Day: November 15, 2021

Mommy Files: Birthday Cake Fiasco

My husband and I grew up in different cultures. He’s from a high-rise in the Bronx. My roots are in rural upstate New York. His mother bought his birthday cakes at the corner bakery. My mom baked mine from scratch.

When our children were young, I decided it would be fun for the three of us to bake my husband a birthday cake ourselves. Y & X-Chromos enthusiastically agreed. From scratch! We had such fun, measuring, stirring, tiptoeing around so the cake wouldn’t fall in the oven.

But Mommy made two mistakes. It had been so long since I’d baked and frosted/decorated a cake, I forgot one important thing, and didn’t consider a second important thing.

  • We didn’t wait for the cake to completely cool before we frosted and decorated it. Oops.
  • Even worse, we needed a place to hide the cake so TV Stevie wouldn’t see it. So we put it in the oven. Which also hadn’t completely cooled. Double-oops.

The next day, TV’s birthday, I discovered those errors. Oh, the cake was edible. But the decorations had melted into the frosting, making a pastel tie-die effect.

I think that was the last time I attempted to bake cake. The Chromos and I settled for a future of baking quick breads and cookies. X-Chromo spent many hours in college perfecting the art of molasses cookies.

At least I didn’t traumatize the children.

 

 

Music: Besieged by the Moon Playlist

In keeping with my habit of creating a playlist for my works-in-progress, here is what I listened to to keep me in the story of Besieged by the Moon.

No Roots (Alice Merton)
Night Moves (Bob Seger)
Iris (The Goo-Goo Dolls)
Promise Land (Hannah Miller)
Broken Arrow (Robbie Roberstson)
Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne)
Don’t Lie to Me (Barbra Streisand)
Hallelujah (Pentatonix)
Fighting the Decree (Brittney Mitchell)
People Have the Power (Patti Smith)
Sound of Silence (Disturbed)
Miles (Christina Perri)
Daylight Again/Cost of Freedom (Crosby, Stills, & Nash)
Universal Soldier (Donovan)
A Little Bit More (Dr. Hook)
Arms (Christina Perri)
One Tin Soldier (The Original Caste)

Manuscript: Besieged by the Moon Cover Reveal & More!

Counting down to the release of the third book in the Service for Sanctuary series, BESIEGED BY THE MOON. 

Fated Mates.

Although werewolf EMT Parker Rowe is anxious to return home to begin his paramedic training, he stops to rescue a she-wolf from a mob. Turns out she isn’t just any she-wolf.

Phoebe McKinn was eight years old when she witnessed the most powerful man in Washington, DC slaughter her pack and family. For fifteen years she’s been preparing to avenge their deaths. While tracking her enemy she meets her fated mate and a branch of her pack she never knew existed.

Too bad exacting her revenge will probably get her killed . . . unless Parker can convince her surviving is the best revenge.

The release date is April 21, but you can preorder the book now from Amazon.

 

Thursday Thought: Multi-Tasking

While there is no such thing as multi-tasking (numerous studies indicate the brain can do only one thing at a time) a person can walk and chew gum at the same time. Those actions, as well as other “muscle memory” functions like typing  are the products of habit learning and are controlled by a different part of the brain.  Talking on the phone, reading email, listening to the news take place in the declarative memory learning area.

That said, a person can cook and listen to the radio at the same time, the same way a person can eat and watch television at the same time. Different parts of the brain are in use.

Maybe preparing dinner and listening to her family at the same time is a mommy skill.

In case you needed to know this. Because you missed a joke or the weather while stirring your eggs.

 

 

MJ Monday-Music: Needing Silence

Sometimes, a person needs silence. That need, in today’s society, is treated as an aberration. I love music. I have eclectic taste. But sometimes the music has to stop.

My day job is working in an office. A cube farm. Phones ring and telephone conversations are constant. The climate control system roars most of the day. And yet if there is even a nook of silence in all that, someone will call out, “Hey! Turn on the music!”

I have often said there was no music in the 80’s. I was only slightly wrong, and I can prove it. The only radio station we can get (the office location is in a low spot) plays music of the 80’s, 90’s, and forward. It is owned by a huge, national company, and the playlist is set. The same songs play every day. Every. Single. Day.  Apparently only 30 or so songs survived from the 80’s and 90’s. I rest my case.

Years ago, when I worked in retail, the store playlist would drive the employees crazy because of the repetition. This radio station playing in my current workplace does the same thing. At least to me. The only difference is the play list is mixed up. “Shallow” isn’t always followed by “Drops of Jupiter” or “Heaven is a Place on Earth.”

Heaven is really a place where a woman can hear herself think.