Happy Birthday Mr. Washington!

Today is February 22nd.  It’s the 278th anniversary of the birth of George Washington.  I call that cause for celebration.

washington bust with flags

The more I read about him, the more I respect him.   Sure, he was just a man, imperfect.  But he was absolutely essential to the formation of the United States of America.  He’s on my short list of people I’m anxious to meet someday.  Like Lincoln, he paid a high personal price for his service to his country.  I realize that countless others have done the same, others whose names I’ll never know or whose birthdays I’ll never celebrate.  But if we forget people like George Washington, can we properly remember any of the others?

Want to celebrate with us?  Whip up some hoecakes, Washington’s breakfast of choice.  (We often have them for birthday dinner.)  The Mt. Vernon recipe I have calls for yeast, and letting it sit out overnight, which doesn’t sit really well with me, so we use Lincoln’s recipe.   They’re quick, simple, and a fun twist on our pancakes today.  They called them hoecakes because you could put a spoonful of batter on the end of a hoe (or griddle) to cook it over the fire.  You can find my recipe here .

This evening I’m making a birthday cake to celebrate.  I’m using Martha Washington’s recipe for her Great Cake.  I’ve never tried it before and the entire recipe is approximately 3 sentences, but I’m optimistic.  I’ll share pictures tomorrow.

Until then, wave a flag, pause to remember, read the Constitution, read a book (I love this picture book) , or do a little research to learn something you didn’t already know about this great man.  We owe an awful lot to his leadership.

Happy Birthday to one of my greatest heroes.

Jennifer

One Step Report #7

Well, this week felt more like walking in quicksand than anything else,  but at least we’re trying?!?
This week’s total:  45 steps.

A few highlights from the week:

1.  This morning we had a surprise request for french braids.  I was grateful that only 3 of my 5 daughters have enough hair to do this, or we would have been late to church!

french braids

Still, it’s nice to make them happy.

smiling girls

2.  Thanks to the Olympics (which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed), I’ve finally finished binding my Rouenneries quilt.  I’ll share pictures tomorrow.  On a side note, though, how do people find time to watch TV?  I’m being quite serious, here.  We never watch it, but the Olympics are an exception.  We’ve only had it on for an hour or two on a few evenings, and I’m amazed at how STUPID most of the commercials are!  Much as I love the Olympics, it’s always reassuring to be reminded that we’re not missing anything by keeping the TV off.

3.  I spent some great time reading with my kindergartener this week.

4.  Yesterday we got the toy room clean.  Major accomplishment.  If you’re one of the privileged people whom we love and trust enough to let up there, you know what I mean.  The kids have been happily playing in there ever since.

5.  I found a tutorial for binding quilts on my machine, so I whipped up a super fast quilt-as-you-go strip quilt for the sole purpose of trying this method of binding.  I’ll share the results soon!

All in all, I suppose the week was fine, but can I just say that I am SICK SICK SICK of cloudy days?  I’m crossing my fingers for some sunshine this week.  I’ve got a lot to take care of, and it’s much easier to function cheerfully in the sun.  I’ve also got a birthday cake to bake for Mr. George Washington tomorrow…..

Hope your week is wonderful!

Jennifer

Wishing for a Nursery

I have given birth to 8 babies.  I’ve never had a nursery.
Oh, I’ve drooled over plenty of pictures of fabulous rooms designated solely for baby, but I’ve never had one.  Our family has always grown faster than our space, thus no nursery has ever materialized.

The truth is that babies don’t need nurseries.  They’ll never remember them, anyway.  And while mothers may LIKE nurseries, all that mothers really need is sleep.  This means that mothers need their babies to sleep.  At night.  When the rest of the family sleeps.

My #8 was the best sleeper I’d ever had, up until a month ago.  Suddenly she was waking up every hour or two.  First it was constipation and then teething.  Earlier this week, at 3 a.m., in a moment of desperation we moved her bed into our closet.  Ta Da!  She slept!

Well, it appears that she has found her new bedroom, because for the past 3 nights I’ve had 5 hours of solid sleep.  I’m still exhausted, but it’s a start.  The problem is that her little pack and play bed was in the middle of our closet, with about 8 inches on either side for maneuvering.  Today’s project was to organize the closet WITH the baby’s bed in it, so that I can do laundry and we can find our clothes.

This is what I came up with.  Please remember that the lighting in these photos is horrible because this is, well, a CLOSET.  It never has and never will see the light of day.  I did my best (which I readily admit isn’t great.  I haven’t the courage to learn how to edit photos yet, but when I finally do, I’m sure I’ll regret not doing it sooner).

closet nursery

This view is looking into the closet through the doorway in my bathroom.  On the right hand side of the picture you can see the doorway leading from the other corner of the closet into my laundry room.  The wall that has now become my “nursery” looked like this when I started:


I’ve always tried to keep that wall open so that I can keep my ironing board there.  Today the ironing board moved out so that the baby crib can sit against that wall.  I hung a huge vintage tablecloth on the far left to cover my clothes and define the space a bit.  Then a plant stand came in from the front porch to hold the baby monitor, and a lamp came up from the basement.  I hung her blessing gown on the wall, and propped a long, thin mirror on the plant stand.


The mirror I added because we all know that every room needs a mirror.  Just kidding.  I made that up.  But I think I believe it.  Have you ever seen a space that wasn’t made more beautiful by adding a mirror somewhere?  They add so much light and beauty to a room.  I guess I put it in because if this is going to be baby’s room, then I might as well have a little fun!

On the other side of the crib I hung a baby themed embroidery that I completed a few years ago.  Nice light switch, huh!  Hey, it’s a CLOSET!


I grabbed a very old artificial hydrangea garland that’s been kicked around by my kids for 3 years now, dusted it off, and wrapped it around the hanging bar to make the bar a little less obvious.  Then I hung a canopy (also from the basement) from the bar to cover my iron holder on the wall and to sort of enclose the bed a bit.


Finished.  30 minutes.  Not a penny spent.  Not too bad!

You see, sometimes decorating is glamorous and gorgeous, but most of the time it’s just figuring out how to make real life work and then adding in a bit of beauty.  I’ll never get that nursery I’ve always wanted, but now I have 6 feet of wall in my closet that resembles one.  I’m making do with what I’ve got, and turning it into something I like.  And that, my friends, is the whole point of  “making home.”

Now for the laundry!  (Ugh.)
Have a great weekend.

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