Team Lizzy

 I met my friend Lizzy seven years ago when she moved into the neighborhood and enrolled her middle daughter into Laurelwood preschool.  She came to the final preschool board meeting of that school year and because she was willing to pipe up a few times, I pegged her for my replacement as president.  I don't know what job she was supposed to do but with some serious downplaying of the role, I got her to agree to take the job.  All these years later, she likes to remind me how I bamboozled her into the job.  On the upside, I also brought her into the friend group and the rest is history.  We've spent holidays together and taken trips to Tahoe.  Of course COVID has complicated things and I haven't spent much time with her this past year.  There have been Zoom happy hour calls and plenty of texting, but it's not the same.  On February 2nd, she sent a text to the group that made my heart sink lower than low.  She just got diagnosed with breast cancer.  Oof.  Unfortunately, I have too many negative experiences with loved ones having cancer.  I'm confident this one will be different though.  She is young, healthy and has the best medical facilities practically in her backyard.  Things have moved quickly for her and she'll have surgery this Tuesday, March 2nd.  Tonight our friend group got on Zoom to laugh and chit chat and tell her we love her.  And we all wore our Team Lizzy shirts. 

Here's my crew posing in ours before the call. 

And here's my favorite picture of us together at the 80s party two years ago. 

Happy Birthday, Nana!

It's Nana's birthday today.  Fortunately, a COVID birthday celebration for her isn't too much different than her usual preferred birthday celebration.  

Here's the birthday girl after a delicious Thai lunch and a walk with her grandkids and granddog. 

I tried a new recipe - a buttermilk vanilla cake with a pour-over caramel icing.  

The results were pretty yummy. 

 

End of "ski week"

 This past week was mid-winter break from school, also known as "ski week".  This is the first time in nine years that my kids haven't spent at least part of the week skiing.  It made for a bit of a sad week honestly.  Both kids talked about how much they miss skiing and there was moping and boredom and bickering.  We tried to have some fun, but honestly, it's a challenge in our current situation.  I think it's also weighing on us that we are coming up on a year of having our world completely up-ended.  

Here are a few things we did to try to distract ourselves. 

Tom and Leo went mountain biking. 

The kids and I took Mousse on a hike to an off-leash open space so he could explore and play frisbee (his favorite). 

We made S'mores in our backyard chimenea. 

We went to the local park for some more frisbee. 

I did some baking with Mousse underfoot. 

Tomorrow it's back to our usual school routine, which means homeschooling for Serafina and logging into Zoom for Leo.  

Mars Rover Landing

 As I mentioned before, Serafina has taken an interest in space.  During homeschooling, we spend a lot of time on the NASA website exploring planets and moons.  We have been following the progress of the Mars rover Perseverance and watched just about every video NASA and JPL produced about the mission.  Today the rover successfully arrived on Mars.  Before it was due to land, I told the kids we had a secret mission and had them load up in the car.  My big plan was a bit spoiled though when we arrived at our destination and they were sold out of Mars themed donuts.  It was disappointing but I guess not that surprising when we live in an area with a high concentration of nerds and geeks. 

Anyway, we still got donuts of course.  

And then we tuned in to watch all the coverage of the Mars landing.  We cheered when it successfully made touchdown.  I don't know if Serafina's interest in space will continue but we like to tell her she will be part of the team that works to put a human on the surface of Mars.  

Oh Happy (first vaccine) Day!

 My mom got her first dose of the COVID vaccine at a well organized Stanford clinic located in San Jose.  This makes me so very happy!  Though we have tried to be very safe, I still worry about her contracting COVID and having this first step of protection is extremely key.  

Second dose coming March 11th! 

Serafina's Space Presentation

Serafina is very interested in space and the beauty of homeschooling allows us to spend extra time on the topic.  She worked on this project of collecting facts about each planet, coloring the planet and then creating a display.  I hung them all up and had her present them to her dad.  She wasn't thrilled to do it but she was able to do it in her pajamas, so it can't be so bad.  

Here's a little zoom in on the thrilled look on her face that not only is she having to present but that I'm also taking her picture.  

 

Sunday Pasta Making

I don't remember the last time Tom made pasta from scratch but he decided to do it today and Leo was an enthusiastic assistant. 

We had delicious fresh fettucine for dinner with homemade sauce.