I have decided that I cannot function in extreme weather. I'm not sure why and I know it has nothing to do with the lack of sunlight. It's the extreme cold (extreme in my opinion based on growing up in San Diego) that stops me in my tracks. Likewise, when it's over 100 degrees with 100% humidity, I just can't. Basically I need to move back to the West Coast.
That said, I found this blog post yesterday and felt the need to share. I was so excited to find a blogger who has done what I set out to do and was successful at it! I've been less successful. I hate placing blame (no really, I think I love it because I do it all the time but I'm trying to stop) but when I look back, I burnt out and stopped as soon as I took on additional roles at work. I'm running in extreme mode and simply can't handle more tasks and more work at home so I come home and crash. I've read a lot, which is awesome, but have not been productive at all. I've learned I need to balance better, say no, delegate more and take more personal days for the sake of my sanity.
That said, what I found this list incredibly helpful. Gentle reminders on where my head should be down to tips to keep you going when you want to give up. I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel at work and warm weather coming so I'm gearing up for my productive mode again. Wish me luck!
Friday, February 19, 2016
Friday, November 27, 2015
House Update
It's been a crazy week for me (as I'm sure it has been for everyone)! I took this week off with the intention of focusing my attention on the house as much as possible. I took the first couple of days (last weekend) to myself. I relaxed, p-j-j'ed, and read a lot. I got dishes and laundry done too but those are every day maintenance chores so sometimes I feel like they don't count. I was home alone with the kids on Monday so I didn't get a lot done, just some basic around the house stuff. I did get the larger dresser moved into the kids' room and the clothes transferred though. I still need to move the smaller dresser out and into the spare room to be used for fabric storage though.
Tuesday, my mother in law came over and actually took the kids out for several hours (woo whoo!!!) so I took advantage. A big goal this week was rotating the too small kids clothes out and next size up in. I started with Rachel's last weekend so I had a head start. I separated Ethan's 4T's out to see how much I had that would still fit. We had a decent amount but I kept a few 4T items in the rotation until I can go shopping. I also ended up getting a bunch of hand-me-downs from a friend after doing Rachel's clothes so I needed to add those in, pair down as necessary and go through the time-to-leaves. I have a friend who just had a baby boy, one who has a girl a few months behind Rachel and another who has a boy about Rachel's age. So I had several people lined up to give stuff to thankfully (it makes it so much easier to give it away). That said, I've been reading the Outlander series and started watching the TV show when it came out on DVD. They very evilly separated the season so I got to watch the first couple discs then had to wait a couple months for the next set. I finally got my hands on volume 2 of the season 1 on DVD but I can't watch it around the kids. So when I had an afternoon to myself, I decided going through kids clothes was totally something I could do in the living watching Outlander. I got the rest of the 2T's on hangers and organized, got the 3Ts I have already (there's a tote waiting for me at a friend's house too) on hangers and stored in the spare closet, packed up the girl clothes for my 1 friend and the boy clothes for the other 2 friends (depending on size). I felt very productive.
Wednesday was more about prepping for Thanksgiving. I made an apple pie, pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream. And some laundry was done because like I said, never ending chore.
Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving so that was my day off with my family. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Today (Friday) was my big push. I had a list of stuff I wanted to accomplish this week and I realized I had only 3 days left. My goal for those 3 days was to finish the laundry, clean the kitchen and bathrooms really well, go through clutter piles in the master bedroom and spare room and either pack up to give away or find a permanent home for the items, get through all the Thanksgiving dishes I put off until today, take pictures of the give-away/sell baby items so I could disassemble and pack them away to repurpose the room, set up the new bookshelves we ordered last weekend (that arrived 2 days early!!!), and finally take stuff to the various drop off locations to get it out.
So far, I'm basically caught up on dishes and laundry (I need to do the dinner dishes from tonight and 2 more loads of laundry). I went through several piles of clutter and cleaned out a couple small bags of trash, consolidated some piles, more than doubled the give away pile, and got things organized into new piles for easy put away once I have final homes established. I organized the closet in the master bedroom and Charlie helped take down the baby furniture and store it all in the attic. I did about 5 loads of laundry and got them all put away! It doesn't sound like a lot but I was busy all day going through stuff.
Tomorrow, the plan is to tackle the linen closet because it's now bursting out of the seams and needs to be organized to store more stuff in it (and to be more efficient). I want to move the small dresser into the spare room and rearrange the clutter so we can move the "home office" (desk, file drawer and computer) upstairs. I want to set up my vanity area in the master bedroom. Ideally, I will drop stuff off at the thrift store tomorrow and get some shopping done. I want to hit up some sales for new clothes for Ethan and maybe some Christmas gifts for the family. If I have time, I want to crank out the cleaning too because who wants to do that the day before they go back to work?
Sunday, it would be awesome if we're able to get the bookshelves assembled. Then I'll be able to unpack several boxes of books and start figuring out which ones I'm willing to get rid of. Now that I have better book storage, it's easier to say I only have so much shelf space and you don't fit and aren't important enough to me to keep so you can go. And since I work in a library, it's really easy to just take small piles of books with me to work and get them out of the house. That's the plan so far. We'll see how it all plays out tomorrow and Sunday. Keep you posted!
Tuesday, my mother in law came over and actually took the kids out for several hours (woo whoo!!!) so I took advantage. A big goal this week was rotating the too small kids clothes out and next size up in. I started with Rachel's last weekend so I had a head start. I separated Ethan's 4T's out to see how much I had that would still fit. We had a decent amount but I kept a few 4T items in the rotation until I can go shopping. I also ended up getting a bunch of hand-me-downs from a friend after doing Rachel's clothes so I needed to add those in, pair down as necessary and go through the time-to-leaves. I have a friend who just had a baby boy, one who has a girl a few months behind Rachel and another who has a boy about Rachel's age. So I had several people lined up to give stuff to thankfully (it makes it so much easier to give it away). That said, I've been reading the Outlander series and started watching the TV show when it came out on DVD. They very evilly separated the season so I got to watch the first couple discs then had to wait a couple months for the next set. I finally got my hands on volume 2 of the season 1 on DVD but I can't watch it around the kids. So when I had an afternoon to myself, I decided going through kids clothes was totally something I could do in the living watching Outlander. I got the rest of the 2T's on hangers and organized, got the 3Ts I have already (there's a tote waiting for me at a friend's house too) on hangers and stored in the spare closet, packed up the girl clothes for my 1 friend and the boy clothes for the other 2 friends (depending on size). I felt very productive.
Wednesday was more about prepping for Thanksgiving. I made an apple pie, pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream. And some laundry was done because like I said, never ending chore.
Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving so that was my day off with my family. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Today (Friday) was my big push. I had a list of stuff I wanted to accomplish this week and I realized I had only 3 days left. My goal for those 3 days was to finish the laundry, clean the kitchen and bathrooms really well, go through clutter piles in the master bedroom and spare room and either pack up to give away or find a permanent home for the items, get through all the Thanksgiving dishes I put off until today, take pictures of the give-away/sell baby items so I could disassemble and pack them away to repurpose the room, set up the new bookshelves we ordered last weekend (that arrived 2 days early!!!), and finally take stuff to the various drop off locations to get it out.
So far, I'm basically caught up on dishes and laundry (I need to do the dinner dishes from tonight and 2 more loads of laundry). I went through several piles of clutter and cleaned out a couple small bags of trash, consolidated some piles, more than doubled the give away pile, and got things organized into new piles for easy put away once I have final homes established. I organized the closet in the master bedroom and Charlie helped take down the baby furniture and store it all in the attic. I did about 5 loads of laundry and got them all put away! It doesn't sound like a lot but I was busy all day going through stuff.
Tomorrow, the plan is to tackle the linen closet because it's now bursting out of the seams and needs to be organized to store more stuff in it (and to be more efficient). I want to move the small dresser into the spare room and rearrange the clutter so we can move the "home office" (desk, file drawer and computer) upstairs. I want to set up my vanity area in the master bedroom. Ideally, I will drop stuff off at the thrift store tomorrow and get some shopping done. I want to hit up some sales for new clothes for Ethan and maybe some Christmas gifts for the family. If I have time, I want to crank out the cleaning too because who wants to do that the day before they go back to work?
Sunday, it would be awesome if we're able to get the bookshelves assembled. Then I'll be able to unpack several boxes of books and start figuring out which ones I'm willing to get rid of. Now that I have better book storage, it's easier to say I only have so much shelf space and you don't fit and aren't important enough to me to keep so you can go. And since I work in a library, it's really easy to just take small piles of books with me to work and get them out of the house. That's the plan so far. We'll see how it all plays out tomorrow and Sunday. Keep you posted!
Monday, September 7, 2015
July was so good to me
I felt so motivated and inspired and was really proud of myself and the progress I was making in my life. I was decluttering and asking for help. When I got to a pausing point with the decluttering process (admittedly a bad decision), I switched gears and started working out to declutter my body. I was going to Pennsic with Charlie the first week of August and a friend/camp mate had agreed to get up with me every morning to walk roughly 2 miles upon my request. I needed to get to where I could do 2 miles. So I started with a mile a day for a week and a half and kicked up to 2 miles for about a week or so before Pennsic. With my friend's willingness to walk with me, I was able to get up everyday at 6:30 in the cold and walk when all I wanted to do was sleep in (it was my vacation without the kids afterall). But I was motivated and committed and so proud of myself.
I had a doctor's appointment the Tuesday after we got back and I, of course, had a weigh in. In 3-4 weeks, I had lost only 1/2 a pound. I was discouraged and pissed and freaking exhausted. I know it takes time for you body to adjust before exercising gives you energy but after 3 weeks of a lifestyle change, I was still more fatigued than normal. My health issues already leave me fatigued all day every day and all the doctors keep saying is I need to lose weight. But the fact that I can only work out for a few days in a row before I absolutely need to take a day off or I'm falling asleep at work is a problem.
I also gave myself permission to stop decluttering because I was waiting on my friend to be ready to take a lot of our baby stuff off our hands. The fact is, I'm not ready to give up on the baby phase of life and am only doing it because we are not in a place in our lives for another child and we desperately need the space for stuff we actually use. Charlie says that if we decide to have another baby, we'll just re-stock up, because if we can afford a third child, we can afford the stuff that goes with a child. I feel like that's a really awful waste of money when we already have what we need. Part of the reason I'm so set on this stuff going to my friend is because there's the possibility it can come back. I'm really struggling with letting go of the baby stuff. I have a lot more unresolved issues around this than I thought.
So, in the mean time, I need to refocus on decluttering non-baby stuff. This weekend I choose to go through clothes Rachel will be growing into next year (no emotional attachments yet) and organize that into winter and summer clothes for convenience. I also tackled the magazines. In one bookcase, I had about 50 magazines, maybe more, that I've been slowly whittling down. As of this morning, I was down to 38. I'm flipping through them, some of them finally reading 2-3 years later, keeping the articles and images that inspire me in some way and recycling the rest. I'm now done to 18 and 1/2 left to go through. It doesn't feel like a lot of progress made because it's so much work for so little gain, but the mental gain of knowing I've released the magazine clutter is already immense.
