blustery

I am listening to the wind howl.
It soars around the house, whooshes through the trees.
Crazy how much they dance in the gusts.
Alarming, even.
Enough to make me feel quite small and insignificant.
But not in a bad way.
I wonder if the trees enjoy the dancing....

The wind chimes provide a steady clinkety-clackety soundtrack.

I am grateful to be within these sturdy walls.
A fire burning bright.
Flames dancing and sending warmth into the rooms.

I think of those exposed to the cold wind.
Animals, people.
Mostly the people.
I feel humbled.
I tell myself I should do more.
Though to tell the truth, I'm unsure of what exactly I mean by that.
Do more of what?

For now, tea and a book.
Because tending one's own soul is always good, important work too.

today...

...I ate cooked-until-mushy (with a little cinnamon, maple syrup, milk and a few cardamom pods) brown rice for breakfast.  And also scrambled eggs.  Washed down with some peach-black tea with milk and honey.

...it was unseasonably warm.  Even more so than usual lately, with temperatures reaching into the 70s.  In February.  Short sleeves.  Birds singing.  Hands in the dirt.

...we spent some time outside doing yard work.  I created a rock-bordered bed for perennial herbs.  Mike set up a table and lights for seed-starting in the crawlspace.

...Claire felt less than great.  She has had a bit of a cold for several days now and is actually sleeping over my shoulder at the moment because she kept waking up from coughing.  Motherhood for me is somehow most vividly felt in the moments that I am tending my unwell babe.

...I wondered why I've not felt up to writing much lately.  Probably a mixed bag.  Nice weather calling me outside and a sniffly little one calling for me to pick her up.  And generally just not a whole lot going on to write about.   And a lack of inspiration to wax poetic over some small moment or a carefully chosen photo from the day.

...thinking maybe I'll try to write daily.  In March.

...also decided that in March I will attempt to budget our (my) grocery spending a bit.  It seems higher to me than it needs to be despite my efforts to be thrifty and our tendency to eat at home.  Of course there are things like beer and wine and stamps and the occasional pack of disposable diapers for night time (because I value the little bit of consecutive sleep I am able to get enough to feel okay about throwing a chlorine free diaper into the landfill each morning, not that you asked) and lately, seeds, thrown into the grocery spending, but still.  We'll see.  Gonna go the 'specified amount of cash for the month and no more' route.  Promises to be a most exciting experience no doubt, so stay tuned.  We may be eating nothing but beans and whatever is in the back of the freezer come the end of the month.


good night~

weekending

"What should we do?" I asked her.  She answered with "Nothing. Just stay home and talk."
I can totally do that.

And so we spent most of a beautiful windows-open Saturday in our pajamas.  Most, not all.  There was chicken tending and some outside play.  But mostly just us girls, inside, chatting, reading and playing.

Then came a damp and chilly fire-going-all-day Sunday.  Baked oatmeal (out of this book) for breakfast.
A new favorite, I think.  So good with a bit of yogurt and a cup of coffee.

Some yard/garden/home dreaming and planning.  Where should we put the outdoor oven?  Does it make more sense to address other (maybe more practical) things or should we just knock a hole in the side of the house and replace those windows with doors and build a little deck already?  Hmmmm.......  I dream and plan and ignore the cost side of things for now.  That's no fun to think about, anyway.

And then, for about an hour or so, we had real snow.  Big fat flakes.  It even stuck a little.  For a little while anyway.

Nothing like a cold winter day to motivate me to bake some bread (everyday oatmeal bread from this book, another new favorite) and make some potato soup.
And I made some kale chips, finally.  They're alright.  I know a lot of folks really dig them, and I agree they are tasty.  I suppose I just prefer my greens prepared otherwise.
Though we still had no trouble putting away a whole baking sheet worth.

l.o.v.e.

Love notes, a pretty necklace (seems sending my main squeeze an email with a link to something I fancy worked after all), and pizza and chocolate mousse cake with raspberries from FRESH shared with my two loves.

yep.  I'd say that's just fine.

weekending

We got a visit from old man winter.  

It's about time he showed his face around here.  

Wind chills below zero, flurries off and on.  The plants, tricked into thinking spring had already arrived, weren't very pleased.

As beautiful as our days have been lately it sure feels good, feels right, to have to bundle up against a bitter wind and dash to the woodshed.  Swap out the hens' water for unfrozen.

