Field Day

Yesterday I volunteered at Audrey's school for field day. 

Being the sun phobe that I am I signed up for an indoor station - the rock climbing wall. It looked like so much fun I was tempted to try it myself. :)

Audrey and her friend Kelsey and many of the other girls her age are into clapping slapping rhythms. Here they are showing me one of their latest. 

I can't believe Audrey will be in third grade in just two days. 

Garden update

The blueberry bush has been a delightful surprise.  I have been able to pick a handful of berries most days this week.  And they are delicious. :)

The beans are in and growing - we need to get some sort of climbing framework in this weekend. Also pictured free piece of flying trash - mother nature has a sense of humor because the only days that are ever windy are Monday and Thursday - trash days.

Hand me downs

As the oldest kid, I rarely got hand-me-downs.  Every once in a while my Aunt Rachel would send a box of clothes to me and those clothes always became the best clothes that I wore.

So, imagine my delight when a coworker asked if I wanted some of her clothes when she was doing a closet clean out.  I was super excited, though I tried to play it cool.  She brought me a big bag of clothes earlier this week.  Sure enough, these new clothes are already some the best clothes I own.  Hand-me-downs are better than regular clothes because you know they are decent quality, or they wouldn't have made it all the way to a second person.  Plus, they often come with matching pieces - like cute capris with a matching tank top.  Awesome!

Work and Laundry updates

My Afghanistan assessment project just ended and now I need  to find a new project at work.  At Deloitte, that happens through networking. So I have been talking to people in my network and they have been introducing me to people in their networks, and so on. It is always nice to meet interesting new people and talk about what they do and the things they enjoy about their projects.

In the meantime, I have been assigned to work on an internal project for expense compliance.  It is as uninteresting as it sounds.  However, I get to do this project remotely.  Hooray!  No commute (except for other Deloitte project and networking efforts).  And just with the drop of the commute and the idea that I have that extra time to myself - I have started new ideas to make my house run better.

My first idea was to tackle Mt Washmore. I have started doing a load of washing everyday - ala Flylady.  Since I am able to do that in the morning, I now get to hang that load to dry on a rack out on the deck (our HOA does not allow us to have a clothesline).  I love hanging clothes "on the line". It is strange, but certain household chores are just relaxing.  And for me hanging laundry is relaxing in a contemplative way.  I love the shake and snap of wet clothes before I hang them and I love how crisp they are when they are dry.  It makes me feel connected to women through the ages and around the world when I do this simple task - because keeping the family in clean clothes most often falls to the women of the world.  And the methods are pretty much the same, regardless of the type of clothes or the era of time or the geographic location.  It is kind of like a secret handshake among homemakers around the world.

I especially like the idea of hanging clothes in the summer.  Really is there anything more energy efficient than a solar and wind power clothes dryer.  It makes me a little crazy to pay money (between $0.50-1.00 per load (depending on the cost of gas, electricity, and the length of time the dryer runs)) to heat my clothes and by extension part of my house and then turn around and pay additional money to cool it back down with the air conditioner.  While Ryan agrees with the basic math behind my logic, let's just say that the dryer is not completely out of service.  He is not a fan of "crisp" towels.  I believe he used the word "sandpaper" to describe them and he wasn't buying my "free exfoliation" pitch. So I air dry them, then throw them in the dryer for a few minutes to tumble the crispness out. :)

Cookbook Club

I read an article in the Journal the other day and have been thinking about it ever since.

It is all about the latest fad in book clubs is to do a cook book club.  I love this idea.  So I have been thinking about how to go about starting such a club.  I read this blog post and that gave me some good info.

At first, I was thinking of just doing that with my neighbors, but I get to hang out with a lot of them often anyway.  So perhaps, I will branch out to include different people - like local friends and colleagues.  They are a group of interesting people that I genuinely like and this could be a fun way to get to know them better and actually hang out with them periodically.  Any suggestions on good cookbooks to consider for the club?

Homemade soap

I like homemade soaps and I usually purchase it at craft shows in scents that I like. I have even ordered it online a couple of time.  However, I really want to try to make my own homemade soap.  I have been hoping to try it for a while.  Rhonda has several good tutorials and it seems simple and straight forward enough.  I finally have gathered all the supplies - goggles, a kitchen scale, lye, and some good fats.

So next time that I have an evening to myself, I will try it.  My plan is to try to make a couple of different types of soaps.  1) I would like a nice creamy soap - maybe with some coconut oil and a bit of superfatting (where you have a slightly higher ratio of fats to lye for the extra creaminess).  2) I would also like to try to make a practical kitchen sink type of soap - I have been saving bacon grease for this purpose.  And if that works out well, I would like to try using my kitchen sink soap in homemade laundry soap. 

