She Laughs at the Days

Thank-you everyone for all of your kind comments, and prayers after I posted this last week. I am overwhelmed by your support.

I thought I would let you know how it's going.

Our case is closed and has a big fat inconclusive stamped on it. Which means they were unable to determine for certain that we neglect our children but since it's impossible to determine for certain that we don't apparently, they are reluctant to say unfounded in case it comes back later to bite them in the butt. But they didn't place our case in the central index for the Department of Justice/ Child Abuse.

We are currently investigating the possibility of appealing it by going over her head, but we have little hope that much will change.

We aren't moving for now. We can't really afford though we could make it happen if we really needed to. It feels paranoid to do something so drastic. We reserve the right to change our minds on that though.

And while the door closing on the GH's career has …

Here is the promised Lentil Shepherd's Pie Recipe


I almost forgot, what with all the recent drama and all, and plans to celebrate the GH's birthday tomorrow, about Mary's Frugal Cooking Carnival. (He's making Thai food for his own birthday celebration by the way. It's lovely being married to a man who likes to cook. And I heard something about Louisiana Style Barbecued Shrimp tonight. So we're eating anything but frugal this weekend. Actually, Thai food is pretty cheap if you know where to shop. Asian food stores people, cheap rice, produce, and meat.)

Fortunately, I write about food a lot. I have this little food blog that is sorely neglected sometimes but has, woohoo, archives. So I'm pulling this out of my hat. And I'm sorry Mary that I didn't get more organized before because I LOVE this idea, and I thought the picture of all the food and stuff would be fun.

Here is the link page for a little series I did in the winter.

I fed my family for 5 days ou…

I have written this story several times in my head over the past 3 weeks. Sometimes it is defensive. Sometimes it is sarcastic. It is often angry. I've not written much because to keep writing as though nothing has happened rings false, though there are many other things going on that I could write about. And I've not written it until it has reached a semi-colon of sorts, though it is probably far from over. I am writing it now.

I was standing in my kitchen, wearing my new pretty apron that I was going to tell you all about actually, because I love it so, and making a cheesecake crust to take for dessert to my in-laws that evening. The Baby had been playing just outside the front door with the Boy and the Girl, but they had gone around the corner to the playground for a while so I had brought her inside, and she was standing in the kitchen begging for scraps. (I'll mention again for the record that we live in a gated community and the little play area is 12 steps from my fr…

Your response to an unexpectedly free Saturday after an extremely stressful week is to wrestle mount laundry into submission and take it captive. And I did, for a few wonderful hours ALL of the laundry in our house was clean. Even the stained and hand wash only items were dealt with.

You celebrate this victory by catching up on some sewing projects and get some outfits altered for the girls to wear to church tomorrow.

Your first thought at 4:30am when you hear the ominous sound of gagging from the tiny form in a nearby bed is, "Oh crap. More laundry."

This thought is followed by reaching out and catching vomit in your hands and guiding the puker toward the water proof bed pad. It is too late for the pillow and blankets anyway.

You then have sympathy for the tiny puker and set her up with a bowl and water and a blanket while you strip her bed, hand scrub the chunks from the bedding, and remake the bed for her to sleep in.

You hear the baby crying in your bed and lay next to her to…

Actual conversation at the dinner table tonight.

I am too busy to make salad. I place a bowl of raw thin cut green cabbage on the table to supplement the warmed up chicken curry and rice from last night. It is completely unadorned.

Boy:MMM this cabbage tastes really good mommy, thanks for giving it to us.

Girl:Mommy, can I have more chicken?

Me: As soon as you eat your cabbage you can.

Girl: Okay, and then I can have more chicken!

Boy: May I have some more cabbage?

Me: Eat your meat and rice first.

Girl: Mommy I ate my cabbage, now I want some more chicken.

Me: Here you go.

Boy: I want some more cabbage now.

Me: It's all gone.

Boy: But you could cut me come more.

Me: I could; do you really want more?

Boy: MMMHHMMM CABBAGE IS TASTY!

Girl: Mommy I want some more cabbage too. Will you cut some more cabbage for me to eat?

Boy and Girl: Thanks Mommy for the cabbage.

***********

Another parenting moment.

I hear the Girl making noise in the bedroom.

She is writhing in her bed whining. I pick her up and carr…

Well, you are 15 months. I let 14 months go by unrecorded but there is so much these past few months that is changing and I feel that recording it before it's gone is so very urgent. I want to grab these fleeting moments and pin them down for a second or two.

Let's start with the most recent, and somewhat disturbing development. You can climb. You can get onto chairs and tables. You are monkey like in your agility. This is very very bad. I mean, it's cool, you can do stuff, but it's very bad, for you and the rest of us. Those benches near the table that you like to pull yourself up on and stand on while grabbing at everything on the table? Those aren't very stable. Those were mommy's first ever attempt at building benches, and they are about 2 inches too narrow at the base for the height. They wobble. Of course, I haven't built new ones because the wood for those ones was free, I've not got access to space an power tools right now, and well, have you see…