whatever the weather

We’re still trying to get outdoors even though the weather isn’t the most welcoming.  I’ve discovered that a good strategy for overcoming my own reluctance to venture out into the rain and cold is to suggest we go outside to Spud, who promptly declines, then reconsiders a few minutes later, and begins insisting that we go outside until I acquiesce. 
This week we’ve spent two very different days outdoors—both equally invigorating.

On the first day we were supposed to get 6 inches of rain in 24 hours, so at the end of our time outside we were soaked.  We explored the wonders of mud, puddles, and rocks splashing into puddles. 

Spud was especially interested in watching the ways the water traveled from the top of the hill via ditches, etc., eventually joining up with one of two creeks at the bottom.

With little to no rain during our walk the second day, Spud enjoyed much more climbing, crawling, and exploring.

He asked some very perceptive (I think) questions like “Why is it still wet if it’s not raining?” and noticed that his rocks made significantly smaller splashes in the puddles than they had the day before.


He also enjoyed watching the bubbles formed in the cascading creeks.



Our adventures ended with a visit to the “Green Forest” where I was invited to visit his house and see his “oven” and “honey tree”.


On our way home, I was frequently instructed to stick to the main trail, while he took the “jingle-jangle” trail.  (Whatever that means; all I know is that his imagination was working overtime.)


All of these escapades result in a little extra laundry for Mama, but I don’t regret a second of it.  I always come home thinking, “This was well worth it.”

what we’ve been cooking (and eating)

With the overall return of my appetite after a horrid 4-month or so spell of morning sickness, I’ve finally had the energy and desire to get back in the kitchen and try some new recipes.
There have been a couple of misses/outright failures along the way, but we’ve found some keepers, too.

• I’m wanting to broaden my slow cooker recipe repertoire before the new baby arrives, so one of the first recipes I tried was this Chicken Tikka Masala.  I also made a vegetarian version in a second slow cooker using garbanzos in place of the chicken.  I didn’t make the cucumber relish included in the recipe; instead I made a yogurt raita, as well as this naan bread.  We served the masala over brown rice, and overall, everyone liked it.  I think I would like this one even more if the main flavoring came from curry, rather than garam masala—I’ll probably play around with it a little bit.

• Way back before baby squelched any desire I had to eat vegetables (or anything else healthy), I purchased two cookbooks with the intent of planning healthier meals based on in season produce. I finally cracked open my copy of Love Soup and made the first recipe I’d planned to make before I started getting sick: White Bean and Garlic Soup with Greens.  I used kale instead of Swiss chard, and didn’t have quite enough white beans on hand, so the beans to greens ratio wasn’t quite to my liking.  Still, this was flavorful and filling soup that we ate with two different kinds of focaccia bread.  I cut the cooking time way down by using frozen, pre-cooked white beans; and do you see that big chunk of garlic up there?  Yummy!

• Definitely the biggest hit during these recent recipe adventures (at least with the two adults in the house) has been The Pioneer Woman’s Taco Pizza.  It uses refried black beans as the “sauce” (absolutely delicious, by the way); fresh toppings like lettuce and tomato are added after baking.  Surprisingly, the recipe doesn’t call for any hamburger, which had my meat-loving, taco-pizza aficionado Cowboy immediately on the defensive.  He ate several pieces sans hamburger before trying to improve upon the recipe by taking hamburger from the other pizza on the table and adding it to his taco pizza.  Shockingly, he promptly declared that the hamburger did not improve the original recipe—you don’t know how big that is, people!  As the official pizza cutter in the family, he did have one suggestion: add the sour cream/ salsa dressing after cutting the pizza to avoid a big mess.  Last night was our second go-round with this recipe, and I had to chastise him for eating directly from the pizza pan—basically his pizza slices never made it to his plate .  This recipe has earned a permanent spot in our regular pizza night line up.

Have you discovered any new recipes lately that are keepers?

yarn along ~ january 25

On the needles: “Is that a sleeve, I spy?” you might be asking.  Why, yes, it is, but it’s the second sleeve, and I’m already on the ribbed cuff!  This sleeve will be the correct length, but I’ll still have to go back and lengthen the first one. 
Off the bookshelf:  I’m just between books right now.  I finished The Penderwicks at Point Mouette and savored it to the very end; it’s a lighthearted, yet touching read, and I’m can’t wait to see where Jeanne Birdsall takes her family of characters next.  There are some definite hints in this most recent book about directions she might take in the future, and, I was excited to read on her website that she plans to write a total of five Penderwick books, so that gives me two more to look forward to! 
I just picked up Cannons at Dawn, The Second Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart by Kristiana Gregory from the library today and am looking forward to reading what is one of the most recent additions to the Dear America series, as well as a sequel to what I believe was the first book ever published in the series.

