Of King Cake and Mardi Gras Beads . . .

This post is many weeks overdue, but the story is worth telling. It all took place between Epiphany and St. Valentine's day. But if you'll join me in pretending that it's several weeks ago, I'll go ahead and begin . . .

Houston has a strong connection to New Orleans, both due to their proximity and also due to the large number of former residents of New Orleans who resettled in Houston after Hurricane Katrina. But although I have heard for years about Mardi Gras, it is only recently that I learned about King Cakes. This year at the grocery story, in the papers, and especially the teacher's lounge, there were King Cakes everywhere. People would ask each other, "Did someone already get the baby?" This is a rather unusual question to ask in the teacher's lounge, so I was forced to investigate.

I asked our principal secretary, and she sent me this story:

The main thread to the story is that the cake represents the 3 kings who traveled to meet baby Jesus. The baby in the cake represents Jesus. The cake is shaped into an oval and the dough in entwined to represent the circuitous route taken by the 3 kings to see the baby and it also represents unity of all Christians. The tradition used to be that the person finding the baby was crowned king of the 12th night celebration. In more modern times, the person getting the baby is supposed to host the next party.

The colors: green – represents faith, purple - represents justice and gold is power or royalty.


Pretty cool? King cakes are a sort of sweet bread covered in glaze. I decided the girls and I should make our own low-fat version of the King Cake to prepare for Lent, and just to kill some time one evening while Brady and Bill were at baseball practice.

I found a recipe online for a King Cake that was more like an Angel Food cake than a sweet bread (and was low fat), so we decided to go with that one. KC mixed the ingredients:



Abby grated some lemon zest for us:



And . . . side note, quickly. I don't know if you can see the plastic bag next to Abby. Her hands get very chapped in the winter, and squeezing lemons with chapped hands is very painful. She used the baggie as a glove, but insisted on taking it off while I took her picture. Either brave or crazy - I'll let you decide.

We decided against actually cooking a plastic baby in the cake, so we used giant gumballs instead. In the stories I hear, whoever gets the baby has to bring the next King Cake. We decided that whoever found the gumball would be the "King" of our celebration. Then I hid 3 gumballs in the cake, because I didn't want them to fight over them.

Anyway, we baked the cake and prepared the glaze.

Once it had baked and cooled a bit, the girls drizzled the glaze over it:



Then added purple, yellow, and green sprinkles:



And we were ready to go. Bill's brother and his wife lived in New Orleans for many years (she still does, Joe passed away in 2003), so they used to bring the kids authentic Mardi Gras beads, which we still have tons of. So I dragged out the beads and threw them at the kids, the kids threw them at each other, really, any excuse to throw things in our house is met with much joy. When Bill and Brady got home, we threw beads at him (you have to catch Brady off guard, and then run, because he throws very hard). The girls both found gumballs, so we had two queens of our celebration!



Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez! Let the good times roll!

BTW - Cookie the bunny only wore the beads for a few seconds for the picture and only under direct supervision. He was never in any danger of choking.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day!

The girls still have class parties in school for Valentine's day (I sometimes wish we still had them in high school.)

Of course, many hours are devoted to selecting the perfect outfit for Valentine's day. Red or pink? Dress or jeans?

The girls ended up in these ensembles:



Yes, my poor kids go to school while it's still completely dark outside. Very sad . . .

Anyway, I crocheted the heart purses for them to bring their Valentines cards to school (actually, we don't buy cards, we buy little packages of Sweet Tart hearts and they give those out - no chocolate because of KC's peanut allergy.)

Needless to say, the girls were lovely and they had a wonderful time at the school parties. Brady's in 7th grade, and I believe in middle school they try not to draw any attention to the fact that there are both boys and girls in class, therefore no parties celebrating love, which suits Brady and me just fine.

After school was over, we raced to the baseball fields for some quick business (I got talked into serving as team mom for Brady's spring ball team, more on that another day) then off to Saltgrass Steakhouse where we waited an hour for our table.

