Learning Something New

The pink blur is the pig, yes I still need to figure out my camera, I am finding that daunting as well!

For the past year or so, I thought it would be fun to learn needle felting, but it seemed daunting. For Christmas I received a needle felting starter kit from Maximus, but no book. He must have had great confidence in my creative genius but I needed a little bit more instruction than myself, so I bought the book Wool Pets. I like how the author presented this craft, she made me feel like I could make anything I wanted, so in two days I made 4 different projects. I've been surprised with how simple needle felting is and my oldest has been enjoying the fruit of my labor. He likes pulling up a chair while I make "little creatures" and then he whisks them away for imaginary games. He and papa even made a little duplo chicken coop for the hen. Soon, I am going to venture into felting some playscapes too. It's fun to be crafty again.

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Simplify, Organize, Focus

I must admit, when I first heard about having a "word" for a year - I thought it was dumb. Obviously, I have thought a little bit harder about it, since I now have three words for the year - simplify, organize, and focus. I like that words for the year become a year long resolution, I can tell it will help me to keep things I do in perspective. Let's start with SIMPLIFY. While visiting my sister last year, I talked her into buying the book The Magical Art of Tidying Up to help her with packing for her move overseas. But I would say we both benefitted greatly from implementing Marie Kondo's ideas. Since having children, especially since having baby #2, I have been seeing the value of less. We live in a small house and things like baby clothes and toys (specifically Hot Wheels) seem to multiply when I'm not looking. Even my own stuff became overwhelming, I started asking myself "Would I buy this if I got rid of it today?" A lot of times, the answer was "no" so off it went to be donated, and I have no intention of buying a replacement for it. It feels nice to SIMPLIFY and then ORGANIZE what I have and FOCUS on what is important to me. For me, a cluttered house equals a cluttered mind. I have trouble focusing when my house is out of control, and with a small house it can happen quickly if left unchecked. 

Washing and drying the grimy Duplos, making sure they have a designated place to be stored instead of random cardboard boxes.

Beeswax polish for wooden toys and furniture. I used this recipe. It makes wood look so lovely.

A newly polished play kitchen, that will stay this nicely put together oh, until the preschooler comes home. We've had this kitchen for a few years and I so badly wanted him to love this. He likes it enough, as long as I am right next to him playing - I really think that is his personality though, it has nothing to do with the fact that this is a kitchen. I remember the lady that I bought this from told me "Yeah, I was hoping my son would like this way more than he did." The little boy was there when I came to buy this and he wasn't sad to see it go at all, the only thing he asked to keep was the play knife for cutting the wooden fruit, just like a boy. I let him keep it. I can't bear to part with this kitchen right now, so I think it will be kept until baby #2 is older. Am I doing the opposite of my word of the year??? In this case, it's okay.

My sweet babe, waiting until he's big enough to play with the kitchen.

New Year's Eve 2015

A very pleasant and low key New Year's Eve was had at the Nicholas household this year. Son #1 and I started off the evening by organizing my huge collection of spices, doesn't get more low key than that. All of the grocery stores have bulk spice bins and I wind up with little bags of spices stuffed in the cabinet where they are promptly forgotten about. This mason jar system has worked the best, but I still have to occasionally consolidate all the little spice bags lurking in the cabinet. 

Once the kiddos went to bed, I finished reading The Chimes, it is a Charles Dickens book that takes place on New Year's Eve. It just seemed appropriate to finish it on the 31st. It also seemed like an accomplishment to finish a book, even if said book only consisted of four chapters.

On to wassail. For the last 5 years, we have wanted to make wassail and this year WE FINALLY DID IT! We used this recipe, and it was tasty, kind of odd, but tasty. And of course, we had to listen to songs about drinking wassail, while actually drinking wassail. I barely made it to midnight, but Maximus made sure I did and at the stroke of midnight, he was sure to have all the doors and windows open to usher out the old year and to welcome in the new. A fun little tradition, but I was excited to then shut all open doors and windows and hunker down by the heater before retiring to bed. Babies don't know that mamas stay up late on New Year's Eve, and they don't mind waking them at all hours of the night. But my, how I love that baby. Happy New Year!