One Shiny Star

I like holding my daughter. That weird sensation when I feel her hot breath on my skin, but it doesn’t bother me because it means we’re both alive.

I like making things with my hands. Knitting. Sewing. Crocheting. Even cooking can be enjoyable when it turns out.

I like taking dinner to people. It makes me feel more connected to my community.

I like fixing things on my car. It makes me feel productive, and I like doing things for myself instead of having to pay some one.

I like riding bikes. Depending on the weather, really.

I like when the power goes out. It’s kind of like when you have that high pitched sound in your ear and it goes away… that moment of empty clarity.

I like listening to B-man read to me. It’s soothing.

I like life right now.

We’re home from Maine now. I have a laundry list of things to do – namely… laundry… but that’s besides the point. I’ve already folded a bit. I loaded the dishwasher, made myself and Ginny lunch, captured a few cicadas that some one came down my chimney (yuck!) and then drove to pick up a bunch of mega blocks from a lady in my neighborhood. I had hoped the blocks would buy me enough time to get a few things done, but alas… they are spread out over Ginny’s floor and she is not anywhere near them. No… instead she’s “helping” me. So I’m sitting at the computer adding a few books to my wishlist and reving up to blog, and the following takes place:

“Mommy… here…” she walks towards me, then hands me a set of handcuffs my maid of honor gave us as a gag gift at a bridal shower. “Pretty mommy, here.” oh boy. 

“Thanks Ginny” I respond as I set them behind my keyboard. Just what I wanted on my desk.

She walks away and returns with a package of bobby pins. “Mommy, Ginny hair please.” And I oblige, pinning her bangs back with a bobby pin and putting the rest behind my keyboard.

A few moments later “Mommy, here… tums.” And sure enough she is carrying a bottle of tums.

“Thank you baby.” You know I’ve probably got some sort of stomach problem if I say “Tums” enough for my daughter to know that word.

A few moments later she returns “Mommy, trash, here….” she hands me a condom wrapper. gah… get out of my drawer you little pipsquak!

But naturally I thank her, then tell her to go back to the blocks. That’ll do it.

But alas. “Mommy… here…” and she hands me a condom. Now… what I don’t understand… is how in the *ahem* heat of the moment *ahem* condoms seems to disappear from view and not one can be found but she can just *POOF!* find them in two seconds. :/

So now I need to clean out behind my keyboard, as it currently houses condoms, bobby pins, tums, a signle AA battery (which she said belonged with the TV… she keeps taking the remote apart), a too-small baby sock, and 2 hair clips.

Also… I think I need to find a new place to keep the condoms.

I’ll add that to the list.

Typically, at this point, I would’ve taken my fake tree down, put it back in the box, and banished it to the basement until next year.

But this year, we got a real tree! The fake one looked tiny in our house, and just didn’t feel right. So we got an 8 foot tree. We got it in the house and had to trim it so it wasn’t touching the cieling. lol.

In any case, I’m saying this because you can kind of see the tree in the background of one of these pictures – and I’m super defensive. I paid for that tree. A tree died to help us celebrate the holidays, and honestly – it is still beautiful, so we’re still enjoying it.

In other news. There was a box in my living room. I’m not sure why. Maybe it used to have… well… some thing was in it, but then it was empty. So around the end of December it got flipped on it’s side and Ginny started crawling in there to hang out. Of course, it was a bit like my first dorm room: cave like. Being incredibly bored, and trying to tidy up a bit, I spent a little bit of my time and turned that lone, cave-like box, into a miniature playhouse!

Don’t worry, it’s fully functional. I was going to make little curtains for it, but I doubt she would’ve appreciated that, plus sometimes it’s nice to just let the sun-light come in!

Please note the incredible detail in the shingles. Also, the box is from Lowe’s, Juuuust fyi,

So, I was gone most of the day. I was hosting a baby shower for a good family friend (hosting at some one else’s house since I live kind of far away from every one). When I called B-man to tell him I was headed home he said “remind me to show you, I got some cute pictures on my phone.

Yes, cute. naturally.

There were some of Ginny sitting on a wheeled giraffe wrapped in a blanket, and then… well, there was this:

That’s the Young House Love book. I pre-ordered it before it came out, and was very happy to receive it. Ginny is a lover of all books, and had pulled the book off of my desk, and then sat down to browse… I guess she is looking for some nice affordable ideas for updating her little house. lol.

I accused my husband of staging the photo, but he assured me she had been finding different books throughout the house and then taking them to her house to read.

My heart melts.

happy new year!

This morning, I put Ginny in a laundry basket, turned the TV on, and relaxed in bed for an extra hour. Sort of. G-baby isn’t really interested in the TV. She was interested in sitting in a laundry basket with a stuffed frog from my childhood.

It was adorbs.

And I didn’t sleep, because I was too busy peaking at her and trying to steal this picture.

And yes, that is a messy room, with the left overs of having recently painted. I purchased the paint back in October, but never got around to painting. Lucky for me I have an amazing friend who drove up from F’burg – TWO DAYS IN A ROW – to help me paint while her precious kiddos helped to mind Ginny.

It was poop yellow/green before. Awful. The room is so peaceful and calming now. I feel better rested when I wake up now. It’s lovely.

In celebration of the winter solstice I made a special dinner for our little family. I decided to highlight in-season veggies, and just make it fancy. The fancy part didn’t work out. B-man ended up having some car troubles as I was cooking, and then extended family situations lead to the evening having a very solemn feeling. Regardless, I still made some delicious food stuffs.

