Belated New Year’s Resolutions

Quickie post before the now-working mama goes to bed. Sorry I have no pictures to illustrate. In 2011, besides the previously mentioned “blog at least once a week,” I resolve to:

1. Use my CPAP machine. Except for a couple of nights, have been doing pretty good on this so far this year. Wish it didn’t leave me feeling dehydrated, though (even with the steam thingie on). Even my eyes are red, itchy, and dried out.

2. Take my vitamins. Have been remembering most days. I have put a “pill organizer” on my shopping list next time I’m at the drug store to make this even easier: fill it with my vitamins once a week, stuff it in my purse to take to work, and then no excuses for forgotten vitamins.

3. Make Sam laugh daily. Needs work. Mama’s too serious, doesn’t play enough with Dude. This is the most important one, though, given that my time with him is now seriously curtailed since I returned to work from mat leave today.

Am I secretly hoping to eat better, be more organized, go to bed earlier, exercise more, lose weight, and get happier? Of course I am. But such resolutions are doomed to failure. I figure the three I’ve listed above are actually achievable, and will all contribute to improving my health, energy, and happiness.

OK, it’s late, time to GO TO BED!! I’m working tomorrow!! (And yeah, if you’re wondering: work is work. It was good to be back, despite the usual excess of rich food, and the usual dearth of email/mainframe/software access which will require hours on the phone with the Help Desk in India before it all gets sorted. *Sigh.*)

Oh, and speaking of laughing babies and work, here’s a fun article for today’s Link of the Day: Tell your boss: Research shows viral video watching increases productivity.

Look what I made!

Beaded Christmas tree ornament

I made this little tree for the K-W Knitters’ Guild annual handmade holiday ornament exchange. (Ornaments do not have to be knitted, but they must be made by hand.) The ornament I made last year was sad and pathetic and was not picked until close to last (I certainly didn’t bother photographing it), so I wanted to make something a little more worthy this year, since some of last year’s contributions by my fellow Guild members were just spectacular, as was the case again this year. This little number is my own design, made up entirely out of my own head. I traced a tree shape from a cookie cutter on two layers of storebought felt (I wasn’t quite dedicated enough to make my own felt, especially since white wool doesn’t always felt reliably), then strung some pretty beads from my newly acquired stash donated by my friend Kristen and sewed them on. I sewed the two trees together with gold embroidery thread using blanket stitch, then stuffed the ornament with polyfill before finishing. I’m really pleased with the result, and as hoped, it was snatched up very quickly! I picked out a yarn ball made by one of my Guild friends, similar to this. (I should have taken a picture before putting away the Christmas tree yesterday.) Now I will always think of her when I hang it on the tree every year!

New Year’s Resolution #1

I was going to save this for next Monday’s narcissism post, but hey, there’s no time like the present. So I am officially announcing: one of my resolutions for 2011 was to write more in my blog. To this effect, I have signed up for WordPress’s Post A Week challenge. Go me!!

I may be obsessed with soup.

Butternut Squash Soup

So I had some leftover roasted butternut squash that wasn’t really appealing to eat plain a second night in a row — it was a bit grainy and stringy and kind of blah, not as delightfully sweet as some winter squash I’ve had in the past. Since I’m always happy to eat soup, especially creamy puréed soup, I thought, OK, let’s see if we can find an appealing squash soup recipe. I recommend this method of finding a new recipe if you are pressed for time or just don’t feel like leafing through your recipe books (or don’t collect recipe books like I do). It’s rare that I don’t feel like looking at a recipe book, but I am sometimes too rushed for time. I fired up the website allrecipes.com (others you can try include epicurious and Tasty Kitchen), did a search on “squash soup,” and made the one that had the highest rating with the most number of reviews, Mary’s Butternut Squash Soup. I made the modifications suggested by several reviewers: subbed in butter for margarine, chicken stock for water and chicken bouillon cubes, and roasted squash for raw, and reduced the amount of cream cheese. OMG it was dead easy, and SO delicious! Easily made vegetarian by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken stock. The cream cheese adds amazing richness. This one’s a definite keeper. Great way to use up leftover squash.

One!

Happy birthday, Sam!

I can’t believe a whole year has already gone by since this guy was born. Can’t imagine life without him now. Please forgive the crappiness of the photo but I forgot the camera at home so had to settle for the Blackberry. (Bad mommy. *slap*) He had his 12-month pediatrician appointment yesterday (we weren’t so mean that we purposely scheduled shots on his actual birthday; his original appointment had to be moved…) and he was a real little trooper, barely even flinched. How he’s changed in a year; in early days we were really concerned about his weight as breastfeeding never went nearly as well as we would have liked, but now he’s tipping the scales at 30.5 inches, 30 pounds, in the 90-95th percentiles for height and weight for his age. We celebrated by going out for dinner after his appointment with his doc and her hubby, who are close friends of ours. Sam was fascinated with the birthday candle and was a little upset when it we blew it out. He only had a tiny bit of this fruit flan, but he seemed to enjoy it. (He does love fruit.) Today I think he may have taken his first independent little step without cruising, at least the first that I’ve witnessed — just a tiny step while standing in the tub after his bath. (Our tub is old and pitted and not at all slippery.) We’ll have more of a party for his 2nd birthday; the holidays were particularly crazypants this year (and they’re not quite over yet; one more extended family gathering/potluck coming up on Sunday)… we’re all just worn out. His (belated, because his mother is disorganized, not that he’ll know or care) birthday gifts will be a set of foam building blocks from Lee Valley, and a play tent from Home Hardware. (Not that he really NEEDS more toys: OMG he was spoiled rotten for Christmas… I swear we’ve doubled the number of toys in the house.) Happy birthday, gooseberry! Love you!! *mwah*

Let’s just pretend it’s Monday, OK?

