3. My Valentine.
4. Watching the Olympics, especially figure skating, with the girls. They run upstairs, put on their slippers (flippers as Jane calls them), transform them into ice skates and then the twirling begins.
Posted with BlogsyQuote for the day [my life]
Finished this weekend. This quote is what I keep returning to read and think over:
“It's a very American trait, this wanting people to think well of us. It's a young want, and I am ashamed of it in myself…Haven't I learned yet that the desire to be perfect is always disastrous and, at the least, loses me in the mire of false guilt? Perfectionism is imprisoning. As long as I demand it, in myself or anybody else, I am not free, and all my life – fifty-two this summer – I've believed that freedom is important, that, despite all our misuse and abuse of it, freedom is what makes us a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, according to the psalmist; how like a god, according to Shakespeare; freedom to remember, to share, to dream, to accept irrationality and paradox is what makes us human animals.”
A Snow Day
Last Sunday morning we awoke to a couple inches of the most beautiful snow. Our intentions to attend church may have been honorable but once our California boogie boards started flying down the driveway, it was all over. We *all* had so much fun, including the dogs. I was mostly the watcher-of-cars at the bottom of the driveway but took quite a few turns at sledding. My mom used to make coffee cake on snow days when I was growing up so we took a break and had the best coffee cake (holy butter) with sausage and orange juice for the girls and mimosas for the adults.
And, a video of the girls coming down the driveway:
Andrea Y. Griffith 