Filed under: Everyday
I’m not sure who Ella loved more - Jay Jay the Llama, or this pokey green caterpillar who is living on the steps outside our house. He’s totally waving here, asking us to bring him “Two apples please!”
Filed under: Everyday
When I started this this morning, I thought it would be fun to see what we do all day. It turns out that we are boring.
2:45 am - Tom wakes up and takes a shower, I fall back asleep.
4ish - Alice wants to eat, so I fed her without ever opening my eyes
6ish - I roll over and realize Ella crawled into Tom’s spot on the bed at some point. Snuggle with her.
7:30 - Alice wants to get out of bed, but I keep sticking the boob in her mouth to keep her quiet so she doesn’t wake up her sister.
8:15 - The girls are both awake and playing on the bed. Eventually they convince me to play too, so we roll around on the bed for a while.
8:30 - Diapers, coffee, breakfast (yogurt and granola for Ella and I, boob for Alice).
9:00 - Mother in law calls and offers to take Ella for the day (she has another 7 year old cousin this week, and sometimes two little girls are easier than one). I agree, since the last time we were apart for any length of time was right after Alice was born.
9:30 - More coffee, diapers and clothes for all three of us.
(more thrills after the jump)
Filed under: Everyday
While washing the dishes yesterday, the phrase “mostly beautiful” jumped to the top of my consciousness like a fish, and now I can’t stop turning it over, trying to decide which side is the tail. I’m not sure where I picked it up though - I’ve been reading constantly lately, and finally got my iPod working again so I’m catching up on This American Life, so those are very good candidates, and we can’t forget the weather. But maybe, just maybe, I’m channeling David Hasselhoff.
On our taxes this year, my occupation was listed as “Housewife” which made Tom and I both laugh. Perhaps if you could see my house, you would laugh too. I… am not a housekeeper. I was upfront with Tom about this when we first met - I am clear in my priorities, and dusting is not anywhere near the top. Heck, laundry only creeps into the top 10 when I am out of undies. I like making messes - with food, with crafts, with blocks and crayons and books. I like cluttered bookshelves, and I can ignore oatmeal streaks on a window like you wouldn’t believe.
It’s a talent, really, living in muck with a smile. I am strict about things that smell or could make us sick - I am the sponge watchdog, and never let food sit on a plate on the counter overnight because, eww. But the sprayed off plate? It will sit there until I am either out of plates/lids/cutting boards to eat off, or Tom gets home and (shaking his head at the chaos) loads the dishwasher. In fact, Tom does a lot of the cleaning around here, and with him starting his new and improved job, I am determined to take that load off of him. When I was pregnant out-to-there, and then had a newborn & toddler, I think my excuses were pretty valid. Besides, Tom was only working part time the last few months, and if he is here to help make the messes, it’s fair that he helps clean them up. But for him to have to come home from1.5 jobs to clean up after me and the girls? Smacks a bit of princess, doesn’t it?
So, I made a schedule, and we are sticking to it. There are set times every day to wake up, start laundry, do dishes, have snacks, take naps. There are days for changing sheets, for cleaning bathrooms, and for (gasp) dusting (we live on a busy street, so it really does build up in the summer when we have the windows open). It’s been two weeks, and little by little it’s starting too feel more like “our day” and less like a job. There is a lot of room for wiggles and play, but it has also really helped the mood of the house to know what is coming next. Ella has started sleeping on a schedule (finally) and I’ve only had to run out of the shower naked, yelling “WHERE ARE ALL THE CLEAN TOWELS” once, and it was because they were in the dryer, not a wet mess in the closet. They say it takes 6 weeks for a routine to stick, so we’re a third of the way there.
All that said, my house is trashed right now. Ella has her ears turned off today, which makes keeping up with the messes hard. Right now she is sleeping, which would be an ideal time to catch up on dishes from yesterday and maybe fold a load of laundry without her godzillaing it, but instead I am drinking rewarmed coffee from this morning and googling “Meal Planning”.
Do any of you meal plan? I’m sure you do, because you are a smarter, more attractive, funnier person than I am. Of course you meal plan - you don’t run to the store 4 times a week for “just one thing” and come home with $60 worth of “groceries”. You don’t overbuy produce and then eat cheese sandwiches all week. You don’t even buy (more) crackers because the box is pretty, do you? I knew you didn’t.
