A picture of my darling

I prefer to post most of my pictures on Facebook. In my experience thus far, Blogger is not an ideal platform for uploading, organizing, and labeling pictures. But the blog would get dull if I never posted any pictures, so here's one from about a week ago, when I was experimenting with some of the different settings on my camera:

Ahhh, my daughter. Isn't she sweet and lovely? I adore her.

From this week: Sleeping in, running errands, and flowers

Last Saturday I started my blog by mentioning that it had been a pretty rough day. I am happy to report that the next day, Sunday, was much better. The baby woke us up early again but after I was done nursing her, Nate offered to take her and play with her for awhile so that I could get more sleep. Ahh, sweet sleep! I sneaked in another 30 minutes before baby's (joyful) cries from down the hall again woke me up. When I hauled my tired sack of bones into the baby's bedroom, I found Nate dressing her up to go for a walk!

"Go back to sleep. We're going for a little walk -- the house will be nice and quiet."

It was about 7am at this point, so there was no chance I was getting back to sleep. But their adventure gave me the chance to take a shower, dress, and eat in blissful solitude. By the time they got home I felt like Super Mom, ready to tackle the day and enjoy every minute. It's amazing what a little bit of extra sleep and a low-stress morning will do for one's attitude.

It was a bit of a long week, as baby is again teething and seems to be going through ALL of the symptoms this time. She was feverish early in the week, poor darling. Thankfully the fevers have passed (for now). No signs of the culprits poking through her gums yet, though. I'm guessing we will see the top two teeth come in next, since the bottom have already arrived.

Tuesday was a thrice-special day this week. It was Valentine's Day, the baby's 8-month "birthday" and my mom's last day of babysitting for awhile (she's going on vacation until the end of March). I am amazed that my daughter is already 8 months old. It seems like a big number -- 8 months. I feel like we're about to hit some major landmarks, like saying real words and crawling. How exciting!

For Valentine's day, Nate usually buys me flowers. A large, beautiful arrangement. And while I LOVE getting flowers, I feel pretty sad when they start dying, and I don't like to clean up dead flower bouquets (nor can I bear to get rid of them while they are still even a little bit pretty). So this year I told my dear, sweet husband that he is welcome to buy me some plantable annuals or even bulbs for Valentine's Day....

And he took my advice. After we plant my new bulbs, I can spend the summer enjoying a violet-colored clementis, three purple dahlias, and half a dozen bushes of red lillies. They will be lovely! I am very excited -- I love bulbs.

Today was a fairly nice day. Nate was gone on a snow trip with the youth group for most of the day, so it was just us girls. We did a quick grocery trip and then spent some time with my sister. It was wonderful to see my sister. I really love to spend time with her, as she is very easy to talk with and always lets me unabashedly unload any of my frustrations. Unfortunately, she is VERY busy right now with nursing school, so she doesn't have a lot of free time. I'm especially sad that my daughter doesn't get to spend more time with her aunt, as my sister is amazing with babies and they seem to really enjoy each other. It warms my heart to watch them play.... I'm a tad impatient for my sister to have children.

After a brief nap back home, we ran a couple of errands. Then I was pretty tired (it's been a long week!) so we went home again for some quiet playtime. Baby took another short nap and I rested my eyes, too.

Nate came home shortly thereafter, which was really good timing. I was starting to feel burned out. (It's such a relief to have an extra set of hands around the house.) We decided to enjoy the temperate afternoon by doing a little yard work as a family; Nate used the baby backpack to carry around our daughter and weed the flower beds while I trimmed some bushes. It only took about an hour to get the front yard looking significantly tidier. There's still a lot of work to complete, but we're making progress. Every little bit helps!

After finishing up the yardwork we headed out to Costco. The shopping list was only three items long, but I really needed to get out of the house. When we got to the store I made the mistake of checking out the kid's clothing section.... they just got a bunch of new Carter's spring- and summer-time outfits in stock, in sizes ranging from 3 months to 24 months. I have had a hard time finding 12- and 18-month-size clothing, and I "needed" to get a couple of little things for the baby. So I used my allowance to buy her a couple of outfits -- one because it was too cute to resist, and another because it included a zip-up jacket and baby needs jackets/sweaters in the next size up.

