Someday is Today!

Happy Monday!

 
This was an amazing weekend - Mason hit a milestone on Sunday and it validated so much of what I have been working to teach him about building momentum. Mason has enjoyed building his video library on You Tube, but there were times when he would be less enthusiastic and question the point of the whole thing. I said to him, "Let's do the work and create a place where people who might want to hire you someday can see what you are all about and how much fun you have teaching kids to cook." On Sunday, Mason did his first paid job cooking at an event hosted by the Junior League of Sacramento and was representing Raley's. How cool is that? Raley's is also considering hiring Mason to do live demo's in their stores in the Northern CA region encouraging kids to eat their vegetables and try new things. Yesterday I was able to point out to Mason that when he asked when he would get paid to do live cooking demos and I said someday, "Someday is today!" Go Mason! Now it's time to ramp up for a busy month of cooking demos all through May. These are not paid gigs, but the people we are working with are now paying for the supplies we need to do the demo - that's a huge help!

Dave finished another class yesterday and now only has 10 more classes to complete to earn his Bachelor's Degree. Taking on line classes while working full time and meeting the needs of ones family is certainly not the easy way to do it, but maybe there is a bit more appreciation for the process when one works harder. In any case, I am incredibly proud of him!

 

Have an awesome week and make some plans to get outside, we are looking at temps reaching the 90s by Friday. Sounds like picnic and river weather to me!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I know, it was yesterday, but it's still such a lovely spring sentiment and I do hope your Easter was a happy one. Ours was, although we spent much of our weekend working. Dave decided to tackle the garage even though I begged him not to - it's just such a monumental project! He set his mind to it and had it all cleaned out and put back together before he came in to make our Easter dinner on Sunday. Mason and I took on what felt like a project as big as the garage, Mason's bedroom. Now I know, other moms tell me it is not my job to clean his room, but once a year I feel like I need to do it if for nothing else, just to get the crap out of it. And when I say crap, I mean crap! He had all kinds of garbage under his bed; candy wrappers, empty juice boxes, paper cups, and God knows what else. It's normal, I know my room was awful when I was growing up, but I don't recall having trash like that in my mess. In any case, it's clean now - likely just for a few hours. We also cleaned the living room and bathrooms - I take great pride in having taught Mason to properly clean a toilet by hand and wash a floor, yep, on his hands and knees! He wasn't all that enthused, but I know when the day comes that he wants to impress a woman, he will know how to clean his house - and of course, he already knows how to cook, all I need to do now is sewing on a button and ironing. Laughing!

Mason has some cooking demos coming up, he will be at Fairy Tale Town in Sacramento this Saturday from 5-8 with Raley's and the Sacramento Junior League for Family FunFest. Mason will be doing 2 or 3 cooking demos in Mr. McGregor's Garden sharing with kids that eating healthy tastes good. He will also be on Good Day Sacramento on Tuesday the 6th and on Fox 40 on Wednesday the 7th talking about his kitchen project and his upcoming demos at the Auburn Home Show (May 16, 17, 18). And if that isn't enough, he will also be at BerryFest in Roseville on May 10th at 2 pm cooking up something Berrylicious! He's a busy kid - better busy than in trouble, right?! 

Mason also had his play this weekend - Agustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He did a great job and as I suspected, he is already looking forward to his next play. We went to several community egg hunts and colored eggs on Saturday night. We wound up our weekend with a big bonfire in the backyard - we burned our cedar garlands and Christmas tree - it's like we got double the pleasure from those holiday purchases! All in all it was an awesome fun-filled weekend. Now it's back to work and school, Dave is traveling two days here, home a day, gone a day, home two days, gone 5 days...I think it's going to be like this through May, June and July. So it goes, we all do what we gotta do. I hope you are well and your Easter was as lovely as ours was. Make this week something memorable even if it's just to say kind words to stranger. With love! Kathy

Weekend Ups and Downs

Hi Friends,

It's been a bit of a roller coaster this weekend - Dave was away for work while Mason had a full schedule with a birthday party and a dress rehearsal for his upcoming performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I thought I would have some time to myself to get some work done and clean the house - but that was not to be. Instead, I battled what appears to have been a small kidney stone. Yikes! That was awful, I hope I never have to have that experience again. All night Friday and most of Saturday! was incredibly painful. I landed in urgent care, they did some tests, gave me a shot in the rear and sent me home...the shot made me feel much better. With all that excitement, who wanted to clean house? Not me!

There is lots going on this week and as usual, lots of irons in the fire. Mason is preparing for a very busy month in May of cooking demos, and he has his first paid gig coming up. Raley's has hired him to do a special event with the Junior League of Sacramento at Fairy Tale Town on April 26th. He will do 2-3 half hour cooking demos from 5-8. It's their annual Family Fun Fest and it looks like it will be just that, fun! After that, Mason is doing two television spots on Fox 40 (May 6) and Good Day Sacramento (May 7), then the BerryFest in Roseville on Saturday May 10th (2 PM) and finally, he will work the whole weekend of May 16, 17 and 18 at the Auburn Home Show. He will do two cooking demos (Sat and Sun) and will also have a booth to raise money for his school kitchen. Whew! That's a busy month! Mason will have more of his handcrafted cake plates for sale and Save Mart has donated the baked goods to go on them.

I hope you are all well and enjoying the longer days - I know we are! Have a fantastic week and we'll check back in next time.  

Happy 80s All Week!

It’s Monday and our weather forecast is showing temps in the 80s all week. I know CA needs more rain, but I can’t say I’m disappointed, I am loving the sunshine! This weekend was as lovely as they come, Dave had to work on Saturday so Mason and I slept in, had lunch with friends, ran a few errands and then came home to watch documentaries on Steve Jobs. Mason is doing a project on Jobs so we are learning all kinds of interesting things, like the way they invented the computer mouse. Jobs explained to his team what he wanted and like so many things, just left them to come up with the technology to make it happen. As for the mouse, it was created from a prototype that consisted of a roll-on deodorant ball and the top to a butter dish - true story! Dave came home and we all watched Talladega Nights with Will Ferrel - I forgot how funny that movie is. Sunday we all slept in and once we were all up and awake, we headed in different directions. Mason started conditioning for football, Dave went to watch the NASCAR race while I headed to the river to paint some rocks. It was pure bliss to be at the river, there was a gentle breeze, it was clear and darn near hot. I worked on a rock for a friend and I also pulled out my paints and painted a really pretty mosaic (remember, most of what I do, I do with pens). I am hoping I will have some time this afternoon after I pick Mason up from school to head back down to the river to photograph it. I plan to put some effort into my RiverLights Originals line this year because this time next year I want to be prepping to go to the largest licensing show in the country in Las Vegas. Yep, I think my stuff is good enough to be on calendars, note cards and more. Heck, I see no point in reinventing the wheel!

Now it's back to business as usual, school and work. Did you do anything fun this weekend? Sometimes, nothing is just the something you need! Have the best week ever. Kath