Michael and Jaspenelle

My Birthday Party

Saturday was my birthday and Mommy and Daddy threw me a big party! I helped Mommy pick out my awesome dinosaur overalls to make sure I looked extra adorable and I managed to get even more snuggles then usual because of my big face booboo. A couple hours before my party Daddy was helping me down the deck stairs, and I decided I was going to try the last one all by myself (I am a year old after all!), but I slip and face-planted right into the walkway. It looks a lot worse then it feels but I still got the extra snuggles!

Almost everyone I know came, Cheyenne, Caswallon, Ileen, Michelle, Mikcos, Nathan, Ben, Laurie, Peter, Andrea, Ariella, Lydia, Grandpa and Grandma Stewart, Ginanne, Jordan and Emily. We had a big barbecue with hotdogs, hamburgers and corn-on-the-cob, Mommy is the grill master!

Afterwards we did my presents! I received spiritual gifts from almost everyone for my altar as well as a whispered blessing (they all made me smile!) I received a cool dragon tealight holder and yellow stone egg from Michelle, Mikcos and Nathan; color runes from Cheyenne (these are wooden disks she painted with colors and put in a red bag, so pretty!); an awesome piece of obsidian from Peter and Andrea; a spider plant in a RED (can you tell I like that color?) pot from Laurie and Ben; a shiny CTR dogtag from Ginanne, Jordan and Emily; and really pretty book from Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, Ariella and Lydia. They also gave me an outfit and super cool wooden building blocks. All of these gifts were in a big shiny RED radio flyer wagon from Grandpa Tolman.

After presents came my cake! Mommy made me an whole-wheat applesauce cake shaped like the moon. It looked awesome and tasted even better! I think Mommy actually thought I was going to stay clean for a minute, but nooo, people need the grubby cake photo, so I was happy to oblige.

My birthday was so fun! I had a wonderful time, I can’t wait till my next year! (And there are lots more photos from my party here.)

Ostara/Easter

This weekend we had lots of fun. We went to Aunt Shannon’s mom’s home and did an Easter Egg hunt. There was a child one and an adult one. Since I am so special I got to help Mommy and Daddy with the adult one, maybe next year I will get to do both.

I also got a HUGE basket of stuff from Grandma, Great Grandma and my Great Uncle. I had to share some of the stuff with Mommy and Daddy, but that is okay, they let me play with the best part - the wrapping! Mommy found a bunch of seeds in basket and some garden tools, Daddy found a dvd and I got clothes and a stuffed bunny! And candy of course.

(Mommy put more photos up here.)

Fighting the Blues

These are the socks my friends Ileen and Caswallon gave me for my birthday. I really love thick comfy colorful socks. I have never seen a pair in my favorite colors, but Ileen found them! (She also gave me green nubbly socks for Solstice.) This past Friday my friends surprised me with a few birthday things. Andrea made me a chocolate cake with orange frosting, it was soooo good - and had star candles! Peter and her also gave me orange yarn (shot of it in my photoblog) and homemade orange soda and rootbeer. Do you know how you know you are always welcome at a friend’s home? When they have a basket in their living room stocked with toys for your child. Shannon is so awesome! All my friends are made of pure love.

So my birthday definitely lifted my spirits, now comes the fight to keep them up. Shannon gave me a vitamin D supplement I have been trying out. I can’t tell if it is making a difference yet, I think so though. It has been foggy for two days (with a quick hour of BEAUTIFUL sunshine yesterday - I grabbed a quick photo of it steaming across our altar.) The news says that the stagnant air (and therefore fog) will be here at least till the middle of next week, bleh! This happens every January and gets me really down, but I haven’t felt as moody since beginning the supplement. I haven’t slept as well though, not sure if that is related.

My Aunt Ruth talked about comfort foods on her blog today, an important topic for me. On one hand, if I eat cookies, my mood improves, but on the other hand, as soon as that sugar wears off, I feel even worse then before. So I try to avoid it right now. For the most part, I eat comfort foods when I am bored, so I am trying to avoid that too. When I am stressed I tend to skip meals because I feel queasy, but the moment I run out of things to do, out comes the cookie sheet. (I don’t keep junkfood around so I have to make my own.) Recognizing that trigger is important for me, I actually have a sticky note inside my recipe folder that says “Are you hungry or BORED?” I still make junkfood of course, I just won’t let myself binge on it when I am bored. Maybe that is why I have taken up knitting, it is a defense mechanism for the munchies! Eating a decent breakfast every morning helps too.

My one other change to fight the Winter blues is that I have also seriously started indoor exercise last week, which I read can help alleviate seasonal depression. I thought it would be so hard so I set a goal to do it three times a week. I start with tai chi and then do some simply exercises (crunches, push ups etc) and stretching, and some dancing. I found that my spirits are so lifted afterwards that I have not had a problem keeping it up. In fact I find myself doing tai chi every morning now.

Anyhow Damian is waking so it is potty time. He is in underwear about 80% of the time (not as night or later in the evening) for a couple days. We have had a couple accidents but it is going much better then I expected! If we need to go back to diapers that is okay, this is more of a trial then anything else. I’m so proud of him though.