I mentioned earlier in this post that my mom is on vacation through the end of March. She and my dad left on their trip just today, in fact. It's their annual "snow bird" adventure down to drier, sunnier climates. My mother will come back with a beautiful tan, a brighter spirit, and a couple of random gifts. (Seriously, random is the appropriate adjective: Last year we got olive oil; the year before we got pistachios and vanilla; my dad once got Nate some allergy medicine from Mexico. I'm not complaining -- we enjoy the random presents. Quite a bit.) My dad will come back with a slight sunburn on his bald head (teehee, love you dad) and also in better spirits. They really enjoy their trip, but I always miss them when they're gone, and this year it is especially hard to see them go. I'm hoping for a speedy return... I miss them already.

The one fun part of their absence is that I get to look at houses on their behalf while they are out of town. I love to go see houses, so I anticipate having a lot of fun. I've already contacted their realtor about a handful of properties. (One of today's errands was doing a drive-by on a couple of properties. I saw promising prospects.) I plan to take videos of the really good houses. The videos will be posted on YouTube so my mom can check them out... Hmm. I maybe I will link to them in a blog post so that you can all enjoy them, too.

Well it's after 9pm, so I need to get off the computer. (Where does the time go?!) I'm looking forward to another wonderful week. Until next time...

My history with TIME magazine

Today was not a very good day. It was the kind of day that kept going wrong, regardless of my actions. Frustrating. I would like to box it back up and ship it RETURN TO SENDER. I've decided to go to bed an hour early (i.e. as soon as I am done with this blog post), and look forward to a much better day tomorrow. If the baby decides to kick-start my day at 5:30am again, hopefully I will be prepared. (BTW, what is with her and waking up early on Saturday morning? There is no television with which to watch Saturday morning cartoons! Go back to sleep, crazy little bugaboo!)

Anyhoo, let's move on to something else...

I have a subscription to TIME magazine. From time to time (pun intended), I read an article in the magazine that arouses strong feelings, and I want to share the article and my reactions. This happened just a couple of weeks ago... although I can't remember the particular article. (How sad is that?) Nevertheless, I wanted to give fair warning that I might share some things from TIME as the mood strikes me. You might see a bit of my nerdy/analytical/economist self poke through on these occasions. Beware. :o)

So how did I become a TIME subscriber? Glad you asked...

Once upon a time (pun definitely intended) when I was a teenager, I did a bit of traveling. I racked up a fair number of frequent flyer miles. Not feeling that said miles were of much value for anything, I did not hesitate to trade in some miles when, in my freshman year of college, Delta made me a sweet offer. Get a free magazine subscription in exchange for.... flyer miles? What the heck are those things, anyway? Deal.

My subscription was good for a year. When it came time to renew, I had to pay money. What?! I liked the magazine, but I didn't like it that much. No deal. Goodbye, so long, I had a real nice time. (Yup, pun intended.)

A couple of years went by. I got a part-time job and got married. I was in my senior year of college and TIME made me a new offer -- one year for $30. Okay, not bad. A year was 52 normal issues, plus four bonus issues, which were all about seasonal fashion trends and were printed on extra large pages. I also got a cheap alarm clock thing. Good enough -- deal.

Another year lapsed. TIME stopped doing the seasonal fashion issues, but they offered me a pretty neat history book with my one-year renewal. Ehhh.... okay. I was working at my first post-college job and felt like I could afford to "splurge" on this magazine that I had come to enjoy.

Things got a little more interesting the next year. I was pretty busy when the renewal reminders started coming in the mail, so at first I ignored them, setting them among a stack of to-do items. And a funny thing happened: The closer I got to the renewal deadline, the better the offers became. A lower renewal price...a better bonus gift...an even lower price... etc. So I delayed my renewal right up to the very last couple of issues (maybe I even let it lapse for a month?) and finally they offered me three years for $30 AND a fairly nice duffle bag. I was mostly excited about the heavy discount on the cover price; when the duffle bag came in the mail, I was surprised by its quality. Deal? Heck yeah -- score!

My subscription is up this summer. They've started pestering me to renew... But I'm holding out for at least the same deal as last time (oh! pun not intended, but that was funny anyway).

Moral of this story? Do nothing and you can get everything you want. Or something like that.

