When confronted with a wretched mixed pile of Lego bricks and Lego Hero Factory parts, I will know which is which 95% of the time. This is not a skill I intentionally cultivated nor one upon I wish to improve. (But I bet I will.) Sorting these little pieces of plastic represents one of the reasons why writing blog posts and novels and shaving regularly prove to be a challenge. (Good thing I don’t really care about shaving.) It is too cold and I am tired of being too cold. Usually I do not complain about winter but seriously I am D-O-N-E. It’s only early February which is bad news for me since February only means many more weeks of cold in these parts. A blizzard today and tomorrow is promising to deliver 24” plus to my little part of the Earth. Maybe even 30”. Right on my house. The up-side: snow hides a bleak and messy backyard when you are hopeful of selling aforementioned domicile.

Exciting cup news! Remember when I cracked my beloved Starbucks reusable cold cup? Well, it remains cracked, but useable. However, its integrity is becoming more and more heartachingly compromised. But then I heard about this amazing invention on RadioBoston, one of my favorite NPR shows. It is called CUPPOW and it’s a little insert that turns any mason jar into a travel mug! My awesome mail carrier, Brian, brought mine to me this week. You can insert a straw in it. I am going to sew a little cozy for my Cuppowed jar. It is certain to be adorable. Like one of those little sweatered dogs.

Sugar is really pissing me off lately. I mean its pervasiveness. As a result, I have sworn off packaged cereal. Even the "healthy" ones contain a crapload of sugar. So what to leave handy for the little monsters so I can stay in bed just a few more minutes in the morning? Homemade granola sweetened with only natural maple syrup! Here’s the recipe. Combine 3 cups of rolled oats, 3/4 cup of unsweetened coconut, a tablespoon of cinnamon and/or some raisins and almonds—toss the mixture with 3 ounces of olive oil and 3 ounces of maple syrup and bake at 250 degrees F for an hour. Oh, throw in some flax seeds if you got ‘em. The kids think it’s the greatest thing. And they say I am the best and cutest mother in the world (no lie), so I must be doing something right. Sometimes I am the WORST MOTHER IN THE WORLD as well, which is confusing. Either way, this granola does not have refined sugar in it which was the point of this paragraph.

My son likes to watch this BBC series about Cavemen and the animals that predated the dinosaurs and other prehistoric stuff. The other day he walked into the kitchen where I was preparing supper and said, “Mommy, did you know that Australopithecus was the first primate species to mate face to face?” Then he left with no further commentary to return to his wretched mixed pile of Lego bricks and Lego Hero Factory parts (to which he refers simply as Legos and Heroes).

And here ends the Friday stew of random, unrelated miscellany. I hope you have an opportunity to mate face to face this weekend, especially if you are buried in 30” of snow—I mean, what else will there be to do?