Monthly Archives: July 2010

It’s just a grey day here. It’s not raining or hot, not awful. Just blah. I don’t really know what to do with myself. Evelyn is napping, and with any luck will be for the next hour, and I have spent the time sitting in front of my computer almost waiting for something to happen. Something more interesting than the laundry I’m neglecting. Then I would have reason for not doing it. The only thing I could find is this amazingness that actually just made me feel like a lazy, boring mom that isn’t managing her time well enough to allow for more creative fun. I can’t even keep up with Evelyn’s baby book, which is on the extensive “Projects to Do” list. Maybe I’ll find some motivation at the bottom of my chocolate milk and get things in gear. Or maybe some other day…

With less than two months to go, I’m starting to get a little anxious for the little’s arrival. I don’t want to be in the same situation I was with Evelyn- cleaning up and finishing the room in between contractions. So every day I try to do a little project. Okay, so maybe I have a compulsion to do these things. Slowly I’m making progress.  I got the office cleaned up and I hope to work on the little guy’s room soon.  I’m getting my ideas together, as well as actual objects. Momma so kindly ordered a crib the other day and it should be here soon. I have some prints I’m going to order from etsy and I need to go pick out paint. A trip to Ikea will also be in order. I found that stack of hats and stripey blanket at the thrift store and my cousin, Clarissa, gave me those shoes along with some cute socks. We’ve also managed to find him some clothes but I don’t want to get too many things before I know how big he is. Soon enough we’ll know.

Otherwise this is how we have been spending our very hot days- naked in the pool eating ice cream cones.

All of us.

Our neighbors are moving.

Despite the heat I am feeling much better.  A little more pep. Maybe because yesterday momma bought me some new clothes that actually fit. New clothes can always make you feel better, even if they are stupid maternity clothes. I think I’m getting to the point where I actually have the energy to do things. I really only have one crack at doing something because once I do it I can’t move- my back hurts too much.

So I’m hoping to do a little bit of light cleaning today and then a major shakedown tomorrow. We have an ‘office’ upstairs that is really the dumping ground for everything extra- paperwork, gift bags and paper, stationary, clothes and shoes that are out of season, decorations, blah, blah, blah- and there is no door to the room so you see it every time you’re in the hallway. I can’t just keep it out of sight. Major source of daily aggravation. I would really like to keep things streamlined in there and probably should get some sort of filing system for the office-y stuff. I want to get rid of the unused desk and use the room as a play area. A little indoor playhouse, actually.  I want to build a play kitchen and make a cushion for the seat beneath the skylight- a perfect place for reading and dreaming.

But I’m getting ahead of myself because after I clean the office I’m moving on to the baby’s room. I don’t have a hall closet, besides the laundry closet, to keep things like linens in so my comforters and quilts have been in the closet in the spare room. Well, we found mold growing in that closet (which has been removed) and all of the blankets and such are piled up in the room along with my photography stuff. I need to clean the space and find a new home for everything so I can have the builder come take a look and get it fixed. Then we can start getting things ready for the baby, fun stuff like sewing and knitting!

That’s the plan but I know things change. Scott has off this weekend so hopefully he can distract my littlest helper and I can make some progress. Trying to keep the motivation level high.

P.S. If you happen to be riding in the MDA Freedom Ride on Saturday you will be going past our house just before the end at the VFW park and we will be sitting in the driveway waving. Not sure how many bikers read my blog, though, but have a safe, fun ride anyway!

Oh, buckets.

I just don’t know what my problem is lately.  I think the humidity makes me agitated. That and my house is a mess, the lawn hasn’t been mowed in about two weeks and won’t be until Scott has off this weekend, I have a swarm of fruit flies in my kitchen, and I can’t pick anything up off the counter or floor without earwigs crawling out. I also had an appointment last week and I weighed two pounds more than the day before I had Evelyn and I still have more than two months left and nothing fits me anymore. It all just makes me feel  too close and itchy. Brings out my anxiety.

But there have been good moments.

Evelyn and I were able to have a girl’s day. We had whoopie pies and cupcakes at Bloom Bake Shop in Middleton.

It’s a cute little shop and the staff are really friendly and I like the fact that their ingredients come from local farmers but I wasn’t super impressed with their baked goods. I had a vanilla cupcake with cherry jam frosting.  The frosting was really good but the cake itself was dry and crumbly. The whoopie pie was better but had waaay to much frosting. Most of it went in the garbage. Evelyn liked the rootbeer we shared more than the whoopie pie. Maybe I’ll give them another try someday.

Then we went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens. Things went downhill from here. I thought she would enjoy the fountains. She liked them a little too much.

All she wanted to do was get in them and swim and she screamed her head off as I pried her little fingers from their death grip on the stone edges. I carried her out bawling under my arm as she did the limp noodle slide to get away from me. Sorry to everyone who was trying to enjoy a quiet afternoon at the gardens. We should have just gone back home to the pool.

Because she loves it there. We were all able to go on July 3rd. After a while though she was the only one in the baby pool. Kind of sad so we packed it up.

We went out to my Brother and Sister-in-law’s house to watch fireworks from their yard.

Evelyn loved getting pulled around in my step-niece’s wagon. We might have to get one.

Especially if we do more trips to the zoo, like we did with Lindsey yesterday.

Thanks for going with us, Lindsey!

Doing most of these things has left some projects unfinished or not started at all, but that’s okay. I’ve managed to do a couple the past few days.

I am a recipe collector and that has left me with a stack of photocopies, printouts, and magazine tearouts just teetering on my shelf. I found a cute download at Prudent Baby for a recipe binder.

I took the inspiration all the way and finished putting my recipes (over 200) in page protectors and in the binder last night.

This is what I am most excited about, though. I have been wanting a sort of  mother’s piece of jewelry that isn’t too tacky and found beautiful necklaces on etsy that used your child’s fingerprints. So simple and beautiful, timeless. And expensive. So I knew I could do this myself if I figured out how. I remember reading about precious metal clay a long time ago then forgot about it until I started searching for ways to make fingerprint jewelry. It is clay that has silver particles in it.  You use it just like clay and after firing you are left with pure silver. I ordered some clay, rolled it out, got a fingerprint (amazingly), fired  and polished it and made a necklace for it. It’s not perfect but I love it and have some clay left over for when the new little gets his fingerprints at about six months.

Phew. That is a lot of info but now I feel better having told you. Have a great day!

♥ Andria