I Should Be Doing Other Things

Well. I should be doing paperwork for the kids' summer camps and adventures. But I'm not. I should be at the grocery store. But I'm not. I should be ironing tomorrow's clothes. But I'm not. I should have served frozen fish sticks for supper in order to save time. But I didn't.
I invited my sister-in-law over for dinner instead. My brother's out of town for a couple of days. And if I'm completely honest, I want her little pumpkin of a baby to love being at my house before it even gets out into the world. So I like to feed it. I figure the tiny one will associate the hum of activity at my house with the feeling of a happy, full tummy right off the bat.
The problem is, when I invite my Mindy over for dinner, I always end up having the craziest cooking adventures. I'll call her up at 4:00, on my way home from getting the kids and the dog and say, "Hey. You wanna come over for dinner?" And she'll say she'd love to and ask what she can bring. And I tell her that I don't know what we're having yet. I'm going to pick something up at the store and I'll call her if I can think of a contribution for her to make.
Then I walk through the store, just looking for inspiration. Wandering open-mindedly through a grocery store is dangerous. That is how I ended up making pumpkin ravioli once from scratch. Oh my. I think I even served it with brown butter sauce or something like that. That is also how I invented the New Year's Eve pasta (I think). And that is how, tonight at 5:00, I decided we'd have homemade bread, roasted beets and pork chops with lemon caper sauce. None of which I had recipes for or experience with.
But it was good.
I've only roasted beets once before, but it's easy and they're so tasty. Even if my fingers are a stained bright pink now.
I made some progress on the fairy costume tonight. The tunic/slip for underneath the flowy part is done and outer part is mostly cut out. A run to the fabric store is in order because I used up too much material cutting out a piece that I didn't need after all. Because I'm not very good at reading directions. Whatever.
This will be a lesson in good-enough for me. As in, what I have time to do will have to be good enough. My mommy instincts have already dictated plans for a matching organza flowered head piece and homemade wings. Of course a wand and glitter and a fancy hairdo that we'll have to wake up at 5:00 to do would be perfect. And wouldn't it be great if I had mad embroidery skilz? I mean, I could pimp out that purple tunic like nobody's business! Twining vines and pink flowers climbing up her pink leggings? Ah. Magical.
But I need to put on the brakes.
A simple lavender slip (that I altered into a tunic) and a sparkly but plain organza peasant shirt (that I altered to make it really long) will be worn over pink leggings. No headband and no purple-boot-shaped shoe covers (the fairy in the book wore purple boots). And absolutely no embroidery-that-I'd-have-to-stay-up-until-3:00-AM-researching-online-because-I-don't-already-know-how-to-do-it.
Okay, well, maybe the headband...how do I make organza flowers anyway?
Because I will be lucky to have this finished in time for her book report on Wednesday, what with tomorrow evening being spent on Andrew's spring band concert and a trip to the fabric store being necessary.
(shaking my head at my crazy self)
I will laugh abouto this one day.
Probably tomorrow.

Daily bliss: dinner turned out okay, even if I almost wrecked the bread
Wake-Up Playlist: Lovesong of the Buzzard by Iron and Wine