Throwing up a post this Friday morning! It's chilly here in Houston which puts me in SUCH a good mood. And my little sister is visiting this weekend (Right, Lil??) and my little brother who's been out of town all month is finally back and we're all having a pizza night tomorrow. So many good things big and little!

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I read most of Gary Taube's new book The Case Against Sugar this week, and I'm sufficiently terrified of sucrose, fructose, and all the other -ose's. The book was actually pretty dry - and I LOVE reading about health and wellness books and food histories - but it's a pretty compelling look at the story of sugar consumption and the rise in chronic disease. Whenever I feel my healthful eating resolve starting to teeter, I check out a book like this.

When Jacob saw me reading the book, he sat next to me with a bowl of ice cream.

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The kids and I went to the park yesterday morning. It was 55 degrees and when we were getting back in the car Jake asked if he had frost on his face.

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The remodel is still trucking along. I'll try to get a post up about it next week. I'm no longer sleeping in a total construction site...it feels more like...a garage.

The kids are troopers about it all:

The suckers were from before I read the Taubes book.

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Jake really likes to shorten words. Yesterday he called his Uncle Michael "Mikes." He thinks it's extra cool. Often he'll shorten words and we won't even know what he means. Like the other day when he asked for these:

bloobs

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Jacob and I have been scrambling for a new show for both of us to watch. He has his kinds of shows (dry British or Australian humor) and I have mine (overdramatic period pieces), and we'll often find shows to watch together (Stranger Things, Poldark, The OA.) But we've been floundering for awhile to find a new one, so we picked up The Man in the High Castle. I didn't like the first half of season one but I'm really liking the second half.

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I'm reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder's books with the kids. I love them all so much. Right now we're reading Farmer Boy. My favorite part is how much this nine year old boy thinks about food. At one point he was reflecting on how pretty his mother was and that she was never prettier than when she was carrying a ham to the kitchen table. #parentinggoals

A couple months ago we made butter tinted with carrot juice just like Ma Ingalls. I'm thinking next week we'll make Almanzo's favorite food: fried apples and onions.

(Disclaimer: I realize replicating Little House recipes sounds industrious. Let it be known that the only thing I'm really doing well is making it to the couch every night with a bowl of popcorn.)

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The other day I was asking Jacob how one even begins the process of finding a good therapist...and then literally two days later we got an e-mail from a good friend of ours from college who has written an ebook about how to find a great therapist. You should definitely check it out or at least visit his website which has tons of information about therapy (cost, kinds, frequency, what to expect). This guy is basically the coolest, and I'm so excited for this initiative!

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And now the BIG THING - which is NOT another baby. 

We're gearing up to move to my hometown in rural Texas this summer. I. can't. wait.

We'll rent my parents' house while they relocate to my grandmother's old house, and then we'll start the slow process of buying ten acres from them and building a house on it. It feels like a dream, and I'm so excited about it. (But Jake told me he likes being a city kid because he gets to drive on highways -_-)

We'll buy ten acres of unimproved land except that it has an acre of high fencing around a vineyard of Black Spanish grapes. 
It has a creek!

 And carpenter anthills the size of basketball courts!

It's basically a deer habitat and is totally overrun by wild mustang grapevines ten inches thick at the base, and we're totally in love.

We're thinking this for the backyard:

Then I'll be able to go seriously Ma Ingalls on everything. It's such an enormous dream come true to move home and read Wendell Berry and work the land and watch sunsets.

Visit Kelly for more quick takes! Happy Weekending!

What I'm Reading (and Quick Remodel Update)

**chock full of affiliate links in case the almighty Google asks and threatens my $6/mo**

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Story about several young people in London as they figure out their way through the first years of WWII. Think star-crossed lovers and coming of age. It had an Amor Towles feel. It honestly fell a little flat for me. My expectations were probably too high because I was hoping for another All the Light We Cannot See and this novel didn't quite hit that level of heart-wrenching. It's the only Chris Cleave I've read, and I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with him.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I loved this book and highly recommend it. I first encountered Kalanithi when I read his piece in the New York Times a couple of years ago, and like most of the internet, I was struck by his story: a neurologist finishing residency diagnosed with an aggressive and rare lung cancer. When Breath Becomes Air is his memoir about dying, so it's heavy, but his writing is so good and so poignant.

