Spring Cleaning

So.

Four months later, and finally out from under the holiday crush. Just in time for Easter? I am learning that for all the wonderful baby tips over the last year, there are still so many things I never could have anticipated. Most of all, that it would take almost a year to finally regain the upper-hand on life.

But, spring has sprung and I couldn't be more thrilled. As we get ready to celebrate a first birthday in this house, I am so grateful for how life has changed. Not sleeping a full night ... and feeling a little worried when I do ... picking up the same toys twice a day, starting three projects and finishing one two months later, remembering birthdays but forgetting to send cards, looking at my daughter's healthy dinner of two veggies and fruit next to my pile of homemade mac and cheese ... and, well, yeah. Easter, birthdays, spring, birth and rebirth. Sometimes timing really is impeccable.

This should be the last time I mumble and rumble about what's to come. It's time to just do. First up: birthday decor.

Holi-Daze.

So much to do, so little time to get online!

It's been a busy week here cleaning and getting ready for the holidays. I'm not the neatest person ever, but I couldn't fathom pulling out Christmas decorations without putting those last bins of summer and baby clothes in storage, hanging those last pictures on the walls and, oh yeah, cleaning. Special thanks to the mister for mopping the entire house for me yesterday. We have hardwood floors, which I love, but I hate cleaning them. So, the house is as close to spotless as it gets.

While we were working on cleaning the rest of the house I was busy making a fantastic mess on the craft table (which is our kitchen table, temporarily doubling as a craft table). So far, I've finished our new Advent calendar and almost finished all new Christmas stockings. Pictures and back stories to come. Next up on the list: wreath for the front door. And, we're hosting Christmas dinner this year, so table runner, centerpieces and other goodies to come, I'm sure.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

a little fall magic

This morning we woke up to a lovely, low layer of tulle fog. Despite the recent flurry of baking and bundling against the cold, for me it's not really Fall until a nice thick, wet fog rolls in to officially mark the change in season. As I sat in our family room looking out across the yard I realized that for me the the fog brings comfort, calm and quiet. Especially as this weekend sits on the cusp between the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, this was the perfect morning to sit and be still and enjoy the nothingness. No cleaning, no laundry, no to-do lists (yet), no Thanksgiving weekend shopping. Just some good old fashioned quiet and, well, maybe a quick batch of magic muffins. Comfort food for a comfort moment. There is so much to be grateful for in the midst of this busy life -- and in the midst of all that busy it's refreshing to stop and be in the present.

Magic Muffins

Makes one dozen regular muffins or 6 over-sized muffins (yum!)

Need:

1 1/4 c flour

3/4 c Malt O Meal (or coarsely-ground wheat or barley)

1/2 c sugar

3/4 c milk

2 eggs

1 tbsp baking powder

Optional add-ins: chocolate chips, walnuts, mashed bananas

Make:

Preheat oven to 400

Mix all ingredients together in one bowl

Bake in greased or muffin-lined pan (18-20 minutes for regular, 23-25 minutes for over-sized muffins)

These were a favorite when I was a kid, and still take me back to lazy mornings spent hanging out in the kitchen. Perhaps that's why they were the perfect addition to a cold, foggy morning. They're delicious plain, topped with jam or a pat of butter. Enjoy!

Home

The countdown to Thanksgiving has begun. This is my favorite holiday because it's all about family. And food, football and flaking out, but those are the things that bring us together and I love it for those reasons, too. For the first time in almost 10 years we are not going to the mountains, and thank goodness because it's already snowing relentlessly and we don't have the patience for chains and traffic. My dad might sit it out but the rest of us definitely won't. Instead we're going home. We'll all make the trip to mom and dad's, a family twice the size it was since the last time we gathered around the Thanksgiving table in the house we grew up in. We'll struggle to wrap up work before Thursday, arrange appetizers and bake desserts, and get the girls to nap. This year we'll bring spouses, in-laws, grandchildren. We'll bring our grateful, exhausted selves and our bigger adults worries and even greater love and respect for one another. It is truly, for my family, a year to celebrate.

Basics

Baking and cooking. My two most favorite things to do this time of year. I get to make big gooey batches of macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, ginger snaps, meatloaf, apple pies, the most heavenly risotto, pumpkin bread and not to be forgotten, pumpkin pie. I make it. I eat it. I live for the smell of it all in my kitchen.

So, it's funny to me that up until recently I was a wee bit nervous about making my daughter's food. Steam, puree, serve ... apples to applesauce, pears to pear puree. It seemed so easy I thought for sure I must be missing something. But no, baby food is just so wonderfully basic. Babies get to enjoy the pure taste of all these amazing foods, simply prepared, and my problem was only that I don't do that same thing often enough.

Tonight she got her first taste of zucchini. I love zucchini! Zucchini bread, fried zucchini, zucchini topped with butter and parmesan, roasted zucchini. All amazing and delicious but completely altered from their natural state. After my little love made an ick face at her first taste of zucchini I, of course, mildly panicked. She couldn't possibly hate her very first vegetable. So I took a taste to show her how delicious that soupy green mush in front of her could be. And then I thought, wow, that really is good! I don't remember the last time I really tasted zucchini. I'm not sure I've ever even thought about eating it plain. But it was absolutely delicious and it's hard to believe I've missed out on that taste all these years.

I'm curious about what other goodness I've been missing out on. This is not to say I'm forsaking banana bread, meaty tomato sauce, raspberry jam or creamy butternut squash soup anytime soon. But I am excited to take some quiet food moments here and there to rediscover fruits and vegetables as my little lady discovers them for the first time.

Little things for little people

These darling newspaper chains on maya*made completely inspired the kindergartener in me. I also just love her simple, organic and totally do-able projects -- every last one of them. I took a grocery bag, scissors and some watered-down acrylic paint and created a couple of pumpkin name chains for a couple of little pumpkins I know and love. So simple!

And so it begins ...

I am creative but I'm no Martha Stewart. I have great ideas, and even greater intentions. But for the most part, I craft up my little concoctions on the fly and sometimes they work and sometimes, well, they just don’t.

Six months ago my husband and I welcomed a little girl into this crazy world. Once I was able to lift my head above the hazy fog of new motherhood I found myself surprisingly refreshed and inspired. Here I was, home for a few more months in a house we were still settling into with a brand spanking new baby, and – because my little lady rocks – a few hours of downtime that needed to be filled every day.

So, I did what any pseudo-stay-at-home-mom-with-a-newborn would do: I kept starting projects and not finishing them. All of a sudden I was this brave new mom in a brave new world, fueled by creative tendencies that got lost back in college somewhere between physics and hydrochemistry. (I’m also a big geek, but we’ll save those stories for another day.) I was really fortunate to grow up with a really creative mom who taught me how to get around a house: sewing, painting, cleaning, baking, organizing, drawing, decorating, photographing … you get the idea. My mom constantly out-did herself and I wanted to be just like her.

In reality, though, I have quickly learned there are only so many hours in my day, and so many days in my weekend. And, I need to sleep every now and again.

I was so proud of myself last weekend for getting an autumn wreath together for the front door. I also baked gingersnaps to take to a friend’s Halloween party, but literally pulled the last batch out of the oven 10 minutes before we absolutely had to leave – and half an hour after the party had started. Welcome to my life.

I almost missed gathering these leaves from the back lawn before my husband mowed them over. And yes, my front door needs a new coat of paint.

I’m still trying to figure out which of my creative loves I’m good at, which ones are worth working on, and which ones I should have given up long ago. But, I am constantly inspired and completely undaunted by the ever-growing list of projects I can’t wait to get to.

So, here it goes.