"Fair to middlin'..."

Grandpa is famous in our family for 'having sayings'. You know the type? The one who will tell you they are hungry by saying, "My stomach thinks my throat's been cut!"  Well one of his sayings when asked how he is doing is "Fair to middlin' and on my way to medi-achin'...how are you?" Frustrating to very literal little girls but getting more humorous as we age. This morning if you were to ask me how I was doing I very well may have popped out with Grandpa's come back!!

It was only TWO days with back-to-school alarm clock wake ups this week...felt like forever. This first weekend was simply not long enough to recover. In a feeble attempt to yank back on the reins of two wild, sun swept fillies I rolled out of bed kind of early this morning and began making those annoying 'Mom wants you to wake up" noises. The clang the cabinet doors as you drag out ingredients kind of noise...the turn Mom music on the radio kind of noise...talk to Dad in full voice kind of noise...it worked (<;

What was unintentionally evil is they dragged their sorry tired behinds out of bed because they were CONVINCED that the cabinet door slamming was a pancakes for breakfast signal! Tricked them! It was the Mom has two zucchini that need to get cooked cabinet door slamming!!!!!!!!! So while one bailed in favor of cleaning the bathrooms so she can collect this week's allowance before school on Monday, the other became the baking assistant.

Standards are not high this weekend....she did not dress or brush her hair but helping out Mom always earns you bonus points.

[For my photographer friends -pictures involving people are coming out grainy lately. Did clean my lens after this mornings photographs and reconfirm my settings for 'portraits'...could it be my memory card getting old?? Why just shots with people in them and not my food/landscape shots?]

Now before you raise an eyebrow or check your calendar, the shamrock cupcakes where in honor of the BIG GAME! You would be pardoned if by remembering my youngest daughter's fascination with the University of Notre Dame you thought I was referring to the opening game in their 2011 season because that would not be THE big game in our life. Today was the semi-final match in Irish football between arch-rivals Kerry and Mayo....what you missed this tidbit?!?!?!?

Things are VERY American in this house! Only in America would two Guatemalan born girls be able to tell you why their Kerry born dad went off to work whistling a hornpipe. Only in America will two Guatemalan born girls be up early on a Sunday morning in two weeks to see whether Kerry will be playing Donegal or Dublin in the ABSOLUTE ONLY GAME worth anything to their Irish born father...The All Ireland Football Finals, OF COURSE!

The baking did show signs of having been conducted by a baker not on her A game....

at the request of the junior baker I added butterscotch chips to one batch of the zucchini muffins. Then, forgetting that a less than alert senior chef FRIED the microwave on Saturday by running it empty....because she thought she had set the kitchen timer function instead of the cook function...we miss set the old egg timer and upon seeing the molten chip eruptions quickly snatched them from the oven...without inserting a test pick...leaving us with a dozen semi-solid sweet dough balls!!

We are fair to middlin', thank you!