Today

8:15 a.m.  I hear a child downstairs, maybe too.  And a cat crying for breakfast

8:30 I get up.  Bud is downstairs eating ice cream for breakfast.  Sis is reading about the Greek Gods in her room.

9:30  After Sis ate brownies for breakfast and we all got what we needed for the day, we headed out of the house.

9:45 Dropped Sis off at ice skating

9:55 Drooped Bud off at kung fu.  I told his coach that I had to pick him up early for a school function (well, sorta--his sister's Girl Scouts takes place after school and this was our cookie booth day!)

10:10  I hand out at bookstore, get a magazine on Vikings and another on Doctor Who

10:30 I head to ice skating to watch Sis, one of my favorite things to do.

11:00 Sis and I eat bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches in the stands after her lesson.

11:15 We head to get Bud.

11:35 I run inside and fetch Bud so we can drive to his playdate.

12:01 p.m.  I drop Bud off at a friend's.  They have love of Minecraft and piano in common; both moms have been trying to get them together for awhile.  And she so kindly agreed to take him today.

12:15 Sis and I arrive at our Girl Scout Cookie Booth.  The theme of the booth is Star Wars.  "Buy Cookies, You Will."    She wears my Ewok hat; many of the girls have Princess Leia buns.  For 2+ hours, she interacts with customers, sells cookies, makes change, restocks cookies, and giggles with her friends.  I chat with a couple of the other moms who stayed to help chaperone.  Halfway through, I buy the girls a box of Samoas.  They finish it in minutes!  Next year, we must buy more Trefoils--we always sell out of those very fast.   "May the Cookies be with You!"

2:35 We pass off the booth to the next shift and we head to fetch Bud.

2:50  Bud had a great time at his playdate.  They all play some more while the adults chat.  We'll have to do it again sometime.

3:20  Heading home, we place a take-out order at the local pasta place.

3:45  We pick up our early dinner.

4:00  We eat pink pasta, seafood pasta, and chicken fettuccine alfredo while watching Mockingjay Part 1

6:00 or so We take a screen break.

7:00 The kids have an hour left of screen time.  I take a bath, cuddle with a cat, and type here.

Whew.  I expect we'll have a snack, maybe read together.  And then I could go for an early night.  But I doubt it'll happen.

UPDATE:
8:00 They start the "Dance Stamina Dance Off" and move, as required, their arms, torsos, and legs for 12+ songs (about 40 minutes), with Bud lasting 1 1/2 songs longer than Sis.  My favorite the Octopus, which they would do together, moving arms and legs--8 in all!
9:00  baths and reading
9:30 Lights out (mostly)

Whew!

What a wonderful, exhausting, frustrating, fun first 24 hours.

• Kids' Service Team event.  The kids' service team is a great combo of community building and helping others.  We shared pizza, salad, and brownies at church, and then the kids made fleece blankets and the adults tried their hands at knitting.  Sis and a few of her friends joined us and we practiced casting on and knitting . . . and fixing our mistakes.  I learned a few new techniques--the one needle cast-on, how to prevent curling edges in an all-knit piece by dropping the first stitch of each row, how to rework dropped stitches with a crochet hook (over-under, over-under), and how to pull stitches off a needle and put them back on (very carefully, making sure stitches are facing the right way)--with the help of one of the experts.  It was all fun.  But now I have a scarf to finish!  
• Ice skating!
• Kung fu!
• Cookie booth--oh, the stories I could tell.  And so I will.  Of course, the GS cookie booth troubles started a couple of weeks ago when the store that had agreed to host several troops selling cookies changed their minds and we all had to scramble for new times and places and reschedule everybody!  Then today, we our people showed up at a different store, they said we weren't supposed to be there, though we had registered and our contact was on her way to smooth it over.  Well, don't mess with Cookie Moms!  And so we stayed put.  Until we had to move--our shifts were split between two stores because of the aforementioned schedule change.  THEN, a GS mom stationed at the store we'd just been at came over and harassed us for being at our store, saying we were competing with them and ruining their sales and that wasn't supposed to happen (though, there had been another troop at the store all morning--the troop of an older sister of one of our girls.) It happens every year.  EVERY Year.  Novice.  Again, don't mess with Cookie Moms!  But all of our girls worked their shifts, even in the cold, and we sold 40 cases of cookies, which is excellent.  We are very proud of our troop and very grateful to all of our volunteers.
• The VAGINA Monologues:  Our old church sponsored a fundraiser reading of the Eve Ensler play this evening and I went with a bunch of friends, who first gathered for dinner together.  Veggie lasagna, salad, garlic bread, flourless chocolate cake, and almond cake.  Yum!  And the show, oh, the show was amazing.  I'm ashamed to admit, as both a feminist and a lesbian, that I had never seen it.  But this production was perfect because I knew 95% of the cast, from old church and around town, and there they were saying things like vagina, cum, cunt, orgasm, hair, coochie snorcher, folds, clit, lips, wet, etc etc outloud in public!  And talking about rapes in Kosovo, female genital mutilation, repression, and even dry cotton tampons and cold duck lip specula!  We laughed riotously--at the Angry Vagina and the dominatrix who curated moans of her female clients (and demonstrated several of them, like the WASP moan and the exhausted Zen moan!)--and sighed at the "cellar" and "tulip" and lack of self-awareness (and cheered at the painful, glorious discovery of such), and choked up at the memories of violence.  It really was a wonderful evening.  So proud of the cast of wonderful, talented women, and of the UU church community that brought them together to benefit a women's outreach center nearby.  Well-done!  (It was also great to see so many old church friends, whom I miss often.  Took me awhile to hug my way out the door.  Haven't felt that much love and support and energy in a space, like that, since lesbian coffeehouse in Chicago.)
• I got home to discover that my BIL had been called back to work a hospital shift tonight.  He was with the kiddos and his sis for about an hour.  They were very sorry to see him go and quite subdued when I got home.  We know he'll try again soon and we'll have a good time and besides . . . . . 
• It looks like the weather is turning ugly earlier tomorrow than we expected, with anywhere from 1-6" coming (depending on whom you believe) plus ice, and so it is probably best that he won't be on the road tomorrow night.
• And so we'll see what tomorrow brings weather-wise, along with church, Soup Sunday, and the arts and crafts party.

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Solo Almond Bundt Cake

Almond Glaze Topping
1 cup confectioners sugar
1⁄4 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoon light cream

Cake
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
3  eggs
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 can Solo Almond Cake and Pastry Filling or 1 jar of any other fruit filling
1⁄4 cup milk

Chocolate Glaze Topping (no chocolate on the one at church)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa
1⁄2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoon buttermilk or low-fat milk

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour 10-inch tube pan or 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside. Beat butter and granulated sugar in large bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in almond filling until blended. Stir flour, baking powder, and salt until mixed. Add to almond mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  Beat until blended. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on rack. To make glaze, combine ingredients in small bowl, and stir until blended and smooth. Spoon or drizzle over top of cake. Let stand until glaze is set. Or top with fresh fruit and whipped cream!

Flourless Chocolate Cake