Author - Lorri

Introducing…

Pumpkin Girl Designs

Just in time for Cyber Monday, Pumpkin Girl and I have launched our new website. We are selling hand-crafted hair accessories…and more. It all started when I made Pumpkin Girl an elastic headband with silk flowers to match her ballet uniform leotard. Each level at her studio has a different color uniform, so while the girls are dressed exactly alike, they express their personality in their hair ornaments. They are allowed, and encouraged, to use a headband to keep the little wispy hairs off their face. And so an idea was formed and a business launched. We’ve got elastic headbands with three silk flowers like this one below, available in three colors of elastic and several flower choices. We’ve got flowers on clips in lots of different colors. Pumpkin Girl sticks them right next to her bun for class and tucked over her ear when her hair is down. We’ve even got some ribbon sculptures like this Nutcracker.

Within the week we’ll have the cutest little felt figures attached to snap clips. I can’t wait to share! And of course, you can’t have your own blog and your own internet business without having a give-away!! Go check out Pumpkin Girl Designs and take a look around. Come back here and leave a comment and tell me which item we carry is your favorite. One lucky person will win the item of their choice! Follow the link to our Facebook page and “like” it, return here and tell me you did for an extra entry. Want more chances to win? Blog about our grand opening and leave me a link in the comments. Comments will close at 8 PM MST on Sunday, December 4. Winner will be announced on December 5.

*Comments are now closed.*

Small Mercies

Most days I am caught up in the swirl of family life. Ballet, scouts, soccer, school, cooking, cleaning, lather, rinse, repeat. I try not to focus too much on feeling overwhelmed, but honestly, I find myself falling behind on *life*.

An unusual Thursday rehearsal was called for the Nutcracker battle scene, thus requiring Pumpkin Girl and some of her classmates to stay until 8:15 PM. Thursday is my regular carpool day – and when I say “my”, I mean Phil’s. It wasn’t a really big deal, except on Wednesday night Philip got sick. The kind of sick that takes you completely out of the game and into bed.

Still, not a big deal. It would be tricky picking the girls up at the very time Pipsqueak would be wanting to nurse himself to sleep, but we’d manage. That is, until I attempted to get him to nap a bit earlier than normal in order to get him up in time to pick up all the girls and get them to class. He slept all of 40 minutes, thus setting him up to be extra crabby just when I needed to be heading back out to pick them all up again. Oh well, can’t be helped.

And then as I was picking up one of the girls, her mom came out to talk to me. She said, “I know you have little ones, would you like me to pick up the girls tonight?” Yes, yes I would! I know I could have asked for help earlier, but I hate to be flaky. I don’t like saying, oh I know I made a point of saying I could still drive after rehearsal, but now I can’t. It sure was nice to have that off my plate.

Then on the way home from running the Ballet Express, I was sitting first in line waiting for the left turn arrow to turn green. I was looking off to the side, kind of day dreaming. I was looking at the Walgreens on the corner, thinking about all the things I needed to get there. I snapped out of it and turned my head back to the front to see the light had turned green. And in the small bit of time that it took me to react, someone in the cross-traffic – in the lane closest to me – ran the red light.

Note that sequence. Daydreaming, notice light already green, car runs red. Had I been paying attention and had started moving my car a moment earlier, I would have been t-boned by the car screaming across the 4 lane intersection. At best, he would have clipped the nose of my car. At worst, my door would have taken the full brunt of it.

Somedays you are caught up in the details that make up your life. You chug along, hoping for a break. Other days, God shows you small mercies, letting you know that He’s got you covered.

Send Help!

I’ve been sucked into the Nutcracker Rehearsal Vortex!

Pumpkin Girl is at the ballet studio 5 days a week and has learned the joy and comfort of an epsom salt soak.

In other, non-ballet related news, my life is also dominated by soccer and scouts.  Soccer practices, soccer games, snack schedules and equipment.  I decipher the schedule and note it all on the calendar so we know where and when each game is being played and in which uniform.  Then there are scout uniforms, scout meetings, scout popcorn sales, merit badge colleges, go-see-its, camping trips…It’s a wonder my head hasn’t exploded yet.