Stop by Ginny’s Yarn Along every Wednesday!

yarn along ~ january 18

(Sorry about the blurry phone photo!)
Head on over to Ginny’s and see what other Yarn Alongers are doing this week!
On the needles: One sleeve finished and the second well underway.  This sweater may get finished by the end of January!  Shortly after binding off the first sleeve, I realized it was two inches short, so I’ll be fixing that sometime soon.   
Off the bookshelf: Still working my way through Simplicity Parenting; I’m trying to force myself to slow down and really internalize the ideas that pertain most to our family’s situation and begin with those. 
I also picked up the third book in the Penderwick series by Jeanne Birdsall: The Penderwicks at Point Mouette.  In this installment, the three youngest Penderwicks, along with their friend Jeffrey, vacation for two weeks in Maine with their aunt, while the rest of the family members are off on other trips.  The description of their idyllic vacation cottage makes me want to visit Maine even more!
Booklist’s starred praise for the first book, The Penderwicks, from the back jacket cover eloquently explains why I love this series: ‘Adults who have been longing to find books for children that remind them of their own beloved childhood favorites, look no further.  Birdsall follows in the footsteps of Elizabeth Enright, Edward Eager and Noel Streatfield, updating the family story yet keeping all the old-fashioned charm.’
Happy knitting and reading!

giveaway winner and other bits

First things first: the winner of the Simplicity Parenting giveaway as chosen by random.org is Julie, commenter #1!  Congrats, Julie, you’ll be receiving an e-mail from me shortly!  And thanks so much to those of you who stopped by and left a comment!

The weatherman has been hinting at snow*** for several days, and as kids all across town eagerly scan the skies, I decided we’d best get the garlic under wraps. 

On Friday, Spud and I planted the last of the cloves and gave them and the already-sprouting-rhubarb generous blankets of leaves from my dad’s yard.
***EDITED to ADD***—And the weatherman was right!

If you can safely make it to the store after a snowfall, it’s a perfect time to grocery shop—I’ve never seen so many available shopping carts (they had opened just an hour before, too, so maybe that had something to do with it.)



(The best thing about snow on the weekend is that Cowboy gets to sled with the kiddos; I’m missing out this time due to my pregnant state.)

And, I had a brief, but thrilling interaction in nature on Friday as well.  Since early fall we’ve been enjoying the chickadees and juncos that appreciate the black sunflower seeds we put out for them in feeders.  Recently, I decided to give them a little boost through the colder months by making homemade suet.  Our suet feeders had been empty for a day, so I quickly mixed up our third batch of bird food using the recipe found in Rhythm of the Family.
Usually when I put out new suet, there’s not a bird in sight, and often isn’t for a few hours.  The same was true on Friday as I rehung the feeders—no birds on the fence, no chicka-dee-dee-dee to be heard.  I have kind of a fascination with trying to spot birds when they’re hiding in the bushes or trees, but I saw nothing (not that I often do).

I moved a few feet away and sat down on the steps to watch Spud playing in the sandbox.  Within seconds of sitting down, two chickadees appeared at the feeder to eat, and within a few seconds more, I could hear the calls and chirps of literally dozens of chickadees who seemingly materialized out of nowhere.  Several “messenger” chickadees swooped back and forth over the house a few times, igniting some sort of birdie broadcasting alert, and others joined the chorus, spreading the news that their food was back.  The swift shift from absolute silence to bird bliss was amazing.
I saw chickadees at the very tops of alder trees where I had never thought to look for them before (I didn’t know they perched up that high), and shortly thereafter, their more cautious and less vocal friends, the juncos, began hopping in and out from under the porch looking for the tidbits their braver counterparts had dropped.
All of this lasted less than 5 minutes; then the flurry died down, the more sensible among them convinced the foolhardy to sit back and wait until the human disappeared inside again and all was quiet. 
(I’m not even going to try and explain all of the factors that converge to make the bird photos so awful.  Just know that if I could have gotten better ones, I definitely would have )

quotable sunday

“Time in nature is restorative, . . . it helps us recover from the stresses of daily life and improves our capacity to pay attention.  In its complexity and sensuality, nature invites exploration, direct contact, and experience.   But it also inspires a sense of awe, a glimpse of what is still ‘un-Googleable’ . . . life’s mystery and magnitude.”

--Kim John Payne, Simplicity Parenting, pg. 81-82

Joining Kerry, Kyrie, and Linnea for Quotable Sunday.

a bookcase trick

My recent wave of cleaning, organizing, and discarding included consolidating two bookcases into one and moving one of them to another part of the house.  Other than the fact that they take up space beside my bed, and one needed to be moved to make room for a cradle, my main beef with the bookcases was that they became a catchall for little odds and ends—A LOT of little odds and ends.  Things like pen caps, cameras, needles, receipts, loose change, etc.  If I didn’t want Spud to get ahold of it, or I didn’t know where to put it, it usually ended up on the front edge of one of the bookshelves.  (Thankfully, I forgot to take a before picture—it was ugly.)

After neatly reshelving all of the books into their proper spot in the remaining bookcase, I realized that I had inadvertently helped myself to avoid the return of the clutter. 

Without thinking about it, I’d placed most of the books an inch or less away from the front of the shelf, rather than pushing them to the back of the shelf, claiming the space that had previously been a clutter magnet.
I’ve heard many organizational experts and fellow bloggers talk about ridding your home of unfilled horizontal space to avoid the pile-up of clutter, paper, and other odds and ends.  One of my next tasks is to come up with one central location for all of the different little items that don’t seem to have a “home”, but quickly make a mess.
What about you?  How do protect the horizontal spaces in your home?  What do you do with all the little bits and pieces that can become a big bunch of clutter?
(Time is running out . . . comment on this post for your chance to win a copy of Simplicity Parenting!)