My goal, so as not to overwhelm myself, has been to do this process using baby steps. I think ultimately this is helping keep me from burning out of decluttering, but really, there has been so little visible progress so far, I'm overwhelmed with the amount still left. I think I might actually benefit from a set weekend dedicated to deep decluttering. My biggest problem is getting it out of the house. It's not convenience in any way to drop this stuff off at a thrift store. And I've been known to skip something that's outside my normal routine (like picking up my prescriptions) even if it is convenient just because I want to get home and get home now. Let's face it, I'm a girl of routine and hate rush hour traffic (and dropping stuff off at the thrift store means facing rush hour traffic). The other problem is saving stuff for the possible yard sale. I kept saving stuff then said screw it, it's worth more to me to get it out of my house than to make 50 bucks. But then it didn't get out of my house and now a yard sale date has been set. I'm frustrated that I have to keep it in my house another 2 months before the yard sale happens but honestly, it probably would have anyway and then I just would have been mad at myself for failing to thrift it.
So we're back to baby steps. Yes it's slow, yes it's frustrating, but it's the pace that works for my health, for my family, and for my lifestyle so we're sticking with it.
I had a doctor's appointment the Tuesday after we got back and I, of course, had a weigh in. In 3-4 weeks, I had lost only 1/2 a pound. I was discouraged and pissed and freaking exhausted. I know it takes time for you body to adjust before exercising gives you energy but after 3 weeks of a lifestyle change, I was still more fatigued than normal. My health issues already leave me fatigued all day every day and all the doctors keep saying is I need to lose weight. But the fact that I can only work out for a few days in a row before I absolutely need to take a day off or I'm falling asleep at work is a problem.
I also gave myself permission to stop decluttering because I was waiting on my friend to be ready to take a lot of our baby stuff off our hands. The fact is, I'm not ready to give up on the baby phase of life and am only doing it because we are not in a place in our lives for another child and we desperately need the space for stuff we actually use. Charlie says that if we decide to have another baby, we'll just re-stock up, because if we can afford a third child, we can afford the stuff that goes with a child. I feel like that's a really awful waste of money when we already have what we need. Part of the reason I'm so set on this stuff going to my friend is because there's the possibility it can come back. I'm really struggling with letting go of the baby stuff. I have a lot more unresolved issues around this than I thought.
So, in the mean time, I need to refocus on decluttering non-baby stuff. This weekend I choose to go through clothes Rachel will be growing into next year (no emotional attachments yet) and organize that into winter and summer clothes for convenience. I also tackled the magazines. In one bookcase, I had about 50 magazines, maybe more, that I've been slowly whittling down. As of this morning, I was down to 38. I'm flipping through them, some of them finally reading 2-3 years later, keeping the articles and images that inspire me in some way and recycling the rest. I'm now done to 18 and 1/2 left to go through. It doesn't feel like a lot of progress made because it's so much work for so little gain, but the mental gain of knowing I've released the magazine clutter is already immense.
My goal, so as not to overwhelm myself, has been to do this process using baby steps. I think ultimately this is helping keep me from burning out of decluttering, but really, there has been so little visible progress so far, I'm overwhelmed with the amount still left. I think I might actually benefit from a set weekend dedicated to deep decluttering. My biggest problem is getting it out of the house. It's not convenience in any way to drop this stuff off at a thrift store. And I've been known to skip something that's outside my normal routine (like picking up my prescriptions) even if it is convenient just because I want to get home and get home now. Let's face it, I'm a girl of routine and hate rush hour traffic (and dropping stuff off at the thrift store means facing rush hour traffic). The other problem is saving stuff for the possible yard sale. I kept saving stuff then said screw it, it's worth more to me to get it out of my house than to make 50 bucks. But then it didn't get out of my house and now a yard sale date has been set. I'm frustrated that I have to keep it in my house another 2 months before the yard sale happens but honestly, it probably would have anyway and then I just would have been mad at myself for failing to thrift it.
So we're back to baby steps. Yes it's slow, yes it's frustrating, but it's the pace that works for my health, for my family, and for my lifestyle so we're sticking with it.
Sunday, August 9, 2015
I'm back again
I ran into a hiccup in the decluttering project. I had a person who was willing to take so much of my baby stuff but has to work on her own decluttering to make room for it all. I really want to pass it along to her because I know she needs it and she's a friend but I'm frustrated in how much it holds me back. She's ok with me not being able to wait on her, but there's something about giving to those you know that makes it easier to part with things, especially those that hold cherished memories.
Around mid-July, I ended up tacking on another "decluttering" project (if you will): a healthier lifestyle. This process has brought up old thoughts about getting healthy and I finally got to the point where I was willing to wake up early to exercise (something I was previously resistant to). So in mid-July, I started waking up an hour earlier than usual to get up and walk. I do in-home exercises so I have no excuses (like weather and having to drive) and give myself days off to recover. I'm averaging about 4 days per week right now and was up to 2 miles before my camping trip last week. A few years ago, I did the same camping trip and a lady in my camp woke up early everyday to walk. I wasn't willing to join her that time but this year, knowing it was coming up, I asked her about how long her walk was, if she was doing it again, and if I could join her. It turned out it was about 2 miles and she was willing. So I started walking to get myself ready for walking with her. We drove up to camp on Saturday the 1st and I walked with her everyday from Sunday through Friday. We started around 1.5 miles (45 minutes) and ended the week around 2.5 miles in 60-ish minutes. There were some late nights in there and really cold mornings when I didn't want to wake up or get out of bed, but I did and never regretted it. With all the extra walking about the site throughout the rest of the day, I think I ended up walking around 5 miles per day. I know being back in real life, that's not a realistic thing to keep up, but I do still plan on going back to my normal routine. I have not worked that hard on changing my diet (that has too many complications for me to think about right now), but I'm proud I'm at least doing something. And with the stall in home decluttering, it's nice having another personal project to work on. Also, with the impending increase to stress at work, I'm glad I have an exercise routine already in place to help alleviate it.
Around mid-July, I ended up tacking on another "decluttering" project (if you will): a healthier lifestyle. This process has brought up old thoughts about getting healthy and I finally got to the point where I was willing to wake up early to exercise (something I was previously resistant to). So in mid-July, I started waking up an hour earlier than usual to get up and walk. I do in-home exercises so I have no excuses (like weather and having to drive) and give myself days off to recover. I'm averaging about 4 days per week right now and was up to 2 miles before my camping trip last week. A few years ago, I did the same camping trip and a lady in my camp woke up early everyday to walk. I wasn't willing to join her that time but this year, knowing it was coming up, I asked her about how long her walk was, if she was doing it again, and if I could join her. It turned out it was about 2 miles and she was willing. So I started walking to get myself ready for walking with her. We drove up to camp on Saturday the 1st and I walked with her everyday from Sunday through Friday. We started around 1.5 miles (45 minutes) and ended the week around 2.5 miles in 60-ish minutes. There were some late nights in there and really cold mornings when I didn't want to wake up or get out of bed, but I did and never regretted it. With all the extra walking about the site throughout the rest of the day, I think I ended up walking around 5 miles per day. I know being back in real life, that's not a realistic thing to keep up, but I do still plan on going back to my normal routine. I have not worked that hard on changing my diet (that has too many complications for me to think about right now), but I'm proud I'm at least doing something. And with the stall in home decluttering, it's nice having another personal project to work on. Also, with the impending increase to stress at work, I'm glad I have an exercise routine already in place to help alleviate it.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Monday accomplishments (or more accurately, musings)
I have this dream of being a stay at home mom again. When I was pregnant with Rachel, I was mildly obsessed with the idea and majorly devastated that it couldn't happen before I had to go back to work after maternity leave. Of course that was the start of a fairly significant journey in my life, if you remember, so I've been able to move on past heartbroken and depressed to a bit more positive and focused. I had to focus on what I love about my life, and my job in particular, so I wasn't overwhelmed with negativity everyday at work. What I ultimately realized is that while I would love to be a full time stay at home mom, and would never turn down that opportunity should it arise again, I would also be very happy with a part time situation. I LOVED only working part time when I first started at the library. I only gave that up because I hated working every Saturday and we needed more money. I've loved how my job has allowed me to grow and learn new skills, but I still find myself feeling envious of the people in a couple part time jobs in particular. I dream of being able to work 9-1 Monday through Friday. I wouldn't mind if it was still at the library, but since I still dream of being an archivist, I would prefer if it was in a museum archive. I like the idea of being able to then come home and spend the rest of the day with the kids, doing crafts, errands, playground trips, etc.
I realize how much I long for this lifestyle even more when I have my working weekends. Regular weekends get so jam-packed with chores, errands, and activities. Most people have those days off so we all feel the same rush to accomplish everything we can't during the week on those 2 days. Then we also want to spend some of that time having fun too. And we should! We are all so busy and are burning ourselves out with crazy hectic lives, too many working hours in the week, too long of commutes, too many obligations, and not enough hours in the day/week. We need to have some down time to remember what life is all about (enjoying what time we have on this earth). I usually end up doing what needs to be done and feel like I didn't get enough time to myself and/or with my kids, or it's the other way around, and I start my work-week out feeling unrested and guilty over something. I do recognize this is a ridiculous way to live, and I'm working on that. But that's not what we're talking about today. :)
Today, I realized something. I had to work on Saturday, which always sucks, but it's a fact of my job so I deal with it. Charlie had the kids and had some obligations with friends, so he took them and did what he needed to do. I got home a couple hours before him, got some down time for myself then had some time with them all when they got home. Yesterday, we had plans to go swimming at a friend's house around lunch so Charlie got some errands done in the morning then we had a whole day of fun. I didn't feel rushed or guilty or anything because I knew I had today to get chores and errands done. It was relaxed and amazing. Today, I woke up with the intention of getting stuff done today. I'm not a morning person and usually it takes so major convincing to get myself moving in the morning when all I want to do is sit on the couch reading and drinking coffee. But Ethan wanted to dance, so I got up and danced with him and Rachel (good excuse for exercise!). Then I made us all breakfast and got us ready for the day. And before I could sit down and be lazy, I took us all to the grocery store. Rachel fell asleep on the way home so I let Ethan do sidewalk chalk and ride his scooter up and down for awhile before lunch. Now it's cool-down time and quiet time so we're ready for the afternoon. Charlie should be home early today from work, so I'm going to take that time to get some decluttering projects done. It's amazing how much more you can do on a random day off when most people work. You just know that you can't really be distracted by friends because they're all working! So while it sucks to work on Saturdays, it's also kind of a blessing in disguise! But, in regards to what I was saying above, it also reminds me what it's like to be a stay at home mom. And I'm choosing to let these feelings fuel my desire to work toward that dream rather than depress me and drag me down.
One thing I've learned over the last 6 months is how important self-care is. To me, this all has a lot to do with self-care. Take the time I need to have time for myself, for my family and for the house. Even if it doesn't fit into the American standard of how I'm supposed to live my life. Even if it doesn't fit the old feminist idea that we can have it all, because realistically, we can't! Because by taking enough time for all these things, I won't live with stress, overwhelm and guilt.
In this same vein, I just read a really important, inspiring blog post by the Hands Free Mama. It's amazing how the things you really need in your life fall into your lap at just the right moment.
