Welcome back, Myself

I’m not really sure how to explain such a long departure except to say I had another baby and I wasn’t really in the mood. Does that work?

Here are some quick highlights from the past 1.5 years:

• Tri-state family tour in February, 2010. Autumn is a great traveler except for a shock-and-awe seasickness incident on the ferry, poor thing. Thankfully, we have access to a change of clothes before boarding the plane.

• After debate and prayer, try to sell our house and buy another an hour away, next to good friends. Purchase falls through, but not before we spruce our house up for a potential sale. Nice to get that work done fast!

• Celebrate our 14th (and 15th) wedding anniversary. (I’d do it all over again, S.) Anniversary #14 coincides with the discovery we are expecting our fourth family member! We are a little shocked in the photo, below.

• Cue sickness and lethargy. Oh, yes — angry-hunger, old friend! So glad we are not remodeling a new house right now.

• Whirlwind family/friends/sheep hunting trip to Fairbanks/Anchorage/Kenai in August. A high point is the veg burrito from a Tanana Valley State Fair vendor. Diced cucumber and mushrooms make fantastic burrito accompaniment.

• Spend another quiet Christmas at home. Autumn welcomes Christmas (Eve) by snorting garlic powder into her sinuses. While very traumatic for all of us, we do still make it to the Christmas Eve program.

• Travel to Fairbanks in mid-January to wait out the arrival of baby girl #2, as there are no OB services on our island. Precious Cedar arrives February 1st.

Add in a couple of fun grandparent visits, and you’re caught up. Thanks for sticking around!

Days of Christmas

The wind and sleet have been beating against the windows all day; it’s a good one to spend indoors close to the wood stove, munching Christmas cookies. (I need to give those away, and soon.) Baby gir’l is happy but tired, refusing to nap these days. (Well, she’s happy unless I tell her “no.” Does that count?)

It’ll be a quiet Christmas this year, at home. Usually we’re traveling, running last minute errands, trying to see too many people in too short a time, focused on gift-buying that too often feels like obligation rather than inspiration.

With a new little one, we’re evaluating our holiday traditions with new eyes, wanting to simplify and focus on the low birth of our promised King.

I’ve been looking for the ideal nativity set for years – historically accurate, with Mary and Joseph in modest clothing who actually look Middle Eastern, not too sweet. Those which I like best run into the thousands. Yes, thousands. Even if I could afford it – um, no.

So we went a different route. Steve recycled a used pallet from our hardware store and built a life-size manger – well, our interpretation of what a manger might have looked like. It’s next to our tree, a white knit blanket inside which Steve used as a baby. We’ll put a newborn-sized doll into it Christmas morning, and read the account from Luke. (I have a friend with adult children who did the same thing and sagely advises I hold this sweet picture loosely. One year when her boys were young, Christmas morning brought pterodactyl Jesus; another year, cave man Jesus.)

I’ve been surprised by its effect on me, sitting empty between our tree and television. I feel the weight of waiting – Mary and her new husband, still getting to know each other. The expectation; perhaps at times the fear and a huge sense of inadequacy. The painful, false accusation of shame. The magnitude of who this child was to be. But mostly I am struck by what kind of God has come to love us — One willing to climb into an animal trough, to serve and ultimately offer himself in an ugly death, that he might win my heart back to life.

A merry Christmas to you and yours. Here’s what it looks like around our home this season:

This Autumn

It’s funny, to be pregnant and not know the person whom you’re carrying. I was walking around with this little stranger who was going to be part of our family, and all I knew about her was she was making me sick to my stomach. First-time mom and all, I really hoped I would like her.