The good news is that soccer season ends this Saturday.  Actually, I enjoy soccer season but this year Boo’s practices are 25 minutes away, twice a week.  So I’m glad practices are over, but I’ll miss the games.  And now that it’s November (November!!!), Nutcracker 1 is on the h0rizon.

And just to keep things interesting, Pumpkin Girl and I have decided to open our own business.  Gives us something to do in all our spare time.  More details later.

Seriously, send help.  Or at least egg nog.

 

Gingerbread Cake

My mother made this gingerbread cake many, many years ago.  I was in college or late high school,  I don’t remember exactly. We thought she’d misplaced the recipe, but then it turned up and she shared it with me.  I’m not sure why, but I never made it.  The recipe just sat in my box, waiting for just the right time.

The day before Pipsqueak was born, Pumpkin Girl and my mother made this gingerbread cale.  After an afternoon of just sitting around, chatting with my mid-wife and some of her assistants, waiting for anything to actually happen, we went down to the kitchen to enjoy some dessert.

I did mention Pipsqueak was born at home, didn’t I?  No?  Heh-heh.  He was – thus allowing me to sit in my room, chatting with my midwife and eating homemade gingerbread for dessert.

In honor of this, The Day Before Pipsqueak Turns One, I present to you the recipe for what is certain to become a late-October tradition.

Print
Gingerbread Cake

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup shortening
  • 1 cup light molasses
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon each salt, ground cloves and freshly grated nutmeg
  • 2 teaspoons each cinnamon, and ground ginger
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Grease 9"x11" baking pan.
  3. Combine all ingredients except boiling water and baking soda in large bowl in order given, mixing well after each addition.
  4. Combine boiling water and baking soda in a small bowl and stir until dissolved. Blend into molasses mixture.
  5. Pour batter into prepared pan.
  6. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool slightly.
  7. Cut into squares. Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
https://themacandcheesechronicles.com/2011/10/25/gingerbread-cake/

 

P is For

Porch!

When we did the deck last Spring, we also had the front porch done.  I just forgot to mention it until now.  We had a faux stone treatment added and the old railing replaced with one that matches the deck railing.  Also extended the porch forward by about 2 feet, just enough to be able to use the porch without falling into the planter.  Speaking of which, someday will get that fixed, too.

 

Ballet Mom

My life is totally dominated by ballet.  Ballet auditions, ballet rehearsals, ballet clothes, ballet buns.  Not to mention regular ballet classes.

August started so peacefully, in spite of the fact that Pumpkin Girl moved up a level in ballet and so is now up to 3 classes a week of an hour and half each.  Then she auditioned for and was offered a spot in her school’s pre-professional company.  That came with a requirement to take one other dance class, plus company meetings and rehearsals.  She chose her additional class to be one that happens immediately before company rehearsals, so we drop her off on Saturday after lunch and pick her up sometime around dinner.  It depends on what they are rehearsing.

Of course, there were additional clothing items needed for being in the company, including another black leo, another uniform leo and a company warm-up suit.  The company warm-ups are optional.  Well, to the studio they are, but not to the dancers!  How can you possibly make the company and not buy the warm-ups? We smiled understandingly and wrote the check.

Her place in the company guaranteed her a role in their Nutcracker, taking place in December.  She was happy to be given a party girl role.  I quaked in fear of the natural-hair boingy curls for her straight, straight hair.

Then she auditioned for and was given a role in the Nutcracker that is performed with our city’s philharmonic orchestra and a professional ballet company from out of town. She was also given a party girl role.  More boingy curls! She was slightly disappointed because she wanted to be a baker.  Bakers get to bounce on a mini trampoline disguised as a cake, no curls needed.

Then last week she was given an additional role in the company Nutcracker as a soldier.  The trick here is that she will perform the party girl role and the soldier role on the same day, in different shows.  They require different hair.  If – and I PRAY this happens – she is a party girl in the first show, then in between shows I can wet down the curls and slick them back into a simple bun that will tuck under her soldier hat.  If it goes the other way, soldier in the first show, party girl in the second, I will have to curl her hair, by hand!!! with a curling iron.  Woe!

She’s putting 12 hours in the studio this week.  She is dancer, hear her roar.

And me?  I put her hair in a bun, decipher the rehearsal schedules, write the checks, drive the car.  I don’t mind, I’m get to be the proud ballet mom.

