Crunchy Peas

wearing babies

I love having Laurel close to me.  Do you know how yummy she smells?  How soft her cheeks are? It is so intoxicating. Even better, I know how much she likes being near me.  I think it comforts us both to be close.  From the time she was very small we have enjoyed babywearing.  The benefits to us both are endless.  I have free hands (free in the sense that I can grab onto my other 2 daughters in busy parking lots), NO STROLLERS, no germ laden shopping carts, cozy naps in the middle of noisy family weddings, discrete nursing, no lugging that 50 lb. infant car seat into the Dr's. office, and finally- my pony tail makes a great toy! I am constantly telling my mamas-to-be that a sling or baby carrier in one form or another, is my #1 must have baby item.  I don't know how I would live without mine.

I made a new pouch last night following this pattern. It took less than 1 hour to stitch it together! In the past I have sewn and used ring slings which worked well when Laurel was a bit smaller.  I was worried about this pouch feeling as secure and tight without the adjust-ability of the rings.  With careful measuring (distance from your shoulder to hip determines the size of the pouch), this was equally secure.  Currently, we use a beco backpack.  I like having her on my back at this age.  She can see out, and I feel like I have a lot more freedom of movement.  However, with the "bulky coat" season upon us, the waist buckle has been weird.  Because she is on my back, I have to wear her over my coat and depending on what thickness of coat I am wearing that day, we are always re-adjusting.  With this snazzy little pouch I could still wear her on my front (she will NEVER be too big, I won't let it happen- I totally think that I could carry her down the isle at graduation- don't you?) allowing my coat to go over the top of both of us.  Also, it is easier for Laurel to get in and out of this pouch without having to loosen the rings on a regular sling.  We do that a lot (in and out).

Making your own baby carrier is totally safe, and a lot less expensive.  If you can sew a straight line, you can do it!  Plus, there is the benefit of choosing your own fabric.  Believe me, I have one in every color now- and you should too!  If you decide to make one let me know how it turns out!

out with the old...

Well it's that time of year again- the end of the year.  Everything feels sloppy.  I have been a bit twitchy lately just thinking about all that could be improved upon around here. The days of my Christmas Tree are definitely numbered!

Do you make resolutions?  I tend to be fairly idealistic- and so yes, I do.  Do I keep them?  Well that is another situation entirely.  Being idealistic is different from being realistic.  Usually, like everyone else, I over commit and lose steam somewhere along the way.  By July I cannot even remember what I set out to change way back in January. 

Last year, my New Year's Resolution was to become more organized.  This is an area that I really struggle with.  Filing and sorting do not come naturally to me.  Piling and stacking do.  So, last year I made a concerted effort to become more organized.  I tackled some pretty big projects and kept a day planner.  I did pretty well- if I do say so myself.

With some general success last year, I have been thinking about what my aspirations should be for this year.  I plan to share several of them with you in the coming days.  Perhaps some accountability might be nice.  Please refer me back to this post come July.

One of the things that has become VERY sloppy around here is our diet.  I was telling my dad over the weekend that I felt like a hypocrite.  I have what I would consider to be a decent amount of knowledge in the subject of nutrition and yet I really struggle to put it into practice.  We had this conversation while I was frosting cupcakes.  See what I mean?  I talk a big game about local, organic, unprocessed, whole foods...but when it comes down to it- I eat Top Ramen for lunch too.

This is what I did the day after Christmas.

I threw out all of the cookies, candy, corn syrup laden, hydrogenated fats filled, yucky-yuck food in our house.  It felt so good to get it out of the house. 

* I would like to keep foods like this out of the house in the coming year.

* I would like to make every effort to avoid sugar and refined flours. 

* I would like to experiment in baking more with alternative sweeteners (by this I mean natural sweeteners like brown rice syrup and honey- not Splenda!)

* I want my children to eat more green things.  This alone is quite a challenge!

* I would like to eat less meat.  Hormone/antibiotic free meat is so expensive!

