Food This Week 12/27

Christmas and Ainsley's Birthday are over.  We had the first "it's no fair my birthday is right before Christmas.  I want it to be more spread out!" realization.  But it really was all wonderful.  It helped this new house feel even more like home.

Now i feel like real life is really beginning here.  It's not all so brand new and most things are where they should be.  This winter will be a whole lot of adjusting I'm sure, but for now things feel good and exciting and calmer all at once.  I'm glad for that.

I am SO excited for cooking. I think I'm finally getting the hang of our appliances and this new fancy kitchen a bit more and some new pans from my mom for Christmas helped greatly to get me geared up.

As usual after a holiday I am most excited for simple healthy food.
Tonight it was Smitten Kitchen's Lentil Soup with Sausage and Chard.  It was phenomenal and so easy.  I went to our co-op to get some good homemade italian sausages and french lentils.
While there I noticed they had a bulk bin just for 32 bean and veggie soup so I got a cup of that too to make soup with Ainsley's leftover birthday ham.
Ian wanted burritos so I'm going to make Ree Drummond's recipe.  I'm heading to Trader Joe's with the kids tomorrow to get ingredients.
While brainstorming ideas I landed on roasted chicken which I so rarely make for some reason.  Truthfully I'm just not wowed with roast chicken and I find cooking it right is actually so difficult.  But! A new recipe is always hopeful for me and Giada's with all those herbs and veggies sounds perfect right now in this first true Minnesota cold snap snow.  I can't wait.
I also got some good tuna packed in oil for a pasta or tuna melts.  Once I tried tuna in oil I was hooked!
Oh, and spinach and feta for a frittata or a pizza.  And sweet potatoes for hash and eggs.
I love easy winter cooking.

Ooh and one recipe to note from Christmas, I made Eggnog Pie from a new recipe and it was really good and so easy which I think for me made it taste even better.

Ainsley is sick today, again!  My poor girl is, I'm hoping, just crashing from her big long weekend.  I am so thankful for my mom coming over to watch the kids so I could still grocery shop and for our new DVD player which lets us watch netflix and amazon on the TV.  It's a good snuggle day.

Hoping you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Heartsong

Tomorrow my first baby turns 7.  Each year as she grows one number it feels shocking.  Seven!!!  Seven is so very big, but so small too.  I've had so much time with my girl these past weeks, lots of one on one and thoughtful moments.  I love her so much.  I can't wait to celebrate her tomorrow. But first!!! A little catch up.

I feel like we are really sinking our toes into life here, getting in the new groove.  The girls take the bus at 8:10 every morning, running down our backyard hill across the street to our neighbors' driveway.  They get back at 3:40, jolly driver Elmore waving and smiling away.  It's a good system.  Ian is back just after 4 from work so we have the whole evening together.  I'm excited to get into a better groove with Felix during the days he doesn't have preschool.  That boy's whole life has been packing and unpacking for the last 3 months!

And this place, our home?  Well there is so much to look forward to here.  I've spent lots of brainpower already planning our summer garden.  One of the first things I noticed about this house is that our 1/2 acre has both woods and full sun.  I know right?  This feels like a small miracle, but wait, there's more.  Days after moving in I inspected our two 30 foot raised beds more closely and discovered mature raspberry and strawberry plants.  I don't know if you can see into my soul from the inter web, but mature berry plants are pretty much my heartsong.  I still feel like wetting pants every time I think about July and August next year.

And our garden?  Well, the one house-y thing we've done so far is to have some tree guys come out and have discovered THREE sugar maples and ONE each Norway and regular maple!!! (SYRUP YOU GUYS, or at least THE HOPE OF SOME SMALL AMOUNT OF SYRUP!!!!) and Burr Oaks and a honeylocust and a blue spruce and just all that TREE in our space is so exciting to me it's unreal.

The previous owners had a trampoline that we asked to be removed and in it's place is a large round patch of dirt that I feel is the perfect jumping off point for a giant enclosed garden.  We're plotting how big we can go and what's reasonable but with so much other yard for playing I'm thinking a generous 25'x10' or even 30'x15' space is just what we need to really make a dent in our food stores.  The girls are almost as excited about seed catalogs and harvest canning as I am.  It's like Christmas already came and went 17 times.  For real.

