just my baby and me

My husband took this crazy crew camping and left John and me home for a few days. 

Last year, he took the three of them camping just a few days after John and I came home from the hospital, and I spent the whole time on the couch, nursing my new baby, avoiding going up and down stairs, watching the entire first season of House of Cards, eating Chicken Divan that I'd frozen a few months before, visiting with my midwife, and resting. 

This year I opted to stay home again because my back doesn't do well with laying on the ground, and while our time at home has been a little bit less "glamorous", it has been so nice, too. I've done a good bit of housework, but I also managed a couple of naps with baby John, read just a bit, spent some time praying and journaling, took some silly quizzes on Facebook, killed a really creepy fly-spider hybrid, and played a ton of peekaboo.

It was nice to have this time, and I really needed it. But I've missed them, too, and the house has been dreadfully quiet. So I'm really looking forward to seeing them this afternoon!

cherry picking and pie making (and a recipe for you!)

We have enjoyed not one, but two delicious homemade cherry pies in the last four days. We have two dwarf Montmorency cherry trees in our back yard, and since cherry pie is my favorite thing, well, it's obvious that this would be an exciting season. We actually didn't have any cherries last year due to a frost that ruined the blossoms, and the previous year we were up to our ears in house renovations, so the birds got to them before we did. So this is the first year to enjoy the fruit of our trees in pies! These pies were especially fun and exciting for me as a mama, because Elisabeth made both of them. The first one with my oversight, and the second on her own. 

Some of our backyard cherry spoils, plus our family's favorite cherry-themed book, Cherries and Cherry Pits

I have normally closely guarded our family cherry pie recipe—which is a combination of my mom's pie filling and my grandma's pastry—but I've decided to share it here so it won't be lost to time!

Note: This is not healthy. It is dessert, after all. We don't eat cherry pie all that often, so I don't mind one bit throwing all my usual healthy eating policies out the window. The crust is unusual as it uses shortening instead of butter (I know, terrible—but so reliable) and milk instead of ice water (maybe this is the secret?), but it's so reliably tender and flaky that I just keep going back to it. I have not had any luck so far with gluten-free pie pastry, and I've tried a lot of different recipes, so this is with "glutenful" flour. Fortunately my gluten-free child doesn't really care for pie.

The Best Cherry Pie 

Preheat oven to 425°F.

For the pastry:

-1 cup chilled vegetable shortening (an organic version, like this, works just as well as the gross trans-fat variety)

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 tsp salt

-1/2 cup cold milk

Cut the flour and salt into the shortening using a pastry blender, two knives, or a food processor, until rough pea-sized crumbs form. It's good to have different sizes of crumb. (I do this by hand with a pastry blender.) Add the milk, a little at a time until you can pull a dough together. (Mix with your hands.) Knead just once or twice. Divide in half, pat each half into a disk, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

For the filling:

-6 cups pitted tart cherries (or 3 cans tart cherries, rinsed and drained)—DO NOT USE SWEET CHERRIES.

-1 2/3 cups sugar (that's one and two-thirds, if the formatting makes it hard to read)

-1/2 cup all-purpose flour (do not substitute corn starch or another starch—trust me on this)

-a generous 1 tsp almond extract (I really add up to another quarter teaspoon or so)

Combine all the ingredients and let stand while the dough is chilling. 

Assemble and bake pie:

Roll the first disk of dough out, and fit to a 9" pie plate. Pour the filling in, and dot with butter. (I use a few tablespoons, cut up.) Roll out the second disk of dough, cut slits, and place over filling. Crimp edges. Generously sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.

Place pie on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375°, and bake an additional 20-30 minutes, until crust is browned and filling is bubbly. Allow to cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. 

Enjoy!

One year old!

On Monday, we celebrated a first birthday at our house!

Minutes old

Everything is "peekaboo" to this little one

More peekaboo!

Well, he likes cupcakes!

Birthday crown

(Excuse the many photos, but one of my big regrets about Fiona's first birthday is that I didn't put many up online and then we lost all of them to a computer crash.)

