3

So, this happened....

Sweet little McCage is the big 3.  

While trying to ignore my screaming uterus, I have assembled a list of things the little lady teaches me...

1.  naps are awesome.

2.  dancing makes the world go round.

3.  anything can be fancy.  cucumbers, pinky toes, and especially strong girls.

4.  start every day with a fruit shake.

5.  if you're quiet and subtle, you can get your sneaky self into nearly anything.

6.  Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.

7.  skip wearing panties. 

8.  when you find a favorite pair of shoes, stick with them.

9.  share.

10.  say I love you with abandon.  blow kisses too.  it makes friends out of strangers.

11.  swimsuits are appropriate winter wear.

12.  eat just the frosting.  lots of frosting.

9

The Chachi Band in nine.  I know we are supposed to take this one year at a time, but all I can think is Oh my word almost double digits!!

We are planning an Amazing Race party with her friends for when it gets warm out.  So stay tuned for that.  Should be quite a thing.

She requested spaghetti, spinach salad, and mountain dew.  That, my friend, I can most definitely do.  She got to pick out a new bike.  It's currently unridden because she is quite exasperated that it is taller than her last one and feels slightly different when you try to get on.  Oh girlie, its good to see that even though we are creeping up on double digits, some things stay the same.

Despite this being the norm around here...

...Riv was still so excited to give her a Blingles set.

And Sage was still thrilled to unwrap all the mini-snickers for her birthday cookies...

Speaking of....

These are some of the tastiest gluten free cookies I have found to date.  They are the right kind of soft, tasty, and easy!  Here you go....

1 c. margarine

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. salt

3 1/2 c. gluten-free flour (I used my standby mix.  See here)

48 mini snickers

Cream together the margarine, sugar, and brown sugar.  Mix in the vanilla, eggs, and milk.  Mix in the soda, salt, and flour.  Wrap a glob of dough around a mini snickers.  Yes, a glob.  I found this to be easiest if I got my hands a little wet.  Place on a well-greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 11 minutes.  Let cool slightly on the pan and then move to a mat to cool.  Makes 4 dozen.

They don't look like much, but they taste like MUCH!  You can top them with sprinkles if you're in the birthday mood.  

ring the bells

I'm sorry to have been absent for basically forever in blogosphere time.  There have been train trips, colds, another leg surgery (of the TMI nature - see tab), hot dog grilling, valentines, soccer games, wrestling, lost chickens, found chickens, dance parties, working two jobs, quite a lot of yelling, fortunately some laughing, bike rides, fights, diaper changing, and thank God finally a teensy bit of sunshine.

"Ring the bells that still can ring.  Forget your perfect offering.  There is a crack in everything.  That's how the light gets in."
- Leonard Cohen

That quote has found me three times in the chaos of the last week.  Once on a book's dedication page, next in a sermon I read, and then in a text from a friend.  Serendipity.

It is the singular happy accident of this messy life that the light gets in.  That there are cracks.  That perfection is released and forgotten.  And in it all the bells ring.

My ringing wind chimes have all week this windy week-long accompanied this quote in my mind. That's how the light gets in.