Currently Loving Vs Not So Much

We haven't had a list on here in at least a week or five days or something, right?  Let's correct that.


My Current Favorite Things:

• Kale.  There's a local restaurant that has a salad on its menu right now that consists of kale, feta cheese, apple slivers, dried cranberries, candied pecan bits, and grilled chicken, and it is so. freaking. good.  I've managed to re-create it at home, but because I'm lazy and don't want to spend time doing things like actually cooking chicken or candying nuts or slicing granny smith apples into matchsticks I've discovered that if you just get a little bit of kale, a little feta cheese, and a cranberry on each forkful you have the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and fresh.  I'm not always so great at eating my veggies, so this is a good thing for me.  Anyone know anything about growing kale?  I'd like to put it in our garden this year if at all possible.  

• Adelaide's eyes.  She's had sporadic headaches recently and has been complaining of some blurry vision; I was all set to ignore her anyway until she pointedly asked me to make her an appointment with the eye doctor.  We went this morning, and her vision is fine (Hallelujah!).  I asked the doc if, given Derek's astigmatism and having to get glasses in kindergarten and my extreme myopia and having to get glasses in third grade, we should really be on the lookout for vision problems in the near future, and he said that you just never really know- some kids have parents with perfect sight but have terrible vision themselves, and vice versa.  Here's hoping for some super-strong recessive genes from our kids' glasses-free grandparents and a mini-miracle (I'm looking at you, God)!

• I get to see my sisters and their families in three weeks.  This is a good thing.

• I found a cache of winter clothing that I bought for Adelaide at a garage sale over the summer hiding in the back of the closet.  They still have their $1 and $.50 stickers on them- I don't know who was more excited, Adelaide or me.  She randomly has a whole new wardrobe.  I'm still waiting for this to happen to me.  

• Our boys.  Specifically, our boys and food.  Yesterday I opened a drawer to get a pen and piece of paper and instead found a three-day-old, half-eaten slice of pizza resting atop the paper clips.  I took it out and was getting ready to throw it away when an indignant Caedmon spotted me and cried, "HEY!  Dat's my snack!  Don't frow away my snack!"  This morning, the boys and I were upstairs playing (because it's much warmer upstairs than down), when Atticus disappeared for five minutes.  When he came back up, he was chewing something.  We don't really snack much and I like to monitor what the boys eat between meals, so I was a little surprised and asked him what he was eating and why.  His response:  "I just had to go downstairs and get a spoon and eat some peanut butter because my stomach was so hungry it was about to eat the rest of my body." 

• You guys.  Adelaide had been begging to write a blog post for a couple weeks, and when I finally caved, she did nearly all of it herself:  She took the photos, I uploaded them and showed her how to put them on the blog, then showed her where to type and which buttons to click to publish, then held myself back from correcting every little thing.  Then you guys came along and commented and commented on her post, and she was absolutely thrilled.  You all are the nicest people ever.  Ever.  

• Books.  Because, well, they're books, but also because it's so unbearably cold outside, and is there anything better than curling up with a book and rejoicing in the fact that we live in the age of central heating?  

Tomorrow:  My Not-So-Favorite Things Right Now.  Good luck getting to sleep tonight with that on your mind.

This Sounds Like a Good Plot For One of Those Sappy Hallmark Commercials

On New Year's Eve, I decided it was time to start putting away Christmas decorations.  De-decorating, if you will.

I knew that putting away the tree ornaments would be the most time-consuming task, and so started with that.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, my mother has given each of my sisters and me a Hallmark ornament.  She has continued the tradition with my children, who now have growing collections themselves.  I love unpacking these ornaments every year, carefully hanging them on the tree.

What I don't really love is putting them away.

I don't know how familiar you are with Hallmark packaging.  It seems to go through phases.  My early- to mid-   1980's ornaments fit snugly into two maddening molded plastic pieces that must be lined up precisely to fit into their boxes.  The early- to mid- 1990's brought mostly tissue paper and bubble wrap, and late 90's on seems to be a mix, depending on the fragility of the ornament.

Following my mother's example, I have never ever committed the grievous sin of throwing away any Hallmark boxes or their varied foam, tissue, or plastic pieces designed to protect the ornaments during their eleven month hibernation.  While the molded plastic packaging probably protects it's contents better than other forms, it is a royal pain to deal with.

So, December 31st, nap time, children firmly ensconced in their bedrooms and away from my precious ornaments.  One at a time, I pluck each ornament off the tree, fit them delicately into their wrapping, and slide them gently into their respective boxes.  Over and over and over I perform this process, until over an hour has passed, and I'm down to the last few ornaments.

That's when one of those Hallmark treasures decides to rebel.

Every year there's one.  It doesn't want to go into it's box.  It won't fit nicely into it's molded plastic covering.  It doesn't want to go down for it's eleven month nap.

I was vaguely aware that I was muttering all this aloud, along with something about why this freaking reindeer with it's freaking golf club won't go into it's freaking box.

When I started fantasizing about sitting amongst a pile of shattered glass and tiny plastic antlers, I decided it was time to take a break.

Eventually I got them all put away, even the rogue reindeer.  It's probably best I won't see them again for almost a whole year, as I keep thinking dark thoughts about that stupid athletic mammal, and wondering who will have the gall to disobey me next year.

Only eleven more months until next Christmas!