Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Weekend Things ~ Need to Do/Want to Do

I again went into the weekend with a list--inside my head--of things I needed to get done, and things I wanted to do. I started the weekend with an evening out Friday night with a friend, to a new Indian restaurant (yum!) and to see this movie, which was so good and so sad. The tragic irony of it destroyed the last shred of faith I had in humanity.

E and Z had a friend over Saturday morning, so I put off the housework until a time at which they could help and focused on a couple of need-to-do's that I've been putting off for too long.

Starting sprouts, finally! Winter's half over (ha!) and I just now got these going, which is ridiculous since it takes all of a minute to find a jar and the sprouting lid, put the seeds in, and add water.


I also finally got the Christmas thank-you-notes (mostly) ready to go in the mail (but didn't get them to the box in time for Saturday's mail delivery). Addressing the envelopes led to a whole 'nother project: I updated my Christmas card mailing list with all of the changed and corrected addresses, printed out a set of labels and stuck them to new, clean pages in my address book.


This is what the book looked like before. People are forever moving and getting married and getting divorced and otherwise messing up my address book. I still need to go back and hand-write in the phone numbers (but since the few people we actually call are programmed into all of our phones, I don't feel terribly compelled to do so).


After the boys and I cleaned house, we got one with some want-to-dos:


Lounging around with comics and comic books (I want to long around reading, too, but it just doesn't seem to happen).


And playing outside. The January thaw hadn't hit yet, and it was still pretty frigid out, so we didn't go too far.


In the evening, I took M to see this amazing guitarist. He's one of M's favorites and the tickets were my Christmas present to him. I love going to see local musicians at local venues--it is so congenial and cozy and intimate and the musicians seem like real people, not demigods. I think I could never attend another big-name concert in an arena full of screaming people and be perfectly happy.


Sunday the rain came, and we spent a cozy day inside. On my need-to-do list: sketch and identify winter weeds (I had collected them a few weeks earlier, so I didn't have to go out in the rain).


And on the want-to-do list: knit and read (books piled on that foot rest include: Big Nate, The Series of Unfortunate Events, The Man Who Walked Through Time, Magical Journey, Akimbo and the Lions, and How to Train Your Dragon. Guess which books are mine?).


I had planned to go to a party in the afternoon, but warm rain falling on frigid roads made for treacherous driving and, after fishtailing as far as our neighbors' driveway, I turned around and skidded back home. Instead I cooked a healthy dinner and did another need to do--fixed two pairs of mittens--while watching various Sunday night PBS programming (Father Brown, Downton Abbey, Grantchester).

And then we had a bonus weekend day! In between E's dentist appointment (about which he was outraged--outraged!--that it did not entail missing any school) and M's voice lesson, I managed another want-to-do that I've been meaning to do for a very long time: make Welsh tea cakes, something I remember my mom making when I was a kid (only I didn't know what they were called, but googled "frying pan cookies") and have been meaning to make myself for ages. The boys and I just finished reading The Dark is Rising series, which again reminded me of these (a good portion of the series takes place in Wales...and tea cakes make an appearance). I used this recipe, subbing whole wheat pastry flour for half the all-purpose flour, using yogurt instead of buttermilk, cutting the sugar by 1/4 cup, and using dried blueberries instead of currants (a little Maine twist). They came out delicious--a bit like a scone or a biscuit, with just enough but not too much sweetness. The orange zest and nutmeg were perfect. I'll definitely be making them again.


Finally, we ended the weekend with this sighting on the way to M's lesson, a barred owl who kindly flew down to a fence post and posed for a photo after the third drive-by.

14 comments:

  1. Your house sounds like a great place to hang out over a weekend :)

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    1. Thanks, sutainablemum. It can be pretty cozy. :)

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  2. what a busy-fun weekend you had. love what the children are reading.

    i'll take a couple of those Welsh tea cakes please.

    www.inkandchai.co.uk

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    1. C'mon over, Autumn, I'll make another batch. :)

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  3. Sounds like a full, and happy weekend. Always good when you get some of the need tos and want tos in :) Love the owl.

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    1. Yes, it is good. Especially when you get the want tos in! And the owl was pretty amazing.

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  4. Love your 'Maine' twist on welsh cakes. We always eat ours with salt butter and cheese.
    Sounds like a fun filled weekend!

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    1. Mmm, sounds good. Would love to see your recipe, EMMA!

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Sounds like an amazingly full and wonderful week-end to me! So many things I love in this post : You getting sprouts going (I start some every 4 days : As we are eating a batch, another one is growing!) and those cookies look amazing. Your sketch book is beautyful. I want to start a Materia Medica of my medicinal plants this summer. Do you have a template you use? Or do you just freehand?

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    1. Ah, good point. I should get the next batch of sprouts going (and start eating this batch--they're ready!). Thank you! I don't use a template in my nature journal, but draw a lot of inspiration from Clare Walker Leslie's "Keeping a Nature Journal" and Cathy Johnson's "The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature." Can't wait to see your Materia Medica!

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  6. I have an 5' x 7' six ring address book with peel away labels. If someone moves or does any name changing event, I can simply remove the label and put a new one in its place. I love having a physical address book! Your weekend sounded perfect!

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    1. Ah, a book that comes with peel-away labels in the first place is brilliant!

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  7. Wow! what a full weekend! I just started a bullet journal late January (www.bulletjounal.com) after many post-its sticking to my computer and around the area plus the many lists in my head. I feel so much lighter now!

    Looks like you had a very full weekend! I love that the weather doesn't keep the kids inside. Yesterday, despite the snowstorm here they still went outside and had a grand time. Today they are digging out a snow fort as the big flakes turned into freezing rain overnight.

    The joys of childhood!

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