So after throwing out all that food, naturally we needed more:

I made a menu/grocery list using my favorite resource Everyday Food. I would say that 95% of what I cook comes from this magazine.  I love it!

Ta-da!  In with the new.  Healthy food for a week.  Back on track.  Only 52.5 more weeks to go.  I can do it.

Tonight's dinner: Chef Salad. A great way to use up that left-over Christmas Ham. (I looked for the recipe online, it wasn't there.  It came from the September 2007 issue, page 94.)

Hey, where did that garlic bread come from?

kith and kin

In the famous words of Clarke W. Griswald, "The most enduring traditions of the season are best enjoyed in the warm embrace of Kith and Kin".  That was certainly true for us this Christmas.  Some highlights include:

 

Sewing until the breaka breaka dawn to get all my gifts made.  Thank you to Melissa who came to my rescue and loaned me her machine after mine crapped out on me with 4 pencil rolls to go.  Whew! **Note to self: start earlier next year. (I wrote that note last year too- why is it so hard to learn that lesson?)

Sledding.

When my knee kissed the tree during a wipe out...and no one believed how bad it hurt.  I nursed it away with cupcakes and cocoa by the fire in the lodge (my brother above).

Lots and lots of cooking and eating.

And lots and lots of movie watching and snuggling.  It was a simple, relaxed and wonderful couple of days with family.  We had snow, "man colds" (inside joke), sugar cookies, gifts galore, and the warm embraces of Kith and Kin.  We hope your Holiday held the same.

According to Emma and Hannah:

Thank you for taking that brief with me pause yesterday.  Your comments were all so sweet. Whether I have time to respond or not, please know that I love reading them!! On a lighter note, I thought it would be fun to interview the girls about the Season that we are in.  I excluded Laurel only because she would just answer "yes" to every question. Keep in mind that Emma is 6 and Hannah 4.  Here we go!

Me: What is the best part about Christmas?

Emma: Celebrating Jesus birth.

Hannah: 'bout Jesus.

Me: Where was Jesus born?

Emma: in a stable

Hannah: in Lazarus.

Me: Who came to visit Jesus?

Hannah: The wise man and some jewsman.

Me: Why did Jesus come to earth?

Emma: To save our lives

Hannah: As Christ, and because he wanted to play with his friends.

Me: How do you think that Jesus would want us to celebrate His birthday?

Emma: I think he wants us to praise Him.

Hannah: I think he wants to give us his sins. And some cake.

Me:  Is there anything that you don't like about Christmas?

Emma: Dreaming about the Grinch.

Hannah: Fighting over presents.

Me: What would make this Christmas the best ever?

Emma: getting 1,000 presents.

Hannah: I don't know, Emma can answer.

Me: What is you favorite Christmas Tradition?

Emma: The Nutcracker

Hannah: Opening presents

Me: What should we have for Christmas Dinner?

Emma: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Hannah: Fettuccine

Me: And for dessert?

Emma: Pumpkin Pie

Hannah: Cupcakes and pop

Me: Do you believe in Santa?

Emma: No

Hannah: No

Me: How come?

Emma: He's not real cuz he is just dressed up.

Hannah: Because he paints his hair.

Me: Does that make you sad that Santa is not real?
Both shake their heads no.

Hannah: I want to be done with this now.

I hope that you found that informative and somewhat entertaining. We had a few giggles along the way. I am always interested in their perspective.  I think that they got it mostly right don't you? I can't wait to start giving some gifts away so that I can show you what I have been putting together this week.  Raise your hand if you were up past midnight last night! (and the night before)

This day...

In loving memory of my Mother

 

Karen Elizabeth Hickman June 6, 1956- December 20th, 1992

There are times when I look in the mirror and it is as if I am seeing her face, and times when I say something and it is if I am hearing her voice. The pain of losing her is both soothed and yet still fresh. She died when I was 14 after a two year battle with cancer.  She was 36. 

