TS Eliot says,
"April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain."
This is, perhaps, the most eloquent way to describe my emotions lately, as we shift from a very long, very cold winter, into a long-awaited spring. March was still legitemately winter in Nebraska this year, but these last few weeks have been teasing us with sunshine, rainstorms, and torrential winds blowing in a new round of weather every few days.
I've planted all the spring seeds, adding some new blueberry bushes to the garden roundup and anxiously awaiting the day it's warm enough to plant seedlings. (I outsourced all seedlings to my friend Elizabeth this year, because... toddlers.)
My big project these last few months has been a digital cookbook for food allergy mamas, and I'm incredibly proud of the product I launched last Friday! It's only $25 right now, and the price will increase Friday at midnight.
What I'm learning
This season is what I make of it. One of the Lazy Genius principles is to know your season, and sometimes I just need to admit that this unique season with my unique kids is hard. I am wrapping up a few big work projects (local friends, some fun news coming at you next month) in order to settle into summer a bit and figure out what's working (and not working) with parenting and homeschooling before deciding how I was work to fit into that next fall.
What I'm reading
Reflective of the angsty feelings that come with April, my reading life has been all of the place. I have started a lot, but haven't finished much. As I type, I realize my favorites were all food-related. Even writing a digital cookbook is no joke. LOTS of food on my mind recently.
One surprising gem of a read was Truffle Hound by Rowan Jacobsen. It's essentially a food jouranlists dive into... truffle hunting. I like truffle things, but the book made me wonder if I've ever had REAL truffle, or just truffle *flavoring.*
Another win was David Lebovitz's The Sweet Life in Paris . It's a classic, and while I have zero desire to ever go to Paris, the food there sure sounds good.
I'm only midway through, but I also started a book called Nasty, Brutish, and Short and before the title scares you away, it's a HILARIOUS book on kids and philosophy. The author has done multiple podcast interviews if you search for Scott Hershovitz in your podcast app. I really love philosophy, the classics, and child development so this has been an enjoyable diversion from my normal Kindle que.
What I'm listening to
This Motherly interview with Dr. Mona Delahooke about co-regulation and the body budget is one of the best podcast interviews I've listened to in a while.
Same goes with The Place we Find Ourselves: How to Heal from Sorrow and Grief . I've been really dealing with some grief of leaving the baby stage and not really ending this season of life on the "note" I legitemately worked hard to achieve. This episode didn't discuss birth trauma or colicky babies at all, but it certainly still applied. Can't wait to listen to Parts 2 and 3.
On the podcast
I recently started a podcast called Milk + Motherhood and it's been so fun. You can always find more info on Instagram (@happy.mama.healthy.baby), where I've made it really easy to see episode recaps on my feed. Season 1 was focused on postpartum identity, recovery, and nutrition. Here's a review of the episodes I've published since my last newsletter:
13. Made for the Work of Motherhood with Mary Haseltine. Mary and I talk about what God actually said to Adam and Eve in the garden, what "work" means, and why we are made for this.
14. I decided to wrap up Season 1 with The One with All the Birth Stories , because I reference my expereinces in many of my interviews, and it made sense to lay it all out. I am actually grateful to Katelyn Fusco for sharing this audio with me. It was recorded when SHE interveiwed me for HER podcast, the Happy Homebirth Podcast (spoiler: I ended up having zero homebirths). She is such a compassionate interviewer, it didn't make sense to monologue these stories when there was already a fantastic dialogue out there.
15. Breastfeeding a Baby with Food Allergies -- we kicked off season 2 kicked off with a really thorogouh interview with none other than Dr. Trill from Free to Feed. I STILL learned so much from this interview even after all we've gone through.
16. Infant Food Allergy Q and A with Dr. Trill. She and I actually talked for so long, I dedied to break our interview into two segments. This one answers all the listener questions I collected on Instagram in February!
If you're loving the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review! It's really easy to type a few sentences in, and it helps more people find the fantastic information my guests are sharing with you all. There will be a giveaway before season 2 starts, and all Apple reviews will be entered in the giveaway!
What I'm cooking
All the gluten-free sourdough things. I finally dove into bread last fall, and recently braved Bakerita bagels (yes, the kind you boil first) and CINNAMON ROLLS!
I used Bob's Red Mill egg replacer and Bob's Red Mill 1:1 flour blend + my Bakerita GF sourdough starter in this recipe from A Girl Worth Saving and they're THE BEST gluten free, vegan cinnamon rolls I've ever had. It will definitley be our new holiday standby.
I also made a version of the Fed and Fit strawberry cake for Easter and it was a huge hit.
What I'm feeding my kids
We have been making a lot of breakfast cobbler from this cookbook for breakfast, snack, desserts, etc. I also splurged and purchased GoMacro kids bars from Thrive. It's obviously processed food, but the ingredients are halfway decent, they're free from my youngest kiddo's allergens, and they're conventient on-the-go.
