An ode to the biscuit gods

Friends, I am here to tell you about a miracle that occured in my kitchen this weekend. For you to truly appreciate the magnitude of this miraculous occurance, I must first make a confession. It is an embarrassing affront to my southern womanhood to admit this, but I cannot make biscuits. I have tried and tried, but they always come out gummy or rock hard. For years, creating the perfect southern biscuit has been beyond me.
I was discussing my inability to make good biscuits with my friend, Katie, a few years ago. Her husband, Stimey, presented his theory which just tickled me to bits and I have clung to ever since. Stimey said, "I think only a virtuous woman can make good biscuits." Virtue never having been one of my, well, virtues, I thought this made perfect sense.
Well, honey, sometime over the past year, I must have become a virtuous woman because yesterday I made the lightest, fluffiest, golden-brown, melt in your mouth biscuits!! I truly don't know how it happened. It was like I was guided by the hand of the kitchen gods. I mixed them together, amazed as right before my eyes perfect biscuit dough began to form. I held my breath as I put them in the oven and said a little prayer. And lo and behold, 15 minutes later I pulled the most gorgeous biscuits you ever laid eyes on out of the oven! They were good on their own, but they were even better when I smothered them with a lake of sausage gravy I made while they were baking!
My husband thinks I'm a good cook, but he doesn't usually compliment the food. It was music to my ears when he said, "Man, these are good!" And the twins gobbled one covered in butter and jelly so fast I could barely believe my eyes. So thank you o spirits of the kitchen for finally allowing me to earn my southern belle title!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Racing ducks with YaYa

YaYa and Haysie

Mason at the pump!

My guys!

My boys and I had such a fun spring day. We went to the awesome farm near our house to pick strawberries! We've gone every year for the past few years, and we've been waiting anxiously for them to open. They're normally open much earlier, but the cool weather we've been having just didn't ripen those berries. They finally opened today, so we made a fun field trip this afternoon. My mom joined us to entertain the babies while Mason and I picked strawberries. We got a big bucketful of gorgeous fruit. Then Mason had a ball racing rubber ducks with the old fashioned water pumps, visiting the goats, and playing on the playground.

This evening after dinner we baked strawberry muffins, which will be delicious for breakfast in the morning. And tomorrow we have big plans for a strawberry pie. We'll definitely be making a few more trips out to the farm before the season is over. And soon, they'll have blueberries to pick. Blueberry pie, blueberry crisp, blueberry muffins..............

I almost forgot to tell y'all two hilarious Mason stories:

1. Tonight at dinner Matt and I were talking to Mason about the different play stations at school. I asked him which ones were his favorite and he told me the blocks and the play kitchen. I asked him if he pretended to cook in the kitchen and he replied, nonchalant as you please, "No, we kill the babies." I managed not to spray diet coke out of my nose as I asked him "How do you kill the babies?" He said, "Me and the other boys give them poison bottles." I told him, "Well, I'm awfully glad you don't try to give our babies poison bottles." He gave me a withering look and said "Mom, they're not real babies. They're plastic." I don't know whether to laugh or seek therapy!

2. I walked into the bathroom to tell Mason it was time to get out of the tub when I noticed all these little white bits floating in the water. Upon further inspection, I realized that they were tiny bits of tissue. I said, "Mason! Why did you put tissue in the bathtub? This stuff will clog the drain!" He said, "Mom, I was just trying to send them to another world."

The thing about tiny bits of wet tissue is you can't just pick them up. So guess who got to spend the next several minutes fishing wet tissue out of the tub with a sieve? Yours truly. Let's hope he doesn't try to send anything else to another world via the bathtub drain!