168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

This is a book about how people spend their time/should spend their time. I liked it. She's got great statistics on how people spend their time today vs fifty years ago. After reading it, I decided to do some time tracking. This is pretty tricky for me because I'm someone who needs a lot of external motivation to maintain this type of practice. But in this instance, a disbelieving eyebrow raise from Jacob has been all the motivation I've needed to follow through, and I'm going on my second week of observing my time in 15 minute intervals.

I've LOVED time-tracking.  I haven't analyzed my charts yet, but the time tracking itself has helped me spend my time so much more consciously.

Designing your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Ah. More self help! This book is about applying design concepts to "What should I do with my life" questions. It's very interactive and has you doing lots of exercises, some of which got me thinking creatively about some of the parts of my life that I want to change. It's one of the reasons I've been blogging more! It had been hard for me to justify spending time blogging, but this book helped me look at my emotional experiences without judgment. And turns out I LIKE blogging, and maybe I don't need another justification to do it.

Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A story about three generations of Indian women that spans decades and continents. I really liked this book: I liked the writing and the jumping around in time and the steady description of Indian food. But it also made me a little miserable...it seemed like every relationship was fueled by deception or resentment. I finished it one night late and crawled into bed with Jacob. I hugged him and was all "Ah love! Let us be true to one another!" and he was like "I was asleep."

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Also: this is what my bedroom looks like today. 

We demo-ed (How do Chip and Joanna spell that, I wonder?) the old exterior wall the day before yesterday and now the room is twice as big and half as habitable. Never fear, the drywallers come tomorrow if we pass our final framing inspection today. #knockonwallstuds

Also the "we" here always means Jacob doing/managing everything and me in the background asking "Is that supposed to be that way??"

Some Things that have been Working for Me

So...seems like I've been seeing a lot of people blogging about items/practices/hacks that are making a difference in their lives. I always read these types of posts. (I just typed "poasts.") Mostly because I'm a sucker for a good hack. Or at least reading about a good hack - I don't know how often I put new things into practice. But, know, that if you've got a title like: "5 Things That are Saving My Life Right Now", this lady will be clicking in a flash.

Despite how much I like to read posts like these, I don't tend to blog about them, but today that changes.

Here we go!

Rosewater and glycerin
I'm gonna lead with my strong suit here, because the rest of these aren't very original and it has an affiliate link. So you're welcome. (And thank you.)

I first bought rosewater and glycerin (this one) when I was trying to DIY some kind of face wash. I never made the face wash, but I use this as a quick moisturizer all the time. I spritz it on my face a lot, especially in the winter. Before make-up, after make-up, mixed with some emu oil if I'm extra dry. I spray it all over the kids after baths. And it literally smells like roses.

The sound machine app on my phone
Baby is really good at sleeping through noise because he has lived in a construction project his whole life, but when they're literally reroofing over his little sleeping head, a sound machine app saves the day. We don't have any actual sound machines because I'm allergic to stuff. (I know it's annoying when people are all "I'm a helpless minimalist," but trust me, my aversion to buying new things annoys me more than you, and my husband more than both of us.)

Here's the real reason this is on the list: This method necessarily decommissions my phone during nap time. I've found that pressing my phone into lullaby service has been really good for me and any hopes I have to do something meaningful during naps. I use the Relax Melodies app by Ipnos. (A trio of river, rain, and wind, if you must know.)

One on one outings with the kiddos
In the past, if Jacob was home and I needed to run an errand, I ran and didn't look back. That blessed freedom from car seat buckles!! Carefree meandering through the grocery store! Picking up hold books at the library without ending up with some twaddle involving ninja pigs!! Bringing a kid along, when I could be all by myself would have sounded crazy. I don't think it even occurred to me for years.

So if you're still there, I get you. Cheers!

But recently in that situation, I've taken to bringing one of the big kids with me. It's delightful. At three and five they're both still pretty much excited to come no matter what we're doing. We chat. They pick the music in the car. I don't have to deal with the anxiety of having multiple children in public. I feel less like a ruthless cattle herder and more...like a mom holding a kid's hand.

