five things Friday: life savers edition

No surprise, life has been a bit nutty lately with work, a 6-month-old and limited childcare, an elementary school kid who keeps having 1/2 days and snow days, etc. etc. Luckily I've got some amazing grandparent babysitting (thanks especially for all the extra time lately, mom!) and a grocery store pickup subscription (here's looking at you for shopping my orders and adding on all my extra requests, Karen!) saving my life lately - along with a few random products that seem simple but are huge in the way they simplify life. Thought they all deserved an honorable mention here:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4a, b | 5a, b

Also no surprise, several of these are baby-related items... The Mixie bottle is leftover from Hendrik's baby days, actually, and now that Freddie's partially on formula I got it back out (apparently not available any longer, but this and this look to be similar products with the same idea), and I need to sing its praises: you fill the little inner slot with powdered formula and the outer with water, and they stay separated until you push the button on the bottom of the bottle to release the powder, then shake up and feed. Brilliant to have such fast prep for a bottle, and to have something you can keep in the diaper bag all pre-measured and ready to go in an instant. I love this thing.

The pacifier clip saves my sanity of not picking up the thing from the ground all the time, plus Freddie is now quite skilled at putting it into his own mouth if in reach - which it always is with this! Not to mention that he really loves gnawing on this particular one, so it keeps him entertained all the time, such as when we've got to ride back and forth across town to do the school run. Also handy for that is the car seat cocoon cover, which is super warm and takes the work out of figuring out what to bundle him in, and saves time because it just lives on the car seat and easily unzips to get him in and out. Wasn't sure about buying one because this is just one season of a baby in a little car seat - but the daily use and ease is worth it!

Also worth it is multi-use products. I already like micellar water (+ washable cotton rounds) for cleaning off makeup at the end of the day because you just swipe with no need to rinse. Quick and easy which means I'm wayyyy more likely to actually do it. This Burt's Bees 3-in-1 does makeup removal, cleansing, and toning, which means that it puts me another step into the facial care routine, and again makes it more likely that I'll actually do the rest of the serum and moisturizer stuff. Clutch when I'm still going to bed really early because of really early wakeups to work/pump.

Minced garlic and ginger paste seem like pretty weird things to include on a product collage for a blog post, but wowza do I love having these in my fridge for making dinner - so quick and handy to have these ingredients prepped in advance that it really feels like a big step in getting a delicious dinner on the table quickly (not to mention that I really just don't enjoy mincing and peeling them in the first place).

So how's that for a random collection of life savers... What's saving yours lately?

wearing lately: short hair!

Well, it's happened again: we've reached the point in winter where I can't stand anything in my closet after wearing (what feels like) the same 3 outfits on repeat for months. The options actually are narrower this year as I generally am wearing certain items that have nursing/pumping access. And also I'm still not really going anywhere and thus have somewhat limited motivation for cute outfits - and no justification for adding new things to my wardrobe. However... 

....There's another way to feel like a whole new woman: go in for a chop! My hairstylist told me I was about the 5th person she had seen last week who said the same thing - I'm over winter and totally bored with my look... let's cut off some hair. It has been years since I've had it this short, so it feels like quite a change. A whole new me for now, even if it's a length I've done before. And actually, thinking back to when I had it short it did inspire me to pair it with a bit of a throwback outfit of the black jeans + chambray shirt variety. This one is a nice cozy flannel with cute side-button details, but it's the same idea as that go-to outfit of my past. 

Not a very exciting ensemble for my first foray into outfit posting in 2 months - but we'll reframe that to calling it "classic," shall we? Also, it's real life! I'm just a work-from-home, new mom who's trying to stay warm and have someone to show off my new haircut to - you! 

mini me Monday: Freddie at 6 months!

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's something to put a lot of love in our hearts here: 6 months of Freddie 💖 He had his 1/2 birthday on Friday (celebrated with a nice helping of mashed avocado and then pureed pears for dessert), and it's hard to believe how quickly it feels like he's always been here as the completion of our family - yet how different our lives are from just 6 months ago, and from a year ago when we first told Hendrik that he was going to be a big brother.

