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While the year's first snow here has been coming down, Mike, Crookshanks, and I have been nesting inside our little apartment. 'My first baked potato lunch in at least a year, a nap for Crookshanks nose-to-beak with her stuffed chick, chocolate chip cookies for me and Mike, a caramel-butterscotch candle ablaze, and new Christmas present books for me and Mike to begin reading from under blankets in our chairs soon. January bliss!
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Winter drags on with more storms called for this week, but it finds me having received both doses of the vaccine and having visited family twice, so my gratitude outweighs my eagerness for spring. We are all getting each other through it--did you see the sweet love note Monique's grandchildren left her and her husband in the snow?! ♥--and while a number of people in the family have been sick from Covid (my nephew, three aunts, one uncle, and three cousins, at last count) this past year, we are still here as we look forward to the next season together, so how can we complain, really. May spring come soon, though, if I may say so, and may it bring healing for us all.
Julietta's first Christmastime. Darling girl. ♥ While family eats and watches a Christmas movie together back home, Mike, Stuffed, and I are cozy in our little apartment, our cards all taped to the door, our favorite movies playing one after the other, and Stuffed napping here, there, and everywhere around us. 'A strangely foggy Christmas Eve here too, so much so that we can hardly see our neighbors' apartment next door, and the fog after a day with temperatures in the forties and our windows open most of the day while holiday baking was in full-swing. My favorite day of the year, this. ♥
It's been an easy-peasy day here, and this entire season's been the most-organized of every holiday season so far for me. We have been washing dishes as we go all day, so we're even caught up in the kitchen, and unlike every past year, I have the cinnamon rolls baked and waiting to be frosted and it's earlier than midnight! ;)
Yay for progress!
Mom reminded me this past weekend that Mike and I did Sloppy Joes for Christmas Eve a few years back, and yes, that sounded good this time too, so after baking sugar cookies and cinnamon rolls today, supper was an easy affair. Mom, of course, with big meals for more than ten both tonight and tomorrow, has been much busier, and it's been sweet to be able to cheer each other on today.
Happy holidays to you all. Tonight and all the days ahead, may you find sweetness, love, and wonder.
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I spent some time last night looking through twelve years' worth of my photo albums on flickr, and it struck me that all those years--every year of the past twelve except this one--seemed to have been [easier? more creative? less of a blur?] than this one, but then it further struck me that this year was just not as well-documented as past years. :) I keep a journal as always, and I take pictures almost every day, but since I haven't sorted them all into an album labeled 2019 yet, and since there are only thirteen blog posts before this one to tell 2019's story in images and words here, this year just somehow seemed "less." (A-ha!) 'Funny how memory works. This year really has been a blur, though, as every year anymore seems to speed by faster than the ones before.
It seems like I was home for a visit with my parents Halloween-week maybe two weeks ago. It stormed almost the entire time I was there, sheets of rain pouring onto the deck's roof and then flooding it. I baked a gluten-free dark chocolate cake for my parents,
helped Mom figure out her first cell phone, and watched game seven of the World Series with Dad. Sometime overnight on Halloween, we lost power. Mom's many candles were put to good use all over their little house the next morning. The top photo is of their kitchen island as November began. It was the most perfect Halloween-week weather.
Mike's mom celebrated her eightieth birthday just as little Bianca was turning six--six?! She was just three! She was just BORN!--and somehow, cards, flowers (mother-in-law), and balloons (niece) made it to them on time. "She was so cute skating with her friends," Mom reported of Bianca's roller rink party a few weeks ago. But look at this dear little face--
--and tell me what she'd NOT be cute doing. 'So adorable. ♥ And still a little imp. :) She began kindergarten this fall. . . bows on her knee socks, stuffed animal on her desk, and answering the question of what she wants to be when she grows up with: "A detective." A detective! Of course, at her preschool graduation ceremony this spring, all the kids had facts about themselves announced to the audience as they walked across the stage. Bianca's? "Bianca likes cats." Bianca likes cats! Ha ha! Sweet girl. I get such a kick out of her. :)
I got this shot of my oldest and youngest nieces from the Thanksgiving table last week. ♥ The mind boggles. And what a rich time for my parents, I have been thinking, to be able to enjoy grandchildren who range from five-month-old to almost-sixteen. My nephew will be old enough to drive soon. Baby Dylan!? Precious times, and precious time.
Mike and I spent Thanksgiving day at my older brother's home and then spent the night at his mom's. 'Such a sweet holiday, and the craziness of my working life being what it is, this was the first Thanksgiving I'd spent with family since 2010. 2010. There are a number of changes I need to make in my life in the next few years, and changing things like that is high on the list. Late last Wednesday night, I finally decided what I wanted to make for dessert to go along with both brothers' pies, and especially given how little planning went into them, I'm so delighted by how both desserts turned out. 'Such a good feeling when a "baking vision" turns out. :) I went with gluten-free yellow cupcakes to have an option Mom could eat, and I tried the all-over-the-internet "pumpkin pie wedge" Rice Krispie Treats. The first batch of the Rice Krispie Treats I made standard pie-slice-size and took to Mike's mom's since there was to be a smaller gathering there. We totaled fourteen at my brother's home, so I made mini pie slices with that batch. 'Dollop of homemade buttercream on each to mimic whipped cream. :)
The tiny pumpkins were crafted out of homemade fondant, one of my favorite little baking/dessert-making/cake-decorating things to play with the past fifteen or so years. Mike is careful with his sugar intake, and I (always anymore, alas) need to lose weight, so I rarely make things like these Thanksgiving desserts, but it is so fun and relaxing, I should make the time more often and just give away all but a couple of whatever I've baked. Or maybe I should play it safe and just buy some poylmer clay to craft desserts for dollhouses. :)
Mike's mom had fall leaf-patterned flannel sheets on the bed for Thanksgiving night--so sweet ♥--and oh my goodness, it was the most comfortable bed and the coziest and most festive way to end the holiday.
