You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2008.
after being very concerned that my garden is not in yet, it is SNOWING, so i don’t feel so bad after all.
new birds in the backyard, still to be identified. maybe warblers? they’ve been here for a week so far.
for those of you getting your cds, no, i didn’t include a play list, but i thought it might be nice to actually listen to it without thinking about what comes next. without any preconceived notions. they really are intended to be heard one right after another. but if you have any questions, let me know :)
working on some more dresses for the girls, but first up- finishing my swap package. almost done.
been thinking obsessively about local. local food. local economy. local friends. local local local local.
definitely a warbler. i need a birding book.
our birdie is suddenly HILARIOUS. maybe it’s the incessant talking? she is just extra cute and funny.
fika with a friend today- sans children for both of us. we are also going to go to a shop with BREAKABLE ITEMS PLACED LOW. see? i do get out sometimes.
bunny and i start “school” in under two weeks. total day by day countdown. she is so excited!
spring break is over and husband is back to school on monday. been so nice for me and the girls to have him home. what a great dad he is.
april is almost here!
a new mama-made dress, mightily altered from a very simple raglan sleeve nightgown pattern (that of course reads on the pattern NOT INTENDED FOR SLEEPWEAR! thanks.) she is just so tiny. 25 pounds on a good day. made both of the girls really cute easter dresses which they refused to wear because a) the sleeves were short and b) the length was wrong. apparently we don’t wear short sleeves in this house. they spent a lot of time crying and trying to pull their sleeves down to their rightful place.
actually, now that i think of it, it must be kind of weird to be expected to wear short sleeves after a whole winter of wearing long ones. they tend to be in long sleeves or naked. ;)
so this is my answer. because i am seriously NOT BUYING ANY MORE TOPS. or dresses. trying to hack away at the pattern some more for little miss even tinier.
sigh of contentment. cute! and i was able to get it out of one yard of fabric. one yard of $2 on sale at joann’s fabric. awesome. next time i think i’m going to try and make a ruffle at the neck, too. would that be bothersome on your neck? or just cute?
man, i gotta start editing this stuff. the stream-of-consciousness thing is not so coherent.
just some interesting stuff i’ve been peeking at lately:
this art is so awesome
way better than youtube
a different way to think about economics
’cause we’re soon to be running on empty
more art
any good links you want to share?
we celebrated with a hike in the forest. i hope you celebrated, too!
the smell of the wet woods was intoxicating, and we even found a few wildflowers! also several large slugs, to the delight of both girls. happy spring to you all! (or autumn, depending on where you are)
there is something about a northwest spring that is so much like autumn. the blissfully warm february that tricks you into thinking it’s warmer than it really is- just like our last gasp of gorgeous weather in october. then the rain and grey days that come with march, or november. we’re having fires in the fireplace, snuggling up in our woolens, enjoying hikes in the mud, eating things like apple crisp and roast turkey and soup, lots and lots of soup with homemade muffins. even the woodsmoke in the air speaks of fall. i can hardly believe that i’m getting ready to celebrate easter and not christmas!
here’s a little something for those grey skies: pumpkin cookies!
adapted from feeding the whole family, a truly excellent cookbook by cynthia lair, which i see in the revised version has cover art by nikki mcclure! who i love! oh, sad that i don’t need another copy.
i have made these gluten free, but will give the non-gluten free options as well; though i’ve never tried them that way, i’m sure they are just as good! also- i make these into cookies- i will describe that process below- but they are intended to be muffins. when you make them as cookies, you basically have a whole bunch of muffin tops, our favorite part!
they aren’t too sweet, which means they are also really good with soups- we like them with black bean soup! they’re vegan, too, a bonus during our not-being-able-to-use-eggs time, when the local chickens weren’t producing.
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill GF all-purpose flour
1/2 cup teff flour
1/2 cup almond meal
(for people who can eat wheat, substitute 3 cups whole wheat flour for ingredients above)
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum (omit if making wheat version)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 cups pumpkin (i use 1 can of pumpkin plus a little bit of leftover mashed sweet potato to make 2 cups)
1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup, i just like to use local honey)
1/2 cup almond milk (or real milk, or soymilk)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or applesauce)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (or any kind of nut/seed, this is just what i had on hand this morning)
preheat oven to 375. if you’re making muffins, oil your tins. if you’re not, i like to line my cookie sheet with parchment. mix together dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside. mix together the rest of the ingredients (except nuts/seeds) until smooth. add wet ingredients to dry, stirring until just combined. fold in nuts/seeds. if you are making muffins, fill to top of muffin pans. if you want to make cookies, i use an ice cream scooper to put six on a sheet.
bake 15-20 minutes for cookies, 25-30 minutes for muffins.
these are so yummy and good! enjoy!
one, i finished the local yarn sweater, which i love. and which fits both girls, though it’s a bit longer in torso and sleeves on the bird. i made up the pattern on the fly, but it turned out great anyway. i probably would have been in love with anything in this yarn, actually.
two, i planted up a little easter centerpiece, as i hoped i would. it even included some of the original elements i was hoping for- but then totally took a turn. for one thing, i couldn’t find exactly the container i had envisioned. though i did get this plastic lined basket for $3 at goodwill, which is nice. also- no nursery around here sells sheet moss. sad. but it’s still lovely, in all its pansy/viola/hyacinth/fern glory. even though there are no tiny nests. maybe i’ll still be able to figure something out by easter.
this is what happens when you “borrow” your neighbors internet access and don’t bother to get any of your own:
there are huge swaths of time when you cannot get on the internet at all, and then when you can, you don’t know how long it will last. and then it goes kaput, and you think this is really it, this is the last of the so-called free internet. and you are okay with that.
and then you decide you really have to check your email at least, and you take the kids and the laptop in the bike to the coffee shop where there is free wifi and they are not happy about being in the coffee shop, pretty much at all, and you think to yourself, is it really that important? am i totally addicted to this thing? and promptly decide that you do not need the internet after all, and go home feeling triumphant.
and then your babies both get sick and you just wish you had a little internet so that you could check and see whether a 103 degree temperature is dangerous or not and you don’t have any, still, so you can’t, and then finally you go to your parents’ house and check your email and write this post and come to terms with the fact that yes, it appears that you are more attached to this thing than you would like to admit.
hopefully i’ll be getting some real, at-home internet access soon.
so- birdie had her first sentence this past week.
“elp! book duck!”
which, of course, means- help! this book is stuck! in fact, there are a lot of things “duck” around here lately. elp! i duck! is a common refrain. often duck means things like- hey, why won’t you let me play in the road, or, pick me up and put me on the counter so i can do a little jig, or, why aren’t you doing what i told you to? very multipurpose.
hee. i know i shouldn’t laugh, but it cracks me up every time.
totally unrelated- i wasn’t fast enough to join the miniswap, but look! there is another swap for littles going on RIGHT NOW, and you can get in on it, too. and then maybe you’ll be partnered with me, and wouldn’t that be fun? go here for more details.
spring, you may not be ready for us, but we are ready for you.
the only green you had to show us may have been in the greenhouse, but we were glad to think of you coming, anyway.
we walked the paths of the nurseries,
we dipped our hands in the water (birdie says, walah! walah! walah!)
we watched the grasses wave in the wind.
oh, spring! please come soon.
