I'm coming back, I swear

I've taken a little writing hiatus for personal reasons, and because I think I'm going to change the direction of this blog a bit.  A little less foodie, a little more philosophy.  No promises on how often I'll post, but I was really excited to get this piece published on OffbeatHome&Life, so hopefully I won't drop off the face of the internet again for a while.

Wedding toast

My sister got married Saturday night (this is probably not a shock to most of you).  We're very lucky to now have Fred in our lives, and the wedding was beautiful.  

 Lea was a beautiful flower girl.  

And Gail a beautiful bride.  

No doubt this site will be inundated with pictures 

when we get them from the photographer.

As the maid of honor* I had the pleasure of making a toast at the wedding.  It's a little nervewracking to get up in front of all those people, especially because Pete keep telling me that my toast was too long.  Well, that's what happens when you give someone used to lecturing the opportunity to speak with a microphone.  

*Just so you know, you do not make friends with your wife by insisting on calling her a matron of honor, instead of a maid.  FYI, fellas.

A Toast to Gail and Fred

 Gail and Fred, you’ve made a beautiful wedding.

There is much to love about a traditional wedding ceremony.  It is timeless.  It is meaningful.  Given the temperature out there tonight, I love that it’s short.  The thing that I love the most is the simplicity of the vows.  You have promised to be there for each other through whatever life throws at you.  And you two, having seen the marital challenges and joys of many you love, have gone into your marriage knowing that life can through some pretty intense curveballs. 

You married for love, but today you, perhaps unknowingly made the hard choice.  Because today, you stood in front of family and friends and willingly said “there will be times that my life will be harder for choosing you, and that is a burden that I embrace.”   

Having spent a lot of time with you two, it is clear how much you love each other.  Louis De Bernieres wrote in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin “Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part...Those that truly love, have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.”  You have decided that you will bloom and fade and bloom again together, and move forward in this life as one.

Regardless of how much you will bloom, marriage isn’t all roses.  If planning a wedding teaches you anything, it’s that there will be days that you don’t like each other.  Comedianne Rita Rudner once said, “I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. "  But on those days when you’re driving each other that special kind of crazy, you will remember that you have bound yourselves together here today.  You will remember that the devotion that you two have for each other, and the commitment that you made to one another transcends whatever temporary obstacles that you will face. 

Because in choosing marriage, you are choosing hope.  Choosing to be there for better, for richer, and in health too.  You will look at each other and believe, as poet Roy Croft said,  " I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself but for what you are making of me."  Your marriage will make each other better, and together, you will enrich the lives of those who surround you with love today.

So that love, that commitment, that hope, is truly why we’re here celebrating.  The wedding is lovely.  Let’s toast the marriage.  

What I've Been Thinking About

Sad little blog, I was worried that this would happen when school started.  Here are all the ideas for posts that I have been thinking about but haven't had time to write.

• The Election.  Just kidding.  Thinking about it gives me a stomach ache.  We all know who I'm voting for, and I just have to take deep breaths.

• Good music.  I was hoping that exposing my children to OK Go and the like would mean that in 5 years I won't have to listen to whatever new Justin Bieber nightmare is out there.  Instead my house has been turned into a series of Rube Goldberg machines.

• Snack foods.  That's right.  I made these, motherf*ers.  They're goldwhales and they were delicious. 

• Teaching.  The highlight of my day was that one of my students said before class started "Ms. Murphy, I really like this class."   Unprompted, no less. (That was me bragging a little.  Sorry.)

• Family time.  The Boston Museum of Science rocks.  You should totally go with your family.  But before you bring your 5 year old into Mammoths and Mastodons, you might want to consider whether or not he'll ask about the gigantic penis on the mastodon model.

 Yep.  Giant wang.  He noticed.

• Cooking.  That goes without saying.  I've been cooking, and good stuff too.  Like for instance, have you ever tried pizza with a creamy pea sauce instead of tomato sauce?  Don't knock it 'til you try it.  

 And there was prosciutto.  It was really good.

