2. Eliza is growing. This may not sound too monumental, until you realize the milestone she's reached: she can now reach on top of the dining room table, the cold water tap on the bathroom sink, and a variety of other incredibly inconvenient places (my desk?). It's disconcerting to turn around and find her walking into the room holding something you were sure was well out of her reach. We now have to redefine "out of her reach". Similarly, Mr. Simon is growing, too. He has lost that newborn look and now looks like a baby. Didn't realize there was a difference? I didn't either, until I had children, but it is quite a difference! Newborns are small and their faces slightly squooshed, and their eyes seem to be more pupil than anything. Simon's face has filled out and firmed up and he looks much like I imagine he'll look like at six months or nine months. He changes so fast that every day he seems different.
3. This past week I tried my hand at making some homemade items as a condolence gift for my brother-in-law, who lost his grandfather. I made a "breakfast-in-a-basket" themed gift (though in reality it was breakfast-in-a-Walmart-bag. Yeah, I'm non-Martha Stewart like that). I made granola and a jar of pancake mix, but what I really enjoyed doing was making some homemade pancake syrups. I made a honey-orange syrup, a molasses-cinnamon syrup, and a buttered maple syrup. I tasted a little of the leftovers after I poured them into jars. Can I say, yummy? It got me to thinking: I'd love to do that kind of thing more often, offering a homemade gift to someone during a time of crisis or celebration. Don't get me wrong; it was a difficult day, juggling two babies, pots on the stoves, trays in the oven, making labels, getting lunch... I recognize what it will mean if I do it again (and again) and also what it will mean when I want to do some canning and preserving this summer/fall (some? I want to do a lot! I dream of shelves of glassy, suctioned-closed jars). But I enjoyed doing it for my sister-in-law and her husband, as I thought of them and their family during the entire day while they commiserated with family and friends over their loss. I may not be able to be a part of our prayer-shawl ministry, which does something similar, but maybe I could do this?
4. I've realized that homemaking has become a bit of an obsession for me (one that sadly does not work out in practicality right now), and that my blog has begun to overflow with it. I'm so looking forward to our garden producing anything and I dream of preserving and freezing and canning my rear off this summer. I'm reading lots about it and trying to learn what I can before I do so I have a better handle of what I do in fact need to do. But it's funny how this blog has strayed from what I originally started it for: a place to share thoughts. Or maybe, it's just that my thoughts have taken a very different turn than when I first started here. After all, I'm brewing on a post called "Postpartum Me", which I obviously never would have written before I married and had children. I have to ask myself, am I okay with this? With this new direction, or do I want to go back to my former roots? Were those even that good? Do I mind the fact that I'm mostly writing about my children, about my garden, about my housekeeping (yikes), or do I really want to dwell on some deeper things? Perhaps, both. Perhaps there's room for deeper self-reflection and contemplation as well as newsy/householdy things at the same time. It's something I'm mulling over.
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