What else is there to do when it’s misty on the moors but womble about inside turning the cosy up to 11?
When all there is to do is hula for hours in your pyjamas?
And you care about freshly-made beds, and there’s not a kid in the land who gives a shit?
Again it’s been a week of disrupted routines and me sewing the edges together as best I can. Of robbing Peter to pay Paul when it comes to time, and maybe a little too much screen time for one young lass as I fit all the puzzle pieces together in my days to see how I can do it tomorrow easier and faster.
They say how you spend your days is how you spend your life and tbh that’s wigging me out a bit. Next year the little one goes to school and this year is half over and I can’t say I like how I’ve spent it, despite making great changes so I could hang out more at home. I keep thinking it will calm down soon but soon doesn’t ever seem to arrive.
Mother’s Day did arrive, and in a flurry of flowers and French food on Sunday drives, and was a fabulous day all round. I didn’t lift a finger for meals all day, and got to cosy up with books and tea while the bath and bed combo was wrought.
It gets me thinking a great deal about my experience of motherhood, and how very much I enjoy it. Daydreaming about adding to the bunch but knowing that realistically that’s not financially possible. I don’t suppose that’s something that will ever go away, I suppose I will always have the thought in the back of my mind, evolution creating us to breed, and all. Biologically that’s what’s supposed to happen, and I’m sure it’s thanks to that I’ll never feel “done”. Let’s check back in when I hit menopause!
I am sure I can turn my mind to other things, however. I have thought about writing a book for the last few years and it probably wasn’t until the Mother’s Day weekend that I finally figured out what it would consist of. I mean, I’ve had plenty of ideas but there was always one that felt elusive – like a recipe book but also with stories – that I couldn’t quite articulate. I’m no expert in anything except eating, and I like writing blog-style most of all, rather than technical. So how would they come together, and more importantly – would anyone even read it or find it useful?
So I was sat reading Annie’s Farmhouse Kitchen by Annie Smithers, which is a beautiful, watercolour-illustrated set of seasonal menus of traditional French recipes, and after that I was reading Stephanie’s Journal, the diary Stephanie Alexander kept in 1997 chronicling her year of closing Stephanie’s the restaurant, and opening of Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder, and all the foodie/gardening tidbits of her life in between. Annie used to work for Stephanie and I didn’t know that until I randomly picked up these two books to read on the same day, one after the other.
And then I thought why not a combination of the two? a little journal of domesticity, separated into seasons with recipes I make throughout the year, with sweet, homely watercolour illustrations and beautiful photographs and bits of kitchen gardens and the native environment that I love. THAT’S the book I’d like to write, because that’s the book I’d like to read. A real person’s meander through the year, simple and comforting, with real, easy, non-fancy everyday recipes and maybe a knitting or crochet pattern thrown in for good measure.
Funnily, a few days after that revelation, I dreamed I was on holiday with Annie Smithers, whom I’ve never met, and had never heard of until last weekend. Think of the thousands of cookbooks I’ve ever read, and I’ve literally never dreamed of the author, ever. Come to think of it, I’ve only ever dreamed of one author, and it was that one time I dreamed about John Safran and me going on a date (to the State Library of all places, I’m a nerd even in my dreams) and I had to show my ID to Jacquie Lambie. Maybe in my next dream Annie will present me with four loaves of Turkish bread, just like Dream John did.
Anyway, that’s enough dream for now, I’m about to make the magical veggie sausage rolls and probably finally scrub the bathroom that I’ve been putting off all week. I’ve got THE most gorgeous eucalyptus-scented Koala Eco spray as an incentive, so that helps.
Until next time, womblers x
I would totally read your book!
I totally know you would! I think you would be the first person I would send one to xo
Yes! Please do! I would like to read that kind of book too.
Glad you had a fab Mother’s Day x
YAY! I am sure there would be folk out there like me who would really enjoy it. I think I might think about it a little more – thank you! <3
Add to the brood! Add to the brood! You are such a good Mama! More children need to have mamas like you!
Ignore me. I have too many kids and animals and you shouldn’t trust me xxx It’s lovely though.
Veggie Mama #1 dream: drowning in kids and animals. I’m working on it!
Oh Stacey, please write this book. Sounds wonderful, I love your blog and would treasure that cookbook. Mmm those sausage rolls are the best. My daughter mentioned that I hadn’t made them in a while so I had better give them a whirl,
I ate about 12 one after the other! Man, they’re so good. Man, I love pastry, haha
I will write the book, and see what happens… I love an adventure! I can picture it all so clearly.
I want a copy of your book and you haven’t even written it yet! I’m off to check out your sausage rolls!
OMG MAKE THE SAUSAGE ROLLS! It’s like some kind of kitchen voodoo, they’re great!
Oh I know the feeling of daydreaming of more babies but knowing it isn’t likely to happen… wrote blog about that ache a few weeks ago. I am trying the distraction technique by studying.
I would definitely want to read your book! Do it!
I don’t think the feeling is ever going to go away, not really… even if I had eight kids by the time they grew up I’d still feel the same! It’s something I’ll just have to learn to live with I suppose.
I bought a lovely new diary for the book to get started in – the encouragement from readers has been so awesome! Thank you for yours x
Maybe I would feel the same. I thought after my third child I would know I was done but the desire for a fourth is still there. Mind you with my youngest now 3 1/2 I can sense some freedom coming back that I don’t have with babies and toddlers!
I do think of how strange it would be to go back to that intense baby stage when we’re so far out of it now!
Your ideas for this book sound super! I was having a think about it too & I reckon have it spiral bound so it’s like a journal & with parts of a page with lines for jotting down a recipe from a friend or adding how a meal went when you made one of your recipes. Even a space for a child’s drawing. Then it would become an heirloom for the family! Love you & your work! Xxx
OH MY GOD DENYSE THAT IS GENIUS!!!!!!!
Awesomesauce!
To be honest, I was trying to work out why you hadn’t already written a book! And then another one! You will SLAY at book-writing. Dooo eeeeet!
I WILL WRITE ALL OF THE BOOKS AND THEN SOME!
I have not written a book because nobody has asked me to. I will write this one and then see what I can do with it 🙂