{this moment}

{this moment} is a weekly photo post inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo—no words—capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special or extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to savor and remember.
 

In gratitude this week for:

• more sunshine than we’ve seen in weeks
• lots of time spent outdoors, wandering with my little boy
• garden prep, planning and excitement
• many signs of spring all around us, including super-warm temperatures
• the feeling like summer is near.

Have a great weekend!

A Phase of Opposition

Nathan didn't want to pose for a photograph on Easter morning.  "Stand up straight?  How dare you ask me to do that."

My sweet little boy has entered a phase of opposition.  This once easy-going baby with a super-pleasant demeanor—often called good-natured by our family doctor—is becoming an obstinate little boy with a terrible shriek to his voice that just started yesterday. 

He’s becoming less a baby and more of a “real boy,” but is somehow still managing to be both at the same time.  He’s not able to communicate exactly what he wants, but he definitely knows what he wants—and he seems to always want the things he can’t have and at times that are terribly inconvenient or just not possible.  And parenting is…getting harder.  Just when you think things are getting easier, you realize that really, they’re just not.

He’s not even two yet, and although he’s not terrible, I fear that we’re getting there faster than I expected.  (Really, I was hoping to avoid the terrible twos altogether, but alas.)  The suddenness of this change is what’s scaring me a little bit—I’m just not ready.  Where did my sweet, amicable little baby go? 

Nathan at four months.  How I miss those days.  Although it could be a misperception, looking back, things seemed so much easier then.  But I know that some things were really much harder, like sleeping at night or nursing every two hours during the day.  It was exhausting, so I wonder why it looks so easy now.  Maybe it's a trick to make women want to have more than one child.  Or maybe now things are just a different kind of difficult.

Yarn Along

Now that Easter is over and Nathan’s Bunny and spring cardigan are done, I can focus on my April socks and maybe even finish them on time!  The details of the bunny are on my new knitting blog, all. about. knitting—I just lauched it yesterday—and I'll cover the cardigan, my own yet unpublished design, there soon.  If you're interested in seeing more of my knitting than just what you see on the weekly Yarn Along, please do check it out!  (Thanks.)

Although I only started my April socks last week, there’s a chance I can get ‘em done before May 1.  Maybe.  Too bad there aren’t 31 days this month instead of 30!  (Also, can I say how stoked I am to start May’s socks with Knit Picks’ Felici sock yarn in colorway Afternoon?  It's the stripey yarn on the left in my photo.  Oh, yes.  I’ll post the pattern on all. about. knitting. as a freebie.  It'll be a simple toe-up sock to show off the self-striping colors of the yarn; nothing fancy, but I'm still excited to cast on.  But I must get these April socks off my size 2's first!)

My April socks are Ribbed Ribbons Socks from Socks from the Toe Up; they’re knit in Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in colorway Springtime.

For Easter we got Nathan these three books: 1) Quack, because he thinks all farm animals say quack and what better time to straighten out this matter such as this? 2) Easter Bunny, because it offers different textures for Nathan to feel, and 3) Easter Surprise, which has pages that slide open to reveal different creatures inside the eggs.  They’re all cute, but the last one seems to be his favorite so far.

I’m still reading the Friday Night Knitting Club, and it’s getting really, really good.  It’s full of sad, melancholy personal stories that all converge at an NYC yarn shop, but I feel like happiness is right around the corner.  I actually like reading about sad things sometimes—I have a strong sense of empathy and I like to feel my feelings, process them and move forward from there.  This book has been hard to put down before I turn out the light at night, and I love books that have this kind of effect on me.

As always, I'm knitting along with Ginny on Wednesday.

Good knitting,

Kelly

A New Knitting Blog

To keep my knitting from dominating this space—and possibly my life—I recently created a new blog dedicated just to knitting.  It’s all. about. knitting.

I’ll still follow Ginny’s Yarn Along here and will try to contain my writing about knitting to just these Wednesday posts.  But on all. about. knitting. I'll delve into the more technical details that are on my mind; I think I'll also post my original patterns there, too.  If I think my paterns interest my readers here, I'll post them on Creating a Family Home, as well—especially if they’re patterns for babies and children.

As I dedicate this space to how I create my family home, I hope you’ll follow my knitting adventures on all. about. knitting.  That's where I’ll share:

• my self-imposed sock of the month club socks
• photos of what I’m currently knitting
• what pattern book(s) I’m knitting from
• critiques, good points and pitfalls of patterns after I’ve knitted them
• occassional reviews of knitting books I own and have actually used (unpaid, mind you, I’m doing this for fun (!) and to help other knitters build their knitting libraries) 
• explanations of some common but complicated-looking techniques (because they’re not that complicated!)
• my own original patterns
• photos of finished objects, and more.