Tea time and other things I like
At the end of naps the kids and I have tea. Usually some kind of chai with honey and milk. They put a blanket down in their room, and I bring the tea in on a tray with some little cookies. Always the tray. Mutiny without the tray. It's a really sweet time.

This one started as part of a new year's resolution to do things with the kids that I like doing. Instead of waiting for the kids to ask me to do something I don't want to do, I ask them to do something with me that I do want to do. Little House on the Prairie before I get stuck under the weight of Mr. Scarry's pickle car. Uno before Chutes and Ladders. Etc.

And in the kitchen...
Boiled potatoes
I try to keep boiled potatoes in our fridge most of the time. I chop them up for a quick starch for the kids - who eat them with ketchup. Or I'll grate them and throw them in a pan with some brussels sprouts for me to eat with a soft boiled egg. Eh? Eh?

 

Roasted cauliflower
We eat a lot of vegetables here because we're enslaved to our weekly farm share till the summer (THIS ONE if you're in the Houston area.) And the kids are pretty good sports about the mountains of okra and chard. But one veggie that never fails us is cauliflower. I've mashed it, riced it, tried it as a pizza crust replacement, and all the trends, but we always end up back here:

Chopped up and tossed in some lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, and salt and roasted on 400 until the edges begin to caramelize.

I make it as an appetizer 2-3 nights a week and throw it at the hangry children when dinner's not quite ready, and they eat it like popcorn.

So there you go. Maybe one of these will save your life! Or probably not, but I'm touched that you're still here and that counts for something.

As I was writing this post, I kept thinking about all the things (like this?) that "would probably be saving my life, if I had them" so I'll be debuting those sometime before my birthday next month.

Ciao!

Back for a Hot Minute

Hello hello!

How about another doomed effort to wake the blog back up, eh? 

December was tough because I had bronchitis that deteriorated into a walking pneumonia and one particularly unforgiving coughing fit broke one of my ribs(?). So...we were lacking a little holly jolly in the festive department for most of the month. 

But before all that happened I managed to get some family photos taken by a super talented and sweet friend. The photoshoot was laughably difficult. Roman was unhappy unless we were letting him dig with a measuring spoon. Lucy June got wise to her power pretty quickly and stayed in tantrumville for most of the shoot. I was just praying for one - just please one - passable photo. Then when we got them back I was delighted.  

If you look closely you can read the hidden stories. (Mother who's been smiling too long has death grip on three year old while tickling her.) 

Or not so hidden stories...

Nothing like a magical photographer to make lemonade from your lemons. Or maybe a nice ginger lemon cocktail.

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We are still deep into our house renovation. We redid the interior of the house last year and have recently begun adding some extra square footage and a master bathroom. We're basically turning a tiny 2/1 into a not quite so small 3/2. We'll probably finish everything up by late spring...which is precisely when we will move again. Because that is how we do. 

Adding on has been lots more fun than the original remodel work because it's all been outside. When your husband has to routinely decommission your kitchen or your only bathroom to work on the sewer line it starts getting old fast.

Of course we did have to hack into a couple walls. So my brother-in-law's room currently looks like this: 

He's a trooper. And he sleeps in the living room.

Back when Jacob and I lived in Los Angeles we would talk about renovating houses and got into the game a little over two years ago after moving to Houston. It's strange to say it, but I think that means that we're "living a dream." And not surprisingly that dream comes with layers of frustration and exhaustion, financial stress and decision fatigue, holey walls ands construction dust. I even find myself longing for some apartment living again. #grassisgreener #etcetc  

I'm getting my legs under me as a mother of three...now that the baby is 16 months old. I know this because I've started some kitchen fermentation again. We're starting light with carrot sticks and some kefir water. I should have my first batch of soda done by the end of this week. I have a friend coming over tomorrow who's a sourdough queen, so it should be a nice brunch/inquisition. I still don't get dressed everyday, but there's nothing like some controlled spoilage on the counter to make me feel like a functioning human.

Bye for now!