family – Page 3

In the kitchen together

January 5, 2015 Marie Leave a Comment

We’re quite the pair, my little munchkin and I. He has, apparently, inherited my “I hate naps” trait, which leads to a bit of a tricky day trying to get things done with him in tow. The few times he does nap I catch up on the computer, or I spend it knitting (I have a sweet little Gramps cardigan in the works for him for next winter), or other things that are difficult with a baby. But most days I’m toting him around with me. Upstairs to play while I put away laundry or clean the bedrooms. In the home office/craft room when I need something from there. And, of course, in the kitchen to cook and bake.

I know, ultimately, every room he’s in is interesting – every day there’s new items and sounds he’s noticing. But the kitchen… the kitchen is my favorite place to be with him. The kitchen is where we can go from fussy baby to completely content. He loves to watch me move around the room, opening and closing things, banging spoons on the pots and pans, running the mixer or kneading bread dough. The kitchen is my happy place – watching a few ingredients come together to make something amazingly delicious is like magic. If there’s one thing I hope to pass on to him, it would be a love of the kitchen. Even if all he ever makes is boxed mac and cheese in his adult life (though I really hope he makes more than that. Please, universe, let him be a better cook than that!), I want him to have fond memories of time in the kitchen with his mama. Kneading bread, making jam, canning salsa, etc.

Today I made a double batch of these coconut breakfast bars. I made them last week but didn’t like all that honey in there, so this week I used less. I also skipped the coconut milk and just used water, mostly because I didn’t feel like messing with trying to thaw some coconut milk for it. I’m still not sure I really love these bars, and I feel like they’re missing something, so perhaps next time I’ll make some major modifications to tweak them more for my tastes.

We faked it

January 1, 2015 Marie 4 Comments

It’s the new year, and I probably should be writing about fresh starts and whatnot. Instead, I’m going to tell you that we faked Christmas pictures this morning. We woke up, put on our holiday pajamas we wore on Christmas morning, and we faked photos. See, we were so in the moment on the 25th that we totally forgot. I’m not sure how we managed to forget, but we did. And I was so, so upset about it – the baby’s first holiday and I didn’t have any photographic evidence of it.

I voiced my frustration online, and several friends told me they’ve done the exact same thing. They’ve just been so busy and overwhelmed with things going on – kids begging to open presents and such – that they totally forgot. I’m not alone, at least, which really does happen to make me feel better.

So we faked them. I’m told that in 15 years I won’t even remember we faked them, but I feel like I’ll still know. I know ultimately it won’t matter, though – I won’t be focused on the fact that we faked them, and I’ll instead be looking at how tiny and sweet my boy is here.

Caroling, caroling

December 14, 2014 Marie Leave a Comment

There was a free holiday sing-a-long at the local theater today, so off we went and tucked ourselves into a small side aisle just in case we needed to dash out to the lobby with the baby if he started fussing. The afternoon was a mix of listening to the organists play on the old Wurlitzer and sing-a-long songs. The first one we sang was Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town and I had to fight back tears. I don’t know what, exactly, it was that made it happen, but I hit this super emotional wall and had to fight to maintain control or else I was going to be a sobbing mess and the other people around me would probably think I’m crazy.

I read this today, and I think I’m going to post it somewhere where I might see it a lot. I need to read this over and over again. I need to read it when I’m panicking about things not being perfect and just right. I need to read it when I try to make things perfect and they fail. Over, and over, and over again.

But this year while the world rushes around you, may you hold your sweet baby in your arms and realize that on this first Christmas, your baby will find no greater joy than in you. Because you are Mommy and you make everything beautiful just by being you.

Tomorrow… tomorrow I finish up wrapping presents. They’re not the handmade holiday gifts like I have always imagined I’d give – there’s no time with a job and a little one – but so far I can at least say that the holidays are shaping up, in other ways, just as I had long hoped and dreamed for.

Post Turkey Hangover

November 28, 2014 Marie Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving Dinner. We host every year, which is always stressful. I keep wondering if it will get easier from year to year… and I suppose it has if only because I started caring less about my house being perfectly clean. The volume of people crammed in here, however, never gets easier for me and it’s always a huge relief once everyone goes home and my house goes back to it’s usual level of noise.

