They really did come out quite well. I also made some pain au chocolat with 70% dark chocolate. Wow.

So, being tired of bread, I think I am going to start dabbling more in pastry. It was quite satisfying. Without further ado, the pastry porn I promised.

Then in JoAnn’s while I was waiting in the fabric cut line, I let the kids go look around the kids area. Tyler brings back this bead thing where you decorate a peg board and iron the result. A friend brought one over to the house a year ago, he loved it then and had been asking to do it again. It is more creative than most things there and is great for fine motor skills so I acquiesced.

All afternoon, he made things and so did Quinn. I finally made myself sit down and knit. And there we were, all working on our crafts, singing to the songs on the radio and cherishing this cloudy, rainy Friday. Really, it was heaven.

After while, Quinn moved onto other things. Putting a hat and leash on her cat Skiddish, cause he is always going places. And then she decided to put her fish on a leash as well, but it needed tape she said because the leash was too big.

….and then onto drawing with the new artist markers, crushing peanuts to somehow make robots, onto play, and then a Mommy-imposed sweeping session (those peanuts were getting cleaned up!) before we ate the best meatballs ever for dinner!

Some days the play and creativity just come so easily…and some days it just isn’t there. Today was like a fountain gushing ideas.

Today is Friday, but Daddy is in Oklahoma for an arts show and so it is a bit different today. I was feeling a bit lonely actually. The universe sought to solve that by having me and the kids run into my brother at the store and then at the playground, run into a childhood friend who lives in my hood! We got to chat for a while and catch up. That was nice.

And the weather was amazing and our walk was heavenly. I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. I did snap this shot of the incredible clouds when we returned home. Also below are all the creations made by the kids today.

It was a great day! Looking forward to the big adventure the kids and I have planned for tomorrow!

Also, seems one of the kids got the camera and got a great shot of the state of Quinn’s kitchen. If I don’t do some regular cleaning out, the thing gets stuffed with everything. I am sure there is some developmental reason she does this, but I don’t know what it is. Any nook that is “hers” – between her bed and the night stand, the area at the foot of her bed where her treasure basket is, and her kitchen are constantly filled with items pillaged from all over the house. When anything is lost, everyone already knows to check with Quinn first. I know she was sent to thwart my decluttering ways!

Flashmob!
This day I was also in a flashmob with some friends. This wasn’t one of the fancy, dancy highly choreographed with professional dancers kind of thing, just a bunch of Mom’s having fun and helping kick off World Breastfeeding Day with some excitement. Don’t worry – some people freaked out when they saw flashmob and breastfeeding in the same sentence. We just did a fun dance – the rap part of the song we danced to had lyrics to were raising awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding.

It was cool to see how one worked and something to check off the ‘ole bucket list.

Yummy Dinner!
Well, I was feeling so great after that flashmob that I came home and made a sinfully yummy dinner – Creamy baked noodles with eggplant and cheese.

Oh my, melt in your mouth eggplant and tomato sauce, a bechamel sauce, penne pasta, a pinch of nutmeg – it was so good! I paired that fairly heavy dish with a salad and some raw carrots. Y-U-M!

We survived and as always, there were still some highlights. We made our cheesy snails which have pizza sauce in them. They are so good! We had a great lunch. And trust me, we do plenty of PB&J around here, so I was excited to come up with this. Today Tyler also made a golf club with a baster and spoon and began inventing games he could play.

I still made myself go to the gym even though I couldn’t even run a mile. I did some other core work though, so I got some kind of workout. Chris kindly put the kids to bed. I am just making myself take care of a few things before I collapse into bed.

I can’t get tired. I am just getting caught up with things and don’t want to get underwater again. I am still having to find my rhythm around here as well – otherwise I am always cleaning or trying to get something done. Trying to find more space for me to just be as well….

OK, that is about all my brain can come up with….

My challenge these days is how to have the slow dinners that I desire with a very active family. Our eating time needs to equal at least half the time I spent making the meal in my mind..or at least this Mama wish it did!! I am sure as the kids get older and more conversational (I hope).

These pictures make me hungry and also very excited to plan next week’s menu as it is store day!

Our two cats are very shy and pretty much live under the bed. Since the kids don’t get to snuggle them as much, they love to take pictures of them. Tyler’s foot makes an appearance as well – I think this was his camera shoot this time. I don’t always know!!