The scale and the lye were the only real new expenses.  The scale is a one time ever sort of purchase and it was $15. The lye was $8 for a good sized container that should last me through years of soap making.  All in all not too expensive for a fun and productive project.  I will be back with an update on how it goes - hopefully in the near future. :)

Making of a homemaker

I feel like I have three full-time jobs.

1)  Taking care of me and my immediate environment - my house, cars, yard, etc.
2)  Being a Mama - taking care of my two wonderful ladies - Audrey and Meredith
3)  Work - my job and career

Jobs 2 and 3 really get my full focus right now.  However, I would really like to make it so that jobs 1 and 2 get my full focus.

Also, I have been thinking, it is a little crazy that we women grow up helping out and doing a few chores, taking care of siblings, etc., but aside from that minimal training, we spend most of our focus and learning capabilities on academics and then career work.  So when a woman decides to stay home and take care of a baby, there is not only the new mother stuff to learn, but there is also the homemaking stuff to learn.  We think because we have a quarter of a century experience with life that it will be easy, that all of a sudden we will be able to do the meal planning, using leftovers, budgeting and stretching funds, decorating, organizing, party planning, growing food, keeping a house clean and maintained, raising happy healthy productive children, and coming up with an elegant system to accomplish it all.  But there are some real skill involved in each of these things that take time to learn.  I think when I first stayed home with Audrey, I did not really think about how to continually improve the work I was doing. Truly, I don't think I appreciated the entire scope of what a homemaking career could be.  I tried new recipes and such, but I didn't try to learn to make soap or can food.  I kind of caught the homemaking bug after I left to go back to work.

Here we are now, with a sweet baby (who is really a sweet toddler at this point, but she will always be my sweet baby) and a daycare issue.  We are considering having me quit my job (or at least drastically reduce my hours) to be with my littles and raise them and take care of the family.  This time around, I think I appreciate the scope of the task of homemaking a little more and I am super excited for the challenge.

So perhaps the making of a homemaker is not always a linear path straight from babies to homemaker.  Sometimes it takes a few tries to figure these things out.  Life isn't meant to be lived linearly anyway, right?

Dear Family,

I miss you.  Please come and visit me soon.  I just took a few minutes to read my sisters' blogs.  That was so much fun.  I wish we had the means to all visit each other more often.  I miss having family around. I would love to have my girls grow up around cousins. I would love to get to hang out with my family on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

I am lucky to have wonderful neighbors and we have a lovely community with them, but it sure would be nice to have family close too.

love,
Amber

Progress in the garden

While I really enjoy gardening, I think it is safe to say that I find I am a bit of a haphazard gardener.  I just don't necessarily get around to doing all the right things at the right times.  This weekend I was productive. I pulled out the old kale that had flowered and then gone to seed.  

I harvested some surprise parsnips - who knew parsnips grew the following spring.

Then I weeded a bit and planted some cucumbers, lettuce and carrots.  This time I even labeled my squares, how novel. I hope that my cucumber plants will be more productive than last year.  We harvested enough cucumbers to eat, but not enough to pickle and this year I really want to try making my own dill pickles!

Amish Coffee N Cake

I love coffee cake and I love coffee, so what could be better than a cake with coffee in it?  I found a recipe for Amish Coffee N Cake here.

I substituted butter for shortening, but otherwise followed the recipe.  The cake turned out a little wonky looking, but tasted delicious.  It went especially well with my unsweetened coffee in the morning as a mid-morning snack.  Next time I will add a bit of salt, because I like salt too.

New Wheels

Meredith and I got new wheels this week.  I put both bike and trike together on Saturday.  Sunday afternoon we went to an empty commuter parking lot for bike time.  Audrey and Meredith rode in the car with the bikes in back.  I rode my bike to meet them.  It was the perfect place to let Audrey practice her bike.  Ryan walked Meredith around on her tricycle.  Even though she can reach the pedals, she is extremely content to just let her parents do that work for her.  Side note: I love the way her hair is doing that sweet little baby curls thing at the bottom edges right now.

My bike is awesome.  I got it at Costco, because I get everything at Costco.  The seat is nice and squishy and the frame is surprisingly light.  I did a couple of little rides over the weekend, a mile or so each.  I have come to the unfortunate conclusion that I am terribly out of shape.  We have a lot of hills around us and it was hard to get to the top of them.  But it was also super fun.  It is funny there is something about a bike that gives you a sense of freedom that I don't even feel with my cars.  And I loved getting to smell the flowers and hear the birds while I was riding.  Even though my legs and my rear-end are sore, I can't wait to get back out and take another little ride.