Positively another 2012 goal

We set a lot of personal and family goals for 2012. I didn't use to think much of New Years "Resolutions" and, well... I still don't! But I do recognize that January 1st, the start of a new year, is a good time to set or update some goals for oneself. So Nate and I chatted about it at the end of December and each decided that we would set goals for ourselves. After sharing, comparing, and discussing our goals, we recognized some common themes and decided to create a few family goals.

Related to this, I like to come up with a personal theme/motto for myself each year. (Several years ago, this is something I read about on a friend's blog, and decided to copycat the idea. Brilliant.) My first motto year was 2010, when I decided to do hard things. That was a phrase I'd heard in a church talk (stake conference), and it hit home. Sometimes doing the right thing also means doing something hard, or something that involves sacrifice. Like many people, I tend to shy away from challenges and look for the easy road. But in 2010 I wanted to work on that problem! I also knew that 2010 was, finally, the year we were going to try and "start a family" (I pretty much hate that phrase). The idea of being pregnant and having a child terrified me. So I knew that if I was going to take a huge leap of faith and get pregnant, I would have to do a very hard thing! It was a perfect motto for me that year.

Last year, in 2011, my goal was to pray always. Not much to say there, except that I needed to be more prayerful in my life. I was less successful with following that motto, probably because I didn't even come up with the motto until April or May. Arg.

This year, I want to become a kinder, more positive, more considerate person. As much as possible, I want to fill my life with good things. So my motto for 2012 is "Think Positive | Be Positive". I strongly believe that change starts in our minds and hearts, with our attitude! So if I want to be happier, friendlier and more Christlike, I better start getting my head in order.

I shared this motto with Nate, and he loved it. He decided to also set a goal of thinking positive thoughts and being positive. So we've started to work on it together, and oh! What a blessing it is to be a team on this one. We've been able to remind each other to look on the bright side and to always say nice things about others. I am looking forward to 11 more months of building and encouraging each other towards this goal, and growing together.

Well, I had hoped to share some of my other goals, but it's after 9pm so I have to get off the computer! Maybe I will find time for another post this weekend. :o)

Blog goals, getting things done, and (helping with) house hunting

As I mentioned in my last post, I set a goal for myself in 2012 to blog more. To be specific, my goal is to blog at least once a week. The post can be as long or as short as I'd like. It can be on one topic or many. It should be positive; ideally it should be encouraging or at least uplifting. Knowing myself and my schedule, the posts will probably be written in the evening after the baby goes to sleep. I will most likely write on Friday or Saturday. For now, I intend to just talk about what's happening with me and my family. (And as I mention elsewhere, I will try to avoid politics or other derisive, divisive topics.) My blog posts should not come at the expense of journal writing. That is, I should not avoid the more important, more introspective and personal format of a journal in favor of a blog post. But if I sit down to write about something that could just as easily be a blog post, I can blog instead of writing in my journal.

There. Whew. I put my goal into specific, measurable terms and posted it in a public place, so it will be easier to be accountable. You can all hold me to it.... all of you, my readers... okay, my one reader... Hi, mom.

Now on to the updational portion of this blog post!

It is Saturday evening, a little after 8pm. Today I went to the grocery store, dropped a package at UPS to be mailed, dropped off some donation items at Goodwill, checked out a baby-clothes thrift store, made cinnamon raisin rolls, spent time with my parents, balanced the checkbook, helped limb part of the evil fir tree in the backyard, and talked to the neighbor. (Oh, and all the usual mommy stuff -- diaper changes, nursing, naps, playtime, kisses, snuggles, etc. :)

I need to make a chicken and rice casserole, which will be dinner tomorrow. I also need to sort and fold my white laundry. (Did I do the laundry today, or is it left over from yesterday? I honestly can't remember. I think it was today, so add that to my list.)

It's interesting how my definition of what's an accomplishment has changed during the last several months. It use to be that loads of laundry and grocery trips were just routine to-do items, and that I measured myself by the amount of yard work I completed, or my progress on a home renovation project (take your pick), or some other "big" thing. Now I measure myself on the routine things, celebrating if I can get two loads of laundry through the washer, dryer, folded and put away, all in one day. On Friday evenings I make a to-do list of all the possible errands and tasks (simple tasks, like vacuuming the office) that I could do on Saturday. Then I decide which ones are the most important, and which ones I will forgive myself for skipping if I can't find the time.

