It's Loverly

I’d already been doing a lot of thinking about how to frame this blog, and then Meg’s comment about finding a lens through which to write pushed me further. I’m going to use this month to try on some lenses and see how they work for me. If I hit on one that feels right, I’ll stick with it.

Here’s one to try on: my daughter’s books.

At 19 months, my daughter loves books. And I admit: I’m psyched. Before becoming parents, Pat and I both really looked forward to reading to our children. We’re loving that she loves to be read to, loves looking at books, and has started “reading” books to us.

There are books that comfort her (Goodnight, Moon– a book that has comforted generations of sleepy kids). There are books that make her laugh and laugh (Potty, Hippos Go Berserk, Eight Silly Monkeys). There are books that make her happy (The Family Book), and there are books that just engross her (The Very Hungry Caterpillar).

She’s destroyed her fair share of books, too (something about the Clifford book – she loves it, and she loves ripping pages out of it and coloring on the back cover).

Already, though, these books are a part of her childhood and a part of our memories. She’s leading the way, letting us see books through her eyes, telling us stories, opening new worlds to all of us.

I think I have a lot to write about through this door.

Day four of blogging every day this month and I’m already feeling like I have no idea what to write about.

BlogHer has writing prompts for each weekday, but they haven’t sparked any ideas for me.

I have some ideas for posts to come this month, but to write those I need more than the 30 minutes before passing out in the evening that I’ve been able to find for this venture.

Experienced bloggers: Where do you find writing inspiration? How do you make time to write?

This post is a total cop out, I know. But it’s not nothing, and it counts.

We moved into this house three years ago this weekend. It marked a return to Albany after three and a half years in Massachusetts, a kind of “settling down,” and a rude awakening into the world of home ownership.

Making this place our own has been a mix of fun improvements and unexpected (often expensive) repairs – which, I’m guessing, is the way it is for anyone who buys a not-new house.

This afternoon, Evy hung with her grandparents while we went to Lowe’s to begin talking a little more seriously about kitchen renovations- part of our plan for this house since the first time we saw it. We sat down with Art in the cabinet department to dream up ways to add cabinets and counter space and blow loads of imaginary money.

We changed the placement of appliances, added cabinets along the corner and back wall, saw 3D renderings and the bird’s-eye-view, and imagined how it would feel to stand in our new kitchen. We opened and closed cabinets in several mock kitchens and looked at an overwhelming assortment of cabinet options.

After all that, it was somewhat disappointing to come home to find our kitchen exactly as we’d left it.

I’ve decided to do NaBloPoMo, if only to get myself to stick to the goal of writing more, no matter what that writing is. Every day this month, I’ll put something here. It might stink. I’ll probably worry about whether I should bother and debate whether blogging is for me. But I need to write more, and many of my future goals depend on doing just that.

So what am I afraid of?

I’m afraid that I don’t have much to say.

That it’s been said before.

That I don’t quite have a niche topic, and will end up with one of those blogs that’s just a diary that no one really cares about.

And what do I want?

I want to become a better writer.

To take some time for myself, even if it’s just a few minutes on the couch at night, doing this thing just for me.

I want to get more of my writing published.

I want (someday) to (somehow) generate some income from my writing outside of a 9-5 job.

I know I’ve written a version of this post before, and that’s where NaBloPoMo (I hate those abbreviations) comes in. For this month I’ll write every day. It might be crap, but at least it won’t be nothing.

Last night, my 19-month-old daughter spiked a fever. At 1:00 am my husband and I were both up with her, taking turns snuggling, reading books, and applying a cool washcloth to her forehead. I worried about the way she was shaking and shivering- probably due to fever-related chills, but as a first-time mom these things throw my worry into overdrive.

As the ibuprofen kicked in and her fever came down, she started to get talkative and, well, demanding. First it was asking for hugs from all of the stuffed animals on the shelf: “Bear- hug! Mama- bear, hug! Dada – bear, hug!” the on to “Eh-phant- hug! Eh-phant- Dada hug!” and so on.

In the middle of all the hugging, she caught sight of the ribbon displaying her barrettes and bows and three Hawaiian flower clips brought back from one of Grandma and Vou’s trips. “Evy- fower?” – She started out asking to wear a flower in her hair. And then: “Mama, fower?” I obliged- a flower in my hair at 1 am, mismatched to my bleary eyes, wild bedhead, and comfy-but-not-pretty pajamas. Lastly, of course, “Dada, fower?”

And so, there we were- the three of us, at 1am on Thursday morning, fighting a fever, with Hawaiian flowers in our hair. I have so much to learn from this girl.

Summer came and then went, and it was the best. As a family we focused on experiencing that sunny sunny summer. Kiddie pool in the backyard. A week and weekends at the lake. A week at the beach. Bike rides. Playgrounds. Swimming in the big pool at the J. A wee vegetable garden. Flowers. Walks around the neighborhood. Cookouts. A backyard swing. Time with family and friends. Watching our toddler go from walking to running, from observing the world to fully immersing herself in it, from baby to little girl.

