My kids are cuter than your kids
31 Thursday Mar 2011
31 Thursday Mar 2011
30 Wednesday Mar 2011
Posted late-night confession
inReasons Angel is cool:
Angel is a champion. Yes, he loves Buffy and she is his moment of true happiness but his actions don’t revolve around her. He’s 5×5 when it comes to Buffy but ultimately he’s about fighting evil and righting wrongs. He wants to save the world. One demon. One dragon. One supremely evil law firm at a time.
Reasons Edward Cullen is cool:
He loves Bella. He would kick ass for her. He also may have single white femaled Angel.
Where is this all coming from? You’ve been living under a rock if you don’t know about Grey’s Anatomy’s episode this week. But I can’t think about this upcoming episode without thinking about the awesomeness that is Once More With Feeling. Granted Angel isn’t even in this season of Buffy, but is it possible to think about Buffy and not think about Angel? Can you breathe in and not breathe out? I didn’t think so.
Do you watch Grey’s? Are you psyched for this week’s episode?
Could Angel kick Edward’s ass? Who’s with me?
29 Tuesday Mar 2011
I will be zen in the face of chaos. I will be zen in the face of chaos. Is it working? Am I zen? I think I feel something. Perhaps a tingle…
28 Monday Mar 2011
Posted frustration
inFurlough.
The Husband works for the government. So when congress can’t agree on a budget and doesn’t pass a continuing resolution he doesn’t go to work and we don’t get paid. Now a little unpaid vacation is all well and good if you plan for it, but if you don’t… well that just plain sucks.
Henry’s First Birthday Party is this weekend and to be frank, I’m worried about spending too much money on food. There aren’t many areas we can trim the budget. I already cut every one’s hair myself, we don’t eat out, I’m not willing to give up fresh organic foods, we use the library, we aren’t doing any paid camps or classes right now (luckily), so I have to completely eliminate my online shopping habit which is fine. But we had plans, and now they’re all on hold because our polarized government is fighting over money. Not cool. So I’m kinda busy panicking right now.
Just to be clear, it’s not like we’re about to starve and things are really not that disastrous. In the interest of full disclosure we haven’t really directly felt the impact of the crappy economy (except for a pathetic attempt at selling our house.) So now that the economy, and a bickering congress are knocking on my door it’s really scary!
26 Saturday Mar 2011
Posted suburban homesteading
inCrazy in love with my sewing machine. Ha ha ha! Now, I didn’t make these, but I ordered them online. I’m so psyched to use them- less waste and better for my skin! Wohoo!
25 Friday Mar 2011
Posted Uncategorized
inI’ve dusted off the sewing machine and started to expand my crafting repertoire. Life is feeling really great right now so I’m feeling the need to set some future goals for myself. Yoga teaches that life is about the journey, not the destination (thank you Steven Tyler). However, I think it’s nice to set an intention.
I’m really psyched for my 30th Birthday! Henry is about to turn 1 which makes me feel like my 30th birthday is just around the corner. The reality is I’ll be waiting ’till the end of May to turn 30 but whatevs. I was inspired by Shannon‘s list of 27 things so I’m generating my own list of 30 things to do while I’m 30. Speaking of things that are cute as pie, Shannon and her blog are- fo’ sho’!
While I hope to complete all of these 30 things I intend to do I will respect the process and enjoy the journey. I will not be hyper focused on the destination. Which is a constant challenge for me! But challenge is good because it forces me to grow.
Hopefully I’ll have my list of 30 up later today. Right, Dear? ::cough:: scanner ::cough::
24 Thursday Mar 2011
23 Wednesday Mar 2011
Posted PPA
inI’m weaning Henry right now.
I’m excited to have my body back to myself but I’m sad to loose our special time that we get from nursing. I will say the least exciting part about weaning is the hormone changes! Dealing with postpartum anxiety has been less than fun (although in the scope of postpartum concerns I’m very thankful that my challenges have been mild). Weaning brings it all back in full force.
I’ve always been sensitive to hormone changes. I’ve never been able to use hormone birth conrol without psychological/emotional changes. It feels almost familiar to me to be a slave to my ever shifting hormone levels. Is it over yet?