As for accessories, the bike is in desperate need of a basket or rack.  I think I will have to get a rack because I bought a toddler seat for the front.  I am waiting to install that until I have just a touch more strength in my legs. Meredith is nearly 30lbs of toddler love. And we only have a hand-pump, so I think we will eventually need to get a better pump too.

Here she is on her new tricycle right in front of my new bike.  Pretty sweet rides for both of us. :)

Garden Plan 2013

This will be my third year with a garden and I am excited.  Here is the plan:

Some of this plan is dictated by the carry-over growth from previous years - my thyme plant has been there from the beginning and is still growing strong.

I also have a couple of pots, one with mint, that I keep on the deck - it just keeps coming back every year (my favorite type of plants), and I have two pots with lavender on either side of the front door (another return from last year).  Then there is the dear blueberry bush and my insanely happy rose bush.  All of these are pretty much no fuss, which is a wonderful thing.  I would love to build the last part of the fence to completely enclose the backyard, but that looks like a project for another year - again. 

I would love to put down another 4x4 square, and if I do, it will mostly be a salsa garden.

However, since I have yet to keep up with just one 4x4 square, this idea will probably need to wait another year or two.

The colorful garden plans were done with whatever crayons Meredith was willing to share when we sat down to color together on Sunday. :)

Hummingbird Cake

For Easter dinner, I brought dessert.  I used it as an opportunity to try making Hummingbird cake (and to cross an item off the food bucket list).  I followed the Southern Living recipe very closely.  I doubled the cream cheese frosting, because it is always better to have extra frosting; I toasted the pecans; and I only did two layers instead of three, because I only have two cake pans.   It turned out really good.  It was a bit like a moist banana bread with cream cheese frosting.  But the pineapple and cinnamon made it a little more exciting than plain banana bread.  I will make this again, but only for a big get together, it is a lot of cake.

Easter fun

Easter morning started out with an egg hunt, opening baskets and eibleskivers - delicious!  Meredith would not try an eibleskiver - as in lips tightly closed, vigorously shaking her head against the idea.

Audrey eating an eibleskiver, Meredith coloring Sponge Bob.

This year we did a few Easter decorations.  Audrey made a beautiful Easter egg poster - it says, Easter Family and then all of our names.  I bought some pretty pink tulips for the table - fresh flowers are always so pretty.  

We went to Ryan's parents for Easter dinner and that was fun and fancy.  The girls did another round of baskets (including goodies from their generous neighbors).  We had another egg hunt and after dinner, the fabulous egg roll.  Grandma Margie has purchased a series of hardware store goodies (drainage pipes and tubes and such) and sets them up for Audrey to roll eggs, cars, and anything else she can gather.  There are races and crashes and jumps.  It is quite the amazing set up (I do realize a picture would have been good here...).

Dinner was awesome.  Margaret made a crown roast lamb - it was really good and moist and tender.  I finally made hummingbird cake from my food bucket list.  

Socks rock

I am absolutely sold on sock knitting.  I am almost finished with my second pair and I have learned so much and am still learning and that aspect makes it so much fun to knit socks.

My first sock is a little baggy (size 1 needle), and the heel flap is rather tight (I read the pattern wrong, but didn't figure that out until I did the second sock); the second sock is less baggy and the heel flap is normal; the third sock I tried a smaller needle (size 0) and it may be just a touch too small, but I had to stick with that for the pair, so the fourth will be the same (it is nearly finished).  For my next pair of socks I am going back to a slightly larger needle (the smaller size 1 needle) and will try a gusset heel without a heel flap.

Another super exciting part of sock knitting is discovering new sock yarns to love too.  Opal is my new favorite.  It is the Volkswagon of sock yarn.  It is made in Germany, with all kinds of beautiful design and color schemes built into a super soft and functional and consistent yarn.  My dad bought me a ball of Opal cotton-wool blend sock yarn years ago when his office was right next to a local yarn shop in Kansas.  I didn't know how to knit socks then and I thought I needed two balls in order to make a pair - so I just saved it.  Turns out the Germans do sock yarn right and sell you enough for a pair in each ball.  After seeing some of the beautiful socks others have made with Opal, I found my ball of yarn and cast on.  I can see why people love this yarn, the patterns and the colorways are just absolutely beautiful.  Plus, I love the cotton-wool blend that he chose.  Well done dad! (and the nice saleswoman who I assume helped him pick it.)  :)

Bike rider

Today is the last day of Audrey's spring break and it is finally georgous weather.  I put Meredith in daycare so that I can work from home (I technically took the day off, but I have all kinds of year-end stuff to finish up, that doesn't get done during the normal work day).  This morning, I took Audrey outside for a bit of a break.  And just for fun, we (mostly me pushing her) decided to give bike riding a try.

