Cozy Days

Do you know the word hygge (pronounced hue-guh)? We love that word around here. In Danish it translates to something like “cozy family time" and sometimes Eloise, who knows the word but not its meaning, can be found running around the house repeating "hoo-ga, hoo-ga." (But if she knew the meaning she would do no such thing, as the child is absolutely allergic to anything remotely cozy or cuddly.)

I love the warmer months, but fall is the BEST and to me there’s nothing better than crisp weather and quiet days with family, where everyone is semi-peacefully coexisting, not too many plans have been made, and nothing too pressing or crazy is going on. We had a weekend full of hygge, and the glorious and even somewhat gloomy fall weather we had really recharged my batteries. Ready for another week!

(Spying on puppy dogs at the park this morning while sharing a ham and cheese croissant.)

I am ever so slowly finding that toddlers need a wide berth. Does that make any sense? I have no idea. But if we have tons of plans and places to be, and if I am preoccupied with crossing a billion things off my to-do list, I don’t have the patience or presence of mind to devote to gently guiding my children through the day. It’s more like, do this, this, and this and if you don’t, here I’ll do it for you and if you freak out about it here’s a timeout. Rinse and repeat. NOT fun.

But if I remember that my primary job is raising tiny humans, and if I limit our plans and activities to protect our schedule as much as possible, it all goes so much more smoothly. Sure, that means I’m getting nothing done during the day other than the basics, and all other tasks fall during naptime or nighttime, but it doesn’t really matter because I can accomplish them so much more quickly and without aggravation or annoyance. So the theme right now is WIDE BERTH.

(Which reminds me of telling a woman at the bakery this morning, as Amelia and I are trying to enter a single door with the behemoth double jogging stroller, that we are a wide load and then instantly regretting it because does anyone say “wide load” when talking about themselves?)

To go along with the cozy family time theme, this is my favorite naptime drink lately:

(Besides wine, of course.) Wild sweet orange tea with a couple drops of orange essential oil. YUM.

I am still working through my summer reading list and just finished Eligible and it was SO GOOD! It's the first book I’ve read in a long time that I had to stay up late reading because it was that good. I was telling the librarian about it as I was returning it this morning and she checked it in and then proceeded to check it out for herself! Highly recommend. Up next: