On the stovetop*

I love the smell of risotto cooking on the hob. First it's butter melting, then garlic & onions, filling the house with their mouth-watering aromas. Splash in some wine, only the good stuff, something worth drinking with the meal, and the snapping, hissing as it hits the hot pan causes heady vapours to rise.

The next part, the slow part, the therapeutic part. It all melds together; butter, onions, wine & stock. Good food that takes time and patience. A little more stock, stir the pot. Turn the heat down, too much bubbling. Turn the heat up, we do want some bubbles after all! (I'm by no means an expert).

Then, at last, cheese and more butter, meltingly good. I didn't say it was healthy! But maybe it's good for you all the same.


I've missed my cooking these last couple of months. My work schedule has been hectic, nothing new there. But we've had an added complication:

Thankfully the "morning" sickness seems to be dying down so there might be a bit more cooking and maybe some more posting coming up. You never know!
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On silent Sunday

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On my desk

***This post might strike the perfect balance for my blog - it's about a scrapbook page about a mummy story.  So I hope it appeals to the mummies, the scrappers and my family, who are only really interested in my children these days! (I'm completely joking, they're a little bit interested in Andy as well!)***

 

I've had this page on my desk for a couple of months now.  I pulled the photo out to go with some bright and cheerful MME My Girl papers - they pull out the colours of Anna's dress beautifully.  I was in the first flush of love with my new corner rounder, can you tell?  It's a simple design, just the photo and 2 blocks of patterned paper on a kraft background.  It took ages to get the title just right - 'view' is some recent AC thickers (Boardwalk) and 'my' are some really old DCWV rub-ons from my stash.  And then it sat there, waiting for the heartfelt journalling.  Because you can't write heartfelt journalling while you're watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer or listening to Paperclipping Roundtable podcasts.  A little glimpse into my scrapbooking process there!  But the story isn't fully told by just the photo.  And it needs to get into a book before it gets damaged (little feet have already left some crinkles!).  So here goes;

We're sitting on the leather sofa in Mum & Dad's sunroom, midway through a visit for my birthday.  It's you and me, baby.  Our time.  Our quiet space in the midst of family chaos.  Love and laughter, food and friendship, play and prayers.  This is my space, my time, my view.  No one else gets this time with you.  No one else nourishes you like I can, in these small, quiet moments. This is mine.  A perfect reflection of the side of you no one else sees.  Our shared peace, just to be together.  Even when our breast-feeding adventure ends, we'll still have this.  Touch, hold, quiet.  You can be yourself and I'll be me.  And we'll be together, just us.  And I will love you.  For who you are, not who I want you to be.  Forever.  And you can always come back here.  When the world leaves you bruised and broken, I will be here.  In our quiet space.  Where you are you and I am me and that is enough.

Silent Sunday

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On some very old robot paper

I dug out some old Cosmo Cricket papers earlier this month, trying to use up some old stash before buying some new!

Documenting Andy's Lego creations - I'm pretty sure the toys are supposed to be for Isaac but Andy has great fun building things with and for him.  Mostly Isaac asks for fire stations, hence the slides and the big doors.  The best one yet was a mobile fire station on the back of a fire engine.  Andy clearly has too much free time!!

Isaac loves a soft-boiled egg!  I've always called them dippy eggs but since he has to bang the tops with his spoon, they've become bang-bang eggs in our house.  This 4 squares style of page comes together really quickly, especially if you use an interesting patterned paper in the blank squares.  And you can embellish it as much or as little as you like.

This is what happens when a boy who loves clips and straps meets a girl who loves sitting pn things.  I will admit that I secured the booster seat to the stairgate, but mostly because Isaac was already trying to strap Anna into it and I was worried she'd fall off the stairs with it on top of her.  I love her expression in these photos!

These photos were taken in 2010 at a friend's house.  Isaac was really interested in the bouncer, which moved when he pressed on it, and the toys decorating the tray.  I have another shot with both boys looking straight at the camera - so cute!  This page used up lots of odds and ends of paper, in some strange shapes.  I just arranged them so that any gaps were covered up and you'd never know that the blue microchip paper doesn't go all the way under the photos!