She has practiced riding with her dad, a few times.  I read online about how kids in other countries learn to ride balance or scoot bikes first and then move onto pedal bikes.  So that is how we approached bike lessons this morning.  I just had her use her feet to scoot along down the small hill and get a feel for balancing on the bike.  Once she was comfortable with turning and balancing, I had her put her feet on the pedals.  After a few times down the hill, she started doing the pedals and then I taught her how the brakes work.  It was awesome.  She was so proud of herself, she couldn't stop smiling.  After she put it all together we practiced a few more times and called it a morning.  We will be taking a few more breaks throughout the day to keep up the good work.  I am so proud of little Audrey.

Networking

That same training also talked about the importance of networking and talked about specific types of networks that are key to success.  It motivated me to reach outside my comfort zone and ask for a networking call with the SES 3-star equivalent that I worked for at the Pentagon.  To my surprise and delight, she agreed to meet with me and we chatted for 45 min yesterday.  One of the things that she said that you don't often hear as career feedback is to worry less about what those above you think and more about what those at your level think.  She told me about several jobs/promotions that happened for her because, unbeknownst to her at the time, an old colleague was now on the selection committee or in a place of influence and spoke highly of her.

As it turns out right now I am helping on the recruiting side for a 12 proposal bundle.  I immediately turned to old colleagues with the relevant experience and asked if they were interested in the opportunity.  The three that I asked were all very interested.  Today, I was finally able to assure that all three are being bid in key roles in this proposal bundle.  I loved doing that, it made my day.  I think this is an awesome opportunity for each of them and I had to advocate on their behalf (unbeknownst to them) for their inclusion.

I am seeing exactly what that lovely mentor said in action.  That is pretty cool. 

Outside time

It is funny to see how kids love being outside.  They just instinctively want to be able to play and can stay happy with much less effort when you let them outside.  The interesting thing is, I think the same is true for adults too, to a certain extent.  I love being outside in the right conditions, shade, temperature, humidity, etc.   But even in less than ideal conditions, I am a happier person if I make it outside everyday.  So this spring and summer I am going to try to get my girls outside more often.  It is going to be awesomely fun.

We are kicking off our outdoors fun with a "staycation" ("just like SpongeBob!" was Audrey's response to the news) for her spring break this year.  Sorry folks in KS, we really wanted to make that an annual trip, but it just is not going to happen this year.   Though we would love to have visitors (especially while Audrey has no school - the last week in March).  There are several good parks nearby and we are planning some picnics, hiking, and biking.  Along with the usual playground time.  It should be fun.

"To thine own self be true"

One thing I both love and get annoyed by at work is the ever present training requirement.  On the one hand, I love taking trainings.  I enjoy learning new things and new ways of thinking, challenging my brain in the classroom, etc.  However, the must take 40 credit hours every year thing can be a bit of a drag depending on my personal level of availability.  Anyway, the latest training I am taking (a four part series with 12 hours of class time and 7! hours of homework time, called "Making the Sale") required us to take the Myers Briggs personality test to learn about our own personality as part of the first class.  I always enjoy these kind of things, so I thought I would share (these links are all free)...

Take the MBTI assessment now

http://www.personalitypage.com/html/portraits.html - click on your result to learn all about yourself.  We had to do a write-up about our results, so I had to consult the Google for additional info - and there is lots out there about each personality type.

I am an ENFP.

If you do take the test, please tell me what you are...

Food bucket list

Recently I was thinking about how I would like to try to make French Onion Soup from scratch.  So I "consulted the Google" and was brought to a lovely baking blog - The Brown-Eyed Baker.  She has this bucket list of foods that she would like to make at some point in her life and she crosses them off - amazing.  An idea that good certainly deserves to be copied... Here is my list (to be updated as I keep thinking - naturally).


Cakes:
Hummingbird Cake - completed March 2013
Carrot Cake
Coffee cake
Chocolate cake - completed July 2013

Soups:
French Onion Soup

Canning:
Peaches
apple pie filling
soups

Pies:
Peach
Apple
Pumpkin

Breads:
Margaret's rolls
Croissants
Sourdough bread

Meats:
Lamb
Ribs

Mexican:
flour tortillas
flan
salsa

Drinks:
Prison Wine
Lemoncello
Ginger beer
Root beer
Limeade/Margarita mix

New Car

This weekend I went car shopping.  We replaced our Odyssey minivan and our Civic hybrid.  I tried the Honda Insight, a Ford Escape Hybrid, and the Prius V.

We are now the proud owners of the Prius V (2012 edition with 14K miles).  It is awesome.  It has lots of space, comparable to a small SUV inside, yet the efficiency of a Prius.  And best of all, I transferred my old hybrid plates - so I still get to take advantage of the HOV exemption for my commute.

