Winter days

I think every year my husband starts complaining about winter at about this time, and each year I'm surprised that winter is even in full swing already (wasn't it just Christmas?) and then all of the sudden I get impatient for spring too.  I have to say, though, that I'm not as impatient this year.  For one thing I'm not horridly pregnant like last year, and for another it is just much easier to live in the present now that this move is over.  Without having to constantly put "real life" on hold to show the house or to spend so much time prepping for change it is easier to appreciate and even linger on each day.  One of the things I've been really enjoying this winter (besides my fireplace, have I mentioned that lately?) is this cookbook.  I got it for Christmas and it's the best.  I love America's Test Kitchen (I've blogged about my fierce devotion to Cooks Illustrated before) and I love the unaffiliated magazine Cooking Light, and this cookbook seems to be the best of both worlds.  The recipes have the reliability of Cooks Illustrated and the health aspects of Cooking Light.  Perfect!  Of course, some of them also have the fussiness factor and four-hours-later-dinner-is-on-the-table factor of CI, but that's part of the journey, right?  I swooned over the vegetarian chili (with tempeh), scarfed up the cornbread, served the spaghetti and meatballs for Rob's birthday, splurged on the oven fries, slurped the lentil soup, and changed my go-to bread recipe to their basic whole-wheat loaf. And I've only had the book since Christmas!  The only recipe I've tried but didn't love was multigrain pancakes, which were dry, but I think I may have overcooked them.  In any case the red pepper frittata we ate with them was superb!

 

Could anything be sweeter than this?  Both of my kids somehow made it into my bed in the wee small hours a couple nights ago and I snapped this photograph of them in the morning.  I think they should always wear coordinating clothes because I'm surely more patient with them when I'm giddy over their matchy cuteness.  Rock star pajamas!  My sleeping angels.  This picture will keep me going next time they are irritated with each other and I'm feeling likewise toward them.

The house is still coming along.  The kitchen and dining room are shaping up and gradually other things are migrating to new, permanent homes.  Sometimes stuff doesn't want to stay where you unpack it--it has to get moved around a bit before it settles.  I organized my serger thread in a lovely old cabinet that belonged to my grandparents and I think the colors are so pretty; it's like a functional rainbow over in that corner of my family room.  I also purchased an old wooden ironing board at an antiques store so that I can leave it out in the family room and hope it looks more like furniture than something that is on loan from the basement.  I want all my sewing supplies to be out and accessible, but I don't want my living space to look too utilitarian.  Hopefully I'll figure that out.

Oy vey mural

First and foremost today, I'd like to come clean about something I referenced a couple months ago.  I mentioned back in November that a Major Life Change was coming to our family that I could not yet discuss.  Now that it has come to pass it's no longer a secret!  The man fondly known as Daddy in this family has been hankering after more independence in his work life for quite some time.  This fall he and a friend concocted a plan to team up and start their own law firm.  We've been excitedly plotting and planning this professional move, but we knew that our mortgage company wouldn't exactly be excited to hand over money to borrowers who just embarked on an adventure of self-employment, so we thought we might have to put our personal moving plans on hold if we didn't sell by mid-November.  Just about the time we thought we really were going to have to rearrange our old house a bit and commit to a couple more years of extreme coziness, we sold!  You all know that part of the story.  On the professional side, Rob gave notice at work the week after we closed on the house and is now happily hitting the pavement, building his business.  We expect a rough period while he gets started, but it seems like a small price to pay for all the adult members of our family to be in vocational situations that make them feel happy and fulfilled.

On the home front, I'd been really determined to only peel wallpaper in one room at a time.  I figured it was better to have intact wallpaper in most rooms than rooms of half-peeled wallpaper.  Rob still couldn't resist, picking here and there at loose edges.  Then last night I finally gave in and declared open season on wallpaper.  Now we're peeling and picking all over the place and I have no idea when all this will end.  I got all the wallpaper down in one bathroom last night, though, so at least I know where to go once I decide to declare open season on sanding and paint preparation.  For kicks, here is the mural in the kitchen. I think I've referred to it several times during this move extravaganza.  Unfortunately it seems stuck on pretty tightly, but it's comin' down.  Most of the wallpaper in the house is dated but pretty in its own way.  This is really the only one that makes me wonder what on earth they were thinking.  The longer I look at it, the more I just don't understand.  :)

Our craft studio and play space in the new basement is far from being set up, but it too is finally starting to take some sort of shape.  We have a comfy futon down there by the fireplace, the toys are out of boxes, the craft table is set up, though not much more.  Dorothy was eager to try it out, so today I set her up with some paint and a (previously blue) shelf we'd found at the thrift store.  We're going to hang the shelf in her room to hold her little knick knacks.

I also started unpacking fabric to put on my new shelves.  I'm not sure what these recessed places in my studio wall did before (maybe hold unattached shelves?), but my brother came over and put nice sturdy shelves in them so I will have dedicated space to store my fabric out where I can see it and access it.  I feel  spoiled!  I was so eager to put the fabric out I almost didn't paint the shelves first, but I know it would be a lot harder to go back and do it later, so I went ahead and painted before I began unloading my treasures onto the clean, painted shelves.