Just another winter Monday....

As I started this post, I was thinking about the Super Bowl and Beyonce’s “performance,” and wondering why one of the world’s most sought-after and well-paid entertainers would want to grind and gyrate like some pole dancer in a sleazy dive.  She can certainly dictate her own terms as to what, when and how she will perform. She doesn’t need to prostrate–or prostitute–herself to get the  job.

Ah, well–it’s a sad mystery and I guess it will remain that way.  If entertainers and the networks think that’s what the majority of their viewers and fans want, that says something pretty sad about all of us.  Rant over.  The Super Bowl was–as usual–a good excuse to hang out with friends, but the details of the game are already hazy and the entertainment wasn’t exactly memorable.

January blew by in a whirlwind of weather and frenzied activity around here.  Our weather ran hot and cold, tornadic and snowy…and that was just last week.  Weather notwithstanding, we have all had extra-curricular schedules that kept us from having much downtime, and the first 30-plus days of 2013 simply sped by.

The one calm spot in the midst of our helter-skelter schedule last week was the unexpected surprise of a weeknight dinner with all three of my children.  Oldest Son stopped by on Thursday just as I started preparing tortillas for tacos, and I got to hear brothers and their sister teasing and talking as they set the table, made iced tea, stirred the beans and prepared to tuck into the towering stack of sizzling hot tortillas.  I couldn’t help but think how many weeknight meals slipped by unnoticed when they were all living at home…and how I took them for granted.

The week ended on a high note, Phil did not see his shadow on Saturday morning, and neither did I.  My “boys” treated me to a dinner at the Melting Pot for my birthday that night, and we shared a lot of laughs over the steaming fondue pot, the perfect counterpoint to the deep freeze that  has come our way.   I’m hoping that winter finishes its business and gracefully gives way to spring a few weeks earlier than average.
February will be short, but I plan to make it sweet, too.  I’m getting my bake  this week with some sweet-and-salty peanut butter cookies (recipe on Friday) and maybe a king cake to celebrate one of the more family-friendly aspects of Mardi Gras.  I’m hopeful this is the month I will actually get my new lighting hung, and maybe make some headway on our closets. What’s on your to-do list over the next three weeks?

Happy Monday,
Terry