I realize how much I long for this lifestyle even more when I have my working weekends. Regular weekends get so jam-packed with chores, errands, and activities. Most people have those days off so we all feel the same rush to accomplish everything we can't during the week on those 2 days. Then we also want to spend some of that time having fun too. And we should! We are all so busy and are burning ourselves out with crazy hectic lives, too many working hours in the week, too long of commutes, too many obligations, and not enough hours in the day/week. We need to have some down time to remember what life is all about (enjoying what time we have on this earth). I usually end up doing what needs to be done and feel like I didn't get enough time to myself and/or with my kids, or it's the other way around, and I start my work-week out feeling unrested and guilty over something. I do recognize this is a ridiculous way to live, and I'm working on that. But that's not what we're talking about today. :)
Today, I realized something. I had to work on Saturday, which always sucks, but it's a fact of my job so I deal with it. Charlie had the kids and had some obligations with friends, so he took them and did what he needed to do. I got home a couple hours before him, got some down time for myself then had some time with them all when they got home. Yesterday, we had plans to go swimming at a friend's house around lunch so Charlie got some errands done in the morning then we had a whole day of fun. I didn't feel rushed or guilty or anything because I knew I had today to get chores and errands done. It was relaxed and amazing. Today, I woke up with the intention of getting stuff done today. I'm not a morning person and usually it takes so major convincing to get myself moving in the morning when all I want to do is sit on the couch reading and drinking coffee. But Ethan wanted to dance, so I got up and danced with him and Rachel (good excuse for exercise!). Then I made us all breakfast and got us ready for the day. And before I could sit down and be lazy, I took us all to the grocery store. Rachel fell asleep on the way home so I let Ethan do sidewalk chalk and ride his scooter up and down for awhile before lunch. Now it's cool-down time and quiet time so we're ready for the afternoon. Charlie should be home early today from work, so I'm going to take that time to get some decluttering projects done. It's amazing how much more you can do on a random day off when most people work. You just know that you can't really be distracted by friends because they're all working! So while it sucks to work on Saturdays, it's also kind of a blessing in disguise! But, in regards to what I was saying above, it also reminds me what it's like to be a stay at home mom. And I'm choosing to let these feelings fuel my desire to work toward that dream rather than depress me and drag me down.
One thing I've learned over the last 6 months is how important self-care is. To me, this all has a lot to do with self-care. Take the time I need to have time for myself, for my family and for the house. Even if it doesn't fit into the American standard of how I'm supposed to live my life. Even if it doesn't fit the old feminist idea that we can have it all, because realistically, we can't! Because by taking enough time for all these things, I won't live with stress, overwhelm and guilt.
In this same vein, I just read a really important, inspiring blog post by the Hands Free Mama. It's amazing how the things you really need in your life fall into your lap at just the right moment.
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Week 3
Not much happened this week. Sickness struck us down!
But I was able to get several loads of laundry and dishes done (always an accomplishment right?). I had several small things laying around that needed to be moved (like my shoes all up to the bedroom, a basket of knitting projects up to the craft room, etc.) that I moved to their new homes.
The big accomplishment of the weekend was getting the new mattress for Ethan and finishing up the bunk bed. When we bought it several months ago, one of the boards cracked. It was sound enough to keep using but we replaced the board from Ikea but never actually swapped them out. We also didn't finish putting the slats for the bottom bunk in because we didn't want the kids to jump on them and break them before we got the new mattress. A friend and coworker decided to get rid of a twin bed recently and was kind enough to let us have just the mattress. It's a newer, thicker one that Ethan currently had so we put that up on top for him and traded his down to the bottom for Rachel. Now, their bunk bed is finally complete and Rachel is spending her first night in her big girl bed!
This week I'm going to get caught up on laundry, keep my sink empty, even if that means dirty dishes are piled on the counter (Flylady "Sink Reflections" logic there!), and get a load dropped off at the thrift store.
But I was able to get several loads of laundry and dishes done (always an accomplishment right?). I had several small things laying around that needed to be moved (like my shoes all up to the bedroom, a basket of knitting projects up to the craft room, etc.) that I moved to their new homes.
The big accomplishment of the weekend was getting the new mattress for Ethan and finishing up the bunk bed. When we bought it several months ago, one of the boards cracked. It was sound enough to keep using but we replaced the board from Ikea but never actually swapped them out. We also didn't finish putting the slats for the bottom bunk in because we didn't want the kids to jump on them and break them before we got the new mattress. A friend and coworker decided to get rid of a twin bed recently and was kind enough to let us have just the mattress. It's a newer, thicker one that Ethan currently had so we put that up on top for him and traded his down to the bottom for Rachel. Now, their bunk bed is finally complete and Rachel is spending her first night in her big girl bed!
This week I'm going to get caught up on laundry, keep my sink empty, even if that means dirty dishes are piled on the counter (Flylady "Sink Reflections" logic there!), and get a load dropped off at the thrift store.
Week 2
Edit: I wrote this last Sunday. I meant to add pictures before publishing. Then I got lazy. Now it's a week later so I'm just publishing it. :)
It's the start of week 2 so I wanted to post the progress I've made on the decluttering front. Last week after my post, I took a tour of the attic. I knew we had several empty boxes and several half full boxes so I sifted through some to get a better idea as to what's going on up there. I found several I could go through that night so I brought them down and ended up with 1 box of give-away and 4 empty boxes. All the rest either found a home downstairs or was throw out. It felt so good doing something and was a great baby-step way of kicking this party off.
The rest of the week I didn't do much. I found some things here and there and at least sorted them into piles, but I knew I had a 3 day weekend to try to focus more. I didn't realized I wouldn't have as much time for decluttering this weekend as I hoped. Oh well. That's life getting in the way isn't it? :) But, don't despair! A good friend who has offered to help several times was available today so she came over for a few hours to help me tackle the room of doom otherwise known as the extra bedroom/wanna be nursery (Rachel never made it into her nursery so we're skipping that step and going straight to share a room with her brother). This room has always been the convenient dumping place being the spare room so it's constantly in disarray. When we bought the house, it was going to be a combined guest room and craft room but, as is the case for many people, the "spare room" is the storage room while you unpack and that just snowballs into the room of doom.
I always dreamed of having that fully-stocked-but-not-cluttered craft room like so many bloggers share pictures of. Pictures on the wall, an inspiration board, perfectly placed shelves for storing crafting books, projects and other knick knacks, a comfy chair and the perfect desk. But their are several problems with this dream. Buying all that perfect furniture can be expensive, even if you go "cheap". And if you go really cheap, you have to have the time to fix it up how you want it. Also, you need to live somewhere where there are amazing thrift and antique stores. I do not. I live where the thrift stores are full of used Walmart stuff and antique stores cost as much as buying something new. My options for makeshift and vintage-awesome are limited, which is disappointing have living so many places that had good used shopping options. Another problem is when you work hard to stock up but then don't have the time and/or space to work on the projects so you end up with clutter and good intentions. Finally, cleaning that room. If you're like me, your projects spread out and take over the space so you have to clean to keep the room looking pretty. So I still want a craft space, but my dreams have shifted to less fully stocked and more there when I have a project to work on. I want to have a space where my sewing machine can stay out and ready for use. I want to have supplies on hand like knitting needles, measuring tape and scissors. I want a space that's inviting for crafting and creative play. I also want it to be safe enough for the kids to have space in this room with me. Ethan loves painting. How fun would it be to craft together and not have it be at the kitchen table?
I also want to start finishing projects. I have so many things I bought with projects in mind and loved buying the supplies but feel guilty every time I look at it knowing I never even started, much less finished said project. I have made a promise to myself and Charlie that I will finish using what I have before I go out and buy more fabric or yarn. The only caveat to that is, if I need more of the same of what I currently have to finish a project, I will go buy just enough to finish.
But back to the room of doom. We worked for about 3 hours, sorting through to see what's there, rearranging so like items are together, trashing several bags of trash. I have a fairly huge pile of stuff I think might be destined for a new nursery home next weekend, 2 more boxes headed to the thrift store, hundreds of plastic bags headed to the grocery store for recycling, and a good stash of my reuseable bags finally emptied again and ready for use at the grocery store (to avoid any more plastic bags). We have a dresser that we were looking to get rid of as well that I had previously emptied, but I had to refill it with stuff for lack of other storage. Once the nursery stuff is gone though, I can look at setting up the crafting area and start cranking through those projects.
Small projects for this next week include going through piles and piles of clothes to separate out into keep, toss and give away, organize the linen closet and tidied up the kids' room a bit (book overflow!).
It's the start of week 2 so I wanted to post the progress I've made on the decluttering front. Last week after my post, I took a tour of the attic. I knew we had several empty boxes and several half full boxes so I sifted through some to get a better idea as to what's going on up there. I found several I could go through that night so I brought them down and ended up with 1 box of give-away and 4 empty boxes. All the rest either found a home downstairs or was throw out. It felt so good doing something and was a great baby-step way of kicking this party off.
The rest of the week I didn't do much. I found some things here and there and at least sorted them into piles, but I knew I had a 3 day weekend to try to focus more. I didn't realized I wouldn't have as much time for decluttering this weekend as I hoped. Oh well. That's life getting in the way isn't it? :) But, don't despair! A good friend who has offered to help several times was available today so she came over for a few hours to help me tackle the room of doom otherwise known as the extra bedroom/wanna be nursery (Rachel never made it into her nursery so we're skipping that step and going straight to share a room with her brother). This room has always been the convenient dumping place being the spare room so it's constantly in disarray. When we bought the house, it was going to be a combined guest room and craft room but, as is the case for many people, the "spare room" is the storage room while you unpack and that just snowballs into the room of doom.
I always dreamed of having that fully-stocked-but-not-cluttered craft room like so many bloggers share pictures of. Pictures on the wall, an inspiration board, perfectly placed shelves for storing crafting books, projects and other knick knacks, a comfy chair and the perfect desk. But their are several problems with this dream. Buying all that perfect furniture can be expensive, even if you go "cheap". And if you go really cheap, you have to have the time to fix it up how you want it. Also, you need to live somewhere where there are amazing thrift and antique stores. I do not. I live where the thrift stores are full of used Walmart stuff and antique stores cost as much as buying something new. My options for makeshift and vintage-awesome are limited, which is disappointing have living so many places that had good used shopping options. Another problem is when you work hard to stock up but then don't have the time and/or space to work on the projects so you end up with clutter and good intentions. Finally, cleaning that room. If you're like me, your projects spread out and take over the space so you have to clean to keep the room looking pretty. So I still want a craft space, but my dreams have shifted to less fully stocked and more there when I have a project to work on. I want to have a space where my sewing machine can stay out and ready for use. I want to have supplies on hand like knitting needles, measuring tape and scissors. I want a space that's inviting for crafting and creative play. I also want it to be safe enough for the kids to have space in this room with me. Ethan loves painting. How fun would it be to craft together and not have it be at the kitchen table?
I also want to start finishing projects. I have so many things I bought with projects in mind and loved buying the supplies but feel guilty every time I look at it knowing I never even started, much less finished said project. I have made a promise to myself and Charlie that I will finish using what I have before I go out and buy more fabric or yarn. The only caveat to that is, if I need more of the same of what I currently have to finish a project, I will go buy just enough to finish.
But back to the room of doom. We worked for about 3 hours, sorting through to see what's there, rearranging so like items are together, trashing several bags of trash. I have a fairly huge pile of stuff I think might be destined for a new nursery home next weekend, 2 more boxes headed to the thrift store, hundreds of plastic bags headed to the grocery store for recycling, and a good stash of my reuseable bags finally emptied again and ready for use at the grocery store (to avoid any more plastic bags). We have a dresser that we were looking to get rid of as well that I had previously emptied, but I had to refill it with stuff for lack of other storage. Once the nursery stuff is gone though, I can look at setting up the crafting area and start cranking through those projects.
