A New Life

So I have gone back to school - for what will be the last time.  I swear.  I am so done with it - I want a job!!  It's only one year, but it is full time ... full days.

It's been quite the adjustment for everyone involved.  Lukie has found himself with way more responsibility than ever before, I have homework again, and baby is away from both of us for a good chunk of the day.  That was the kicker.  Let me say that we could not *be* more fortunate.  My SIL is taking care of her, and not only does she live super close, but her 4 year old son is gingersnap's favourite person in the whole wide world :)

That doesn't mean that it's going super smoothly, but I'm sure it would be a lot harder than if we had to use some other form of child care.  The three hardest things to date?

1. Finding time to cook and bake.  Those are not optional in our home and the amount of time I have to do them is down by a lot.  Today is inspiring me to call Sunday baking days since it is so freaking miserable here ... that might help ;)
2. The work/homework/life balance thing.  I don't enjoy sitting in the living room doing my homework while gingersnap plays.  But there isn't enough time to finish if I don't ... and finally
3. She doesn't care that I'm gone.  This is wonderful because I know she's really happy where she is ... but it sucks because I spend all my time thinking about her and often when we go to pick her up she isn't ready to leave.

Anywho that's life right now.  From a hobby point of view, little projects can get worked on because this first part of the year is a lot of discussion and no one cares that my needles are flying :)

And One More Thing ...

I've had a spinning wheel for almost 3 years now ... though I only got excited about it just over 2 years ago ... and then baby came :P

At first it was totally do-able while nursing - this girl ate *so* much and so frequently, I had to find ways to do things while she was eating so I didn't go crazy.  I found a comfortable position for her to eat and me to spin.  It was a wonderful arrangement.

Then she got more efficient at nursing and by the time I thought about it, it was too late so my production slowed significantly.  She was still completely immobile, and the noise seemed to be soothing so there was still opportunity.

Then she started moving.  For the last 6 months, it was not an option.  Gingersnap was so intent on *helping* me spin, and the Sidekick I have has lots of opportunity for little fingers to get hurt, so I stopped entirely.  But ...

The other day while she napped I thought I would take it back out, if only for a few minutes, and spun for 2 hours.  I was so enthralled when she woke up I tried to keep going ... and wouldn't you know it?  She left me alone!!

I spun the whole 5oz Loop Bullseye Bump that day, albeit rather poorly :P very overspun and quite thick and thin ... but I made it and I love it and it's going to grow up to be a Milo for gingersnap :)

So maybe I have another hobby that will start to make more of an appearance again?!?  It will have to wait until I get a few sweaters off the needles ... hopefully more to come in the very near future!

Car Baby!

So we had a great trip - totally got myself all worked up for nothing!  We split the 11-ish hours of driving over 2 days (in both directions) and baby did great ... which means I had a *ton* of knitting time :)

The first is my new me sweater:  it's Viridis by Robin Melanson and is being knit in Elsebeth Lavold Silky wool in an orange colour numbered 36 and I'm pleased to say that I got a fair amount accomplished!!  

Next up was a fall sweater for the gingersnap - Gramps by TinCan knits out of madelintosh vintage in Thunderstorm, and Tanis Fibre Arts Green Label in Royal blush.  We're off to find buttons for this one today so I can call it finished!

And what kind of trip would it be if there wasn't a little stash acquisition?!?

The first is Knitted Wit, DK superwash merino in the Moody blues colour, and the second is Spud and Cloe fine in the sidewalk colour (there's a few more of these off camera ... I may have bought a sweater's worth ...)

So it wasn't really a holiday as I normally define it, but between the disposable diapers and only being responsible for gingersnap food, it was pretty good!

Road Trip!

Tomorrow we leave for gingersnap's first road trip ... which has left me more than a little anxious for the past week.  She was not a great car baby for the first few months of her life; 3 minutes in, no matter where you were or how long there was to go she was screaming.  And screaming for the duration of the trip.  It was awful.

She's gotten much *much* better - we went to Washington a few weeks ago and had to sit in a horrendous border line and she did great.  So I'm hopeful.  This is not to say that I haven't done a lot to make this as painless as possible for all three of us.  (As a side note, this is the first time we're leaving the dog for any length of time.  We'll see how that goes :P )

When I was weak and bought the stacking toy the other day, the purpose of my trip was actually to get stuff for the car; specifically this (doesn't this child look happy?!?).

I feel like it has great potential for a long time, since they're required to be in a car seat until they're like 12 or something now ;).
To go with it, since we're going to try and have all her meals in the car, I bought a silicone placemat, a sippy cup, and a new block set.  I figure new toys are exciting right?  Even at 10 months?

