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| It turns out I LOVE having a giant houseful of big kids! I just didn't so much love having a giant houseful of little kids, back when they were all so small and picky and imperiled and exhaustingly putting on some kind of terrible magic show I had to watch every second. |
One is something I wrote over at the lovely Motherwell. Sigh. It's very, you know, same old, what with the grief and the preemptive grief and the fear of grief. Sorry! This "Cat Costume: 3 and 17" diptych might be the perfect illustration:
Recipes: I've been making this lentil soup again (it really is so good) and also this chile tortilla eggbake, which, if you should happen to have a horde of ravenous teenagers waking up in your home, is the perfect, easy make-ahead breakfast (make two). It is the biggest crowd-pleaser I know (but I reserve the right to say that about a different recipe some other time).
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I got the most incredibly charming package in the mail from the lovely person whose business is this fabulous online card and notebook shop. I won't show you what was in it. You have to go to the website and look especially at the notebooks. I love them so much!
And PLEASE: If you can vote early, please do! And if you can't, then please make a plan to vote on November 8th. Between now and then, ask 2 people about their voting plans--people you feel are in danger of not voting. Will you please? Take good care of yourselves.
Sweet halloween diptych [sniff]. If your readers want to help get out the vote, they can volunteer to text young voters in key states at https://nextgenclimate.org/volunteer/ It's super easy GOTV from your computer--don't have to leave your house or even kick the cat off your lap.
ReplyDeleteYes! Thank you, Linda. Birdy and I have been braving the horrible call tool, but texting would be lower key!
DeleteDefinitely! GOTV for shy people.
DeleteCatherine, your Motherwell article is poignant and lovely - as always!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Amy. xo
DeleteI remember that cat costume! Wasn't that the 'we were late for the parade because heaven forbid I let him do his own imperfect kitty nose" (or something like that) post? It must be either really cool or really weird that you have readers who have been with you THAT long and remember things like that.
ReplyDeleteOMG! Bless you for remembering that. It was that costume exactly.
DeleteYour Motherwell piece is beautiful. I love your writing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Caitlin! xo
Delete"We are so lucky to have the children here to devastate us with their leaving."
ReplyDeleteThank you for getting it, and writing it, so we can all make sense of it!
Thank you, Tracey. xo
DeleteAnd wow, I just Googled Robert Munsch, read the "all about me" section on his website, and I'm intrigued by this man! I had mixed feelings about Love You Forever a dozen or so years ago when I was reading it to my toddler-then-preschoolers, but it has always stuck with me. So good to know more about the author.
DeleteI remember that cat costume! Wasn't that the 'we were late for the parade because heaven forbid I let him do his own imperfect kitty nose" (or something like that) post? It must be either really cool or really weird that you have readers who have been with you THAT long and remember things like that.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why this posted twice.
DeleteUm, because it was awesome?
DeleteI also love a house full of big kids! I love their energy and their humor and their ravenous non-picky appetites! And Ben is Michael's mini-me. And the Chile Tortilla Egg Bake is one of our favorites! We have two who have celiac so I make it with corn tortillas. It turns out great. It makes it more enchilada-flavored than the chewy flour tortillas, but we love it still.
ReplyDeleteI've voted. Same for hubs. Got my sis and her hubs to step it up and get it done early. Looking for more to encourage to participate - especially those who are like minded about the short-fingered vulgarian.
Oh, Dale, good, and thank you. xo
DeleteLoved the Motherwell piece.
ReplyDeleteBut wait, Ben can't be 17.
You are handling it so well.
Is that a haiku? : ) xo
DeleteOh, your Motherwell article. Exactly. I hated Love You Forever with a passion of a thousand suns when my kids were little (same way I felt about every Robert Munsch book I read eleven billion times) but now. Now, I could see myself becoming that mother and they're "only" 15. I want to reverse time. Your writing captured that feeling perfectly.
ReplyDeleteRight? Thank you, MJ. xo
DeleteLoved the Motherwell article so much. Thank you Catherine.
ReplyDelete"some kind of terrible magic show I had to watch every second" made me laugh. And cry, as I can't even remember the last time I was forced to watch a terrible magic show.
ReplyDeleteThank you for being one mom step ahead of me so I can always know what to expect. It has been one of the great gifts of my children's childhood, being able to watch your children and your reactions. I can't even formulate what I'm trying to say, so I will just leave it at thank you.
ReplyDeleteWe are having our first company in our new place (in our new country) and we are having your lentil soup and your five minute bread. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for helping to pay attention, to soak up the teenagers while I can!
Oh, that was YOUR lentil soup recipe! I've been making it since you first posted it, and I love, love, love it. When I'm too short on time, I just drizzle it with balsamic instead of taking the (not painstaking)step of making a viniagrette.
ReplyDeleteYour article on Motherwell is fantastic. Very appropriate to my own situation now. Thank you for putting my feelings into words!
I love that Motherwell article so much. Thank you. And a little sweetness on this very bad day was a small, good thing I needed.
ReplyDelete