Insulating, insulating, insulating. (Yes, that’s wool I’m stuffing into the crack, and we’re covering it with caulk.) Our little helper spent this time playing dress up and pretending to nap (do you see those scrunched up eyes?)  “I’m snoring away!” she declared.

Feeling sick to our stomachs about Monsanto’s new GMO alfalfa being approved for release. If you don’t know, please head here to Food Democracy Now’s petitions, and add your voice to keep this dangerous seed out of our land!  (Alfalfa is open pollinated, which means that if a farmer next door is growing GMO sterile alfalfa, their seed can blow onto your crop and contaminate it.)

Spending a lot of time in the kitchen, enjoying every recipe from last week’s menus with Cooking from Quilt Country (this custard cornbread was so easy and outrageously good!).  Making Oatmeal Bread from the Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book, making these Butternut Squash Brownies at last.  Ben threshed out our amaranth, and look at these beautiful red grains!

Welcoming February.  I never would have expected it, but this is one of my favorite months of the year.  The intense cold demands that I wake up, pay attention, and start moving.  A certain bearded fellow in our house has a birthday today, and we’ll also be dipping beeswax candles to celebrate Candlemas. It may be cold, but the warmth from the sun is also beginning to touch us.  No matter how many times during the summer I think we must be crazy to farm while, say, trying to plant an endless row of potatoes with an extremely cranky toddler), when January and February come, I get the itch.  We’re starting cold-hardy seeds already to put out into the hoophouse, and I am so excited for the growing season to begin!

On Tuesday, we celebrated Ben’s birthday.  As you may remember, we’re a big fan of birthday pies around here, and so at Ben’s request I made Pascal Rigo’s Caramel-Pecan Chocolate Tart, from our favorite American Boulangerie.  With the help of my, um, assistant pastry chef Ella (just don’t tell her she’s not the main chef), it wasn’t quite as beautiful as I’d hoped, but I was somewhat amazed I pulled it off at all, and once we cut into it, I didn’t hear any complaints.

Since Ben’s birthday was on Candlemas, we waited and did our Candlemas celebration on Wednesday.  Neither of us had ever done one before, but I was tickled when I first read about it in Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions, and then when I read this post on The Parenting Passageway, I knew it was meant to be.  First, I love breakfast for dinner, and pancakes are traditional for Candlemas/St. Brigid’s Day.  Secondly, in addition to celebrating the half-way mark from Winter Solstice to Spring Equinox with candles, it is also a traditional time to bless your seeds for the coming year.  I brought that big beautiful jar of Tiger Eye Beans to the table, we lit some new red beeswax candles, and we said blessings and good wishes for the season to come.

My other favorite Candlemas tradition?  The beginning of spring cleaning.  Ben and I have definitely being going on a bit of a spring purge around here, and I am very excited about it.  On Sunday, Ben took Ella to the bakery for a few hours since she and I were driving each other nuts, and I suddenly had to move my sewing room from its tiny, dark room upstairs to a big, bright room downstairs.  This room has been rented to housemates in the past, and housed WOOFers, but it was standing empty.  No longer!  I got my sewing table set up, some of my fabric in, and took 10-year old inspirations off my inspiration board and made room for the new. It feels great to be moving into a fresh space, with great light.  Soon – shelves going up, fabric organizing, yarn organizing, space for projects, a bigger table for cutting out patterns.  I am just a little bit excited.

That night, I stumbled across this:

Yes, yes, and yes.  That totally sums up how I feel – we started really trying to de-clutter our home (and therefore life) last summer, and we’re now entering round 2.  Bring it on.