Music, books, food, toys ... I think I have more stuff for the car than for the week at our destination!!

Anywho: 5 hours tomorrow, then 7 on Sunday.  Oh my.  Thinking about it makes my stomach queesy. I'm going to go prep more food.  Wish us luck!!

Too Much of a Good Thing?

I have to admit - infants are not all that fun.  Sure they're cute, and relatively easy to care for (especially if yours slept as well as ours did at first ...) but *nothing happens*.  After a few months of that, I wasn't sure how anyone could be a stay-at-home mom; I was so bored.

But gingersnap is growing leaps and bounds and gets more fun and interactive every day, and now I'm not sure how I'm going to survive leaving her with someone else.  It's amusing to me, and probably obvious to every mom out there, how quickly my opinions of such things changed ;)

Anywho, lately I have been so enthralled with how she is learning.  Toys she used to pick up and put down she is actually learning how they work and is *so* impressed with herself when she figures it out!  Her most recent obsession is stacking; anything stackable will do, but her favorites are these

The one on the left is from Fisher Price, and the right is Ikea.  Both were Christmas presents from grandparents, and though we hardly needed 2 of *basically* the same thing, we kept them both.  Watching her dump all the pieces off, then figuring out how to put them back on was wonderful entertainment for me.  Problem solving at work!

So since she was enjoying these so much, wouldn't she enjoy a third too?!?

Never send me to a toy store by myself - general rule of thumb that Lukie should probably learn pretty quickly ;)

Oh Pets ...

So we have a few pets ... three to be exact.  Two cats and a dog.



Since the introduction of gingersnap, there has been a little less love for all three.  We know it and though it's sad, we also know that in a year or two it will go back to the way it was ... the dog does not want to wait :P

Lately, she has gotten super fearful toward strangers (dogs and people alike) to the point where I'm no longer comfortable walking her next to the stroller.  If she gets it in her head to bolt, I'm not strong enough to do anything about it and we are *all* going down.  So Lukie started taking her for her morning walk and then whoever has time is responsible for the evening.  It's not working.

She runs out the door whenever she can now and it is *impossible* to get her back.  Last night was one of these cases and it was scary.  She was gone for 2 hours while I was out tutoring; Lukie was taking care of gingersnap and minding our nephew.  It is nearly impossible to chase a dog that does not want to be caught with a toddler and a baby in tow (not that he didn't try) ...

It's the fear that makes this frightening.  If she was just running and enjoying life it wouldn't matter!  She's registered with our city so there's a little fine if she's found by someone other than us but who cares really.  Her fear makes her super unpredictable and if she felt she had been backed into a corner I don't know that I could say for certain that she wouldn't become agressive.

We love her to bits and pieces and are willing to do almost anything - but we don't even know where to start ...

An Apple a Day

At the beginning of the year, we started having SPUD delivering our produce and milk once a week.  It's pretty awesome.  Our deliveries are every Thursday and this means by Wednesday I'm looking to finish up the stuff from last week.  We have had some definite flops ... for example we will never put parsnips and beets in the same stir fry again :P

But last week I had a surprising success!

Firstly, please don't judge the colour of my cheese - I'm finishing up the last few boxes of Annie's mac and cheese that Lukie likes.  I would prefer if the focus is on what is added to it and the potential I feel this has if I made it properly!

The idea started with a recipe posted by Naturally Ella, and was changed based on my leftover SPUD veggies:

1. Sautée some onions and garlic together in EVOO on medium heat until the onions were translucent, then add a medium, peeled sliced up sweet potato.  Cook that until the sweet potato is soft, but not finished then add 1-2 sliced (not peeled) apples.  Finish of this concoction by adding 2 de-cased chorizo and continue leave on the heat until the sausages are cooked.
2. At the same time get your mac and cheese going, whether it be from a box or from scratch.
3. Get a bigger serving dish and mix the contents of both pots together, and lastly mix in a couple of generous handfuls of kale until it is wilted.

I only used kale because that's what I had, and I feel that it wilts just as nicely as spinach.  I added the chorizo because it's hard to sell Lukie on a vegetarian dinner (and who doesn't love chorizo ;) ) and the apple was added as an after thought because it was to soft to eat on its own but I really liked the combination!!

I think what I really love about this dinner is that very shorty it will be something that the whole family will be able to enjoy!  It's always at the back of my mind when I cook now - the more often there's only one dinner to prepare, the more successful I can be at getting us all fed!