Ode to the KitchenAid

My mother, grandmother and uncle all chipped together and bought me a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas. I love love love it! I was thinking of making an orange dust cover for it, but I am using it so much use that so I don’t think it will ever have time to gather dust.

I have been using it for a few days now and made four loaves of whole wheat bread. It makes enough dough for about two loaves at a time, which is great, homemade bread twice a week. It kneads the dough in about 10 minutes. I’ve also used it to mix together my cast iron meatloaf on Sunday. I haven’t used the whisk attachment yet, but I think I might try making some whipped cream in the next week though I should probably make something to put it on. (Granted I am totally capable of eating whipped cream out of a bowl with a spoon.) I love this thing.

Now to go peruse Amazon for some attachments.

Presents!

I made out like a bandit this Winter Solstice! I got…
(more…)

Busy

On Saturday we will be having our annual winter solstice gathering. So far it is looking like we will be fitting a record 15 (maybe 17!) people into our townhouse. I am use to at least a few people not being able to make it but I don’t think it is going to happen this year. I don’t mind really, just a little daunted.

I have so much left to do. I stayed up till 22:30 last night making snowflake pretzels and I still have one or two more batches to make. I have three kinds of cookies to finish for the gift plates and one kind of fudge. We will be feasting on pot roast, yams, a vegetarian/gluten-free dish, a pumpkin roll (or two,) egg nog, mulled cider and hard cider from Greenbluff. Most people are bringing a side dish to contribute too.

I don’t know if I have enough chairs… Or mugs…

I also need to finish my solstice cards (just need to glue them together,) ship some stuff to my mom, finish laundry (any ideas for getting red wine out of ivory jeans?) learn a ritual and finish a podcast. Well Michael has to just give it his magic touch, I already recorded it. I suppose I should find a moment to shower between now and Saturday too… Michael will help me clean Saturday morning (gathering starts at 16:00.) I suppose I also have to make dinners for us during this week too. And of course time for Damian, he makes me stop and take a breather.

I am making this all sound a bit stressful aren’t I? It is not that bad really, I kind of wish I had a hand but with some good music to motivate me I know I can get it done. I really enjoy having people over to entertain. Poor Damian though, he is watching mommy fly around doing a million things and I keep missing his potty cues for EC. Monday we had a tough day, I don’t think he was feeling very well and he cried so much and for so long that for the first time Daddy had to come home for a bit and rescue Mommy’s sanity.

Damian has been a bubbly happy little man since though and is cruising! That means he gets up against something (like the futon) and walks all along it using it for a bit of support. He grins huge when I look at him and gives lots of hugs when I need them. I sit him in his high chair with some toys so he can see what I am doing on the counter. We have started solids, he has had apples, carrots and yams and potatoes so far.

Kim (my mother-in-law) and her parents stopped by yesterday to pick up Lydia’s gift (Michael’s youngest sister) and drop off a few early gifts. Grandma Stott made us a really pretty appliquéd angel decoration, Kim made us caramel and gave me a little book, she also made Damian a stocking. I’ll get pictures of all those things later, probably on the Sunday. I’ll be making another big meal on Sunday for the Solstice and we will open our gifts. Sunday will be more relaxed though, since it will just be Michael, Damian and me.

The local news is calling for 4 to 7 inches of new snow by tomorrow. One benefit to renting is that we don’t have to shovel our walkway! Anyhow I am going to grab some breakfast and start on some chocolate chip cookies…

Boxes

One of the best parts of the Yule season… Shipping boxes!

Orange Goodness

I received my new blender yesterday. My dad treated me to an early Christmas gift and upgrade on my now dead Oster blender. My counter now glows with its latest addition, and orange (tangerine technically) KitchenAid blender.

It is beauuuuutiful, but then my weak spot for all things orange is well documented. Someday I was white and orange kitchen (so it can look like I work inside a orange creamsickle… Yummy.)

The first thing I made? Pumpkin Pie Smoothies of course, an orange blender deserves to be christened with an orange drink (okay the smoothie is a little more reminiscent of baby poo, but the pumpkin was once orange!) I made orange juice after that, perhaps that would have been more suitable a photo…

My kitchen may now return to its regular blender dependent schedule!

Tis the season…

…that people ask me about Christmas.

A couple people have asked me recently what I want. I don’t need anything (unless anyone has a couch or futon mattress in decent condition they need taken off their hands.) I know that statement won’t fly with some of my family, so I’ll link you to our wishlist if you want any ideas.

As far as Damian goes, we mainly need winter clothes for him (size 9-12 months.) I don’t mind if they are used (almost all his clothes are second hand) as long as they are in good condition. I never expected him to be fitting in 9-12 months clothes in less then 6 months! Damian does not need anymore stuffed animals (we have half a closet full already.) If you want to get him a toy, I would prefer them not to be plastic. I have a few wooden toys on his wishlist, but I don’t mind if they are second hand either.

I’ve been putting up our tree and cleaning today. I forgot how tedious it is to shape an artificial tree and how ignoring the dishes for a few days makes a scary pile! I love having a tree though… and a clean home. I think I am going to make meatloaf for dinner…

And a baby picture, just because.

Pooh Suit

My great grandma and grandma Mason sent this for me. It is sooo soft, I love it.