Daily Archives: February 24, 2010

Birthday business (part 2)

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As I write this cool things are still happening in the kitchen.  We need to head off to worship team practice before too long so we are going to have half a birthday dinner before we go.  We did the same thing last week when it was Andrew’s birthday.  The girls asked if they could cook his birthday dinner and of course I agreed.  L15 did cherry tomatoes stuffed with goat’s cheese for starters followed by fettucine in a creamy seafood sauce.  After we arrived home from worship team A13 had a carrot cake with cream cheese icing ready for us.

It is now night and we have done all our eating.  A13 did the starter and main tonight and L15 made dessert.  A13 knows I love Chinese and she did a spectacular job; we had Pork Wontons followed by Hunan Chicken and Stir-fried Bokchoy on steamed rice.  Once we got back from music practice we ate the delicious Lemon Meringue Pie that Laura had made, but not before the younger two children had sucked helium out of a birthday balloon and sung “Happy Birthday”.

While much of this wonderful food was being prepared this afternoon I was indulging in my current favourite pastime, watercolour painting.  I have been teaching art on Friday mornings to the Group of 3, so I have had the watercolours out along with a  huge pile of books on watercolour painting from the library.   Today I sat down to try something a little different from the paintings I have been doing, but ended up doing yet another snow scene.  Now is the perfect time to mention the gift my  children bought me.  The first thing I pulled out of  the gift bag was a flyer for a sale at Wallacks art store…the other thing I pulled out was a gift card to Wallacks art store.  Sale ends Saturday.  Here’s this afternoon’s art. ( you can click to see actual size)

This account of birthday business would not be complete without a peek into the world of a sound technician.  My job doing sound for the worship team Andrew and L are in has recently gained a  higher profile.  Instead of being tucked away in a room off in the back left hand corner of the church I now get to sit  in a booth at the back of the church which is raised a couple of feet higher than everyone in the congregation.  No hiding now when some unexpected and inexplicable technical hitch occurs.   That is not the only change; gone is the 16 channel sound board which used to surprise me in many and varied ways.  In its place is a pretty new thing with a few hundred  gizmos and thingamajigs to do any number of clever and exciting things.  I know that is fairly technical jargon, but I think you get the idea!  All went smoothly tonight and L15 snapped a few shots to show you the cool new board and my equally cool new travel mug.

Birthday business has been very sweet indeed today,  I received a lovely collection of calls, emails and cards from very special people and was totally spoiled and blessed by my  family.

Birthday business

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On account of it being my birthday today I thought that I should not do any school so that gives me time to document the whole day for your reading pleasure.  The day started very early this morning when, although I was tucked up in bed, there were still noises coming from the kitchen.  My girls were making preparations of some sort.

At a much more reasonable hour I came down to breakfast:  pancakes made by L15 with a pile of presents on the side.  The presents are all lovely and some will be featured in this post as I put them to use during the day.   One such present was just crying out to be used straight after breakfast.  Although it was my birthday and I shouldn’t really be doing the dishes, my children kindly allowed me to try out my new rubber gloves, not ordinary rubber gloves but cool ones with pretty “business” on the ends.

My kids are good like that, after I had washed the dishes they also let me clean the stove!  Rubber gloves with business are a big hit.

The morning progressed with the girls getting down to work, it’s not their birthday after all, but not B9.   He is under the impression that my birthday is like the Queen’s birthday, a public holiday for all.  That being the case I decided to put him to work helping me bake Butterscotch Chip Dreams.

While I was at the computer updating the birthday business, B9 was setting out yet another edible treat.  The jelly turtle has always been a favorite of his, but this time it took on a new look becoming instead the jelly lagoon complete with kiwifruit  flotsam and jetsam.

I was planning to head out around midday to do my birthday laps at the pool but time got away over lunch and next thing I knew the window of opportunity had closed.  Despite what one of my children suggested I do not yet qualify for the 50+ Vitality swim!  Had I swum I would have put to good use another of my birthday gifts.  Whenever I swim I usually return home wearing the alluring fragrance of chlorine. That is about to change.

I received a delightful selection of potions from a very pretty store.  It came wrapped very prettily also.  Apparently business was rather slow when my husband made the purchases and the woman who helped him was only too happy to gift wrap for him.  The contents of the box came in a cute little bag (with ribbon) which lay amongst scads of tissue paper in a beautiful silver box (also with ribbon) which was placed in a gorgeous silver bag, which would have been topped off with more tissue paper had not my husband put a stop to it!  I think she would have even written the card if asked.

Serious business is going on in my kitchen right now  and I am not a part of it.  Children who are happy in the kitchen are a very wonderful thing.  (Birthday business part 2 coming soon)