10 ways to beat the winter blues
1. Screw the cold. Get out of the house. It was -10 this morning with a wind chill severe enough that they called off school (a very rare event in Madison; Wisconsonites are a tough breed, I guess), but we had to bundle everyone up to drive Stuart to work anyway, so I figured we'd survive the few minutes it takes to drive to a local yarn shop to meet my knitting friends. Good thing we went, because Daniel's little buddy F was there (F's preschool was canceled because of the weather) and they had a ball running around playing hide-and-seek in the classroom in the back of the store.
2. Bake something yummy. This week I made a treacle tart...
...and muhn cookies.
These are both from Home Baking, and are part of the Home Baking Project. I know the treacle tart doesn't look like much, and that's because it isn't! It's just a pie crust (made, interestingly enough, with a bit of lemon juice) with Lyle's Golden Syrup poured on top. But it was delicious. It also takes aprpox. 2 oz of Lyle's Golden Syrup for one tart, and as you may recall, I have 66 oz of the stuff (smallest quantity I could get on Amazon). So we may be eating a lot of treacle tart in the future and/or getting really creative with Lyle's.
The muhn cookies are thin wafers flavored with lemon and poppyseed. Pretty good. That's all I've got to say about that.
3. Listen to salsa music. I know squat about salsa music and salsa dancing (I've tried it, and I look ridiculous), but I do know that it's hard to stay too sad for too long if you've got Giovanni Hidalgo playing in the background.
4. The TeeVee. Specifically, Curb Your Enthusiasm (huzzah for Netflix!). Watching Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) make a big deal about nothing in particular is surprisingly therapeutic.
5. A decent beer in the evening never hurts.
6. The Public Library. Oh, how I love the public library. You can read anything you want! For free! And there's good stuff for kids, too. I took Daniel to storytime yesterday morning, and afterwards we browsed the kids' section (and by "browsed," I mean I chased Daniel around while he pulled a lot of random stuff off the shelves). I chatted it up with another mom and found out she lives 3 houses away from us (how's that for being neighborly?) and that we had the same doula and that her husband knows the husband of a cellist in the music school who filled in on a recital of mine a few years ago...
7. Make something. This was Katie's suggestion, and it's a good one. I'm always making something, or making several things. It's why I have a knitting blog (I know I am an extreme dork). In fact, my enthusiasm for making things is such that I start more than I can finish. Most recently, I started a blanket for Daniel, which he really needs because it's so cold, and I'm hoping to finish it by his birthday next week. Not that he doesn't already have blankets, understand. Just not any ultra-warm flannel quilts like the one I've got in the works.
8. Read a good book. Hahahahaha like I really have the time for this! Seriously, though, I've been making my way through Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (thanks, Steph, for sending it to me!) and it's really good, even if I only have time for a few pages per day.
9. Sit on the potty.
He's going to hate me for this picture one day, but I can't resist. Oh, but we have a loooooooong way to go before this young man is done with diapers, but he is delighted to sit on the potty, and every once in a while, he actually pees in it.
10. Daydream. If nothing else works, I can imagine myself vacationing in Italy or plan my spring garden.
2. Bake something yummy. This week I made a treacle tart...
...and muhn cookies.
These are both from Home Baking, and are part of the Home Baking Project. I know the treacle tart doesn't look like much, and that's because it isn't! It's just a pie crust (made, interestingly enough, with a bit of lemon juice) with Lyle's Golden Syrup poured on top. But it was delicious. It also takes aprpox. 2 oz of Lyle's Golden Syrup for one tart, and as you may recall, I have 66 oz of the stuff (smallest quantity I could get on Amazon). So we may be eating a lot of treacle tart in the future and/or getting really creative with Lyle's.
The muhn cookies are thin wafers flavored with lemon and poppyseed. Pretty good. That's all I've got to say about that.
3. Listen to salsa music. I know squat about salsa music and salsa dancing (I've tried it, and I look ridiculous), but I do know that it's hard to stay too sad for too long if you've got Giovanni Hidalgo playing in the background.
4. The TeeVee. Specifically, Curb Your Enthusiasm (huzzah for Netflix!). Watching Larry David (creator of Seinfeld) make a big deal about nothing in particular is surprisingly therapeutic.
5. A decent beer in the evening never hurts.
6. The Public Library. Oh, how I love the public library. You can read anything you want! For free! And there's good stuff for kids, too. I took Daniel to storytime yesterday morning, and afterwards we browsed the kids' section (and by "browsed," I mean I chased Daniel around while he pulled a lot of random stuff off the shelves). I chatted it up with another mom and found out she lives 3 houses away from us (how's that for being neighborly?) and that we had the same doula and that her husband knows the husband of a cellist in the music school who filled in on a recital of mine a few years ago...
7. Make something. This was Katie's suggestion, and it's a good one. I'm always making something, or making several things. It's why I have a knitting blog (I know I am an extreme dork). In fact, my enthusiasm for making things is such that I start more than I can finish. Most recently, I started a blanket for Daniel, which he really needs because it's so cold, and I'm hoping to finish it by his birthday next week. Not that he doesn't already have blankets, understand. Just not any ultra-warm flannel quilts like the one I've got in the works.
8. Read a good book. Hahahahaha like I really have the time for this! Seriously, though, I've been making my way through Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (thanks, Steph, for sending it to me!) and it's really good, even if I only have time for a few pages per day.
9. Sit on the potty.
He's going to hate me for this picture one day, but I can't resist. Oh, but we have a loooooooong way to go before this young man is done with diapers, but he is delighted to sit on the potty, and every once in a while, he actually pees in it.
10. Daydream. If nothing else works, I can imagine myself vacationing in Italy or plan my spring garden.
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