22 Tuesday Mar 2011
Posted home improvement
inWe have these floating stairs that lead from the main level to the second floor. It was one of the features that attracted us to the house. When we removed the carpeting upstairs and down and put in bamboo it was painfully clear the carpeted stairs had to go. Carpeting on stairs feels wrong to me, which is silly because it’s very common. But I grew up in a house with wood stairs so maybe there’s something familiar about that.
Anyhow, we kicked around ideas for how to approach these stairs: paint them white, wrap them in the same bamboo as the floors, wrap them in another type of wood. We were all over the place. I Googled and Googled and Googled some more and there was nothing out there for how to update floating stairs like ours. Lots of beautiful examples of floating stairs, but none we could use.
Finally we just decided to pull off the carpet and see what we found.
Turned out the wood was totally something we could work with! The grain of the wood and the integrity of the facades were undamaged although they were covered in drips of paint and stain and other construction-type products. We had to work pretty hard to clean the paint and drips of glue and stain off the stairs (you can still see the paint smeared all over the riser). Each stair required quite a bit of TLC but eventually we cleaned off the treads and they looked pretty good. We went to the store and picked up a stain that matched the wood on the railings. It’s called Early American. One coat of stain and two coats of polyurethane and voila! the treads were looking great the riser needed major priming and painting but that was no biggie. We just used the same glossy white that we have on all the trim.
Finally it was time to tear up the carpet on the landings and put down the bamboo to carry the bamboo visually between the two spaces and complete the look.
This project required quite a bit of sweat equity but didn’t cost much money at all.
I would like to dedicate this post to the person who invented baby gates because it kept the kids at bay while we were working and surfaces were drying.
21 Monday Mar 2011
Posted husband
inI’m not the type of girl who gushes about how inspiring or sexy or loving someone is. I’m not the sort who says “Honey, you’re such a great husband and you’re so supportive and you’re so much fun to watch with the kids.” Don’t misunderstand me, I emote- but not like that. I’m more likely to say “Hon, you’re an effing rock star.” Or “Thanks for being awesome.” or even “Thank you for taking out the trash, that really helped me out.”
But I should sometimes sing the praises of my awesome (and in this picture- dead sexy) husband.
My husband works (in an office at a paying job). So when I tell you that if the kids need something in the middle of the night he takes care of it you fully appreciate how amazingly generous that is. Now, if I’m being totally honest I’m completely useless in the middle of the night. I’m not saying that to be unkind, I’m just telling the truth. It takes me at least 5 minutes to get out of bed at any given time. Out of the kindness of his heart (and perhaps slightly also because he’s too tired to try and drag me out of bed) he handles 97.5% of the night-time drama-rama.
He’s great with the kids. He makes them laugh. He plays with them, teaches them things. He’s present, and he hates to miss even the smallest things in their lives. He would come to every single doctors visit if I didn’t often talk him out of taking the time away from work. He wants to spend time together as a family whether that means bumming around the house or dragging the kids on a long and arduous day trip- he’s in.
He cooks. I’m not talking about boil water and cook spaghetti noodles. He invents marinades out of thin air, makes breads from scratch, reads recipes online and always insists on putting his own spin on the dish. Only recently have I started to reconnect with the kitchen. I like to cook too but I’m not nearly as adventurous or if I am going to try a new dish I’ll stick with the recipe.
He indulges me. I need to be indulged. This training to become a yoga teacher is not easy for him. He’s very practical about money so although he couldn’t see the immediate pay-off he was willing to let me follow this dream. He watches the kids, and doesn’t just camp out at the house all day- he runs errands with them, takes them to the park and comes up with great father-sons activities to spend the time while I’m away… being all zen.
He cleans the bathrooms. I started to get out of this task when pregnant with Jack and I got lucky because it stuck! Same goes for taking care of the cats… though if I’m being honest he’s been taking care of the feline family members for longer than that.
He’s not without his faults fo’ sho’. But the good far far far exceeds any perceived ‘bad’.
So the next time I say: “Hon, you’re an effing rock star.” From now on you’ll know what I really mean is “I love you more today than all the days before this one.”