chores vol. 2

Now, the best part of chores: The Chore Jar! 

One of my first Pinterest-inspired life changing projects. I wrote all of the cleaning jobs the kids can do downstairs on a popsicle stick and put it in a baby food jar. Depending on a lot of variables they choose anywhere between 2 and 5 sticks and then do the job. Also depending on a lot of variables they may or may not get a reward. Usually though I stipulate that if I have to remind them more than once to stay on task they lose their opportunity for a reward - 1 chocolate chip for each job. I know. I'm so generous! 

The tasks are also kind of seasonal. Right now there's a 'winter clothes' stick for making sure coats and hats and mittens are all where they belong. I sift through the jar to take out the chores that don't really need to be done - and then sometimes add in a "no chore" stick just for fun.

A few of our consistent chores are:

• tidying up the nature table
• dusting 
• putting away shoes
• stuffed animals
• cars
• Legos
• neatening the art table
• picking up dirty socks and napkins (they multiply)

It works really well for now for us. I tried a chore chart and that was a disaster. Turns out my kids don't give a damn if they get to put a star sticker on their chart for the day. Wonder where they got that from! It also alleviates our mutual frustration at my asking the kids to "pick up" and their just walking around the living room with no idea where to start or really what to do. They're just too young still for that kind of generalization and I'm to impatient to keep telling them what needs to be done. I also only pull out the jar a couple times a week- maybe once a week if things stay pretty tidy, so I think that keeps it fresh and still kind of new. 

Anyways, I'd totally recommend it - especially if the chart isn't working out for you! 

chore jar!

I've discovered since being home that it's more important than ever to me that the kids help with keeping house. Anyone that knows me, or knows our house well, knows that I'm not remotely crazy about housework. Even the neighbor kids have commented on occasion (or several occasions. Manners? Anyone?). I'd so much rather be doing something else than cleaning. And it's not like it used to be - pre kids - when I could just choose an afternoon and get it all done in one fell swoop. No, it's 10 minutes here, 5 minutes there unless I call a Family Clean. Which everybody loves.

During the week though the kids and I have gotten into an ok rhythm. Guthrie's an automatic in helping out. She's got no choice and generally she's fairly happy to help.  Now that Laithe is a little bit older he's starting to help out more - with varying degrees of success, but often I'll catch Guthrie doing his chores for him. I'm pretty sure that will end sooner rather than later. Cleaning is actually a built in part of our school time. It was at Guthrie's old school too. A large portion of Montessori curriculum is care of the environment and I strongly believe it sets kids up well for adulthood.

The regular chores they do almost daily, or sometimes multiple times daily are helping me unload the dishwasher and putting away their clean laundry. Their also responsible for cleaning up their room. That one doesn't usually go as well, although yesterday Guthrie put her headphones on and some music and did an awesome job. 

With the dishes, Guthrie puts away all the silverware that we keep in a basket. She's pretty fussy about it. The forks and spoons get lined up just so and she will not let anyone help her.   
Which, really I didn't want to help her anyways so . . .

Laithe is in charge of putting away the kids' dishes. This used to be Guthrie's job, but she got taller. And able to wield knives. Like I said above, varying degrees of success with Laithe. I have the drawer lined with shelf paper and had drawn shapes for cues as to where everything goes. Sometimes it's immaculate and sometimes:

As long as he can shut the door we're both happy.

As you saw above this is a multi-post subject - blogger is being a turkey. So, until next week when I reveal the best part of chore time according to the kids!

fly-by days

Oh these pre-holiday days. They just fly don't they? Last Friday I carved 6 hours of unscheduled time into our day and when it was done I feel like it may as well have been 6 minutes! No matter how much I try and keep our December weeks simple and somewhat free I get to this point in the month where I realize this is the season for busy and that our days are filled with fun and amazing things - time to embrace it.

Things on the blog reel have been sparse, but it's kind of that time of year when I can't tell you what I'm working on lest you get it in the mail in a couple weeks - or a couple months - we all know the issues I have with actually mailing things. Maybe I should put my husband in charge of that. Hmm.

We have been doing some super fun activities that I can tell you about though-

- a trip to Bishop Hill, IL - a small Swedish community for their St. Lucia festival with my mom
- bell -ringing for the Salvation Army with John's mom
- a few Christmas movie nights - with lots of popcorn
- a skype visit with Grandpa Dave and Grandma Vera and Great-Grandma Masil
- playing with friends - and more friends to come tomorrow!

We're also working our way through our advent calendars. Yes we have two, but we're doing things a little different this time. Instead of the usual small gifts and candy and activities we've done a book advent, using a mix of our own christmas/winter books and some library books and then a Lego advent. It's been fun and the kids seem no less excited - although I've had a few requests from Guthrie to purchase a couple of the library books. I'm thinking that would make a special 'under the tree skirt' present when we take down our decorations and tree after the holidays.

The rest of the week holds some more - a wedding, a birthday, the Hobbit, a trip to Geneva for some last minute shopping. Hopefully by the time we hit our Solstice celebration next week we'll be on the downslide and in for some relative relaxation. And I'm putting in my request for snow now. Please!

managing things

We had a really nice weekend. In fact, I told my mom that I even got a little bored on Saturday night. How rare is that? I really needed to recharge, I feel like it's been non-stop for weeks on end. Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market, staying inside to escape the 90 degree sun on my sunburned arms and face, a 2(!) hour nap with Laithe in the afternoon; we turned the air conditioning on.

