Life becomes hectic
I forget where the "Morning Becomes Eclectic" classical radio show originates, but Elizabeth and I are beginning to think that adult lives just get no breather, period. This week is an example: I'm off to Ohio tonight, return tomorrow night, and then we all fly off to New Mexico Thursday for a memorial service for David Zitzewitz Friday. We return Sunday but then fly out to Los Angeles nine days later for a two-week trip.
Kathryn's birthday party
Speaking of hectic lives, now I finally have a chance to put up the photographs from Kathryn's party. She had seven guests for a "dinner" party (though few ate any semblance of dinner given the activities and cake). She would've liked to invite seventeen, forty-two, or maybe more, but we have a rule that you can only have as many guests as you are years old, and a few of Kathryn's friends couldn't make it.
Both of the children wanted to have their parties on their birthdays, but they also had swim lessons, so we had them from 5:30 to 7:00. Kathryn had a Girl Scout troop meeting the same day as Vincent's birthday, so both Elizabeth and I chauffeured to separate events, and then one of Kathryn's friends needed to be picked up this Thursday, so we again did double duty. Last year, Kathryn's birthday fell on the last day of the school year, and the children were a bit revved up from the last day. More children this year, but a little less craziness, well, except for the spray-bottles.
Kathryn likes to have crafts on her birthday, and so the children made felt flags or pennants, using fabric paint and hot glue to decorate. The "make-'n'-take" has now become a tradition of sorts. And perhaps children like the routines, even on such nonroutine days like birthdays. One of Kathryn's friends was upset that we didn't have time to hide small items for them around the yard this year.
We also succeeded at gluten-free birthday cakes this year. Elizabeth is celiac, so we don't have wheat in the house. We do have a complex wheat flour substitute which I make up from time to time, and it substitutes beautifully in non-yeasted recipes. We opened the old dessert book we used to work from before Elizabeth's diagnosis, and voila! the cake came out beautifully. The real test, of course, was whether children would eat it. They did.
posted by Sherman Dorn 9:21 AM
Friday, May 25, 2001
The importance of family
Yesterday was Kathryn's birthday. We'll have pictures and a description up shortly. It was also, unfortunately, the day my mother-in-law's husband died, while in treatment for tonsil cancer. Dave Zitzewitz was kind to us while we knew him over the past twelve years. My children have lost two great-grandmothers and one grandfather in the last several years. There will be a memorial service later in New Mexico, where Peggy and Dave have lived for the last several years.
It's hard living more than a thousand miles from one's closest relatives. Days like yesterday make it all the harder. Sometimes e-mailed photographs help, such as the following pictures of my oldest brother's family (courtesy of Stan).
My niece Rebecca in a swing.
Rebecca hiding
Nephew Jacob showing us something
My brother Stan, his wife Carla, and my niece Rebecca. Did Jacob take this photograph?
posted by Sherman Dorn 1:37 PM
Wednesday, May 16, 2001
Vincent's Birthday
The day began swimmingly, waking Vincent up with singing and presents, packing the children off to school, with Elizabeth and me finishing cleaning up the house, vacuuming, our removing the EP-3 spy plane parked in our backyard, and so forth, to make everything ready for a child's birthday party. Then we divided duties for the post-school period, with my taking Vincent to swim lessons and Elizabeth taking Kathryn to her last regular Girl Scout troop meeting.
At five o'clock, we descended back on the house (our roof somehow survived) and waited for guests. Vincent had three guests—Jackson, a classmate, Andrea, Jackson's older sister (and a friend of Kathryn), and Jake, a neighbor of ours. They came, they battled balloons in one of the rooms, and then they went out back with spray bottles to play spray-tag.
After a good long (soaking) bit of that, everyone came in for dinner and then bowling. The picture here is of Andrea before she knocked down a good number of pins. I forget who scored what, but I was inside, cleaning up and then taking out the homemade (gluten-free) cake and frozen dessert stuff.
You cannot see from the picture, but the candles are in the shape of various tropical-looking (or at least brightly-colored) frogs. Vincent's now able to blow up balloons, so candles are no problem.
Elizabeth had made multi-colored icing and all of the children (and two adults) ate some of the cake. Several children had more than one serving.
Vincent is a traditionalist. We had asked him if he wanted to open presents after dinner but before cake. No. He wanted cake and ice cream and then presents. No problem. I think everyone else had as much time playing with the small elasticized lizards and frogs on top of two of the presents as anything else.
Jake, who is three, and Jack, six, have some things in common in terms of their energy and, evidently, their curiosity about what was in the box Vincent was opening. Vincent said he was happy with the party, everyone else had fun, and Elizabeth and I fell into bed that evening, totally exhausted.
Kathryn and Girl Scouts
I'm not going to forget, though, that Kathryn did have her own party yesterday, with her Girl Scout troop. I don't know which badge is for what, but I know she'll be happy to explain it to anyone who asks. She was quite (justifiably) proud. This weekend she goes for an overnight camping trip with her troop, and then she has to wait until fall for more.
posted by Sherman Dorn 1:29 PM
Sunday, May 13, 2001
Mother's Day
As is common in schools across the land, Vincent and Kathryn made Mother's Day gifts while in class last week. Kathryn's was a faux flower pot and Vincent's a picture frame (with pasta, so we put it in our bedroom, far away from where it might accidentally come in contact with food). I cut some roses this morning from the garden and voila! instant celebration.
The children's birthdays are both in the next two weeks, and so is our anniversary, so things are a bit busy. Kathryn is still wondering how many of her friends will make her birthday party, and her best friend from the first year we lived in Florida is moving to the Atlantic Coast of the state this week, so things are bittersweet for her.
posted by Sherman Dorn 3:52 PM
Saturday, May 05, 2001
Tamales and summer
Last night I roasted, peeled, and chopped an armful of chiles (leaving my skin with quite a sensation), and this morning I made several dozen tamales from the chiles, masa harina, applesauce (fat replacement), garlic, garlic chives, oregano, and epazote (a Southwestern herb we have a few plants of). Then Vincent and I rushed off to a "water-wise"workshop put on by the Hillsborough County Agricultural Extension Office, where we learned about micro-irrigation. The county is selling starter kits for $10, well under their cost, as a way to encourage us homeowners to experiment. It worked for us; Vincent and I laid out the starter kit when we got back for half of the front foundation plantings. It was easy, and I am enthusiastic about doing more. Sad fact of the workshop: for a typical lawn in Hillsborough, six lawn waterings would use up more water than a human is likely to drink in an entire lifetime.
Things are rolling around towards summer, with the end of the University of South Florida semester for both Elizabeth and me, swim lessons starting Monday, our children's birthdays coming up this month, and a June trip we're planning to visit my parents in California and Elizabeth's mother and her husband in New Mexico. Time, I think, for us to set priorities for the next four months. Visiting Space Station Alpha really isn't on the list.
posted by Sherman Dorn 8:09 PM
