MommyCoddle

peace at home

It is a quiet afternoon here at home. Dan's first day back to work after Christmas, Mary and Elizabeth are napping and Emma is sitting beside me working on thank you cards to send out to family. Dan and I worked hard yesterday afternoon to clean up and organize after the tornado of Christmas swept through our home. It included some packing up of older toys, some giving away and some finding homes for the new things that found their way into our house this Christmas.

I went to bed last night feeling content and blessed--a warm home, lovely gifts, and wonderful husband, caring family, and three sweet little girls to wrap my arms around each day. 

Soon, I will do a little gift re-hashing on here--once I recharge the batteries on my camera. We had some real hits this year--and as is always the case, the ones that cost the least, were the most loved.

The pictures are from our pre-Christmas trip to the BrandyWine River Museum. The museum is known for its collection of 3 generations of Wyeth artwork--some of my favorite artists. At this time of year, the museum puts up a two-story Christmas tree full of ornaments created solely from natural materials collected from the museum gardens. Seriously, I will never look at leaves and twigs and seedpods the same way again. You can see the whole set here and get inspired. I wish I could have photographed every one to show you.

Hope your holiday was full of warmth and contentment.
More soon.

december 19

"I can't hold back my tears any longer..."

That would be a quote from my five year old daughter as she lay prostrate on her bed, hugging the neck of her rocking horse that was pushed up alongside her.

"I just know I'm never going to get a real pony."
"Cricket(the pony) is the only thing I love in the whole world!"

Me: But don't you love mommy, and daddy, and mary and elizabeth, too?

"Yessss. I love you all, but Cricket is just the only thing that love. I can't hold back anymore."

I have to admit, my dear Emma feels deeply. It literally broke her heart last week when she had to put a big, doe-eyed stuffed fawn (a companion to this book) back on the shelf at Barnes and Noble.

"It just needs me. I can't bear to put it back on the shelf."

And it broke her heart even more this afternoon when she accidentally found it stashed away under my bed, waiting to be wrapped. But it was sweet. Her heart was broken for me, because...

"...we can't afford to get many presents. And now you won't have many special surprises for me."

(I hope you're reading all these quotes with lots of dramatic inflection and phrasing.)

She's just one big, soft, pulsing heart. She feels deeply and responds to everything deeply. Dan and I always remark that she's a lot like the classic nursery rhyme:

   

There was a little girl,
    Who had a little curl,
    In the middle of her forehead.
    And when she was good, she was very good.
    And when she was bad, she was horrid.

Well, at this point, I can't even remember what I came her to post about. Something about gingerbread houses or how absolutely edible this one is.
After I erected the structure of the gingerbread house today, I gave Emma full reign. I was going to try to make it something Martha-Stewart quality, but in the end decided to just let go and let her make her own fun. It was wonderful to watch.

Happy Wednesday.
Six days until Christmas....
Here's a song for you that we're singing along to today...

december 17

Hi Everyone! I've really disappeared from here for awhile now, haven't I? I have to admit, it's been kind of nice to go through our days without my "bloggles" (blogging + goggles) on. I have hardly taken any pictures or thought about whether or not I should be blogging something from our day. I think I needed a little break and now I'm feeling much more fresh and content.

We finally brought in the Christmas tree last night. In our little living space it took a lot of rearranging and removing to find the perfect spot for it. Emma and I were the tree purchasers this year. We got it on whim Saturday night while we were running to the yarn store and out for groceries. Can I just say how hard it is to pick out a Christmas tree with a five year old? She tried her hardest to hold the big old prickly tree steady while I assessed uniformity of shape and gaping holes in each specimen. In the end it was a toss-up and we both just said, "let's go with the first one." I don't think we did too bad in the end.

I sat down last night, after the kids had gone to sleep to string some popcorn and I quickly realized that I desperately need to upgrade to a better pop. My kernels are very seed-y and don't have much fluff to them, making it near impossible to string. Last night it was eat ten, find one that was string-able, eat ten....I might have to throw in some cranberries for good measure. Have you all been letting your kids string berries and popcorn? How do they handle the needle? I'd really like to get the girls involved in this process...