Sunday I woke up feeling more rested than I have in a couple weeks at least and was pleased to find that when you get rest that turns into energy. Shocking! John had to work in the afternoon so Guthrie and I, and to a very small extent Laithe, turned our attention to the house and things are tidier. Actually, by bedtime it looked like a shithole, but it only took 5 minutes after everyone had gone upstairs to make it better. Whatever. I know in my heart that the floors were mopped. I read this post the other day and it was good. I forget to celebrate the tasks I do get done, remembering only the ones that I don't.  Think about the piles of laundry and forget that no one has gone to school in dirty underwear yet! So, I'm going to practice this week reminding myself that I am in fact doing this mothering, marriage, adulthood thing, and doing it just fine thank you. Just because no one else gives me credit for the hours of work I put in doesn't mean I shouldn't. You know? That came out kind of snarky, I didn't mean it to. It was more a comment on our society as a whole not valuing women's work.

This morning at breakfast I sat and made our meal plan for the week. I've been pretty steadily doing that for a few months now. The weeks that I don't do it I can tell a huge difference. I was pleased to discover that except for a few items it'll be a pantry/freezer week. I love that. We're trying to put a sizable amount of money into savings each month as we've got some plans in the works - more on that in a few weeks - and pantry/freezer weeks mean we can turn the $150 I'd have spent on groceries over to the savings account. Sweet. Actually probably a little less than that as we have neither toilet paper nor garbage bags in the pantry. And I need to find another ace bandage for John. Our Mother's Day was a little rough - while we were working in the back yard he fell down the cement steps and sprained his ankle. I'm pretty confident that the people at the ER underestimated the amount of damage he did - although his xray was fine - as they gave him 4 days of Ibuprofen and 4 days of pain pills. I'd post a picture of his bruising and swelling, but it's kind of gross. Yesterday, when things started looking up a little bit he came down with a cold. Fun times. Poor guy.

Also my garden is looking good. Not as tall as others', but remembering that I didn't even get anything in the ground before Memorial Day last year, I should feel good about it. The neighborhood kids are excited about it, every day checking to see the growth. The oldest girl on the street was helping plant some marigolds to keep the rabbits out and they were almost dead in their little pots. She was concerned and I told her that we'd water them and then wait and see but that marigolds are hearty. She asked me what hearty meant and I said resilient, which wasn't entirely helpful, but we talked about what that meant. She thought for a few minutes and then asked "is that why they're called Miracles?"

happy monday to you!

sickies

*it seems that cold and flu season is hitting our house for one last hurrah so I thought I'd share what we have found that works for us - maybe it'll work for you too!*

It used to be that I'd turn to Tylenol PM, Sudafed, and Dayquill to alleviate my symptoms of a cold and (i thought) help me heal faster. Last year I went to the pharmacy with what I now know was brochitis-almost-pneumonia and asked the pharmacist what I could take that would make work a feasible option, not to mention the rest of my life! I told him I was breastfeeding and had high blood pressure and he kind of chuckled and said- have you tried saline. Saline? Uh. Yeah. I was not born in a barn. Yesterday. Of course I'd tried saline.

This fall I decided we could arm ourselves a little better with mama-friendly symptom fighters and immunity boosters. And so I present my arsenal:
hot drink
- tea/herbal infusion
- hot water with lemon and honey
- all preferably in my favorite teapot that i bought when we lived in california with birthday money from my grandpa. i think of him whenever i use it! it came with sweet little teacups but i broke one (and cried) and now when I'm drinking anywhere other than the dining room table I use a sturdier fiesta ware one. and right now the color is just so springy i cannot resist!

garlic
- i do not, as of yet, go all hardcore with the garlic for colds, though i've heard wondeful things about it. i just do a couple heavy on the garlic and onion meals. guthrie really appreciates it. HA.

Double Immune tincture
- this was my big experiment this fall - making tinctures. it's super fun. we're on our second or third batch of this as i only make enough to store in this bottle. i got the herbs from the Bulk Herb Store and was very happy with their quality. i usually take it with some orange juice, both to improve the iron absorption and because the base i use is Everclear, so it has a bit of a burn to it. the adults get 20 drops 2-3 times a day and the kids get 5-10 drops 2x a day. i've also discovered that mixing it with a bit of honey and warm water in a shot glass makes it a little reminiscent of both my 20s and a hot toddy. best of both worlds.

not included in the picture are my saline and eucalyptus essential oil. i use a few drops in the morning on the floor of the shower to clear out the crap and then before bed in a sink filled with warm water and my head covered with a bath towel. i'm always surprised how uhh effective it is. also missing is the large bottle of advil - about the only over the counter medicine i take. also effective!

and none of this effects my blood pressure and all of it I can do whether pregnant or nursing. yay!

what are your secrets for alleviating symptoms and helping your body heal faster?