Finacial Gurus

I believe it has been mentioned here before, that "The Tightwad Gazette" is an awesome read and changed my perspective about money and frugality.   Amy Dacyczyn, the author, taught me some important money 101 basics - like that being frugal means spending your money deliberately and thoughtfully on whatever is most important to you rather than waste it on stuff that isn't.  Her humor and approach throughout that book made me feel like I found a long-lost friend.  The other day I grabbed my copy from my cookbook shelf in order to find the pizza dough recipe and then got to wondering what Amy is up to these days (She retired from writing the Gazette in order to spend time raising her 6 kids).  So I consulted "the Google" and found an interview of her.  She still seems like just the type of person that I would love to have over for game night and popcorn and to swap lentil soup recipes.

As I read through the comments I stumbled upon Mr Money Mustache.  This guy and his family retired early and are able to live a comfortable life on their investments.  So I started reading about his philosophies and ideas.  He is awesome!  I feel like he and his family would be another great family to have a bbq and game night with.  Cool people.  The thing I like about MMM is that he shows how small steps add up quickly.  Suddenly it seems like an easy trade.  I also like his do-it-yourself approach to things - perhaps I will put my own fence up in the backyard this year ;) or get a bicycle. 

Cars!

Thursday night as Ryan was driving back from work, the minivan starting lurching and stalling between gears.  When an automatic does that, you know you are in trouble.

With the van out of commission, on Friday morning I walked to the train, rode the train to the metro, then rode the metro to the Rosslyn stop, then walked to work.  It was nice to get a little fresh air and exercise and to get a bit of knitting done.  It was not so nice to spend 1.5 hours of my morning doing said activities.  The return trip actually turned out to be even worse because I missed the train while trying to pay the extra metro fare (apparently the peak fare is not enough because they charge an additional dollar each way if you use a paper ticket, so my ticket for the exact amount that I purchased that morning was $2 short) on a machine that only took cash but them started flashing "no bills" when I tried to insert my money that took me a while to fish out of the bottom of my backpack - arghh!  So I sat outside and waited an extra 40 minutes for the next train but only got a nominal amount of knitting done because it got cold when the sun dropped.

Ryan dropped off and picked up both girls and then in the evening took them both to Audrey's tumbling class.  Then he brought Meredith back and I put her to bed while he went back to get Audrey.  It was a completely tiring way to start the weekend.  And I was so glad it was the weekend, because if that was all the time I got with the girls on a weekday, I would have been in tears.  But at lease this time, I knew that I was going to still get lots of time with the girls over the next few days.

The dealership called on Saturday and confirmed our suspicions, the van needs a new transmission (to the tune of $5-6k).  Thankfully, Ryan's parents kindly offered to let us use their old civic for a while.  It will give us a little time to figure out what kind of car we want/can afford.

It was funny in the morning on Friday, the commute was so pleasant that I figured out how much money we would save by dropping down to just one car.  However, by Friday evening, I was ready to figure out a way to keep driving because I was so sad at losing that time with my girls.

Sick Kid

One thing I appreciate about my current project is that for the most part, I can do it from my house when needed.  This week that has been the case.

Audrey has the flu (the pediatrician confirmed it yesterday).  She got kind of fussy at the neighbor's superbowl party Sunday.  I was already putting Meredith to bed when Ryan brought her back early.  I took her temp and it was 102, she went right to bed and has been fighting a fever ever since.  Luckily, aside from the extreme tiredness that a fever can bring, she has not had any other symptoms.

So this week Audrey has been my little buddy.  I sit at the kitchen table and review documents and participate in conference calls and she lays on the couch - occasionally watching a movie - but sleeping for the most part.

I hope she feels better soon, but I have loved being home and taking care of her. :)

New Favorite thing - homemade wool socks

I finished my first pair of socks.  I am now officially a sock knitter.   I can see how socks can be addictive.  They are a quick knit and very portable, not to mention functional and beautiful.  I love my new pair, they are so comfy and warm and cute.



I used Susan's recipe for the socks.  I learned that, I may need a smaller needle, they are a little baggy around the ankle (but in a comfortable way).  The next pair is already on the sticks - and the sticks are a size 0 instead of a size 1 (which is what I used for the first pair).

I also learned that I am going to need to get some new Birkenstocks to wear with my socks when things warm up a bit.  For those of you who are reading this and have known me for a while, you may well remember my old well beloved birks.  My Mom bought me my only pair of birks at Costco the summer after my senior year of high school.  I patched the cork layer with rubber cement, then the bottom with a bit of duct tape a few years after that.  To add the final touches, I painted the boring taupe suede with sunshines, rainbows, and other lovely decorations one year.  They were seriously well loved, awesome shoes.   I wore them until they were literally shredded.  Eventually I admitted defeat and they went the way of all the earth.  Recently, crocs have taken their place for the most part.  However, crocs don't show off socks like birks do.  I am feeling like birks might just be making a come back in my footwear rotation this spring.  Because I have always believed that socks and sandals go together like pb and j. :)

Mexican food

I *love* Mexican food. So much so that we have Mexican Friday night and usually a couple of other nights during the week too.

