I had to think hard about this. Do I really love snow? But, then, I decided that, yes, i do love snow. What I don't like is the occasional inconvenient side effects of snow. But snow itself? i love it. It's so beautiful and magical...all 25 inches of it. Again. My favorite kind of snow is waking up to inch in the morning. Enough to make the world pretty without the inconvenient side effects. However, we have been blessed twice now this season with snowstorms that have dumped colossal amounts of snow on our ill-equipped city. It is like a natural wonder of the world on top of us, temporarily. It is so amazing and awesome. So much snow!!

In February I'm blogging things I love. Join me if you like and I'll link you.
For more love visit:
Gentle Home
Through a Glass, Darkly

I love me some ambiance, and Philadelphia obliges heartily. Brick sidewalks are so cool. I have a weakness for geometric patterns, and there are so many possibilities using just the shape of the rectangular brick. Not to mention that shade of red. You know, "brick red." That was my favorite crayon for awhile when I was a kid.

There's only one drawback. Brick sidewalks can be the enemy of the stroller. Get a jogging stroller with inflatable tires, and the brick sidewalk will remain your friend. ($20. Craigslist. Rock on!)

I'm blogging things I love in February. Join me if you like.
For more love visitMary Kathryn's blog.

I'm blogging things I love in February. Join me if you like.

Today my baby sister turns 22, which means that in two months and one day, I will turn 32. (Just giving you a heads up for National 'Nette Day.)

She's beautiful, smart, interesting, deep, and a great auntie to two little boys. And a great pie maker. We love Lu!

In February, I'm going to blog about things I love. Anyone care to join me?

One of things I love is DIY. Do it Yourself! Maybe because in an alternate reality, my family would've been pioneers on the prairie. Why buy anything that you could make? with stuff you already have? I've always had to be thrifty, so that feeds into it, too. In fact, I think a lot of what is considered all that is "green" is actually just plain ol' thriftiness.

So anyway, I sew stuff, make stuff from scratch, reuse and repurpose stuff. Obviously I can't do everything, because I have two kids and limited time. So I pick and choose as I can.

I was excited to see this book making its rounds in blogosphere last year, and I finally got my hands on it with my Christmas money. Though for approximately $7, it's not prohibitive at all.

Make Your Place: Affordable & Sustainable Nesting Skills

It's a book about making whatever you need for keeping house using natural, non-toxic ingredients, with sections for health and first aid, personal hygiene, home cleanliness, and gardening.

I'll admit, I get bogged down by more complicated homeopathic stuff. But this is presented really clearly so that someone like me who doesn't know much more than to put aloe on a burn can really benefit and learn a lot.

Then there's recipes for any cleaning product you could possibly want to make, using all non-toxic ingredients. And we do try to keep toxins at a low around here.

It's a very practical no-nonsense guide for keeping house.

I really the perspective that the author brings:
"I came to realize that my skepticism about the importance these acts was based on a cultural belief that the domestic sphere is somehow less important than the public sphere. Which, of course, is such a load of crap... Chief...is the idea that DIY is about making even the tiny bits of our lives intentional: we focus our energy on what we know is right for us, rather than what is dictated by a market or culture." (pp2,7)

I can't wait to try stuff.

Or, Sometime You Don't Get What You Want.

Act 1
Scene: getting ready for school.

Mom: Ellis, go upstairs and brush your teeth.
Ellis: yells NOOO!
Mom: Ellis, remember what Daddy said about yelling. That is not nice talking.
E: oh. I'm sorry, Mommy. hugs
Mom: Now go upstairs and brush your teeth.
E: No, thank you, mommy.

Act 2
Scene: Marlowe has discovered the container of cookies in a bag of stuff Grammy sent over. M would help himself but can't get the lid off.

Marlowe: PLEASE!!!!!!!
Mom: No, Marlowe, those are for when it's light out. You can have one tomorrow.
Marlowe finds Ellis and hands him the container PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

Thankfully, Ellis was more than happy to play the role of boss: No, Marlowe.

