annie blog

It’s my mom’s birthday today, y’all! So, happy birthday, Mama Susie!

I wanted J to sing a song for his Mama Susie for her birthday, but, therein lies a problem.

J hates, HATES the birthday song. I mean, hates as in like, makes him so sad that tears start flowing before the candles are even blown out. And, you know what? He’s one of many kids on the autism spectrum that loathe that song. For some reason, they just despise it. Sometimes, I think that should somehow be a criteria on the DSM….

Anyway, I asked him to sing a song for Mama Susie for her birthday. Obviously we knew that the “Happy Birthday” song was not in the running. So I asked him to sing a classic song that she would know.  He chose Nat King Cole.

Here’s L-O-V-E sung by J, accompanied by N — filmed in the terrible low light of my bedroom.

Happy Wednesday, everyone, and Happy Birthday, again, Susie Q. For you, I wish you many more birthdays and, for the rest of us, I wish that we may all be as energetic when we are your age as you are, today.

Just the other day, my son was wondering what we could do with the remaining bit of crumpled chips that populate the nether regions of our chip bags.

Yet another reason to love Smitten Kitchen.

Potato Chip Cookies…..with pecans, sea salt, butter…..yes!  To quote the same boy, “They’re both potato chips and cookies.  How on earth could that be bad?”

Oh, and she has a chocolate dipped version.

I can’t wait to try one.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Here’s more to demonstrate my continuing love of A.A. Bondy’s music.

This is Surfer King from the album Believers.  I don’t know what it means really, but I love it.

And, this one, that always makes my day when I hear it on the radio.

Happy Monday, y’all!!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Today I have grand plans for cleaning out my refrigerator, doing some cooking, and getting to some mending that absolutely cannot wait another day.  My mending pile is terrorizing me, y’all.

Anyway, before I get going, I wanted to share a few things  before I forget about them.

First, I blogged about Ryan Adams and his song “Ashes and Fire” yesterday.  If you liked it (and even if you didn’t — because this is a great interview) you should listen to the interview NPR did with him on January 1.  You can find it here.  It’s only ten minutes long and, besides featuring 3 songs, goes into Adams’s life over the last 2 years battling an inner ear disease that made him have to relearn music.  Just fascinating.  Be sure to listen to the song “Lucky Now”.  It is another of my favorites from the album.

This book, Press Here, is one that I got from the library last week.  Then, on Thursday, I came back from an errand to find Jon and E reading it and giggling.  The idea is genius.  It manages to be an interactive book even though it is just a regular book with no sounds or flaps or anything. There is a playfulness to it that is really engaging.  If you scroll down on the linked page you can see a video of it being read.

Finally, I’m not very up on current products.  I try to keep current with some books and music, yes, even though it is really impossible to keep up with either of those two things because of the sheer volume of music and books produced every month.  My clueless nature is really apparent, though, when it comes to products on the market.  Every time I go to Target or someplace like that, I find myself incredulously muttering, “Well, would  you look at all this stuff! Amazing.”   So, it takes someone really getting my attention, or, as is the case here, giving me a gift, before I take notice of some new product. My sister gave me a water bottle for Christmas. Y’all, I totally love it.  The name of the company is Lifefactory and they make a whole bunch of bottles — for baby, toddler, and adult.  Anyway, if you have need of a water bottle I really can’t say enough about these.  I use mine everyday and it is great.  Since it is glass, I don’t have that pesky taste of metal that I somehow get when using a stainless steel bottle.  Also, it goes in the dishwasher.  Yay!  (Have you ever noticed how many “on the go” water bottles and coffee mugs instruct the consumer to hand wash?  Ridiculous.)  Finally, the bottle actually fits in the cup-holder of my near ancient car.  Perfect!

Happy Saturday, y’all!  I hope that you have a good one.

Ah!! How can it be Friday?  Well, yahoo!

Anyway, I need these three songs today.  They are my prescription, it seems.  So, weariness, take that.

First up is an acoustic version of “Ashes and Fire” from Ryan Adams’s new album.  I was not a Ryan Adams fan until this song.  It is awesome.  He is awesome.  Put me in the fan category.

I know nothing about this band, The Vaccines, except to say that their name makes me visualize a syringe, (Yik!), and that this song, “If You Wanna”, is a good one.  It climbed into my noggin a few days ago and has been knocking around ever since.

Finally, Surfer Blood.  I really like this band.  This song, “Miranda”, is off their newest album. See what y’all think.

Okay, y’all, I’m off to slay my to-do list.  Happy Friday, everybody!!