Also hard to believe what a different creature he is already from that first month's photo, going from this scrawny but sweet little lump that couldn't do much to a baby who can hold his head up to watch and interact with the world and has food and toy preferences and particular things that make him laugh. There have been many long days (and nights!!) to get to this point, yet what a short amount of time to develop all of that - the saying "the days are long but the years are short" is a saying for a reason, clearly. 

At 6 months Freddie continues to be so smiley and sweet. He loves observing the world in general, and especially watching his big brother do anything; gnawing on a couple of particular teethers but mostly his hands (can almost get 2 fists in at once), anyone else's hands, or the beads of his pacifier clip; eating carrots, avocado, oatmeal, beans, any kind of fruit (and gets kind of mad when he sees us eating and he doesn't get to); singing Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider; and talking to mommy and running his hands through her hair when laying on the changing table.

He's developing a delightful chunkiness and starting to get quite good at supported sitting, not so good at rolling yet since he still kind of hates tummy time, but he has rolled over a couple of times on his own. He finally is on a fairly consistent nap/eating schedule over the last couple of weeks, and thankfully has (mostly) been sleeping through the night since January, with some very painful weeks to get us there... Most impressive trick is getting his own pacifier into his mouth pretty consistently - he *loves* that thing - but we are impressed by and gush at  pretty much everything he does, from his baby noises to his toy grabbing to his attempts at making his big brother laugh. Can't get enough of that Freddie-cakes!

Speaking of big brother: admittedly, when I bought these monthly stickers it was partly to track Freddie's growth but also in big part so that I could do exactly this - a comparison image to Hendrik's first six months! I wasn't sure how much they looked alike at first, but I think they definitely look like brothers by the 6-month mark, don't you?

five things Friday: February TBR edition

Going with "better late than never" on this month's TBR list. I've had more time for reading the books than writing about them, so indeed I've actually started in on my book selection intentions for the month - just wanted to finally get around to sharing them for posterity, especially so I could give a recap of my January reads, which had some really good ones that need circling back on, and so I could let you know about this amazing Bookshop.org "win books for life" sweepstakes that would make anyone's TBR a reality of their dreams...

Since it's February, gotta have a couple of romance-y books: the YA rom-com A Taste for Love looks delightful - how could it not be, when described as being for fans of Jenny Han, Jane Austen, and The Great British Baking Show (also perfect for the "a book about food" category of the 2022 RAD Reading Challenge). And then I've got a more historical romance, Bringing Down the Duke, on my Kindle, and it's time to get around to it. I know people love this series with the suffragist "Oxford Rebels" women finding love whilst making social change, so I've been meaning to give this first in the series a try.

I've also been in the mood for some mysteries, so I put The Maid and Winter Counts (which has been sitting on my shelf for a year, whoops) into the lineup; The Maid looks to be sort of a locked-room whodunit, taking place in a hotel, but the perspective of the maid telling the story (who has gotten comparisons to characters like Eleanor Oliphant) makes it unique. And Winter Counts is a thriller on a Native American reservation that involves vigilante justice and the drug epidemic - so, gritty, but I've seen great reviews.

Finally, I've been working my way through David Sedaris' 2nd installment of his published diaries, A Carnival of Snackery, since you can really just read it in snippets of the short entries, but I'd like to finish this month.

Now for a recap of January's list, which has some well-worth-reading material:

• No One Is Talking About This: this book will not be for everyone, and for the first 20 pages I thought it was going to be one of those books with critical acclaim that makes me feel a little dumb because I just don’t get what art this author is trying to make. How to even describe what this book is? Feels like stream of consciousness, satire, speculative fiction, social commentary, poetry, and a family drama all rolled into one. At first it kind of lost me (I mean, is there even a plot?! I kept thinking), but then after 20-30 pages I started really rolling with it. The main character’s whole life revolves around/in the “portal” after she has become famous for some internet randomness, and through her posts and invitations to lecture tours we get a feel for a life lived in the ether and all the memes and of-the-moment things that come with it. (Keep in mind this is told through very small snippets, almost feeling unconnected at times but sort of weaving together to get the gist of a plot summary.) I kept wanting to highlight so many apt or eye-opening lines about our current internet age and political times. And then I got to part 2. In this section the protagonist is pulled solidly back into “real” life when her pregnant sister finds out that her baby has a rare genetic anomaly. As the family grapples with what this means for the baby and for them during her pregnancy and the baby's birth, we really see the contrast between the life lived online and the real emotional bonds and human connection of a family in their grief, love, and shared experience. The way this story is told, tying poetic-like writing to the internet-speak of our time, made it feel so real and raw. I cried for probably the last 40 pages, and then I read the author note at the end and learned that she had gone through some of this experience with her own sister and niece and I cried all the more. Definitely I am tender where it comes to babies at the moment, with a tiny one of my own, but for anyone the tenderness and love is so obvious in this story, yet it's done in such a unique and modern way. Hard to describe how an unnamed and kind of amorphous character and her experiences could end up feeling so real that I wept for her - Patricia Lockwood has created a masterpiece, I think. ★★★★★
• A Knock at Midnight: a memoir that is eye opening (and infuriating/convicting) about the state of our (lack of) justice system, and heart-tugging with personalizing the stories of people affected in terms of unfair and overly harsh drug sentencing laws - in the way that Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy is about the incarceration of innocent people. The first part of the book is about Brittany's childhood and how she and her family were personally affected by the War on Drugs; the remainder of the book recounts how as a corporate lawyer with no criminal law experience she gets deeply involved in working on the cases of people who have been sentenced to life in prison for small or even sometimes first-time drug dealing offenses. It tells the personal stories of her clients (who really become family to her, not clients) and really brings them to life, and it also informs the reader about the unfair and harsh laws and sentencing relating to drug offenses, the mass scale of the incarceration relating to this, and the toll this takes on so many imprisoned people and their families. Amazingly it also brings notes of hope when you see the resiliency of the human spirit in the people whose cases she takes on, and a note of hope regarding what we could be as a society if we let people like this use their gifts in the world rather than locking them away for life. ★★★★.5
• Fat Chance, Charlie Vega: Charlie Vega is a high schooler who loves to write romance stories where her characters get magical moments, but as a fat brown girl living in a white suburb, she doesn't feel like her yearned-for first kiss is in the cards any time soon. The story follows her friendships and her first romance; somewhat typical YA stuff but with good representation and a main character I just fell in love with - smart, ambitious, funny, but also real, with self-doubts and lapses in judgement. I like how the body image issue is represented in an honest way through Charlie in that she has conflicting feelings - she can be involved in a body positivity community on Instagram and stand up for herself in valuing her strong body when her mom tries to pressure her into Weight Watchers, while at the same time she can still have self doubts and fall into comparing herself to her best friend or her mom. It's definitely got a YA feel in how it handles issues and emotions, but if you enjoy that kind of thing, this is an enjoyable rom-com with a funny and smart protagonist; recommend for fans of Julie Murphy's Dumplin' series - almost a mix of all 3 of those books, actually. ★★★★
• The Secrets of Winterhouse: second in this middle-grade series that melds delightfully bookish characters, word play, and an amazing hotel setting with a mystery and a touch of magic too (I reviewed the first one last month). In this one Elizabeth gets to return to the hotel to live there - but of course there are some mysteries remaining about her family from the previous book, and she and her friend Freddy set out to figure them out, on top of enjoying the wonderful delights of the picturesque hotel. Didn't love it as much as the first one (less novelty, I think), but still enjoyed the continuation of the story and will pick up the third one to find out how it all comes together! ★★★.5
• The Dating Playbook: didn't actually make it around to this one, since when I posted my January TBR, a reader suggested that while it would be okay to start here (in the way it usually is with romances), it's actually the 2nd in a series and I might get more out of it if I started with The Boyfriend Project. Luckily that one just showed up on a $2 Kindle deal too, so now I have both lined up and am looking forward to diving into this world that I know a lot of contemporary romance readers have loved. (Thanks for the suggestion, Jayne!)

And if that all explodes your own TBR list, you should know about this: Bookshop.org has this amazing promo going in which you can enter to win free books for life... what a way to get your hands on everything you've been wanting to read. Click to enter the sweepstakes, through February 28!

Post contains affiliate links; I make a small commission if you buy books through them - and then I go buy more books to review here!

cooking lately: new recipes!