So while we were at Disney world Meredith and I spent some time in Mexico. It was really fun and we ate inside the big pyramid at the fancy restaurant there. It was decorated like an old time Mexican village and that was really cool. The whole time I was there I kept thinking how it is such a shame that Mexico is so dangerous because otherwise I would love to go there for a family vacation.

Coffee break

I love a good cup of coffee. For me that always includes cream and sugar. The easiest, quickest and consistently delicious way to get that great cup of joe every morning is with my personal sized mr coffee machine.

It is a whole process and over years of little tweaks just this week I have finally perfected my system.

Equipment:
-personal sized mr coffee maker
-coffee filters (I like the unbleached)
-grinder (when I get whole beans)
-mug

Ingredients:
-filtered water
-Costco brand medium roast world coffee blend (I like a lot of brands and blends so this changes regularly. I have tried the full gamut of coffee brands from the expensive to the generic Walmart brand. This Costco one is really good. Generally I tend to favor the medium roasts. If money were no issue I would drink Hawaiian coffee - the Kona is awesome. )
-organic sugar
-clover honey
-half and half

With the addition of this new mug, my system has finally reached completion. This mug may be kind of boring and industrial looking but when i saw it at the gift shop i knew i had to get it. It is the perfect size. It fits the whole pot of coffee with just enough room for cream. No more tweaking amounts of sugar and cream when I add the rest of the coffee. Just once and it is done. Awesome!

Socks

It is well established that I am *not* in need of new projects, but this blog post, has inspired me to try my hand at socks (the heading picture of fun crazy colorful socks with clogs is just about my idea of feet heaven).  I have a sock already on some needles, but as with any good UFO (unfinished object), the pattern and the project have long parted ways.  So I think I will just frog it and use Susan's basic sock recipe.  

Also, I love merino wool socks - there is nothing better in the winter.  Perhaps socks will become my new portable go-to project.   

Sweet seven

Seven is an awesome age. Audrey is helpful and curious and independent but still likes her parents. Here is my sweet seven year old showing off her poster on Scotland.

This morning we were going through some of her papers and i was telling her how much i like her artwork. So she wrote me a sweet while i was upstairs taking care of Meredith.

Baby laundry

When Meredith was born we used cloth diapers and I loved buying them - we took several trips to Abby's Lane just to look around and feel the new stuff.  I loved figuring out what system worked for us and what didn't.  I love using them with the cute patterns and colors.  I love washing them, but most of all I love hanging them on the line to dry - seeing those cute little diapers all lined up - happy.  

With me back at work full-time, we mostly use disposable diapers now.  Honestly, I am barely keeping up with our regular laundry, let alone adding in an extra load.  They work just fine, but they are not great overnight.  If she wakes up in the night, I always have to change her before I feed her or else she will be wet in the morning.  

This past weekend, Ryan got the flu and all of our plans to get errands done flew out the window, so I switched back to cloth in order to conserve the few disposables that we have until I made it to the store.  Today as I hung the cloth diapers out to dry I couldn't help but smile at the cute diapers all lined up again.  

2013 goals

Every year I like to pick a few goals and projects to try to accomplish over the course of the year.  This year I would like to:

• Finish my afghan.  I am just excited to do that.  I love the colors and I love the way it is already coming together.
• Exercise - I would like to also exercise more - since I get nearly no exercise now, I am aiming for once a week - no need to rush into things.

• Photo project.  This is the *big* project that I would like to do this year is to get my family photos in order.  I would love to put them into scrapbooks, but I know I don't have the time to do that for real, so I am going to try to scrapbook digitally.  I have seen a few peoples blogs that give good instructions and I am hoping that once I get the hang of it, the pages can come together quickly.  I am not aiming for fancy -just finished.
• Step one is to gather photos:  I already scheduled an appointment for our old eMac at the genius bar for tomorrow in the hope that we will be able to retrieve the old photos from that computer.  I am also going to ask others who may have photos of the girls to send them to me if they can.  I am also going to take some of our regular photos to Costco to be scanned.
• Step two will be to organize them:  I think I will probably sort them by year first and then see what I have from there.  
• Step three will be to actually put pages together.  I am going to try to keep them simple.  This will likely take me many hours and most of the year. 
• Step four will be printing the pages - I know there are several good options out there.  I can't wait to see the finished product.