The thing is, I don’t want to be that kind of consumer. I want to be a thoughtful consumer, a smart consumer. I want to know that what I am feeding my family is not only nutritious to them, but also not too costly to the earth. I believe in buying local, in knowing the grower, and in voting with my dollar. All of which are hard to do at Safeway. There is a local organic market that has a great grocery delivery service that I really want to support (not only for my own sanity, but also because I am so excited that Podunk City has this option and I want it to stick around) but to order groceries I really need to know what I am ordering and why. Thus, meal planning.
Advice? Links? If you have weekly menus you want to throw my way (especially ones that take leftovers into account) I would love to look at them. I know once I get my feet under me (and all the toys out from under my feet) it will be easy, but have you googled “meal planning” lately? There is a lot of information out there, and it’s a lot to sift through when you are 2 days behind on the diaper laundry. Any shove in the right direction would be great.
Filed under: As you simplify your life the laws of the universe will, Cricket, Ella, Everyday, Motherhood
It’s hard to think it was a coincidence, after writing this post earlier in the week, that I happened to be in the car late last night and this program come on my local NPR. I’m disappointed that I can’t link you to the actual audio ($7 for the mp3) but even the title of their book (Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting) seemed so in tune with what I had written about that it felt less like chance, and more like a steady hand reminding me that, yes, this is important, do not let it be a passing idea.
It’s so tempting, when faced with the responsibility of parenthood, to let ‘the experts’ make the decisions. To read books, follow the “Five Easy Steps to a Happy Toddler” and when they don’t work, find another expert. What is hard is just being here. To not let the annoyances define our day. To tune into my child and treat them the way I want to be treated (even when they are years and years away from returning the gesture). It’s easy to live in my head as a stay at home parent - to let the drone of “Mama look!” and “Whatzzat?” become background noise. I forget that the greatest gift I can give to my kids (and my husband, and friends) is my time, undivided and fully engaged.
So, that’s where I’ve been. We’re all battling a cold, ( & opted out of two birthday parties, a baby shower and knit club this weekend), so there hasn’t been much activity, just a lot of laying in bed together, reading and snoozing. I’m working on a new yoga bag, the wall hanging, some cloth diaper covers, and have 4 books half read on my bedside table. But mostly, I am just trying to listen, to smile, to be slow to anger and quick to laugh. It sounds so easy, doesn’t it?
(Picture has little-to-nothing to do with the subject, other than to remind myself that my kids crack me up. Also, the view from down here is a lot better than the view from above.)
Dear bloggyladies,
Cookie?
Oh, and if anyone wants to teach my mom CSS in a day, she could use the help, ye of beautiful code.
But not today. Sister is still sick, I am being a crab, and mom’s not feeling so hot herself. So we may not be around much for a few days. Have a nice weekend though, and when you get back, I will have a present for you. In my diaper. Hardeeharhar I have my dad’s sense of humor.
Love,
Alice.
So I just wrote a long post about how Ella is withholding poop lately and how insane it is making me, and realized as I was about to publish it that, really, you do not want to hear about that. Instead, how about we catch up on Project365 photos?
1/3/08
The first books I’ve checked out from the library in ages. I have been boycotting on principle (they charged me for a book I know I returned!) but after a while I had to admit that I had spent much much more on used books than I would have spent if I just paid the stupid fine, so I ate my ego and paid it. Ohh lordy I forgot what a beautiful thing the library is. We’ve been quite a few times for toddler story time, but to actually walk out with more books than I can comfortably carry? Bliss.
1/4/08
I did a Day In The Life in photos yesterday, but I have yet to edit them all, so this is a teaser. Alice thanks the boobies for a job well done, since she is now 9lbs 4oz, up almost 2 and a half pounds from birth. A pound of that is just in her cheeks.
1/5/08
Ella has been interested in puzzles lately, so there are always 2 or 3 dumped out on the floor, waiting to be stepped on. These are from a fairy tale series she got for Christmas, and she calls Snow White’s Dwarves “Baby Santas!”. Hmm.
Another long day, just the girls and I. Yesterday wwas pretty easy, but today we have had to rely on Kipper and Angelina Ballerina a bit more than I would like. I find myself humming the theme song from Kipper (”By the way, that’s a toad not a frog”) while I shower, fold laundry, try to convince Ella to turn off the tv… It’s burrowed deep into my subconscious, and what do you know, I really DO want a dog like Kipper, Kipper the dog!
