That's it...who swapped my child!

My beautiful Josephine Rae. She is normally fairly sweet mannered. She would always have her time mis behaving and being whiny and crying, but it was rare.

Well until now.

She's hit 20 months and all hell's broke loose. She goes nuts over small things that normally wouldn't have set her off. Like this morning she was tearing up one of my plants and having a great time doing it. Being the bad mommy I am I stop her and try to redirect to playing in the living room.

Instead of playing with anything I offer she decides it's now time for a tantrum. She really gets into her tantrums too. Arches the back, stomps on the floor, throws herself backwards, cries and scream at the TOP of her lungs!! Quite a show my little girl can put on.

This happens for a multitude of reasons including wanting something to eat a snack and not getting exactly what she wants (even though she's too young to tell us what she wants). We hold up products asking her do you want this? No!...How about this? NO! Cheese? Apple, pear, bread, cookie, cereal? No, no no no no....

Or in the morning when we go to take her out of bed is joy.... We go in and she puts her arms out for us. She has put her arms out for us since we started putting her in her crib. We use to just go pick her up. Now we walk towards the crib to get her and she screams, runs to the edge of the crib, throws her body on the crib floor, cries and lays down. So we say not ready to get up? and start to walk out. She gets up and screams and puts her arms out. This continues until we finally get her out with kicking and screaming.

Other times she'll just scream. Loudly. And not stop. You talk to her and she screams louder and throws herself on the floor.

Wow. She's quite a test of patience. I hope this stage doesn't last long.

Caramels

I decided I wanted to try to make caramels. I got the recipe from my husband's grandmother. The recipe has been in the family for a while and it is very good. She makes them every Christmas.

So I add all the ingredients to the pot and wait wait wait. Finally it boils. Add more cream, boils some more. Wait wait wait, boil boil boil. Look at temp on candy thermometer and we're only at 225- need to get to 245-250.
Wait wait wait, boil boil boil..... and on and on and on
So after longer than I think it should take I turn on another burner to see if maybe the other burner will work better.
It started boiling a little more and I got all excited that i'd have caramels made!!!!
Look at the thermometer.....
.....
....
...
225...Damn

Wait wait wait some more, boil boil.

I decide to put a little in the ice cold cup to see what stage were at that way.

soft ball stage...not hot enough still....

So after boiling for 3 times longer than it would say it would take I finally gave up and realized my stupid ancient stove does not get caramel hotter than 225.

So now I have a pan of soft ball caramels and two buttered trays.

I need to find someone who would let me barrow their stove to finish these darn caramels and then try to figure out a way to get them home without ruining them.


GRRRR

UPDATE******************************

So i got a smaller pan and put 1/2 the batch in and whala! it went up to temp

unfortunatly I cooked it a little too long and its a little hard, but not too bad for a first attempt. I'm certain it will get eaten though so i'm not worried.

I still have the other 1/2 batch to recook so i'll try to make that batch not as hard.

SCA Into being Medieval

I have become a member of the SCA (www.sca.org) aka The Society for Creative Anachronism. I am so happy to have finally found a group that I feel I mess well with. Ever since I moved out to BFE and become a SAHM I've felt SO alone with no one to talk to or anything.

I've been to a good number of meetings with the local group. I've gone to Baron Wars, including camping with my daughter who was then around 10 months or so. I also helped to get together, run and tear down Pounce. For Pounce I left the daughter at home with the husband (who told me he isn't interested in dress up and would rather get one on one time with dd). I had a blast and got to know some really great and fun people. I went to a few classes (one on beer making and one on drumming).

A few weeks ago I went to a local feast put on by a couple in our group who was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. While there I was asked if I was interested in taking over the position for Webmistress and Chronicler!

Just recently I went to Yule Feast. It was a day event that had a feast at the end. I attended a drumming, T-tunic, and beading classes. The best part of the day was at court where Baroness Gabrielle presented me with a scroll!! I recieved my very first scroll for Order of the Boresbane for all the help I provided at Pounce. It is a beautiful scroll! I will have to get a picture of it.

Since Yule Feast I have been doing some research on illumination and calligraphy. I've drawn out 2 scrolls for the illumination in my sketchbook. I am going to try to continue to do sketching each week. I'm a little rusty since it's been so long, but am starting off slow. We have a meeting on Sunday and I'm planning on bringing the sketchbook to get critiques and reactions to my work.