No, I don’t have a problem with spelling — most of the time.

Let me explain.

Homework time is a busy, busy time around here.  I have these capable sons, but they aren’t motivated to do work at home.  So, most of the time,  I’m the motivator and the homework partner.

Last week, I was helping my youngest son with a line plot graph. Now, he was tired.  He was just done in. He was done with caring about which direction letters should face.  He was done with even explaining how he came up with his answers, as you can see from answer number  5 where he answers the question, “How do you know?”

As you can see, he didn’t try to explain his mathematical reasoning, no.  He just said:

I bib it all with my avrij mom.

(Translation:  I did it all with my average mom.)

Way to really affirm me, son.  Really.  It was simultaneously hilarious and a bit humiliating to read this answer after that buster had gone to bed.

My only thought is that he was trying to estimate me mathematically?  Because, in that case, sometimes I think average would be shooting a little high.

Anyway, I hope that y’all had a good weekend and that it was way better than avrij……

that, if I continue to buy and consume sweet potato chips (very addictive…), I will never be skinny.

Oh, well.

I realize that I’ve been too busy try new things in the kitchen lately, so, when N suggested that we try to make churros sometime, I immediately decided that we’d have them for breakfast.

I realize that the males of the household will probably rejoice.  Rightly so, I say.  Rejoicing is necessary when fried sweet cinnamony dough is in the house.

I realize that I really like Downton Abbey.  It is taking all of my resolve not to hunt down illegal copies online just to see what happens.

I realize that I’m sort of addicted, too, to happily ever afters.  Silly, I know.

I realize that I’m not very up on the news.  So, it always comes as a surprise to me when I hear about something the day that it happens.  Etta James died today, y’all.  Let’s all listen to At Last…..just because.

I realize it is late and Friday.  I hope y’all have had a good week!

Here’s to weekends and churros for breakfast and sweet potato chips and happily ever afters and fabulous singers who did the Blues just right!

Stay warm, y’all!

I make lunches for all of the males in my household.  Yes, I know that it would be good if they made their own lunches.

1)  Because, then, they would (all) know how.  (That’s right, some already know and I still pack them a lunch, anyway.)

2)  They’d be more independent.

3)  And, then, I wouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to do it myself.

Oh, but the problems that would ensue, y’all.  Tiny kitchen, distracted males, school tardies, frazzled/frustrated mother….it’d be an ugly thing.

Therefore, I will continue to pack lunches….and thereby keep my sanity, sort of.

You can imagine my reaction when a lunch is forgotten.  It is sort of a ball-up-my-fists-and-stomp-my-foot kind of moment.  This little (mostly interior) outburst is immediately followed by the,  Oh, of course, he left his lunch, thought.

But, I did learn something last week when someone forgot his lunch.

You see, I had made the guilty lunch-forgetter a delicious turkey sandwich with mayo, tomato, cheese and Dijon.  The thought of sending the same sandwich the next day didn’t appeal to me — too soggy.   So, I ripped the sandwich apart, threw away the bread (remember my crummy diet?  It’s still going….) and made myself an omelet.

It was good.  Very, very good.  Do you know what really made it sing?  The Dijon.  So, I suppose that you know what is going in my cheese and turkey omelets from now on.

Try it,  you might really like it!

Happy Tuesday, y’all!

Well, a belated Happy New Year to y’all!  Sorry to take off for so long…..the days since the turning of the new year have just flown.

I’ve got two things to share on this Music Monday, and, both of them have to do with a concert that I got to see last night.

As a result of a friend’s kindness, I got to see The Civil Wars.  Wow, y’all, they were really great!  I had not really heard much from them before but I really enjoyed their music.

Here, you can check them out singing their song, “Barton Hollow”.

Now,that alone was a treat, but their opening band, The Staves, was great, too. The band is comprised of three sisters from north London.  This is the first time for them to tour the United States. I feel really happy that I was able to hear them. This is a song called “Mexico” from their debut EP.  Here you can read about them in Vogue.  Fabulous!

There are some talented people in this world.

Y’all have a good Monday!!

Today is so busy.  Yikes.  I feel like my to-do list is a bazillion items long.  Your day is probably looking similarly busy.  But, if you don’t have a bazillion things to do, or if you want a break from doing your bazillion things, you should check out the blog, Roost.  It is a beautiful food blog written by a girl from Birmingham.  It has gorgeous food photos.  I’ve not made any of the actual recipes yet, but I will, as soon as my to-do list is a little bit shorter.

Happy Tuesday, y’all!