Looking back

At the beginning of last year I blogged my New Year’s resolutions, most of which I managed to keep to a certain extent. Surprisingly the one I did least well at keeping was to eat more dark chocolate! Spending most of the year pregnant limited the others as I was ill/tired/concentrating on other things/preparing for the biggest change to my life. They are all things I would like to continue to focus on/improve (writing; keeping in touch with friends; and doing more exercise especially) but I shall have to see how much I am able to do now I am at home with my baby!

Love

It’s amazing to think that we are starting this year as a family and that 2012 will be so different to any that have gone before it. I am so excited to find out what sort of a person my little boy is and to be able to watch him learn about this crazy world we live in. There are so many things to do together. He’s already starting to explore what’s around him and what things do. He lies on the floor waving his legs and arms around learning how they work – I have to admit to putting a rattle on his arm so he can hear his arm moving too. He was so cute!

The last eight weeks have been a bit of a blur, but hopefully we will be able to start getting more of a routine and settle down into life with a baby. There are still moments when I can’t believe he’s ours and we still have him. He is so beautiful and well behaved I can’t believe it at times. What did we do to deserve such a wonder?

This year is going to be the best ever for us and I hope it will be for you too!

finally finished!

I have been working on this cross stitch on and off for the last 5 years or so. Earlier in the summer I decided that I really had to get it finished before the baby came (only a month to go now – eek!!), although I’m still to decide what to do with it. I’m really pleased with how it turned out and I’m now plotting future projects, although not cross stitch! i don’t know how much I will be able to do in the next few weeks before everything gets turned upside down by the new arrival though…

As the colours in it are quite autumnal, even if the flower itself isn’t something you’re likely to see at the moment I am going to enter this into the Celebrate Colour competition for needlepoint. Last month had some really amazing entries, so fingers crossed!

the art of making jam and marriage

A few months after we were married we went to a family party where I scared my great-aunt by telling her I’d worked out the difference between being married and not. I’m not sure if she was more surprised or relieved when I told her it was that we now made jam!

So having made a few batches of different types of jam here are my top tips:

• Almost all fruits can be made into jam;
• Yes, it really does need that amount of sugar;
• If it won’t set add a jar of Certo for more pectin;
• Boiling it twice is only following family tradition;
• Having people who are willing to give you piles of fruit when they have grown too much is good if you don’t have the space to grow enough for making a sensible amount;
• Knowing people who also make jam is great as then you can swap so you don’t end up with a cupboard full of jars of the same type of jam;
• Homemade jam is much tastier than shop-bought.

Photo of our most recent jam adventure – grape jelly thanks to K&A for the fruit!

9-11

Ten years ago today I was in California. Driving to Denny’s for breakfast the radio kept repeating “the second tower has now fallen” although with little explanation of what they were talking about for those who hadn’t already heard. Over breakfast our server/waiter told us that planes had been hijacked, but I didn’t really understand how these two facts fitted together, or even the scale of the event. It was only when we’d finished eating and I was driving to work that I actually worked out the whole story.

I was working for SouthWestern selling books door to door, and that day was very surreal as everyone was in a state of shock. Many people I spoke to knew someone in New York, or had tales of lucky escapes. I carried on working all day (although didn’t really sell much) thinking that the terrorists “won” if they stopped us doing what we would normally be doing. Everyone was friendly, just not interested. Odd as that day was I found the following Friday evening weirder, as it was a time of remembrance across the US. Virtually every house had candles alight on their porches to remember those who died and the streets were eerily quiet.

Ten years on I can still remember the shock that everyone seemed to be feeling after the event and the unreality that seemed to pervade everywhere.