My mom came today to hang out and to bring their portable dishwasher to me to have, since ours died. I took advantage of her being here to finish this skirt to wear to a wedding of a church friend this afternoon. I didn't pay a cent for this skirt. The turquoise wool was in my stash that came with a lot of other awesome wool from my great-grandma's attic. And the lace that I sewed on top of it was from a curtain. Like mom said, "You don't need money; you just need clever." I felt really clever, too. The perfect midwinter skirt.

On being a fun mom:

When I'm a fun mom, the kids get to do cool stuff. Like play with water. Or paint. Or scoop rice. They have a blast. They are doing great things that are developmentally good for them. I don't go all free reign with them, but I do hold back the war cry of "Mess!" some.

There is nothing that either my 19mo or my 4 1/2 yo loves more than to play with a trickle of water in the sink. Pouring, filling, stirring. Great activities for the 18mo developing motor skills. When I'm a fun mom, I let him do it, and then mop up later, suppressing the urge to cringe and enjoying his happiness.

The other day Ellis spent nearly 20 minutes moving about 15 popcorn kernels around an empty egg carton that had some leftover liquid purple watercolor in it.

The busy-ness! The happiness! The learning! *sigh* The mess!

Hubby and I went to see the Sherlock Holmes movie this evening. I am a huge Holmes fan. I read the complete works in high school, and I don't mind rereading a story now and then. Lately I've been reading some on the Kindle app for the iPhone while I sit in the dark comforting my teething baby.

I really enjoyed the movie. I'm predisposed to be optimistic anyway, but I still liked it! I felt that we got the spirit of London at the time. I just love all the bustling horse drawn cabs down dark alleys. So Holmes. I loved how science prevailed. I loved how they drew out the Holmes/Watson relationship, which I think is the hardest part of adapting the book. It's hard to figure out. Holmes is a jerk and Watson takes it? Not really. But they are good friends. I also like how they pointed out that Watson's bride is supportive of Watson's carmarderie with Holmes, because that's something I noticed on a recent reread. Another thing I liked about the movie is that it wasn't about Moriarity vs Holmes. (mostly) Which I think would've been too cliched of a Holmes movie. And I loved the actors: Robert Downing Jr and Jude Law made a great Holmes and Watson.

One thing I did not like was all the fighting. Holmes did like to box, but he really is about the cerebral, not the visceral. And he's always getting into fistfights in the movie. I realize that Holmes sitting on a cushion and thinking all night doesn't really sell at the box office like Holmes whoopin' some you-know-what. But that's my take.

I hope they make a sequel, because they certainly left it open for one. (*cough* Moriarty)

First day of 2010. Sitting here with my coffee.

I kept forgetting it was New Year's Eve last night until fireworks woke me up. A really party-er I am. We watched Up last night again, and I think it's the best movie of 2009. What movie has you sobbing, then two seconds later laughing your head off? And it's actually a movie intended for children!? But complex enough for grownups? It really is the best movie ever. Ellis calls it U-p. He spells it; it's so cute.

I've been thinking of the holidays this past week. How glad I am that Christmas was over. Me!? I love Christmas! It's my favorite. ("I like smiling. It's my favorite.") Growing up I was so susceptible to the ambiance, the music, the cookies, the snowflakes, the gift making and shopping. Christmas brought my college roommate and I together. We bonded over Christmas and became fast friends.

This year December was one long panic attack. Trying to make things, yet becoming disillusioned with Handmade Holidays at the eleventh hour, but no choice but to press on (sort of like having a baby. ha!). Counting pennies, frustrated with unexpected expenses. Trying to stay positive, focusing on what is right and good, yet, there still must be a gift to give, no matter how simple.

And Marlowe chooses this time to eschew sleeping. I think we are starting the long journey towards the cutting of incisors. The molars were conquered in November, and this is the next mountain to climb.

So a combination between sleep deprivation and trying to make at least a very simple Christmas happen left me feeling chewed up and spit out. I did not enjoy Christmas this year. There. True confession. I was happy that people liked their gifts. It made all the stress worth it. But next year, I don't care how poor we are, I'm shopping. No more Handmade Holidays until my kids are older and sleep.

People say, "oh, you don't have to do much for Christmas." I didn't. This was me already doing the bare minimum. I made peppermint bark, not cookies!

