A beautiful "breakup"

breakup, n. The period of early spring in which snow and ice are breaking apart and melting (Alaskan use)

It's so warm outside! Our highs for the foreseeable future are all in the 40s, the sky is clear and blue with blazing sun, and a curtain of waterdrops is falling steadily from the eaves. There are bare patches on the driveway where gravel is showing through the snow, and the stretches of road that get the most sun are a patchwork of dirt and slush. Spring is coming!

How I wish I was a little farther along in recovery and up for a walk in this beautiful weather, but I'm not quite there yet. Otter and I will have to get outside tomorrow for a little bit, at least, to watch the other kids as they run around. They had a blast on the deck this afternoon! We're at a funny point in breakup, since there's still snow piled higher than LB's head (and it's getting soft and punchy now with all the sun, so the kids sink in instead of running on top), but it's warm enough that they want to spend hours out playing in it. It's messy-boot-area season, or messier-than-usual, because the kids need breakup boots for town but snowboots for home and I can't quite reach the floor with Otter in my arms, so I have to keep reminding them to keep all their gear neatly organized themselves and somehow it all just spreads everywhere...

Matt is taking advantage of this warm weather to thoroughly break in his new grill; so far he's made bourbon chicken, moose burgers, grilled chicken to add to a Mediterranean pasta salad, and this evening he made a pork loin stuffed with apples and onions. And tomorrow there's lemon-basil chicken planned; hopefully I'll have it ready in the fridge marinating by midafternoon, so he can throw it on the grill when he gets home from work.

And we know it's sure not winter anymore when it's still broad daylight at 8:30 pm! I'm not sure exactly when the sun rose this morning, but it was some time between 4 and 6 am. We've already had the annual conversations about how "the sun has nothing to do with what time it is" (i.e. whether or not it's bedtime) enough times than Kit and LB believe us. Otter doesn't have any reason to associate light with waking/dark with sleeping, so I can't blame the sun for his keeping me up half the night either. :-) He's been awake for a couple of hours consecutively this evening, though, so maybe there's hope that he'll be tired and sleep most of the night tonight!

Has spring arrived where you live yet? It sure seems like most people are ready to be done with winter!

Seven Baby Takes

I

Otter is so cute, it totally makes up for his lack of interest in sleeping at nighttime. Well, maybe not totally. But he is very cute.

II

So far he's gaining weight at a rate of a pound a week, which is a little bit ridiculous. I'm grateful that he is getting enough milk and isn't having any trouble gaining weight, it's just been funny realizing that outfits that were too big when he was born are already getting too small. 

III

Also, he is my only baby so far that hasn't hated wearing hats... 

IV

The night before Easter, we were reminded again to be thankful that we live in such a great neighborhood: a neighbor whom we'd met a grand total of once, at a party back in September or October, stopped by with two meals of moose stew and two loaves of bread because she thought she remembered that the baby was due at the end of March. So incredibly kind of her! We live near some wonderful people; we need to do a better job of getting to know our neighbors.

V

LB and Kit are both so eager to help with Otter! LB especially has impressed me: the other day in the car Otter was crying, the loud, unending angry cry of a baby who must. eat. now., and instead of getting upset LB talked quietly to him and rubbed his tummy until he fell asleep. Kit has (usually) been quick to run and get things for me when I'm stuck on the couch feeding Otter, and she and LB both want to hold their little brother all the time. Otter slept on LB's lap all through bedtime stories this evening!

VI

Since we never did get around to taking a spring break when everyone else in town did, LB and I decided that the octave of Easter was a good time for a break. It's been nice to have my mornings theoretically clear for non-school activities, though in practice I'm spending most of that time sitting on the couch feeding the baby anyway. We did school the first two weeks after Otter was born, but Matt was home to help; the coming week will be my first school week with Otter without Matt... We'll see how it goes! I'm glad we're getting close to the end of the school year—there isn't as much going on as there was earlier in the year, we've already begun wrapping up several subjects, and honestly I don't particularly care if we move through the remaining subjects at a slightly slower pace and wind up having a week or two of math lessons to do in May. Most people do school well into May anyway, don't they? I've always been in favor of not taking any days off and getting done as early as we can, but I really won't mind this year if we wind up on a more relaxed schedule due to Otter and wrap up a little later.

VII

One more baby photo:

Different baby :-) We had a cow (mom) and calf (baby) moose hanging around our yard Wednesday and Thursday this week! They were right up close to the house, and the kids had so much fun watching them. LB and Kit know better than to ever get close to one outside, but having them close enough to see so clearly through the windows was a treat.