I had a few minutes of down time, and thought I'd use it to check in. Paige i.e. Cinderella, had a great time at the prom. Now she's doing the countdown to the end of the schoolyear. It won't be too much longer until she and Mason are both out for the summer.
My grandmother is in town visiting, so she got to come to Mason's t-ball game with us last night. It was a great night for a baseball game, and they played at the field in our favorite park, so it was really scenic and pretty. I was "snack mom" for the night, so Mason and I made homemade chocolate chip cookies. I put them in brown paper bags, and tied them with red ribbon and little paper baseballs that I made. They were cute and the kids liked them. One kid said "Oooh, a goody bag!" I hope he wasn't dissapointed that it was just a few cookies!
Mason had a dentist appointment today and he did great. He did just what the hygenist and dentist asked him to do, and they said his teeth look awesome, so yay Mason! We had a playdate this afternoon with our friends and that was really fun. I relish a chance to have cocktails and munchies with my girlfriends while the kids play. Even the babies cooperated by sitting happily in their highchairs and snacking on crackers and cheerios. Now I have to go baste the chicken for dinner. I'm trying a new recipe- honey lime glazed chicken, so I'm crossing my fingers that it turns out well!

Cinderella goes to the ball

Today I got to spend a lovely day with my sisters. I got an early start with Mason's 9 am t-ball game. He was great, and my parents and Matt's dad joined us to cheer him on. After the game, I left Matt to fend for himself with the rugrats so I could spend time with my sister, Elizabeth. She and her husband came down for the day to celebrate her birthday. We went to luch with my parents, then Elizabeth and I went shopping for her birthday present. I had gotten her the new Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care, and I was kind enough to pre-read it for her. Well, it was AWFUL!! The book itself wasn't bad, but it was incredib;y depressing and had a horrible ending. So we returned it and embarked on a quest for a better birthday present. She and her husband are closing on their new house next month and she's going to re-do the master bedroom when they move. We found some great pillows for the new room, so goodbye depressing book, hello awesome pillows!

After our shopping trip, we went back to my mom's house to help Paige get ready for the prom. I was in charge of doing cinderella's makeup. I have always done both of my sisters' makeup for homecoming and prom, and I love helping them get ready. Paige looked gorgeous and I absolutely love her dress. It's hard to believe that my baby sister is going to the prom!!!!

Take me out to the ball game

Daddy and Hays watching the game


Mason's biggest fans!

The highlight of our week was Mason's t-ball game. (This time I was aware that it was a game and sent him in uniform!) He was supposed to play Monday night, but once again, it rained. They rescheduled the game for Wednesday and it was a perfect sunny evening. Mason had quite a cheering section. Not only were Matt and I there with the twins, we also had my parents and my sister, Paige, and my aunt and uncle. Mason was first up at bat, and we cheered so loud for him that we scared the babies half to death!

They don't keep score or tag anyone out in t-ball, so it's hard to say who won, but they sure were cute. Anytime someone hit the ball, they all ran for it in a big old pack! There was a lot of tripping over each other, playing in the dirt (at one point Mason was lying on his back in the dirt, waving his legs in the air) and sliding for the sheer joy of sliding, but they all had fun. I may never get the red mud out of his white baseball pants due to the aforementioned sliding. Who in their right mind chooses white pants for little kids playing baseball in Georgia clay? I am convinced it was a man, cause no mama who has to do the laundry would ever do that. Heck, we'd have them playing in black pants if it were up to the mamas!

The twins have had a good week. Will has learned how to pull up on his knees in his crib, so now it takes forever for them to go to sleep. They're up in their cribs peeking over the railing at each other and just babbling and playing for entirely too long. But it's awfully cute to see them grinning at me when I come in to get them up.

Happy Easter!

Mason's Easter basket


Another chocolate bunny!



The twins and their penguin

Easter morning

What a handsome guy!

Aunt Bea and Hays

Sweet Will in the grass

We had a really great Easter. Mason was thrilled with the contents of hid Easter basket and the twins really liked their little penguin bop bag (they didn't have Easter baskets since they're too little for candy!) We didn't make it to church since we're not quite ready to put the twins in the cesspool of germs that is the church nursery, and they're far too noisy to stay in the sanctuary. We're going to make it back in the next few weeks though. I have truly missed it, but I think God understands. He doesn't want the babies sick either!