Not sure why or how, given the busy family/work situation over here, but I have actually been fairly regularly trying out some new recipes around here. Maybe something to do with getting a great Kindle deal on the NYT No Recipe Recipes book, which has some very intriguing and weeknight doable dinners, or maybe something to do with a renewed interest in menu planning as one area where I can have control amidst the chaos - whatever the case, I have a few things that are definitely going into regular rotation now, and I've been wanting to share so that you can try these too. Easy weeknight meals that take things up a notch in the taste department - all rave reviews from my fam...

top left | top right | bottom left | bottom right4 

 
First, from the NYT book mentioned, is the sausage + sage pasta that is quick and easy but nice and rich thanks to the sage, the spice from the sausage, oh yeah, and the butter. Using the orichette pasta is just as easy as any other type of pasta but made us feel fancy.

And then with the rest of your sage, go for the chicken + sage meatballs with parmesan orzo, for sure. This one is definitely more labor-intensive because the orzo pasta with it cooks more like a risotto, with lots of stirring involved - but then again, it tastes like a creamy risotto, so that's kind of worth it. I'll probably simplify this recipe if I make it again (already did, by doing breadcrumbs instead of the bread soaking step, plus I *always* buy pre-minced garlic to save time), but it was delish, so the recipe is worth keeping around.

For some totally different (from our usual, anyway) flavors, these middle eastern chicken thighs are SO GOOD. I've already made this recipe twice and have stocked up on chicken thighs to make it again. The chicken simmers with onions and broth and some really interesting spices on the stovetop - so it's quick and easy - and then we serve over quinoa and add parsley, lemon juice, toasted slivered almonds, and dried cherries on top. *Chef's kiss*

And then for a very comforting wintertime dish, we really enjoyed this Pakistani take on meat + potatoes: aloo keema. Served over rice with a side of naan. Easy and hearty.

I've been meaning as well to try out some new instant pot recipes, to satisfy that itch for something tasty and new but also fit into my limited timeframe for cooking dinner (especially now that Freddie likes to eat his peas and carrots and pears and such while I'm cooking, so I need to multitask - or grow some more arms!). Any go tos for the instant pot that I should add to the rotation here??

currently

loving: Hendrik's enthusiasm for learning. It has always been so fun to watch, but lately even more so when he won his classroom spelling bee and tackled head-on the list of words to practice for the school bee - and won that too! He's also decided to start learning Japanese on Peter's Duolingo app at it's too cute.

making: baby food. We started with some jarred purees and some baby oatmeal a month or so ago, and now I'm digging out the baby food maker from Hendrik's younger days and mixing up some of his old favorites: peas, sweet potatoes, and apples for starters, and excited to move on to incorporating some more flavors in the next few months, like adding tikka masala sauce to his cauliflower, always a big hit with Hendrik. (Freddie's also a fan of carrots and pears so far, and even more exciting for me, has enjoyed his first avocado!)

taking: some time off work this week/last week while my childcare (aka the grandmas) is all on vacation, which means more Freddie for me! Rather frustrating that really cold weather + covid means we are quite house-bound, but we're making the most of our bonus time together with some new toys I saved up from Christmas, his favorite books, and trying out our new carseat cocoon cover on the few days it's not too windy and frigid to get out.

wanting: an air fryer. With how infrequently I use my instant pot, I probably really don't need another small appliance in my kitchen, but I keep seeing these great looking recipes (like these salmon bowls, cauliflower tacos, and falafel), and it sounds so quick and easy for making meals (exactly what I said about the instant pot - ha!). Kind of tempted to try out this little version though - doesn't take up too much space or cost too much, and so cute.

wondering: how I managed to blog so regularly when Hendrik was a baby - and whether I'll manage more posts in February than January's two?! I miss the creativity and community, and I've got ideas brewing, but time will tell whether I can make time to get them out... admittedly I do have some free time, but currently that is going toward reading, Pelotoning, and going to bed as early as possible. All of which build up my energies in ways I need too, so it might take a little more time for the creative pursuits to come back more fully into my life.

Hope you will join in and share what you're currently up to - and come back March 2 as well for: collecting, craving, picturing, playing, and wishing.

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