her able hands

This weekend was very productive, and the first one in over a month that I have felt like actively participating in my life here at home. I finally got up off the couch and did something. I made a menu for the week and a shopping list to go with it. Then I cleaned the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom while mulling over ways to organize our belongings in a more practical and user-friendly fashion.

All summer and fall we’ve lived with Tyler’s mountain bike leaning against the french doors in the kitchen because we don’t have a garden shed and the garage with lots of expensive tools and two classic cars (not particularly financially valuable ones) is off limits to a kid who forgets to lock (or even shut) doors. I would have preferred the basement, but every time he brought it upstairs he gouged a wall. So yeah, my kitchen doubled as a shed all summer. Well, it’s too cold for him to ride his bike to school anymore and I get up earlier so I can drive both kids. It was high time to reclaim my kitchen.

Lila has a great little Waldorf style wood kitchen that we set up in her bedroom when we first moved in, but it turns out we only use the upstairs for sleep and storage. She seldom wants to play in her room, preferring our company and enjoying her own internal solitude by sitting quietly nearby with a pen and pad of paper making lists of scribbles and letters. She also got a sweet wood table and chairs set for her birthday that we’ve had in the living room where it became the DVD and VHS repository (yes, another piece of storage furniture we need). So I turned the alcove by the french doors into Lila’s kitchen-within-a-kitchen.

She has plenty of natural light during the day and spent most of Saturday and all of Sunday hanging out in the kitchen with me while I puttered. She decorated her very own Christmas tree—one of the little shrubs we never managed to get in the ground this summer—with the tiny wood ornaments her Aunt Jen gave to her over Thanksgiving. I’m looking for a tall pantry style cabinet to set in the corner to the right of the table where I can store her art supplies, play-dough and a bunch of the other crap that clutters my counter tops.

Of course, I had much bigger plans this weekend and thought I would get the living room and dining room cleaned and organized as well, but that didn’t happen. OK, fine. One room at a time. If I can get the main floor of the house disinfected and well-tidied by Christmas, I’ll be a very happy camper indeed. Then after the holidays we have a date with a certain out-of-control basement.

Later in the week I’ll share some of the cooking I did. I roasted the free turkey we got at work (a Butterball which is not my first choice, but I am enjoying the fact that it’s giving us the basis for five entire meals).

Turkey dinner
Leftovers for everyone’s lunch
Turkey Burrito Layered Casserole
Turkey Soup (some to eat, plus five quarts of extra stock in the freezer)
Turkey Pot Pie (makings in the freezer for later in winter)

I also finally pickled the turnips and will do a post about that tomorrow. Ten more days before I can open them. This is harder than waiting for Santa.