Aug 02

Likes and Dislikes, part 4

Evie Aime:
*Arare. For those who don’t know, these are those Asian rice crackers. I don’t think there’s any nutritional value. I mean, seriously, it’s ultra processed rice, smidges of seaweed, and coated in soy sauce. I’ve been trying to shake it up, so we’ve had pretzels and raisins, and I think she likes those just as well, so perhaps what she likes the most is sitting on the couch, sharing a snack with Mommy, perhaps even watching a show.

*The Outdoors. As has been discussed by us, the news, and everyone in general, Boston had a pretty hard winter. Once Spring hit, we were finally able to go outside, and Evie is at an age where she can enjoy it. And she does. She LOVES it. She loves putting on her shoes and running about. She doesn’t like to be contained -she wants to go about on her own and do whatever she sees to do, whether it’s running up our little hill, picking flowers, smelling flowers, climbing into our newly built fire pit, digging, etc.

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*Swimming.

DSC01438We’ve been able to get her into the water a few times, and each time, she’s gotten braver. Coincidentally or not, the last time we went to a pool, I joined and she kicked and splashed and dunked her head -way more active than previous times in the water.

*Room on the Broom. Holy smokes. This is an animated short based on the children’s book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. I have not read the book, but I’ve watched the movie -a lot -so I can say with confidence that it’s very good and 18-month-old-approved. It’s Evie’s first obsession, but it could definitely be a lot worse. It’s a 2014 Animated Short Academy Award nominee, if that means anything to anyone and it’s SO cute and SO sweet and SO funny. Well, not sitcom funny, but light and has some great moments of LOL. Anyway, she can’t get enough and I don’t really mind because I really like it, too. The more she watches, the more she gets excited about and or laughs at various parts. As soon as it’s over, she wants it on again. I think it’s surpassed her love of eating because, to get her downstairs after a nap, I usually end up having to ask her “don’t you want breakfast/lunch” and she’ll stop what she’s doing, do her mouthing thing, and scurry to the stairs (we have a gate there now). She used to go straight to her chair and want to eat THAT SECOND. Now she bypasses her chair and goes to the couch, and points to the TV. Oy. She loves it so much at the moment we’re considering that, if she still loves it in at least two months, we’ll dress her up as the main character. And for anyone who knows us, we’re not big Halloween people, so this is a pretty big endorsement of this movie. Anyway, it’s on Netflix (or you can pay extra if you’re a member of Amazon Prime, which is super lame), it’s 27 minutes long with credits, the voices include Gillian Anderson, Simon Pegg, and Timothy Spall, so if you want to see what this 18-month-old and 31-year-old are obsessed with, give it a shot.

*Toasting. Well, not so much toasting as “clinking” glasses/cups. James and I did this for self-congratulatory reasons at some point a couple months ago, and between then and a couple of weeks ago, Evie would occasionally hold up her cup to clink and then we’d go back to eating. Recently, though, she’s been doing it multiple times during a meal and has started to do it if she has a cup and then she sees we have a cup.

IMG_20150805_191119654 IMG_20150805_191122187Evie n’Aime pas:
*Tomatoes. What? No! Yes, I think I can safely say she doesn’t like tomatoes. Not even when they’re cooked, as on pizza. She’s been consistently picking/spitting out the tomatoes whenever we give them to her or give her something with them in it. But that’s going for a lot of vegetables, actually. Veggies she used to eat without a thought or opinion, but now has decided “i don’t want this,” though whether or not it’s because of an actual opinion is anyone’s guess.

Jul 07

Things I’ve Been Working On, a Follow-Up

Hokey, so.

1) I painted the chair. It was one my mom had and went with her desk, which I also stole, but I put it not with the desk but by our door because we ask our guests to take off their shoes so I figured I should provide a chair for them to use should they want or need to use it. It needed a facelift and instead of staining it, I thought I’d use it to put a little color in the room. My spray painting is still mediocre at best, but so are my interior decorating skills, so I suppose I’m as happy as I can be with the results. But I still high five myself because I did it.

