Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Returning to the Kitchen


When a new baby arrives, all eyes are on that adorable babe. And, for new parents, all their attention and energy go to that little wonder. It’s amazing and utterly exhausting. At least this is how it was for Husby and me with both Lil’ O and Lil’ Chica.

We’ve just recently crossed the line with Lil’ Chica (now a whopping five months!) that we can reintroduce our own hobbies. The precursor to this has been the return of regular sleep. Hallelujah! I’d still like more, but I can mostly count on a six hour stretch at night; and, compared to those early days and nights of two hours max at a time, six hours is simply glorious. Now that Lil’ Chica is mostly on a schedule, I also know what windows of time are available to me to get anything done.

The laundry, tidying and cleaning is unending, but Husby and I have gotten to a balance that we can start to think beyond basic home and kiddo care. For him it’s the return of his MBA classes this week. For me, it’s mostly the idea and goal of cooking more. I’ve been happily reading a Christmas influx of cookbooks and dreaming up how I can more regularly return to the kitchen. Cooking dinner falls exactly when I’m nursing Lil’ Chica, so I’ve been out of commission and we’ve all been relying on multi-talented Husby to get dinner on the table each night. I’ve cooked up some breakfasts and other things, but dinner has been eluding me. No more!