a week in review

Happy Sunday! It's a great morning when I've already showered, made two dozen jam thumbprint cookies, had a spectacular cup of coffee (thank you single-serving French press!) done laundry, and napped the baby all by 9am. I can hear Biscuit waking up now though, so my productiveness is surely going to decrease. Ok, he's crying.... sigh.

jam thumprints are my favorite

[...Twelve hours later.]

My ability to write a blog and simultaneously take care of my increasingly-mobile baby while he is awake is pretty much impossible. He wants to touch and grab and get into everything he can reach. And he can reach a lot of stuff--like coffee table and couch surfaces. And he's not even crawling efficiently yet. Babyproofing our apartment is an immediate necessity for the sudden moment when he is a speed-crawler. I've heard from parent friends that the transition from tentative crawling to full-on Daytona 500 crawling is overnight. Hope it's not tomorrow--I'm not ready!

 This week was full of Christmas gatherings. I love when the week leading up to Christmas provides me with pre-holiday warm-up events. Feels like the great parts of the holiday get extended that way. On Tuesday our church life group had a little Christmas potluck with a viewing of A Christmas Story (and some flipping amazing peppermint mocha cupcakes my friend Cassie made.) On Wednesday we had a little Christmas party for the youth at church with a Christmas Karaoke competition and Christmas trivia jeopardy-style and everything. Thursday was a girls night for life group ladies where we had a little Mary Kay facial party and then decorated sugar cookies. Roger was with me and getting tired so I rushed through my decorating and just did the white frosting with sprinkles thrown willy-nilly on the lot. I think I need to do a redo and make sugar cookies with my boys at work or something so I can really feel that I partook in that most iconic Christmas pastime.

pathetic.

Friday we had a church staff/leadership Christmas party at our pastor's house, and it was pretty fantastic. Great meal, lots of desserts, pie with fresh whipped cream, apple cider, conversation, people passing around my baby and giving me a break, a rousing game of Outburst (guys against gals - we lost by one measly point!) and a white elephant gift exchange that left us with two really nice gifts--when does that ever happen in white elephant!? We got some really nice candles and a gift basket with an assortment of tapenades and bruschetta. We really dodged a bullet too, we could have been the ones stuck with the fart piano and the hot-dog warmer.

Saturday was a slower-paced day. We slept-in, did some cleaning, went to a birthday party for Everett, my favorite 6-year-old, and used a gift card to go out for dinner. Dave dressed like the unibomber (I can't control his wardrobe choices. I've had to learn to accept) and Roger wore his Green Bay jammies handed down from cousin Steven.

 And then today after church I took Roger with me to a Christmas cookie exchange party. My friend Gabby snapped some prrrrrretty cute pictures there of Roger and I.

How did I get such an insanely cute child!?

I hope you've had a wonderful week too! Christmas is so near! Take time to enjoy it and make it a time to appreciate what you have and how good God is for all He has given us. On top of sending His only Son to us as a tiny, sweet baby, to grow up to conquer sin and death for us who don't deserve it, God also provides for our daily needs and puts love in our lives. I am so thankful.

Christmas spirit

It's like winter in Seattle here this morning, mild and rainy. So strange. I want the familiarity of snow and blustery winds. Christmas is ten days away and I am so thrown-off by waking up to the sounds of rain on the roof and car tires splashing through the street puddles. Snow is much quieter than rain. It's sneaky like that.

So Christmas is upon us in this drizzly land, and while I'll hold out for the white stuff, I'm getting in the Christmas spirit right now. For me, that means planning the meals, cookies, cakes, and maybe even pies that will grace the tables of our holiday gatherings. Meal planning is probably my absolute favorite way to get into the mood for Christmas. Tomorrow I'm bringing baked Brie with raspberry filling and a savory galette to our first Christmas party of the year. Thursday night I'll be making cookies with some gals from church. And I'll need to make about three dozen more cookies (jam thumbprints) for a Christmas cookie exchange I'm attending on Sunday. Next week I'll focus on my birthday meal, since we will get the pleasure of eating Christmas dinner at our "surrogate" family's house (the family I nanny for.) My birthday meal is going to be fattening and divine: my mom's meatloaf recipe, which has a tangy-sweet sauce, mashed potatoes ala Dave, roasted Brussels sprouts, homemade Mac and cheese, and birthday cake in some form. I'm having trouble deciding between chocolate peanut butter layer cake, and chocolate cherry cheesecake. Why must I choose!? Maybe I'll make both. Because it's my birthday and adult birthdays lack the fanfare of child birthdays so one must compensate with indulging in mild gluttony.

