Feasting

This Thanksgiving marks the first one in our marriage when I will not be making an entire Thanksgiving feast (including the turkey). Since we lived halfway across the country from our families, and since flying home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas didn't make a whole lot of sense in a grad student's budget, we always celebrated in Boston. We hosted family for two of those years, and every other year we celebrated with friends.

This year, though, we'll be having Thanksgiving at my parents' house. Which means it's the first time in six years that I will not be making a turkey.

I'm not really sure how I feel about that. I mean, I love being the Thanksgiving host. I love food (big shocker), and I love thinking up all kinds of different things that people might like. I love having a big crowd at my house. I loved having our friends over and making them our family for the day. And there's something about a turkey crackling in my oven that makes me feel like the ultimate homemaker and hostess.

BUT, I also love the thought of not waking up at 6am and putting my hands all up in the business end of a giant raw turkey. I love the thought of not having to wrangle a heavy bird covered with butter while trying to stuff it full of aromatics and tie it shut. I love the thought of showing up with a few yummy things and going home with a bunch of leftovers. I also love the thought of not having to do the dishes.

Truth be told, I'm not entirely off the hook, because Nathan wants me to make a turkey, anyway, in order to have the leftovers that are, as we all know, second in importance only to the Day itself. And my mom did try to talk me into cooking the turkey at my house and carting it across town for the party at her house because she says mine are so tasty (brining!). Since I didn't want turkey juice sloshed in my car on Thanksgiving Day (and please also refer to the aforementioned 6am turkey wrangling discussion), we are compromising: I'm going to come over the day before and help them set up the brine, and they'll cook it on Thanksgiving Day. All that to say that I'm not completely off turkey duty. But this year will be a whole lot lighter in terms of the work involved for me.

Last year, this was my menu (mind you, other people brought things; this is just what I made myself):

• turkey
• gravy
• cranberry sauce
• stuffing
  
• mashed potatoes
  
• green bean casserole
• corn casserole
• roasted carrots
• pecan pie
  
• Hershey bar pie
• Cranberry Oatmeal Crumble Squares
  

This year, I am making:

• cranberry sauce
• green bean casserole
• bread/rolls
  
• pecan pie
• cranberry oatmeal crumble squares

I can't say that I'm not a little excited about my shorter list. Even though I will be missing out on hosting this year, I'm ready to take a little break from it. Perhaps next year I'll host again, and we can take full advantage of my double oven.

What are you making for Thanksgiving? The whole feast? A dessert or a side? Are you going to run by the grocery store on the way over and grab some cookies? Or are you just going to show up and eat? Comments, please!

Transitions and the Doggie Paddle

Howdy y'all.

I don't know if you've noticed, but my blog posts have spread out a bit, especially over the last month or two. In fact, October 2010 had the fewest posts since I started my blog in 2007. I just haven't had the time/energy to sit down and write as often lately. And that made me start to reflect a bit.

It galvanized some thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head for a while. In general, since our move and the addition of a second child, I just haven't found my groove. I feel like I'm doggie paddling, struggling to keep my head above water (and dipping under from time to time--especially this past summer), and I can't seem to transition to a nice, steady breaststroke. I just can't seem to find my rhythm; there hasn't been a time since Jane was born that I've been able to just coast, you know?

I was telling a couple of friends about this, and I think I'm not the only one who feels this way. Courtney often calls it her "new normal," for example. Life with two small children is just busy; there is no getting around it. I remember listening to lectures at Mom to Mom, back when I only had one baby, and various speakers would often sympathetically talk about what an important job you have, even when you can't find time to brush your teeth or when you don't get out of your pajamas all day. I would sit there thinking, "Really? Really, are some people like that?" And, okay, to be honest, there still has not been a day when I didn't get my teeth brushed. But the difference is that I can truly see now how it could happen!

