I made a wreath today

Yep, I'm too cheap to buy one so I cut some bay and rosemary from the garden and twisted them around a wire hanger. Kristina helped, so we have a familial sense of accomplishment. Never mind that it'll probably dry up and die in a few days!...

You say goodbye, and I say

shh, don't let the kids hear you going out!

Every week my husband leaves to work in Sligo for three days, and there are 3 ways to do this:

- he gets up at 5:30 and makes a beeline for the early train/plane
- we drive him to the train station at 6:00 the night before
- he sneaks out of the house around 6 the night before and gets himself to the train.

I like option 1. That way, it's like he just sort of vaporises into the atmosphere and the kids don't really notice he's gone.

Option 2 is terrible. There are often tears of loss and grief in the car when he gives us his lopsided grin and wave on his way into the station and I end up having to cuddle the 6 year old and feed her ice cream to compensate for the tragic departure of her dad.

We did option 3 tonight. I feel evil when we do this, but I suppose it's just as well for the kids. Only, there'll be "where's daddy?" questions asked later and I'll have to say something preposterous like, "he went to the store, and he's coming back late. Very late."

And not to mention the hardship of being alone with myself til Friday night! I can never win an argument.

misc cakes

birthday cakes I made this year. I seem not to have taken pictures of the others, which included my own cake (a carrot cake shaped like a carrot), Marcus' cake (a castle with cupcake turrets) and the 3-D butterfly cake. Might do the last one again though, as it was my favorite.

St Patrick's Day in Ireland 2008

OK, here are some photos of Paddy's Day here this year. All in all, we came to the family consensus that it is kind of a throwaway holiday in Dublin. As in, we get a day off (yay) but the themed festivities are lame (boo). It's tacky. And it usually rains.

I have a LOT of catching up to do

So much for using my blog as a nice little record of everything going on with my fascinatingly middle-class life. I should admit something - I tend to keep diaries when life is changing, or about to change. I guess I hit that restless feeling you get when your child is old enough that you aren't constantly obsessed with whether they are going to suddenly stop breathing and start to wonder what you are going to do with your own life. Although, you also still worry that they will suddenly stop breathing. Or fall down the stairs. Or choke to death on a Barbie shoe.

At this stage I have put the food co on the back burner. My main customer - a prospective restaurant chain - is all but out of business due to the global financial meltdown. Everyone in Dublin has decided to quit spending money. (Including us.) So it's not a chain anymore - it's one downsizing restaurant. I'm back working part time as a freelance marketing consultant. It's like working, but not really. I never have to do much past lunchtime. As if I could, with the 2 year old around!

My plan for catching up is to post photos I've taken this year of the happenings here in Ireland. So we'll see you next time. Take care!

no, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth

but I suppose I may as well have, in the blogosphere. Life sure can be busy sometimes. And when it's not particularly interestingly busy, you just don't bother to blog about it. And then there are the scary times in life, where you just don't know what to say at all. Also not a great time to write about yourself online.
Anyway, will write more soon, but until then here are two poems:

We have a fridge
Smeg thas are fridge
Smeg Smeg smeg*

I am ham
I am sam
I am the jam**

*author: newly reading/writing offspring. recently learned to spell "fridge".
**same author. written Christmas 07.