Add to that all the wood in our woods.  A fire pit was added to our backyard just this summer and I'm assuming they cut down a few dead trees to do it and all that wood is nicely piled in two giant stacks just waiting to be hacked down a bit more for our winter fires.  I've already lost track of how many fires I've made and that's just how it should be in Minnesota in the winter.  We have no fireplace tools though so for now I'm making due with my hands as brooms to sweep the ash into the pit and our grill tongs as pokers and pincers.  It's actually quite the system.  And after just a few rounds of pathetically chopping wood with my dad's axe can I just give a shout out to the pioneers etc who need/ed to chop enough wood for whole winter warmth?  Goodness gracious.  My forearms have never been so sore.

So in addition to chopping wood and making fires and dreaming of our harvest time garden we are enjoying our new insides too.  The kitchen will take some major getting used to for me.  I'm switching from a gas to an induction stove which is pretty much the biggest first world problem I can imagine.  Over half of my pans don't work on it and it makes this buzzing noise when it's on high and really I miss my 1960's magic chef 4 burner quite a bit.  Everything else in the kitchen feels so fancy too.  A pull out drawer microwave with sensor reheats and cook modes, a double oven with convection capabilities.  The large granite island is everything we thought it'd be.  I can cook and bake with the whole family gathered around with room to spare.  We actually eat dinner there most nights.  I love it!

In fact the great room is the place to be in our house right now.  I don't know if it's simply because it's such an awesome space or that we're so used to being in close quarters (a lot of both I'm thinking) but that's where you can find us.  It also may have something to do with the fact that our living room has only two rocking chairs for seating right now.  Upgrading house problems!  Though! Our living room does have two Christmas trees.  Ainsley's birthday tree and our 2nd tree with white lights and homemade decorations. So that kind of makes up for the lack of furniture in my eyes.

Right now I'm in a quiet house.  Ian's out doing a last minute "errand" with the kids and I'm trying not to be skeptical.  Oh that boy.  I'm thankful for my quiet house and a moment to reflect on all the goodness around us.

Merry Christmas to you all!

First Weeks Here

Well hello there from our new home in Minnesota.  I still can't fully believe we're here.

We moved in just over two weeks ago to our house.  It felt so weird those first nights.  But then we just kind of settled and at least for Ian and I it feels like it's always been home.

I guess in my mind I expected us all to just jump right back in.  Back of course for Ian and I, but the kids, my girls especially, I wasn't expecting so much angst and sadness. Tonight Louise was sobbing about every little thing (paper cuts, bears) and big things too (I just don't feel as safe here as I did in Oak Park, I'm worried about riding my bike when there aren't sidewalks!).  Ainsley has really had a tough time of it.  If you're the praying type say a prayer for our girl please.  I am so thankful to be in a place where we have so much support, school, doctors, parents and family.  It's been overwhelming in ways I hadn't even fathomed.

Ian and I are doing really well, Felix too.  Felix LOVES his new preschool and has not shown one blip in the radar.  I am so thankful for that!  I feel an ease and comfort that I haven't felt in a long time.  We love our home so much.  It feels like a dream everytime I cook in the kitchen or walk into our backyard to take the girls to the bus, or snuggle on the couch in our basement to watch a Christmas movie with the girls. or use our OWN bathroom!  It's crazy.  Ian is really liking his new job, the work and all the people there. We are both homesick for Oak Park though.  I wish it were easier to just pop down for a day.  See some favorite people, eat some favorite food.  It's going to be a longer adjustment than we'd planned for, but we'll get here.  That first big snowfall here and ice skating and sledding and fort building would really help.  Come on snow!!!

This year I am extra thankful for Christmas.  It's been hard to let go of those wonderful weeks of preparation and really get down to the bare necessities of celebrating, but we're loving it still.  Baking cookies for a new neighborhood cookie exchange, making (and eating sneakily!) gingerbread houses, counting down the days, decorating TWO trees!!! (one just with white lights and homemade adornments, something I've always wanted but haven't had the space for!).  Ainsley is over the top excited for her birthday, tinged with sadness about not being able to celebrate with her friends from Oak Park.  I'm excited for her big family party and hoping she warms up to the idea of a little party with new friends in the new year.