I knew her only as my mother, not as a peer.  We never talked about what it was like to have babies, to have a fight with our husbands, how she made perfect Yorkshire Pudding, the best way to balance work and mothering, how to get ketchup stains out of shirts, or how to apply eyeliner.  For as much that has been missed between the two of us, I am thankful for the memories that I have of her.  Sometimes, out of fear that I might forget something about her, I run through what I do remember in my mind- like a child would practice their multiplication tables.  Whenever I visit the department store I wander by the Estee Lauder counter and smell the perfumes she used to wear.  There are even funny moments when I look at my daughter Hannah and see a twinkle of my mother's smile shinning through.

In spite of all these things, I will never be able to forget how much I love her and how much she loved me.  Thank you God for the promise of Eternity.

 

Love, love, weekend love

Back from a lovely weekend filled with:

Wedding love.  My girls boogied on down, and Emma caught the bouquet!

Grandma love.  Our last visit with g'ma and g'pa before they head south for the winter.

Baby love.  My cousin gave birth to twins 6 weeks ago.  This was my first peek at Logan, or was it Austin?

Nutcracker love.  Perhaps I was the only one who loved it.  They are a rough crowd.

And finally, this evening, with home on the horizon...

I fit in some relaxing

Tub love.

Lots and lots of cramming crafting this week!  Stay tuned!

stupid list

Have you ever had a "to do list" that laughed at you?  A list that provoked a challenge?  One that dared you to try and check off each task? Mine was scoffing at me last night.  I danced around it for a while, trying to figure out what to do about that "to do" list.

I tried thinking of ways to get out of a few things, I tried prioritizing and time scheduling...eventually I just gave up.  11 o'clock rolled around and I was so tired.  It had already been a very full day. I started walking towards my bedroom with the intention of scrapping my list and heading to bed.  Just about the time that I started to crawl into bed, I heard Laurel crying from her room.  It was an "I am sick" type of cry.  Yes, she has had a bit of a cold- but now it was definitely at a whole new level.  Croup.  Before long, I had humidifiers, hot steamy showers and boiling pots of water all going at the same time. Finally, she found her way back to sleep- in my bed.  On my side of the bed.  Propped up on my pillow.  And I was awake.  Wide awake.  In the far off distance I could hear my list.  It was taunting me, "ha! now it would truly be impossible for you to conquer everything on this list- there is a sick baby to deal with."  Little did my list know that I am not to be taunted at 2am.  I looked that list square in the eyes and said, "you wanna piece of this?"  And so it began...

What? Your kitchenaid mixer doesn't look like that?

48 gingerbread house cookies for the girl's Christmas Parties today. (I don't want to eat/smell/roll/cut/eat/mix/decorate/eat another gingerbread cookie for a long time!)

I downloaded this from itunes in the hopes of burning 22 CDs for Emma and Hannah to give away as gifts to all their classmates.  Yeah, did you know that you can only make 7 copies of each download?   I didn't- until after I had burned the 7th disc at 3am. That wasn't going to work for 22 students.  Quick, what to do?

Instead, Emma's classmates are getting little books.  There has been so much book love out there these days, I was grateful to have that idea tucked in the back of my brain.  I made ours with over sized index cards (1st graders love to write on lines.) The "binding" is just a straight machine stitch running down the side.  I never thought the needle would go through 5 layers of card stock!  Address labels slapped on the front made for a perfect place to write a title or your name.

Hannah's class will be receiving a "Thank God for Pinking Shears and Felt" ornament.  No, I did not sew all those buttons on- why do you think they invented hot glue?

It works don't you think?  So, onto the next task on my list.  Tired?  Pshaw, I don't know the meaning of the word. Overwhelmed?  Nonsense, there is no such thing.  "All Nighters", sick kids, Christmas Parties, weekend travel- mole hills. I refuse to go down with a box unchecked! Take that you stupid list!

