The Last Weekend

Ah, the weekend: a time of rest, relaxation, recouperation; a time to catch one's breath, clear one's head, soak one's aching feet. Or, alternately, a time to run around trying to accomplish all the things you were too busy to do during the week thereby making yourself thoroughly crazed and exhausted, not to mention completely unprepared or equipped to greet the new week ahead.


Which kind have you had?

This weekend is a significant one. This is the last weekend before school is out for the summer. The last weekend of having to scurry around on Sunday night getting school clothes and school books and lunch supplies ready, having to get whiny children to finish their homework, get showered or bathed and into bed early. The last weekend of dreading the long, busy week ahead.


This weekend we went to dinner with new friends. Their daughter is Redheaded Snippet's best friend and we've seen them a lot in town, at school functions, hockey games, that sort of thing. We've been wanting to invite them over or go to dinner with them for a while and it all just came together this weekend. We had so much fun! I really hope this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!


Late Friday night, Daria came over and we watched an Agatha Christie movie she had rented, The Mirror Crack'd. It was wonderfully cheesy, with an all-star cast and gave us a lot of material for mocking. It was terribly fun.


Saturday, The Viking and I sang in a wedding at our church, but we were home by 3:00 and the rest of the day was spent lolling around, doing nothing and resting our tired bodies and minds. We swam, watched movies, fought over time on the laptop, it was lovely.


And now, today, Fathers' Day. Redheaded Snippet surprised us this morning by bringing her dad breakfast in bed. She got up early and made him toast, coffee, and an omelet. That's right, an omelet. I taught her how to make one a few weeks ago and The Viking was very pleasantly surprised that she knew how to make one, and such a tasty one! She was so cute and pleased with herself, as well she should.


Speaking of teaching her to cook, I recently announced to my Snippet that this summer will mark the commencement of her Domestic Engineering Training. At some point she's going to need to know how to run her household, whether that consists of just her and a roommate or a husband, 17 children and several herds and flocks of animals. She's going to be 13 in a few weeks so she's plenty old enough to start learning. No one ever taught me how to manage my home and I struggled terribly to learn how as I was doing it. I don't want that for her. I want her to be able to take care of herself and whatever family she may have before she needs to.

We're going to cover everything:

Meal Planning


Cooking


Baking


Laundry


Ironing


Beds


Dishes


Floors


Windows


Household Marketing



Let me tell you, she looked at me like I was nuts when I broke the news to her, but I hope someday she will appreciate the torture I'm going to put her through. I also hopes she appreciates the torture I put myself through finding and posting all those silly photos!


So, this afternoon, The Viking made pho, a luscious Southeast Asian soup that's his favorite food right now. I made a basket of sticky rice to go with it and we all had quite the festive Fathers' Day luncheon. Then The Viking and the kids went to the park while I cleaned the kitchen and baked a cake.




It was just a store-brand mix, but it was butter cake and I whipped up a pint of cream to frost it with and it turned out to be quite yummy! It tasted like wedding cake. More than half of it is still sitting there in the kitchen, seductively calling my name with its smooth, silky, siren song. A hot cup of tea would be perfect with another piece!

Alright, it's bedtime and tonmorrow is the very last Monday of the 2007-2008 school year. I still have laundry to finish and a lunch to pack--one of only three left this year!