Well, so far she’s a sweet, physically active, detail-oriented, opinionated and fairly dramatic little [eight-month-old] who, in no particular order:

• Hates her bib, and rips it off every chance she gets.
• Loves bread (currently Oroweat Health Nut, but any kind really). She prefers it to Cheerios, even.
• Looks you in the face and yells, “uuunnnnnhhhhhh!” when she wants more of something (food, usually) even though she knows the ASL sign for “more.” She’s lately decided she doesn’t care to use the few signs she knows…because she knows mom and dad want her to?
• Just completed her first round of anti-tantrum training. Mom got tears in her eyes to see Autumn (successfully) struggle to control herself the next time around.
• Moved quickly from crawling to pulling herself up to pushing off surfaces and standing upright as long as she can before crashing to the ground. She’s up to about seven seconds. It makes her really happy.
• Loves being tossed into the air.
• Coughs or scrunches up her nose and “snuffles” when she wants attention.
• Can find any speck of floor debris no matter how much I sweep (which, lest I mislead, isn’t that often actually), and ingest it before I can reach her, running. The “what to expect” book tells me to relax; she’ll be fine.
• Nine times out of ten, beams with her whole body when I go to get her up in the morning or after naptime. It makes my day.

A friend recently asked if there was any difference between what parenthood was actually like compared to what I thought it’d be before she arrived. Somewhat ambivalent about having kids, I only ever considered the cost. I just had no idea of the joy.

Chocolate Cake Nirvana

Since my husband recently outed me on his blog, I figure I’d share the recipe I was so fortunate to stumble upon. Decide for yourself. You’d hide it, too.

Its excellent qualities: silly simple to make, perfect size recipe such that you wouldn’t be too embarrassed to eat it all yourself, and it tastes incredible. Recent guests went back for seconds (those with no shame, thirds). I think it gets better as it ages.

Many thanks to the talented Regan Daley, author of In The Sweet Kitchen, for passing on her mom’s recipe.

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All-in-the-pan Chewy Chocolate Cake with Butter Icing

CAKE:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

¼ cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Ghirardelli or Hershey’s (sift out any choco clods)

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

6 T. flavorless vegetable oil, such as canola

1 T. white vinegar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup cool water

ICING:

¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temp. (I used salted; it was juuuuust fine.)

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2 to 3 T. milk or water

1 ½ T. natural unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

(Abbreviated instructions; extra details available if anyone wants them.)

Cake: Preheat oven to 350. Sift flour into ungreased 8×8″ pan  (or 9×9″ – reduce baking time 5 to 7 min). Whisk rest of dry ingredients together then combine with flour in pan. With back of a teaspoon, make three wells in the flour mixture: one small, medium, large. (I know; what??) Pour oil in large, vinegar in medium and vanilla in small. Pour water over all of it and mix with fork, making sure you get all the dry stuff out of the corners. Don’t beat – just mix until lumps smoothed out and no overly dry or runny patches are left.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a skewer stuck in middle comes out clean. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

Icing: Cream butter and 1 cup sugar until butter is distributed (will be very dry and powdery). Add 1 T. milk or water, then sift cocoa over top and cream to blend. Add vanilla, then remaining cup of sugar. Add as much of remaining liquid necessary to make a thick, creamy icing.

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And by the way, I was hiding it in the cupboard because he really was trying to avoid sweets. I didn’t want to leave it staring at him on the countertop. I thought it was downright compassionate.

Cheaper Detergent

Who wouldn’t want that?

It’s expensive back in Anchorage. It’s craziness here in rural Alaska.

So earlier this week I threw on my prairie skirt and, armed with my KitchenAid mixer’s fine shredder attachment, mixed up a quadruple batch of the following:

1 c. grated Fels Naptha Laundry Bar Soap

1/2 c. Super Washing Soda (I used Arm & Hammer)

1/2 c. 20 Mule Team Borax

-Mix and store in airtight container. For light loads use 2 tablespoons; 3 tablespoons for heavy loads.-

The next day I’m trolling along on my favorite DIY blog and was delighted to see a post for all kinds of all natural homemade cleansers. Jackpot!

Misunderstandings

“God is the most joyful presence in the universe…”

Which changes things.

Dad’s New Status

Daddy is Autumn’s new favorite person. Finally.

He’s put in his months of “that guy who is here a lot, whom I might occasionally notice.” He’s been very patient.

Now anytime he walks in the door her eyebrows shoot up and she breaks into an expectant grin, with an occasional squeal.

Current fave game is Hide ‘n Peek a Boo.

Here I go…

Yahoo, first post. I have joined the legion sharing my thoughts with the interweb.