Small projects for this next week include going through piles and piles of clothes to separate out into keep, toss and give away, organize the linen closet and tidied up the kids' room a bit (book overflow!).
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Reviving the dormant blog
And then 3 and half years, I'm back! Ethan turned 1 shortly after my last post and then I have no idea why I stopped blogging. Probably got sucked into the world of books again. :) The summer of 2012 I got a part time job with the public library and that December got promoted to full time. We also bought our first house the summer of 2012 and spent a lot of time painting, cleaning and moving in. In May 2013, I got pregnant with our daughter, Rachel, and thoroughly enjoyed the 2 months home with the whole family while on maternity leave. And thus begins our story:
Something about getting pregnant with Rachel changed me. I had the strangest reaction that I can only attribute to being pregnant. Rather than the normal food cravings, I had book cravings. Early in the pregnancy, I became obsessed with the idea of moving back to San Diego because I wanted to give my kids the same kind of childhood I had. When reality hit and I knew that wasn't possible, I felt the need to revisit my childhood and the best (and only) way was through books (makes sense right? As an avid reader, books are as much part of my memories as real life). I re-read many of my favorite stories as a child until I was ready to let that go. In the fall (2nd trimester), "Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail" by Jennifer Pharr Davis was turned in to my library. When I was in college, I had this far-fetched dream of hiking the AT someday, and this book just called my name. (Apparently I had moved up to reliving my college years at this point.) When I finished, I wasn't ready to leave the trail, so to speak, so I looked up more books and discovered the Barefoot Sisters ("Southbound" and "Walking Home"). These books helped me realize how much slow living and nature have always been a passion for me, even though I didn't realize it at the time. I also realized how far myself I had become. By the time Rachel came, I fully immersed in trying to figure out my own identity again. I used to be so sure of myself and that was reflected in my personal style. I lost myself in college and lost that sense of style. I've been dabbling with styles, trying to figure myself out since grad school and still haven't really figured it out. I also used to journal, ALLTHETIME, and lost that when I had Ethan. More on that later.
When I went back to work, I re-joined our book discussion. The first book we read was "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce (coincidentally about a man on a physical, mental, and emotional journey). Then we read "A Moveable Feast" by Earnest Hemingway. Warning: this was published posthumously and is not one of his best works. It's a bit disjointed due to each chapter being a different anecdote and not a continuous story. Also, the editors changed up the order of the chapters in the later edition for some reason and it changes the whole feel of the story. Reading this was important to me though, because it revived the Paris obsession in me. I was driven to look for more books dealing with Paris, and found "Paris Letters" by Janice MacLeod.
This book is probably the most important book I've read in the last 5 years. It accomplished something that nothing else has been able to do since I became a mother: it helped me find myself again. I started journaling again and was finally able to let go of so much of the anger I'd been clinging to over how my life didn't work out as planned. (Don't get me wrong, I love my life. But it's a far cry from the dreams I had that got me through all those college years.) There were several other books that continued in the same vein as "Paris Letters", and by this past spring, I had become inspired by the tiny house movement and minimalist living. One of the things I've realized through my journaling is that I have clung to my stuff and acquired so much more in a vain effort to be happy. It really resulted in a house full of clutter and my stress levels and unhappiness higher than usual. In processing that, I realized that I need to let go of stuff to fully get back to myself. Of course this seems crazy since I've always been that person that dreamt of a living in a huge, multi-room house (craft room, game room, huge kitchen, and most importantly, a huge library reminiscent of Belle's in Beauty and the Beast). I've always been sentimental and letting go of stuff does not come easy to me. But the more I followed that dream, the less happy I was, more stressed, more angry and resentful, and further away I got from myself. Thus minimalist lifestyle. But as much as I tried, my husband is not on board with minimalist and tiny house living. I guess it's a good thing most of the clutter/stuff is mine. Our compromise is small living.
The house we bought in 2012 and currently live in is 1098 square feet. We were both convinced (and Charlie still is) that our house is simply too small for us (read: too small for all our stuff). While this is not a our dream house and we do not want to spend the rest of our lives in this house, it's still ours and still home and we need to be as happy here as we can be since we don't know when we'll move. This leads me to my goal: to pare down and declutter enough to live in our house comfortably by the end of 2015. A good chunk of our stuff is still in storage (in the in-laws' basement over an hour away). Some of that is furniture that doesn't really fit here and Charlie doesn't want to let go of just yet so that will probably stay in storage. Also, since making this goal, life has gotten in the way enough that little progress has been made so far. Knowing that, I'm still keeping the end of the year as a goal, but a loose goal. It will happen when it happens. But I realized I need some help and accountability, which is the reason why I have revived this blog. I started it back in the day as a blog about crafts and food, in the hopes of inspiring others the way I had been inspired. I still want this blog to be a source of inspiration but apparently it will help me move forward at the same time.
Something about getting pregnant with Rachel changed me. I had the strangest reaction that I can only attribute to being pregnant. Rather than the normal food cravings, I had book cravings. Early in the pregnancy, I became obsessed with the idea of moving back to San Diego because I wanted to give my kids the same kind of childhood I had. When reality hit and I knew that wasn't possible, I felt the need to revisit my childhood and the best (and only) way was through books (makes sense right? As an avid reader, books are as much part of my memories as real life). I re-read many of my favorite stories as a child until I was ready to let that go. In the fall (2nd trimester), "Becoming Odyssa: Adventures on the Appalachian Trail" by Jennifer Pharr Davis was turned in to my library. When I was in college, I had this far-fetched dream of hiking the AT someday, and this book just called my name. (Apparently I had moved up to reliving my college years at this point.) When I finished, I wasn't ready to leave the trail, so to speak, so I looked up more books and discovered the Barefoot Sisters ("Southbound" and "Walking Home"). These books helped me realize how much slow living and nature have always been a passion for me, even though I didn't realize it at the time. I also realized how far myself I had become. By the time Rachel came, I fully immersed in trying to figure out my own identity again. I used to be so sure of myself and that was reflected in my personal style. I lost myself in college and lost that sense of style. I've been dabbling with styles, trying to figure myself out since grad school and still haven't really figured it out. I also used to journal, ALLTHETIME, and lost that when I had Ethan. More on that later.
When I went back to work, I re-joined our book discussion. The first book we read was "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" by Rachel Joyce (coincidentally about a man on a physical, mental, and emotional journey). Then we read "A Moveable Feast" by Earnest Hemingway. Warning: this was published posthumously and is not one of his best works. It's a bit disjointed due to each chapter being a different anecdote and not a continuous story. Also, the editors changed up the order of the chapters in the later edition for some reason and it changes the whole feel of the story. Reading this was important to me though, because it revived the Paris obsession in me. I was driven to look for more books dealing with Paris, and found "Paris Letters" by Janice MacLeod.
This book is probably the most important book I've read in the last 5 years. It accomplished something that nothing else has been able to do since I became a mother: it helped me find myself again. I started journaling again and was finally able to let go of so much of the anger I'd been clinging to over how my life didn't work out as planned. (Don't get me wrong, I love my life. But it's a far cry from the dreams I had that got me through all those college years.) There were several other books that continued in the same vein as "Paris Letters", and by this past spring, I had become inspired by the tiny house movement and minimalist living. One of the things I've realized through my journaling is that I have clung to my stuff and acquired so much more in a vain effort to be happy. It really resulted in a house full of clutter and my stress levels and unhappiness higher than usual. In processing that, I realized that I need to let go of stuff to fully get back to myself. Of course this seems crazy since I've always been that person that dreamt of a living in a huge, multi-room house (craft room, game room, huge kitchen, and most importantly, a huge library reminiscent of Belle's in Beauty and the Beast). I've always been sentimental and letting go of stuff does not come easy to me. But the more I followed that dream, the less happy I was, more stressed, more angry and resentful, and further away I got from myself. Thus minimalist lifestyle. But as much as I tried, my husband is not on board with minimalist and tiny house living. I guess it's a good thing most of the clutter/stuff is mine. Our compromise is small living.
The house we bought in 2012 and currently live in is 1098 square feet. We were both convinced (and Charlie still is) that our house is simply too small for us (read: too small for all our stuff). While this is not a our dream house and we do not want to spend the rest of our lives in this house, it's still ours and still home and we need to be as happy here as we can be since we don't know when we'll move. This leads me to my goal: to pare down and declutter enough to live in our house comfortably by the end of 2015. A good chunk of our stuff is still in storage (in the in-laws' basement over an hour away). Some of that is furniture that doesn't really fit here and Charlie doesn't want to let go of just yet so that will probably stay in storage. Also, since making this goal, life has gotten in the way enough that little progress has been made so far. Knowing that, I'm still keeping the end of the year as a goal, but a loose goal. It will happen when it happens. But I realized I need some help and accountability, which is the reason why I have revived this blog. I started it back in the day as a blog about crafts and food, in the hopes of inspiring others the way I had been inspired. I still want this blog to be a source of inspiration but apparently it will help me move forward at the same time.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Holiday craziness
It's been go go go here in the light the stars household since my last post. I'm a member of a Bunco group and my month to host was October, the last Thursday of the month, so of course it had to be all about Halloween. And being my first time hosting, of course I was all nerves about making sure I made yummy food, had good presents and still managed to decorate up to everyone's expectations. The best option ended up being using my friend's house to host from (since we're still with the in-laws and 5 adults and a baby packs this house full enough) and she had already decorated for the holiday so that really helped me out. I ended up making beef stew with cornbread and chocolate spider cupcakes for dessert. Halloween-themed things went on clearance around the second week of October (really people?!) so the winners got several things in their gifts. I was pretty stoked with the gifts I got for everyone and decided to put together trick-or-treat gift bags for everyone so no one went home empty handed. It all came down to the last minute (packing the presents, last minute dinner prep, final touches on the costume) but the night went off well once it got started. I had been planning for years (way back in the single years when a boyfriend was a faraway dream, much less a husband) that if and when I had a child, boy or girl, I would dress him/her up as Yoda for his/her first Halloween. So following that theme and keeping it to characters on Dagobah, Charlie went as Luke and I went as R2D2. I knitted then felted (well, fulled technically) a Yoda hat for Ethan, bought a white dress and R2D2'd it up with blue and grey Duct tape and made an R2 helmet out of a bowl, part of a soda can, and more Duct tape. I must say, it turned out pretty rad.
I also tried my hand at stencil pumpkin carving for the first time and was really happy with those results as well.
I just downloaded and printed a free template from Spirit of the Zombie Pumpkins, followed their directions using a pumpkin carving kit I bought from Walmart and voila! awesomely carved pumpkin!
Oh yeah, and October was my birthday, my brother-in-law's girlfriend's birthday and Charlie and my wedding anniversary. So not only was I busy making Halloween costumes, but I agreed to knit a Slitherin scarf for lil' bro's girlfriend and I knitted Ethan his first scarf (as part of his costume but also for this winter). The Slitherin scarf wasn't finished until November but everything else was done in time. We also had the first snow the weekend before Halloween so it worked out well that I made Mr. E a scarf!
November was all about pre-planning for Christmas as much as possible without buying into the over-commercialization of the holiday with the super early merchandising of Christmas related things. It's a couple weeks before Christmas and because everything's been out for so long already, holiday themed things are already on clearance again! Really people, really. Of course I enjoy buying them on clearance but I have no problem buying them after the holiday to enjoy next year. It's like a present for myself to enjoy next year. Oh well. Go with the flow right? Anyway, I tried planning/getting/making presents all of November while planning for a yummy dinner. I made the standard pumpkin and apple pies and tried my hand at homemade whipped cream as well this year. Everyone seemed to enjoy them so I was a happy homemaker. I decorated the tops of the pies with turkey prints (simple peace sign slits) though the effort was more for my benefit since no one else even seemed to notice. Note to self: be more over the top next year!