The girls love Saltgrass and always try to act very grown up while they are there, particularly Abby. She was very gracious, thanking the waiter by name, "Thank you, James." The waiter's name was actually Jason, BTW, but we're all just supporting players in her world anyway.

We had a great dinner, and James, er, Jason was nice enough to compliment the kids on what nice manners they have. Which makes me wonder a bit just how poorly most of the kids he serves must behave (honestly, they didn't do anything more spectacular than say "please" and "thank you" and call him by the wrong name occasionally). Oh, well. i was proud, the kids were good, and the steak was outstanding. A great evening for all.



Happy Valentine's day to all!

San Jacinto Monument

Since we had a holiday off from school last Monday for MLK day, we decided to visit somewhere we hadn't taken the kids before. The weather was cold and rainy, so parks and bike rides were out of the question. We decided to visit the San Jacinto Monument. Brady's taking Texas History this year, and I hadn't been since I was in 7th grade. So we headed off to Pasadena!




We found out that the San Jacinto monument is 570' tall. It was built between 1936 and 1939 to celebrate the centennial of Texas' Independence (April 21, 1836). There is a museum on the ground floor with lots of items significant to Texas' history including an actual musket ball taken from one of only 9 Texas soldiers who died that day (in contrast, 600 Mexican soldiers were killed). The entire battle took 20 minutes.



Here we are hanging out by Stephen F. Austin, known as the "Father of Texas," and the man for whom the high school at which Bill and I work was named (it's difficult not to end a sentence with a preposition - LOL).



We bought 5 tickets and rode the elevator up to the observation deck which is 489' off the ground. When I was in 7th grade, we had to take the stairs all the way up. The stairs are only used for emergencies these days. Good thing, too - it takes 840 stairs to get to the deck.

The view out the windows is really amazing. Here is the Battleship Texas across the street:


After we'd had enough of the view (and I'd had enough of the height) we rode back to the lobby and headed off to the nature trail through the marshes that helped Sam Houston trap Santa Anna and his troops to secure the victory for Texas.



That's me in the Aggie maroon. It was very cold out!

Anyway, we didn't see any troops in need of assistance, but we did see an armadillo:



We headed across the street to have a picnic (a tailgate party, really, since we stayed in the car) and to get a closer look at the Battleship Texas.


Since we were really cold and it was starting to rain, and the Texas did not look heated, we decided to save the tour for another day.

We did have a good time, and the we all learned a lot. We apologized to the kids for setting them up to accidental learn something on a day off from school . . . LOL

Can you ever love your kids enough?

The very nice librarian who I wrote about a week ago, Sandra Davis, passed away last Tuesday. The damage from the stroke she suffered was more than her poor body could handle. Sandra was 44 and leaves behind a husband, John, and two little ones, a son who is 9 and a daughter who is 6.

My heart breaks for John, who has lost the love of his life and his dearest friend. I can barely decide on a menu for the week without a long discussion with Bill, and I cannot imagine how hard it will be for John.

But the hardest part for me is thinking of those two children growing up without their mom. I know that Sandra will live on in the hearts of those two little ones, and that her spirit will always be a part of them, no matter how much time passes. Our school secretary and I were talking this morning and she said that she always prayed that God would allow her to live long enough to see her children reach adulthood. Now that they have grown up, she realizes that the job of a mother is never finished, and children never reach an age where they don't need their mothers anymore.

I suppose the best we can do is to spend some time every day making sure our children know how much we love them. And pray that if our time here on Earth ends suddenly, that we've loved them enough to last.

A typical day in the life . . .

I was talking about blogs to one of our teachers and told her that we have one and she asked if I just write about what we do every day. I thought how utterly boring it would be to just write about what we do each day . . . but it's January, so I thought I might give it a try (not every day, but just one evening).

First, let me set the stage. This week is finals week for Brady (and Bill and I) but school as usual for the girls. It's cold and rainy this week. This is after dinner. We had leftovers last night for dinner, most of us had lasagna or penne pasta.

Abby is required to read for 1 hour total each week, so generally I sit with her to do her reading . . .



