Cooking dinner was certainly a different experience now that Jack is here. Rob and I really enjoy cooking together-- we compliment each other well, and it only takes about half the effort to produce a nice meal. Cooking last night was a more solitary experience; I scurried about the kitchen while Rob entertained the wee one. It was still really nice, though- just in a different way. Can standing in the kitchen with a pot on the stove and your hands covered in dough count as a break? Because it sure did feel like it! And I'm already scouring my new cookbooks for the next project...
The kitchen gadgets are not the only Christmas gifts I've been enjoying. I received both of SouleMama's books, and I've already finished The Creative Family (gifted to me by my brother). I don't consider myself a very creative person (though I greatly admire those who are), but this book makes family creativity pretty accessible. Jack is still too young for us to implement most of the ideas that she suggests, but I feel like I have some great starting points when the time comes. I love her ideas for encouraging your young children to create and display their art, and she has some great ideas for encouraging imagination. She suggests hanging a tension rod with fabric in a doorway to create either a puppet show theater (hung low) or a stage (hung high). I love that!
She has great ideas for birthdays and other milestones that focus on celebrating the child, rather than just gift-receiving. I had already been thinking about these next two ideas, but it is nice to have them there in print (and I hope that by mentioning them here I'll be more likely to carry them out when the time comes). She suggests writing your children a letter every year on their birthday that they may save and have when they are older. I would also love to give Jack a birthday book with the story of his first year, though mine will very likely be created on the computer rather than a sewing machine. Anyway, this book is filled with great ideas, and I'm sure I will be pulling it off the shelf often over the next several years. I'm looking forward to Handmade Home, and I hope there are at least a few projects in there simple enough for my rudimentary skill set!
And finally, I've had a great time the past couple of days losing myself in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Oh, what a lovely book, especially for anyone who considers herself (or himself) a reader. I just want to be friends with the characters, and I predict that Guernsey has had an influx of literary tourists since the book was released-- I certainly want to visit now. If you haven't read it, do so immediately!
(I didn't mind it all yesterday when Jack decided to take an extended nap in my lap!)We ended up with the book at our annual community group Christmas dirty santa gift exchange. We always swap books (or other media)-- great idea, Gwen! We've come across some great reads this way, and I highly recommend it if you're ever looking for a party theme. It was a lovely evening with good friends.