{{right now}}

• a new ceiling is going up in our kitchen


• there is not one shred of attached carpet on our first floor


• there is 400 square feet of rolled carpet and pad in the living room though – hours of endless fun


• grateful that this weekend was productive but not hectic


• I forgot it was Guthrie’s snack day at school


• this morning was 80 times more hectic than it could have been


• there was still time for a little girl to dance her heart out before breakfast, jazz hands and all


• happy the crock pot is bubbling away- in the living room – with tonight’s dinner, the first of a slew of frozen crock pot meals I made up last weekend


• feeling great that the bulk of the putting up is done for the season


• excited for a field trip this week – four kids in our car – I’m certain it’ll be a blast


• ready for fall, the light is changing in my kitchen, so it is on it’s way


• thrilled that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the house


• not as thrilled that it’s a pretty long tunnel – with several hundred linear feet of quarter round lining the way

input and output

no. this is not a post about poo.

i promise.

Summer is always an intense time when you have small kids. I have no idea who coined the phrase 'lazy days of summer', but they must have been referring to that point when you flop yourself on the back porch with a cold beverage out of sheer exhaustion. They must not have had young kids. Or a garden. Or much of anything going on.

This is the time of year, and the time of mothering - the age of one and a bit is proving to be just as taxing as I remember it! - that I depend more heavily on what I read, what I look at, who I talk to, to nourish me emotionally and spiritually. There is so much creative energy involved in parenting - especially in the summer - that I find if I don't keep my "input well" full enough, my output gets cranky, tired, and usually sick. And that's no fun in the summer!

Here's what I've been filling up my soul with recently:

- Mindfulness for Beginners. It's a cd series about mindfulness and helps with beginning the practice of meditation. It has been on my ipod for months and I just marvel at how the timing is always right with this sort of thing. I listened to the first half - a series of talks about mindfulness - over a few days and every dang time I turned it on I got weepy. Total perfect timing.

- an e-class called Calm, Productive, Upbeat Days for Busy Moms by Lisa Byrne. I wasn't going to do this because sometimes these things are kind of blah blah blah make your to-do list and get more sleep blah blah blah. But then I figured I could just turn it off if it sucked -- but it didn't suck. In fact it's really good and I have already implemented some of her suggestions. It's free and you can sign up too! I think they'll be online until early August. One thing though is that she has you write out all the responsibilities you have on a piece of paper. I had a friend once who, right before her divorce calculated up how many loads of laundry she had done over the years and while probably enlightening, was pretty destructive I think to her well being. I'm trying to remember that my page is really full right now because my life is really full - and that it won't always be so. She's got some great ways of thinking about the full time of our lives. Just sign up for it - I don't want to give away all the great advice!

- John brought home a new series to us - The Parasol Protectorate. I'm still on the first one - he's waiting for payday so we can get #4. It is so well written, I'm just loving it.

- my new Elizabeth Zimmerman knitting book bought with a gift certificate from Auntie Teresa for my b-day! I find her writing just so restful. She reminds me of my mother's friend's mothers. Does that make sense? Along with a dose of Tasha Tudor. Yay!

- and then my blog reel of course. But that one's tricky. The second you get overwhelmed or envious or my-their-grass-is-SO-much-greener you must turn the computer off and go find your children because you've hit your input limit - time for some output!


what's been nourishing your spirit lately?

{{right now}}

right now, i am

thankful for the quiet cup of coffee i got this morning. just me and morning edition as i got breakfast ready

happy that guthrie is feeling oh so much better than she did a few days ago. swimming lessons today!

working my way through this book. slowly, slowly so it sinks into my bones. if for no other reason than because a little girl told me yesterday she wants to be just like me. the weight of that statement fell on my like a ton of bricks.

worried that laithe is still not feeling well -- why does everything start and finish in his lungs? makes this mama so worried!

excited to start our foray into homemade laundry soap today!

thrilled to have another day of sun and fabulous temperatures to dry said laundry in

ambivalent about this week's double number birthday. birthdays are always so weird for me. such a time of looking forward and back. this one i'm focused on looking at this very moment of my life and all the wonder it holds.

ready for the 6 quarts of strawberries that are waiting to turn into more jam and fruit leather. let the harvest et putting up season begin!

inspired by a rhubarb infused vodka created by a dear friend who's post i cannot find right now - maybe it will be up later! it looks very yummy! Oh dear - my reader goofed - or more likely in my exhausted state, I goofed! Rhubarb infused vodka here, by someone I totally haven't met. But doesn't it look yummy? Don't you think we'd be friends? There's a mason jar of it in my cupboard right now - infusing. I'm waiting for John to discover it.

enjoying The Eve Tree written by one of my newly-favorite writers. don't you just love it when you can fall into the language of a book -- and when the plot is good too :)

looking forward to my favorite kind of work week - the three day week!






hope you all have a wonderful week full of light and possibilities!

-format borrowed from the ever-lovely SouleMama -
who just had her 5th baby!
yay babies!

a quick note of important things

Life has been running along at a quick clip here.

Like light speed kind of quick.

Did you know my baby is turning 1 on Wednesday?

Yeah. I know. No idea how that happened.

***

I made reservations this morning for our vacation. Guthrie's spring break is perfectly timed for our need to get away from job/house/life so, we're getting away. We've rented a cabin up on, well, it's near the town of Ellison Bay in Wisconsin, but the house is actually on Hedgehog Harbor.