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2) I’ve been using the homemade laundry detergent. I’m still pretty happy with it. I mean, it cleans the diapers, so really, it seems to work pretty well. I wouldn’t say my whites are so much brighter! but nothing I’ve used has made me shout that for joy, so there’s that to consider. Regardless, it’s added to the pile of money savers, and it’s worth it to me because it also doesn’t take a lot of time. There seems to be a lot of recipes out there, but a lot of them are for liquid, which takes a lot longer than I’m willing to give it, so this is the one I use:

2 parts Washing Soda
2 parts Borax
1 part Natural Bar Soap (such as Dr. Bronner’s, Ivory, etc.)
few tsps Baking Soda (optional)

I used Dr. Bronner’s in lavender, but I have to admit that I don’t smell the lavender on my clothes, so i don’t really think it matters. It’s a nice whiff when I open up the container, so perhaps I’ll stick with it for that reason (the price for scented costs the same for unscented). I also didn’t add the baking soda because the washing soda I found is Arm and Hammer and I think they advertise that it already has baking soda in it. And if i need the extra smell fighting action, I’ll add a cup of baking soda to the wash myself.

The other thing I did was make a little satchet of rice out of cheese cloth; the rice will absorb any untoward liquid, keeping the detergent from clumping (like brown sugar does). One of the sites I was looking at described having to take a drill to her detergent to break it up. You can also use desiccate, but I’m incredibly nervous about keeping that in my house, and not just because of le bebe.

Anyway. I used my food processor to pulverize the bar soap, but I learned the hard way to cut it up into bite sized pieces before doing that. Did I mention i made two batches? So the first bar soap i just threw in there and it and the heat the processor generated didn’t mix well. And I think i got less out of it, too (let’s say it seemed to equal about .75c). The second one I did, I cut up (but I think i’ll cut it up smaller when the time comes for me to make another batch) and i think it yielded somewhere around 1.25 to 1.5 cups. Anyway, you can also use a cheese grater. Then it’s just a matter of measuring the washing soda and borax and mixing it all together. I got a glass container from Target -I think it was around 2 gallons -that ended up being too big. BUT I have those same style of containers for my all purpose and bread flours, so I switched out the too big 2-gallon with my wish-it-was-as big-as-my-all-purpose 1.5 (or so) gallon bread flour container, and the 2 batches of detergent fit perfectly (when I say “2 batches” that means that I used two bars of Dr. Bronner’s soap and then 4 parts washing soda and borax).

And because I’m incredibly lazy, I don’t make labels. I like them and have even bought some to use -both on the computer and writing -but I hate the non-removable quality, so i usually end up forgoing them. Instead I use a projector pen. Now I just need to remember to dry my hands completely whenever I grab one of the bottles with that ink on it.

Another thing I’ve found is that Washing Soda isn’t the easiest to find. I ended up getting it at the Commissary -I’m not a huge fan of the various grocery stores out here, so I don’t know if they’d be there, but I know I haven’t found it at Target. However, I’ve found it at ACE, but it’s more expensive. I don’t know if that’s because it’s the Commissary v. ACE, or it’s a hardware store v. a grocery store. Anyway. Borax however, i’ve found at Target (and ACE). In my research and the options available to me, the Commissary is the cheapest option, but you can also find both at Amazon. Of course. Because they have everything. And not necessarily in a good way.

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3) I made the soy candles. There were two citronella and two eucalyptus. And they aren’t as awful as they could be, but they aren’t as great, either. Yes, negative nelly here, but still. When one spends money and time on something, one wants it to work out. There’s a science to candlemaking that I am not sure how to master with regard to container + wax type = wick size, so that’s an issue with my candles; I think they’re okay and remain lit the way they’re supposed to, but I haven’t burned through them yet, so I’m not sure how well, overall, they’ll do. The other issue, though this one is fixable (just not for this batch, which is such a waste), is how much essential oil I put in. Not enough. James said he could smell it, but it was faint and would probably have been okay had we been inside. So that’s good to know, but still: useless. I actually had a mad scramble while I was making the candles to find out how much essential oil I should put in them because I discovered that the measurement I had was for fragrance oil -not the same thing. I also discovered that i needed to stop deducting the tare because, surprise!, the weight of the oil was not great enough for the scale to notice. Arg! At this point, my kitchen and hands smelled like citronella. Not an awful scent, but not my favorite, either. Anyway. It’s not like I’ll throw them out, I just need to hurry up and use them so i can make another batch. As far as the wicks go, I had to buy a pack of something like 20, so I’m stuck with those for now, but I’ll conquer the rest of the candlemaking process, and then I’ll get to the wicks. I seriously felt like I was back in chemistry lab. I was taking notes about the current process, as well as for future ones, and everything. It felt more like being in chemistry than any other cooking does, I guess because this wasn’t food, so my brain was automatically switched over.