My Scrooge Tale of Woe sets me up for the New Year. It's only fitting that after a season like Christmas, our only holiday that gets a true season and not just a day, that we should all be sick of the upheaval and crave a blank slate. And then we get a New Year! How we all rejoice and make resolutions.

Exercise! Eat healthily! Read! Blog!

Yes, I hope to turn over a new leaf in all those areas. But I realize that when you have little kids sometimes things just don't go as planned, and you just have to make a new plan. One that involves a little more mess, and a little more time to do things.

BUT

I'm totally digressing from what I intended to write in this blog post, which was to tell you about my new books as avenue for the New Years Blank Slate Thrill Ride, otherwise known as New Years Resolution. So setting the existential rabbit trail aside:

* Someone very close to me got me two books that I have wanted for years but have been out-of-print/hard-to-find. The first is Umberto Eco's Experiences in Translation. I'm not a huge fan of translating, and I don't think I have a particular knack for it either. But I get along okay when I need to do it, and seem to find myself in research projects that require a lot of it. Or at least I used to, since I haven't done much scholarly work recently. This is something that I resolve to change this year. I want to submit a journal article and to apply to grad school to finish my PhD.

The second of the books in the Highly Prized category is a book that I have longed for. I couldn't find it in libraries, yet it was constantly being cited. Francoise Robin's La cour d'Anjou-Provence: La vie artistique sous le regne de Rene is a cultural/art history of the patronage of Rene d'Anjou, a fifteenth-century French king. I first learned about Rene when I was studying abroad in Aix-en-Provence, in the south of France, and passed his statue everyday. When I got back home to my history major, I began my obsession with all things Rene, which, of course, plunged me into fifteenth-century patronage studies and whisked me off to Burgundy. All along, I've wanted to study Rene, but have been redirected by wiser advisors who want to me get degrees. Last night I was poking around Amazon, and there seems to be a little surge in Rene studies in the Anglophone scholarly world. Can it be? Perhaps my dream dissertation may be attainable.

Lest I get carried away, though:

* I also bought my first Ina Garten cookbook. After flipping through three of them, I finally chose Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, because it's the one that made me salivate the most. I'm picky and rarely buy a new cookbook, because I think you can find most of what you need to know on the internet. (And with an epicurious.com app, who can go wrong?) I don't need the extra clutter of too many cookbooks. But I have some friends who are Ina fans, and when they make me something from one of her recipes, I stop cold after the first bite, and must know everything about it, because it was the best ever.

Her recipe for chocolate cake that Jonesey made for our two-year-old's birthday two-and-a-half years ago is one I still remember. I don't like chocolate cake. In fact, I'd rather not eat dessert than eat chocolate cake. I simply don't like it. Jonesey made me try a bite of Ina Garten's chocolate cake. And I not only liked it, I loved it! And I'm still talking about it over two years later. So, I figured a woman of such genius to make a recipe of chocolate cake that I like is definitely a woman worth paying some extra attention to. And so far, even though I've just sat in bed and read the cookbook, I'm enjoying her immensely. I like her perspective on ingredients: fresh, quality, seasonal. And I like that the recipes are solid and have that extra something to make it unique and special. Eating well is something I take very seriously, from ingredients to the actual dish prepared, because it impacts our whole life.

* and, of course, I couldn't let my gift card go without getting this year's raddest craft book, Bend the Rules with Fabric by Amy Karol, about printing, stamping, painting, dyeing, etc with fabric. This book is going to be a lot of fun. As I've started to get into a lot of the different techniques she writes about, I'm really thankful for this resource and finding her pointers from directions to actual materials used are very helpful.

And so begins a new year of thinking, cooking, crafting.

And mothering these two...which deserves a post of its own, but can hardly be distilled to one post.

My kids had a great Christmas! And I must say, Christmas is way more fun now with kids. One of Ellis's favorite presents is his fire station duplo set. And really, what Christmas is complete without Legos?

And so ends my DPP 2009! It's been real folks.

It's also been kind of fun, because I did the whole thing on my iPhone. All photos and editing were from my iPhone. It doesn't do a half bad job! And it definitely has portability and accessibility in its favor. But still not quite as good as a real camera. (ya think?)