I heard some good advice today (from the Lazy Genius, of course): when it’s a busy week, make (or buy) food that makes you feel like yourself. Well, I certainly did do that today: I picked two recipes that I’ve never tried before, both of which looked fairly straightforward, but both of which also tricked me (ahem) with their several easy steps. See, every single time I forget that easy + easy + easy (infinity) = maybe or maybe not easy but more time consuming than I thought. Also, thawing. And brining. And peeling the butternut squash. And texting Jason to pick up a couple of key ingredients (and one less essential, but since-it’s-my-first-time-it-seems-like-I-should-follow-the-recipe-exactly ingredient). All of this to say, making dinner today has made me feel very, very much like myself–not at all the most efficient or genius part of myself but so very myself nonetheless. Now I just need to invest a lot of stake in and get my feelings hurt over my kids declaring the meal “not my favorite” and also lose objectivity over whether I myself even like the meal because it’s new! and I worked so hard on it! and that will complete the quintessential Renae-ness of it.
When I think about the must-dos for the Christmas season, making a batch (or three) of my Grandma Johnson’s ginger snaps always, always makes the list.
It was a five-stitches-in-the-head kind of a day. Ian and a buddy were enjoying the beautiful day by playing tag on a playground. Somehow the two collided, and Ian ended up with a deep cut and his friend with quite the toothache. Poor dudes. Ian was brave, and so was I (heads bleed a lot; I had to sit down). A few hours later and we’re probably a little more tired than we expected to be today, but all is well.
I am all kinds of behind the ball this year. We’re just rolling with it. I didn’t get the saffron buns made in time for a morning celebration of St. Lucia’s Day, so Clara helped me make them after school.
So, yeah, it didn’t stay this quiet. At all. 😝 (I’m fine with that.)
A couple of years ago Ian made a list of all the things he wants to be for Halloween for the next fifteen years (he hasn’t stuck to the schedule, but he does revise it every year to plan several years out). I feel like I should do the same for themes for my DPP shots (not that I have a theme this year, but every year I think I will next year). One of those plans for a future year would be to do twenty-five daily shots of utterly mundane things. So many special and extraordinary things happen in this month of waiting and celebrations, and so often I purpose to catch the most memorable or out-of-the-ordinary thing that happens each day. But also, even in this season of wonder and delight, the fuel light still comes on in the carpool line, and, well DPPers gotta DPP.
An epic pre-dinner battle.
A few years ago when Clara was four years old, I had a friend over for coffee one afternoon. I gave Clara some sidewalk chalk to keep her busy while I chatted with my friend. Clara asked what she should draw. I asked her to draw a picture of the capitol (she did), then Daddy’s work (she did, and she even used a color that was very close to the color of his office building). Then I asked her to draw a picture of Redeemer (our church). When I looked at what she had drawn, I was amazed: she had not drawn a building but had instead drawn people.
I think of this story often, and I thought of it this morning as we walked into our church building. Although I do adore this old building that was given to us in exchange for just one dollar, the church is its people–and it is so deeply good to be with them.
Book club mornings are some of my favorite mornings–because books, but even more so because book club friends are some of my favorite people.
