vistors

 

We have been having some visitors the last couple of weeks.  First, Sadie got to hang with her Grandma Caroline, and now she gets to hang out with her cousin Dimitri who just turned four months old. We  also had an impromptu visit from Grandpa Bill who stayed just long enough to make sure his boys (out on their caribou hunt--more about that later) were okay, and to help Alena and I drink the last good bottle of wine. 

parenting with confidence...um, I think?

How many parents does it take to dress a baby?

Most people will eventually get to a point in their life where they can consider themselves a "parenting expert." Then they have children.  If having a child has taught me any one thing (and believe me, it has taught me much more than that) it is not to judge or attempt to compete with other parents.  It is so easy to fall into the habit of comparing your parenting skills with those of your peers by assessing where your little one falls into the amorphous developmental spectrum.

So easy, and so completely silly.  But how often do I get asked  (or catch myself asking someone else) questions like, "Does your baby sleep through the night yet?" Or "Is your baby crawling yet?"  "How many teeth does your baby have?" etc.. etc... And that is just the tip of the iceberg as far as topics you can enter into "mom-petitions" over.  Don't even get me started on who is the best baby-wearing, cloth-diapering, organic-home-made baby food making, crafty supermom who whittles teething rings out of the bark of the sacred yew tree.  (Its me, of course, so you all can stop trying so hard now)

at least its spring inside.

Sadie's grandma Caroline has been visiting this week and she brought a lovely, bright bunch of tulips to delight the color-starved senses. They are so delightful in fact, that I even caught Cash sniffing them.  I don't care what anyone says, dogs have a soul that appreciates beauty too.

 

Pottery give-away winner

The winner for the Iditarod pottery give away is......(drum roll please).......

ocho messes! (and yes, that could mean months, or actual messes).

This month, in Sadie's quest for world household domination she has been trying out a few different looks....

Feeding Baby

If dads were always in charge of feeding baby....muskox ribs?

So... with Sadie's 8-month mark right around the corner I thought I would do a post on what we are feeding this kid.  Before Sadie was born and I was pouring through baby-raising literature with all kinds of philosophies on when, and what you should be feeding your baby I thought maybe I would try to exclusively nurse her for the first 8 months in order to delay introductions of solids and help prevent later food allergies, yada...yada...

M.I.Y Monday: Pottery Giveaway

There is a lot going on this week besides Make it Yourself Monday. There is Iditarod, St. Patrick's Day, and the Ides of March, among other things.  Me thinks this calls for a celebration, don't you?  I am celebrating by doing a pottery giveaway. There is nothing I like better to make myself than a fun ceramic form.  Last week we made colanders in my "Jazz up the Kitchen" class, so I am going to offer this lovely blue one for one lucky winner.

A time to sow.

I have been spending this morning doing one of the best things ever.  Well, actually I started my morning early by taking Sadie on a frosty walk down to NWC to check on the kiln, and I locked myself out of the studio. Not the best, but at least I didn't lock myself out of there while Sadie was still inside.  That would have been really NOT the best.  But you know what is the best? This:

The Chuck Norris/ Bob Ross connection...

Oh wow... I totally just had a conspiracy theorists' epiphany.  I thought I'd better add this one to the blog, because I think it is going to change the world for the better. Seriously. First of all, did you guys know that Bob Ross (the much-beloved painter of happy little trees) was white?  I watched him all the time growing up, and I always thought he was black!? Yeah, well my sis and I were texting each other tonight and she brought that up.  So, naturally, I had to look him up on the googlebox, and sure enough... dude was white!

Winter walking

Do you see what I see?  That't right... that glowing orb in the upper left hand corner.  Its our little friend the sun, and he's back in a major way right now.  Welcome to the arctic, one of the few places in the world where you can get frost bite and sunburn at the same time.  Yesterday was gorgeous, so I bundled up my little, loaded up two very squirmy dogs and we all went for a trek out by the Nome River.  Everything was still and frozen, but the sun was warm and bright.  I can almost feel all the life just waiting impatiently for the sun to finally release it from winter's prison.  March is amazing here with its brightness and lengthening days; I never even knew how many shades of white there could be until I spent my first Winter Part III here.
Even so, I will be damn happy to see the first tiny tendrils of green peeking up from the tundra.  Heck, I will even be happy to see the brown, ugly patches of ground when the snow melts. My nose can almost smell that earthy, new-old smell of the bare earth in spring time....sigh.  For now I will just be thankful for the glorious, brilliant sunshine, because there are still about 2 months of winter left to wait out.

a happy cooking mistake!

Meet the "Scookie"

Last night I was trying to multitask by getting Sadie to fall asleep in the Ergo whilst simultaneously whipping up a batch of cranberry orange scones.  As distraction fate would have it, I goofed up on the recipe and came out with something that wasn't very scone-ish.  I thought I would fudge, and go for drop scones--but they actually came out better--lighter, and fluffier and mmmmm.... delish.  So here is a recipe for cranberry orange scookies.  I made them with Nome cranberries, which are actually lingonberries--so tangy and tart and wonderful!

preheat oven to 375.

In a large mixing bowl combine:

2 cups flour

1/2 c. brown sugar

zest of one orange

1 c. frozen cranberries

1/4tsp. nutmeg

1T. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

Whip together and add to dry ingredients:

1/4 c. oil

3/4 c. milk

1egg.

Drop by generous spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes.

I topped these off with a glaze made from the juice of the  zested orange, a dash of vanilla, and some powdered sugar, but they would be good without too. 

enjoy!

yay for care packages!

Today we got yet another awesome care package in the mail.  Lucky us!  This one was from my sister, and it included an extra special valentine for miss Sadie.  It was a story book with auntie Kiki and cousin Killian's recorded voices telling the story. Watching Sadie's reaction to this phenomenon was priceless.  You can see for yourself:

Thanks auntie Kiki and Killian!  We love you guys too!