At my house, we like to eat our Thanksgiving dinner in the middle of the afternoon rather than at night.
But no matter how much I tell myself to save room for the big meal, my body still thinks it wants to eat at lunchtime. Obviously, the solution is appetizers! You cannot go wrong with these easy spice-candied nuts. I make them every year and they are a hit! My little ones love them, my adult friends and family love them—they are magical and delicious!
Question:
What do you serve your family when they visit for Thanksgiving?
I’m not talking about the big meal. I’m sure you do the whole turkey and pie thing. (Or maybe you like to order takeout Chinese, who knows?)
I’m talking about the rest of the meals. When your out-of-town family comes to stay for more than just a few hours…how do you work out feeding them while you are also prepping for the main festivities?
A weird thing happens when you have a newborn.
Suddenly, you find yourself revealing way more about parts of your body, your sleep habits, and bodily functions in general to your friends (and near strangers) than you ever would have otherwise. If you are breastfeeding, your entire life suddenly feels like it hinges on your ability to mimic a dairy cow. And if that is going poorly, for one reason or another, you may find yourself anxiously spending hours searching the internet, trying to figure out how to be a better cow.
Which is how I discovered lactation cookies.
She’s here, she’s here, she’s here!
Introducing my lovely little daughter, Violet. She started out a tiny little squirt, despite arriving nearly two weeks late! You will have to pardon my delay in posting (she is nearly 3 weeks old now!), but life with three kiddos has been beautifully exhausting.
I am still right in the thick of that twilight zone where I can’t remember when I last took a shower…but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t today. Between nursing constantly, homeschooling a kindergartner part-time, and spending the rest of the hours reading to a contrary preschooler, my days have been very full!
Violet is a bright spot of sunshine for us. She smiles constantly in her sleep (and is beginning to smile when awake, be still my heart!), adores staring at our black-and-white striped curtains, and is perfectly willing to let her older siblings hold her hand. We love her dearly and can’t wait to see how her sweet personality develops as she grows!
We love, you, Violet!
Kale salmon caesar is a metaphor for my entire marriage.
It represents a blending of taste buds and nutritional ideals, a desire for simplicity and for dinner around the table together.
To be honest, drenching salmon in caesar dressing is one of the only ways I can get every member of my family to eat it. I call it a win.
Hello, friends. It sure has been a while since I’ve written here, but I hope you’ll extend some grace to me! I found out on New Year’s Day that I am expecting a new little one, and wow has she been requiring all of my energy! (And so have my other two tots. All the energy and more patience than I have had to spare. Say a prayer for me, friends!)
“Greens” is like a love word for me. If someone tells me they made a dish with greens (or any specific version of greens, like chard or kale or spinach), I basically swoon.
I love greens.
My theory is that we begin to crave the things we eat a lot. I eat a lot of leafy greens…therefore my taste buds have accomodated me.
Greens. Swoon.
It’s the middle of February. Classically a time of year when folks lose interest in all their healthy intentions. How are you doing with your healthy goals?
One of my ongoing goals is to eat greens in as many meals as possible. To be totally honest, I have realized that this usually means spinach, which is maybe a bit lopsided (or, maybe I am treating my mild anemia naturally with food!) when there are so many delicious kinds of greens in the world. But! I still think it’s a win when I find ways to eat something dark green at every meal of the day—including breakfast.
Sometimes, a thief comes to steal my joy. But he does it reeeeal sneaky-like. It sounds a little bit like this:
“You’re on vacation! Live your life on vacation ‘to the full’! Maybe instead of dessert, you could enjoy another glass of wine.”
In 2017, I started out the year thinking I should spend more time reading than watching TV, and I cautiously hoped to read 30 books in the course of the year.
At the halfway mark, I had already read 22 books (thanks to the help of Audible, which definitely did some of the heavy lifting for me!). By the end of the year, the count was up to 52 books (woo! kicked it up a notch)! Additionally, I started read-alouds with my kiddos in the second half of 2017, and we read 6 chapter books aloud together as well as 2 books of poems. I will always cherish that time cuddling next to them on the couch and sharing the gift of story.