So I'm getting used to life with two kiddos. It's a transition, but that's not to say that life at our house isn't fun; I enjoy my Noah (who is getting funnier and smarter all the time) and my Jane (who is super active and follows us all around the house now). They are jewels, and I would not trade this job for anything else. It is the most rewarding and joyful thing I've ever done. But I do feel like I am still in transition. I still kind of feel like I'm trying to find my feet.

I'm not fretting about this as much as it might seem, but it has been on my mind. And I decided to write about it because I'm sure some of you out there can relate. If so, tell me about your experience; are you currently in this season of life and are feeling the same way? Are you a little ahead of me and can offer some nugget of advice that will help me find that breaststroke? Are you an experienced mom who can offer some encouragement to the rest of us? I'm looking forward to your comments!

Thankfulness

I'm loving reading your comments on the post below! Keep them coming!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, and because I think that I've been mentioning too many downsides to our new home and not enough of the benefits, I'm listing some things for which I am giving thanks this year. I'd love it if you left a comment with at least one thing you're thankful for, too.

• Grandparents! I have to say, the best part of being back in Texas is having our kids' grandparents close by. It's wonderful to watch them all love each other. Plus, let's be honest: the free babysitting ain't too bad, either.
• A healthy family. Until some people my age started getting real health problems, I didn't know to be as thankful as I should be that Nathan, the kids, and I are in good health. It is such a blessing.
• No more six month winters. Let's be real. Snow is wonderful. Scarves and soup are wonderful. But when it gets to be March, April, and (heaven forbid) May and the highs still range between the 30's and 50's, you are very ready to escape the cold and go on a cruise or something. Although I am not sure I like the trade of a six month winter for an eight month summer, I am glad I don't have to wait for the bus on blustery days or carry a kid on my hip when we're both wearing puffy jackets (it's harder than you might think).
• Our minivan. I know that there are a ton of people who are not loving the minivan thing, and I get that. But I've never really been into cars, and I've never cared too much about having one that is cool, so to me, having one that is convenient and comfortable is just great. I love that Noah can climb in and get into his car seat by himself, that everything is easy to reach, that we can fit eight people pretty comfortably, and more. I may not be the coolest mom on the road (really, can anyone rock a gold minivan?), but I am content.
• BBQ, Tex Mex, and Blue Bell Ice Cream. (And Nathan would add Shipley's Donuts.)
• Good old friends.
  
• I might add some more as I think of them....
  

The Non-Season and the Non-Holiday

Okay, not to kick a dead horse, but it is 81 degrees here today. Seriously. On November 10.

We had fall for about a week and a half. As of November 1, it had started to get cooler--the nights were even fairly cold! It was great! But today and most of this week is in the 80's.

I have decided that September and October in Houston (and part of November, evidently) are pretty much a non-season. Because according to the calendar, it's fall, but the truth is that it is still summer. Reading Facebook statuses in October was cracking me up, because all of these dear Houstonians were saying things like, "Welcome, fall! I'm so glad you're here!" And the main difference was that it was in the 80's rather than the 90's. I'd just chuckle and say to myself, "Bless their hearts, they don't know it's still summer." (I don't mean to sound condescending to Houstonians, by the way, because I said exactly the same thing before I moved away.)

Anyway, one of the reasons this period feels like a non-season to me is that the food doesn't reflect what is going on outside. I mean, I love some good tomatoes and watermelon in the summer, but those understandably go away in the fall. So even though it still feels like summer outside, the grocery stores ship in fall foods and declare a change of seasons with their fall decor and pumpkins. But to me, making butternut squash soup when it's 89 degrees outside just doesn't feel right. So something about the food not matching the weather is draining my inspiration for cooking. I guess I am much more inspired by seasonal produce than I had previously realized. So I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving and am hoping that it will be nice and cool so that squash and mashed potatoes and turkey and sage and pumpkin pie will feel just right.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, has anyone noticed that none of the stores have any Thanksgiving things out? It's all Christmas stuff! Y'all, I love Christmas, and it's my favorite holiday, but seriously, I have been to three stores in the last 24 hours trying to find a few Thanksgiving decorative and food items to send to someone, and nobody has anything except for a few paper napkins! No turkeys on anything; there's not even any fall themed stuff! And evidently people in Texas don't brine their turkeys, because no one knows what I'm talking about when I ask where the brining bags are. I think I am just going to have to make a trip to Williams Sonoma to get the stuff I want.