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4) Iced coffee. One good thing about the increasing heat here. I’m on to my infused simple syrup idea. My issue is that there aren’t too many flavors of coffee I like, so as much as i want to experiment, someone has to drink it, and James isn’t that huge a fan of iced coffee. But on my list are mint, vanilla, and I want to look into chocolate and white chocolate. Mmm… Mouth is watering…

5) Limoncello. Sort of. It’s still a work in progress, but we are onto our second batch (because there’s still experimentation to do) but once I finally took the plunge to do the first one, it wasn’t a huge issue to do the second one (batch, that is).

6) I painted the table. I finally decided on a rose gold color.

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It was easier to paint than the chair -less nooks and crannies -and i like it better overall. But still, a very small change.

So that’s it! It’s great being able to cross items off of my List. And most of these little projects have been on it since we moved from Vegas or moved in here.

Jul 06

Evie’s Budding Personality

I remember when a cousin had her first child and she would say how exciting and amazing it was to watch as her daughter grew and developed and how her little personality was showing itself. And it was awesome to hear about, but now experiencing it first hand is even more amazing and exciting. I mentioned before how she loves people and that she’s so friendly and I really feel like that’s from my maternal grandfather, and it’s so wonderful and heartwarming to see that connection! He was definitely an extrovert and probably one of the friendliest people I’ve ever known and I would rather she have that optimism than the misanthropic tendencies of her mother. She will go up to complete strangers and just start hugging them and talking to them and even sometimes trying to sit on their lap, or at least right next to them. She has tackled a little boy in her vigorous attempt to hug him.

IMG_20150418_130843705 -TrimAs friendly as she is, though, I can also see the feistiness, which is adorable and hilarious right now, but won’t be so much in ten years. Below is probably my favorite picture. I think she had her water cup and she was flipping it around and James took it away from her, and this is the look she gave him:

IMG_20150505_174911172_HDR_CroppedWe both laugh at it, but James’ first reaction was that he didn’t like the picture because The Look was directed at him. And in the future, she might even be able to get away with even more with Daddy because he wants to avoid The Look. It’s funny now…

And when she gets tired, she doesn’t necessarily get cranky. She starts out zipping about like she has ADD, and then eventually gets short tempered -but still ADD, so if you distract her, she’ll probably start laughing again. But that’s also not to say that our girl doesn’t constantly run about at every other moment. She does. She rarely sits still, and even when she sleeps she rolls around. She’s so incredibly active, it’s no wonder she often eats as much as me!

She is starting to figure out what she likes and doesn’t like, or feels like doing or eating and doesn’t feel like doing or eating. Something she may have eaten at lunch one day, she’ll refuse the next. This is both a good and bad thing, as I want her to have her own personality, but I dread the possible outcome of a picky eater. We’ve tried our best to give her a huge variety of foods, but she’s slowly refusing to eat things she was more than happy to a few months ago. It’s also a bad thing because if she doesn’t want it, she’ll either spit it out or let it fall out of her mouth.

Jul 06

4th of July

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Over the weekend, we drove to Ohio to Uncle Bob and Aunt Jan’s farm for the annual 4th of July family get together. It’s a pretty awesome gathering of first cousins all the way to second cousins once removed, and Bob and Jan’s property is gorgeous. It’s a hobby farm, but they do grow corn, wheat, and soy, and they raise cows and chickens, and occasionally they’ll have other animals. I think they mentioned that while their kids were growing up they had goats and Jan recently got some gorgeous and adorable ducks. They also have the requisite cats and dogs.

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Needless to say, Evie loved it all. She requisitioned most of the adults to take her around to see the animals, specifically the barn where two of the cows were hanging out, but Uncle Justin and Cousin Bob were the two most frequent playmates and tour guides. Her second favorite thing to do, outside of visit the barn, was to swing. Everything else she did at least once, but going to the barn and swinging were the two things she went back to as many times as she could.

