I finally picked an invitation design for H’s first birthday last weekend, and I’m really happy with it. After narrowing down the choices, I went with this design from Eclectic Note Cards. It was amazingly affordable ($8!), Adam liked it, and it came with an entire suite of very cute options for thank you notes, labels, and signs. I also found this Cricut cartridge at a great price the other day, so I can add to the decor with some more die cut goodies.
I can’t believe this is the 6th year of this list online! Last year was my lowest by far because I just did not have the time or inclination to read when H was born. I’m excited to see how I do this year, but a little trepidatious. I am so easily overwhelmed by all the prolific readers I know through the library and kidlit communities, and I just can’t keep up. I’m not the fastest reader to begin with, and I always have so many other things going on that I definitely rely heavily on audio books to keep me well read. I’m still trying to get current with my knowledge of recent releases after maternity leave. There are always way more amazing books than time to read them, and more and more I’ve found my attentions drifting back to grownup books. It’s actually pretty interesting; since H was born, a lot of the books, films, and TV shows I used to find entertaining are impossible to get through for me now. I am over dystopia. I am struggling with YA. I am more drawn to middle grade than I used to be. Maybe it’s all the bleak material rolling out the past few years. Having a baby with her whole life before her makes me shy away from terrifying visions of the future. And extreme violence; I have not been able to watch Criminal Minds since she was born, for example.
It’s been a really rough winter here at the Reeve house. Since the start of the season, I’ve had a nasty stomach bug, pinkeye (on Christmas Day for Pete’s sake!), a sinus infection, and an upper respiratory infection. Adam has had this horrible sounding cough since mid-December, and despite currently being on antibiotics for it he is more congested than ever. The baby had a mild bout with the stomach bug (I think I was exposed to it through her), and she has been teething like a fiend the past week–with 4am wake-up calls to match.
So a couple of weeks ago, I just wanted to make something comforting and homey for dinner. I had marked this recipe from the October 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Living and never gotten around to making it. I’m so glad I finally did, it was perfect winter food. I made it with 4 bone-in, skin-on breasts instead of a whole broken down chicken. I also did NOT USE MUSHROOMS! Not in this house! Adam and I ate 2 of the breasts, and I had big plans to turn the remaining pieces and broth into an amazing, buttery chicken noodle soup. My biggest regret of January so far is the sinus infection and respiratory infection that set in that same week, making me too sick to cook and even think ahead to freeze the leftovers until I could use them. They went bad in the fridge. 🙁
I may make this again very soon just to carry out my plans for soup.
Chicken Fricassee (adapted from a Martha Stewart Living recipe–here’s the original)
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, divided
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 small yellow onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1 cup)
1 carrot, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1/2 cup)
1 celery stalk, cut into 1/4-inch dice (1/3 cup)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken broth
2 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 to 3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh tarragon leaves
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Other posts on this project: Parisville Quilt Pt. 1.
A little peak at the progress on this quilt:
The piecing of the Tula Pink fabric is very improvisational, and I’m actually using a cream solid in this quilt. I’ve never worked with cream before, I’m usually a big fan of bright white. But it really is more of a winter white in the Parisville fabrics, so I think this is a pretty nice compliment.
So my first year teaching I wanted to have a game for my 2nd graders to explore the library and discover new books. I’ve blogged briefly about this game before. We spend a lot of time in second grade talking about how we choose our books, how to find summaries on the backs and inside the dust jackets of books, and basically just how we find the books we like. I do another activity called “Judge a Book By Its Cover” (I talk about Drop Everything and Read in that post). Judge a Book By Its Cover came in real handy this year when my 4th graders started Wonder; they remembered the 2nd grade game immediately and understood what I wanted them to do.