Cookie the bunny was not helping. He generally hops around downstairs after we get home so he can get some exercise. He prefers munching on books to reading them, so KC had to take him away and give him a carrot so we could finish.

KC had finished her 10 minutes of homework (that girl is going to be in for a shock next year in middle school when she has tons of homework). Anyway, she was hanging out drawing a picture . . .



KC is one of those kids who can entertain herself quietly no matter what. She might draw, or read a book, or watch TV. She never complains she is bored. I love that about her.

Bill finished taking pictures of the girls and I downstairs, so he decided to do some dishes (how wonderful is he?)



When Abby and I finished reading, I grabbed the camera to see what Brady was up to (I had a good idea since I could hear him all the way downstairs).



That's a t-shirt on the floor behind him, which I did make him put in his hamper after the picture was taken. Since he had put down his horn anyway, he wandered downstairs for a warm sugar cookie (but I followed him:)



Pretty typical of our humdrum lives.

But it's really quite wonderful if you think about it. :-)

Punctual Girl Strikes again . . .

We are now 15 days into 2008, and so far, eh . . .

Things have been relatively quiet in my immediate family, for which I am thankful. owever, if you could please keep my aunt Pat Sullivan in Boston, and Sandra Davis, a librarian at a school near mine whose husband I have worked with for many years now, in your thoughts and prayers, I would really appreciate it. Both suffered strokes recently, from which my aunt is recovering and hopefully Sandra will as well. My aunt Pat has been further challenged with failing kidneys and is starting dialysis this week. They are both strong ladies, and . . . well . . . sometimes all we can do is pray that their strength will be enough. And that the people taking care of them and watching over them will have strength, wisdom, patience, and perseverance. And for an end to the snow in the northeast. Enough is enough. I am hoping things will be brighter very soon.

On a lighter note, we were talking at the dinner table the other night, and KC asked me what superpower I would choose if I could have one. Interesting question, isn't it? I would definitely not choose invisibility, because I would never want to know what people are saying when I am not around (hopefully only good things, but why take the chance?). Super strength wouldn't be particularly helpful to me . . . I have sufficient strength to lift the things I must and no interest in lifting anything I don't have to. Flying would be fun, so long as the weather is nice. I'd need to be able to take at least one of the kids with me, though, as the places I am generally in a hurry to get to require me to deliver at least one of them as well (perhaps I need a combination of flight and super strength?). What does that leave? The ability to freeze time might be helpful when I need to get dinner on before an appointment, but it seems like nothing would cook effectively until time was unfrozen anyway (I find chicken won't cook effectively until it is unfrozen, which is generally why I would need to stop time in the first place). I suppose I would need more research to answer that question.

Brady would like to fly, and KC would like the power to bend time and space (naturally). Abby had an interesting answer. She would like the power to always be on time to school. Mind you, the kids are never late to school, as Bill and I have to be at work at 7:00 am. I don't know why this was on her mind, but as far as super powers go, punctuality really isn't a terribly useful one. We all laughed (including Abby) at the thought of Punctual Girl arriving to foil a bank robbery:

"Stop robbing this bank!"
"Punctual Girl! Are you going to stop me?"
"Well, actually, I have another appointment I must be getting to. But note that I was here on time. I must go now!"

Really not the best superpower, but at least she was thinking about making the world a better place. If only for the people potentially waiting for her.

Bill left his camera at a friend's house, but has it back now, so perhaps some pictures soon. Best to all!

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2008! Hope all our friends and family are doing well and that great things lie in store for all of us this year!

New Year's eve we were fortunate to spend with some good friends of ours. The kids celebrated by playing Rock Band on the Playstation:



The grown-ups gabbed and watched Dick Clark in Times Square. We counted down the New Year in New York, then waited another hour for 2008 to arrive in Houston. Once the time was close, we called the kids down and poured some sparkling grape juice for them to count down . . .



Happy New Year!!







We've hit the ground running, back at school and hard at work. Brady has a documentary due Friday, January 11th, so we're trying to help him and stay out of the way at the same time. K.C.'s science fair project is due in early February as well, so lots of busy bees around the house!