Happy Windsday

I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but it is extremely windy here and is only supposed to get windier tomorrow. When the birds were out this afternoon I was a little concerned they would blow away. (They didn't.)

The washer is still broken with the bad news being J. doesn't think it is possible to get the part that needs to be replaced. I have a feeling we will be the proud owners of a new washing machine by the end of the weekend. A good friend offered to take L.'s laundry and do it for her, so that crisis is now averted. The door handle is still broken as well, but it's not as though we don't have four other exterior doors to go in and out of. 

R. had a rough day yesterday for no discernible reason. She'd have a bad patch and I'd be able to talk her down, then she's have another bad patch and I'd talk her down. But by the end of the afternoon, she wasn't quite so able to regain equilibrium. I knew I had a choice of sitting her on my lap or trying to continue to talk her down and her becoming more and more disregulated. Of course, I had her sit on my lap. I was not her favorite person at that point, so she came and sat with me grudgingly. After about a half hour she was finally able to start relaxing a bit but was not ready to get up. This meant that dinner didn't get started until J. got home to make it. We ate very late last night. But, by the time we ate, R. was back to functioning a bit and she slept all night. When she woke up this morning she was back to her usual self. Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be a trigger. I would love some sort of indicator light to let me know to take preemptive measures. Actually, there are several children of mine where an indicator light would be useful. 

Obviously, I don't have much to share with you tonight, so you get bits a pieces. I wanted to leave you with the Valentine's cake we had on Monday night. I decided to be the fun mom and actually do something for the holiday. We had a sort of fancy dinner of broiled salmon, baby potatoes, and sauteed green beans. (Salmon in not cheap, but I love it. I always feel a little guilty about spending that much on a main course, though. That is until I had a revelation. I spend far more on the occasional pizza night than I do on enough salmon to feed us all, and it's better and healthier. I am not going to feel guilty about my salmon splurge any more.) And for dessert we had a cake. Y. made the chocolate mayonnaise cake, I made the frosting, and G. tempered the dark chocolate to make the little hearts on top. (That's shredded coconut on half the cake because not everyone wanted coconut on theirs.)