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Like I said, it was a pretty big gathering. Most of the people we saw when we were there five years ago were there again, so it was good to see familiar faces and to reconnect. And apparently it was one of the few gorgeous days they’ve seen in a long while -lots of rain -so huzzah! It was also not too bad in the way of heat and humidity.

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Jun 13

Our Little Lady

Ok. This is a quick one. I was finally updating the pictures around our house and I came across this one. I scrolled through the Mother’s Day pictures and when I landed on this, my heart leaped. Both from joy and shock. DSC_0078 I don’t know if it’s just the way the picture is taken, the way her hair happens to be, the expression on her face, the way she’s standing, or all of the above, but in this picture I see the woman she’ll be eventually and it’s glorious and terrifying and so incredibly heartbreaking all at once. I look at it and it’s like the picture was captured in a moment of reflection and she’s so beautiful and my eyes well from this vision of the future.

May 31

The Kitchen

So as mentioned previously in various posts or whatnot, this has been done for a while. There were little things that needed to be finished -touch ups in general- which have held us up, but it’s also a matter of taking pictures after we’ve cleaned it and when the sun is out -and coordinating the two doesn’t really work.

This reno wasn’t nearly as stressful as I feared and we were really lucky to have people who, on the whole, were on top of things and were into keeping their promises and all had really great, friendly, helpful, and enthusiastic personalities. We didn’t have issues with slipping timelines, and while there was room for improvement on various aspects (communication and scheduling being some of them), it really could have been a lot worse, and I know I really shouldn’t complain.

As stated before, our kitchen was the pits. All of the photos were taken before we moved in, so imagine the counter space seen with both a countertop microwave and a toaster oven. It really had a way of making cooking unfun, to say the least. We kept the floor plan more or less the same, but it’s a really big room, probably created to house a table to eat on, so we were able to add an island for some prep space as well as seating, just in case future owners don’t want to use the sunroom as a dining room like we are. We also knew we wanted seating at our island because of our experience in Vegas; everyone hung out in the kitchen when we’d have friends over because all our gatherings were centered around food.

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All the cabinets were torn out and we replaced all of the appliances (actually, we did that before we moved in because we closed on the house before Labor Day, so we took advantage of those sales). The only lighting was that pimple you see on the ceiling in both pictures above, as well as a little light above the sink, so we put in recessed lighting and made the sink light a pendant. Because the ceiling is only about 7 feet, that was the only place I could get a pendant light. 🙁

In the pictures “before” is the original floor color, too. And we have three different woods for the major areas (bottom floor, stairs, sunroom), so they all took the stain slightly differently. Not that that’s not true for the darker stain we have on them now, but it seems a little more cohesive. Or at least that’s what I tell myself but regardless, I like darker stains better, so I suppose I shouldn’t need to convince myself of anything. :p

My original wish was to stay with white cabinetry. This room gets very little natural light and the ceilings are low and you can tell. But we also wanted to save money, so we went with stock cabinets, and the company who makes them does a lot better with the stains than the paints. But since we were going with stains and we are both NOT fans of light colored woods, dark we went. And we had to coordinate with what we’d already restained our floors in, so we ended up having to go darker. I still think white cabinets would have at least given the illusion of a brighter room, but it’s still a handsome kitchen.

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DSC_0006So far, I still feel like our kitchen is unfinished. It just needs a little more personality/color, but we don’t have room for clutter, and Evie still has a thing for dishtowels, so they wind up on the floor anyway. We went with white walls and clear glass tiles to lighten things up (see the aforementioned dark cabinets complaints), so no help there. I was looking for some counter stools to bring in pops of color, but couldn’t find any that weren’t uncomfortable or cost prohibitive (either because they were cheap but I didn’t trust the quality -and thus would have had to be replaced in the next couple of years or because, you know, they were upward of $700 or $800. A piece.) Anyway. I shouldn’t complain. I don’t know what I’d do with myself if the house was “done.” It’s always the ideal I strive for (doesn’t everyone?), but I’m sure that once i’m there, I wouldn’t feel confident declaring it so. Ok. I feel better. 🙂