New crochet project

Right after Christmas I felt the urge to purge my yarn stash.  I have quite a bit of yarn and much of it is in halfway finished projects.  One crochet project in particular was calling my name.  My mom has a beautiful old afghan in a scrappy (colorful) pattern that I absolutely love.  I looked to find the pattern for years and when I saw it in a magazine I bought the magazine right away.  Then I bought a whole bunch of yarn and began to crochet the afghan in no particular color order.  I got about 1/3 of the way finished and realized I did not really like the way the colors were all looking together.  And if there is one thing that I have learned from years of projects - if you don't like it while it is in progress, you won't like it when it is finished.  So I frogged (pulled it apart) the whole thing to rearrange the colors and start over.  And there it sat in nice balls of yarn for a long time (maybe years - I can't remember).

This time I cut a sample of each of the colors and ordered them several ways until I found the way I liked best.  This time the afghan is going to be loosely rainbow ordered.  It is bright and cheery and really a great winter project because the yarn is a big soft wool and acrylic blend and keeps me warm as I crochet.  I finished one repeat of the pattern before we left for Disney.

I don't know if it shows, but this is going to be a big afghan.  I love it already.

Finished objects

In order to finish the shawl, I ordered wool soak, fancy stretching wires, blocking mats and pins.  The whole process was fun to try.  And it worked really well.  The soak softened the wool just a touch and the wires made the pattern bloom.

Multi-colored shawl

I also finished the water bottle cozy for Claire.  Funny story with this one.  I have this strange sense of humor about Christmas.  I love for there to be some sort of funny present.  When I found this pattern, I immediately thought of Claire because she is always cold in the winter and so I thought it would be a nice way to warm up.  I also knew that she didn't have an old fashioned hot water bottle, so I started looking at the local stores for one.  The only one I found happened to also include a "personal hygene and enema system" with it (basically a bunch of tubes that attach to the water bottle part).  I laughed so hard when she opened it and was totally perplexed.  Of course, I wrapped the homemade cozy in a separate bag.  

Christmas 2012

Christmas was good this year.  Audrey and Meredith loved opening their presents and the house is now overrun with new fun toys.

Audrey in front of Grandma in VA's Christmas tree 2012

Meredith opening presents Christmas 2012

Slow Food Fast

When I was a new SAHM with Audrey, she and I went to visit my Aunt Kalyn and her family in North Carolina for a week.  It was mind-blowing.  Kalyn is an amazing home economist.  She has perfected the art of having a variety of nutritious food at the ready for very low cost.  Growing up Mormon, I knew about the principles of a revolving pantry of basics food items (and food storage for two years!).  But Kalyn manages to take that principle to the next level. For example, when she made rice, she mixed wild rice, brown and white (so that it had a variety of nutrition, she told me), then she put the leftovers aside to use in fried rice for Chinese night later on in the week (with homemade eggrolls from the freezer).  Every dinner she made enough for leftovers, and she would immediately put it into individual serving size tupperware dishes with a scoop of frozen veggies and then labeled and into a specific spot in the freezer.  Her husband grabbed one each morning before he left for work - instantly a variety of homemade, delicious, and nutritious lunches.  Seriously, Kalyn makes an art of home economy.

What it made me realize is that if I thought things through a little bit, I could certainly make good food more often and easier. Here are a few things I now do for good slow food faster/easier:

• Mire Pioux - (fancy French word (probably misspelled) which means onions, carrots, celery mix) - I like to buy organic produce and buying a bigger bag is usually cheaper, so I will cut up most of the bag at once.  It doesnt take much more time to cut up the additional carrots, celery, or onions.  I usually just do one type at a time.  Then I spread them on a cookie sheet on a layer of parchment paper and freeze them.  Once they are frozen I put them in a freezer bag in the freezer. And when I make soup I just grab a handful and throw it in the pan.  Souper easy.
• Dehydrated kale - I love kale in my soup and my garden made a whole bunch, so i washed it cut it in strips and dried it.  It works wonderfully.
• Meats - Ham - I will cube a bunch of ham and freeze it in soup size portions and use it in split pea soup or 16 bean soup mix or quiche.  I save any leftover bacon pieces and crumble it into veggies.  
• Freezer chili - I save leftover steak (cut into bite size pieces prior to freezing), leftover tomatoes, tomato paste, sauce, taco meat, beans, etc.  Anything I think will work well with chili flavors gets thrown into a freezer bag together and every so often becomes chili.  It is usually really amazing chili because it has better quality meats than I are typically used for chili.  
• Batches - As mentioned previously, I try to cook twice as much as I need of everything and I freeze the other half.  

