Chatsworth

So what is worthy of chatting about today? I feel the need for a chatty post. Most of my blogging lately has been heavy on the pictures and light on the words, and I'm feeling wordy today.

For starters, I can't write a blog post today without giving a shout out to my brother-in-law, Daniel, whose birthday is today! And to his wife, Meghan, whose birthday is coming up in a few days!

Nathan is hanging curtain rods in our living room right now. I'm so glad. We've needed something along that wall of windows for the longest time; until now, it's seemed quite bare. Well, a lot of the walls are bare, to tell the truth. I just don't have a lot of stuff to hang on them, and, as I've mentioned, I'm not one to just throw something up there I don't really love just to fill a space. So I think I might go antique shopping sometime soon to see what I can find. I also need an occasional table. I really like this one, but it's a little pricey for me.
Noah just showed me a scratch on his wrist. He says that he has a boo boo because a bee came and ate his bones.

He has also slept in his closet for the past two nights. He just thought it'd be fun to toss a pillow in there and go night night, so last night Nathan made a little pallet with Noah's comforter and let him sleep there. Tonight, he asked me if he could do it again, saying, "Will you make it comfy, Mommy? Make it comfy for me?" How can you turn that down?

Last night, I spent an hour perusing a catalog of heirloom seeds, and I only got halfway through it. This catalog, a recent conversation about gardening with Courtney, and the English Garden magazine I've been getting is inspiring me to plant a vegetable garden this summer. There is a spot in a flower bed next to the house that gets great sun, but it is currently overgrown with grass. Nathan is hopeful he can prep the soil for me--the greatest obstacle to that happening is the fact that we have two small children who love and want and need his attention. Plus, Noah loves to be involved in whatever work project Nathan is doing, which slows Nathan down, especially if he has potentially dangerous tools laying around.

Anyway, if you are interested in vegetable gardening, you should go to rareseeds.com and request a catalog. It is full of fantastically beautiful heirloom varieties, from Italian artichokes to purple carrots to all varieties of melons to a rainbow of squashes and tomatoes. (They have a ton of flowers, too, but I'm more interested in growing things I can eat, at present.)

Speaking of food, tonight we had beef stew and freshly made homemade bread with smoky cheddar cheese for dinner. Too bad it was downright warm today; stew would have been good on a cold day.

It was a whopping 70 degrees today. It kind of puts it into perspective when you consider that the low on Wednesday was 21. That is very Houston, as I am rediscovering. I have really been missing seasons; not that Houston doesn't have a cooler few months, but something about the temps bobbing around doesn't really feel like winter, you know? It doesn't feel like a coherent season.

That said, I am much more content with the Houston climate right now. There are probably several reasons for this: 1. I'm simply getting used to it here. 2. The New England winter this year has been fairly brutal, so the comparisons are in Houston's favor right now. 3. Getting the kids out the other day when it was about 25 degrees reminded me of how much trouble that really is! 4. I can deal with the cool/cold much better than I can deal with the heat.

While many of you are watching the Super Bowl, I'm blogging. Because I don't care one bit about the Super Bowl. There. I said it. Think what you will; it's the truth. I'd rather have some hot tea and crochet while watching Masterpiece Classic.

I might just go do that now. G'night.