Wednesday, January 26, 2011




Look who's three!

Today we our first beautiful thick snow of the year and it was really lovely to get out and walk in it. It was beautiful thick wet stuff and it wasn't very cold so it made the snow so enjoyable. I have been so busy nesting for this baby, getting out the diapers and washing some of the things packed away when Julia was little. It seems like every time I have to get out those little yellow stains that show up on perfectly clean things. I washed my wool puddle pads which where way dirtier than I thought and now I have to re-lanolize them. And I sewed a silk I dyed into a blanket backing it with flannel and I loved how it turned out. Ben calls it my hippy baby blanket. It is rather psychidelic.
My midwives host a birth circle on the last tuesday of the month and I went the other night and met lots of wonderful moms and it was really fantastic, They always have San Pellegrino which is seriously like my favorite thing to drink when pregnant.

Wow this post is all about being pregnant but really I have been reading other things besides diaper catalogs. I am reading "Travels with my Aunt" by Graham Greene and it is the funniest book I have read in a long time. Perfect winter reading. Ben and I have been watching Dr. Who and I finally learned to knit socks and made a pair for Julia. I helped out with our neighbor's pig slaughtering in exchange for some meat and feel like I finally am getting a little bit better at making the different cuts on a pig. This year I was able to bone out some hams into pork cutlets and that was fun and tasty. Andrew did five pigs this year over two last year so it was a good opportunity to really cement in what I did last year and learn some more. So all in all it hasn't been a bad winter but it is getting to the point where I start to dream of zucchini and tomatoes and ripe peaches and blackberries. Sigh. . . . those days are still far off.

At least we have baby to look forward to sometime in the next four to six weeks!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011



Forgot to post this picture of Zita and Julia dressed as Bavarian shepherdesses for their Christmas play.

We are swinging back into more normal routine this week as much as we can with Julia's Birthday and Epiphany in the same week. It always is our final hurrah to the Christmas season. We tried burning frankincense this week which was cool but did make the whole house very smoky and I just kept feeling like I was at mass. It was a very strange feeling to have in one's home. Incidentally you can make a great incensor out of a tin can.

Ben had to fill out a survey for Shelf Awareness "Daily enlightenment in the book trade", some sort of reviewers. They wanted to know all the gritty details of his llong literary journey. He asked me to help him with it and I was honored. One of the questions was about books you have "fake read." We both fondly remembered (fakely of course) "Paradise lost", by John Milton. Did anyone at Christendom ever really read that book? Oh and Ben and I share at least two of five top favorite authors. Neil Gaiman and C.S: Lewis. Hooray! Remember, "A survey a day keeps the marriage counselor away."

Oh and Gwen taught us speed scrabble during her wonderful visit with us and I am totally hooked!