Best of Em-i-lis 2013: May

It is Monday, and it is very cold, but I am excited because V-day is Friday. My heart-shaped bundt pan is on its way to me now, but more on that later. To keep the Year in Review ball a'rolling, I give you:

The Best of Em-i-lis: May 2013

As May usually is for my family, last May was a month of celebrations. Tom and I celebrated 9 years of marriage, and my sister and I threw a big party for my parents' 40th! Mother's Day meant I got to sleep in, go to the farmers market and be showered with love by my sweet boys. May was the month in which I made The Best Granola In The World for the first time; since then, it's been a constant presence in our pantry. I dreamed about a cocktail, The Lidocaine, that actually turned out to be quite good, and I realized anew how terribly smitten I am with spring. The boys made me laugh (and, on occasion, cry!), the flowers emerged resplendently from the gardens, and another school year neared its end.

In this post, I've just made jam and offer some good tips about how you know when it's reached the critically important set-point.

In this bit of hilarity, you see -in full pictorial- the essence of my funny Oliver.

I love this piece about stasis and feeling in love with my kids.

I was glad I brought my camera to the farmers market on Mother's Day because the flowers were incredible. As were these strawberries!

Crying over sausages at 4:45am? Chess Club? Dinner? Check!

Friends, it was with some dismay that after a lengthy morning snuggle visit with Ol earlier (much!) today, I thought to ask him the time and found out it was nearing 4:45. A!M! I strongly suggested he take his cute bum back to bed at which point he started crying hysterically about being starving. I said, "Well, Ol, you can go get a banana or some cereal, but I am definitely not getting out of this bed." "BUT I WANT BREAKFAST SAUSAGES RIGHT NOW. I AM STARVING. BREAKFAST SAUSAGES. SAUSAGES. BREAKFAST. STARVING."

Truly, it was absurd but he literally would not leave and I was equally committed to staying in bed. Finally, Tom huffed up and out and marched Ol back to his room. He sobbed for precisely 2.4 seconds before falling back asleep. I have felt rather like cat puke since.

Then, awesomeness continued when Tom had to go back to work. Until 1:15. Now, at 1:30 was Session 1 of the weekend chess club the boys created last weekend. Jack and Tom would teach Oliver and three friends chess. It commenced today. At 1:30. T suggested I stick around. I politely declined, set out the snacks I'd prepared, took one cute pic of the sweeties hovering over chess boards and hauled ass to bed, stopping only for earplugs along the way. Then I had my writing class. Then I managed to get out of 50% of bathtime by "preparing at length for dinner" (not really), made my whole wheat spaghetti with roasted chicken, currants, fennel and mascarpone, and watched some figure skating. The Canadian man-elf was too much for me, but Gracie Gold and Yulia the 15 year old Russian phenom were great.

Off to bed with the paper, my Sherlock Holmes compilation and no real belief that I'll get through much of either.

Saturday night wishes

Friends, I would be psyched if a leprechaun laid a fire in my fireplace, lit it, gave me a foot massage and bolted out the door with nary a word. Sounds good, yes? If only leprechauns were real. Earlier, I had a somewhat lengthy meeting and then exercised before T handed the kids off to me in the gym lobby. We saw him briefly once he returned home but he's been at the office for the past five hours and is still MIA. During this serious amount of weekend quality time, the boys and I made Valentines, killed each other with Sith evil and sabers, took a walk to exchange Jack's roll of quarters for a $10 to find that bank was closed so now I have a heavy roll in my purse and Jack has my "crisp" and then, post-bath (theirs) settled into my bed to have Part 1 of The Talk which tonight was a lovely discussion about how girl and boy body parts differ. Bath-time to Sex Ed-time was actually a terrifically smooth segue being that J donned his scuba goggles in the bath to better study Ol's private area.

Jesus.

Finally, the night was mine, and despite the fact that I could have hit the sack then, I could not bear to let the beautiful filet of Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian Toothfish, folks. Those marketers can't fool me!) that I bought yesterday go to waste. As such, I summoned the will to poach it in fresh whey and cinnamon, steam up some Carolina gold rice (also in whey) and roast some asparagus because surely T would be home soon. Alas no, and now this beautiful meal is growing cold on the table (though natch I ate while it was hot). Sad. We have been tag-teaming ships in the night lately; I haven't spent an evening with him since Wednesday and do miss him. Perhaps tomorrow night.

At the least Valentine's Day which is A) Friday, B) one of my three favorite holidays, and C) extra-amazing this year because my in-laws INVITED THE CHILDREN TO SPEND THE NIGHT THAT NIGHT!!!!!!!!! That's better than a damn leprechaun, people. So anyway, maybe I'll see T then.

Dinner was very good as, by the way, was breakfast this morning, aka 4 trillion hours ago: fresh ricotta (hence the whey on hand) plus the pear-ginger-black pepper preserves. That is a great recipe I tell you. They were a hit last night (served with Brie and toasted baguette) and I made more today.