Oh wow, busy day!

Phew, am I beat tonight! The day started out completely normal with me waking up around 6:45 (ie, whenever William gets up), having coffee, and wondering how the heck I'd get through the day with all 3 kids and no school to occupy their time. I changed sheets, started some laundry, etc. and the phone rang. It was Liudwih asking if I might be able to take her to her post-op appointment at Portsmouth. So, the kids swam for about 45 minutes, we had lunch and then headed out to get her. It was nice for me as V. was home from work today and I could leave the kids at their house to play while we girls went over to the hospital. Got back to her house around 3-ish and decided to hang out there for awhile because rush-hour was just starting. We had McDonald's and got on the road to come back home around 6:30. Back home and walked the dog and kids are in bed, 8:22. I've got HGTV on as background noise. Once I'm finished blogging, I might read or watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I've never seen the earlier episodes and we just joined Planet Hollywood so I decided to go on a Buffy craze. Incidentally, Planet Hollywood has an unbelievably better selection of Wii games than Blockbuster...I walked through yesterday and realized it has been so long since I've watched movies that I forgot how nice it can be! They appear to have a decent foreign film section, too, so you can bet I will be checking those out as well.

Oh yes, and I had a banner day yesterday, also. Steven got home really early...around 2 or so. We sat in the backyard for awhile and plotted out where we might put an in-ground pool. We measured, looked at the deed, and realized that *12* feet of our property is basically unusable because of "potential" road widening. Bah! It's still too early to make any sort of decision about it but it was fun to dream a little bit. I left him and the kids around three to run to the library and pick up my books. Then I stopped by one of the thrift shops...it's not CHKD and I don't go in very often because some of their prices are ridiculous. Yesterday, I did decide to look for some summer things and a pair of jeans. I found two above-the-knee skirts and a pair of Levi 560's in size...13!!! Woo-hoo! I pulled them on in the dressing room and instantly felt the "hello, old friend" feeling. Price...$5.99. Now I don't have to sweat it when my old pair give out in the knees, and trust me, it's bound to happen very soon as I've had one pair since 1995 and the other since 1999. (Honestly, I don't invest a lot of money in clothes...hubs just told me the other day that we have a formal to go to in September and the first words out of my mouth were "A formal? So I have to go dress shopping? Yuck." Most women would jump at the opportunity to HAVE to buy new clothes. I really dislike it. For a formal, it's even worse, because it's like the damn prom dress you can only wear one time. It just seems wasteful. (Maybe my formal dress from our Iceland days will still fit me...hmmmm. I'm betting it will be too big as I was quite a bit heavier back then, having just delivered Delaney and all of that.)

So, anyway. That's pretty much how I've been spending my time the past few days.

Here's a photo and recipe for "Potato Candy". I had one little red potato left-over the night I made the Crash Hot Potatoes so I took the skin off and used it for this recipe that my grandmother Schlosser used to make. I'm not so sure she made this often, I only remember having it once or twice, but I loved it. Steven and I tried making it when we lived in Chicago with an entire potato...it didn't work out very well and *3* bags of powdered sugar later we were finally able to spread the "dough". Trust me when I say you need very little potato for this. Oh, and it's not a diabetic friendly candy, as you will be able to tell from the recipe! I don't need to say my kids love it!



Mam-maw's Potato Candy

1 medium cooked potato, mashed (USE ONLY 2 OR 3 TBSP AS THIS IS TOO MUCH!!!)
1/2 tsp vanilla (USE 1/8 TSP FOR THE REDUCED AMOUNT)
1 box/bag powdered sugar
Peanut butter

Mix enough powdered sugar into potato and vanilla until it can be rolled on lightly sugar dusted waxed paper. Place second piece of waxed paper over top and roll thin in a rectangle. Remove top waxed paper. Spread with peanut butter to edges. Roll into a long roll. Slice to desired thickness. Chill and serve. (I FIND THIS WORKS BETTER IF YOU CHILL FIRST AND THEN SLICE) Store remainder in refrigerator.