Daylight savings… While a good portion of the parent in me screams in terror at this day, the part of me that I remember from long ago seems to open just a crack and soak it up.  And in particular I am referring to the sun.  The sun is good as gold this time of year.  Our bodies crave it, knowing it’s still sinking lower and lower into the sky, spending less time with us every day.  Up before five this morning, I am sure we will all be quite exhausted by the day’s end, but at least I got to see the sun rise against a jack frosted window pane and feel the wood stove warm my back while the warmth of that far away star gently heated my eyelids.

And of course there is this.  The baby stretches and the toddler kisses, and the big brothers  helping and being sweet.  Thank goodness for cold cereal, when my brain is still too foggy to even muster up the simplest meals (and there is second breakfast to be had anyways).

And thank goodness for the sun.

Last week while at my parents house for a long weekend, we got to soak up the sun in a most cherished way.  One very odd and very definitively last beach day.  Half dressed up for the most communal of holidays, and half too nude for the internet (Not me!  The two year old!), I captured this sweet photo that sums up, to me, the beauty of a big(ish) family.  The attention that I don’t have to pass around to all four as often as I would like is made up double by the love they pass to one another.

And one last random note- crock pot chicken stock.  Here is the link-  Make it.  Make it over and over again!  Thank you Jesse!

It is so ingenious I cannot stop thinking about it.  Oh I know, that is rather boring that my mind is stuck on stock.  But ever since the days long ago that I rolled stock overnight on  three burners of a restaurant kitchen stove and clocked in the next morning to the scent of a sage-y chicken tea that soothed the previous nights endeavors, I have wished for it.  You can’t replicate that type of flavor without the beauty of time on your side.

A nice long simmer over fire, the weary eyes of a long night.  These things are just good.