I was brave today and took both girls to the library, even though I had just been a few days ago. Ella picked out a stack of books (she is all about this book, because the F is for the ‘Fffff’ of a fart, and the S is for the ’splat’ of bird poo) and also “Toy Story” on VHS, even though we do not own a VCR. I could tell it would be more trouble to try and convince her to leave it, than to just bring it home and let her carry it around, so she was a happy camper.
On the way home we hit a thrift store and I found a stack of size small, good looking cloth diapers, and a brand new pair of pink penguin Robeez in Alice’s size. All together? $10. Alice slept through the entire outing (other than a little sling boobie), and Ella did not throw herself on the ground screaming even once. It was AMAZING. Maybe I can do this ‘mother of two’ thing. Now if we could just convince Ella that pooping is not admitting defeat in the Parent-Toddler Wars….
Plan for the day: Sledding, coffee, crafts and snuggling the baby. Blessings abound.
Has anyone been keeping track? Is the the fifth or sixth Blue Sceen of Death I’ve had this year? I’ve gotten to the point where I do not even save anything on my hardrive, but it still makes smoke come out of my ears when, 10 seconds into reading my blogroll, everything goes dark. Luckly we are not one of those old-school one-computer households (*rolls eyes at self*), and I can use Tom’s while he is not on it, but where in the past I would have demanded he fix it as soon as he walks in the door, I’m not sure if I am even going to bother. Poop on that computer, and all the time I’ve wasted on it. I will still be here, and on the few boards I read daily, but as life moves closer to choas every day, maybe I will let the box sit there and gather dust.
*twiddles thumbs*
I wonder what is on TV…..
Filed under: Cricket, Ella, Everyday, List, Thigns i want to remember, crafty
I swear I have a couple substantial, topic driven posts in the works in my drafts folder, but they can wait until later in the week. Today you get another list.
- New table! Ya!
Our old table was okay (and a major improvement over the sad, sad paint-peeling, one wing broken off and jimmy-rigged up, table we used for years) but this table is one that I actually like, which is always a bonus. There are enough chairs to fit all of us at the table at one time, and it fits better in the space, so win. Also: it’s an ugly green antique color that I love, so shut up. Also free, because as we know, I am a cheapo.
- I made curtains for the ‘nursery’ today, so that I could take down the quilt that has been hanging in the window for weeks. The room is still a mishmosh of furniture and purposes, but it’s perfect for mid-day naps and the like.
We plan to have Cricket in our room for the forseeable future, so this room is more of a guest room/place to put all the baby stuff. I couldn’t help but start a small theme though, since I didn’t get to decorate a nursery with Ella. Birdies birdies everywhere.
- I also finished a little apron dress for Ella, though it really tested my patience with my machine.
The tension is so very off, and nothing I can do seems to help. There are two appliqués (since the dress is reversible) and you can really see the tension problems on them. If it were not such a cheap POS I would consider getting it fixed, but it’s really not worth it. Pam sells beautiful machines in her shop, but even with a family discount they are more than I have made in the last.. oh… year of full-time motherhood, and I just can’t justify spending so much money on a hobby. In the mean time, I will just sneak down and use the machines they keep in the classrooms.
- Baby update: Still hanging out. Random contractions throughout the day and night, but the GREAT news is that my midwife is back in the country, so if we were to go into labor tomorrow, (supposedly the start of of our 37th week, thus, the safe zone for homebirth) we would have our lovely, wonderful, calming midwife here to help us (rather than her backup, who I am sure is nice, but is not Cathy.) I have an appointment with her tomorrow, where we will walk through the house and talk about final preparations (EEEEEEEEEE!) but really I am just excited to see her and hear about Senegal.
Also, a little “I want to remember this” story - During Ella’s birth, one of the most comforting things for me was having water poured from a cup slowly over my belly during contractions (obviously, while I was in the tub). Ella and I take baths together almost every night, and completely unprompted, she has started pouring water over my belly, cup after cup, until I sit up and start playing something else with her. She is a natural little doula. I will write more about having her at the birth another day, but wanted to remember this little habit.
- Today was knit-club, which was spectacular, mainly because it was the first one (in over a year of going) that I didn’t bring Ella to. You would think I actually would have gotten some knitting done, but as it turns out, I like talking more than knitting and can not do both at once. I *heart* knit club, though I usually am worn out by the time I come home. Social interaction - who knew it was so tiring?