Moving on. The house in which I grew up had a window box in the kitchen in which my mom kept flowers. I’m not a flower person (if you’re a plant, and you’re going to be in my house, you’d better earn your keep), but I am an herb person so I wanted some sort of fresh herb supplier, but putting one in our kitchen is tricky because of the aforementioned little natural light. I got some ideas from the Internets and showed James so we would be on the same page, and we went to our local ACE to scope out materials and James got some ideas from the people who work there (because they really are the helpful hardware store). It’s just a copper pipe and fittings that James polished and then sprayed with sealer to keep it from tarnishing, some twine, and some copper-looking pails we got from Target. I still can’t really reach it, but I love having it there. Mint for mixed drinks (an idea i got/loved/stole from a really good friend), chives, basil, and thyme. We got the mint and basil from Whole Foods as already mature plants, and the chives and thyme were planted as seedlings. Needless to say, I haven’t been able to use the thyme yet.

DSC_0021_01So we redid the kitchen, but we also redid the pantry. We used the Container Store closet system in our master closet in Vegas, and we really liked it, so we knew we were going to go with it for this house. We also know that they have an annual sale around the first of the year, so we waited until then to do the pantry and our master closet here. The master closet is whatever, and was really more about maximizing the tiny space as much as we could, but our pantry is EVER so much better.

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We can store SO much more in there, which, along with the new kitchen, makes cooking even more fun/enjoyable. Ignore the massively packed shelves. If you think it looks stuffed, it was even worse before. Also, what you don’t see (but maybe can tell… if you had the time to study our pictures) is that each shelf is categorized and labeled, which is probably the best part of the whole thing.

Eventually, our wine fridge will go away. Why, one might ask? Because it’s broken! Yes, the movers broke it and it can’t be fixed. And they won’t replace or reimburse us for it. It’s a very long story. And I’ve almost made my peace with it. But not quite. Anyway, it’s going to go, eventually, which will, as happens when one discards things, make the room seem that much bigger/more open, so there’s that. It was really naive of us to get it, anyway. We discovered/should have realized we couldn’t move our wines, and accumulating enough to actually fill or even halfway fill the fridge was never going to happen (especially because of that transport issue mentioned). Someday, at our forever home or something, we’ll get another one. And NEVER MOVE IT.

Also eventually, we’re planning on getting one more bookshelf from where we got the others to put next to our faux mantle (that thing with the vent in the picture below) to hold the rest of our books. Our other shelves are overstuffed, and we have stacks waiting to be put away. Well… I have stacks. It’s my major weakness. Some people buy shoes and while I do, I can still pass shoes by, whereas I can’t pass up a book. Even if I don’t have time to read it or know I’ll probably lose interest once I’ve purchased it. This is not to sound pretentious, so if I do, I really don’t mean to.
DSC_0016And that’s it! That’s our kitchen. It took about 6 weeks and we love it. The main thing is: Sort of like when I upgraded to two computer screens, I don’t think i’ll ever be able to go without an island. It was torture not having one, not just because of the lack of counter space, but also just the ease and flow of cooking that an island brings to me. Now I think I’ll never be able to have a crappy pantry. This should be fun, this escalating NEEDS for a kitchen. The only thing that makes me feel better about this is that I actually use my kitchen. So at least there’s that…

May 29

The Half Bath

This one was mostly cosmetic, but was also about that aforementioned storage and efficiency.

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They built out the soffit and put in a vent, so there wasn’t this metal tube running out and we changed the lights to overhead. We were going to put in a medicine cabinet, but found out that the studs weren’t in the right place, so that was nixed and we just put the old mirror back in. One of these days I want to replace it with a more decorative one, but it’s fine for now. We also gained some space under the sink (which is awesome, because when I do a Sam’s Club run, there are a lot of paper products to store…) and any overnight guests now have some counter space to work with.

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I think the only thing left for this room is that James wants a curtain on the window (when looking out that window, to the right is our neighbor’s yard. Not super close, but they could, potentially, see in if they’re wandering out there at night when the bathroom light is on) so I’m thinking a cafe length on a tension rod is our only and best option. We changed the sheer liners to darkout curtains in Evie’s room (which isn’t getting her to sleep later, by the way), so I’ll probably cut one down and perhaps add something to it to jazz it up. … Haha -right, okay. I won’t be doing that; I’ll bribe my mother to do that when she gets here. If it was cotton, maybe I’d brave it. But I’m sure I’ll snag the sheers and just ruin the whole bit.