With a name like that how could it not be awesome?

We still have awhile till we go, but I am so ready. I could leave tomorrow. And come back in May!

****
Laithe is so busy. SO busy. I'm a firm believer in letting my kids have full access to their environment. Within the restrictions of safety of course. We have gates at the bottom and top of the stairs and in front of the laundry/cat box room. I have a latch on one cabinet where we keep cleaning supplies and light bulbs, etc. Free range is how I like my kids. I find I worry about them less in new environments because I've seen how they deal with their own. So, when I was fixing lunch and Laithe grabbed the full box of Crispex (everyone under the age of 5's favorite snack here) and proceeded to dump I had to remind myself that this is him learning. My friend Jun had a rule in her house - the $5 rule. If it was less than $5 she didn't care what her boys did to it. I was there when she didn't care about a full box of Cheerios all over the couch and it was impressive. And I learned a lot. They played and ate and played and ate. And then they vacuumed. I'm not saying it's ok to be wasteful, but sometimes we need to change our notion of waste and our notions of the price of experience. I don't bat an eye at a $20 toy they might play with a few times yet I freak out over a $2.50 box of cereal? Really?

Yeah. So he's into everything. And I remind myself of the above philosophy daily - hourly? There seems to be so much I forgot about having a toddler. About how one day it's ok to lay your crafting on the piano to clear off the table during dinner and then next it's not because someone grew. About how loading and unloading the dishwasher becomes an exercise in patience and grace - or time management. When your alarm goes off at 6:30 know that I'm doing dishes because no one else is awake.

*****
I can feel spring coming on - regardless of the two small winter storms we've had in the past week. All it takes is one 60 degree day and we're all - HOW LONG WILL THE LONGEST WINTER EVER LAST?!
It makes me want to work on our house again. We need to wait to paint until the ground settles. Anyone else have more settling cracks than last year? The potholes have been particularly bad so I guess the City has it much worse. I've seen some cool ideas floating around the internets that I want to figure out how to incorporate into our home.

I cannot wait to get into the backyard. The past two summers I've either been in my first trimester or wearing a newborn on my back and it's not been so conducive to heavy gardening. This also means that when Laithe goes to his 1 year well child he'll get his first vaccination: the DTaP with its tetanus fighting powers. I'm not particularly sold on the D or the P parts of the vaccine especially the pertussis (guilt-inducing commercials be damned) because it's not particularly effective. Rather, I feel my unvaccinated child when faced with pertussis germs (as we all have been in this community) has probably an 85% chance of not getting sick. Roughly. Because that's such an easy estimate to make. The vaccine is only 60-80% effective - much lower than other vaccinations - so I'm confused as to how this is effective. I don't think that the math works by adding all the percentages together and that's now immune he is. Anyways. I'm preaching. And most of that is in response to the aforementioned commercial. Such poor taste. Should be banned.

***
I set Guthrie up with a child's needle, some yarn and fabric in an embroidery hoop and let her go to town. She'd picked out the needle the other day at the fabric store and was excited to use it. I wasn't sure she was enjoying herself, but then I overheard her tell Laithe, "See Laithe? I'm sewing. All by myself."

Later on she told him that when he was four she would show him how to sew if he was interested. She's a good big sister.

Here is her finished product. I'm not sure why she drew on it with highlighter. Mixed media I think. ***

Laithe learned - or taught himself whatever - how to walk backwards today. It is extremely entertaining for all parties involved. How does one learn how to do that?

***

Well. Then. This was a lengthy post about random things was it not?

Hope your week is full of joy!

Christmas Cards . . . this year I promise!

Oh those Christmas Cards. Pesky little things aren't they? I love them so much and I love working on them and somehow, almost every year a project that should take a couple of afternoons - or a week at the most- to complete turns into weeks on end, turns into a giant Christmas card shaped monkey on my back.

Did anyone get those really cute handmade Christmas Tree cards from last year? Oh? No? Is that because they sit (stamped) on my dresser right now?
Still sitting there.
Stamped!
Addressed!

Not even joking.

For a YEAR.

Now, granted I did have a baby. And we were waiting for John to complete the yearly Christmas card, but still.

Monkey. On. My. Back.
And so now you know why I didn't even attempt to do birth announcements for poor little Laithe.

This year will be different! This year there's a wonderful opportunity from Shutterfly for bloggers to get 50 free photo cards! Totally taking advantage of that. Because this year we will be sending out cards. With pictures! Because our family grew and as I keep telling John in this digital age of blogging and facebook and all things internets I think it's so great to get something in my actual mailbox. Something tangible and festive. I do not want Christmas cards to go the way of the pen pal.

And now for possibly the funnest part - we have choices to make.

I want our Christmas cards to kind of tell the story of our year. Obviously that means that there will be more than one picture.
I really like these ones. But we'll be a little less JCrew a lot more, lucky if we don't have drool or spit up on us and if no one has food in their hair. I always like Happy Holidays sentiments. There's a lot to celebrate this time of year for many weeks- not just one day.

I like this one a lot too. Maybe it's because their family looks a little more like ours. Isn't that the silliest reason to like a card? I very much like the layout though.And the simple wishes.

