Monday, February 16, 2009

Salvaging Heart Day

I read some of the sweet and romantic tributes to loved ones over the weekend ans was glad to see Valentine's panned out for some of my favorite bloggers. And I felt a wee bit jealous as ours went pretty much as predicted.

We woke Saturday morning to 2 fevered and fairly sleepless children that were sporting hacking coughs that would suit a 50 year old chain smoking bar fly better. I tried to salvage the morning with home made pancakes but they literally were not biting, so I broke out the emergency measures.
Ganache

Champagne and chocolate (not for them, of course, for Tim and I). I still had a bug about making those cupcakes I linked to in the last post, so I strapped one of the 20 pound (plus change) twins into the backpack and got to work in the kitchen. Thank god for the mimosa, it made the weight on the back seem trivial.

The cupcakes came together pretty smoothly, I made sure to prep the ingredients Friday night, so it just required some mixing, melting and pouring (with far too much tasting, I must say).
Cupcaking
I loved both recipes, the chocolate cake was enhanced with Murphy's stout rather than Guinness and the taste of the cake was good, intriguing really. They ended up just a bit flat as Tim was giving me a hand in the baking part and pulled them out a minute too soon. No harm done though, especially when we scooped out the centers to add ganache. Yeah, that made them faultless. By the end of the morning I was covered in flour, batter and a little spit up (none in the cakes, I swear, just on me). And a platter full of love to give to friends and others.

A few bright moments in the day...the boys having their V day meal of In n Out. We had to resort to a chocolate shake and fries as we had yet to see food make it to their stomachs.
In n Out ShakesIn N Out


And Mace blew his first bubble, and I caught it...that was awesome.
HIs bubble


We did make it out that night for dinner at our place, but as stellar as the meal was, we were exhausted and knew we were in for another rough night. Our friend works the bar so we sat there and chatted and ate and met a few really nice folks and decided the bar is the place to sit in that tiny little restaurant, you actually get jostled less there than at the tables. Most of our dinner conversation centered around how sad it is to see them sick and how it was hard to remember them being any other way. Parenting is weird like that, each phase or challenge seems all consuming to the memory. Anyway, the night had no romantic finish as we arrived home to a sleepless Mace, up in Opa's lap watching an action flick at 11:30 and needing his Mama for most of the night. But we did have cupcakes, people.

Sunday was a shade better, there was a plan for me to meet up with my circle of knitting friends and a grand destash was to happen. I am not sure I would have made it without the impetus of the yarn giving. Tim was awesome, he and his Dad assumed responsibly for our nap less miserable boys and I scrambled out the door and was greeted by this wonderful sight, a table full of yarn, ripe for the picking.
Destash Madness

I was late, this was after some had been taken and traded. And yet somehow I ended up with 2 bags full of yarn and a flawlessly completed Orangina that I will have to model because it feels like it was commissioned.
Destash Madness

Lori Z is impeccable in her knitting and finishing and I was honored to take that baby home. I felt like a total glutton as I headed out with my bags of free yarn, but to be fair, I did bring ganache cupcakes, okay?

Anyway, sorry for the blow by blow on the (not terribly) Happy (but still good) Heart Day . I think my testament of love will just be to say to Tim, though it was not achingly sweet, or deeply romantic, it was the two of us standing solidly by each other, giving each other breaks when we needed it, assuming both boys' care when the other needed a shower or a few hours sleep, and being the partner we promised to be.
Down time


And in my book, well, that is pretty sexy and pretty loving. (Said as I wipe dripping snot off my nose). Love you, MCD. Maybe next year?
Us
Me by Him, Him by Me, Just the way it should Be

12 comments:

Shannon @ Lifelong Impressions said...

I just read the Q&A on HDYDI where you said your panic made you think the baby had two heads. Completely had me laughing. We had a really early u/s where the tech said, "Oh, I see one sack, two sacks." My husband thought to himself he has two sacks and how amazing it was she could tell the sex already. We are still laughing over his first response.

LauraC said...

So sorry to hear you are all still sick! Sounds like you made the best of it.

Here's hoping your family gets well soon!

jillian said...

Glad you had a few bright spots amongst the germies! Thank you for the cupcakes - awesomely good!

Sereknitty said...

Such lovely photos as always -- the one of hubby having some down time was artistically beautiful. He sounds like a true 'keeper'! Hope you're all feeling much better soon!

Patricia said...

Hope your family feels better soon and you get some restful sleep!!!

Beth said...

Hope you are all feeing better. It's a testament to your love for your family that you were able to find so many good things about a sleepless and sickly weekend!

On another note completely, I am so inspired by your knitting that I would like to learn. Class are not really an option right now, so I wondered if you knew of any good starter books.

kat coyle said...

yum, thank you for the cupcakes. The one I took home for Felix ended up being all mine. Evil, I know; but they were so good and he didn't need the extra sugar. heh, heh.
Wasn't it great coming home with all that new yarn?

Anonymous said...

What a fun afternoon! The cupcakes were delish, and I love my new yarn! :)

Luckygirl said...

Oh, I hope your babies get well soon.
And wow! Your pictures are always so gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

In it's own way, your V-day sounded perfect! Hugs to the kids, I really hope all of you feel better soon.

I love the last pictures of you and Tim and what you've written below it. Amazing!!

lori said...

it was good to see you on sunday.

thank you for the shout out. it makes me happy for the Orangina to find a new home. I just wasn't wearing it. for years I had planned to frog it. but i didn't get around to that either! enjoy!

spajonas said...

aw man, sick kids on v-day :( but i'm glad to hear you made it out twice that weekend!