mothers' day gratitude

Mothers' Day made me feel very grateful this year.  We went for a nice bike ride along Lake Washington on the first Bicycle Sunday of the year.

Some things I appreciate:

• my healthy and happy kids
• Jack for so many reasons
• my parents and in-laws who help us out sooo much, have such good relationships with our kids and hold back the criticism they must harbor for our messy house and whatever ways they think we're parenting wrong.
• work, in a way.  I've had some tough days since going back post-Dd, but for the most part I feel valued and I appreciate the 5 months I took off and 80% schedule I've had for a few months now.  I think it will matter more when they are older but I recently remembered that I want my kids to know that I do skilled and interesting work outside of parenting.
• our home, which remains a work in process but brings me joy
• parts of myself.  At the moment this includes my body which can handle as many vegetables as I can consume, has no allergies, and is making all the milk for Dd.  Although postpartum mental health issues can come up even after the first few months, I am feeling good, thankfully.
• my kindle, which is usually on airplane mode with an endless seeming supply of Outlander novels to consume

three firsts for Dd!

In the last week Dd has had three exciting firsts.  He went swimming, splashing in his great uncles' lovely backyard pool for his first swim, just like D did.  Then he went to a Mariner's game, in the newly named T-mobile park, no less. Lastly he slept in his own room last night!  I never thought we'd make it to seven months with him in our room, but we did, because for a long time moving him down to a different floor of our house felt too far.  He slept well on his own though and so did we, especially for the last few hours of the morning, when he is prone to light sleep.

pumpkin cake recipe

We made a tried and true pumpkin cake for D's 5th birthday.  Frosting is quite important to five-year-olds, it seems, so we made a blue cream cheese frosting, but usually we make the cake with no topping, or maybe a tiny sprinkle of powdered sugar.

1) preheat oven to 350, grease two loaf pans or large baking dish (like pictured)2) in large bowl combine flour through cloves3) in medium bowl (mixer bowl) blend sugar, oil, and eggs  and then stir in pumpkin4) slowly blend wet in to dry, adding water along the way5) bake at 350 for 90 minutes (for loaf pans), or about 60 for larger, more shallow pan6) cool in loaf pans for 10 minutes before removing

3 1/2 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
3 c white sugar
1 c oil  (we used olive and was fine)
4 eggs
2/3 c water
2 c solid pack pumpkin puree (more than one 8 oz can)