Santa Lucia Dolls

A few weeks back I purchased a Santa Lucia Doll Kit put together by the lovely Alicia Paulson.  I was so excited to receive it knowing how much fun the girls would have making the cute clothespin dolls.  Waiting, waiting I was for a nice unrushed block of time to sit and doddle over this project.  I didn't want it to be one of those "slap-it-together" kind of deals. Finally the opportunity arrived yesterday afternoon.  Just in time (Santa Lucia Day is December 13th!)

We spent a little time learning about the holiday's origins, and then got right down to the making.  I decided in advance to let Laurel just do her thing.  I wasn't going to worry about her doll having one eye or blue hair.  She did pretty good.  And while her paint was drying she kept herself occupied by doing this:

(she was dipping her brush in her "dirty paint water" and coloring her lips)

Crafting with your kids always offers so many insights into their personality.  Typical Emma, she studied the directions carefully and set out to make her doll just like the picture showed.

And classically, Hannah thumbed her nose at any suggestions about how her doll should look.  She broke all the rules and made her doll with black hair, red shoes and yellow tights.

It was a fun afternoon, and I love the way our dolls turned out.  I am also loving the idea of "breakfast in bed" .  Traditionally, saffron buns are served with coffee.  The day didn't allow time for bread baking so croissants ("sacronts" as Hannah calls them)  will have to do.  Emma set her alarm early, and when we explained to Hannah that the older sister is supposed to have attendants (younger sisters) she just looked at us with a confused look.  "Nah, I think that I will just wake up at the normal time and you can make my sacront mom", she said.

Moments of Sanity

Busy days call for little times of quiet sprinkled in.

A bowl full of dried lentils occupied Laurel long enough for me to get the dishes done and make a few phone calls.  (of course a good sweep was needed when she was finished.)

Spiced tea with strawberry cheesecake jelly beans (which I stole from the stash that is supposed to go to school for gingerbread house decorating later this week) after the girls went to bed.

A few more days (exactly 3) and then we will be on Christmas break (exactly 3 whole weeks).  We are all staggering towards the finish line. 

This is such a busy time of year...don't forget to stop and stir the split peas and taste the jelly beans!

Keep out!

...walking down the hall today and had to back up and read this note that I found posted on Emma's door.

 

The Christmas Spirit is thick around here!

good grumpy morning!

I was called into a birth last night.  I always love this in the moment!  The excitement, the tenderness, the emotions are all over the map.  The couple was sweet, the birth of their daughter Olive was too.  I always come away thankful to have witnessed such a special moment in time.

That being said, I slept for approx. 2.5 hours last night....with my own daughter tossing and turning at my side.  So, here I am- a bit grumpy.  Today I am the recess monitor, I teach childbirth class tonight, my Holiday Traditions Swap package is to be mailed out today, Christmas cards to address, 5,000 gifts yet to make...and on and on.

Good thing I have such a great group of helpers :).  Cute too!

Good Grumpy Morning!  Happy day to you!

every now and then...

...I remember that before there were any kids there was "us",

that white wine in a chilled glass, low lights, and flickering candles can do a lot for me,

that dinner without color crayons, spilled drinks and french fries is better.

Every now and then we are alone long enough and I remember just how much I love Carl,  how much he makes me laugh crazy.

I wish I was reminded more often.

Buddies

Hmmm, that may be a strong word.

Sophie (or Phophie as Laurel calls her) snuggled me last night.  She wasn't pouncing my yarn ball as I stitched...so I let her sit by me.  You know what?  It was kind of nice.  Every now and then she would open her eyes and check on my progress, yawn, and pat me with her paw.  It was as if she was saying, "you still at it?  looks good, keep it up."  Besides she kept my right bun cheek warm. I even gave her a pat/pet or two.  Lots of crochet gifts left to make before Christmas time.  Thankfully, I have a little friend who will log all those treble stitch miles with me. 

What is this?   Is this me ( the "not-thrilled-about-animals" me) blogging about my pet?  Crazy times, crazy times. 

Simple, Quick, Easy- Yum!

