A slice of today

Mary is on a (well, leading a) retreat this weekend, so it's just me and Simone. That's the good part.

The bad part is that we have no heat. Some part involved in the control of the gas flow has wildly fluctuating voltage swings. Which, until the day the heater guy came meant that if we turned it off and on a few times, the heat would eventually kick in. That stopped yesterday around noon. I've flipped switches some 50 times, but no heat. Simone barely notices - though she'd run around barefoot if I let her (I didn't, she was pretty warm all day).

We had a great day today, starting off the day with french toast made from some lovely challah made by Mary. I must say, that made some of the best french toast I've had in years. Simone liked it just as much as I did - eating a full 3 slice. I would have made more, but we ran out of eggs and maple syrup.

Simone dressed up with silkies, played with her wooden animals - building houses for them out of blocks. Simone has started something new when playing with blocks, she's building towers of blocks and topping them with a horizontal span. She also made a treadmill - which I then had to explain b/c she didn't know what it was. I don't know where she heard about it, but we talked about the moving walkways at the airport (where we'll be in 4 days).

We headed downtown to go to the bookstore to pick up some cheap paperbacks for Hawaii (so I can ditch them there). Simone read books while I browsed, though she did come and ask about titles of some of the books in the sci-fi section. The last time she helped me pick books out, she grabbed one that was great, this time she wasn't so helpful - most of the books she asked about were very cheesy. She did point out a book I really do want to read, but it is a sequel, and they've never had the first book in the series. That is sooooo annoying.

After waiting for me to finish, we read a couple of books, and she chose a Skippy-John-Jones book that she really wanted. I found a fairy book, and that couldn't distract her.

We then did a little shopping as we needed some maple syrup and eggs in order to turn the remaining challa into bread pudding.

Oh, we also needed eggs for the fresh pasta we were planning on making. What is better for dinner in a cold house than chicken noodle soup with fresh noodles? Oh, and I surprised her with some fresh mushrooms for the soup - they were a hit. Simone often says, "that's exactly what I wanted." when she gets something she really likes.

Simone got to work as son as we got home, tearing bread up for the pudding, sprinkling on the raisins, and pouring the liquid in. She then kneaded the pasta dough, and helped pull the noodles through the pasta machine for every step. Of course, she played a vital role in quality control for the noodles.

Dinner was nummy, and dessert was warm bread pudding ... with fresh whipped cream!

Yes, momma goes away and we pull out all sorts of treats.