At the end of November, we found out that Charlie had some vacation time he had to use up. His supervisor gave him a Thursday and Friday paired up with his Saturday off for the month and had the following Monday be his day off for the next week so he had 5 days off in a row thus making us able to go visit my Mom in Missouri afterall. It's a 16 hour drive each way for only 2 1/2 days but I thought it was worth it. I got to see 2 of my best friends, one of whom hadn't met Ethan yhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifet, as well as my parents (of course) and my aunt (who had also not met him yet). It was busy and lots of driving but a vhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifery nice visit nonetheless.
We've been back for a couple days now and I had to jump into final Christmas prep right away. All my planning time post-Thanksgiving was taken up by travel prep and Bunco this month was tonight with a cookie exchange. My mother-in-law is also a member and doesn't bake so I ended up making cookies for her too. I choose to make the Pecan Butter Balls I've made before and tried my hand at shortbread for the first time. I wanted to spice it up a bit so I added vanilla chai tea to the blend and they came out really well: nice and crisp with a very subtle hint of something extra. I'm having them with a cup of the tea right now and they go really well together. For those interested, I followed this recipe. I had some difficulty since I don't have a food processor and my blender was just not cuttinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif it. I started with the blender until I had to add the butter, when I finally gave up and tried the old hand mixer. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifFor the last few crumbles I ended up hand kneading. It wasn't perfect but the cookies turned out well enough to be edible and I think they taste pretty good so it's still a win.
So now that the cookie exchange is out of the way, it's crank time. This weekend I need to force the husband to sit down with me and do our cards. I also need to crank out the handmade gifts. I can say I'm making a doll and a shirt for two little girls in my life. I had hoped to have time to be able to make a Norberta (although I think he would be renamed Norbert) for Ethan but I don't think I'll have the time. His first birthday is a month after Christmas though so I can do it then. I really need to get the last few presents we're buying and start putting these gifts all together. What else...if we have the time, I really want to take Ethan here, which has a village and barns all decorated up for the holidays along with a petting zoo and pretty lights. Other than that, I just need to settle on what desserts I'm making for Christmas dinner. Pumpkin pie is a must with my family so that's a given and I love my apple pie but I want to do something different. I just need to figure out what sounds good and fun to me but will actually get eaten. My mom has the Fat Witch Brownies cookbook, which really inspired me. I would like to do something out of that like the peppermint brownies but I've already been told by Mr. C that he won't eat them. My (new) family likes very simple, traditional (if sometimes borderline boring) desserts. We also have the issue that one of our good friends with whom we eat Christmas dinner was born on Dec. 25th so his parents like to bring birthday cake so he's not forgotten. So there is the issue that we end up with too much dessert. Oh darn, right?
Wow, you would think I'd be burnt out on planning and making things and overly stressed, wouldn't you? So why am I trying to squeeze in making ornaments too?
If I don't post again before January, happy holidays everyone, whatever you celebrate, and a happy new year!!
I also tried my hand at stencil pumpkin carving for the first time and was really happy with those results as well.
I just downloaded and printed a free template from Spirit of the Zombie Pumpkins, followed their directions using a pumpkin carving kit I bought from Walmart and voila! awesomely carved pumpkin!
Oh yeah, and October was my birthday, my brother-in-law's girlfriend's birthday and Charlie and my wedding anniversary. So not only was I busy making Halloween costumes, but I agreed to knit a Slitherin scarf for lil' bro's girlfriend and I knitted Ethan his first scarf (as part of his costume but also for this winter). The Slitherin scarf wasn't finished until November but everything else was done in time. We also had the first snow the weekend before Halloween so it worked out well that I made Mr. E a scarf!
November was all about pre-planning for Christmas as much as possible without buying into the over-commercialization of the holiday with the super early merchandising of Christmas related things. It's a couple weeks before Christmas and because everything's been out for so long already, holiday themed things are already on clearance again! Really people, really. Of course I enjoy buying them on clearance but I have no problem buying them after the holiday to enjoy next year. It's like a present for myself to enjoy next year. Oh well. Go with the flow right? Anyway, I tried planning/getting/making presents all of November while planning for a yummy dinner. I made the standard pumpkin and apple pies and tried my hand at homemade whipped cream as well this year. Everyone seemed to enjoy them so I was a happy homemaker. I decorated the tops of the pies with turkey prints (simple peace sign slits) though the effort was more for my benefit since no one else even seemed to notice. Note to self: be more over the top next year!
At the end of November, we found out that Charlie had some vacation time he had to use up. His supervisor gave him a Thursday and Friday paired up with his Saturday off for the month and had the following Monday be his day off for the next week so he had 5 days off in a row thus making us able to go visit my Mom in Missouri afterall. It's a 16 hour drive each way for only 2 1/2 days but I thought it was worth it. I got to see 2 of my best friends, one of whom hadn't met Ethan yhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifet, as well as my parents (of course) and my aunt (who had also not met him yet). It was busy and lots of driving but a vhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifery nice visit nonetheless.
We've been back for a couple days now and I had to jump into final Christmas prep right away. All my planning time post-Thanksgiving was taken up by travel prep and Bunco this month was tonight with a cookie exchange. My mother-in-law is also a member and doesn't bake so I ended up making cookies for her too. I choose to make the Pecan Butter Balls I've made before and tried my hand at shortbread for the first time. I wanted to spice it up a bit so I added vanilla chai tea to the blend and they came out really well: nice and crisp with a very subtle hint of something extra. I'm having them with a cup of the tea right now and they go really well together. For those interested, I followed this recipe. I had some difficulty since I don't have a food processor and my blender was just not cuttinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif it. I started with the blender until I had to add the butter, when I finally gave up and tried the old hand mixer. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifFor the last few crumbles I ended up hand kneading. It wasn't perfect but the cookies turned out well enough to be edible and I think they taste pretty good so it's still a win.
So now that the cookie exchange is out of the way, it's crank time. This weekend I need to force the husband to sit down with me and do our cards. I also need to crank out the handmade gifts. I can say I'm making a doll and a shirt for two little girls in my life. I had hoped to have time to be able to make a Norberta (although I think he would be renamed Norbert) for Ethan but I don't think I'll have the time. His first birthday is a month after Christmas though so I can do it then. I really need to get the last few presents we're buying and start putting these gifts all together. What else...if we have the time, I really want to take Ethan here, which has a village and barns all decorated up for the holidays along with a petting zoo and pretty lights. Other than that, I just need to settle on what desserts I'm making for Christmas dinner. Pumpkin pie is a must with my family so that's a given and I love my apple pie but I want to do something different. I just need to figure out what sounds good and fun to me but will actually get eaten. My mom has the Fat Witch Brownies cookbook, which really inspired me. I would like to do something out of that like the peppermint brownies but I've already been told by Mr. C that he won't eat them. My (new) family likes very simple, traditional (if sometimes borderline boring) desserts. We also have the issue that one of our good friends with whom we eat Christmas dinner was born on Dec. 25th so his parents like to bring birthday cake so he's not forgotten. So there is the issue that we end up with too much dessert. Oh darn, right?
Wow, you would think I'd be burnt out on planning and making things and overly stressed, wouldn't you? So why am I trying to squeeze in making ornaments too?
If I don't post again before January, happy holidays everyone, whatever you celebrate, and a happy new year!!
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Such a busy summer
Life has been crazy since my last post. June hit and I had to finish making three garter belts for a pirate wedding. I was hoping to also have a pirate or monkey costume made in time for the wedding for Ethan to wear but I ran out of time. It turns out that 5 months is right about when you stop having time to do much ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif anything unless it's nap time. He was so frustrated because he wanted to move and do this and that but he couldn't sit up very well on his own and couldn't crawl so when he wanted to be moved or just wanted attention he would cry. July he could sit up more and towards the end of the month, he started scooting around pretty effectively. And then I had to learn how to sew using my machine and make some period clothes that I could actually wear to Pennsic. Thank goodness I had people who love me enough to help watch Ethan because I tried doing it on my own for a week and I got about one seam sewed the whole week. The next week I was able to crank out 3 Roman-style dresses and one t-tunic dress for me to wear. Charlie had enough thankfully and unfortunately my attempts at baby garb failed. I will try again later though. :)
So August started with our trip to Pennsic where I took a 5 day scribal class, which covered the basics in calligraphy and painting the borders on scrolls. We used the Luttrell Psalter as an example and covered all the basics including painting, white work, diapering, and gold work. I got a pretty good start on my first scroll but am having trouble making the time to finish it since coming home. I can see this will be a hobby I take up perhaps a little later in my life when Ethan has a more predictable schedule and I am at a place in my life to be able to devote a bit more time to it all. I did enjoy it though so I hope I can pick up soon.
Ethan has become an effective crawler though he's still figuring out how to crawl on his knees. He's discovering new octaves and loves "talking". My mom is visiting this week and hasn't seen him since he was just 3 months old so she's loving see all his developments. I'm loving having her around. Oh how I wish she lived closer and I know she feels the same way. But until things stop being so up in the air, we can't make a plan to try moving closer to each other.
Not a whole lot of crafting being done this summer and the little I did do was time consuming and on such a time crunch that it wasn't terribly stress-relieving (actually quite the opposite actually) but still satisfying. I hope everyone elses summers have been what they hoped to be crafting- and stress-wise.
So August started with our trip to Pennsic where I took a 5 day scribal class, which covered the basics in calligraphy and painting the borders on scrolls. We used the Luttrell Psalter as an example and covered all the basics including painting, white work, diapering, and gold work. I got a pretty good start on my first scroll but am having trouble making the time to finish it since coming home. I can see this will be a hobby I take up perhaps a little later in my life when Ethan has a more predictable schedule and I am at a place in my life to be able to devote a bit more time to it all. I did enjoy it though so I hope I can pick up soon.
Ethan has become an effective crawler though he's still figuring out how to crawl on his knees. He's discovering new octaves and loves "talking". My mom is visiting this week and hasn't seen him since he was just 3 months old so she's loving see all his developments. I'm loving having her around. Oh how I wish she lived closer and I know she feels the same way. But until things stop being so up in the air, we can't make a plan to try moving closer to each other.