As a side note - Kalyn worked for years to change my recipe for KA cookies into something healthy.  She says she finally achieved success and that the kids love them.  They now contain shredded zucchini.  Pretty impressive.

When it rains...

Since I started back to work, we have had one sickness after another.  We are at the doctor and/or urgent care for one of us every week.  I am not even exaggerating   Between daycare and school, we are a regular cacophony of germs around here.  We have been much more fastidiousness in washing our hands as soon as we get to the house, but even so, we have all been sick.  That is not that much fun.

However, last weekend, we took bugs to a new level.  While we were in line for the bathroom at the Kennedy Center (to see the musical White Christmas), I started playing with Audrey's hair to redo the barrettes   Suddenly I noticed movement on her head.  She had bugs in her hair - lice.  Turns out she had a bad case of lice and so after three treatments, we are still finding an occasional bug or knit here and there.  She just has so much hair it is hard to get them all.

So she and I got haircuts - shoulder length - homemade cuts by me.  Hopefully the follow up treatment will be easier now. 

Office views

The cube farm

My daily view inside the office is cube ville. Eight full floors of it. This is a pic of the side I sit in. I like this side because we have an unobstructed view of the city. Georgetown is right across the river

View of the Key Bridge crossing the Potomac river looking towards Georgetown

Pretty fantastic office views.

But not nearly as good as the sweet little ladies I pick up at the end of the day.

Audrey and Meredith wearing wings and playing

Audrey and Meredith brushing their teeth before bed

Dinner prep

Every evening, homemakers everywhere try to find an efficient way to have a good healthy economical homemade dinner on the table.  That in and of itself is a challenge, but when that homemaker also works outside of the house full-time (like me, for instance), it is even more challenging.  With a bit of planning, it can happen.

Since I first started back to work a few months ago, I struggled to make that happen every night. There have been many a night of quick scrambled egg dinners.  Slowly but surely, I have gotten back in to the groove and now things are coming together more often than not.  Using tonight as an example, here is my loose and evolving system.

Every weekend before we go grocery shopping, I try to think of several dinners that I want to make during the week and I try to make sure that there is enough stuff to double them and put whole dinners or partial dinners into the freezer.  Last night, I looked at the list of potential dinners on the white board and decided we would have spaghetti with meat sauce.  So this morning I pulled out a frozen brick of ground beef to thaw.  When I got home, I cooked the whole thing and a whole lot of spaghetti.  I buy the organic ground beef from Costco, which comes in 1.34 pound bricks.  Which actually turns out to be just about right for two plus meals for us.  After the beef was cooked, I put half into the freezer again - it will become part of crockpot chili another day (probably next week).  I added some jarred spaghetti sauce to the meat still in the pan and spiced it up a bit.  Then added all of the cooked spaghetti.  After dinner we had enough leftover for me to put that in a casserole pan - I threw that in the freezer too.  With a little cottage cheese and mozzarella on top (now on the grocery list) this will be a delicious spaghetti bake for the future.

Earlier in the week, I made a big crock-pot of refried beans - honestly they were the best refried beans we ever had - and I now have a whole bunch in the freezer and some in the fridge to be part of Mexican Friday night .  This week, Mexican Friday night will be a new recipe for shredded Mexican beef - another crock-pot recipe - with some flour tortillas and salsa from Uncle Julio's   I will be put the leftovers into burritos - which will go into the freezer for later of course. :) 

Christmas Stockings

I love homemade stuff in general - but (in my humble opinion) Christmas stuff in particular is so much better when it is homemade.  So naturally, I have been wanting to knit matching Christmas stocking for several years.  I looked for patterns and started one stocking a couple of years ago, but frogged it about half way through because it was just not looking the way I hoped.  Two years ago, I spotted some beautiful fair isle knit stockings on Pottery Barn Kids, but I was still hoping I could make my own.  Last year I admitted to myself that hand-knit stockings were probably not going to happen and so I waited for the cute PBK stocking to go on sale at the end of Christmas.  Instead they sold out.  So this year, I bit the bullet and bought new stockings as soon as they came out.  So much for handmade and knitting a new set of stockings.  Sometimes a lady has to know when to be practical.

As you see there are five stockings, one is for Aunt William, because we are lucky enough to have her come to our house for Christmas more often than not.  I did not have names stitched on them because I thought it would be fun to be able to mix it up and switch stocking every year if desired.  Sure enough, Audrey told me that she wants to trade with Aunt William next year. :)

We usually begin Christmas decorating on Black Friday. I think it is a better way to spend the day than fighting shopping crowds. This year we got off to a slow start because we spent most of Thanksgiving weekend at the in-laws with cousins.   However, I did manage to get the stockings hung first thing Friday morning and I have been admiring them ever since.