I can hardly believe it's been a whole year with this sweet, sweet boy. Oh, he is just the sweetest, most darling baby. He charms everyone he meets. He has brought so much joy to us even during what has been a really hard year. 

I've been reflecting some on his birth the last few days. I was planning my third homebirth after what had been a healthy and uneventful pregnancy, and just days before my due date, we discovered he was breech. We did everything we could to encourage him to turn, but there just wasn't much time left, and when I went into labor, my midwife hurried over to our house to check his position. She realized that he was coming feet first which meant that even a vaginal breech delivery in the hospital was out of the question, and so it was a c-section. 

Having a c-section was my worst fear. I had done everything in my power to avoid having one with each of my children. And I loved my quiet, cozy homebirths. But I had an immense amount of peace about this decision, and I still do a year later. Although after he was born, John ended up experiencing a cascade of interventions that left us in a horrible situation of a 10-day NICU stay (interventions that our own pediatrician was appalled by later), and even though knowing the time in the NICU was not only the worst time in my own life but could probably have been avoided, I am still very much at peace with his birth. More than that, I am glad that I had to face my worst fear and overcome it. 

Although I wouldn't wish a traumatic birth experience on anyone, I do think that facing a fear is actually a powerful thing and I do wish that everyone would have the opportunity to face a fear the way that I did. There is incredible strength in knowing that you got through the thing that you most feared. I actually view it as a gift. 

And here we are a year later, with a beautiful, healthy boy to celebrate, and all that is in the past. 

Happy birthday, dear John Peter. Thank you for making your mama strong.

In this post: birthday crown and "1" romper by me. Cupcake recipe from this book, with my usual seven-minute icing. Sheep pull toy by Friendly Toys. Birthday ring by Kathe Kruse.

can't stop them growing up (not that you'd want to)

Yesterday we dropped Elisabeth off for her first sleep-away camp experience. Last night I dreamt again and again that we went and picked her up. I miss her! Fortunately she'll only be gone a week. 

They grow up too fast. Everyone always says that, but it's true! It really does not feel very long ago at all that she was just a tiny newborn in my arms. 

I was planning to make her a new toiletry bag and various other things before she left for camp, but alas, did not get around to the projects I had in mind. But oh well, she is off and I know she's having a marvelous time, even without some mama-made gear. 

But I can't wait to see her.

grannies

Lately I've been bitten by the crochet bug. Although I've been struggling to learn crochet for about seven years, it only finally clicked for me this year, with all these granny squares I've been crocheting. (I'm using this pattern.) My goal has been to have a completed blanket by this fall, and I don't know if I'll quite make that goal, but I might be close. 

Even though I'd still describe knitting as my first love in the world of yarn crafts, I haven't been spending any time knitting at all. Crochet has just captured my fancy, I guess! I was going to say that it's because it's so easy to pick up and set down, but knitting is just as easy in that regard. So it's probably just that I'm really excited about my grannies. 

In fact, I've been so excited about them, that I also made some coasters out of granny squares! I recently realized that they were just the right size and are also a solution to the condensation issue that most coasters don't handle very well. 

I made these using a 4" granny square attached to two layers of fabric—one layer of Flea Market Fancy, which I've been holding onto for a long time, and one layer of Kona Cotton. I decided not to add any type of batting between the fabrics because the granny square itself is pretty fluffy and absorbent. The yarn I used on these is Knit Picks Swish Worsted, because it's a nice soft superwash and I'll probably machine wash these. 

I've decided that I don't think there can be too many granny squares in life. Some may disagree on this point, but I'm sticking to it. Plus, my coffee table thanks me. 

welcome!

{A little family of geese a bit like my own—well, except they have one more gosling than I do.}

A warm welcome to all who have made it here to this new space! This move was something that was long overdue for me and for my online home, and I'm so glad to be here. I think I have just about everything worked out with the new hosting platform (Squarespace, which has been lovely and easy to work with), and there are several new posts up, as well, so make yourself at home!

Thank you for joining me here!