The Artist and Houdini...

I ate bojangles fried chicken and a biscuit at 10:30 this morning. Gotta be baby.

My sister called around 12:30 this afternoon during her break from jury duty! While we exchanged a few words MW grabbed a red sharpie and a piece of typing paper and spread out on the kitchen floor coloring...when I realized what was going on I hit the floor on my knees scrubbing...shortly thereafter I hung up the phone and continued scrubbing, determined NOT to have a red sharpie person scribbled on my floor for the next however many years we have that floor...and while I was scrubbing and explaining to MW that she is not to color with my markers, I heard a THUD. I looked up and T3 was on the floor beneath the kitchen table. Houdini was at it again, wiggled right out of his high chair and onto the floor. He screamed and carried on. I asked him where it hurt and he yelled "NO!" at me. Finally I put him down. He went straight for the apple on the high chair tray and then for his toy tractor. Ok, one word: BOY, maybe two words: ALL BOY!

This afternoon while MW took ballet, I hung out with another mom while her two boys and T3 played. Her boys are a good bit older...9 and 11...and they were so sweet with T3. They shared the football with him and helped him hold the bat and swing at the T ball stand. It was pretty sweet. At one point the older boys were throwing the football back and forth and over and over again T3 ran up to one of them and with all his strength, wrapped his arms around the boy's knees and hugged him tight! 

A little after 4 this afternoon MW was helping me in the kitchen when we heard little man waking from his nap. MW begged to get in the crib with him and "take care of him" for a little while. I gave her the ok...and a few minutes later I hear her screaming for me to come quick. My heart was racing as I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time...little miss had undressed T3 down to his diaper. Then, 'cause he had a stinky, she'd opened one side of the diaper to "check to see if he was dirty" and something almost fell out. I told her next time, to go with what her nose told her. No need to check!

Our stack of un-mailed drawings and notes to the Obamas is accumulating. We have promised MW that when they move into the White House she can mail them her entire stack. On a daily basis she writes them notes and prays for them. Once I asked her what she wanted them to feel when they got her notes. Her reply: "I want them to feel love from Jesus."

Oh, and get this...I had on talk radio in the car this afternoon and she piped up and asked "Mom, what's the bailout?" -Ha! I'm certain I did an inadequate job of explaining that on a four year old level...

And for a change of pace...

I am a HUGE onion soup fan and want to share my newest favorite recipe for this killer soup that has so often lifted my spirits! (Yes, soup really can do that!)

Ingredients:

• two large onions
  
• 2 T butter
  
• 4 cups beef broth (I use tones beef soup base, found at Sams for around $4)
  
• sherry for cooking (or if I have any red wine that's past its prime I use it)
  
• dash of worcestershire
  
• fresh ground pepper
  
• toasted bread (I like to slice up a loaf of french bread and dry it out at about 240 degrees in the oven and then freeze it in a ziplock, so I can pull out only what I need)
  
• Provolone Cheese (Sams has Land O Lakes 40 slices (that's a lot of soup!) for $9)
  

1. Slice onions very thin
   
2. Melt butter in pan
   
3. Add onions and saute/cook covered stirring every few minutes for about ten minutes or until golden and tender
   
4. Add beef broth, dash of sherry or red wine (ok, I do about 1/4-1/2 cup), and a dash of worcestershire, grind some fresh pepper corns over the soup
   
5. Let soup simmer 10 minutes
   

Ladle soup into bowls, add toasted bread and provolone cheese - now, my broiler is broken so I microwave it for 30 seconds to melt the cheese and then I pull out my cooking torch and burn the top of the cheese...YUMMY! Let me put it this way, my little 87 year old neighbor who eats like a bird ate her entire bowl and said she was sad when it was gone!

Enjoy!