Here we are, in February. Only a few days until it is mid February! I have been mulling this post over for a while, but I have been finding it hard to find time to sit and write. And also to find something to sit and write with because I still can’t find my kindle, and my ipad broke last year, and my phone won’t take photos…oh dear!
But here I am on a Sunday afternoon, sitting by the window watching storm Ciara blow outside. The rain is being buffeted, the tree at the end of the garden opposite ours is swaying…the sky is blankety grey again. Shall we share a pot of tea, while I look back over the month that has slipped by?
January was a strange month. Regretfully anticipating Brexit, which happened and then…nothing. A strange inbetween times while negotiations about trade deals and all manner of things happen behind closed doors. Initially I thought these early days of Brexit would be the problem, but I think it will actually be next January, once we are out of this ‘transition period’ and in Brexit proper.
But back to happier things. January has seen me carving out pockets of time to make inroads in my quest to declutter, reorganize, and spring clean the house. Sometimes it feels like I have only worked on a small area, but as long as I keep going all those small areas will add up. It feels lovely getting things done but I find it so hard when Alice is at home. She is so keen to join in with everything, but often ends up undoing whatever it is that I have just tried to do!
I have been working on my housekeeping rhythms in January, and am starting to feel a bit more on top of things. There is always more to do of course, but I’ll keep going until I get there! In the morning, I unload the dishwasher either while the girls have breakfast, or when I come back from the school run. Then I put our breakfast things in, and put a load of washing on. Doing the washing daily has had such a positive effect. I try and get started on dinner preparation mid afternoon, before the school run if possible, so that it is easier to get the girls’ dinner on the table, and ours later on. Because once we get back from the school run, I listen to Jessica read, we practise a few spellings, do a little bit (a very little bit) of numberwork, and then she and Alice play while I get the dinner ready. I try and have dinner ready for about 5:15, and then once they have eaten they go in the bath. Carl usually comes home while they are in the bath, and I make us both a cup of tea. Once the girls are out of the bath and dried and in their pyjamas, I read Jessica a bedtime story, feed Alice to sleep, and then go downstairs and sort out our dinner. After dinner I load up the dishwasher and put it on. Little daily things but it seems to keep everything ticking over. More often than not I end the week with a pile of washing to put away, but I am trying to divide it up into a pile for each of us and add to them as I go. Sunday evening is my ironing evening, and there are few things nicer than that feeling of all the ironing being done, knowing everyone has clean clothes all pressed and ready to wear during the week.
I also found time for some reading in January. Oh, I could read all day given half a chance! I read The Librarian by Salley Vickers for book group, although we are now not meeting until next week. I don’t always get a chance to read the book, so it feels really good to have got it done. I enjoyed it too, all except the ending. The ending is a kind of epilogue, and it is ambiguous to begin with as to which character we are meeting again, many years in the future from where the main story is set. Although I had enjoyed the main story, the end made me wonder to some extent what the point of the rest of it was. Still, plenty to discuss, especially the effect literature can have in our lives.
I also read The Way We Eat Now by Bee Wilson, and if you are only going to read one non-fiction book, or to be honest one book this year, make it this. And then go and read her much smaller volume, This Is Not A Diet Book which distills the ideas in the first book and translates them into easy actions without all the theory. But oh the information and theory in the first book is utterly mind blowing. I mean, I knew that much of the industrial food industry is concerned with profit and not our health, but it is utterly shocking. It is really making me think about the world in which we are living, not only with regards to food, but our values too. It makes me gladder than ever that I have this little corner of the world to call my own, where I can cook from scratch as much as possible, and knit and crochet, read books, drink tea from a cup and saucer.
I read The Weather In The Streets by Rosamunde Lehman. What a book! Do read it! Written so many years ago, but so relevant to today, to women’s internal lives. It put me in mind in some ways of Dorothy Whipple’s Someone At A Distance, but from the viewpoint of a woman who falls in love with a married man by accident, rather than as in Whipple’s book the story of the wife whose husband is stolen from under her nose.
In January I also perfected my pizza base recipe. When we use the pizza oven, if I make fresh dough it is so hard to transfer the topped pizza on to the pizza peel and into the oven. What I have started doing now is part baking and cooling the dough so that it is firm, and easier to transport. I am also using the yogurt and flour recipe rather than a yeasted base. The other thing that I have found is a really good and simple recipe for the pizza sauce topping. It sounds too simple to bother with almost, but having tried it, it is really, really worth it. You simply take 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, ideally the kind that has ‘a hint of basil’ or ‘with mixed herbs’ but you can always add your own. You empty them into a pan and then simmer for 30-45 minutes, until the volume has reduced by about a third, and then whizz with a stick blender. Really, this has been a revelation! 2 cans of tomatoes will make enough to top 6 pizzas and with some left over for the freezer.
Something very wonderful also happened in January. One night, I woke up in the morning. In the morning! Alice had slept through! And a few nights later, she did it again! And a few nights later, again! It is by no means every night, but after 18 months it is very, very welcome. I am fiercely against leaving children to cry in the night, and it makes me glad that we are turning a corner with her sleep and have got here with love and patience. There have been mornings where I could scarcely put one foot in front of another, and my brain felt like wet cotton wool. But it has been worth it, without a doubt.
Do you remember I said I was going to do my morning affirmation? I have not remembered to do it every morning, but I have noticed that it has had a really positive effect. I like the affirmation I have chosen (This is going to be a good day. I’m going to achieve what I set my mind to and enjoy what blessings come my way. I am grateful for the good people and good things in my life). I think it was complemented by making a vision board for the year at WI in January. I’ll be carrying this practise on over into February without a doubt.
The sky is darkening now, the rain has eased but the tree branches are still being tossed about. We had planned to spend the entire day indoors, but Jessica has got cabin fever and has become quite overwrought, so I am dispatching her with her Daddy to go and get some petrol for the car. Not a very exciting outing but I think she needs to be out from these four walls for a bit. She seems to suddenly be at a very emotional age. While they are gone, I will be cooking dinner. I love family dinners around the table. I am going to make a big batch of turkey meatballs in a (hidden) vegetable rich sauce and a big pot of pasta, along with some garlic bread, so that everyone can help themselves. We’ll eat by candlelight, and then it will be time for baths for the girls, and ironing for me, before we start another week.
I hope you have battened down your hatches and are safe from the storm, that your teapot is full, and your Sunday is cosy.
Love
Mimi
xxx
Little Sips of Tea 