Modern Dance and Pumpkin Muffins

(snowy backyard)

Happy Monday to you!  Wait, it’s Tuesday?  Winter has hit and I’m hibernating and confused.  We had a snow storm Friday and again yesterday, so this house is operating on a four-day weekend.  I should have kept quiet when I was talking about the warm weather we had been having and how I was looking forward to spring.  I promise not to mention it again!  It was a nice long weekend.  Lots of sledding, baking, lunch with friends, and my daughter and I got to sneak out for a much needed Mother/Daughter date.  There is a local dance company nearby that had a modern dance performance over the weekend.  It was their interpretation of the photography work “The Brown Sisters” by Nicholas Nixon.  (see NY times article here). It was AMAZING.  It was just so great.  There were eight women dancing; four young-ish women and each one had a partner that was an older version of themselves. I didn’t know what my daughter would think, being seven years old.  But she got it and it brought on great discussions about dancing, the shapes of our bodies, sisters, who your sisters might be if you weren’t born with any actual sisters…which then lead into a great conversation about the kinds of friends you want to have.  (The kind that lift you up not tear you down.)  It was so nice to spend some alone time with my sweetie.  She thrives on it and I really need it too.

Today we were busy crafting, working on school valentines and here and there I have been trying to make my little people valentine T-shirts.  Nothing fancy but I have two T-shirts for the kids that I am trying to do reverse applique with hearts.  Hopefully I will be able to show you in a day or two.  Not a lot of sewing has happened in the last four days but tons of patterns getting cut out for another season that may be coming (one that I won’t mention again.  See above.)

(working on reverse appliqué)

One of the things we baked today are the BEST EVER pumpkin, chocolate chip muffins.  Did I say the best?  Yes, they were.  We got the recipe from the book, The Artful Year by Jean Van’t Hull. (See The Artful Year: Celebrating the Seasons and Holidays with Crafts and Recipes–Over 175 Family- Friendly Activities)  It’s a wonderful book and has seasonal crafts to do with children.  We have done many of the crafts but hadn’t made any of the recipes.  I am glad we finally tried the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.  I will be trying more of her recipes.  They were very fun for the kids to make too.

How was your weekend?  I hope you were able to fit in some creating!