I have heard the weather is nice, but my Mags has been struck by a myterious viral fever-inducing bug and we have not been outside since Sunday. It started Friday afternoon. It was report card day and she had gotten all "S"s so we headed to the Target and McDonalds with the cousins for the report card awards trip,a new game and a drive through sunday. Yeah!!! for all S's (because I get to eat the left over sundays). When we got home Maggie disappeared into her room while I cooked dinner. Typical. Normally she writes Matt a letter or otherwise uses craft supplies to muck up her room, so I ignored the fact that she disappeared and kept on in the kitchen, until she came out and said she had been "laying in bed trying to get warm"...errrrkkk. That's the sound of my mothering air brakes, as I realize that something is definately wrong here. Temperature taken is 101.7. I load Davis and Maggie in the car and head to the CVS minute clinic...no strep, which you uninitiated might think in great, but I think no...bad, strep can be treated, this means a big bad VIRUS...
Skip to Saturday night, we have left Maggie and Davis alone with a SIXTH grader so we can go to Orsay for dinner. I leave a predosed dropper of tylenol and ask said babysitter to give it to Maggie at 7:30 and put her to bed. She had a good day Saturday and seemed to be on the mend, so I thought we were in the clear. We leave and head to the back bar...mojitos, cheese plate, red zin (the new one on the by the glass wine list is awesome!), our dinner dates arrive, move to the front to our table, bottles of wine, french fries, place our order, happen to check my phone, and find frantic texts from the TWELVE year old babysitter that Maggie is now throwing up. I leave Matt at Orsay and come home to find Maggie with a fever of 104.5 and throw up all over her head. Her fever ended up not coming down until well after 3 in the morning.
We went to Carithers on Monday and were told that we were the 7th patient already that day (it was 9 am) with the same set of symptoms. Blech. Her fever spiked again last night and I have been doing alot of google searches that read "fever er when", "fever er blind seizures", "dehydration, fever, er, when". As of now, we are still at home, treating this bug and Mags with a little "TLC". By the way, call the on call physician at any time of the day or night. It is very reassuring to hear a doctor tell you as you sit holding your limp child at 2 o'clock in the morning that you are doing everything just fine.
And guess what, just like Mama's always do, I caught the bug. Atleat now I know how she feels.
The above picture is of a little something I made for Maggie's bedroom between fever vigils. It is for her new bedroom redo that I have been talking about for months and never seem to do anything about.
I realize that my blog posts are 1. infrequent, 2. uninspired, 3. bordering on snarkfest...so I think I should either give it up or get on with it. Here is my attempt at getting on with it.
The week of food. I will be subjecting you to what goes on in my kitchen over the course of a week. Feel free to avert your eyes.
Dinner #1 Chicken and Vegetable Cobbler
Mark Bittman, the author of How to Cook Everything and the Minimalist column at the NY Times is a big go-to recipe guy for me. Simple and easy preparations that turn out well the first time, just what I need in a food writer. So...this article popped up last week and I thought I would give it a try. Easy peasy, once you get past the prep work. Check it out if you have the time and need a little inspiration.
Matt claims that he prefers this preparation to all other chicken pot pie recipes that I have made in the past, which is saying a lot. All the others rely on heavy cream and this on uses corn starch to thicken the sauce. Easier and fresher tasting for sure. There is very little actual chicken in this recipe, but the flavor and substance of the mushrooms seems to add enough that extra chicken would seem just that, extra. As I was mixing the topping, I thought that it wouldn't be enough to cover the base, but I used a smallish dish so the area of the topping would be less and it turned out perfect! Don't be afraid of the buttermilk or the leaks.
Megan...if you are out there....I think you could make this without the chicken, possibly adding cubed tofu with the peas.
So...this is my last concerted effort at blogging. Let me know if I am too boring and uninspired....
One of my dearest friends had a baby girl in December. Melissa, the mommy, was my roommate during my freshman year on college. My friendship with Melissa is one of the best things that I took away from my time in Gainesville, besides Matt, and I guess my degree. We were a very unlikely pair from the start. Me...panhandle, her...Miami, me...frat boys, her...not so much, me...j.crew, her...betsey johnson, me...chicken, her...dim sum??, me...mountains, her....manhattan. but we stuck together through it all and she has been there for me at every major turning point in my life since we met. I had the honor of making a dress for her baby Lola Eve for her naming ceremony that took place in Miami last weekend. Matt stayed home with the kids, so Maggie didn't have to miss her basketball game (more on that later), and I drove to Miami Saturday morning to be there for the ceremony.
Here is a picture of the work in progress. I used this pattern, and made it out of batiste and Irish linen.
Mommy and baby. Look how beautiful Melissa looks. Motherhood does this to some people. Not me. Melissa's dress was perfect and Lola's shoes were very cute.
Thanks for sharing your life with me Melissa, I can't wait to watch Lola Eve grow up!
Edit....My little sister just called and informed me the above picture is horrible and that I look old and like our mom. I do think that I look a little old and horsey, but also happy.
The laces make all the difference.
These say, I just took the magnifying glass from my Chik-fil-A meal and now I am trying to use it to catch my cat on fire.
I have been home bound with feverish children for 10 days. It has been a long stretch of funk and frustration, punctuated by an extreme lack of sleep. I felt like I was trudging along through cement, hoping everyday to wake up to two healthy kids. I am hoping that tomorrow will be that day.
In the meantime, Davis brought me a most precious gift this morning...
an apple, me, and a heart with his name (spelled...according to him DAVI hairball)
we had a great laugh over the hairball in his name
Sometimes I need a little reminder of how great they are, and how temporary these crappy times will be. There is a poem in a great children's anthology that Matt and I got the kids for Christmas that also serves as a reminder of how we should be purposing our lives. I have a copy taped to the outside of my underwear drawer, ensuring that, as long as I am changing my underwear ;) I will be reminded of how I strive to live.
To live content with small means. To seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion. To be worthy not respectable, and wealthy not rich. To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes, and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.My Symphony
William Ellery Channing
I keep waiting to post, thinking that the bathroom will be done and I can share pictures. Not happening today, not with the rain. So...wear your new green trench and enjoy the day.
styled somewhat differently. and don't stand like that. ever.