So I tried to put up a blog post last night before going to bed, and just when I was almost done, stupid Firefox froze up totally and I lost my work. It was my own damn fault, really, because instead of writing my post in WordPress, which saves drafts periodically, I was using the “blog this” feature in Flickr, which of course does not save drafts at all. Grr. So I will now attempt to reproduce said post tonight. The good thing in all this is that in telling a friend of mine about my misfortune tonight (happy birthday again, Rob!), I learned that there is an add-on called Lazarus that can save my bacon next time that happens…Yay!

It’s been another busy few days here at Casa Fortin-Koch. On Friday, Tanya came for a girls’ dinner while Derek was volunteering at the annual Christmas in the Village event. After Sam’s dinner, we took him for a brief walkabout of the festivities, getting free popcorn from Derek at the hardware store (where Tanya took advantage of the opportunity to buy a couple new tools), hot cider and cookies at the old gift shop, more cookies at the new gift shop, and buying the most decadent pecan butter tarts for our dessert at the grocery store. What a lovely evening. (P.S. Happy birthday again, Tanya! December 7 is a good day.)

On Saturday, I got all my Christmas shopping done except for a couple things I need to order online!! Woo-hoo! On a Saturday in December! It wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, probably because the stores were properly staffed for the rush. It also helped that I’m getting gift cards for the older nieces and nephews. Not my preference — I’d much rather be able to give them a “thing” they can unwrap on Christmas morning — but I know this will make them happy, and really, isn’t that what Christmas is about? I’ll make a point of taking them shopping personally to spend their gifts.

Sunday, I listened to a repeat of the Vinyl Cafe: the very first one I’d ever heard, actually, 2 years ago. I remember it so clearly; I was in the car alone and had the radio tuned to CBC. I’d only been listening to CBC for a few months, and wasn’t usually in the car when the show was on. Stuart McLean was in the middle of a Dave and Morley story (“The Gloves“). Now those of you who know me know I haaaaate walking into the middle of a movie or story. (I never ever read the ending of a book ahead of time.) But McLean’s voice was so captivating that even though I didn’t know who these characters were or what had happened at the beginning of the story, I was compelled to keep listening, at least until I got where I was going and had to leave the car before learning what the show was. I caught the program I.D. (and learned showtimes) a few weeks later by stumbling on it again, and have been a faithful listener ever since. Stuart McLean is a national treasure; I am kicking myself for not having become a fan years and years ago. Oh well. We are going to see the Christmas concert with Neil and Tanya next week at Centre in the Square, so excited!!

Later on Sunday, I put up the Christmas tree. Sorry about the blur, on closer inspection there appear to be Sam fingerprints on the camera lens… Very different tree from past years. I treated myself to a new pre-lit tree this year, with the newer “warm” white LEDs. I’d call them more a true white, not yellow like the old incandescent clear lights, but not that icy pale blue of the first-generation clear LEDs. In any case, a very nice change from the multicolour lights I always had in the past. And what a nifty invention the pre-lit tree is. I always dreaded stringing the lights on the tree… now I don’t have to any more! Yay! This year, to protect Sam, I have avoided putting up any of my delicate breakable glass and porcelain ornaments, and instead brought out a bunch of Derek’s old handmade decorations, made by him as a child, and by his mom and grandma etc, as well as a variety of eclectic things I’ve received over the years from various people, and combined them with the white lace, metallic, and wood/straw-toned unbreakable pieces I’ve used in the past. It’s a very “country” look, primarily red and white (as opposed to burgundy and white as in past years), but I really like it, much more than I expected I would!

So now I just need to get the Christmas cards done (I picked up the pictures on Saturday), and I will be officially ready for Christmas (well, except for the gift knitting on which I am behind — as evidenced by the August birthday gift I just finished last week)!

P.S. I have changed Monday’s theme to Random Mondays to allow for other ramblings than just narcissistic ones…

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Margaret’s scarf

Look! It’s another scarf! And there are more scarves to come! This one is a belated gift for my friend Margaret’s 41st birthday, which was back in August. She’s allergic to wool, but luckily she has no problem with cashmere. The colour is “Natural Woman” and the pattern is called “Hallie”; further details here on Ravelry. This was knit lengthwise on 5.5 mm circulars. Let me tell you, when I was about 1/4 of the way done binding off the 600 or so stitches only to realize I didn’t have enough yarn to finish, I was mighty discouraged at having to tink back. And because I used the super stretchy “Lace” bind-off to ensure the ruffles would drape nicely, I then ran out of yarn again on binding off, this time with about 34 stitches left to go. I wanted to cry. Lucky for me, my beloved MIL Shirley was there. She saved my butt by showing me how to do a crochet bind-off of the remaining stitches (I’d completely forgotten the Harlot’s linked tutorial there). You can see where the two different bind-offs meet if you look VERY closely, so it’s not perfect, but it was good enough for me, so this sucker is done. Onto the next gift scarf. Why oh why did I commit to so many gift scarves this year? It feels like that’s all I will be knitting forever now. Oh, and sorry for the crappy flash photo that recreates a scarf post from 2005, but it’s cold and dismally grey outside and I need to get this done before Sam’s nap is over.