2.13.2011

School Treats

I asked Ellie many times if she just wanted to buy a bag of candy or if she really wanted me to bake her class treats. I love doing it, but I don't want to if it doesn't make any difference to her. She was thrilled when she saw them. I added food coloring to the dough of my rolled butter cookies. [click here for the recipe] I have found that drizzling melted white chocolate is easier than decorating, and tasty, too.

I often send such treats in a a shirt box (this is tradition, right?) but, when I saw a Christmas cookie tin, I thought it would be easier to handle. Ellie saw me covering it in wrapping paper and mentioned that I am crazy. "Crazy-good...right?" "Yeah, Mom, crazy-good." I wouldn't want my little third grader to be embarrassed by my craziness.

So far this month, I have not posted anything to my theme of things I love. I guess I love doing little things like this. And, I love this tin.




2.09.2011

No one yelled "Fire!"

It was recently that I tried to explain to Maya how the freedom of speech excludes such circumstances as yelling "Fire" in a theatre. Could you imagine what it would be like to evacuate a theatre packed with a panicked audience?

In actuality, everyone calmly stood up and headed for the exits simultaneously. Perhaps there would have been more pandemonium if someone had started yelling? Although, I don't think the example pertains to the instance when the stage curtain bursts into flames.

Tonight we attended the Shanghai Circus at the Star Theatre in Merrillville. About 40 minutes into the show, smoke slowly started billowing onto the stage. I'm sure many people thought, as did I, that it was a smoke machine, a special effect. I found it unusual that much of the smoke was near the ceiling, not the floor. And, it seems the stagehand half way behind the curtian with the fire extinguisher caught the eye of more audience members than the dozen, beautifully adorned acrobats center stage spinning multiple plates in each hand.

The audience was calm and confident that one short spray from a fire extinguisher had kept us all from harms way. Then, flames. It was surreal to see fire in a theatre as the stage curtain ignited. The fire alarms were fairly subdued. I see, in hindsight, probably intentionally. I looked and Darrin and said, "I think that means that we need to leave the building." The reality hit everyone concurrently. I was grateful to have the not-so-good seats that we did. Darrin grabbed the hands of our young daughters and their two friends and firmly stated "Stay with me" as we ushered them from the second to the last row and out to the parking lot in one short minute. I was also happy to have gotten to the car and out of the parking lot before a traffic jam had ensued.

News reports state that everyone made it out safe.

2.02.2011

Enough Already


I've never been more ready for spring. I was ready before this last 2 feet of snow. School for today was cancelled yesterday. School for tomorrow was cancelled today. Darrin shoveled for hours before the neighbor came over with his snow blower. I called work several times to see what the status was of things. I couldn't get through to anyone on the phone. Being only 2 miles away, and working for a newspaper and all, I thought I might be able to help out wherever necessary to get the paper out. Turns out only about 2 other people decided to show up (in my department). So I worked for 2 hours and crawled home white knuckled in white out conditions. After it stopped snowing and blowing, Darrin and I cleared enough of the patio so that we may still grill. Who's up for burgers and dogs? It is exciting to see the kids experience a real live blizzard. Feeling glad I didn't get stuck anywhere... like the office, or Lake Shore Drive.