May 27

This Is How a Serial Killer Cat Is Made

This is Mouse:

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When we got him, he was somewhere around 3 months old and he was born feral; he was incredibly skittish and it took a lot of persistence to get him comfortable with us, and it still takes a lot of persistence for him to become comfortable with new people. Now, though, he’s our most affectionate cat, always insisting that we sit on the couch so he can cuddle. Captain Wentoworth, our other cat, has many a hiding spot and always naps in one of those out of the way places. Mouse often sleeps on the couch or another in the open place, probably so he won’t miss a cuddle opportunity.

And because he’s often out in the open, Evie can get to him and frequently does. She means well, but she doesn’t quite understand her strength, whether she’s too strong one moment -like when she lays on top of him -or too weak -like when she tries to pick him up.

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But she loves Mouse. LOVES him. And I don’t know why, but Mouse won’t run away when she comes near. Captain does. Captain didn’t need more than one instance of Evie’s affection to know that he didn’t want any part of it. Mouse, on the other hand, will sit there and take it all. He won’t like all of it, like when she pulls his tail, and will even do that hiss/growl/meow thing that cats do but doesn’t necessarily precede violence. But he won’t run away. I mean, he’ll sometimes get up, take a few steps, and then plop down again, but he doesn’t run away. And, i mean, he plops down and just seems surprised to see her again. Like, “Wh-?! HOW did you find me again?” Or, “How did you get to me SO FAST?!”

I can’t stop her every single time so I try to keep her from getting out of hand but there are times when I’m late to the party and I hear that hiss/growl/meow thing and I try to stop her, but barely a minute later, she’s back to her old tricks. And it’s so sad and yet so funny. But then there are moments, where he shoots me this look:

IMG_20150515_194538986And I think, “He is going to kill us in our sleep.” This situation is seriously like all those stories you hear. I mean, other cats in the neighborhood will meow among themselves: “he was so nice” and “he was such a quiet cat; always sitting at the window, gazing out into the world” or even “I would never have thought… The other one, maybe, but the little one?”

I mean, I watch a lot of Criminal Minds and the like and they often talk about how a serial killer is made and I can see that cycle of abuse and complacence between all of us and Mouse.

So now you know. If something happens, blame the cat.

May 19

Things I’ve Been Working On

One benefit of Evie becoming more independent (and my being unemployed) is that I have some time and freedom of movement to try things that have interested me. A major thing is cooking and trying new recipes out, or getting into regions of food that I want to try to make (and by regions I mostly mean along the lines of “hey, let’s go to the Chinese/pizza/BBQ restaurant over yonder,” “nah, let’s find a recipe and make whatever we’re craving at home”). Not that that interest is particularly new, but the variation in experimentation is still exciting.

But a few other things I’ve been getting into ARE new, and so thus exciting and sometimes terrifying (failure sucks):