My original thought though was to do Thanksgiving Cards. Doesn't that seem like it would solve my whole problem? I'd do the cards before things even started to get hectic.
And as anyone knows who reads this blog, or knows me because I proclaim it to the high heavens every year - Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday! Most favorite ever. A holiday all about gratefulness and food and gathering? What is not to like? Every year My Favorite Holiday gets eclipsed by Christmas just a little bit more. Can't we have just a few more days of fall? A few more days of giving thanks before the stress comes? A few more days of bounty before we start to worry about how we will afford Christmas this year? I know that Christmas is supposed to be more about giving than receiving, but well, sometimes I gotta think- good luck with that! Have you watched saturday morning cartoons lately? The ads in between are heinous. I mean don't get me wrong, I do love me some Christmas because there is that whole other side to it, but really, as far as holidays go, Thanksgiving is where it's at for me.

So my thought for next year: celebrate what I love celebrating. I really like these little We Are Thankful cards. Mostly because we have so very much to be thankful for.

So thanks to Shutterfly you can totally expect something awesome in your actual mailbox and not 1.online or 2. something that sits on my dresser for a year slightly unfinished.

Yay!

And more to come about the other awesome stuff at Shutterfly that I want to take advantage of this year.

hello sunshine

a few forsythia branches brought in from my yard and forced.
i'm so ready for spring.

WIP Wednesday

It's been awhile since I've done one of these- mostly because of Christmas. Those WIPs are downstairs in boxes still waiting to be shipped. I know you guys love me in spite of my inability to actually mail anything, right? Like even Christmas cards?

As you can probably guess we've got a lot going on these days. A lot of cleaning out, organizing and preparing in general. However, it's not the frantic excitement of pre-Christmas a few weeks ago, which is nice. I kind of love the few weeks after Christmas when everything gets put away. I mean I love getting it all out, too, but I was ready this year for John to put the Christmas bins downstairs. Sometimes it gets a little stark, but it just feels like everything is new. Which reminds me I still need to post some pics from our Christmas celebrations. As my daughter would say, maybe tomorrow.

Back to the actual works in progress.
I've got some sewing to do. This baby will have a lot more flannel given the cold winter we're having. Guthrie and I went to the fabric store and picked out a couple of yards of flannel for sheets for the baby's cradle.
We put the cradle downstairs in the living room for quiet time naps and relative ease. John's Grandpa Poppy made this cradle for Guthrie and she is pretty excited that she used to sleep in it and now the baby will sleep in it, although as long as we're being honest here the cats used it more than she did. However, it was nice to have and it's beautiful. I'm excited to have a few pieces of furniture that we can pass down. I think right now we're pretty sentimental about the cradle as John's Grandma Ruby passed away on Christmas Eve and it's nice to have a few reminders of her in the house. When I was pregnant with Guthrie I made a sheet out of one of Grandma's old tablecloths and while I haven't found it yet in the mass of boxes still upstairs I'll be happy to put it back in the cradle.

So, back to the sewing. I let Guthrie pick out one of the flannels and then I got to pick one. I bet you can guess which one is hers. And no, this is not some hint about the baby's gender so don't even get all excited. It's much more an assertion of Guthrie's preference for pink right now. Except she still wants to paint her bedroom orange but that's a WIP for another day! Or month.

And then I have all these fabrics to contend with. While they won't be baby sheets they will be a laundry bag to hang downstairs, a pillow cover for Guthrie, a mom's-in-labor bag for Guthrie, a bulletin board cover, a knitting bag, a crocheting bag and I'm not sure what else. I'm really enjoying making simple tote bags and I believe this proves it! The laundry bag pattern is from One Yard Wonders which I got for Christmas from my mom along with a gift certificate to JoAnn's. Perfect timing, no? Right now I'm hoping it will contain all the dirty socks that get taken off downstairs and dirty dishtowels that get piled on the stairs. Shortly I'm hoping it will contain spit-up laden onesies and explosive breastmilk poop stained outfits.
And then there's the yarn. John's mom got me a gift certificate for the local Yarn Shoppe and I went and spent it today. (do we sense a fantastic theme?) It was super fun! I did get one skein to complete a hat for Teagan because I made it extra thick and didn't even think about needing another ball to finish it! I hope she likes it. The other three skeins are for me. I haven't made anything for myself in a long time - possibly almost a year. I think the green and blue multi-color ones will be a set of long fingerless gloves. I may change my mind about that, but my real goal is to make something awesome for myself. My dad wrote a knitting book - cool huh? I'll link to it when it's for sale. And I'm working my way through it. Ever so slowly. I enjoy the quick I can concentrate on two things at the same time part of crocheting, but I'm really enjoying the knitting too. I feel like I gravitate aesthetically to knitted things quite a bit more than crocheted things. There's a possibility that I'll save the greeny yarns for my first knitted projects.
These little skeins I picked up awhile ago as a labor project. While I don't think I'll crochet much while I'm actually in labor I wanted to work on a project that would take up some time, be highly washable just in case, and that I could work on 1. when I get impatient for this baby and 2. if early labor lasts for awhile and I'm antsy.