We had a fun Easter picnic this afternoon out at the park. My parents used to have a picnic with their friends every Easter back when we lived in Conyers, so my mom decided to resurrect the tradition this year. We had several families that we've known for years come out to picnic with us and it was great to see everybody. They all have beautiful daughters that are about to graduate from high school. That seems impossible and makes me feel incredibly old because I've known these girls since they were four! Where does the time go?

My sister hid eggs that my mom and I had filled with change so Mason could hunt eggs. And let me tell you, that kid racked up! He came away with over $11 in change!! My mom was going to fill them with candy, but I begged her not to. Between the egg hunt in her neighborhood and the basketful of candy compliments of the bunny, we are up to our eyeballs in candy. I said he would just have fun looking for eggs- they didn't need to be filled with anything. But my mom insisted that that would be no fun at all, so we compromised on change! He was very excited about his haul and wanted to go to Target immediately to buy more legos. (Oh God, no more legos!!!!!)

The twins had a good time as well. Will took a particular shine to one of the girls, but that's okay because she's a doll. At least he has good taste in ladies! One bad thing about picnics with babies is trying to eat while they're swarming you trying to steal food off your plate!

I was out of comission for about half of the week because I hurt my neck so bad I could hardly move. I'm not sure exactly what I did, but I woke up Wednesday morning with pain that got progresivly worse throughout the day. By Wednesday night I couldn't even turn my head! It was just as bad Thursday (and let me tell you, it is not easy to keep up with two babies when you can barely move!), but I finally felt better Friday. My neck is still kind of stiff, but nothing like it was.
Our big news of the week is that Hays can pull up to standing all by himself!! He figured out how to do it a couple of days ago, and now every time I come to get him out of his crib, he's standing up! So cute. The twins had physical therapy this week and their therapist was thrilled with their progress. She was amazed at how far they had come in two weeks time. We didn't even set any goals for the next few weeks because they're right where they need to be. Yay!! Our nurse, Bo, wasn't here last week because he was on a trip with his family, so he was really amazed when he got here Tuesday. He was so proud of all of their new tricks! Bo is practically a member of the family now, and he truly loves my boys, so he was about as excited as we were to see how far they've come.
Of course, the week wasn't all rainbows and roses. Wednesday night Will pitched the screaming fit to end all screaming fits. I was home with the twins while Matt took Mason to baseball practice. The boys had been asleep for about an hour when Will woke up and started screaming. And he has this God-awful, ear-splitting high pitched scream that makes you want to throw him out the window just to make him shut up! I checked on him, but nothing was wrong. I gave him some tylenol in case he was having teething pain, and I changed him and gave him a little more bottle, but nothing worked. The child lliterally screamed nonstop for an hour and a half. Around the 45 minute mark I called my mom in tears going "What do I do?? How can I make him SHUT UP????" My mom came over to help me (so I wouldn't throw him out the window) but she couldn't settle him either. We finally just had to let him scream himself out. The bad thing was that it woke poor Hays up and then we had one screaming and one crying. God, that was a horrible night! I was concerned that maybe he wasn't over his ear infection and pain was making him scream. And Hays didn't seem to be feeling so hot either, so I took them to the doctor Thursday. Will was perfectly fine. The pediatrician said that sometimes they just do this at this age, and he said we just have to let him scream it out. Going in there and getting him up, holding him, etc. just teaches him that screaming works, and lord knows we don't want to do that. Haysie, on the other hand, was not over his previous ear infection and now had a double ear infection. Poor guy. The doctor gave him a different antibiotic and he seems fine now.
We had an Easter egg hunt in my mom's neighborhood on Friday. Mason found ots of eggs and had a good time hunting eggs, making crafts, and eating yummy Easter snacks. We made really cute sugar cookies decorated like Easter eggs, and he enjoyed those along with cupcakes, brownies and more. A regular smorgasboard of sugar! Not to mention the fact that all the eggs were filled with candy. As if that weren't enough, Matt came home that evening after playing golf with his dad with a huge bag of jelly beans and a giant chocolate rabbit from Budda! Will the sugar rush ever end? Not likely since the Easter Bunny comes tonight!

Mason being sweet and Will looking angelic!


Hays studying his jungle bird



Getting ready to dye eggs

Mason was sure he could do it himself.