Not a whole lot of crafting being done this summer and the little I did do was time consuming and on such a time crunch that it wasn't terribly stress-relieving (actually quite the opposite actually) but still satisfying. I hope everyone elses summers have been what they hoped to be crafting- and stress-wise.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Surprise baby shower
One of our SCA/archery friends is about to pop out a baby (due early June) and, with her family in Texas and friends all over the place due to her husband being in the military, she was totally convinced she would not be having a baby shower. Of course Heather and I just couldn't let that happen--or not happen rather. So we started working on the theme a couple months ago then started working on getting her husband's help then had to wait to for Heather to figure out a good time since her 5 year old is probably the most popular person in Southern Maryland and has parties and other events schedule damn near every weekend and we finally were able to settle on a date about 2 weeks before said date. Of course then came Heather leaving town for 4 or 5 days, which then overlapped with my last minute decision to go see my mom. Heather had asked me to make up and send out the invites while she was gone and I just didn't have time to do so before leaving for Missouri. So the night of my mom's surgery I went home and started making the e-vites and sent them out the next day while waiting for my mom and stepdad to come home from the hospital. Heather worked on getting decorations together while I was still out of town and I started looking for Hawaiian themed recipes for the party. That last week of co-planning all the final bits was done completely through email and phone calls. Yay us! :) I got asked to go to lunch with the guest of honor the day before the shower, which was then canceled due to the weather (severe thunder storms, tornado warnings, the works) so we ended up pushing it to the next day and I had to cram it into all the last minute things I had to do before the party without letting on that we were, in fact, throwing her a party. A couple of the dishes we had planned on were not made but there was plenty of food nonetheless. The guests of honor arrived and, as expected based on her comment that she was "not going to have a baby shower", the soon-to-be mommy was thoroughly surprised and even cried a bit. Again, yay us! :)
Heather had found a bag of 50 pink mini-pacifiers (they're having a girl) and hid them around the kitchen and living room (You can see 2 "hidden" in the cake. I promise not all were that easy to spot.). Everyone walked around looking for as many as they could find. There was a 3-way tie for 47 found. I'm still bitter I didn't see those last 3. I would have too if I hadn't needed to feed my son. Damn Charlie for not looking more thoroughly for me!! :) My mother-in-law put together an advice book with cards for everyone to write bits of parenting advice on for the future parents. The book works as a photo album too so I need to get the shower pics off to them so they can fill in the blank spaces with pictures and have it be a memory book of their shower. The baby's name will be Leilani, and being the book lovers we are, we did a Hawaiian/baby book theme. Heather borrowed books from her 5 year old to supply some of the decor and we did pink, purple and orange streamers and balloons. The cake was make up to look like a leather-bound book entitled "Leilani's Story Begins" with tropical flowers around the base. Everyone seemed to have fun so all in all, I think it was a fairly successful baby shower!
Heather had found a bag of 50 pink mini-pacifiers (they're having a girl) and hid them around the kitchen and living room (You can see 2 "hidden" in the cake. I promise not all were that easy to spot.). Everyone walked around looking for as many as they could find. There was a 3-way tie for 47 found. I'm still bitter I didn't see those last 3. I would have too if I hadn't needed to feed my son. Damn Charlie for not looking more thoroughly for me!! :) My mother-in-law put together an advice book with cards for everyone to write bits of parenting advice on for the future parents. The book works as a photo album too so I need to get the shower pics off to them so they can fill in the blank spaces with pictures and have it be a memory book of their shower. The baby's name will be Leilani, and being the book lovers we are, we did a Hawaiian/baby book theme. Heather borrowed books from her 5 year old to supply some of the decor and we did pink, purple and orange streamers and balloons. The cake was make up to look like a leather-bound book entitled "Leilani's Story Begins" with tropical flowers around the base. Everyone seemed to have fun so all in all, I think it was a fairly successful baby shower!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
You might think I'm crazy
Sunday before last (the 17th), my dad offered to fly my brother and I out to see our mom while she had a big surgery. After much debate since I would have to take Ethan with me, I decided it was more important to me to be with her during that time and have her see Ethan again than it was for me to stay where he could be super fussy if he was going to and where I would have more people available to help me as needed. So I sucked up it and fly out there. At first, it all seemed like it was going to be a huge mess. I couldn't print my boarding pass then was told to check in at the gate when I got through security and I got to the gate just as they started boarding and was told the flight was overbooked and I would have to wait for the next flight, which left at 3:20. Keep in mind it was around 9am at this time and I had 2 bottles to hold me over. I was also supposed to meet my brother in Kansas City at 1:30 and the rental car was in my name. Oh yeah, and my mom's surgery was the next day so I was kind of hoping I would have time to spend with her not to mention, who wants to sit in an airport 6 hours? Luckily, a lady voluntarily gave up her seat so I could get on at the last minute. I'm fairly certain I was the last person on the plane.
I ended up sitting next to 2 really nice ladies, one of whom is a grandmother. She very sweetly took him from me as I was getting settled and helped out when I had to change his diaper mid-flight. He was awake most of the flight and just wanted to stand in my lap and look around. His eyes got huge when we took off and landed but he didn't fuss then. The only time he fussed was when he needed his diaper changed and immediately after when he was hungry. He fell asleep towards the end of the flight and stayed that way 'til we landed in Kansas City (including the entire second leg of the trip). I now know sit next to grandmothers and other mothers because both legs of the trip were next to grandmothers who were more than happy to hold him and help as needed and the mother in the row to my right offered to watch him if I had to use the bathroom. Sweet. :)
About 20 minutes before landing, a lady in the row in front of us had a medical emergency. Luckily there were 2 RNs in the row behind us who jumped up and helped out. The flight attendants had to call down to make sure an ambulance was waiting at the gate and she was to be let off the plane early. Her daughter was flying with her and she looked so scared during all this. Kansas City was their layover too so I can imagine just how awful it must have been. It sounded like she was going to be alright and I really do hope she is.
The trip went fine. Ethan did have his fussy moments and of course they were usually between 11:30pm and 2:30am, which has me believe even more that he has colic. Mom came down to help calm him down a couple times after her surgery against all my protestations, though I really appreciated it. One night it was so bad I just started crying as soon as she was there to help. You just don't know how helpless you feel until you've been there with your own kids. But, like I said, luckily it was just a little and Mom said she was surprised he wasn't even fussier. I guess I had talked it up more than necessary. Actually, I think he was behaving for her. :)
The flight back was more of an ordeal, or rather the part at the airport. I arrived a bit later than planned, which meant paying extra for turning in the rental late (not a big deal). But then the skycap guy told me my flight was delayed 5 hours due to the weather and wouldn't be departing until 10:20pm. I was horrified. I had exactly 1 bottle and was suddenly faced with the situation I was desperately trying to avoid on the way out: being stuck in the airport with a 3 month old for hours on end. I had turned in the rental car already, which had the baby seat, so I couldn't go back to my Mom's house. I asked a man at the Southwest desk if there was somewhere private in the airport where I could pump that didn't involve sitting on a toilet. He replied, "I don't pump so I really don't know." I swear to God, that's what he said. I wanted to say back, "Really? You're a man and you don't pump milk out of your breasts? What's wrong with you..." but I didn't. I just asked again and he said there was a family restroom, which I had already been in and knew only had a toilet, sink and changing table. I told him that it only had a toilet and he had to ask someone else if there was anywhere private. I was told I needed to go down the hall a bit to the closed gates where there was less foot traffic. Livid, I did. I was so angry by this point that I really did just want to cry but I held it in. I walked down a ways, sat down and went to get the stuff to pump. That's when I realized half of the things were in my checked bag. At this point, I almost did cry. The tears came but I just couldn't let myself break down. I called Charlie (a lot actually but again in this case) and complained because my two options were either buy formula from the baby supply vending machine (awesome concept by the way) or nurse, and you all know how that's been going. I did end up getting a couple tubes of formula and some water and settled down by the gate. Ethan was content for a couple more hours then got hungry. I decided to see if he would nurse alright, and thankfully he did and it put him to sleep. He proceeded to sleep for the remainder of the wait and the flight. I tried turning on the light on the plane to read and he started stirring so it was back off with the light and I ended up staring into space for over 2 hours til we landed. It was not the best night. We landed around 1:30am and that first sight of Charlie almost had me in tears. Again, I just wouldn't let myself. He looked equally happy to see us and had brought me flowers. The fact that he still came to pick us up when we live about an hour and a half away from the airport and he had to work at 8:30 in the morning was one of the sweetest things he's done for me. He said he wanted to pick us up because he knew he had class the next 2 nights and wouldn't be able to spend quality time with us until Thursday (this was Monday night). His boss ended up letting him go into work an hour late the next morning and he skipped class that night so he could get more sleep but it was so sweet of him to show up.
All in all, the trip went well, my mom is doing great, my husband loves me :), and it's nice to know Ethan flies well, especially since I have to do it all over again - on my own again - in June out to San Diego for a wedding. If this doesn't make you think I'm crazy, I was planning a surprise baby shower for the Friday after I got back at the same time. More on that next time!
I ended up sitting next to 2 really nice ladies, one of whom is a grandmother. She very sweetly took him from me as I was getting settled and helped out when I had to change his diaper mid-flight. He was awake most of the flight and just wanted to stand in my lap and look around. His eyes got huge when we took off and landed but he didn't fuss then. The only time he fussed was when he needed his diaper changed and immediately after when he was hungry. He fell asleep towards the end of the flight and stayed that way 'til we landed in Kansas City (including the entire second leg of the trip). I now know sit next to grandmothers and other mothers because both legs of the trip were next to grandmothers who were more than happy to hold him and help as needed and the mother in the row to my right offered to watch him if I had to use the bathroom. Sweet. :)
About 20 minutes before landing, a lady in the row in front of us had a medical emergency. Luckily there were 2 RNs in the row behind us who jumped up and helped out. The flight attendants had to call down to make sure an ambulance was waiting at the gate and she was to be let off the plane early. Her daughter was flying with her and she looked so scared during all this. Kansas City was their layover too so I can imagine just how awful it must have been. It sounded like she was going to be alright and I really do hope she is.
The trip went fine. Ethan did have his fussy moments and of course they were usually between 11:30pm and 2:30am, which has me believe even more that he has colic. Mom came down to help calm him down a couple times after her surgery against all my protestations, though I really appreciated it. One night it was so bad I just started crying as soon as she was there to help. You just don't know how helpless you feel until you've been there with your own kids. But, like I said, luckily it was just a little and Mom said she was surprised he wasn't even fussier. I guess I had talked it up more than necessary. Actually, I think he was behaving for her. :)
The flight back was more of an ordeal, or rather the part at the airport. I arrived a bit later than planned, which meant paying extra for turning in the rental late (not a big deal). But then the skycap guy told me my flight was delayed 5 hours due to the weather and wouldn't be departing until 10:20pm. I was horrified. I had exactly 1 bottle and was suddenly faced with the situation I was desperately trying to avoid on the way out: being stuck in the airport with a 3 month old for hours on end. I had turned in the rental car already, which had the baby seat, so I couldn't go back to my Mom's house. I asked a man at the Southwest desk if there was somewhere private in the airport where I could pump that didn't involve sitting on a toilet. He replied, "I don't pump so I really don't know." I swear to God, that's what he said. I wanted to say back, "Really? You're a man and you don't pump milk out of your breasts? What's wrong with you..." but I didn't. I just asked again and he said there was a family restroom, which I had already been in and knew only had a toilet, sink and changing table. I told him that it only had a toilet and he had to ask someone else if there was anywhere private. I was told I needed to go down the hall a bit to the closed gates where there was less foot traffic. Livid, I did. I was so angry by this point that I really did just want to cry but I held it in. I walked down a ways, sat down and went to get the stuff to pump. That's when I realized half of the things were in my checked bag. At this point, I almost did cry. The tears came but I just couldn't let myself break down. I called Charlie (a lot actually but again in this case) and complained because my two options were either buy formula from the baby supply vending machine (awesome concept by the way) or nurse, and you all know how that's been going. I did end up getting a couple tubes of formula and some water and settled down by the gate. Ethan was content for a couple more hours then got hungry. I decided to see if he would nurse alright, and thankfully he did and it put him to sleep. He proceeded to sleep for the remainder of the wait and the flight. I tried turning on the light on the plane to read and he started stirring so it was back off with the light and I ended up staring into space for over 2 hours til we landed. It was not the best night. We landed around 1:30am and that first sight of Charlie almost had me in tears. Again, I just wouldn't let myself. He looked equally happy to see us and had brought me flowers. The fact that he still came to pick us up when we live about an hour and a half away from the airport and he had to work at 8:30 in the morning was one of the sweetest things he's done for me. He said he wanted to pick us up because he knew he had class the next 2 nights and wouldn't be able to spend quality time with us until Thursday (this was Monday night). His boss ended up letting him go into work an hour late the next morning and he skipped class that night so he could get more sleep but it was so sweet of him to show up.