As far as the work in progress in my belly goes, well,

I've got about 6 weeks to go. Can you tell? I'm making my clothes work pretty hard for me right now and I'm sure it'll get even bigger over the next few weeks. I think next week we're going to henna my belly which should be fun. Last time I didn't have the desire to do it with my particular pregnant belly because it wasn't so cute. This time I'm carrying differently and it's cuter. And I don't have any new stretch marks. Sweet!

There's a few things I want to remember about this pregnancy so I've been trying to take pictures and remember the sweet stuff Guthrie says - which will be a different post. The amount of supplements I'm on though is one thing I will never forget. I'm not sure which ones I'll let go of after the baby is born, I guess we'll see how my blood work is and how I'm feeling.

This is my current lineup. A small amount of magnesium for some uber-restless legs over the past couple weeks - it's worked wonders. I'd highly recommend it. The point where they became unbearable was on the car trip home from Ohio with restless legs, constant Braxton-Hicks and John listening to a football game on the radio it was my own little personal version of hell. No joke. I hate me some sports on the radio something fierce. So, one of the midwives recommended the magnesium but warned that it might slow down my Braxton-Hicks at the same time. It hasn't - at all - which I find kind of reassuring. Then there's the general PreNatal. They're pink. How sweet. Then the Omega-3 Fish Oil which is a ginormous pill and I do not enjoy it. The vitamin D, and I'm not even taking pills from the bottle anymore as I have a prescription for 10,000 mg a day through the end of my pregnancy - and then 10,000 mg a week for another month or so. Can I remind you the normal daily amount is 400 mg. Good times. Then the labetalol for my blood pressure which is working like a charm. Yay!! And Tums because gum doesn't always work for the acid reflux. And then chlorophyll, which I'll say out of everything except maybe the Tums is what I notice if I don't take. It keeps my energy level up and my mood pretty good. I will definitely keep taking this for awhile - at least until summer when I get more natural chlorophyll in my diet with seasonal greens. And then there's the pregnancy tea which my co-workers think looks like pot. I keep it in a jar on my desk. It does look a little sketchy and has sparked many a funny conversation wherein my co-workers get a little wistful look in their eye and talk about the good ol' days. In the next few weeks I'll start some evening primrose oil to start getting some prostaglandins going. We're getting down to the wire it seems.

Yeah, I've never, ever taken this many pills a day. Part of me feels like I'm sick somehow but the fact that there's really only one real 'drug' makes me feel better. I did finally break down and buy a pill organizer. I balked at it for a long time, but guess what? I never have to second guess myself and I can take all my stuff to work with me which means less nausea after the pills because I've already digested breakfast. So, it's working for me and I try not to feel 80.

We're doing some other preparations too. Getting supplies ready. Witch hazel? Check. Waterproof flannels for possible water breakage in bed whilst asleep? Check. I'm enjoying the gathering process. So much less stressful than last time and so much more mindful. Baby clothes washed? Check. Put away -- not so much. We've got to take the carpet out of Guthrie's closet first and deal with the wood floors below it.

ok time for dinner and the end of this very long post.
and then some sewing . . .

hooray!!

It's time for my yearly purchase of pop up sponges from Williams-Sonoma which will serve two purposes. One, the sponges are uh-mazing and two I will get the holiday catalogs from W-S to drool over before they figure out sometime early next spring that I actually don't ever order anything from them and so they are wasting their money sending me catalogs.

They are surprisingly on top of things - unlike say, Pottery Barn where I haven't placed an order for about 5 years and they still send me a ton of catalogs.

Did I mention that the sponges are awesome? They last for forever - and you can run them through the dishwasher to get the funk out along with microwaving them for disinfecting purposes. I tried some other pop ups when I should have placed an ill-timed W-S order (who cares about the summer catalog??) but got some at the Co-op in Iowa City and they were a sad state of affairs.

WIP Wednesday

We are still recovering from the big birthday weekend and so the birthday blog post will have to wait. Instead, today Guthrie and I had a very nice lowkey day of doing not much. I like it when I get an actual Wednesday off.

Guthrie's birthday kind of marks the beginning of the holiday season for our family. The birthday, three weeks later Thanksgiving, three weeks later John's birthday, 10 days later Christmas and then, if we've made it this far then we should just go ahead and celebrate New Years, after which it'll be about 6 or so weeks until our new addition arrives. To be on the safe side let's say 4 - 8 weeks. I can tell people are so frustrated when I say I'm due in 'February' when they're looking for an actual date, but really I'm not so worried about the date so it takes a minute for me to remember. On a busy day 'mid-February' is the best they're going to get.

So, we've got a doosie of a Season here this year. I think I'm gearing you up for the blogging being spotty for awhile. I can feel myself starting to slow down and after Guthrie's birthday I noticed was tired in a way I haven't been for quite awhile. And even though I'm exhausted I've gotten to that point in pregnancy where my hands are just itching to be busy with small projects. Good thing it's the Season :)


So one of the things that has been on my list for awhile is labeling Guthrie's winter stuff so she doesn't come home with random gloves or loses a hat. I got a roll of twill tape from the fabric store and a permanent fabric marker and wrote her last name 8,000 times on it. I'll sew the labels on the backs or insides of her stuff. As a bonus it'll create a little tag for her to use when she's hanging up stuff on hooks as apparently manufacturers of children's coats don't often think of such things. Except Hanna Anderson. We heart you Hanna Anderson - with your pre-made name label and sturdy coat hanger on the collar!!