Feast Day

Today is Rebecca’s Feast Day.

I can’t tell you how long she has been gone without stopping to count up the years.

As much as we mourn our loss of our sweet baby here on earth, we rejoice with her at her entrance into heaven.  She is part of the Church Triumphant.

Still…it does still hurt.

(The Dance by Garth Brooks.  Click on the link which opens in a new window, then click back here to let Garth sing to you while you read the rest.)

Looking back on the memory of
The dance we shared beneath the stars above
For a moment all the world was right
How could I have known you’d ever say goodbye ?

And now I’m glad I didn’t know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I’d have  had to miss the dance

Holding you I held everything
For a moment wasn’t I the king
But if I’d only known how the king would fall
Hey who’s to say you know I might have changed it all

And now I’m glad I didn’t know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I’d have had to miss the dance

Yes my life is better left to chance
I could have missed the pain but I’d have had to miss the dance

 

A Day to Remember

Labor Day weekend 2001 was a beautiful, late summer day.  For Washington, DC it was especially nice because it was not too hot or humid.  Our little military community had a neighborhood block party.  It was bring your own meat and a dish to share.  Boo was almost 3 years old and Pumpkin Girl was 8 months old.  It was a good day.

I would later remember it as the last normal weekend.

We actually didn’t live on a base, but in a residential gated community that had been leased by the Navy and Air Force.  We weren’t far from Andrews Air Force base and most of our neighbors were stationed at Bethesda Naval hospital or at the Pentagon.

Phil was stationed at the Pentagon, too.  His office was in the section being renovated that was behind schedule.  When he started his job there a month earlier they were supposed to move in to their new offices in September.  For the time being, they were in a building not far from the Pentagon.  He grumbled good-naturedly about construction delays.

I remember watching a Jackson and Perkins show on QVC that morning, shopping for fall bulbs for our yard.  While transitioning from one product to another, the host said that they just wanted to acknowledge the events going on in New York and that their thoughts and prayers went out to those who’d been hurt.  I hadn’t heard anything yet so I clicked over to the Today Show.

As I watched I don’t think the enormity of it all really sunk it.  It was sort of surreal.  As they switched over to the White House being evacuated, the phone rang.  It was Philip calling to tell me that he was ok.

“Of course you are!  You’re not in New York, ” I said.

“Yeah, but the Pentagon just got hit,” he informed me.

“What? They’re not saying anything about that on the news.  They’re evacuating the White House, though.”

“No, a co-worker saw a plane crash into the Pentagon.”

And that’s when it was picked up by the news.

I remember that it had been a really beautiful day then, too.  The neighborhood was quiet, even as the children returned home early from school.  I kept the news on and went about with my day with my children as usual.  We had lunch, I put them down for their naps.  As I was coming back down the stairs, Philip entered the door.  He had walked from his office, down the empty highway, past the burning Pentagon to the nearest still-open Metro.

We spent the rest of the day watching the news.

Late that afternoon I took a discreet walk around the neighborhood.  We all assigned parking spaces, numbered with our address and I wanted to see who was home and who was not.  By late afternoon, everyone’s car was accounted for.  It looked like everyone on our block was ok.

By the time it got dark they were predicting 800 dead at the Pentagon.  In the end though, that number was much smaller because the plane hit the empty offices that were still being renovated.

Philip’s office.

I remember that the next night a manila envelope was passed around the neighborhood.  One husband and father was unaccounted for in the block behind ours.  Joe Pycior, homeschooling dad, Cub Scout leader, Legos enthusiast never came home.  He was one of the victims.

I remember the days that followed.  The silence as commercial flights remained grounded.  The sound of the fighter planes which circled Fed-Ex Field as the NFL season finally got started.  The candle-light vigil we held for the Pycior family.

I remember going to Threatcon Delta, as we called it back then. We thought Threatcon Charlie was a big deal during the Persian Gulf War.  Back then we thought we’d never go to Delta.  Delta means we have been attacked.  No, we’d never go to Delta.  We were at Delta.

I remember thinking that we’d never be the same.

Copyright The Mac and Cheese Chronicles 2020.  All rights reserved. Images and content may not be used without express permission.