It should be obvious that pictures on the blog don’t tell the whole story. So many times I just don’t mention how it all became House of Pain right after I snapped the picture of our adorable kids laughing or concentrating on a baking project that I was such a cool mommy to let them help with. I like it when people admit that life isn’t always clean and happy. And I’m pretty sure everyone knows that all families have their shares of tantrums, messes, parenting fails, unfinished projects, and so on and so forth. But sometimes, some beautiful times, the whole story is actually better—much bigger, much more joy-filled—than photographs could ever capture. “An overwhelming grace” is how our friend Andrew recently described a day with his daughter, Adeline. I love that. This morning was one of those times.

I got up early enough to make a simplified version of Giada’s Baked French Toast, and the boys actually ate something I made (a rarity these days). We had a proper sit-down for breakfast, and the boys—in their matching jammies—talked animatedly with Jason while I enjoyed my second cup of coffee.

Then Clara woke up and the boys entertained her while my heart exploded with love for my great big pile of kids.

A while ago I had a fun discussion with friends about what we might like to do or become in a different life. I said that I would like to be an architect, and while I will stick by that for my hypothetical different life, I will add that curator for some type of museum exhibits (art? history?) would be a close second. As I was thinking about that this morning, it dawned on me that I could realize the curator dream in the here and now to a teeny tiny extent by being more thoughtful, creative, and purposeful with my Pinterest boards.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I’d like to be more diligent in actually bringing Pinterest-y ideas to reality (and, yes, finishing projects). I happened across a linky at Simple Organic today about that very thing, so I went back through my boards and was pleased to find that I actually have implemented quite a few things this month (and a few from last month). (Here’s the original linky post, if you want to surf over and see what others have been up to as well.)

Stuff I Made

One of the first things I ever pinned was an infant carseat blanket. I had some fabric that I had intended to make into a baby quilt as a gift a couple of years ago, and, well, it didn’t happen. Then this weekend Jason’s mom showed me the quilt that she is making for Clara, and, well, I just got all inspired to quilt again.

I am really pleased at how it turned out, though if I had it to do over, I probably would have moved the gold paisley fabric more to one side to let the squares be more prominent. I also adore the backing. It took two trips to the quilt store to pick it out because I was overwhelmed (and totally inspired) by all the possibilities.

I meant to blog about the boys’ birthdays. We had two family parties this year because work schedules didn’t allow us all to get together at once. I made the same cake twice (and they really did turn out very similar).

The construction cake (original idea from here) was probably the easiest theme cake I’ll ever make. The “dirt” was pretty much impossible to mess up. I didn’t plan to, but I ended up making Jason a construction cake as well (though I didn’t make that one a layer cake). I had wanted to surprise Jason with a cake and told Simon so. After Jason left for work, Simon admitted, “I told Daddy about the chocolate part, but not about the construction part.”

Streamers across Simon’s door for his birthday was also an idea that came from Pinterest.

Recipes I Tried

Rice and Garbanzo Bean Salad with Kale :: I have been eating this for lunch (and sometimes dinner) for the last week or so. It is delicious. But I am the only one in my family who will eat it, so I need to beware of burnout. I really want to keep liking it as much as I do.

Moroccan Quinoa Pilaf :: This was my breakfast for several days in a row last week. It was okay, but I wasn’t wowed by it. I like the Rice and Garbanzo Bean Salad with Kale much better and it’s easier to make.

Coconut-Lime Tofu and Rice :: Um, well, I thought this was wonderful. But for everyone else it was probably the most unpopular dish I have ever made. It’s my own fault, really; I should have known better. This is a Renae-only dish if I ever make it in the future (I might).

Buttermilk Roast Chicken :: This was super easy to put together, though you do have to plan ahead to let it marinate overnight the night before. I thought it was tasty, but Jason was somehow expecting more flavor. I probably will make it again.

Bubble-Up Enchiladas :: This wasn’t as big a hit with the kids as I would have expected it to be. It may have been an off night, though. An easy and tasty recipe that I will give another shot.

Maple-Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Parsnips :: I am looking for ways to get more vegetables into our diet. I knew I would like this recipe (it had me at “maple-roasted”; it also had me at “sweet potatoes” and at “parsnips”). It was a surprise hit with the boys, though.