All in all, the trip went well, my mom is doing great, my husband loves me :), and it's nice to know Ethan flies well, especially since I have to do it all over again - on my own again - in June out to San Diego for a wedding. If this doesn't make you think I'm crazy, I was planning a surprise baby shower for the Friday after I got back at the same time. More on that next time!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Anyone else think my cat might be a bit jealous?
Yesterday night I left Ethan sleeping in the swing downstairs while I went up for something. As I turned on the light, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I look over at the crib, startled, thinking to myself what the hell? I thought Ethan was downstairs? And then I noticed the movement was at the foot of the crib, not where Ethan sleeps. And I noticed something brown, something furry. Caramel was sleeping on the blankets in Ethan's crib.
I called Charlie up and asked him to bring a camera. He did and I took the above pictures. He was also completely unimpressed because, unbeknownst to me, she had been doing this the whole time Ethan and I were in Missouri with my mom and stepfather. I asked him why he let her and he basically said it was no big deal and asked why I cared. "Because that's Ethan's bed and I don't want her jumping on him and scratching him or worse, smothering him." He left, of course leaving the cat in there, and leaving me to be the bad guy by taking her out and not letting her get back in the crib. And of course this morning I found her back in the crib again. Luckily, Ethan was not in there with her. When I changed his diaper, she woke up and wanted to jump out using the changing table as a step (the same way she jumps in), and I kept telling her no, certain she would land on his head. When I had to put him in there afterward, she looked less than happy about it. She came up by his head wanting attention and I started freaking out about her scratching his head and face (he's doing that to himself enough as it is) and plucked her out of the crib. She hasn't been back in there since.
I called Charlie up and asked him to bring a camera. He did and I took the above pictures. He was also completely unimpressed because, unbeknownst to me, she had been doing this the whole time Ethan and I were in Missouri with my mom and stepfather. I asked him why he let her and he basically said it was no big deal and asked why I cared. "Because that's Ethan's bed and I don't want her jumping on him and scratching him or worse, smothering him." He left, of course leaving the cat in there, and leaving me to be the bad guy by taking her out and not letting her get back in the crib. And of course this morning I found her back in the crib again. Luckily, Ethan was not in there with her. When I changed his diaper, she woke up and wanted to jump out using the changing table as a step (the same way she jumps in), and I kept telling her no, certain she would land on his head. When I had to put him in there afterward, she looked less than happy about it. She came up by his head wanting attention and I started freaking out about her scratching his head and face (he's doing that to himself enough as it is) and plucked her out of the crib. She hasn't been back in there since.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Having fellow crafters for friends is fun!
I've been wanting to be part of a Stitch and Bitch group basically since I started knitting. We had a small group in grad school but the meetings rarely were able to fit into my schedule, even though I really did enjoy going when I could. Since moving to Maryland, I've found that several of my new friends are also crafty. A couple of them learned how to knit shortly before I moved out here and I ended up teaching another one of my friends shortly after moving here. Most of them also sew (oh how I envy their skills!) as well as several other crafts, most of which are SCA geared. About a week or so ago, some friends were over and we discussed starting our on Stitch and Bitch group where we could get together and work on our needle and thread crafts. Last night we met at our house and have plans to make this a twice a month thing. Color me excited!! One friend is rediscovering knitting so we helped her work on her yarn tension and the other started working on making some SCA garb. I continued working on the celestial baby blanket. I'm about 36 rows into this blanket and I can't tell you how frustrating it can be at times. I seem to have the intarsia technique down for the most part but working on the wrong side, I tend to get the pattern backward in my head and end up not twisting where I need to twist. The rows are long enough and yarn/needles small enough that it can take me about 10 minutes to knit/purl a row. So you can imagine how frustrating it is to work 2 rows then notice the mistake, undo the rows and have to work them again. And since I hate frogging rows (just pulling them out), I basically un-knit/purl where I go back stitch by stitch which means it can take me 40 minutes to work then un-work 2 rows and be back to where I started, just in time for Ethan to wake up and start fussing. You can see why this blanket might be finished for his 5th birthday. If that's the case I think I might just save it for our potential second baby or, if that's not going to happen, a baby of a very good friend. Only someone I love a lot will get this blanket. Maybe our first grandchild? :) One thing I'm so excited about having a Stitch and Bitch group for is designating several hours a month to knitting, which means I might actually get to it more than I have been on my own accord. This means I might actually have some decent pictures for you all relatively soon. Also, having another night or 2 a month where I can get together with grown ups is always a plus.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
You know you love your kid when...
When you agree to put yourself on the most insane diet ever to see if he has food allergies. We went in for his 2 month appointment on March 25th and I mentioned that he is quite a fussy baby. He cries over dirty diapers, burps, being hungry, and even the need to use his diaper. The worst is that he cries while eating. He will pull away and just cry. Sometimes it's because he has a dirty diaper and sometimes because he has to burp but quite frequently it's for no apparent reason at all. He will just pull away, cry, refuse to be soothed, then go right back to eating for a whole minute and do it all over again. More often than not it takes me an hour to get him to eat for 10 minutes. It's annoying and frustrating beyond belief. And he only does it when I nurse him. He takes the bottle just fine. But just pumping lowers your milk supply and I really don't want to switch to formula unless we have to (though some of the perks, like Charlie being able to watch him more than 3 hours are awfully tempting). My mom is convinced it's colic, since I had it and Ethan's behavior is exactly like mine was minus the projectile vomiting. I told the doctor this but she said it sounds more like a food allergy than colic and put me on an elimination diet. I had to eliminate wheat, soy, eggs and milk products from my diet for a week, bring back wheat and soy then next week, followed by eggs the following week and milk the week after that. Do you guys have any idea just how much food contains wheat and soy?! If he does have an allergy, I'm praying it's either an egg or milk allergy since you can at least go out to restaurants with those. Even marinara sauce contains soy. (My sympathies to those who have to live with or live with someone who has a wheat and/or soy allergy.)
So I called her last Friday to let her know that I was on my 6th day and there was no change in his behavior and I wanted to know if I should stick to the plan or could I just assume he did not have an allergy. The plan backfired. She said to try it for another week. So here I am on the 10th day of the freakishly awful diet and the only change to Ethan is he now has more gas than ever and he is just as fussy as always. I committed to doing this for Ethan and we bought the wheat/gluten-, soy-, egg-, and dairy-free food so I'm sticking with it til Saturday but I'm starting to agree with my mom; I think it's colic.
Part of me thinks I should just stick to it and gradually bring back those foods as planned but another part wants to call her on Friday again and discuss all this or make an appointment to do so in person. Thoughts? Suggestions? And just in case you were wondering, yes we are trying a tummy soothing medicine to help with the gas. If it's helping at all, it's very little. But just in case it is actually helping, we are continuing to give it to him, especially since he has more gas than ever right now.
So I called her last Friday to let her know that I was on my 6th day and there was no change in his behavior and I wanted to know if I should stick to the plan or could I just assume he did not have an allergy. The plan backfired. She said to try it for another week. So here I am on the 10th day of the freakishly awful diet and the only change to Ethan is he now has more gas than ever and he is just as fussy as always. I committed to doing this for Ethan and we bought the wheat/gluten-, soy-, egg-, and dairy-free food so I'm sticking with it til Saturday but I'm starting to agree with my mom; I think it's colic.
Part of me thinks I should just stick to it and gradually bring back those foods as planned but another part wants to call her on Friday again and discuss all this or make an appointment to do so in person. Thoughts? Suggestions? And just in case you were wondering, yes we are trying a tummy soothing medicine to help with the gas. If it's helping at all, it's very little. But just in case it is actually helping, we are continuing to give it to him, especially since he has more gas than ever right now.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Something crafty finally--though not mine :)
Our good friend, Kelly, recently learned how to knit and has quickly become very skilled at various stitches and colorwork. She made gorgeous blanket for another dear friend when her little bundle of joy was born (the same little bundle that I made Norberta for) and I am so so excited that she was thoughtful and sweet enough to make this adorable little hat for Ethan. Since I am lacking on time for my own crafty projects, I decided to share this with you all.
Here's a close-up of the stitch. Thank you so much Miss Kelly! We all love it and so appreciate your thoughtfulness!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Have your cake and eat it too
I'm so in love with this image by Bent Objects.
And more in the tone of yesterday's post, here's a story about a woman who lives life like I, apparently, am afraid to. If only I had the freedom to be like her where as soon as something feels routine, she moves on. I've always wished for that kind of life but it seems like if you want to spend your life with someone, they have to agree completely or this just doesn't work. And what about having kids? I would love to raise my son with such whim, such unpredictability, such adventure, but what about family? What about a sense of stability? And I just don't think he could receive the kind of education I want for him from me. These are the choices you have to make, the compromises you have to live with.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Oh, to be young again!
Recently I've been missing the freedom of being a teenager. I miss those days of youthful dreaming, the creativity that came with being a teenager, feeling like I had the whole world in front of me and limitless options. Back then I wanted so many things and knew that I had my whole life to obtain these things and fulfill my dreams. I was absolutely convinced that I would be able to have it all and wouldn't have to compromise to get it. I wanted to be a college graduate, own my own store, create jewelry and various other accessories and clothes, backpack all over the world, find true love, have a family and a career, and always--always--be a writer.
All through high school I wanted to take creative writing but never was able to until I moved to Missouri as a senior. I loved that class so much but then I started working and had less time and became this weird kind of rebel. I had always fancied myself a bit of a rebel but never trendy. Senior year of high school I was so lonely and desperate for a close friend and I became trendy. And it was one of the worst periods in my life because I was not true to myself. Anyway, I no longer had the time, or even bothered to make to it, to write. I wrote for class but it became half-assed and forgettable. And so that was the end of my short story writing. I continued to write poetry until college when suddenly I decided that it was all the same, just worded slightly differently, and therefore stopped writing that. Every now and then something would strike me and I would jot down and new poem but for the most part, I just stopped writing creatively.
Recently my mother participated in a creativity retreat, part of which included creative writing. She has since been part of an online creative writing community that has a weekly inspiration such as writing a short story using a certain title, creating a story for an image, or writing a couple of paragraphs regarding a certain item. When she was out here visiting when my son was born, she kept writing and let me read some of her pieces. I became addicted, loving the stories her imagination came up with and asked her to keep sending them to me to read after she went home. Something about this triggered my thought-to-be-dead-but-was-really-only-dormant desire to write short stories again. I asked her to forward the topics to me so that I could use them as inspiration to get my creative juices flowing again and get me to start writing again. I told her I only wanted to do it for myself and hoped it wouldn't be an imposition on her and that she wouldn't think I was trying to take something she was doing for herself away from her but she, being the wonderful, thoughtful person she is, instantly said she thought I should join the group and not just keep it all to myself. It's only $10 a month so maybe I will but at the same time, I don't want to feel like I'm wasting anyone's time or my money if I just don't have the time to write because I have an infant in the house. We'll see how this plays out but in the mean time, I'm enjoying my rediscovered love for writing and only need to push myself to do it and not be afraid of failing in some way.
