On My Mind

Thank you so much for all the support and kind words the other day.  I feel much much better now.  I've decided to let myself feel sad when I can, but mostly, try to be Pollyana about it all.  Today I called our elementary school to confirm us coming to their kindergarten open house on Wednesday.  Baby steps are all it takes sometimes.

The kids are all sleeping. It's amazing.  I don't mind a good rainy day for the naps, not now, not ever.

I'm entering a new phase of cooking.  One I've been dreaming of since I was a middle schooler watching cooking shows on my sick days from school.
I'm cooking without recipes.
I've done it a bit all along, especially with dishes I make frequently, but it's evolving into something greater, something magnificent.  It's so so good.
The most recent dishes that come to mind are quiches, soups (chicken wild rice and beef barley of late), and curries.  I love the freedom of just looking in the fridge and pantry and making delicious dinner happen.  Pure homemaking joy.

Speaking of joy, Joy of Cooking has struck again.  I'm making beef stew tonight and wanted some guidance.  3 lbs of cut chuck roast is currently simmering in the most delicious beer laden broth I can imagine.  Can't wait for that tonight.

And still speaking of cooking, my new favorite spice is dried ground sage.  Mmmm.  Adds savory deliciousness to everything it touches.  Plus whenever I sprinkle it in I can't help but think of Simon and Garfunkel.   Are you goin' to scarbarough fair? Parsley sage rosemary and thyme.

and triple (quadruple?) speaking of cooking...

 here, cooking is interpreted very loosely as mix up all the leftovers in the pantry with copies amounts of food colored water and have tons and tons of fun

I've been SO good lately with spending.  Last month I decided to write every single purchase down on my weekly pull away fridge calendar, add it up each week and transfer it to the next week to keep track of purchases.  I cut one credit card bill in half last month. Apparently accountability is working.

Still, after a solid month of buying almost nothing other than food we needed some things.  More specifically the girls needed rain boots.  Louise's are too small and Ainsley's are cracking all around the ankles (vigorous puddle jumper much?! :o).  I'm too cheap to buy them full priced new ones and even my favorite discount websites (6pm and sierratradingpost) didn't have any for under $20.  Then I found a code for sierra on Facebook of all places and got 40% off a few days ago.  So now two new pairs of boots and three new rompers for Felix are headed here in the mail ( I could NOT resist the rompers, love love love hatley).  Ah purchases are so extra exciting when they're really good deals.

We had a fun playdate yesterday which ended abruptly when Ainsley stepped on a shard of glass.  My poor friend had dropped a glass bowl and warned us that while she'd scoured her floor you never know with glass so we should keep socks on.  Of course at some point the girls took their socks off and Ainsley happened to find the one shard unaccounted for.  I ended up taking them home early because I wanted Ian to take a look at it.  He's much better with tweezers than I am.  Ainsley was too scared and upset to let him at it so we soaked it in epsom salts, gave her some tylenol and I lay next to her until she fell asleep.  Thankfully our pediatrician was able to get it right out this morning after giving her a pain shot in her foot.  She was well enough to head to the rest of the morning of preschool and ran around singing the doc mcstuffins song at the top of her lungs after lunch.  I feel better! So much better!  Thank you doc for takin all the ouches away! Oh man I'm laughing just typing that.  It was adorable.

I've totally halted with my things I'm making for Felix.  I have his short sleeved romper and button downs to finish at some point.  It's just too dang chilly to motivate to make short sleeved attire.  Good thing I guess because we're thick in planning mode for teacher gifts for the end of the year.  I suggested some cute homemade quilted potholders.  The girls agreed, but Ainsley REALLY wanted to make a box for them to put some candies in.  So I refreshed my memory on how to make origami boxes and we spent the better part of yesterday afternoon decorating them.  Then I opened my big mouth and suggested we go our local bead shop and make them each a simple necklace or earrings.  So much for saving money with homemade gifts!  I know they'll love them though and the girls are so excited.  It's what it's all about right?

potholder pattern from handmade home

I'm hoping for sun this weekend.  I feel like the whole midwest has been under a cloak of dark.  We have a bit more tidying to do in the yard.  Come on sun!

This afternoon I'm envisioning some fudge making (we're out of chocolate goodies in the house!) and   fabric choosing for those potholders.  We'll see if the girls convince me of a movie while we work.  It is our rainy day tradition.

Hope you all are having a great week!  Thanks again for all your support.  It means a whole lot.