Since last we spoke…
Oh, wait, where are my manners? How are you? Did you have good holidays, if you were celebrating? Did you get way more done at work than the rest of us, if you were not? And Happy New Year again to all.
OK then. I am as full of ideas about house decorating, gardens, adult children, the meaning of life, and, yes, fashion, as ever. But before we return to our usual fare, can I prevail upon you to join me in a group deep breath? And to take a brief look back at the past 6 weeks?
Since right before Thanksgiving I have:
- Cleaned my entire house, interrupting the interior painting of said house in the process. Paint dust is my mortal enemy.
- Hosted Thanksgiving. Luckily, my daughter and her significant other did much of the cooking.
- Cleaned a portion of my house, again, interrupting the continued interior painting, again.
- Slept in the clean part of the house for one night, with my daughter, before we headed off, Significant Husband, both children, and I, to the Four Seasons Hualalai on Hawaii’s Big Island. Review forthcoming.
- Ridden in a helicopter, over a volcano. Story forthcoming.
- Hiked around and through a 50-year old crater of said volcano. Story, you guessed it.
- Dressed in pastel-colored shifts, straw hats, sandals, bathing suits and pareos. Photos forthcoming.
- Returned, cleaned the entire house, again, interrupting the still, forever, endless, ongoing interior painting. Again.
- Prepared to host Christmas with my son, my middle sister, her husband and daughter. Scrounged a free wreath at Whole Foods, brought out our garaged boxes of decorations. Said, “Heck no,” to exterior Christmas lights. Said, “Heck yes,” to my sister and brother-in-law bringing a tree. They got the last one on the lot.
- Located our Aerobed and some packing tape to fix its broken valve so guests wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor.
- Eaten Christmas Eve dinner at a Chinese restaurant, as is our custom when we share the evening with said brother-in-law.
- Eaten Christmas Day dinner at my brother’s place in San Francisco, complete with a Cute Nephew-led walk to the park.
- Laid down sticky black shelf paper in 7 out of 12 newly painted shelves in my laundry room/larder. Decided, with an artist’s guidance, to write legends on them with a white pen. Felt Artsy.
- Dug up a whole bunch of acanthus, the Sisyphean rock of gardening.
- Ordered native plants to put under my oak tree.
- Scheduled the landscaping guys to come help me put said plants under said oak tree.
- Opened a box of homemade cookies sent, in a generous impulse, by @cindysavage, after a conversation on Twitter about how I don’t understand cookie exchanges. I do now.
- Roasted a pork belly according to Nigel Slater in his glorious book, Appetite. Eaten it for New Year’s Eve dinner at home, with roast potatoes and braised bitter greens. The belly, not the book.
- Seen Mr. Slater himself respond on Twitter to my tweet mentioning his writings. Squealed like an 11-year old. Me, not Mr. Slater.
- Made 2 more dinners out of pork belly leftovers. The more you cook it the better it gets.
- Taken delivery of our new bed, which meant moving the old one to the center of the bedroom, where it now sits, waiting for my daughter and her significant other to fetch it.
- Remembered, belatedly, that I will now need new king-sized sheets. Begun investigating linen, and imagining rough luxury, to say nothing of actually sleeping in said new bed.
- Finally, sat down.
Lots of wonderful activities is still a lot. I am guessing many of you have a list as long or even longer. Feel free to share.
The house painting, which, in retrospect is what made this seem like more than it was, will continue. But we’re almost done. I’ll tell you that story too.
For now, just a deep breath. Back to what my best friend calls, “Regular.” Where nothing is terribly shiny, or clean, or crowded, but celebratory in the small moments just the same.
Cookies by Cindy Savage of Crafty Broads. Photo by me, this morning, and Photoshop. Always discovering new tricks. Oh, and on Twitter, I’m @amidprivilege if you feel like chatting.
28 Responses
the more i learn about nigel slater, the more i like him.
his recipe for orecchiette with sausage, cream, mustard + white wine is my go-to dinner. always turns out right.
i’m sure his pork belly recipe was equally delicious.
happy new year to you. may it be full of happiness and peace.