I hope you’ll join me.  It’s going to be quite the knitterly ride.

Our Homemade Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year.  There's something very special about celebrating holidays at my parents' house, the same house I grew up in.  After hosting 2010's Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at our house, it was so great to get back to the place of my childhood again, complete with a delicious ham, homemade scalloped potatoes and mac n' cheese and special homemade deserts.

The Easter bunny came...

Nathan's first Easter egg hunt was a blast...

My knitted bunny got a lukewarm reception...hoping he'll like him more after the bunny spends the night with the other favorites in Nathan's crib.

Nathan's spring cardigan made its debut, although it was hard to get a decent photo—he rarely sits still.  The bad news is it reached 80 degrees outside, so he only got to wear it for a few minutes.  Thankfully, my parents had their air conditioning on.



Uncle Mike on the left, Dada on the right.

 
Dinner was delicious and desert was both tasty and pretty...

You can see that I get my decorating sensibilities from my mom.  Those are pastel bunny salt and pepper shakers.

 
The conversation was lively, particularly as it applied to money and politics...


I laugh aloud every time I see Nathan's little head poking from beneath the table in this photo.



The remote control even had a dip in my husband's coffee, courtesy of Nathan.



My mom is just as awesome a grandma as my grandma was to me, if not awesomer.

It was a special time spent with my special family, and I loved every minute of it.  I hope your Easter was just as special to you.

Happy Easter

May the smells of Easter take over your kitchen, too.

Spring Has Woken Up in Shades of Green and Yellow

I really love this time of year, when everything in nature seems to wake up all at once. Weeks of rain and a few warmish days suddenly get us grass we couldn’t remember being so green and pale green buds and yellow blooms everywhere.

This is my favorite view of the farm, no matter what the season.  I love it in spring, fall and winter, too, but I think my all-time favorite view of this land is in summer.

Do you see the shade of green all the way in the back?

Do you see it now?

  
How about now?

I think that’s the shade of green that Ireland is made of.  I need to get over to that field and see what’s growing there—and maybe plant some of it up by my house.

A boy who’s not thrilled to be strapped in the stroller:

Spring can be pink, too.

The Japanese Olive Tree (below, foreground) is an invasive species, but in a few more weeks I’ll no longer care as I breathe in its sugary sweet fragrance that’s so strong and enveloping I can almost taste it.  Think simple syrup—it’s like a drug.

The weeping willow is the first tree to deliver green in spring:

I wonder how old these daffodils are.  The clumps are huge and the farmhouse is old.

Still not enthused…

…but much better after a walk in the grass.

I'm so glad spring is finally here.  Aren't you?

Preparing for a Homemade Easter

As we count down the days to Easter, I’m gearing up for the family holiday.  Nathan’s knitted bunny is done, I have goodies ready to put in his Easter basket and last night I sewed the final seam on his spring cardigan to be worn to Easter dinner at my parents’ house. 

But now the real preparations begin: this year I’m baking a lemon cake (isn’t lemon such a light, fresh flavor for spring?), rolling out shortbread cookies in spring-inspired shapes and am making mac n’ cheese for the dinner table.  And, of course, it’s all from scratch.

So like any plan-aholic, I’ve devised a plan:

• Make cookie dough Friday night and chill overnight. 
• Roll out and bake shortbread cookies on Saturday. 
• Bake lemon cake Saturday night.
• Make mac n’ cheese Sunday morning.

Too much to handle?  Naaaah.  I’m looking forward to it!

The lemon cake is Martha Stewart’s recipe; lemony, light and fresh, I sprinkle it with just a touch of confectioner’s sugar right before serving. 

The shortbread cookies are a very special recipe to my family; I’m the third generation to make them.  My grandmother jotted down the recipe from a 1940’s radio show and sent away for her Christmas cookie cutters from a lady called “Aunt Chick.”  She made the cookies with my mom when she was young, my mom made them with me when I was a kid—such great memories—and I can’t wait to make them with Nathan when he gets a little bit older.  For Easter, my cutouts will be the spring-inspired shapes of a chick, a watering can and more, topped with homemade icing in pastel shades.

My mac n’ cheese recipe can be found here.  It’s standard, but delicious.  A friend told it to me off the top of her head years ago; she’d made quite the impression on me.  It wasn’t the only recipe she’s given me over the phone.  My post about my mac n’ cheese recipe gives a little extra detail on timing and temperature that will help you get the perfect cheese sauce.

I look forward to gathering with my family on Sunday and sharing a delicious, special meal together.  All the time, energy and care spent preparing will be well worth it.

