I am getting old....

My birthday is in a few days, and let's just say the number is starting to creep in the territory I thought was owned by "old" people just a few short years back. It really is sad that youth seems never ending while you are in the midst of it, and so very fleeting once it is behind you. I have spent more than a decade now as a mother, yet having a child in middle school is what it finally took to make me feel like an adult. I have been thinking, though. Men get to have a mid-life crisis, but what do we get? Their freak out in adulthood is considered par for the course, but if you posses a vagina and do the same, you have gone bat shit insane. Since this is woefully unfair, I think I am going to spend the rest of my life having a yearly mid-life crisis, right around my birthday. Just have to come up with a plan. I think it will involve a new wardrobe, a day at the spa, and a general refusal to answer to "mommy" or pick up my cell phone for one solid 24 hour stretch.

Speaking of kids in middle school, Number 1 is home today, with a bruise and swelling on her knee that looks like Tanya Harding had a grudge against her. Apparently, she got into an altercation with her desk at school yesterday, and from the looks of things, the desk won. I have it iced and rubbed some Eucalyptus oil on it, so maybe the swelling will go down and she will stop whining. Until then, I am in need of invisible earplugs. Earplugs to stop the incessant unpleasant sound escaping from her deceptively sweet countenance, and invisible so she won't have yet another thing to whine about. If she can't see them, she can't be full of mock outrage.

I am so incredibly swamped trying to get the store in order, place orders with manufacturers, getting emails translated, and answering customer emails, that I have barely managed to brush my teeth this week. But I have tried a new thing: plain castille soap as toothpaste. I must say, it left my mouth feeling clean, but I am not loving it. It tasted like horribleness, and my good ole Tom's of Maine leaves my mouth feeling just as clean without being devoid of any pleasant flavour.

So I leave you with something that is definitely NOT devoid of pleasant flavour:

Garlic Herb Goat Cheese Spread

3oz chevre
3 oz cream cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp. chopped fresh chives
1 tsp. chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. chopped fresh marjoram
1/2 tsp. lemon zest
sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
1 baguette, cut into 1/4 thick rounds, brushed with olive oil, and toasted

Mix the cheeses, garlic, herbs, and zest together, add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with the homemade croutons. Delicious.