My mom turned 54.
She shared her birthday morning with us. (that's her with Claire in the photo above)
There was apple/pear coffee cake.
Coffee.
We drink a lot more coffee around here than we used to.
Records played, she bounced on her bed and danced, general merriment was made by the littlest one.
We bundled up for a walk around the lake.
Much too cold and windy.  Tiny cheeks chapped red in minutes.  So we only went around once, then came home to a fire.
Mike made chicken pot pie.
Thunderstruck Coffee Porter is available again and turns out, it's a good accompaniment to chicken pot pie.
Finished my second Joseph Monninger novel in a week.
Pretty good.  Set in New England.  Love stories, somewhat tragic, lots of outdoors scenes.  I seem to have been on a somewhat tragic-novel roll lately.  Turning to nonfiction for a bit now~
Reading about building earthen ovens, specifically.
My dad, uncle and grandpa came by for a nice visit.
A very nice visit.
There's something quite special about watching Claire with her great grandfather who has a bit over 90 years on her.
We had tea and coffee.  I made some popcorn.
I finally wrote her birthday letter.
Already I get excited thinking about the day years from now when I will hand her a package filled with these letters.
But be sure, I am in no rush to get there.  I just know it will be a nice thing for us to share.
He is splitting, stacking, splitting, stacking.
He also built a raised bed with some of the old bricks from the fire pit I just dismantled.  Another to come, bringing us up to 7.
I think that will do, for now.
I know where I'm going to plant her birthday bulbs.  Soon.
Our neighbor gave us a small container of giant sunflower seeds.  Looking forward to those.
Time to start some seeds.
But for now, lunch.


linking with Amanda at The Habit of Being~

good reads

What next?

this weekend

we made a batch of carrot cupcakes.  Had to use up the leftover cream cheese frosting from her birthday cake.  No way was I letting that sweetness go to waste.  The cupcakes came out a bit dry though.  Probably should have just taken care of the excess with a spoon.

We also made big, fluffy, syrupy belgian waffles.  And the perfect meatloaf.  Don't make that much, but when we do it doesn't last long.  This time I mixed mostly ground beef with a bit of sausage (both from the nearby farmer that we buy most of our meat from), some oats, bread crumbs, a splash or so of whole milk, garlic powder, oregano, a sizable pinch of nutmeg, and some sauteed onions, carrots and celery.  Mmm-mmm.  Mostly I just shared all of that so I could come back here and see what I used when next the meatloaf mood strikes.

Mike scavenged some more wood to split and add to our growing pile of wood for next winter.  This winter has been so oddly mild and we are left with quite a lot of already seasoned wood in the wood shed.  Of course I'm hoping we'll need it for a while longer.  Mike brought the old woodstove that he bought years ago at an auction out of the shed and built a fire in it using a length of ceramic chimney liner as a flue.  To see if it (the rigged up flue) would work.  It did.  It (the woodstove) even has just the right size and shape removable plate on top for placing a metal pan.  For boiling down sap someday.  Someday.  We have big dreams.  Urban sugarbush type dreams.  We'll see.  We did yard work.  Quite a bit.  Raking and shoveling and compost pile turning and mixing and organizing.  Garden planning.  We burned the large pile of wood and pallets that had grown so tall next to our fire pit.  We daydreamed about building our outdoor bread/pizza oven fire pit combination.  We found a couple small salamanders overwintering under an old log next to the fire.  That log went unburned, of course.

The windows were left open for hours, allowing the fresh air to creep inside and fill the house with that which only fresh air can.  Our toes were let out to enjoy the sunshine.

One of our hens, Margaret, our best layer before she moulted months ago, finally started laying again and her eggs are enormous.  Like won't-fit-into-the-carton enormous.  They dwarf the other hens' eggs.  I've accepted that Pearl just isn't going to lay for us.  Ever.  But I'm okay with 4 hens and 3 eggs.

Our bees, sadly, are no longer.  We are starting again in a few months, this time with 2 hives.  We are unsure whether the problem was something with the queen or the hive being ruthlessly robbed despite out attempts to discourage that.   It was disappointing, but we learned some good lessons and are eager to start over soon.  We've left the frames complete with the already drawn out honeycomb, so as to give the next batch a head start.  The frames are in our chest freezer right now.  Freezing them is supposed to kill some of the potential problem causing pathogens such as foulbrood.  Actually, all but 2 of the frames are in the freezer.  The other two are sitting on our counter perched at an angle over a stockpot, cappings scraped off and honey oozing slowly into the pot.  It's not much.  But it's delicious.  Amazingly so.  It's a bit sad, really.  They worked so hard and we have just this little bit of honey to show for their season of foraging and pollinating.  Thanks, girls~ we will most certainly enjoy the fruits of your labor, and we will be the best stewards that we can be to the next inhabitants of our bee yard.