Crockpot Chicken :: Easy as it looks. A good go-to way to roast chicken.

Things We Did

The boys spent about an hour one afternoon creating 3-D paper sculptures. I would like to try this again, but I need to be a little more organized about it and also need to be a little more involved, especially for Ian. I had hoped to set them up and be able to do something else, but they needed a little bit more hands-on help than I anticipated.

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I have a couple more projects in the hopper, but reorganizing and rethinking my boards may just be the biggest Pinterest task I tackle for March. We’ll see.

Inspired by this post at Shutter Sisters (and blatantly copied from some of the comments there), I offer my To-Stop-Doing list re: the blog:

Hesitating
Comparing myself to others
Waiting to post until I “have time”/procrastinating
Overthinking it
Worrying about what “my thing” is (and just write already!)
Thinking I have to post every day or not at all
Waiting to post in order (e.g., I still haven’t written about Simon’s birthday, so I feel like I can’t write about anything else)
Feeling guilty
Thinking I have no readers anyway

So, fellow bloggers, what’s on your list?

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions in any proper sense, but it’s not because I’m opposed to them. On the contrary, I actually like them quite a bit. Every year when January draws near, I delight in giving some thought to what areas in my life could benefit from a bit of a kick in the pants (or an all-out do over, as the case may be) and relish the thought of a brand new start on 1/1.

So I was thinking that I want to write more on my blog, and to that end I signed up for the January Reflections project. And then I promptly and somewhat impulsively, but genuinely nonetheless, jumped headfirst into a pretty significant change in lifestyle (specifically in our eating habits) that has sucked every last bit of free time, and all my best intentions to write have fallen to the wayside. What a good surprise it was, then, to see that one of the prompts this time around is about food. For the last week or so, I’ve been either planning, shopping, preparing, eating, or cleaning up food, so, yeah, I might as well write about it too.

I like food a lot. Too much, of course. I love to browse cookbooks and food blogs, and in the last couple of years I’ve finally realized that, yes, I really do like to cook. I’m not headed for Top Chef anytime soon, but I do okay.

Food in our house has been somewhat uninspired, I admit. For as much as I love looking for new recipes and thinking about the fabulous things we could eat, the reality of our weekly menu has been more Good Housekeeping than Bon Appétit. There are a number of reasons for that—some legitimate (a picky two-year-old, for example) and some not as much (my too-thin skin when new recipes aren’t instant favorites). But I have just lately, maybe even just in the past couple of days, been realizing that I have been holding back, that I’ve not been enjoying feeding my family as much as I could or should, that I haven’t been thinking of my interest in preparing creative, nutritious, and delicious food as legitimate, that I have been squelching my inner foodie (and not just because I hate that word). Without much trouble or therapy, I could figure out some of the whys, but those aren’t necessarily the kinds of things I like to divulge on the old blog, so instead I’ll just say that most of what’s holding me back sounds pretty silly when I say it out loud and that something seems to finally be clicking in a change-for-the-better sort of way.

So I/we are (mostly) taking the Eat Right America 28-Day Challenge. Initially, I thought I would just try a few recipes here and there but carry on pretty much as before, but then I remembered that I’m generally an all-or-nothing kind of gal. If it gives you any idea, I tried fourteen new recipes last week—yep, that’s two a day. And while there’s no way I can keep up that pace, I really do need to keep trying new things because the target is 94 percent unrefined plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, and seeds), 4 percent meat and dairy, and 2 percent processed foods or snacks. And, well, that’s different from how we’ve been eating around here, to put it mildly. We’re trying to find the balance among the family members—I am adventurous in eating, always wanting to try another new recipe; Jason knows what he likes and likes to stick to it, though he’s been incredibly supportive and even enthusiastic about this; Simon will cautiously try new things, but he’s two (enough said); and Ian is just learning to eat, and I figure he’s mine to shape (mwahaha).

I’ll be sharing the keepers, and there are many, on Needs More Butter (even though they’re diametrically opposed to the “more butter” part).

Corrin is a friend of a friend (or, in all likelihood, a friend of many friends, as she is one of those connector-type people of whom I am always in awe). She is hosting a great project this month: January Reflections. She will provide writing prompts, and what I like best of all is that there’s no pressure—“You don’t have to post every day, just as often as you like.” Writing for fun—it seems like I should be able to do that.