Don't forget to check out more quick takes at This Ain't The Lyceum!

It's springtime somewhere

Okay, so in my opinion, it's springtime here. Matt feels strongly that it can't be "spring" until all the snow has melted, though, so... basically it won't be spring until some time in May? So we're compromising by using the Alaskan term—breakup—for the snow-is-melting messy season, and once most of the snow is gone and things are starting to green up we'll call it spring. Which is okay; before we married he was accustomed to determining when the seasons changed based on the calendar date, so living in a place where we calculate seasons purely based on climate has been enough of an adjustment... I can accept his definition of spring as being snowless. :-)

If you look at the weekly ads for the big chain stores, though, it's already grilling season... Clearly, they don't make separate ads for Alaska with our remaining 2.5+ feet of snow! (And as my father recently reminded us, it's not at all unheard of for us to get 15+ inches of snow in April. Though hopefully that doesn't happen this year!)

Matt's been looking at those ads and talking about a gas grill for a while now; we've had a charcoal grill for five or six years, and while we really like it, the time and effort involved in lighting charcoal and getting a good bed of coals has meant that we really only grill on summer weekends, and only those weekends that it's not raining or windy and we're able to dedicate a good block of time to pre-supper prep. And every fall, we wish that we had done a lot more grilling. It was time to find someone else who wanted a charcoal grill, and pick up a gas grill instead. 

When would you expect grills to go on sale? I said Memorial Day or Father's Day. Matt figured there would be some beginning-of-the-season sales, to which I said "yes, like Memorial Day..." Apparently he was right, though, because he just found the exact model he's been looking at for a deep discount. Thanks to the sale—and a new-baby gift that his coworkers would definitely approve of him using for a grill—Matt brought home a very early Fathers Day present this afternoon, and spent the next hour or so assembling it with LB and Kit.

And it wound up being the perfect day to try out a new grill, since our power was off and on for most of the afternoon and evening, so I wasn't able to cook supper as planned! It was a windy 39 degrees outside, definitely not the best charcoal weather, but the gas grill did just fine. And having a hot supper as opposed to whatever bits and bobs I could pull together without electricity? Delicious.

It felt pretty strange to be grilling with this much snow still on the ground! I'm hoping that we'll get a lot more use out of it, though, now that it's so much quicker to heat up the grill. Anyone have some favorite grilling recipes to share? I've gotten away with only having a couple of good ones up until this point, but I know that the family would appreciate some new ones to try!

Baby

I'd like to introduce our newest addition, "Otter"! 

Our largest baby yet at seven and a half pounds, Otter was unexpectedly born at home Sunday morning: thankfully two of the midwives with our birth center live nearby, because I woke up at 2am, they got here at 2:15, and Otter was born about ten minutes later! It was certainly not the birth we'd been expecting, but it worked out perfectly. He and I are both doing fine, and we are all so happy to have him here!  

Matt is able to stay home with us for a couple of weeks, for which I am very grateful! LB and Kit have been excited about Otter, but realistically they're probably more excited right now about having their dad home to play with them and do things with them while I'm busy with the baby. LB is still doing school this week, and has been so happy to have his dad here to do science projects with him! And I have not yet had to re-master doing everything one-handed, since Matt has taken on most of the meal-prep, and I've been able to hand Otter to Matt when I do need both hands for something. Maybe we'll work on that next week... Right now, I'm just enjoying sitting and holding this new tiny baby as much as possible!

Patience and a Lent list

About two weeks left of Lent! And of this pregnancy, theoretically. It is making me crazy that I can't really make plans for the rest of this liturgical season, because we've reached the point where baby could come any time now or not for a couple of weeks yet. My chiropractor commented yesterday morning on how much lower baby had dropped since she last saw me, so maybe it'll be sooner rather than later? We shall see. I actually spent about 7 hours at the birth center last night/this morning with very convincing labor that just... stopped. So now we're back home, and maybe we'll have to head back tonight and maybe not until Holy Week! Getting some practice being patient here.

