Miser Family Update: work and play edition

Life is hoppin' with richness and fullness here in the Miser family household, with work and play ka-ching-ing into our lives this week.

The week began with a fun birthday dinner for my youngest daughter, K-daughter.   Instead of making chocolate cake, I made chocolate cupcakes in some cast-iron muffin tins that I-daughter had scored for me for my birthday (from a yard sale, no less!).  We topped these with a candle holder that I made from a plastic cow that I'd been gifted at Christmas, together with a cordless drill my daughters had given me.  (I'm talented like that, y'know).  So this was a birthday of many past presents.



Speaking of being talented with tools, N-son texted me from school, where he's very much enjoying learning building maintenance.  He wrote:


I just made an N for my name.

Can you put it in the family letter?


I love that my kids like my mentioning them.  And I love his N!  This is a great way to play at work; it's fun to see N-son carrying on the great family woodworking traditions that my dad passed along to his three daughters.   Someday we'll see what N-son can do with a plastic cow and a candle.

J-son has just finished his first full week as a camp counsellor.  By Friday evening he was exhausted, and slept like a log.  When I talked to him on Saturday, I asked how he liked his job, and he immediately answered that he loves it!  I asked what it was he loves; he said, "The campers!"  He's in charge of a bunch of younger kids.  I said, "I bet they climb all over you and use you as a jungle gym", and he said, "all the time."  I repeat: it's so nice to see my sons enjoying their work.

Even my husband, who technically is retired, had a week of fun work.  He spent much of it up in Boston at a Chemical Engineering conference with his former coworkers, schmoozing and catching up on all the good gossip.

And me, I got the page proofs for our book, and my coauthors and I are diving deep into it, hoping to get feedback back to our publishers quickly so the book can keep moving forward.

I got to hang out with my daughters again later in the week; we went with a friend to see Mamma Mia, and at intermission we took awesome pictures that my daughter promised to send me BUT DIDN'T.   HEY, I-DAUGHTER, STEP IT UP!   Ooh, and then today K-daughter, A-child and I went to a local orchard and picked 30 pounds of cherries, while A-child sang happy cherry-picking songs that she invented as she sang.  Later today, I managed to get the cherries all pitted and either in the dehydrator or canned up . . . but now my fingers are all black from cherry juice.  Good thing we're not taking pictures now!  But life will be delicious in the months to come, thanks to the fact that sometimes you really can pull food right out of the air and put it into buckets.  Wow.

And in a truly delightful evening, we had the family that will be buying our house come over for dinner; we also invited the neighbors on either side of us.  So they all got to meet each other, exchange email and phone numbers, and discover that one neighbor makes the best vanilla cake ever.  It was a sweet get-together, really.

And that's the news from our family, which continues to be wealthy in our work/play adventures.  May you and yours be similarly prosperous.