As always, I'm still blogging my heart out every day over at babycenter...and they've asked me to do a weekly "craftyblog round-up". So if you've seen something that must be shared or you're doing something that must be shared, please send me an email, so I can give it due credit. Babycenter is really digging the crafty blog world. And I'd love to share some love over there....And here's a recent post that I think many of you would "get".

I've declared this the week of the cookie. I plan to bake a batch or two each day with the girls to give out as gifts. Although I'm quickly running out of time today since everyone in the house is napping--even the dog by the fire, and the cat in a mountain of pillows on the sofa. Today it will be the classic peanut butter kiss cookies and maybe some russian teacakes if there's time.

Off to get my kitchen set up cooking-show style (makes it easier with my children) and upgrade my popcorn stash. More soon, I hope!!!

december 10

(why are my pictures looking so blurry on typepad lately?)

Emma was rockin' the guitar yesterday afternoon. She wrote a song about missing spring, which had me confused because we also had a barn cat named Spring whose life ended tragically early a few months ago. But when she started singing about leaves and flowers and sun, I knew what she was talking about. I told her it must have been a really good song that she wrote because the chorus was stuck in my head for the rest of the day...."I miss the flowers and trees...I miss the flowers and trees." Anyway. It was better 'live'.

Have you seen the Christmas paper punches from Martha Stewart crafts? Oh my. I'll be "reviewing" them over at babycenter later this week. It is an easy review. They are so fun and they've got great cutting action. They are easy for little hands to use, which can be both good and bad.

I did a little blog freshening this weekend--a new banner and I changed the font styles more times than I wish to admit. I'm still itching to update my "fresh inspiration" which isn't so fresh anymore. Not that the inspiration is gone, I just haven't updated it in awhile.

My goal this week is to get some Christmas cookie baking in. I haven't really been in the Christmas spirit yet. We are waiting for a box of our Christmas decorations to arrive from Wisconsin, so I think when it gets here, that will be all the inspiration I'll need. Last year I felt like we started a little early so I think that's why I'm dragging my feet this year.  And maybe if I got a handle on my Christmas gift-giving, I'd feel better, too. One of my favorite things to do is just put greens and holly all over the house. Maybe I'll work on that this week, too....

Hope you're all having a lovely monday...

december 6

Goodness! Where have I been? Actually, I wrote a post this week, but it stayed in the draft stages of my blog. It was one of those unloading posts, one of those, "I think I need a small break from blogging posts"...but I've fully recovered. I need to remind myself not to write posts when the laundry pile is taller than my oldest child, the breakfast dishes are being washed with the lunch dishes and both of my girls are roller skating in the kitchen! phew.

Anyway this week we welcomed our first day of snow. A beautiful, fluffy, all-day snow. "The whole WORLD is white!" was what I heard over and over. Mary barely made it over the threshold of the front door before assuming the angel position. Winter is finally here. Bring it on.

I've updated my sidebar with a direct link to all my posts at the babycenter blog. I couldn't keep up with the daily updates, so I just made a generic link to the posts by me. I just reviewed a book over there, which I think many of you would really love--because I know so many of us share a passion for teaching our children about good food, eating locally, and our food sources.

I also have a few thank-you's that are long overdue.

• First of all, thank you to Erin for sending Elizabeth a pair of these. She wears them every day except the day they're in the laundry!  You're a dear friend.

• Thank you to Tiffany, my local blogging buddy who gave the girls a cute handmade bag full of her limber letters. The girls play with them all the time. All the time. You can find them in her etsy shop with a whole load of other cute things.

• And another big thank you to Michelle, who quickly jumped on board to make my bare-headed baby a winter cap. I love it. And the extra goodies in the bag were snatched up and carried away quickly, too--let's just say they involved horses and crowns. Good stuff.