Monday, December 10, 2007

a day with GI Kelly

Not sure what was wrong with me but it definitely related to the GI area and was very uncomfortable but has improved a bit today. Hopefully another good night's rest will do the trick. It's almost10pm now, not too much time left to still make an early night of it but I'll give it a shot... definitely going to bed on today's date though!


I was still feeling pretty tired this morning & not up for anything too complicated or requiring much energy. Since it was freezing cold outside, I immediately ditched any thought of getting them dressed to go out. They wanted to play school today so we did that for quite awhile. I'd tell them to sit at their "desk" (aka kitchen table) and work on their "spelling" (aka drawing random figures that are supposed to be letters of their name). Every once in awhile I slipped away to gather laundry or put something away. Every time, my apt little Honey pupil would track me down and say 'why are you're not at the school teacher?" Dang. busted by a 3½ year old! So we did "art" and "math" and reading. They must have been at it for over an hour. Good thing there are lots of subjects in school!


After lunch I thought it would be a good idea to make Christmas cookies and decorate them. Somehow I strayed from my "KISS" plan (keep it simple stupid). They were keen to get their aprons on. When I told them they'd need their little rolling pins, they almost tripped over each other to get those from the closet. I gave them each a little ball of dough & tried to show them how to roll it out into a flat circle so we could use the cookie cutters. They were avid rollers and I don't think there's ever been a thinner sheet of cookie dough. It was so hard to keep up with each of them & restrain them before they beat the dough into a slimy pulp and got it wrapped around the rolling pin 17t imes. I'd add icing sugar to one to keep it from sticking, clean off the rolling pin and get them started, only to find the other two right back in the same predicament. I stopped Honey from pulverizing her pile further & took the rolling pin to clean it off and she started to cry and said "You're not being very nice to me, I'm going somewhere else!" and ran off sobbing. I felt bad since this was supposed to be a fun activity but I hadn't yelled or beaten her with the pin or anything! I talked her into coming back and finally put away their rolling pins so we could actually cut out some cookies. This didn't go much more smoothly than the rolling out. They kept stamping the cutter into the same spot over and over, making it impossible to actually get a cookie out.... after one sheet went into the oven, I'd had it. No more of that type of cookie for a looooooooooooong time! I remember making them with Pat-rick when he was a toddler and it wasn't anywhere near this nerve wracking or frustrating. I was younger then though and only had to keep track of one set of hands! Nancy, let me tell you right now, I think you're crazier than a bag of hammers to be looking forward to this activity with the girls over Christmas!!!!!!! Let me know when you're going to do it, I'm getting out of there, I don't even want to watch!!!!! ; )))


So, what I thought would be a fun little activity, turned into an all day project. I forgot that the dough is supposed to chill overnight so I put it in the fridge while I gave the girls their bath. I brought my Christmas card stuff in with me & started working on addressing the envelopes and got most of those done. The postage I ordered online arrived today so I can hopefully get my pictures printed & start getting the cards out in the mail sometime soon!


After the bath we went back to the kitchen & the dough was chilled, it just didn't stay that way with all their manhandling. By the time I lost patience with the whole plan, it was almost supper time, not even half the cookies were baked & I had to turn the oven off to cook the meal. Between all the craziness, I ended up overcooking two of the batches (still edible just browner on the edges than I'd like) and had none of them frosted. I'd thought we'd get icing on them & maybe add sprinkles etc. I quickly dropped the sprinkles idea & settled for just some icing. After supper, Murrray helped clean up so we could decorate. (oh yes, I let them get into the icing an hour before bedtime........BAD BAD BAD idea). We had to let them bounce off the walls for about 45 minutes after we were done decorating the cookies. The good news is that there is so much icing on them that lifting the cookie to your mouth a few times is enough of a workout to cancel all the calories of the treat itself. : )


Murray read them several stories to try and wind them down but as soon as the books were put away, they went right back into hyper overdrive. At 7:30 we decided to just proceed with bedtime preparations anyway, hoping the routine would soothe & settle them... they didn't immediately become docile & quiet but they did get ready & go to bed without a fuss. They just insisted on travelling in style!


Somewhere in the midst of getting changed & washed up, Sweetie had an accident on the floor.


Murray: Sweetie, what's this on the floor? Pee?


Sweetie: of course!


Murray: did you do that?


Sweetie: of course! you can pick it up.


Murray: no YOU can pick it up.


and she did. Do you suppose she learned her lesson???????

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