Heidi

Yesterday was the Autumnal Equinox...the First Day of Fall.

And we celebrated with a Middle Earth Feast. Abbie has a book out
from the library, which has several recipes in it, based on foods
mentioned in Tolkien's books.

Mrs. Maggot's Cottage Pie...basically a simple shepherd's pie with
beef, carrots, and onion topped with mashed potatoes. THAT was good!
I'm making it for the next potluck at church.

Seed Cakes for Gimli...poppy seed muffins, actually! they were a
good accompaniment to the Cottage Pie.

We really should have had a Strider Salad or something and will, the
next time we plan a Middle Earth Feast. Or fruit something.

And for dessert, Goldberry Pie, wherein we modified a basic berry pie
to a cheesecake bottom, berry topped open face pie that was
scrumptious!

Part of the "goodness" of the day was shopping for the ingredients.
The kids got their allowance and had fun buying "whatever you
want"...which was candy. And we hit the library while we were out.

There is this very cool thing there: magnetic poetry. Only, instead
of stuck to the fridge, it came with this board and a tray. I spent
about 45 minutes putting together such deep and meaningful phrases as:


tingle mortal tongue
may his vow taste like
an eternity

and

mischance beneath a wicked moon


That was so much fun, I'm going to look for that set for my own self!
The kids played a computer game and checked out a few books, and we
found out we have a video out that is nine days overdue!!! but the
librarian had mercy on us and let us check out. We'll owe a chunk
o'money on that baby, though. ack.

Listened to Hank the Cow Dog on the way home, and then Abbie and I
busied ourselves in the kitchen, putting together our Feast. Katie
helped by chopping the potatoes and she also mashed them when ready.

Now, this is the cool thing. Robby is my non-helper boy. The girls
will pitch in whenever, but Robby usually needs to be asked, and
though he usually does when asked...eh, he's just my non-helper. So
last night, the dishes needed doing. We had finished eating and had
digested for a little while, and the time had come. Inexorably,
indubitably, undeniably DISH TIME!

Robby was reading a book and I said "come and help with these dishes,
wouldja?" He glanced up and said "I'm reading" so instead of "putting
my foot down" and insisting, I said "okay. I thought we'd get some
visiting in. You don't have to, but if you want, you can come and dry
while I wash."

half a minute later, he was in there with me, dish towel in hand,
chatting about the Hulk and Rockman. It was absolutely THE BEST part
of the day for me. He did not wander away, he did not leave, he kept
on going until we had finished the entire job: dishes washed, dried,
and put away. Isn't that COOL?

And for bed, we had pretty much giggle gas and chaos. My hubby's out
on a job for the week, and when one of us has to be gone, we usually
open up the bedroom to a kid to sleep with us. Well, I couldn't
choose between them last night, so we all ended up, all four of us,
in my queen size bed. Which was fine. Until someone started giggling
about something, and then it was just hysteria, and I'm not kidding.
More than an hour later, after we'd moved into the front room, on the
floor where there was actually ROOM for us all, we were still
laughing about nothing.

Hank the Cow Dog put us to sleep, and I moved back to my bed about
2:30 because I was getting a major kink in my neck.

Everyone else is still sleeping and I'm enjoying my reminiscences.

a Good Day!

blessings, heidiC