  1. Homemade limoncello. I love limoncello. I love it best when it’s both tart and sweet and very, very cold, which isn’t generally hard to find, but I wanted to try to make it myself because I thought, maybe it will be both better and cheaper, since I’m a budding alcoholic when it comes to this stuff. Well, It’s not significantly cheaper, as far as I can tell. A bottle is, let’s say, $30. I think, once it’s finished, I will have spent about $16 for ingredients for the same amount. Which is great, but then there’s the bottle to consider. I’m thinking I’d rather buy one that I can reuse, so I suppose if I continue to reuse it for this purpose, the overall cost will continue to go down… But still. The process seems easy enough—vodka + lemon peel + time + simple syrup—but the waiting time seems to be anywhere from 4 days to a month, which is an eternity so it’d better be amazing. We’ll see. We made lemonade from all the lemons, which is perfect since it’s been getting pretty toasty here.
  2. Homemade laundry detergent. I still have a few loads of our huge container of Seventh Generation, but I have made some of the laundry detergent already and have used some. I think it’s ok. I mainly used it on a couple of loads already so I could have a backup detergent (the aforementioned Seventh Gen) in case it sucked. It didn’t—I even used it on the diapers—but I’m still reserving judgement. At least I know it gets things clean.
  3. Getting up the courage to refinish a couple things in our house. First on my list are a chair, our desk, and a side table, two of which I want to spray paint and one of which I want to stain. I hope it doesn’t suck. My spray paint jobs have thus far been mediocre.
  4. Homemade iced coffee. See a theme here? I read an article about some of the methods used to make iced coffee, and the overall determination by the author and his friends is that the Japanese method (or whatever)—which, apparently, is super easy and the steps are something like brewing it with hot water over ice—is best if one loves the flavor of coffee and wants to drink it straight. I’m not one of those people, so the other method is to cold brew it, which is exactly how it sounds. I just put some ground beans into our French press, filled it with cold water, and let it sit for the day, then I pressed it and stuck it in the fridge. The day I made it was super hot, but then the next morning it was super cold, so I didn’t try it until the day after that. And it was pretty good. I made some simple syrup so that was my sweetener, and I poured it, some milk, and the coffee over ice. I think I put too much sweetener in, but it wasn’t bad. Actually, it was pretty good, especially considering the minimal equipment I have in comparison to a coffee shop. Totally worth it. My next stop, once it gets warm enough to have it daily, is to experiment with the sweetener; I can imagine steeping a vanilla bean or adding some mint or maybe even an orange peel and cinnamon. Hm…
  5. Taking the plunge and making soy candles. I have been searching for soy Citronella candles and after finding nothing local (i.e., within driving distance), I tried purchasing some on Etsy, which fell through. So now I’m taking the plunge and have bought supplies to make my own. Why Citronella? Because it’s supposed to be a natural insect repellent. Also, I just read that Lemon Eucalyptus (or just Eucalyptus? If I can’t find the former, I’ll take the latter) also does the job, and in fact is comparable to DEET—except it won’t destroy you. Anyway. My plan is to use just our regular cooking equipment and then spend the time to clean it well afterward; if I like making them, perhaps I’ll invest in some cheapie equipment to use solely for crafting. But maybe not; I’m also making what are apparently relatively large candles (I’m using quart mason jars), so I’m not sure how often I’ll be making them. But, as mentioned, it’s warming up outside and we’re itching for that rose-tinted ideal of sitting on our patio, grilling something delicious, and sipping homemade limoncello as the sun sets. In that rosy view is NOT bugs we have to keep swatting away, and eventually anti-itch cream we have to apply. At least, that’s not in my dream. Maybe others have more realistic expectations.

https://sakasen.org/2015/07/07/things-ive-been-working-on-a-follow-up/

May 18

Evie and Words, part 2

I feel confident enough to say that our daughter can speak. Hazzah! 😀 I want to say her first real word (that we understood and is consistent) was clock. Yes. I know. That’s weird. But she has one above her changing table and she would look up and point to it and we’d say “clock” and she’d look at us and say “cuh?” and we’d say “clock” and so it went, and then she started to point to it on her own and say “cuh-l”. That one and cat were two that sounded very similar when she’d say it, so we were never sure if she knew the difference. But I think she does. I can’t think of how she says cat right now (or even if it sounds more like kitty since that’s what we say more often), but I think she does say either.

She also says bubble and pop; these two she learned together because James makes soap bubbles for her during bath time. And because I’m banned from bath time (there are usually tears and angry grunting involved if I’m within sight), I don’t hear her say these enough to be able to accurately convey the Evie-talk.

Another word she’s knows is yes. “Ye” she says with a little nod. And nodding and shaking her head -she’s got those down. And, amazingly, she doesn’t say no. And i don’t think that’s selective hearing on my part but, of course, I can’t be sure.

Hokey, so: I saved the best for last. She also says please. Oh my goodness. There are a million things we’ve already done wrong as parents, but here’s solid evidence that we’ve done something right. Well, i mean, at least she knows the word. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves; I’m sure she doesn’t understand the concept. But we’ll pretend she does. She still does her grunting noise when she wants something, particularly food, but we’ll say “how do you ask?” or “ask nicely” and she’ll stop and say “pea?” or “pu-lees?” as she juts out her chin and it’s so adorable.