On another note, naps have returned to our household.  Not every day, but most days.  Not long naps, but I'll take them.

art wall

We've lived in this house for a bit over two years and for a bit over two years minus a few days, I've stared at a big blank wall above the couch wondering what to put there.   Not for a bit over two years minus a few days straight, of course.  But often.

We have plaster walls that are nearly 90 years old and quite intact aside from the small cracks and lines that come with such walls.  We are trying not to add to them and that means not just nailing things up as I have in other places I've lived.  That means using those convenient but somewhat expensive and finicky 3M photo mounting strips and having the mister sink anchors and then screws into the wall for heavier things.  It also means eventually getting hooks and wire and putting that picture railing to good use, but for some reason I've yet to do so.

Well.  Turns out a couple thumbtacks, some yarn, some clothespins, and some of your child's recent artwork makes for a fun and sweet (and free) little display.

Since framing some of her artwork as Christmas gifts, I had been thinking I'd frame several and mount them in a grid-like pattern over the couch.

But then I couldn't just swap them out so effortlessly.  Then I'd have to worry about getting frames evenly hung and then I'd have to spend more time than I'd like to holding those darn little 3M mounting strips in place and 'applying even pressure for 30 seconds' for each and every little strip while standing on the back of the couch.

I like this much better.  It's bright and cheerful, it makes me smile.  Makes her smile.  I'm pretty sure it makes him smile, too.

Smiles are good things to have in abundance in a household, I think.

I just love those little handprints.

celebrating her

With two complete trips around the sun now under her belt (if she wore a belt, anyway) our little one is two years old.

2 years old.

As we did last year, to mark the occasion we posted a year's worth of favorite photos on the wall in the dining room.  They stayed up for at least a couple months last year and now that new ones are up, I don't see myself taking them down anytime soon.  Like I said in my last post, looking through photos from the entire year really helped me put it all in perspective and come away feeling like the year had not in fact flown by after all. Rather, it was enjoyed immensely.

Last year we invited a few close friends to share Claire's birthday dinner and cake with us.  This year we expanded on that a little, deciding to invite "her people" for a little party.  We aimed to keep it small and in the end, though we had nearly 30 people in our small home, it felt just right.  "Her people" meant that we invited those that she talks about all on her own.  Neighbors, a few close friends, family.  There were several little pairs of feet running around the house and jumping on her bed, many little hands reaching for sugar cookies and playing kitchen.  I made little goody bags for the littlest guests.  Pea seeds, boxes that Claire painted, stickers, mini pencils and little stapled-together paper books, organic lollipops.  I felt the need to tell each parent, as I handed the bag to their child, that it had in it not only sugar,  but also a sharp pencil and staples.  Perhaps I'm not the greatest goody-bag-for-toddlers maker.  But it was fun.

We put out photos of Mike and I from when we were two years old.
(She does not get her svelte toddler body from me.  I was a chunker, no doubt!)

Carrot cake made an appearance again and I think it's a keeper.  There was also apple coffee cake and sugar cookies.

For dinner we had Butternut Squash soup made with cider and pears (recipe from Molly Wizenberg's book A Homemade Life), and gingery Vegetable Udon Noodle soup with bok choy, mushrooms and tofu.  And bread.  And snacks, too, of course.

One of her little friends, William, brought her flowers.  This illustrates how very different this year is from the year she was born.  Now.... daffodils.  Then .... highway shut down and many many many inches of snow.

I'd really like at least one big snow this year.  I'm crossing my fingers it's not too late. The forecast doesn't seem promising, but I'm holding out.  It's only the first of February, after all.

On her birthday we shared a delicious breakfast of french toast and bacon with Nana.  Just after breakfast, Nana got in her car and started her 10 hour drive back to NJ.  She had come down just for the party and to kiss this little face and neck.

After Nana left, Claire and I headed out to play a bit.  The library, the playground, the train at the old depot, an antique store....

We found a set of four sweet little cups and saucers at the antique store.  We will drink out of them soon.

This year, like last, I bought some already flowering bulbs (hyacinths, daffodils and tulips) for decorations for her birthday.  I plan to start a bed with them and add more each year.  A little birthday garden for Claire.

For now though, the house smells like hyacinths.  Like a sunny spring morning with clear blue skies and a slight chill in the air that makes you keep a mug of tea of coffee in your hands and a sweater pulled close even though it looks like you wouldn't need it.

All that's left to do now is for me to write her letter.  I decided shortly after she was born that I was going to write her a letter each year on her birthday and on Mother's Day and give them to her when she's older.  So far, so good.  Now I need to write that 4th letter.  (I did not write one the day she was born.  I was much too busy doing very very important things like staring at her.  And resting.)

Happy birthday, baby girl~  We love you so.