What gets you into the Christmas spirit? Probably giving, right? Because you're a much better person than I am and think of others before you think of your stomach.

pictures // weekend

 

 

Back in October our friends Andrew and Amanda did some family pictures for us at our friends' farm in Lennox. We  l o v e  how they turned out. The light is so warm and our little Biscuit was oh-so cooperative. I just can't believe that he's two months older than he was in these photos; he can't fit in any of these clothes anymore! Yikes!

I am now experiencing that paradoxical desire for him to stop growing. I don't really want this--I just hate that part of loving him and letting him be himself also means losing him as a baby. Kids grow whether you like it or not! I cherish the immortality of photographs so I can enjoy watching my little boy grow out of these baby times, knowing I can look at these photos and the memories can linger a little more substantially.

Getting these photos up is one of the productive milestones for my weekend. I also ordered Christmas cards, updated our health insurance coverage (saving $$$ always makes me feel productive!), finished Christmas shopping (I never have too much to buy, which makes that an easy one), did three loads of laundry, and purchased a no-contract phone plan. I feel like I've got enough productive momentum to do my taxes too, if only it were the end of next month.

And now the Holidays are really, really here, with the first of our Christmas parties beginning this week. I'm so ready to OD on Eggnog and cookies. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year! I'll have to say more about that later. It deserves a post of its own.

Right now my baby is napping (a recent return to swaddling has made nap time a more consistent event in our house--swaddling at 6.5 months, who knew!?) and my husband is tensely watching the Packers play a close game with the Bills.

Happy Sunday to you! And to us, as long as Green Bay wins. ;-)

nanny • mommy

Stats from today:

Children cared for: 2 grade-school boys, 1 toddler, 2 babies
Times all five children were buckled into the van: 2
Trips to school, there-and-back: 2
Laundry done: 2 loads
Poop-plosions: 6
Onesies soiled by poop-plosions: 1 (I'm fast to change the poop-plosions. I've been around the block. I know what kind of laundry awaits the sluggard who allows a baby to go unchanged for a minute or more post-poop-plosion.)
Times Biscuit made the toddler cry: 2
Baby giggles: too many to count
Times Baby Biscuit and Baby Bean looked at each other and "talked" together: 3
Dishes broken on the floor: 1
Times the floor was swept: 2
Cups of coffee I drank: just 2! Impressive, right?
Simultaneous nappers: 3 (all of them were children. I promise I didn't nap on the job. That's what coffee is for.)
Time elapsed while all the babes napped at the same, magnificent time: 60 min
Toys cleaned up by toddler: 3
Toys cleaned up by nanny: too many to count
Carpets/areas vacuumed: 11
Number of times toddler  said "quiet... LIBBY": 4
Airplane rides given: 5
Times I answered toddler questioning "Why?": too many to count
Times I put toddler on the potty: 3
Times toddler used the potty to actually do his business: 0


Amazing when I see it all in writing. And when it was all said and done I came home and cleaned and cooked pheasant pot pie to share with our wonderful neighbors. My days are just full enough to admit the pre-bed writing of this short post and then hit the hay. Good night.

musing

I married a man who will go out into the wilderness and hunt for meat to put on our table, doing every step of that process, forest to plate, field-dressing to sauteeing, all on his own. How manly is that!? But he will then eat that delicious Venison with me while watching marathons of Gilmore Girls on Netflix. (We're almost done with the last season.) I snagged the White Whale of husbands, ladies, so put away your harpoons, he's taken.

I've talked about this before on my previous blog, but it deserves repeating- there is so much to love about eating game. The money we save on meat is significant, not to mention how healthy game is compared to factory-farmed meats. And once you get a few solid recipes under your belt, it starts to seem more like butcher-shop fare. Venison can be used in almost any way you use beef; and pheasant, while a little more temperamental to cook (it can easily dry out) can often replace chicken. So far our favorite recipes are Venison Philly Cheesesteaks (David's own recipe!), Venison Barbacoa (think Mexican BBQ, ala Chipotle,) and Pheasant Pot Pie. I think we're going to try pheasants in my favorite Mexican tinga recipe in place of chicken. And I have been meaning to do a stir-fried venison and broccoli.

Game will not be on our Christmas menu unless Dave bags a duck. Ever since I saw Anthony Bourdaine sear a wild duck breast I've been dying to take a stab at it myself. Maybe make a cherry or pomegranate sauce to go with. Festive! Duck would be a big score since Dave hasn't ever shot one yet, so we will probably do roast beef unless he gets lucky. We scored a ton of grass-fed beef from some wonderful people earlier this year and we still have a few nice roasts among the booty.

