Winter Blossom

So, in the past couple months...

...I've conquered several new recipes (one of which was a pastry crust that should have earned me technical points for difficulty), much to the delight of my housemates, who serve as guinea pigs for my culinary experiments.

...I've figured out a morning routine wherein both my toddler and my newborn get clean diapers and breakfast before either has a chance to be upset about having to wait for them.

...I've started wearing a bit of makeup again, stopped wearing so many things that look like Western society's answer to the burqa, and even started occasionally wearing shoes at times when they aren't mandatory.

It's weird. I'm not sure what's happening to me. The best way I can describe it is... I feel like I'm in bloom.

It isn't that I hated being a stay-at-home mom before now. I've just never felt as deeply satisfied with that role as I have lately. No small part of the blame credit goes to Crunchy Granola Ami for passing me a copy of Edith Schaeffer's Hidden Art (which has since been re-released as The Hidden Art of Homemaking), wherein some tasks I once viewed as mundane are revealed to be what they truly are: opportunities to create beauty and show love in an increasingly ugly and heartless world.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm still no Stepford wife, and my organized-chaos approach to housekeeping is the stuff of Martha Stewart's nightmares. I'm a long way from where I'd like to be as a wife and a mom... but unlike Russia, I think I can see it from here.