Not many projects were completed. The one large project we started (the back porch) is still in progress. Other outdoor projects that we began in the spring (a fence, landscaping, gardens) are still waiting to be done. As we creep up on the third anniversary of moving into our house the list of indoor projects we want to do continues to grow. Getting them done is harder these days- it’s tough to put anything else before time with our kid.

The fall has brought a busier schedule and adjustments: I’m working more than I have since E was born, although I am lucky that I’ve been able to hang on to a four-day work week. At the end of September we traveled to visit dear friends in North Carolina. My sister’s wedding is this week (!) so the exciting preparations for that have been underway for many months. Next week marks the beginning of a quieter and cozier time for us.

All this to say, I’ll be slowly making my way back to the land of writing on the internets, continuing to seek out the best way to do that. And hopefully bringing back the Project a Week series. There are rooms to organize, recipes to master, and there is the looming winter inviting us to hunker down.

Once upon a time I shared links that I thought were interesting on Google Reader, but ever since they took away the ‘share’ option my favorite internet reads have piled up, unshared (unless I decide to inundate a friend with links to things I think they should read. I’m so bossy. Sorry, friends!) This seems like a good place to share- here are some links to things I’ve been digging lately.

Food:

From Scratch Club: This is the site run by a great local group with a focus on real food, gardening, community, and education. They’re blog posts and tutorials tend to deliver inspiration at just the right time. I’ve been paying a lot more attention to what we eat lately and aiming for as much “real food” and as little processed food as possible. I was just saying that I need to find a replacement for the chocolate syrup we have in the fridge (I love a bit on my ice cream….) and today FSC posted a recipe for three-ingredient homemade magic shell. Can’t wait to try this! This group (and some nudging from foodie friends) has also inspired me to make my own yogurt, use more dried (instead of canned) beans, and has been a big part of my realization that cooking from scratch isn’t as hard, time consuming, or complicated as I thought.

100 Days of Real Food: Like I said above, now that I’m responsible for a small young human, I’ve really focused on what we’re putting into her body, and ours. For over six months she was exclusively breastfed– nourished by the most local, unprocessed, natural food there is. So when we started introducing solids, I wanted to keep that trend up as much as possible. I’ve been making more from scratch, buying as much local as possible (so much easier in the summer), and buying organic when we can. I found this blog at the perfect time. It’s full of simple ideas for real food based meals, ways to avoid processed foods, and how to do it all affordably. I love the resources here and I’ve already used several of the ideas.

Recipes:
Tasty things I’ve made recently:

3-ingredient cheesy crackers: great toddler (and grownup) snack- Evy loves these.  Most of the new recipes I’ve made lately are snack-focused. Evy will eat grapes or bananas for snack, but I wanted some more whole food options to mix things up a bit.

Energy bites: There are all kinds of variations on this recipe. I used this one as the base but used almond butter and added (in addition to the oats and coconut) puffed rice cereal, flax meal, and cinnamon. I skipped the vanilla. They are so tasty, we all love them. One is plenty filling, a perfect afternoon snack. Evy watched me make them while she ate her lunch. I told her she could have one after she finished lunch. She really takes her time with her meals these days (all about the slow food movement, I suppose), so I had forgotten about the energy balls when she was done. She didn’t, though! “Ba, ba!” she demanded, pointing at the fridge. Yes, m’am!

Crunchy roasted chick peas: This was on my ‘to make’ list for a long time. Super easy, super tasty, a favorite of mine and Evy’s. I haven’t figured out a way to store them so they stay crunchy, but they aren’t awful once they get chewy.

Things I haven’t made yet but plan to:
Coconut oil popcorn
peanut, carrot, and cabbage slaw
radish slaw (we got a bunch of radishes in our farm share today – yum!)

Kid stuff:

Baby-led weaning: this is the general approach we used to introduce Evelyn to solids after she was 6 months old. It worked great for us — no purees or spoon-feeding, she was totally in control of how much she ate, and we’ve eaten meals as a family ever since we started seating her at the table with us. She currently eats all kind of things- from chicken curry to pasta with pesto to pitas with hummus and cheese. The best resource for learning about baby-led weaning is the book, but the website and Facebook group are pretty good, too.

Janet Lansbury: Her parenting approach makes a lot of sense to me- the website is a good resource for those days when toddlerhood boggles my mind.

SquintMom and Science of Mom : These two blogs take on parenting ‘hot topics’ that can be truly confusing, review the scientific research, and draw rational conclusions about the facts. I love them so much. It can be agonizing to figure out what the facts are about things like vaccinations, sunscreen, breastfeeding, sleep, parenting styles, and solid food. On both of these sites the research is presented clearly, with clear citations, and all sides presented. For an over-thinker like me (and many parents), this is a godsend.