Last night I sat down with three weeks' worth of menu-planning sheets and started trying to map things out for just in case I'm actually able to make everything I want to between now and Easter, and as I looked back through past years' plans for Lent and Holy Week, I realized how disappointing it was that I have a bunch of Lenten posts from 2013-2016, but my search terms brought up nothing from last year. Yes, I'm busy, and always tired, and it's hard to find time to write... But it's so good to have this record, too! And I know that I'll feel badly about it later if I continue to do such a poor job of posting. So, here is my "probably more wishful thinking than realistic plan" for this home stretch of Lenten observance (with feast days thrown in):

Saturday, 17 Mar: St Patrick

We are talking about St Patrick and Ireland in social studies this week; for supper, I'm planning Guinness moose stew with Irish cheddar biscuits, and my friend's mom's recipe for Guinness chocolate cake!

Sunday, 18 Mar: Passion Sunday

It's the annual "why do I suddenly have no purple fabric??" day! Time to cover all of the statues, icons, and religious art in the house. Unless I am actively in labor and thus am not home, this will definitely happen, because Little Bear has been excited about it for weeks and will happily help Matt take care of it.

Monday, 19 Mar: St Joseph

Instead of an Italian meal for the Solemnity of St Joseph, as we've done in the past, I'm planning a supper that Matt particularly likes (since we treat the day as a patronal feast day for him as a husband and father): chicken salad on homemade pretzel buns. Possibly a dessert; I haven't thought that far yet. No one would complain if I said they could have ice cream, though I'd like to do something more creative/intentional.

Sunday, 25 Mar: Palm Sunday (and Annunciation)

I know, I know; the Annunciation gets moved to after Easter so that it can be celebrated on its own instead of being overshadowed by the celebration of Palm Sunday, but we will definitely still be talking about how March 25 is exactly 9 months before Dec 25. I figure it won't hurt to use foods for both celebrations that day, either; chocolate waffles for breakfast, and psari plaki (Greek baked fish) for supper.

(Tuesday, 27 Mar is my due date... I've never yet had a baby wait until their due date, so the rest of this is fairly unlikely to actually happen...)

Wednesday, 28 Mar: Holy Wednesday

The day Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Hopefully, we'll have Jidase buns with supper.

Thursday, 29 Mar: Holy Thursday

Persian lamb with almonds for supper. Holy Thursday is also the day we make Hot Cross Buns. If I'm on top of things, we will hopefully hard-boil and dye eggs as well. Probably not making the traditional red dye out of onion skins this year, though!

Friday, 30 Mar: Good Friday

Hot Cross Buns for breakfast. I grew up with potato soup for supper every Good Friday, but I love potato soup so it's not at all a penitential meal for me, and Matt particularly dislikes it... anyway, we don't have a traditional Good Friday supper yet. I tried for a couple of years to make lentil soup our traditional supper, and it did not work out. Maybe tuna salad or egg salad this year?

Saturday, 31 Mar: Holy Saturday

No promises, but the Italian Easter Bread that I always bake on Holy Saturday may be possible this year; it's always been a knead-by-hand-forever recipe, but the new stand mixer will definitely be able to handle the dough on its own, so there's hope! 

What are your plans for observing the upcoming feast days and holy days?

Easter baskets

I am so thankful today for a post from Katie Kimball of Kitchen Stewardship on non-candy/non-junk Easter basket items! Both because she has a lot of great ideas, and because reading her post reminded me that my usual waiting-until-the-last-minute approach to finding things for Easter baskets would not be a good idea, considering that the baby is due during Holy Week... So this morning I left Little Bear and Kit home with Matt, and went to town all by myself to pick up Easter items along with my regular errands.

(I am also thankful to Matt for being awake enough this morning to point out that, while in many places sidewalk chalk and bubbles would be very reasonable things to give kids in early April, that is not the case here!)

This year, the kids' baskets will each have:

- one small toy (Lego for LB, doll for Kit)

- one accessory to match their clothes for Mass (tie for LB, headband for Kit)

- a pack of Easter-y stickers

- freeze-dried fruit

- and a few chocolate eggs

There is supposed to be a sacrifice jar on the table, slowly getting filled with black beans throughout Lent so that I can replace it with a jar of jelly beans for Easter, but... I am very tired and forgetful. And the kids keep forgetting about it, too. I bought jelly beans before Lent even started, though, so I suppose we'd better get the jar going. Better late than never?

What are your thoughts on Easter baskets for adults? My parents shared one, which looking back was probably just the most convenient dumping-place for the leftover pieces from each bag of candy—there certainly wasn't anything but candy inside. Matt can't remember what his parents did. I do remember as a kid feeling strongly about the importance of my dad having his own basket, so that he wasn't "taxing" our candy intake. :-) In past years we have done adult baskets as well as kids, but this year I think we'll do one shared parental basket and I don't even know what to put in it... It's not like either of us needs candy. Possibly jerky or coffee for Matt; the only thing I'm likely to want at that point is sleep, and you can't put that in a basket!