I'm somehow just about set with gifts and to dos.  I'm making so very little this year which is sad to me, but I'm looking forward to the long winter ahead with my sewing machine humming and the fire crackling in time with my knitting needles.  It will happen, there's time for all of it.

First settling in more, getting our girls all righted and happy, and loving on this new home of ours.

Making it!

These are all the photos that I have from our two weeks in Minnesota so far.  Ian's taken many more and I'm thankful for that.  It's been a full amazing HARD time and we are so happy.

Our belongings arrive from Oak Park next week.  I am so looking forward to settling into our new home.  The girls, Ainsley in particular, have been struggling off and on with missing home and as comfortable and lovely and amazing as my parents home is, I know we're all craving our space.  I can't wait to set up the kids rooms and arrange things and make it ours.  It's one of the best things about moving.  It's almost here!

Ian seems to be settling well into work, looking forward to the bit of time that will be shaved off of his commute at our new address, but enjoying it still.

I am anticipating having so little to worry and think about and how grand that will feel.  I am constantly feeling like I'm forgetting something and soon enough I'll get to just melt into our new place and my favorite time of year and it's going to be so amazing!

Right now my groove involves a lot of driving and trying to remember where things are amongst seemingly endless bags and suitcases.  My parents are handling the chaos that we've brought remarkably well.  I feel like running around screaming AHHH!!!!! most of the time.  BUT!  The girls are doing great in school.  The end of last week was challenging for Ainsley but I think we're either over that hump or seeing the light a bit or something because today was the best drop off we've had and we have four holiday days in front of us to get our bearings again.  Moving is hard, parenting is hard, those two together is  quite a bit for us all!

I'm thankful for so many things this year, not having to drive 7+ hours to celebrate with family is definitely high on that list! ;o).  I'm excited to share our new home with everyone soon and wish you all a wonderful holiday!

Craving, Pausing.

This morning we woke up to steady hard rain.  Ian was up with the birds and had to come get me on his way out.  I've turned into quite the sleeping beauty lately and today the kids all joined me.  It was wonderful, until I realized that it meant go time big time with Ian gone to work and my mom and dad up at the cabin.  It was my first morning getting all three ready for school and out to the car and walking in to drop off the still a bit reticent girls then across town a bit for Felix's first day of preschool at his new school.  Phew.
We made it!

Now I sit after all of that and a few quick errands sipping on coffee calculating how much time I have before I need to motivate to tidy a bit more before I have to get Felix.  Today life almost feels normal.

I've found through bursts of excitement and angst these past weeks I am so craving normal.  During a particularly acute attack of panic over all the change my dad suggested envisioning a Christmas Tree, all decorated and glowing, calm and joyful.  The tree of course representing a time in the not so distant future when we will be in our new house with our belongings, the girls and Felix with more weeks of school under their belts.  A time when we'll all be sinking in a bit more into this new life here.

This stepping stone period at my parents has been lovely.  We are getting so much help and support while having time to wrap up the things that need doing and get our toes wet in our new rhythms.  I have been enjoying being in the kitchen again though I won't lie and say it's been easy.  I'm struggling to think of things to make and having a hard time motivating to do much more than the bare minimum.  It's been a big few weeks and I'm trying to cut myself some slack but I wish it were easier to jump back in.

Here.

We're here, we made it!  I arrived with my mom and the kids a few days ago.  We were greeted by an eager missing us (and us missing him!) daddy.  and Pop, of course Pop.  For the past 8 years we've come here to vacation, to escape from our semi-urban life and relax. Now we are here for good and there is much to do and it's so different, and so entirely wonderful.

I was hoping upon arriving that all things would fall into place and I would just melt and relax and breathe a little.  I have a bit but am off and on very anxious about all the change, how it's all going to feel, how final things will pan out.  Then STOP.  We're so incredibly fortunate and as hard as it's been to wait for all of this it's here and it's more than I could have imagined and better than it would have been even months ago.

