The Monkey-Bird
Species: monkeybusiness birdious
Habitat: Suburbs, backyards,
Traits:
Strong desire to climb
Clever use of tools and opposable thumbs
Engages frequently in monkey business
Enjoying picking things off floor, other monkeys, and furniture and ingesting them or forcing them into the mouths of mother monkeys
Two years ago for Christmas Techie gave me an iPod with the phrase “This is the year we start our family” engraved on the back. Some 20 days earlier we’d completed our home study and after three years of trying to get pregnant and one miscarriage we were hopeful about adoption. 7 months and one week later L gave birth to our beautiful son and we became parents.
While having things injected or inserted on a regular basis or enduring the adoption wait doesn’t sound particularly appealing we’re ready to try for #2 and it seems almost everyone has an opinion on the subject. We’ve heard it all from friends, family, coworkers, and even perfect strangers.
I wasn’t even going to post about it but it’s been haunting my dreams every night since it happened. The Westroads mall shooting happened in my hometown. This is a mall I’ve shopped at hundreds of times…I’ve stood at the customer service counter to have gifts wrapped the same counter where innocent people were murdered by a sick teenager who doesn’t even deserve to have his presense on this earth acknowledged.
I cannot begin to comprehend the grief that the families of the vicitims, the first responders, and the shoppers who were present that day must be feeling. I thank God that I decided to spend the day with my mom instead of going to that very mall as I had planned. Though my shopping wouldn’t have taken me to that department store this week I wouldn’t have wanted to be any closer than I was to the tragedy.
I love making things for other people, especially around the holidays. Instead of sending Christmas cards (which I hate to do because they end up in the trash anyway) I like to make boxes of Christmas treats for a select group of friends and family.
Now I can already hear some of you saying No way! Too much work! Who has time? Being a very busy woman myself I’ve found a few ways to give something of yourself without giving up your life. Below are a few tips and a step by step guide to make your Christmas Cookie Boxes a success.
This is one of those gray cold miserable winter mornings. I’m a big fan of the cold weather as you can see. I’m no snow bunny, in fact I despise being cold and/or wet. I’m sure Freud would have something to say about that but Freud probably never had to mop wet boot prints off the floor or wrestle a 28 lb baby in a too-fluffy winter coat into a car seat. So when I awoke this morning to find my driveway an ice skating rink worthy of the Rockettes, I was not happy. I ventured out only long enough to snap these pictures and dump a gallon of ice melt on the driveway and walk…sorry Rockettes no kick lines here today. I’m sure the ice melt will probably destroy the ecosystem, ruin my sod, and eat through my driveway but save your green freak emails because quite frankly I like my tailbone just how it is.
The one positive about miserable winter days is that you have an excuse to stay inside all day in your flannel pajamas, thick socks, bathrobe, and a wool coat (oh that’s just me huh?) and make these delicious Oatmeal Raisin Bars. At the very least the Raisin Bars are a good excuse to hover over a warm oven and when you feed them to your husband he may even volunteer to cuddle up and keep you warm. What do you have to say about that Freud?
