Wintering and Maintaining a Place of Beholding
Every year I love winter more and more. (Maybe it is just the newness of the season talking? We really should revisit this statement when it’s still cold in April…) This January was my dream winter. Waking up to a fresh coat of snow almost every morning, just enough to keep things looking fresh and clean. Cold enough each day that it didn’t melt, but a few clear days here and there where the sun formed icicles on the roof line. Wearing wool slippers and sweaters and leaving the oven cracked after whatever I decided to bake that day had finished.
The sweetest bonnet from Heritage Woolen Co. Use the code KAETLYN10 for 10% off your purchase.
Adding “Everything Bagel” seasoning to my rustic sourdough loaf before baking….new obsession.
It was a good, quiet month full of puttering and pondering. I really wanted to work on my deep pantry, and I feel successful in the progress I’ve made. I have limited time and energy, so I’m learning when to say good enough and move along. There’s less instant gratification of a project done quickly, but it’s actually better this way because it allows me to sit with things unfinished— to live with it a little bit— and find with use and time what is truly needed to make the system better. This applies to many areas of homemaking I’m finding. It’s uncomfortable for me to operate like this, but it will grow me. It’s faithful plodding after all.
It is February now. A few warmer days and winter rain has melted all the snow. It’s funny how strange the landscape looks without it, even if it’s only been a few weeks. I am working my way through a few winter projects like going through saved garden seeds and organizing recipes into one binder instead of throughout 27 different notebooks and notecards.
The winter kitchen is cozy. And simple. Butter sizzles as it hits the dutch oven. Add the onion. Brown the beef. Carrots. Potatoes. A little bit of bone broth. Seasonings, salt, pepper. Heavy cream, raw cheese. A beeswax candle lit on the table, a crusty loaf sliced and slathered with butter. A meal eaten while there’s still a tiny bit of light left in the sky.
Simmer pots to add some humidity to the house, to make it smell nice, and to use up the dried citrus from Christmas.
Staying hydrated and nourished throughout my days has been absolutely essential as I am still nursing my growing 6 month old boy around the clock. That means Mitigate Stress’ Magnesium Bicarbonate in my OJ or grapefruit juice every morning, and using my tea pot to make a mineral-rich herbal tea from nettle, oat straw, red raspberry leaf, alfalfa, hibiscus and lemon in the afternoons.
My devotions look different these days. Often you will find my Bible and books cracked open throughout the house so I can sneak a morsel in when I have a moment. It is no longer a large meal in the early mornings that sustains me all day, but rather a bite here and there. Snacking, if you will, that “maintains me in the place of beholding”.
Abide, abide. Move slow, put the kettle on, enjoy the cold, light a candle and celebrate the dark.
Winter blessings,
Kaetlyn
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