We returned home Friday evening to a cuddled-up-on-a-chair Stuffed, still going (relatively) strong at twenty years old. ♥ I remembered just in time last week to get this fall's photo of him with the yellow trees outside the window, and he spent most of today on a nest of blankets beside the space heater while snow fell. Dear sweet Stuffed. ♥
I say life's been a blur, but I will also pat myself on the back here and point out that my Christmas cards have been ready to mail for a week, I'm almost done with my shopping, and I put up the tree a couple Sundays ago. 'Unprecedented holiday organization here, and it's making the entire month ahead feel better. Onward and upward, then, and may it not take me three months to find my way back to my little online space here. Happy December to you all.
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Our simple Easter dinner was lovely, if I may say so. I somehow got the grocery store's last pot of miniature Daffodils for it, my Daffodil sugar cookies--and even their trumpets--kept their shape as they baked, the blackberry dessert I'd concocted for myself turned out better than expected, and the Lilac tablecloth I'd treated myself to for the occasion, since I love Lilacs and never see them on anything, looked as pretty on the table as I'd hoped it would. The actual meal was good too, yes, :) but the fun part of dinners for me is playing with the desserts and the table.
My own Easter dessert was a dish of Greek yogurt mixed with crushed and whole blackberries, cream cheese, and edible flowers. This was my favorite thing I ate yesterday.
Saturday marked ten months on the job for me, and I can say now that it ended up taking me all of the first nine months on the job to get into new routines and have life feel manageable again. That's a long time to feel discombobulated on a near-daily basis, especially for someone so appreciative of order and organization. I get up every day at 7 am now, despite working until midnight some nights. The extra hours in the morning are the hours that were missing before that now allow me to get things done, and although I would have guessed that this change in routine would make me more tired every day, I feel better than I have in ages and am only sleepy when I finally go to bed, as opposed to the day-in and day-out fatigued-right-to-my-bones that I felt every night (and day, for that matter) even through January. I eliminated caffeine and sugar from my diet back in February and have been falling asleep quickly, for the very first time in my life, and sleeping like a rock. Despite still not liking it, I drink about a gallon of water a day now. Likely because of eating better and sleeping better, I've lost seventeen pounds so far this year, as well. I used to be hit-or-miss with all the vitamins and supplements I take each day, but the so-obvious-I-didn't-think-of-it solution of a daily pill-organizer/container has made it easier for me to remember to take every pill every day, and there's something satisfying to me each morning about seeing that day's pills become a blank compartment after I've taken them with my glass of almond milk. This is such a slight change in routine, but it's one that makes me feel better and more on-top-of-things every single day--and minutes after starting each day--so it's worth noting. I still walk to and from work as often as I can--the nights I work until midnight, I catch the bus--but I also still need to work my longer walks and some writing-time into my mornings. And I will. Those will be two of this spring's changes-for-the-better, after having spent the winter focusing on other ones.
Home itself has been getting sorted out too. I cook ahead more often now, to make the nights I work until 6, 7, or 8 pm easier. I'm in the process of creating a go-to grocery/shopping list of all the things I ever buy so I can just make copies of it and circle what I need on each copy for each trip. (A friend's dad used to do this back when she and I were in the sixth grade, and now at almost 41, I see the brilliance of the idea that struck me as over-the-top at 11.) :) I have been wearing a uniform of sorts to work instead of real outfits, since I have that option at my workplace, and not having to choose clothes, shoes, and jewelry has freed up a lot of my pre-work time. I've begun the past few months with not only my usual daily to-do lists, but also weekly and monthly ones. I still need to come up with a better laundry system--it may likely end up being something as simple as "Tuesday is always Laundry Day, no matter my work schedule." We'll see. I began April yesterday knowing I had met every goal on my March list, which felt incredible.
My latest project has been to create--finally, after years of planning it--a writing corner for myself in the apartment. In February, I bought a used table on craigslist to transform into a corner-desk. A few weeks ago, I finished re-papering--really "re-fabric-ing"--one of that corner's walls and found a lamp for what will be my desk. Saturday evening, I finished sawing the table into the wedge-shape I need. Next is to put the table/desk back together, attach some type of shelf to its top as a sort of hutch, to paint it all, and to redo the chair I'll be using with it. Finishing the entire corner is one of this month's projects, and I can already tell it's going to be my favorite spot in the apartment.
Here's to new routines and better days. Happy spring to you all. ♥
Stubborn Val couldn't wait for help moving the shelves Friday night and ended up trying only to pull a muscle in her left shoulder. See Val scream! See Val unable to dress herself or pull up her hair or sleep on her favorite side! See Val have to change her work-schedule! See Val buy Tylenol and ice-packs and pain-relief cream! See Val have to wait to assemble her bookshelves! And now, see Val unable to do Halloween baking and settle for a slice of store-bought pumpkin roll! But look, Val! There is a heart! See the heart! Learn and rest, Val! Learn and rest! ♥
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