@jane, I can see that you and Nige might be kindred souls. I’ve just rediscovered him, and am reading Appetite from start to finish.
You’ve been busy, I love Nige an his laid-back ways, he is very soothing.
@Tabitha, He has made me brave – something I now realize I need in any book I use as a guide.
Oh my! I’m speechless — a mixture of admiration and exhaustion (simply thinking of so much activity!)
Happy New Year!
@Frances/Materfamilias, I thought to myself, before I posted, “Yikes! Nobody wants to read this, it’ll exhaust them!” But I just needed to tell someone, so I forged ahead, hoping for tolerance and forbearance;).
I feel your pain. My cleaning lady went on vacation the week before Christmas, just when I was having company.
We kept the place as clean as we could after her last visit, but I did have to use the fancy German vacuum I bought her this past summer.
Fortunately she’s back!
@RoseAG, And life has returned to Regular:).
Oh I am getting dizzy just reading this list of yours…
you have earned a rest my dear!
Want to see that artsy writing, taste the pork belly and see what shade you painted your front door….but take your time, you need to pace yourself :-)
@hostessofthehumblebungalow, Thank you for the wise guidance. I’ve got 3 posts coming up this week because it takes that many to cover our vacation (!!!) but after that I shall return to my leisurely ways.
Well, it sounds as though I was not the only one doing a bit of everything. Each year I try to get as much pre-Christmasing done before the school break. This year I had a very ill little one the week before Christmas which threw an enormous wrench into my plans. There were several smaller wrenches to round out the screwy toolbox that was my holiday. All in all, we ate gloriously well and had a delightful Christmas eve with a very happy and healthy five year-old and two teenagers that behaved nicely for a day.
I am looking forward to reading your vacation details.
@Kerry Steele, Two teenagers behaving nicely, simultaneously! You win! And details, many of them, as in SO MANY PHOTOS, coming up:). Happy New Year!
Nigel Slater’s memoir Toast is 11/10. Please read it.
Luff your list.
Am home and decluttering like mad before I go to work on Tuesday. Garden is overgrown. Been at the beach. Love your list and can’t wait to see the holiday snaps. xx
@Faux Fuchsia, Oh hooray! I will read his memoir. Am looking forward to it. I have been thinking of you as I organized and decluttered. No pink, but otherwise I think you’d stamp it FF-approved.
Without whining, I’m just going to say that I have to find a way to make Thanksgiving through Christmas less labor intensive for me. On NY day, I woke up with the flu and have been in bed pretty much since then. In the middle of all of the holiday stuff, had to replace the dishwasher, the hot water heater etc. Why does it all happen at the same time?
@kathy, I whined:). I should have added, our furnace died in this time period too. And I gave away a whole bunch to American Cancer Society. So you are a heroine compared to me, and I hope you feel better soon.
I do hope pictures of the laundry shelves are forthcoming. Very intriguing.
Happy New Year. I feel so lazy after reading your list of happenings.
@Susie, Oh, yes. I’ve actually just ordered two different kinds of white pens and will report back as to which, if any, work. Happy New Year! Who can I tag for this kind of list next year? Nobody? Wise people:).
Welcome back! I am envious of your vacation and the amount of energy you had for all that cleaning and celebrating. Can’t wait to see the photos of your projects and travel :)
I’m glad to be back. See you again tomorrow:).
I did very little comparatively over that time period, but that was what I Needed (deliberate capital N).
I look forward to hearing some more in depth, and I’d also like to know if the cookies were as scrumptious as they look. What was the green one?
It was chocolate mint:). Yes, they were good, and none I’d ever had before!
Happy Back to Regular Day!
I also accomplished a great deal, but, by FAR, my greatest feat was (drumroll) now all my Tupperware matches up!
I bow to you. ;)
Oh you remind me that I hosted Thanksgiving, and three cocktail parties in one week, before settling down to being vetted by others for the remainder of the holiday season. I wish I had roasted a pork belly. Isn’t Nigel wonderful? Thinking about it makes me want to cook something.
That is A LOT of hosting!
@Mardel,
fetted, not vetted. Grumble grumble grumble. Must remember to check for autocorrect inanities.
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