Yarn Along

As always, I'm knitting along with Ginny at Small Things on Wednesdays.

It looks like I’m well on my way to a handmade Easter after all.  (Insert a big YAY! here.)  Nathan's bunny from Itty-Bitty Toys is done:

And Nathan’s spring cardigan is just a sewn-in sleeve away from completion:

And I don’t know why, but I was feeling confident enough to cast on my self-imposed Sock of the Month Club socks for April (in the first photo, with the bunny)—they’re Ribbed Ribbon Socks from Wendy Johnson’s Socks from the Toe Up.  I had meant to design socks with leaves on them for April, but I just don’t have the time to put into them now and I didn’t want to leave this beautiful spring green sock yarn for next spring.  (My self-imposed socks of the month are inspired by the seasons, just like most of my other crafts.)  The ribbons on these socks remind me of little spring leaves, so they’re perfect for right now.

My work on the socks will probably bleed into May, but that’s okay because I don’t have a lot of knitting planned yet for May.  Yet.  I’ll wait at least until the next Yarn Along to bring up my recent Knit Picks order, which should arrive any day now.  (I’m insane, and I know my mom is shaking her head as she reads this.)

I’m reading the Friday Night Knitting Club and Nathan’s been carrying around Snuggle Up, Sleepy Ones for a week.  He looooooves his animals, and likes to point and say right there so we'll tell him what each animal is, even though he knows; he just can’t say it himself.  Yet.

Good knitting,

Kelly

Right There

Right there.  These two simple words make up the most common phrase my 16-month-old son says.  After I got over how not useful these two words seemed at first to be—and once Nathan developed a greater ability to communicate and I developed a keener ability to listen and understand—they become part of my little family’s vernacular.

Right there now means so many things:

1. Right there: I want that.  Okay, here you go.
    
2. Right there: Look at that.  Oh, I see it!  It’s a birdie.
    
3. Right there: What is the word for that?  That’s an onion.
    
4. Right there: I’m so glad I have this [insert object, especially a food-related one] right now.  *Smile.*
    
5. Right theeeere: I’m happy.  Me, too.
    
6. Riiiiiight there: I’m having fun being silly and entertaining myself.  I’m having fun, too.

I really love being a mom. J

Adventures in the Garden: Home Alone and Waiting for Spring

So, I’m home alone for the first time since Nathan was born, and what do I do?  I work outside in the garden, that’s what.  And it’s not exciting planting-new-seedlings work, it’s the drudgery of turning-over-weedy-earth work.  I should have been napping or knitting or at the very least drinking coffee, but no, I chose to work really, really hard.  (I also flitted around and took carefree photos in the sunshine without having to worry about where my little boy is and what he’s doing.  It was kinda nice.)
 

I've been watching the huge buds on my Sweetgum tree grow from as far away as my kitchen window.  The leaves on this tree turn amazing shades of red in fall.

Practically the only real signs of spring around here.

The view from my kitchen garden.

My kitchen garden after I finished turning it over.  Tomorrow I'll add the biodegradeable plastic mulch, and then I'll be all ready to plant my seelings.

I managed to turn over the unkempt half of my kitchen garden, the part that hadn’t been tended in almost three years.  Earlier this week I divided my daisies and gave a big chunk to my mom.  I planted another chunk somewhere else in my little garden, which was probably a mistake, knowing how fast they grow and spread.  But they’re so pretty—the perfect daisy, really—and I didn’t want to toss them.

In between looking for signs of spring, I keep dreaming of what my garden will be like this year, my first true year of gardening since becoming pregnant and having Nathan in 2009.  I can picture (and almost taste!) the sun-ripened tomatoes, and can already smell the oregano coming back from last year.  I can’t wait to harvest tomatoes, zucchini and cucumbers and share my favorite summer recipes with you here.  It's kind of insane to be thinking so far into summer, when I'm still waiting for spring to really arrive.

Finally, Sun!

The sun finally came out today and we got outside and enjoyed the warm weather immensely. My mom played with Nathan so I could get some work done in the garden and all three of us went on an afternoon walk.  The warm sun felt so good on my skin after so many cold, rainy and gray days.  We even ate our dinner on the back deck, a rarity, since my husband works outdoors and doesn’t usually want to spend any additional time outside.

After dinner I was delighted to enjoy the sun from my living room, which is normally the darkest room in the house.  I love how the sun's beams stream in through the windows as the sun sets this time of year, before the trees’ leaves are big enough to block it from our house.  The angle is just right to illuminate the entire room and raise my spirits.

It’s amazing how exposure to the sun can make us feel so good.  It’s universal.  Who doesn’t love sunshine?