A Gold Star for Me!

I had a Parenting shining moment this week.
True fact.
And now I am sharing with you. So that you can ooohh and aaaahh accordingly.

Em and I had a disagreement about something. I can't at the moment remember what it was. But anyhoo...that's not the important part.

She got really angry at me. Really Mad. Foot Stomping, Raised Voice, Daggers in her Eyes, MAD. She yelled at me, turned on her heels, and stomped off down the hall.

As she stalked away I was thinking to myself - Oh my, am I going to be in trouble when we hit the teenage years or what?!
But then, do you know what happened?

She came back, put her arm around my neck, and said "I'm sorry mama, I shouldn't have talked to you that way even if I was mad"

Holy smokes! An apology, with compassion and remorse.

There is hope for raising a caring, compassionate kid after all. Now fashion sense....that's a whole different story.

Mr. Woolsey gets a new cap

I've been kind of slacking on my knitting posts lately.

Its most likely do to the fact that I haven't been working on much. I did make Mr Woolsey a new knit cap. I tried to make it as Raider-y as possible. I'm not sure that translated well. And I tried a new kind of cast-on. The brim is kind of loose and rolls a bit, I don't think I like it. But it's a start.

And since I think I might be the slowest knitter ever, I'm going to start on the Christmas stockings I was planning on for this year now. Maybe by December, I'll have them both done. Maybe.

The Family that Shreds together....

Know what they say about the family that Shreds together?

No.

Neither do I. But we are ALL going to be lookin' amazing this summer in our swim suits. Even Bobby's committed. He's got quite the little milk belly to work off.

New Year Resolutions - they are a-happening at our house. I am 10 days into the 30 Day Shred DVD. I've only weighed myself once so I can't really do a numbers report yet, but I think the muffin-top may be getting a little smaller. And Mr Woolsey swears he can see a difference. But...I pay him to say that, right?

And, who would have guessed those 1 pound hand weights Santa put in the kids' stockings would be such a hit.

Not me.

Unless Some Sweetness at the Bottom Lie,

Who cares for all the crinkling of the pie? - William King The Art of Cookery 1708

I just finished The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.
Amazing.
British (I have a secret love affair for accents)
Flavia De Luce
Going to be a series.
sign

LOVED IT. So you should go read it. And if you don't like, don't tell me, I won't be able to let such harsh words fall upon my adoring ears.

It is a kind of Nancy Drew-esque/boxcar kids/three investigators type book. The main character is an 11 year old girl named Flavia De Luce. She's adorable, astute, a chemist hopeful, witty, and all of the sassiness that an 11 year old can be.

And since I'm so twitterpated with it still and wouldn't do the book justice, here is the review from amazon:

Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009: It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices? With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with their own pursuits and passions—stamp collecting, adventure novels, and boys respectively—Flavia takes off on her trusty bicycle Gladys to catch a murderer. In Alan Bradley's critically acclaimed debut mystery, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, adult readers will be totally charmed by this fearless, funny, and unflappable kid sleuth. But don't be fooled: this carefully plotted detective novel (the first in a new series) features plenty of unexpected twists and turns and loads of tasty period detail. As the pages fly by, you'll be rooting for this curious combination of Harriet the Spy and Sherlock Holmes. Go ahead, take a bite. --Lauren Nemroff

The one where I tell you my New Year's Resolutions

So many people are forgoing resolutions this year. Mine are kind of simple:
- Take better care of myself (eating better, exercising, saying no more often)
- Learn how to make tasty delicious creme brulee all by myself (Its getting sooo hard to find restaurants in town that make it anymore.....and by the way - flan can't hold a candle to creme brulee. Ever.)

That's it. I think I can keep them this year.
Wish me Luck!


UPDATE: 3-1-10
Inspired by someone else's resolutions I ran across last week, I'm adding one more:
- Run 100 miles (total) this year

I think that might be too easy but I thought I'd start small. Hey, if Will's mom can bike eleventy-billion miles in a year, I think I can run a hundred.