When did Thanksgiving become the non-holiday? Why is a bigger deal made of Halloween than of Thanksgiving? It's a little disheartening to me that the retail world has decided to skip it, because it's one of my favorite holidays.

So here's my suggestion: In an effort to get into the Thanksgiving spirit, let's all leave a comment having something to do with Thanksgiving. It could be a reason you love this holiday, a favorite memory, or, heck, your mom's pumpkin pie recipe. And here's a bonus question, just for fun: Do you prefer jellied or homemade cranberry sauce? I'm looking forward to reading your comments!

We'll Chat Soon

Right now, I need to get off the computer. Because I have a bunch of laundry I need to do. Tomorrow's lunch to make for Noah. A to do list to write for tomorrow. Unpacking to do. Toys to pick up. A kitchen to clean. A box to find. And who knows what else.

We've had such busy weekends lately! And busy weeks as we prepare for the weekends! I'll have to give some more complete updates soon, when I have all my pictures uploaded and have the time to write.

For now, I'll leave you with the one thing that has left me the most struck in the last 45 minutes or so: Matthew and Emily's latest blog post. My reactions:
1.) Oh my goodness, how I long to go to those places. That is just me to a tee.
2.) Oh my goodness, I remember the days when I could stroll through a place and enjoy it for five whole hours. To those of you without children yet: Enjoy the ability to have such freedom. From my perspective, when I look back on the pre-children days, I am struck by the amount of sheer leisure time we had. I am also struck by how little we appreciated it. (Although I'm sure the inability to recognize and properly enjoy things is a phenomenon of every stage of life.)

Goodnight, peeps. We'll chat soon.

Eight Months Old!

Miss Jane is eight months old today!

She is growing and getting more active all the time. She is getting to be an expert at the army crawl, for example, which is really fun to watch. The crawling plus the advanced pincer grasp means that I have to vacuum all the time now, or else Janey Beth finds all kinds of little treasures in the carpet.

She's pretty ticklish, too, so all of us--including her brother--love to tickle her. And the child loves to be tickled. Her laugh is so great.

One funny little idiosyncrasy of Jane's is that she wiggles her feet when she's excited, especially when she is eating. What's interesting is that Noah always held his arms up in the air: when he was being held, when he was eating, even often when he was sleeping. Those arms were in the air, and his wrists would rotate so that his hands were always moving. Well, Jane has her own corresponding little thing, too, with those rotating ankles and wiggling feet. Funny girl.

One of the things that entertains Jane is clapping. For a while, she's liked to grab Nathan's thumbs and press his hands together so that he claps, and just the other day, she started clapping her own hands. It just makes your day brighter when someone you love is so exhilarated by something simple like learning to clap.

Until about a week ago, we fed her all of her meals in the Bumbo, which is so darn handy. But we had to move her to the high chair, because she has gotten so long and limber that she was nearly tipping herself over--she'd see something she was interested in behind her, dig her heels in, twist around, and reach an insanely long distance for such a little person.

Over the past few weeks, Jane has started eating a few finger foods. Her favorites are Gerber puffs, which are great for beginners because they melt in your mouth. The other night, we tried peas, too, and she took to those wonderfully. Basically, she just thinks it's great fun to feed herself, and she gets really excited every time she gets the chance to do it.

Here we go!
Those little peas are hard to pick up, even when you have little fingers.

Mmm, tasty!

Success is sweet!

We all sure do love that Jane Elisabeth.

Why, yes, I am wearing a sword. Do you like it?

See? I can stab the floor!
In fact, I can make a mean face while stabbing the floor!
I can also stab you, by the way.
Wow. This thing is long.

I think I need to show you my mean face again.
Grrr!