525,600 Minutes

A lot has changed in the past year. On October 15th, 2012, our four hens hatched! Happy Birthday, girls!

We continue to miss Rosie, and Sally and Hennie, the other two RIRs who were taken from us by the same predator after having them for only a few weeks. I never even got the chance to introduce them on the blog.

October 15th was also the day we conceived Juniper, though we didn't know it. Last year on November 2nd, I performed in a Halloween Show with my burlesque troop, unaware that I was already pregnant!

 There's an Iron Baby in there!

This show was exhausting to prepare for, now I know why!

We found out we were expecting two days later, but didn't announce it until Thanksgiving.

In the months that followed we prepped the nursery...

Made jokes about shotgun weddings...

I had fun dressing my growing belly.

And grow it did!

We spent our last few months as a childless couple enjoying our friends.

Mr. Bear stood up as the Best Man at the wedding of the friends who introduced us, while I played the processional.

In my toast, I thanked them for helping me create my family, and for being a part of it.

Then we celebrated with a Burlesque Show!

Because that's how we roll.

For our anniversary, we took one last weekend to really indulge ourselves and relax.

Ponyo got a bath in preparation for meeting the baby.

And on July 4th, we enjoyed the summer sun with friends.

Juniper must have been excited by the boat ride and fireworks, because I went in to labor in the wee hours of the morning, and she made her debut on July 5th!

So here we are, one year on, prepping for another show, but with our lives completely and wonderfully changed forever.
Good family, good friends, a good life.

Pastry Party 2012!

Celebrating non-heteronormative relationships with baked goods!

So, my good friend Matt brought this Jezebel article to my attention a few weeks ago. If you have no desire to read it or watch the video(and I completely understand), the run-down is that this man leads Christian-based sex education lectures, and has some interesting ideas about how gay people have sex. Now, while I respect everyone's right to their beliefs, I personally find the belief that homosexuality is wrong/shameful/unnatural to be abhorrent. So when I got to the part of the video in which the lecturer explained his views on homosexuality(using carrots and doughnuts as metaphors for male and female anatomy, respectively) by stating that men were not created to sword-fight and women were not created to have pastry parties, two thoughts immediately occurred to me;


A. Is that how he thinks gay men have sex?
and
B. A pastry party sounds like a freaking fantastic idea!

 Butterscotch and Peppermint Chocolate Meringues

 I invited a bunch of my queer, lesbian, bisexual, and ally friends over for a Pastry Party, where the wine flowed, cookies and cobbler were baked, and conversations about sexuality and heteronormativity were had. It was delightful.

 Making pumpkin snickerdoodles with pumpkin spice kisses on top.

 Chocolate-covered cherry cookies, pre-ganache.

 Just because we don't support dogmatic heteronormative gender roles doesn't mean we don't love aprons.

 I love my hostess apron. It is red, sheer, and covered in teeny-tiny white dots.

 Everyone went home with a cookie sampler plate.

 Mmmm...chocolate-covered cherry.

 Ponyo was pretty excited about all the food.

 

 Peach cobbler.

 

Of course, after everyone cleared out, I realized that all I'd eaten all day were cookies and cobbler...and also that "pastry party" is my new favorite euphemism for lesbian sex.

Edited to add: This post was featured on Offbeat Home, and there are some pretty fun conversations going in the comments. Check it out!