Picked up some new yarn when I needed a break from work the other day. It'll turn into some Christmas presents for three little girls soon I think.


And always more yarn - a promised 'before the first snow, well, real snow' hat for John.

While I was taking pictures of this stuff our newest little photographer got on the bandwagon. She's so serious and has become quite the documentarian - demanding pictures of dinner before it gets eaten, coats before they are put on, lots and lots of daily life shots of mom and dad.

And finally my belly as a work in progress. It's growing folks. By leaps and bounds. The girls at work are eyeing me with that, man she is going to get BIG look. And I eye them back and think, duh. So I'm about 25 weeks and at this point last time I was still looking like a toss up between being pregnant or having eaten a large pizza and an entire 6 pack for lunch.
I'm thinking it's pretty clear this time it's not pizza. I'm pretty thrilled that I'm still wearing my wedding rings with no problem- I think that has a lot to do with the weather though too. And really, overall I feel really good. I'm trying to relish this relatively comfortable phase of pregnancy. Some days it's easier than others. I'm frequently heard saying, 'ugh I need to stretch my hips, they're so sore' and John's frequently heard singing a stellar rendition of Shakira's My Hips Don't Lie.

Good times at our house :)

WIP Wednesday

In an effort to keep me going - rather keep both my blogging and priorities going at the same time- I'm getting on the WIP Wednesday band wagon. And my, it is quite the band wagon. Google it sometime "WIP Wednesday" It's kind of inspirational to see all these people working on different things all at the same time. Does my creative heart good to know all that's out there.

So what am I working on this Wednesday? A little bit of work that doesn't need to be photographed (HIPAA and all) and then some projects.

It's officially feeling like fall here. This little yarn apple project has made it's way all over the internet. I think I'll make a few more just because they're so fun.

And then there's the crocheting. All of it will be gifts, so no further info :)

And finally there's this little work in progress which isn't so little anymore.

Sorry for the weird angle - I couldn't figure out how to do a timed self-portrait and focus simultaneously. But, yes, the bump seems to be getting bigger. And busy. It's a busy bump. I thought Guthrie was odd in that she was so active in my belly, but apparently I just have active kids. Active enough that that whole, measure how many times your baby moves in 2 hours is kind of a joke. I'm hoping that within the next week or so John and Gus will both be able to feel it move. And, no, I cannot see my feet without some effort. I know you were wondering.

This week marks the halfway point. I'm both excited about that and freaked out. Time has gone by so quickly. I'm taking a Mindful Birthing class in Iowa City for the next month or so. The focus is on education, self-hypnosis, and yoga. In theory we get an hour of each during the class. John went last week because it was birth positions and labor support week. It was nice to have him there and it got us back into the swing of thinking about this impending labor and birth. And we discovered that I can squat like a champ. Yay yoga!
I also enjoy going alone as it gives me some time to focus on this pregnancy and this baby.
I'm glad it's getting toward fall and then winter as I always find myself turning inward and having more time to spend on doing what I love.

Hope your Wednesday is going wonderfully!

stream of consciousness

I've written about Guthrie's speech stuff before and I'm happy to report that she's doing really well. There's still a lot of frustration on both our parts because she's fairly frequently unintelligible, but at least she's unintelligible! She's still really intentional about her words, but I do notice she's babbling more. I feel like we kind of missed out on that whole baby babbling stage where there was the constant stream of almost nonsense words, but I've noticed that sometimes when Gus thinks she's alone or that no one is paying attention to her she talks constantly to herself or sings constantly. I love listening to her and her stream of consciousness. It mostly surrounds the events of the day and her family and friends. She lists everything out and is constantly taking stock of who is in her family or what her day has been like - we did this, then this, and then this. Given that she was so quiet for so long I absolutely love listening to her. I mean I think I would have anyways, but this is a really special gift to me.

The other day we were headed to Iowa City and had to stop at home first. Here's something weird - Guthrie HATES going home. About 4 blocks from our house she starts an increasingly vehement repetition of "no home no home NO HOME!!!" To say that it's irritating would be an understatement. So, we had to stop at home first. I'd prepared her for the horrific trip home that we'd have to make and I gave her a list of what we needed to do. I needed to change my clothes, pack a lunch, and get our bag of stuff. I said it maybe 3-4 times as we were nearing home and then you know what? She repeated it back to me.

This parenting moment was seconded only by hearing her say 'dude' for the first time. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a crazy list maker. I have blank books full of them. In fact, I kind of count them as journals for the times in my life when I wasn't actually journaling. And I love flipping through a sketchbook looking for a blank page (to write a list on) and finding an old list. Mostly I write the same list over and over. Or slight variations on the same list.

Laundry
Grocery store
Dishes
Email
Pick Up
Bills
Vacuum

That's kind of my holy grail. In fact I believe that if these things are ever not on a list it's probably because you've put me in The Home, where I will still probably be making lists.

I particularly love reading old packing lists. Like the one I made for Europe or even camping trips. Or the one I made when we went to visit my grandparents in Oregon for the 1st time after Guthrie was born. That list was long. Then there are the sentimental ones. Like the one I made of things to bring with me to the hospital when I was having Guthrie. I pause to read through that one every time.

