{phfr}

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for another {phfr} post today!  Auntie Leila's {phfr} post today was somewhat themed around the importance of recording the little things one accomplishes in a dreary month like January, and I love that idea.  As a fellow New Englander, I can attest that these below-freezing temps that have been dragging on and on are getting me down, and the bone-weariness of late January has certainly set in.  Each morning seems harder than the one before to get myself out of bed, and some days I'm just counting the hours until the next time I can go to sleep.

It doesn't help, no doubt, that to save on the absurdly expensive costs of our oil heat, Nathan wants to keep the heat no higher than 60 degrees, SIXTY DEGREES!  We negotiate on this matter, the sort of negotiation that involves me turning it up to 62 and him turning it back down, and so on and so forth.  And there may be some complaining involved, but only in my weaker moments.  For the most part, we press on.  Eagerly awaiting the coming of warmer days.

Have I been getting anything done lately?  Oh, but I have!  A few little things here and there.  See...?

{pretty}

Food can be pretty, right?  And is there anything prettier than fresh, juicy cranberries oozing out of baked goods?  I baked up a batch of these fresh cranberry chocolate chunk brown butter cookies over the weekend, and even though Christmas is past us now and you might be thinking that the time for using cranberries is over, you should make these; you won't regret it.  They were just slightly too sweet for my taste, but the soft texture is just wonderful, and the fresh cranberries are the perfect bursts of flavor in each bite.

{happy}

A local consignment store has had not one but two 25 cent sales in the past two weeks, with bins and racks full of children's clothing marked down to just a quarter apiece.  I went twice, and in total got 36 pieces of clothing for a mere $9.00 altogether!  A few things that fit Nell now (including a lovely navy blue baby Gap coat and some fleece-lined pants!), a few things she'll grow into, and a few things for the new little lady when she arrives.  I had just finished sorting our bins of baby clothes in the basement, too, so I could actually remember what we could use more of in each baby size and what we really didn't need.  I got a few items for friends' babies, too!

The picture is just a few of the items fresh out of the wash.  Most of them are already stored away in their respective size bins for future use.

{funny}

I just finished my biggest knitting project yet.  Don't be too impressed: it's only a scarf.  But considerably larger than the washcloths I've heretofore knitted, and unlike the baby blanket I started but haven't yet finished, this project has now actually been completed!  Small accomplishment perhaps, but an accomplishment nonetheless.

I was feeling rather pleased as I donned it this morning, expecting heaven to burst open and a messenger of God to deliver knitting accolades -- or at least that my husband, who had sat beside me sometimes as I knitted in the evenings, might say something nice -- but instead what I got was a snarky comment about how he really, truly, things the term 'infinity scarf' is the most ridiculous thing in the world.  Humph.

{real}

I may as well poke some fun at myself and admit that I only just got around to putting the final hem on the curtains in Nell's room.  The curtains I made with fabric I bought while she was still snugly inside of me, almost two years ago.  The curtains I began sewing before she was born.  The curtains I almost finished and then hung when she was a newborn, stitching away at my machine while she slept in the moby wrap.  Yes, those curtains.  Those curtains that pooled on the floor for the past year and then some.  I measured, marked, took them down, and hemmed them to be floor length at last!  Much better now, I think.  And as always happens with these sorts of projects, once I got started it took me all of one day's nap time to finish them, so of course, I should have done it ages ago.

Now I'd really like to get going on fixing up the second bedroom upstairs, even though it's unlikely that we'll need two separate kid bedrooms anytime soon.  We'll work on transitioning Nell to sleep upstairs by herself soon, but then I think the new baby will sleep in our room for a good while, unless she's a magical sleeping baby quite unlike her sister.  Still, there's no motivator like a baby coming, is there?  If a room is to be fixed up, perhaps now is the time to do it, necessary or not!