My husband travels about 8-10 nights out of the month. That means that 2-3 days each week I spend alone. I mean, well, alone in the a four year old, a three year old, and a six month old with one mama kind of way. During those days, I try to take in the small moments and many times throughout a day I can. There are also many times that I am just biding my time until they fall asleep and I can sit and sit and sit. I especially enjoy the quietness of the evenings when B is here, when we can just be together in our quietness or in our conversation. Much of the time we have a Netflix documentary playing, hopefully one compelling enough to bring me out of my nighttime stupor. We just watched this one and I am half way through this one at the moment. Then there are nights when B is on the road and here I am. There is something almost sacred to me about the nights I spent alone in this house with my three sleeping babies. Tonight especially. The stillness, the breathing, my tea and the darkness.
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On another note, my slow cooked oatmeal for the Monday Cooking Challenge was a Tuesday morning disaster. It was a thick brown soup resembling oatmeal only in smell. I am going to try this one again, just have to research what went wrong
10 comments:
So poignant and so beautifully written Sachi. And your photos lately have been fantastic. I especially love your new header. What is it? I can't make it out.
The only crock-pot oatmeal I've made and liked was steel cut oats cooked in plenty of water, some maple syrup, and with lots of dried fruit in there. I can go searching for the recipe if you like -- it's quite tasty!
Beautiful. I, too, am just starting to learn to relish my "alone nights" (not quite as frequent, but regular nonetheless) with the children. Don't you think that motherhood has this way of bringing out introspection? I love your tea set, too.
Wow that many nights on mama-only duty has got to be tough. How wonderful that you have found ways to appreciate them. I don't have that kind of time often and I know that there are trade-offs that can be hard, but I think I might appreciate that kind of alone time now and then. Beautiful photo!
Having a travelin' man must be kind of tough. Hopefully he is only gone a night or two at a time. I have done that once or twice and if everyone is sleeping well and feeling well it is kind of nice. It can be so peaceful.
Oh, I am so sorry to hear that the oatmeal didn't work out because I was so excited to try. I often make these and give them to the boys for part of their breakfast. I will make an egg or sausage or yogurt too to balance out the meal. Let me know if you try them. We all love them.
I don't do well with the husband being gone at night. You sound like a saint! I'm glad you've found the positive in it though. And I so get what you are saying about waiting for the still of the evening.
My husband is on call 5-6 nights a month. I find I sort of like the absolute quiet and aloneness I find on those nights if he is stuck at the hospital. The kids sleep, and I putter about. BUT, I used to find it very stressful when the kids were very small, because I felt the day never ended.
I haven't been getting in much movie watching these days. Even though we cancelled cable, we end up watching more PBS than netflix. And we even switched to the 1 movie at a time cause we found we just haven't been able to watch the dvds in a timely fashion. Like your picks, checked out Control Room a while ago. Netflix is the best for documentaries.
I just stumbled across your blog and it is lovely.
I have never slow cooked oatmeal but I do make it in my rice cooker and I learned an important trick after a few failures. If you soak the oats which starts the germination process (and apparently makes them even more nutrious) they cook throughly and come out delightfully fluffy. I'll admit that it was weird for me at first but now I love the process. Every night before bed I load up the rice cooker with the oats, dried fruit (incidentally this make the fruit juicier too)and water and leave it on the counter; when I wake up in the morning I hit the on switch as I stumble to the shower. I love that the rice cooker turns to warm as soon as all of the water is absorbed and the oatmeal is finished; no more fretting over a hot pot.
Best of luck. I look forward to looking through your older post.
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