Given that Gus is already making lists for herself and repeating mine back to me I think we've got another list maker in the house. John will be so thrilled. Because down deep, secretly, possibly unconsciously he loves my lists too.

i got tagged

I got tagged this morning. And since I've been up since significantly before dawn it was pretty easy to do. Like significantly. Like three hours. And it's been getting light pretty early these days.
Once the gray predawn started I got productive so that was good. . . I guess. I believe I will nap with Guthrie today unless I get too hyped up on caffeine.

So, back to the tagging. You take the 6th picture in your 6th folder. I had to read that 5 times before I understood it. I think my brain isn't functioning all that well yet.

Here's my pic:

It's my herb pot that gets brought inside for the winter. About 10 weeks ago I notice that my tarragon had completely died, so I just kind of ripped it out. Then about 2 weeks ago I noticed that it's coming back. At leat I think it's tarragon. How awesome is that? And up higher is my lemon thyme which I use in just about everything. It's really good in scrambled eggs.

When you get up this early you notice that there are a lot of people who walk their dogs really early on Saturday mornings in our neighborhood. I had no idea.

So, I'm tagging: Melissa, Melissa, Aprille, Jill, Jen

hello, choffy!

Chocolate and I have a special relationship. Especially dark chocolate.
I heart it.
Intensely.

SimpleMom, whom I also heart though not as intensely because that would just be creepy, is having a week of giveaways and today she's giving away Choffy.

I'd not heard of Choffy before but apparently it's ground cacão beans which you then brew.

Brewed chocolate.

umm, sign me up.

The Choffy website says that "Choffy is poised to make a dramatic entrance into your routine."
Awesome. I need something to make a dramatic entrance into my routine. These bitter cold mornings have been harsh.

You should sign up too! And anyways it's just really fun to say, choffy, choffy, choffy.

my to do list

We woke up to probably 5-6 inches of snow this morning. I'm such a sucker for snow and this is absolutely beautiful - the trees look frosted.

Last night when I picked up John from work we took the long way home. Tuesday is his late day - nine o'clock. Guthrie was asleep in the back and no one was on the road because the snowstorm was coming. It was really nice. The snow was so sparkly. Like diamonds.

That sounded so dramatic, but I'm completely serious. John hypothesized it has something to do with the very, very cold air (it was 1 degree) and the snow combining. Anyways, it was a nice quiet drive.

I graciously let John drive himself to work today as there's just no way Gus and I are going out with the windchill going from bad to worse today. (for those of you in more balmy weather bad is -15 worse is -30)

So what will we do today? Well, I for one would really like to sit and watch You've Got Mail for the 40 billionth time mostly for Meg Ryan's line: '152 insights into my SOUL'. I love that line. My friend Kathy loves the line "makes my apartment smell all mossy". We watched it a lot in college. A lot.

I'm digressing.

Guthrie does not approve.

Anyways.

This is what I will be doing today:

There will be coffee.

There will be scrambled eggs.

There will be a bath, after which I will use this Aveda stuff. That will be a whole post unto itself. That stuff is gold in a bottle.

There will be snow shoveling. Just the walkway though; our absolute saint of a neighbor has used his snow blower on our sidewalk the past two times it has snowed. So, add to the list today baking of some sort as a thank you.

There will be some heavy duty cleaning. I've been working so much on the upstairs that I've completely neglected the downstairs. It's really really dirty and really really messy. And it is not causing me peace and relaxation, which is the goal in your home, right? So, today we will remedy that. Count on me running at least 2 loads of dishes in the dishwasher.

And then, if I make it through all that, see that fabric back there? On top of the eggs? I got it in Galena when my mom and Gus and I went up for a little pre-Christmas shopping fest and getaway. It will eventually be our growth chart. I'm hoping I'll get some time to sketch it out so we can finally keep track of how tall our family is. You never know when a growth spurt will hit.

So that's it folks. Add in a some Little People, puzzles, shape sorting and a nap and you've pretty much got a good view.

I'm sure not all of this will happen, but it's good to have plans. And maybe, just maybe naptime will let me watch some You've Got Mail.

why, hello sisyphus.

See this? It's my bedroom. Do you see a bed? Do you see a green loveseat where I can sit and read and drink tea?

Me either.
I see 10 loads of laundry.
TEN.

and what am I doing about it? Why blogging of course. I got Gus all set up with a snack and some Super Why on the part of the bed you can actually see and then folded 2 things and came in here to check my email.
I know Guthrie will help me fold socks, and believe me there are a lot of socks in there, but, just UGH.

I do this about 3 times a year. Let my laundry get the absolute best of me. I've been working on this pile since probably Thanksgiving. It's crossed over to art. An installation piece of course.

We just take the stuff we can see and want to wear out of the pile.
This morning I was mortified as John left to go to work. He looked like he had slept in his clothes. I actually had to spray him down with Wrinkle Releaser. Yikes. That's pretty bad.
So. . . here I go to fold laundry. . . and you know it's not like we go places naked so hopefully this experience will be treacherous enough that I'll stay on top of the folding for a few more months.

wish me luck.
i think i need some tea first though. . .