Amazingly, all the eggs survived!

Not exactly what we planned, but still cute

Will gnawing on a tasty foam letter

Hays was heading to his room!

We had a pleasant but uneventful weekend. Matt's dad came Saturday to help haul off some giant limbs that came down in the snowstorm, and Matt worked in the yard all Sunday to get the side yard looking snazzy. Our grass that we planted a few weeks ago is coming up nicely, so things are coming along. I bought a big packet of wildflower seeds that I want to try to plant next weekend. I have a black thumb, so we'll see how that turns out!

Hays is crawling up a storm, and Will is not far behind. He can crawl a few feet, then he collapses and just pulls himself forward! But he has learned to get into a sitting position all by himself, so we're really proud of him! They're both a little puny right now. They both appear to be cutting teeth- judging by the awe-inspiring amounts of drool they are producing, and I think all the pollen in the air is bothering them. Their noses are dripping a pretty good bit, so my house is covered in drool and snot. Fun, right?

While Matt was busy beautifying the yard (or making it slightly more presentable as the case may be) Mason and I had our own project going. We spent a crazy amount of time working on our Easter eggs! I decided to use blown eggshells this year instead of just hard boiling the eggs. I always think it's a shame to spend all that time coloring eggs just to stick them back in the fridge and make egg salad! So this year I decided to do something that we could actually display. I had to look up instructions for blowing out eggs on the internet because I've only done it once before when I was like, eight. It's not hard to do, but it does take a while. I discovered that a baby booger-sucker nose syringe thing is perfect for blowing out the egg goo. But you can't do it too hard or you'll explode the egg!! After I got the eggs ready, we used a paper punch to make flower cutouts out of painter's tape. According to Martha Stewart you would have perfect white flowers on your eggs after you dyed them and removed the tape. Well, Martha was WRONG!!!! The dye seeped under the tape and we got white blobby things instead of flowers. So we just left the tape on since it was cute! In retrospect, I probably would have just left the tape on the plain white eggs because the blue and white design looked really cute. But Mason had a ball dyeing the eggs, and what would Easter bee without egg dye and purple fingers?

Hays is a full-on, hands and knees crawler! He's been doing it for a few days now, and he's getting fast! He has also figured out how to get up into a sitting position on his own, so he's had a big week. And his starting to try to pull up on things as well. In fact, he bonked his head pretty good on the bookshelf when he was trying to pull up on it today! Will is getting a little bit of foward motion up on his hands and knees, but he's mostly still doing the commando crawl, or his very unique dead dog crawl. But I imagine he'll be catching up to Hays in no time flat. How else would he take toys away from him?!
Mason is out of school for spring break for the next week (gulp). Keeping him entertained will be a feat if it keeps raining like it has been. The worst part will be living through the daily lego torture.....
Mason loves legos, and I mean LOVES legos. And I curse his father and the inventor of this evil toy for the all-consuming interest he has taken in these maddening little blocks. You may think, "What's wrong with legos??? I love legos." Well I will tell you. Legos are great- as long as you are old enough to build things with them, and repair them when they inevitably break by your self!!!!! Now, I am not opposed to a little lego playing with Mason during the day. But this is not just a little playing. This is constant badgering from 6:30 in the morning until 8:00 at night.

"Mommy, I need you to build me a machine. Mommy, I need you to fix this part. Mommy, I need you to take these blocks apart. Mommy, NO!!!!!!! That's not the way it's supposed to go (stomps foot) Mommy, that's not right. You're not doing it right, it's supposed to look like this (points to picture built with 5 million legos that come in the $70 kit) Yes we can build that!!! We do have all the pieces!! We can Mommy, we can!!! (starts crying)"

And this is what goes on, over and over, from sunup to sundown. So I have made a rule- no legos until Daddy gets home from work and can do it with you. Matt created this monster by introducing him to the joy of legos too early, so he can deal with it! Maybe I'm the meanest mommy in the world, but I don't care, it was either that or kill him! Plus, everyone knows that legos are choking hazards for babies who are into everything, so there.