Oodles of Toques

I've been on a sweater kick this year, but as of the last few weeks was having a hard time finding mojo for my fourth sweater of the year.  The answer (in the form of *many* bad pictures ... sorry - I am working on that ...)?

Toques!!!

The first two are for my mother-in-law.  She requested some this year and I *almost* never turn down a request ;)  The first one is the Pressed Leaves from Alana's new collection Botanical Knits made from some Madelinetosh DK in tart.  The next is the Antler Toque from Tin Can Knit's collection Pacific Knits (I want to make just about everything in this book ... but I digress).  I made it from Berocco Ultra Alpaca, trying to work through the last few balls in my stash.  My supply appears to be endless :P

Finally there's Selkie for the gingersnap for next fall/winter from Wooly Wormhead's upcoming collection Playful Wooly Toppers (with the first 3 patterns available now).  I *will* get a better picture of this one - I love it to bits and pieces and will be making it again.  It used up the perfect amount of scraps I had of Madelinetosh Vintage (light blue/Mourning Dove) and DK (dark blue/Stovepipe).

I think I can now get back to my sweater and not hate every moment of endless stockinette ... but that doesn't stop me from dreaming of the next project(s)!!

Where 2 Hobbies Meet

I have had a love of cooking for quite some time now, but it has only been recently that I worry about sourcing.  The organic label doesn't matter so much to me as the local (ish) one ... so we've been eating a *lot* of root veggies and apples.  But there is hope - I found this yesterday:

Let's look more closely at this, shall we?

It made my little heart sing :) I actually didn't see these until I was finished paying in the grocery store, but quickly made a u-turn and bought 2 overpriced bags.  I'm very excited.  Now we just need green onions back and I'll be one happy camper!

But I digress.  I started out with this topic because of what the gingersnap eats!  Her first good veggie mix was squash and zucchini baked with some sage.  We have graduated from that (because I couldn't find any more squash) to sweet potato, green peas, apple, garlic, and sage.

Mixed with a bit of olive oil and baked for an hour or so there is no blender required - it mushes quite nicely on it's own!  Served with 9% MF Greek yoghurt and blueberries I feel like she's getting all the appropriate food groups ...

Most of our lunches have become finger food because there's only so much of my life I want to dedicate to spoon feeding her so little chunks of mozzarella or bocconcini and shredded chicken makes up her protein.  Those cookies I spoke of and cheerios make up the rest.  For the chicken, I use the President's Choice Free From line of products and bake it with some shallots and rosemary, again in olive oil (covered) for about 40-45 minutes.  We often share this part of her lunch - it's pretty tasty!

The last thing I wanted to share is the most recent addition to her meals - oatmeal.  I know we could have had it a long time ago, but I don't like it and thus she didn't get it ;) I needed something quick today, so oatmeal with apples and nutmeg seemed like a good choice.  She, like she does with many first bites, thought this was the worst food ever, but after a few bites I could tell this was going to become a favorite.

I have real problems getting her fed by family members because of this face.  It's deceptive!  But it we gave up every time she made it, I would still be exclusively nursing my 10 month old.  Perseverance.  I read somewhere that if after the 15th time you've tried a food you may have something they won't eat.  Before that, keep trying :)

The Sunscreen Mountain

Mountain.  As in making mountains out of molehills.

When it got beautiful here a few weeks ago, I started thinking about using sunscreen on the ginger snap.

Then I started worrying about putting sunscreen on the ginger snap.

Then I started putting more clothing on her to avoid putting sunscreen on her.

Then she started sweating :P

So I built up this topic *so* much in my head I thought I would never be able to make a decision.  I don't like the idea of lathering her in chemicals, but I understand that sun exposure will be worse.

Mountains I tell you (or no one in particular because I'm pretty sure I'm talking to myself ;) ).

Anywho, I finally looked into it further by asking my most knowledgeable friend.  Google.  She told me that there are basically two different camps - chemical or oxide.  The chemical camp use different chemicals that absorb into the skin to protect it.  They must be applied at least 20 minutes before exposure to be super effective, and though we haven't seen it yet, there may be long term effects behind the absorption of these chemicals.

The oxides on the other hand (zinc or titanium) sit on the surface of the skin.  There's no absorption and it has the added bonus (or at least I see it as a bonus) of having little to no wait time after application!  Though I would love to say I will always be prepared, I know myself better than that so my decision was made.  Oxides it would be!

Now to choose.  I had a few people recommend Badger, which seemed like a good option, but in the end I went for Green Beaver.  Same (single) active ingredient and it's Canadian.  I haven't used it yet, and now that I've made a decision it is of course raining again, but I'm just happy to have made a decision!