• Weddings.  The countdown is on til my sister's wedding.  Weddings are about 50% "Yay!  Love!  New family!" and 50% "Oh shit.  I have to wear a corset with this dress."

• Health Insurance.  It's possible that Lea broke her finger roughhousing with Jax.  It will cost us $250 for x-rays to definitively rule it out.  We're in a wait-and-see-pattern.  Something is very wrong with this reality.

• The CFP.  For those of you not down with the lingo, that's Certified Financial Planner (exam).  I've tried to think of something clever to say about this.  If you can find something witty to say about Financial Planning and its accompanying exams, please message me.  

• Birthdays.  Jax is going to turn 5 soon.  FIVE.  <Pouty face>  He'll be so big.  I'm not ready.

 But look at what he can do now!  All by himself.

• Grading.  I think that I cannot procrastinate any longer.  I miss you, little blog.  I'll come back.

What a Week

So this was the first real week of summer vacation, where Lea, Jax and I were all home together.  We kicked it off with a bang, taking a trip to Storyland with some friends.  The weather was "eh" but we had a great time.  Lots of rides, very few lines for those rides, very little fighting amongst the kids.  It really doesn't get better than that.  

(best picture ever)

I thought that we'd break up the 3.5 hour ride back by stopping at my brother-in-law's house, who is adored by the children and who has a pool in his backyard (an awesome combination, in case you're shopping for a new family.  I highly recommend it).  The weather could not have been more cooperative, and it was hot and sunny and the kids swam for hours.

While there, I checked facebook and found out that the Affordable Health Care Act was upheld.  What an amazing surprise!  I don't know what made Robert's lean the way he did, and frankly, I don't really care.  Of course my support is behind Obama, but if he loses, this is the sword to fall upon.  As of right this second the AHCA hasn't directly impacted by life, but I've spent enough time in hospitals this past year to know that worrying about health is enough worry.  Health and crippling debt is too much.  

Friday involved returning home and settling into a "normalish" routine.  Pete passed the 4th of his benchmark tests for his CFP, which is awesome!  But Friday night I got the tragic news that the son of a friend of the family had died after a long fight with complications from infections brought about by leukemia.  He was only 22.  What to say?  It's just so so wrong.  

And I've been thinking about what I wanted to say about all of this, because how does it fit together?  It's not a narrative.  It's a timeline - this happened, then this, then this, and that is a boring read.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this past week has been such a microcosm of all life.  Sometimes things go well even when it seems iffy.  Men (let's be honest, it's still mostly men) make important decisions in far off places, and sometimes they help us and sometimes they hurt.  Sometimes we rejoice and other times we threaten to move to Canada.  And I woke on this beautiful morning and prepared to take my children to the beach, thinking all the while that there is a woman who will never again hug her son, and that pain is too deep, too unbearable to fathom, and yet she is feeling it right now.  It really doesn't make sense that it all can be happening right now.  

But I'm going to stand up from writing this post and I am going to go make dinner, because that is what we do.  Get up and put one foot in front of the other when it's good, when it's great, when it's awful.  I will hug the kids a little tighter tonight and hope for another good day tomorrow, and we'll keep on keepin' on.   

Why a blog?

I am totally late to the blog party.  This is passe, but not yet retro.  


And yet here I am.  I have been toying for a while with the idea of putting together a cooking blog, and that will be a big piece of what this is.  But even though I spend an inordinate amount of time each day figuring out what we're all going to eat, I do more things than cook.  So I think that this is going to be a place that tries to weave together a bunch of different things; kind of a "how do we find the time to eat well when there's so much other stuff going on too?"  It'll be a place to share that "stuff" and how we nourish ourselves in the process.  


The name?  Even though I am constantly juggling 900 different things, sometimes even I have to stop to do some basic self care.  This isn't a place to be Martha Stewart, or the penniless parent, or the pioneer woman.  It's the place to share how I do the best I can as often as I can, and how I do that.  But sometimes I fall way short, and that's ok.  Even Mom has to pee.  

Well, lets give this a shot.