This year, with Christmas falling in the middle of the week, we're delaying travel until the weekend after New Years. We will get to see our extended families then, and we will get to do our own little Christmas at home with just us on Christmas Day. I love that we get to start our own Christmas traditions; for us, that means a focus on food, being together, and Jesus, with a little gift-giving as a bonus, but not the main concern. And it's Roger's first Christmas! He will even get to eat some of the meal!

And with Christmas comes my birthday (the 24th,) which I will continue to love no matter how old I get. 28 isn't old. Although it does feel odd to be so close to 30. I told David what I want for my birthday: I want to go get my nails shellacked and go thrifting and come home to a clean apartment, where we will eat meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and Brussels sprouts, and peanut butter chocolate cake--made by me because I have control issues--and watch a movie, and then drive around looking at Christmas lights. Hopefully Roger will cooperate with the plan. He's in a bit of a needy phase-- he wants mom and no one else will do. He may go with me on my birthday thrift shopping just so daddy can get the cleaning done.

And now the day is about to start: when I get some coffee into me. Happy Tuesday.

Weeknight philosophy

Life can drag sometimes, can't it? I mean the mundane busy necessities of work and cleaning and diaper-changing and grocery-getting and laundry, laundry, and more laundry, and what's for dinner? and car repairs and to-do lists and budgets... And it has no end. They are not meaningless, these busy necessities, but their merits can certainly get overlooked in their busy midst.

Tonight I made a to-do list. I then proceeded to complete two of the ten items and call it good. Because sometimes you gotta know when to slow down and stop letting life drag.

The rest of my night: I ate a perfect grilled cheese sandwich with from-scratch butternut squash soup (both made by my husband--I'm a lucky girl.)

I had a major Jones for chocolate and peanut butter in cookie form, so I made these and they are better even than they look.

And I gave Roger Biscuit his first solo bathtub bath where he was sitting in the big porcelain tub on his own! He was just splashing away, and playing in the stream from the faucet, and laughing like it was such a privelege not to be in the little green baby tub. Six months old and already showing the signs of burgeoning independence and self-awareness.

 I'm so glad he wants me to be right there with him as he learns to do things for himself. But seriously, I had a moment when he was a'splashin in the tub where I was r e a l l y sad he is no longer the little 8lb bean I bathed so gently for the first time. He never will be again and that is so final and concrete and it makes me think I'm going to have a lot of trouble watching him grow into a great big man without me having a complete emotional breakdown.

Man. My parents must be completely depressed that 3/4 of their kids are permanently adultified. But they get grandkids out of the bargain so maybe it's not so bad. And maybe as you watch your kids grow up, the contrast between sweet little baby son and stubble-chinned, 6'4" man-son is less severe because you've been there for the steady change. Maybe when Dave's mom looks at him she still just sees baby David.

Sigh. Motherhood is making me so philosophical. Time for another cookie.

Hey Biscuit, What are you doing? (6 months)

Roger (Biscuit) is 6 months old! (As of four days ago, but this post is only late because I had to get the pictures off my husband's computer and it was a slight debacle.)

Six months sure has done a lot to improve his totability. As a tiny babyling he cried non-stop on most car rides. But we made the Thanksgiving trip to MN/WI and all the way back with [almost] no crying! Hallelujah!

He's also learned to wake up from naps gracefully in the past six months. Right now I am listening to him babble in his pack-in-play over the monitor at the house where I nanny. The toddler is sleeping, baby girl is with her mama, and older boys are at school. Part of me wants to run and get Roger because I just like him, ya know? But the other part of me is glad he's having a conversation with himself so I can shoot out this little update.

Stats:
Sits up beautifully and almost seems like he's going to crawl if I turn my back.
Rolls everywhere he wants to go - often under furniture.
Pulls himself up to standing if he has something to grip.
He's tried avocado, turkey, and banana recently-- all have been a hit. I think he's going to be a great eater.
Total mama's boy-- he's started bursting into sudden tears if he realizes he can't see me and somebody else is holding him.
Social like his papa, especially when he sees other kids/babies.
Likes to pull hair, which has earned him the title "mean baby!" by a few unwary kids who wandered too close with their dangling locks.
Laughs when the boys I nanny are talking to me in the car.
Scowls at me when I brush my teeth.
Thinks he's entitled to my water glass.
"Wrestles" with daddy.

Ticklish almost everywhere!
Wears jammies all day most days.
Loves the bath and tries to drink the water.
And to my utmost pride, he knows how to play "up high, down low" and though he doesn't give the high-5 perfectly, he definitely knows he's playing along!

Doesn't know how to take a good selfie yet.

Now time just needs to slow down a little so I can keep him a baby just a little longer!