For instance, I dropped the girls off at their new school this morning.  Even last year I doubt Ainsley would have been able to make it out the door.  My big girl walked right in, beamed when she saw her desk with her name proudly displayed, excited to read two girls' names next to hers.  New friends!
And Louise, she's doing great.  A bit more clingy and weepy than usual but brave and happy and doing it.  I couldn't be prouder.
Even Felix has new things to enjoy.  Ian had veterans day off so we both dropped the girls off at school and took Felix to his new preschool to walk around.  He seems very excited for his new school and I so thankful we found such a wonderful place for him to spent the next three years.

Now Ian is back at work and I'm giving myself a day "off" to just relax and be normal for a bit.  We close on our new house Friday and move in 2.5 short weeks later.  We walked through again last night and if possible I love it even more.  We're not going to go nuts getting new things to fill up the space but there are a few things I'm very excited to get and spending most of my free time scouring for deals and finding those things.
It was so fun being with my mom as she saw the house for the first time.  There's nothing like a mom helping you envision your space and your life there to help really put the icing on the cake.

The kids are all SO excited for their new rooms.  For now they all seem to be very excited to have their own spaces so we'll go with it.  I'm excited to help them make their rooms their own.  The girls are old enough to have their own ideas and visions.  It's an exciting time! (have I used that word too much?!)
Felix is up napping off a tiny fever.  I hope he's better soon.  I head off to pick the girls up from school in a bit after putting come chicken in the oven.  My mom and I are alternating cooking nights (to be fair she's cooking way more than I am) still I'm excited to cook again without the worry of messing up our kitchen for showings or having to find things I've already packed.  It's making me that much more excited to cook in our new kitchen soon!

Ian took some great photos of the kids at school yesterday that I hope to be able to share soon.  For now picture us lounging at my parents, me driving around getting things done and taking the girls to and fro and loving this transition back to Minnesota.
We're home!

One Last Time

I've imagined leaving this place almost since we arrived.  I remember starting this blog, writing about looking at homes in Minnesota and whether we should buy a house or not because DUH! we won't be here long!  I was a bit checked out before I even got here.

I've told countless people that I feel like I just got my groove here in the past two years.  I was able to shed my homesickness just enough to really open up to this place and I truly fell a bit in love.
I love being able to walk just about anywhere we want.  I am going to miss walking to the bakery for bread each week so much and our little adorable amazing library just over the bridge too.  I am going to miss our giant park and filed just up the street and the pool in the summer, oh the pool.  I am going to miss walking to pick the girls up from school (and I'm SO thankful I don't have to do that anymore at the same time).  I am going to miss walking out our front door and having 10 friends right there all at once.  I am going to miss dinners and weekend breakfasts with neighbors, the farmers market, the Botanic Gardens.  I'm going to miss my quiet Saturday mornings while Ian takes the kids downtown.  I'm going to miss hearing about those adventures too.

And the people, our friends, of course.  When you don't have family close the friends you make become even more important.  Our friends, neighbors, meant everything to us here.  We hope to keep in good touch.  We know we'll never find just what we found here.

Now that the day is here I feel calm and panic too if that's possible.  There are so many things that I didn't get to do one last time.  There just wasn't any spare moment this week.  I resent a bit that our last days here were so hurried and flurried.  Though! We've lived life full here.  We've soaked it all up and the memories we've made will be lasting and good.  I'm excited to look back on our time here and remember so many wonderful things.  The girls are already filled with anecdotes to tell their new friends.

It's our last night in this house. These walls where we brought toddling Ainsley into and jaundiced smiling Louise home from the hospital and where Felix was born just upstairs.  It's where I've averaged 22 hours a day (I'm sure of it) inside with my children, playing, crafting, dancing, singing, learning, squabbling, snuggling.

The more I process this move the less sentimental I become.  I know these walls and streets and places don't hold our memories, we do.

Oak Park, you were more than I ever could have imagined.  It's been grand.  I'm ready and excited for what's next.