When I came home, Karin climbed all over me and demanded to make muffins. “Muffins?” I said. “We don’t need no stinkin’ muffins.” “Yes, we do,” she insisted, OVER AND OVER AND OVER, like 12.5 year olds do, and god help me when she’s an actual teenager. She had SMS’d her father and asked if she could make muffins and of course he said yes because he is ON HIS WAY TO CHINA.
I fobbed her off with the first we have to get the laundry in and then I have to get dinner ready and then you have to get dressed for soccer practice and then you have to GO to soccer practice and then we have to go to the grocery store (and muffin mix was NOT on the list, mind you) and then you have to take a shower, and did you do your homework? And then you have to address those thank you cards you wrote, and THEN MAYBE if there is still time before bed, you can make muffins. Maybe.
She asked me if she could make carrot muffins. “Do you SEE a carrot in this house?” I asked. “No, you cannot make carrot muffins.”
In the grocery store, she asked me what she needed to make muffins and I threw up my hands and steered her into the baking aisle and the only muffin mix they had was chocolate (GACK! GAG! NO WAAAAAAAAAAAAY” cried my non-chocolate-eating-weirdo daughter. “Stop it,” I said. “They have other mixes.” And I pointed out the Princess Lillifee Strawberry Muffins. And Karin picked the box up and tossed it in the cart.
“No way,” I cried. “Those aren’t muffins. They have FROSTING. That makes them cupcakes.”
Now she and Martin are burning the house down making muffins. I am refusing to help them because it was HER FATHER WHO SAID OKAY, not me! Actually, I showed them how to preheat the oven. And I made sure we bought eggs. And I told them where the mixer was. But they’d better be done before bedtime, whether those MUFFINS are iced or not. And they’d better have their presentation ready for tomorrow because they can’t get around ME with cupcakes.
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I stayed up late to finish reading All Clear by Connie Willis last night, which was the second half of her 2-part novel which started with Blackout. It’s a time travel story set during the Blitz in London. It was SO GOOD I think I might have to read it again. Her books are so incredibly good they’re better than cupcakes. They’re smart and funny and unpredictable and thought-provoking and romantic and sad and so so so satisfying.
Psst! Pie Night is scheduled for March 10. You’re invited!
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Edited to add: the muffins cupcakes were delicious.