Home

Enough Abroad.  We got home at the end of December, side stepping between the massive snowstorms in Europe and the massive snow storm that shut down 3 of the 4 major international airports on the Atlantic corridor.
Not only did we get home, but turned around and flew out again to visit our family in New England. We even survived delay upon delay at the airports.

We had an all too short weekend with them before coming back and going to work again on Monday morning.

January has been a mercifully quiet month, and a good one.  I'm sorry to see it go.  We consecutive weekends at home; I'm tackling the "homemaking" thing by the knees; we're actually starting to hang things on the walls; I've even made clever curtains for our living room;

$4 flat sheets from Wal-Mart+seam ripper+curtain rod= rod pocket curtains

and I'm starting to gather military intelligence on food shopping.  It's ridiculously dizzying.  In our town we are just a couple miles from 5 major grocery chains, plus Super Target.  There are definitely different "nerd" levels of food shopping.  Fortunately for me, I have several newlywed friends who have been married longer than I have, so I spend more time playing detective (i.e. asking questions) than poring over sale circulars on a weekly basis to learn the prices common to different stores.  I also got the brilliant idea to start marking the recipes in my many cookbooks that I've already tried.  Along with a sticky note that says what I did differently--and I'm sure there will also be notes on the ones which we will never do again. (I was also blessed with a Betty Crocker cookbook, from which I gleaned an amazing peanut chicken recipe, which I will keep forever)

I have a small collection of cookbooks sitting on a little shelf above my counter: most were gifts or hand-me-downs, and one I bought from a local thrift store because it was "New England Heritage" and had a recipe for dandelions in it.  Nothing says New England quite like dandelions. You just have to be really careful to eat the ones that haven't been poisoned six times already.

We're settling in to a routine, it's amazing how different routines are when you aren't prepping for a wedding or a major overseas trip. We even hang out with our friends from time to time, now!
Now...to build a snow man on the deck before all the snow melts...
-The Lady
<-taking shape: the current centerpiece on our dinnertable: mango wood bowl with cape cod pine cones, pheasant and peacock feathers and a tablecloth from Nigeria.