I gave the baby a tiny bit of mashed sweet potato mixed with formula. We’re still a bit early for solids yet, though he is showing more interest in watching us eat and what we have on our plates, but since it was a holiday I thought it would be fun to let him try it. His reaction was pretty hilarious and he spit it out right away.

Today things are laid back and quiet. The remnants of Thanksgiving needs cleaned up and put away – tables, chairs, decorations on the dining room table, etc. And then it’s time to dig out the sparkles and lights and make the house merry and bright! It’s my favorite way to spend the Friday after. And this year in particular I’m overly excited – apparently having a baby makes you stop dreading the holidays?

I have finished knitting to show you all, and our cute holiday cards came in the mail, too… but first, coffee and decorating and holiday music.

The new routine

October 12, 2014 Marie Leave a Comment

The last week has been a blur. It involved a lot of list making, a lot of scrambling to pack lunch, bags, set out clothes each evening, hurriedly fixing dinner, doing laundry as much as possible and taking care of baby all before collapsing into bed exhausted. I went back to work, you see, so things are a bit crazy around here in a horrible kind of way. I like calm and routines and habits and this adjustment has been the complete opposite of that. By the end of the week I felt a bit more settled in so I’m taking that as an excellent sign of my adaption skills. By Saturday I was just thankful to be home, however, with all of us in the kitchen getting breakfast. With so much rushing that goes on in the mornings for work it’s incredibly nice to have calm. I’m a homebody, and I don’t think I ever really quite realized just how true that statement is until this weekend when it really hit me how happy I am to be home. I actually dreaded going to the grocery store this morning and I’m starting to wish one of the local stores offered grocery delivery because I would totally be down for that if it meant not having to go anywhere and pack a diaper bag and just, in general, be away from my place of comfort during the little time I have to relax.

Pretty much all of my pictures lately have been taken with my cell phone and I’m realizing that’s a huge, horrible, awful mistake. So everything I thought I’d snap and share today has turned out to be blurry and kind of awful. I should probably post them anyway – I’m not sure anyone else cares but me. The sunrise above was a cell shot, and it works well for that. It just isn’t great for much else. (Sidenote: I’m both annoyed and pleased that I’m up and on the road early enough now to see the sun rise.) So my goal this week is to try to use the little point & shoot camera more.

Things of interest from this past week…

I made it all week at work without eating out or getting food from the vending machine. Our bank account is thanking me (my waistline, too!), and I’m really hoping to continue that trend this week.
I had to break down and buy k cups for the office Keurig. I was trying to bring coffee from home but by the time I dropped the kid off at the babysitter and then drove to work my coffee got cold, so making coffee at work is now necessary. I forgot how much I hated the eco-friendly reusable coffee filter I purchased – the coffee was always weak and I’d end up with grounds mixed in no matter what I did. I hate that stupid machine and those stupid pods, but mama needs her caffeine to get through the mornings.
I’m rectifying the coffee situation after my pods run out and using a French press and being all obnoxiously fancy. My coworkers can keep their stupid machine – I’ll have far better coffee with the press.
The munchkin has started finding his fingers and shoving them in his mouth. I’m sure we’re not far off from him trying to now eat everything under the sun.
My social media cleanse thing is going mostly well. I’ve had a few days where I turned the app off, but I’m already doing much better at keeping my nose out of my phone all the time.
My knitting time, as expected, has taken a huge hit since going to work. I might have to resort to stockinette socks or dishcloths just for a mindless project to knit to keep my sanity.
I dropped a big load of things off at the Goodwill today, including a lot of craft supplies that I’m never going to get around to using. The husband questioned it: “are you really wanting to get rid of x?” I resisted having a huge argument with him about how it’s hard enough for me to get rid of things as it is, what with my hoarder tendencies, without him questioning my decision to part with something. I managed to somewhat politely tell him to keep his mouth shut because he’s not helping me at all, and I managed to leave all those craft supplies by the Goodwill drop off door (they weren’t open yet) instead of hauling them back home with me.

I’d (sarcastically) say that my life is so interesting now… but we all know that it was never that interesting in the first place haha.