As for my crafts, I have always done something crafty. I think I took a year break away from crafting my first year of college but then I, of course, missed it and ended up finding a thing to do. I was an avid hemp jewelry maker in high school and sort of fell out of love with it because I just stopped wearing that kind of jewelry. I did several creative crafty things here and there, just because it's in my nature, but nothing continuous. The summer after my first year of college I decided that I finally wanted to learn how to knit, something I had wanted to do for years so I bought myself Stitch 'N Bitch and took on teaching myself. I have been knitting ever since and even took on teaching myself how to crochet. As I've gotten older and more comfortable in my nerdy, retro craftiness, I have embraced my desire to learn other seemingly outdated crafts such as sewing. I have wanted to learn how to sew since elementary school but for whatever reason I just never did. I have a sewing machine that my loving husband and mother-in-law bought me for my birthday one year but have used the excuse of not having room to use it to keep myself from learning how to use it. To be fair, I really haven't had anywhere to use it since I was given it but I haven't really tried making the room either. I want to learn so bad now though that I have plans to do it, I just need to have the money and be able to have someone watch my little man for me while I go out and take the class at Jo-Anns. It's a far enough drive away that a 2 hour class is pushing the bounds of how long I can be away from him.
And everything else...well, it turned out I couldn't have everything the way I planned and I did have to compromise. One of my biggest regrets in life is not backpacking around the world while I had the chance. I wanted college so much that I made that a priority in my early 20s and just never had the money to travel as much as I wanted to. My husband loves traveling as much as I do but it just doesn't seem to be as much as a priority to him as it is to me. I am willing to cut out certain daily luxuries to save the money to travel more frequently but he's not. He's also too responsible to see taking more than a week off work for traveling as worth it. He seems to think it looks bad by employers or that we just can't afford it. He also doesn't see alternative options like staying at hostels and doing it on the cheap. He wants to be able to stay at the nice, comfortable hotels, which I also love but don't need. I want to experience the culture and do as much as possible. He wants to do experience some but do less and be able to relax on the beach or by the pool or something along those lines. He's much more of a tropical beach traveler than I am. I love the beach too but I turn into a lobster so easily that I spend most of my time worrying about whether I have enough sunscreen on and whether I've been in the sun long enough. I really enjoy visiting cities and historical sites where I can do the museums and take informational tours. I also love just getting out and walking, seeing what daily life is like there and trying new things. I'm rambling and this post has gotten so long now. I vowed to live my life with no regrets and it seems like I've only half succeeded in this. Am I the only who feels this way? If anyone has gotten through this post, please comment and let me know if you feel the same way or if you don't, how you have managed to live the life you've dreamed of while still taking family and/or spouses into account.
All through high school I wanted to take creative writing but never was able to until I moved to Missouri as a senior. I loved that class so much but then I started working and had less time and became this weird kind of rebel. I had always fancied myself a bit of a rebel but never trendy. Senior year of high school I was so lonely and desperate for a close friend and I became trendy. And it was one of the worst periods in my life because I was not true to myself. Anyway, I no longer had the time, or even bothered to make to it, to write. I wrote for class but it became half-assed and forgettable. And so that was the end of my short story writing. I continued to write poetry until college when suddenly I decided that it was all the same, just worded slightly differently, and therefore stopped writing that. Every now and then something would strike me and I would jot down and new poem but for the most part, I just stopped writing creatively.
Recently my mother participated in a creativity retreat, part of which included creative writing. She has since been part of an online creative writing community that has a weekly inspiration such as writing a short story using a certain title, creating a story for an image, or writing a couple of paragraphs regarding a certain item. When she was out here visiting when my son was born, she kept writing and let me read some of her pieces. I became addicted, loving the stories her imagination came up with and asked her to keep sending them to me to read after she went home. Something about this triggered my thought-to-be-dead-but-was-really-only-dormant desire to write short stories again. I asked her to forward the topics to me so that I could use them as inspiration to get my creative juices flowing again and get me to start writing again. I told her I only wanted to do it for myself and hoped it wouldn't be an imposition on her and that she wouldn't think I was trying to take something she was doing for herself away from her but she, being the wonderful, thoughtful person she is, instantly said she thought I should join the group and not just keep it all to myself. It's only $10 a month so maybe I will but at the same time, I don't want to feel like I'm wasting anyone's time or my money if I just don't have the time to write because I have an infant in the house. We'll see how this plays out but in the mean time, I'm enjoying my rediscovered love for writing and only need to push myself to do it and not be afraid of failing in some way.
As for my crafts, I have always done something crafty. I think I took a year break away from crafting my first year of college but then I, of course, missed it and ended up finding a thing to do. I was an avid hemp jewelry maker in high school and sort of fell out of love with it because I just stopped wearing that kind of jewelry. I did several creative crafty things here and there, just because it's in my nature, but nothing continuous. The summer after my first year of college I decided that I finally wanted to learn how to knit, something I had wanted to do for years so I bought myself Stitch 'N Bitch and took on teaching myself. I have been knitting ever since and even took on teaching myself how to crochet. As I've gotten older and more comfortable in my nerdy, retro craftiness, I have embraced my desire to learn other seemingly outdated crafts such as sewing. I have wanted to learn how to sew since elementary school but for whatever reason I just never did. I have a sewing machine that my loving husband and mother-in-law bought me for my birthday one year but have used the excuse of not having room to use it to keep myself from learning how to use it. To be fair, I really haven't had anywhere to use it since I was given it but I haven't really tried making the room either. I want to learn so bad now though that I have plans to do it, I just need to have the money and be able to have someone watch my little man for me while I go out and take the class at Jo-Anns. It's a far enough drive away that a 2 hour class is pushing the bounds of how long I can be away from him.
And everything else...well, it turned out I couldn't have everything the way I planned and I did have to compromise. One of my biggest regrets in life is not backpacking around the world while I had the chance. I wanted college so much that I made that a priority in my early 20s and just never had the money to travel as much as I wanted to. My husband loves traveling as much as I do but it just doesn't seem to be as much as a priority to him as it is to me. I am willing to cut out certain daily luxuries to save the money to travel more frequently but he's not. He's also too responsible to see taking more than a week off work for traveling as worth it. He seems to think it looks bad by employers or that we just can't afford it. He also doesn't see alternative options like staying at hostels and doing it on the cheap. He wants to be able to stay at the nice, comfortable hotels, which I also love but don't need. I want to experience the culture and do as much as possible. He wants to do experience some but do less and be able to relax on the beach or by the pool or something along those lines. He's much more of a tropical beach traveler than I am. I love the beach too but I turn into a lobster so easily that I spend most of my time worrying about whether I have enough sunscreen on and whether I've been in the sun long enough. I really enjoy visiting cities and historical sites where I can do the museums and take informational tours. I also love just getting out and walking, seeing what daily life is like there and trying new things. I'm rambling and this post has gotten so long now. I vowed to live my life with no regrets and it seems like I've only half succeeded in this. Am I the only who feels this way? If anyone has gotten through this post, please comment and let me know if you feel the same way or if you don't, how you have managed to live the life you've dreamed of while still taking family and/or spouses into account.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The joys of reading
It's a sad day when a major bookseller in the country has to file bankruptcy. I know I'm a few days late but for those of you who don't know already, Borders Booksellers had to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy recently and as a result are closing 200 of their stores across the country. The up side is those stores are having liquidation sales starting today but overall it's a sad loss for the reading community. The article I linked here includes a link to see which stores are closing and I saw that the one a few blocks from my old apartment in Los Angeles is closing. I used to love walking home from class or work and stopping into that store to kill a hour or so. I feel very fortunate that the store out here is not closing. Thank zombies since it's literally the only major bookstore within a 15 to 20 mile radius. As far as I know, the next closest stores are in Alexandria and Washington D.C. and who wants to drive all the way there and deal with parking in the city, even for a bookstore? Not me, says the cat. Anyway, its sadly yet another step down the path leading to the death of booksellers. I love my online booksellers but there's nothing like an actual bookstore where you are surrounded by books and can get lost in the numerous possibilities. I really hope we as a society don't let physical bookstores die completely.
In happier reading news, I just learned about Matchbook Magazine. A bit ironic that I'm including it in this post since it's strictly an online magazine (I promise I still adore my paper magazines too!) but this is so well put together and such a neat idea, I couldn't help but fall in love and need to share this amazing discovery with everyone. But the inevitable downside is I can't take it with me anywhere! I am stubbornly resisting new technologies like the e-readers and more portable tablet computers. I can appreciate the e-readers' ability to contain several books in one device but I love physical books more than computer, e-books, and audio books combined. And I have my laptop that works perfectly fine and I don't need to have yet another electronic device laying around. I'd rather use the space for more books, magazines and crafty materials. :) But regardless, I'm totally infatuated with Matchbook Magazine and you should be too!
And just because I want to, here is a link to a description for book that my mom's recent visit reminded me I loved. My mom found Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos and loved it so much she sent it out my way. When I first started reading it, I thought it was good but couldn't see what was so special about it that my mom kept going on about. And then you get to the middle of the book and it hits you. If you're looking for a book that will totally suck you in, you should try this one. Just a thought. :)
Happy Saturday everyone!
In happier reading news, I just learned about Matchbook Magazine. A bit ironic that I'm including it in this post since it's strictly an online magazine (I promise I still adore my paper magazines too!) but this is so well put together and such a neat idea, I couldn't help but fall in love and need to share this amazing discovery with everyone. But the inevitable downside is I can't take it with me anywhere! I am stubbornly resisting new technologies like the e-readers and more portable tablet computers. I can appreciate the e-readers' ability to contain several books in one device but I love physical books more than computer, e-books, and audio books combined. And I have my laptop that works perfectly fine and I don't need to have yet another electronic device laying around. I'd rather use the space for more books, magazines and crafty materials. :) But regardless, I'm totally infatuated with Matchbook Magazine and you should be too!
And just because I want to, here is a link to a description for book that my mom's recent visit reminded me I loved. My mom found Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos and loved it so much she sent it out my way. When I first started reading it, I thought it was good but couldn't see what was so special about it that my mom kept going on about. And then you get to the middle of the book and it hits you. If you're looking for a book that will totally suck you in, you should try this one. Just a thought. :)
Happy Saturday everyone!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Roses and homemade valentines
Happy belated V-day everyone! I hope you all everyone enjoyed themselves no matter what they were celebrating. It was a normal day around here except Ethan was being particularly fussy that day and by 10:30 in the morning I was so stressed out I thought I wouldn't make it the rest of the day. It was then that I was able to go downstairs and found a bouquet of roses, teddy bear and box of chocolates that had been delivered to the house for me from my amazing husband. I had just texted him about how the morning was going then I found that and I just started crying. It was so thoughtful and completely unexpected and so made me feel better. Of course the rest of the day stayed busy so I wasn't able to make my men valentines to show my love until the next day (yesterday). I took the idea for their valentines from Miss Hillary at Wee Wonderfuls and I think they turned out pretty well.
I have no idea if Charlie will keep his but I like that this is more durable than paper valentines so Ethan can keep his as long as he wants (and it will last until he can make that decision).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
