new year revival

Try as you may to pose them and sit them just right, it's always the candid shots that are the most appealing.

We have been knitting, baking and living away here. I've just not been posting a lot because first I lost the do-dad that transfers photos to my computer and then I lost the photo card to my my camera. Then I just got lazy, or was it tired chasing after a one year old? Both!

Logan turned one this past Thanksgiving day. It was a good day. He's walking and running now and saying "dada" and sometimes "mama."

Happy belated New Year to everyone!

Jill

blueberry boy

The little guy and I spent Saturday night up at my parent's farm. We squeezed a lot into a twenty four hour period. The best part was the blueberries. My dad took us to a neighbor's blueberry patch where we could pick as many blueberries as we wanted for free.

I filled up two three gallon buckets.

It was a wonderful morning. It had rained the night before, but when we arrived the sun was shining and the raindrops were drying on the berries. I have never seen so many blueberries before - some of the bushes were just blue. They were pretty easy to pick. I got six gallons in about two and a half hours. We cleaned and froze most of them, but I put together a blueberry crisp last night and ate a whole row of it with a fork while it was still cooling in the pan.

What do you think of Logan's crawling technique? He swings the one foot up in the air like a counter pendulum and then digs in the toes on his opposite foot to gain forward momentum. I've got it on video. Super sweet. 

My Bloomsbury sweater is knitting up fast. I hope I can keep up this pace. I've almost got the body complete and then I'll start on the sleeves.

Hope you all have a great week.

:) Jill

stripes + stars

events of July 2016 (so far)

Baby's teething - lots of drool

splashing in the lake

stars and stripes everywhere

sock yarn slipping off the knitting needles

crisscrossing the state in our car

trips to the farm to see grandma and grandpa - and the sheep!

a wild patch of raspberries

visits to the north woods to stay in a cabin

sitting around the campfire

looking at the stars

knitting before bed in the warm glow of a single lamp

making jar after jar of raspberry jam

(gallons of berries in the freezer)

weeding the garden and watching the zinnia blossoms grow

chasing the barking dog

piles of paperwork and forms

completing homestudy #3

laughing with baby at his goofy dad

drinking cider and grilling in the backyard

thankful for all of our blessings

:) Jill

P.S. Joining Nicole at Frontier Dreams!

banana bread days

All good things must come to an end. I only have one more month left of maternity leave.

I know it's going to be hard going back to work, so I'm starting to emotionally prepare myself now. I spoke to work yesterday and started the process of reintegrating myself. Somehow, talking to the woman in HR really stuck in my head. Usually I'm able to brush off that I'll have to go back to work mid-March and not think about it, but after hearing her voice yesterday it's a done deal.

Reality is coming.

No more days like today where I wore my flannel pajama bottoms until lunch time, sang goofy songs to the baby (also in his PJs) over our "lunch break" and baked a loaf of banana bread just because I was "in the mood" and had the time (and lots of frozen bananas in the freezer.)

I like my job, so I know that I'm going to be happy once I get back into the swing of things. We've found a good daycare to watch Logan, so I feel good about that too. I think the best way that I can prepare myself for not being able to spend all day long with the baby is to not take any of these moments that I have with him for granted - now or in the future.

If you worked outside of the home, how did you handle it? I love to hear tips, anecdotes and advice. I think I'm gonna need it :) :)

I'm also going to get organized and wrap up as many projects as I can, clean the house and prepare some freezer dinners for my first month back at work. I'm almost done with my flax sweater.

One sleeve to go!

Jill

yellow leaves

This past weekend was crammed full with both work and play. I played around the house on Saturday, tidying some things up and roasting a pumpkin for a spiced pumpkin cake. Bree and I got out for a stroll around the neighborhood. The community garden is showing signs of fall. The zinnias are starting to look frostbitten and faded - yet they still make me smile.

On Saturday the community garden was filled with monarch butterflies. They must be on their annual migration, but a whole mob of them decided to dart down from the sky and enjoy the pretty blossoms of my neighborhood.

I had to work on Sunday, and it's those extra hours that made it possible for me to take the afternoon off today. I plan on making a pot of chili and some corn bread. If Bree plays her cards right we'll head out for a walk. It's a lovely, blustery afternoon. Part clouds and part sunshine. The leaves are skittering across the pavements.

Just perfect.

Have a great day everyone!

Jillian

the sprinkles on top

Lots of color around here today. We had a baby shower for my cousin Ashley and so I finally get to show the baby quilt that my sister and I made for her. I made the top and my sister quilted it on her machine and sewed the binding. Bright and colorful - it makes me smile. We used flannel shirt fabric for the back so it should be nice and soft for the baby.

Baking cupcakes. We've had these before and I made homemade cream cheese frosting to spread on top. We overindulged for about twenty four hours, then I brought the rest to work and they were gone in under five minutes.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend.

heart warming

The weekend can't be almost over - I haven't checked one thing off of my "to do" list. Instead I've been napping and playing around with fabric both days - not organizing all our paperwork for our taxes and not cleaning the bathrooms like I had planned.

There has been some baking and cooking. The soup is a recipe I've posted before, still just as good as I remembered it to be and the cheesy garlic biscuits can be found here. They are best hot out of the oven when the cheese is still melted inside of them. Easy. Yummy. Addicting.

The book I'm reading has been keeping my interest so far. The Hangman's Daughter, by Oliver Potzsch. It's fun to knock about in the 17th century with the characters. The plot revolves around a hangman and a midwife - so I'm learning a lot about 17th century medical lore and herbs - which makes me think about my garden. As I write this I can see out the window to the back garden, which is covered by two feet of snow, at least.

It's gonna be awhile before I get out there.