As part of our dinner I made “Meltaway Cabbage” from Simple in Season, a  cookbook I received for Christmas last year. I’ve made this recipe twice and it is delicious. Cabbage, softened for at least on hour with butter and paprika – then mixed with egg noodles or speatzle. Naturally, I don’t need much of an excuse to break out my speatzle maker! I made a big bowl, and then Ginny stood by the stove, and then at the kitchen table, carefully picking up one noodle at a time and lowering it into her mouth. I try to cherish these moments. They surpass all elements of time and generations – my baby likes the things I like, and it is precious.

This year we decided to do our nuclear family celebration of Christmas on the Solstice. We spend Christmas Eve with his extended family, and Christmas Day with my extended family. It is always good to spend time with them, but it leaves me feeling burned out, which can lead to the holidays feeling rushed and less special. Doing our own thing, in our own time, gleefully handing each other one gift at a time – it does my soul good.

Santa drove through our neighborhood on a firetruck! With sirens blaring they tossed out candy canes and all the little kids collected some. Ginny picked up a lollipop, while I pocketed a few leftover mini-candy canes. Yum!

One of my gifts this year was a bread machine from Nanny. It makes a 1 pound loaf, which is perfect for our little family. I have made about 5 loaves since opening it. I’ve dabbled in bread making before, but seriously – this makes it so much easier! Plus, I was able to set up a bread making station in one corner of my kitchen with all of the typical ingredients collected and read to make a new loaf of deliciousness!

And that (generally) covers life. Home made bread, delicious speatzle and cabbage, and of course, crocheted hats. I didn’t make these ones, they were Christmas gifts from one of my little sisters, but they are adorable and super warm. Ginny’s is a little big, but it just means she has plenty of room to grow into it!

I long for warmer weather – a weird thing for me, as I usually prefer the cold. But now the cold means staying inside, which is nice for me, but is hard on Ginny. Almost all the way through December we were spending at least an hour in the back yard every day. I would get to sit in my camp chair, read a book, or knit, while Ginny would run around, chase the dogs, collected leaves or, upon request, bring me a stick!

Maybe if we ever start using our fireplace she can be our kindle-collector!

My Mom’s birthday was on Thanksgiving, so I offered to host the family so that she would not have to spend her birthday slaving away in the kitchen. I fondly remember as a child waking up in the early morning to my mom quietly preparing the Thanksgiving feast on her own in whatever tiny kitchen the military had stuck us with. Since we were rarely near family these meals usually consisted of just as, and some times a neighbor or family from church who was also far from their relatives.

Now we live very close to a lot of relatives. I did all of my grocery shopping on Monday, including buying a turkey. I had planned on making my huband’s traditional Swedish Limpa Bread that evening, but a good friend from my parents’ area called saying they were headed to the Cheesecake factory that had just opened up near me. The line was long, but they brought cheesecake over to our house and we all sat in the living room and chatted while the kids played in the parlor. It was… awesome. I miss their company more than anything else I gave up when we moved north. Schedules are busy this time of year, though hopefully a new year will bring a new schedule.

Ginny enjoying the trampoline at my parents’ house.

On Tuesday I spent the day running errands. The few things I forgot to buy on Monday, plus a few special items to make the meal feel more fancy. We decided to have the dinner at our long kitchen table instead of our dining room table. So I needed to make a table cloth long enough to fit the table, and placemats as well. Then I pick up 12 wine glasses at ikea for $1 each, to make our sparkling cider fancier.

Tuesday evening B-man’s mom came over and made the Limpa bread with us. It was a good thing, as I was low on oil and she on oats – we shared. We spent the time kneading bread and listening to her tell us about her childhood. His parents represent a generation not found in my family, so I love hearing about how different things where for them.

By morning our bread had doubled in size! I have very bad luck with yeast, but B-man’s mom helped me this year, and it turned out beautifully.

B-man took Wednesday off so that he could help me in the preparations. Mostly he watched the baby and did the dishes, while I frantically cooked and baked my way through 7 recipes. Almost all of the side dishes were cooked ahead of time.

Limpa Bread, all baked up!

Thursday was spent cleaning, cooking, cleaning, hosting, eating, and cleaning. I can see why some people are resistant to hosting Thanksgiving. It was definitely over whelming and all of the work made the day fly by.

I snapped a picture of every one at the table before we dove into the food. I had planned on everything being ready at 4, but we got the turkey in the oven a little late and when all was said and done we didn’t sit down until after 6.

Ginny took a late afternoon nap, and then woke just in time to eat. Unfortunately she found it overwhelming and ended up eating a bowl of cottage cheese in stead.

And now with all of that over we have been spending a lot of time outside. Though the air is chilly the sun shines nicely into our back yard and we take advantage of it every chance we can.

If I take Ginny in the backyard without the dogs she will walk around saying “Greloe” (Gretel) and “Duko” (Zuko), then she goes up and tried to open the back door for them. Over half of her words right now are probably dog related (okay… that’s a little exaggerated.), and though her vocabulary is limited, she understand so much more than I realize.

So from our home to yours: Happy Holidays! Thanksgiving falls under that, right? Today we had planned on doing some decorating for the season, but then a football game came on. Though, he assures me it is (possibly?) the last game of the season, I look forward to Saturdays free of hours spent in front of the television. Thankfully Ginny is usually content to hang out with B-man in the living room, so I can get down to the office and do a little blogging.

So I’ve been waiting for my photographer to get back to me about ordering Christmas cards, she’s in the middle of a move. so I went ahead and order some through ShutterFly.com – I’ve ordered from them several times before and really like the cards. Mostly because they offer rainbow colored cards, and not just the green-red-Christmas-colored cards. Win!

5×7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Have you ordered your cards yet?