(I do not know whether this is relevant to a discussion of Easter baskets for adults, but it just occurred to me to note that we don't "do" the Easter Bunny; the kids know that the baskets are filled by Mom and Dad, and are a fun thing to find on Easter morning, but that they aren't really what Easter is about. Not that we necessarily have any particular problem with the Easter Bunny... it honestly has never been important enough to Matt or me to bother putting thought into whether there was a reason to do/not do it. There are so many other things we are actively doing/making/talking about during Holy Week and Easter! Maybe it would be a thing we'd have to address if our kids were in a traditional school? At this point, I don't think LB or Kit have ever even heard of the Easter Bunny, except possibly in the context of my younger siblings joking about the Easter Bunny wearing bunny boots...)

Assorted things (7QT)

I

Baby has not made an appearance yet; figured I'd better get that one out there first! :-) It's a good thing, because we don't necessarily have a name nailed down yet... or the newborn clothes or other baby things ready. I'm 37.5 weeks now, so that should probably go on the *really does need to be done* list for this weekend.

II

I started seeing a new chiropractor last week, and she's been so helpful: I can actually walk again! I'm definitely still having a hard time, but being physically capable of walking and getting some things done has been good. The kids have also been getting lots of practice helping; with me literally unable to pick things up off the floor, they've learned that they actually can clean up quickly without me doing it with/for them. Two of my sisters have been coming over regularly as well, and their help has been invaluable. I'm so thankful for all of the ways they've helped and let me sit/lay down!

III

School is going really well. We just finished our 27th week today, which doesn't actually mean much since we aren't required to do school for a specific number of days/weeks each year per Alaska homeschooling regulations, but it's nice to have a measure of how long we've been working. We are starting to see the end coming: there are only a few pages left in the handwriting book, three or so chapters in religion, I think five weeks of math... Our grammar/language arts program I expect to carry through the summer, since we started it in January and he's enjoying it so much.

IV

We spent this week in science learning about cheese, and yesterday we made cream cheese out of whole milk and vinegar! It's really closer to ricotta, I think, but it tastes good. And as initially horrifying as it was to see four cups of milk shrink down to just one cup of cheese, when I did the math, making homemade ricotta is still less than half the price of buying ricotta or cream cheese at the store!

And to go with our cheese, my sister and I made our first-ever batch of homemade bagels! We used the recipe from King Arthur Flour, making some plain and some cinnamon raisin, and they came out so well. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but they are exactly the texture and flavor I want from a bagel! And they really weren't that much work; we will definitely be making them again.

V

It's beginning to look and feel a little more spring-like outside, despite the slightly ridiculous amount of snow on the ground right now: 

That would be our deck. The snow is almost up to the top of Kit's head! But it really is feeling springish anyway, because we have so much sunlight—more than 11 hours today! 

VI

Of course they're taking away our lovely morning sunlight this weekend... I'm always so disappointed when we have to change the clocks and suddenly it's dark in the mornings again. I know it won't take long before the sun is up before we are again, but it has been so nice to open the shades in the morning and not have to use the lights! At least our parish doesn't have religious ed this week (the public schools have spring break), so we don't have to get up at feels-like-5:15 for the early Mass on Sunday!

VII

Kit, wearing Matt's ear protection: "You don't hear me, Mama, 'cause I have hearing protections on!"

She is so funny, chattering all the time and telling us stories about what she is doing. Lately she's been pretending that Matt's office area is Nome, because we've been talking about the Iditarod a lot with the kids; she keeps telling me about what she's going to go do in Nome today, or how her baby dolls are waiting in Nome to watch for the sled dogs.

Little Bear signed up for the IditaREAD this year: he picked a musher to race, and then tried to read 998 pages before his musher's team completed the 998-mile race. The race started on Saturday, and he had already passed 1,000 pages by yesterday afternoon... I now understand why my mom never bothered having us sign up for the program! :-) I love that he loves reading so much, but he definitely didn't get as much out of the program as he would have if it had actually been a challenge. He had a lot of fun, though, and we got to practice mental addition of two- and three-digit numbers keeping track of how many pages he had read!

That's seven! And hopefully a somewhat adequate catch-up on what we are up to. For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't The Lyceum!