Thankful

Today I am thankful. I am thankful for my amazing daughter and for the friends and family that surround us.
I am thankful to have a roof over my head and a job that keeps us clothed and fed.
I am thankful for our health and how strong my daughter is getting every day that goes by.
I am thankful for the ability to create, even when I have limited resources.
I am thankful for having animals around that we love and who give us love and even feed us.
I am thankful for meeting a new group of moms that are simply amazingly generous and kind.
I am thankful for a bright sun and crisp morning air.
I am thankful for the smiles my daughter gives me, and her lovely hugs.
I am thankful for being able to calm her cries and love her so thoroughly she can adapt to anything.
I am thankful... and I am this every day; and each day I am thankful for different or new things... and I thought it was time to acknowledge this... it helps when things seem out of control to remember how many things we are truly blessed with.

Teeth!

My little one has been teething like crazy this week. First she slept all day long for three days, and since then she just stopped sleeping altogether and is just a cranky little monster bug. But her right bottom tooth is finally poking out.
She has been loving the feeling of it and has been shredding things with the little nub of it as often as she can. It's really quite adorable.

Today was a beautiful day and we got to eat outside with Victoria, who won the hearts of everyone around her. She devoured a good 5 slices of tomato, a few pieces of melon and I can finally see the shift towards solid foods with her.

I have been spending the whole week baking... and yet have no pictures to show you! My chocolate cake was such a beauty with a caramel almond crust, but it was devoured before I could even take a pictures.
I then moved on to some mini honey cupcakes with a honey cream cheese frosting, that were both cute and delicious... so delicious that the dogs got to them when I ran outside for 10 minutes! Once again resulting in no pictures, and some very gassy puppies!
I also made a bunch of oatmeal no bake energy bites, and cookies. Those aren't exactly picture worthy, so I'll just wait until I bake some more to share pictures with you guys.

I will leave you with Victoria's first experience with mud, she was in heaven!

Move!

Well we finally are getting a bit settled in Chicago. A cross country move with the baby was not an easy thing to accomplish, and I gave myself time away from this blog so that I could concentrate on getting both myself and little Victoria settled into our new environment.
Luckily I have a trooper of a child and between our trip to France and this move I have to say she can adapt to anything!

I finally have a kitchen which is an amazing feeling, after having had to cook everything in a microwave or order out for the past few months... I have been baking up a storm every change my little one gives me. Pound cake, crepes, honey cupcakes, oatmeal cookies have all been on the list in the past week, and also of course yummy treats for Victoria, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, avocado puree... right now she is in love with this exotic fruit called a Kiwano.

I was part of the FRIENDS swap, luckily both me and my partner were moving so we agreed to take a little longer to accomplish it and it's finally ready, phew. I hope she likes everything I put in there.

I'm about to start knitting for the winter here, lots of pants and scarves I think. I'm joining a few knitting groups in the area, so helpfully they can help me hone my skills, because so far I'm not great at learning hard tricks like changing colors in mid row, or other such things.

So, I'm hoping I will be writing here again regularly, for the next few months until we are settled it might be more of a life blog than a craft blog and I hope you will put up with me during that time.