I like my fudge fudgey (moist and chewy)...not dry.  A few years ago I found this recipe and it has become a favorite of ours.   I like to make it for our UPS Driver, The Mailman, our Newspaper Carrier, Piano Teachers, Neighbors and myself!!  We'll start with the basic recipe.  You will not believe how simple, quick, easy and yummy it will be.

Friendship Fudge

18 oz chocolate chips (I used a bag and a half)

1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk

1 T vanilla

Nuts optional

Directions: Measure and dump ALL ingredients into a saucepan.  Melt together on med/low temperature. 

Meanwhile, line an 8x8 or 9x9 pan with waxed paper.  Once chocolate has melted and is a spreadable consistency- pour quickly into prepared pan.  Work fast- it thickens up again quickly.  Smooth out and put into refrigerator for to harden and cool for a couple of hours.

Take it out of the fridge, remove pan, trim rough edges off with a sharp knife. Peel off the waxed paper.  Put the "nice" squares into a parchment lined tin and give away to a lucky recipient  Eat the edges that have been trimmed off- you earned it, that was tough!

Now, get creative.  I made the fudge above by omitting the vanilla and adding raspberry extract- mm-mm.  You could use peanut butter chocolate chips (Carl's fav), mint chocolate chips, add nuts, or heath bar crumbles.  The possibilities are endless!

**Note this is very rich, one batch made two "gift-able" portions.  This keeps well when wrapped and stored in the fridge.

A welcome site

It has taken me a few days to get back on track after having been gone for the weekend.  The weather has been pretty crazy in these parts too. 

This blue sky was a welcome site this afternoon.

The kids have been begging to do some Christmas decorating.  I tend to drag my feet a bit because I am not one for clutter.  Usually by the 26th I have everything boxed up and put away (don't get me wrong, I love Christmas- but the decorations can be a bit overstimulating at times!) Alas, I couldn't hold them off any longer. Emma started stringing cranberries.

We  I drug out the big tree last night (it was tucked in the back of a fairly, ahem, disorganized closet.)  It was fun to see the girls rediscover all their decorations from years past. 

 

Hannah was so excited.  At one point I came into the room and she was wearing the tree skirt around her waist and spinning about.  I have to work up to the Christmas Tree thing.  Clean house, dishes done, lights low, music playing, yummy treats nearby.

It has to be an event you know.  Not some haphazard happening.  There is quite a bit of control to give up however, as the girls go clumping placing the ornaments on the tree.  I bit my tongue and let the top 1/3 of the tree go bare (because they couldn't reach).  And, I confess, I did a bit of rearranging after they went to bed :)

The decorations are a bit wonky this year.  I am transitioning over to bright pinks and greens from traditional red and green (yawn).  It's funny to see how your tastes change.  What I liked last year is not my favorite this year.

Pink, we are going pink this year.  Who needs rustic pine cones, or boughs of fir garland? Let's talk about shiny tinsel and fabulously bright colors.

Come back tomorrow for a "no fail" and super easy fudge recipe!

It's hard to say...

...what I liked best about my weekend.

It could've been all the beautiful things that I saw while shopping. (Pottery Barn above, REI below)

Everything was all glittery and sparkly!

The "laughing until you snort, pee, or quit breathing" was good too!

Or perhaps the thing I like best about this weekend was that I got approx. 95% of my shopping done. Don't be fooled, still lots to make- but the buying is mostly done.

We all did pretty well, can't you tell?  Not sure if we would've been able to fit one more bag into the Xterra we were driving. (what am I saying?  there is always room for more bags! jenny was perfectly comfortable riding that way home)

Dinner was definitely a highlight. A little wine and WAAAAYY too much food. Never fear, there is always room for Burnt Cream.

As good as dinner was, the company was even better. This was most likely the best part!

(we all have a dinner mint tucked in our cheeks)

A lovely weekend, it was all the best...especially returning back home to my favorite faces and lots of small (and big) arms wrapped around me.  It's good to be missed.

Hope your week is off to a great start.  Thank you for all the advent garland love!