Oh thank heaven.

The kids are back in school.  Phew.  I thought I would have to have Lily extracted from my rear with forceps.  She needs constant attention, good or bad.  If she wasn't following hot on my heels, she was needling Julianna or Ben in order to get a good reaction out of them.  And by "good" I mean shrieking, crying, and flailing.  Ben usually gets straight to the full-on freak out, but Lily enjoys the build up with Julianna.  "Lily, stop it."  "Cut it OUT, Lily."  "LILY CUT IT OUT!"  "AUUGGGHH! (slap)"  "Moooooom!  Julianna hit me!"  only once?  She showed restraint.

Yesterday, New Years day, I stayed in my jammies until 3.  At that point, I took a nap until 4:30.  Then I showered and put on clean jammies.  Never leaving the house becomes more appealing the longer I do it.  When I become a Super Villain, I'm going to be The White Recluse.

Another kick-ass dinner from me, I must say.  I sauteed wild mushrooms in butter with minced onions and garlic. I added thyme and fennel and salt.  Then I put in white wine, let it reduce, added broth and then a bit of cream.  Served it on capellini.  Even Steve, who was not a mushroom lover, declared it delicious.  I've been trying to duplicate a dish I had 15 years ago in a restaurant in our town in Germany and I think I've finally hit it.  Or it's been so long that I dont' remember anymore anyway.  Regardless, yum.

After I dropped the kids off (yay!) I went to Target to hit the post-Christmas clearance.  I'll just say that if you ever pay full price for those stick-on bows, you're a doofus b/c every year they have enormous quantities of them, even by the 90% off days.  Doofus.  I don't use them at all, so I'm spared my own scorn.  I did snag silver wrapping paper (great for Hanukkah gifts), festive stripey tape, some silver garlandy things for draping the mantle, and 4 enormous blue galvanized buckets.  They were only 3 dollars!  As I loaded them into my cart, I could hear Steve asking what on earth I was going to do with them.  I plan to point to them and say, "They were only 3 dollars!"  Isn't that enough, really?