Such a change in perspective! I never thought doing laundry would make me feel accomplished!

Getting back to the topic of today's errands: I spent time with my parents. Currently, mom and dad live about 90 minutes to the north. My mom is retiring in a few months and so they have decided to sell their house and move closer to some of "the girls" -- meaning me and the baby, and also my sister (who lives about three miles south of me). They also want to stay close to "the boys" (my older brothers, who live closer to their current home), so they are looking primarily at properties north of town.

Thus the reason my parents came to town, as suggested by the previous paragraph, was to look at a couple of houses. The houses were both... how do I say this?... less than ideal. The first one had a beautiful, breath-taking view, but the house needed a lot of (primarily cosmetic) work. The land was also underdeveloped. The second house... there's no way to briefly summarize the experience. There wasn't really anything redeeming about the house or land, except maybe one of the out buildings, which was fairly large and appeared to be in good condition.

It's disappointing, not finding the right property. My parents have very specific criteria and no reason to rush the process, so it will take time. Nevertheless, I'm REALLY excited to have them move closer, and thus I'm REALLY impatient for them to find the right property. I honestly wish I could go preview some properties for them. I love looking at houses (do I get that from my dad, I wonder?) and it would save them some headache of traveling all the way down just to be disappointed.

On the bright side, with spring rolling in and summer soon to follow, more houses are popping up on the market. The perfect place might be listed next week, you never know! In the meantime, maybe I can convince my parents that they don't really want to live out in the country with a couple of acres... they want to live down the street from me :o)

Blog more, be happier.

A post yesterday, and now a post again today?! What is the world coming to?

Well, the thing is, I set a goal for myself to blog more. I set this goal as one of several New Years goals, which Nate and I developed for ourselves individually and as a family. I tend to do a lot of journal writing, so when I have free time for writing, pretty much everything goes in my journal. I've found it to be an invaluable resource for working out my personal feelings and frustrations. It's also important to keep a record of my life.

But some of my record keeping can certainly be public. While I don't think blogging should be used to air one's "dirty laundry" or to thrust upon the world every thought -- particularly not the more inane thoughts -- or for whining, complaining, arguing, or otherwise spewing forth darkness and vitriol, I DO think it's good to keep people informed and to provide uplifting discourse, whenever possible.

(Side note: A couple of weeks ago I had a wonderful conversation with my "uber boss" in which we discussed the importance of using social media to be kind, uplifting, and show forth Christlike attributes. The boss described himself as "a bit of a pollyanna". I decided that I want to apply his "pollyanna principle" to my use of social media. Ahhh... I just adore the uber boss; such an amazing person to work for. I feel really blessed to be under his leadership. (I really hope he's not reading this.))

I anticipate success with my renewed blogging efforts, since I recently repaired both my laptop and my netbook. Sadly, my tablet is not a good tool for blogging. (Arg! Typing with ones fingers is quite the challenge!) I am somewhat hindered, however, by a new rule in our house: No computers after 9pm.

I've been very good about that rule, except not last night or right now, since I'm trying to reach my blogging goal.

Anyway, it's past my bedtime. (Ack! It's 9:40!!!) I need to feed baby girl and go to bed. So, until next time.... Goodnight.

An evening gone awry, and other updates

This evening has not gone at all like I expected...

Nate is on a campout with the young men from the youth group. No surprise there. He came home at about 2pm (?), spent a couple of hours getting things together, and then left. Meanwhile, his mom watched the baby and I worked. A little after 5pm, I wrapped up for the day. I chatted with my mother in law while warming up some sweet potatoes for baby girl. MIL left, baby ate. I reheated some broccoli cheese soup for my own dinner. Baby got fussy while I ate (typical selfish little thing :o). We had some playtime, then she got a bath. I nursed her.

She was in her bed, asleep, by 7:15. Excellent. All normal, except for Nate's absence.

I started to write a blog post but couldn't think of what to say. I decided to ponder it while I finished up a project for New Beginnings. Down to the craft room with a week-old episode of Wait, Wait to amuse me. Sewing away efficiently, on target to quickly finish and then get some other things done before bedtime.

Baby girl abruptly awoke, screaming. That's not totally abnormal -- she sometimes needs a little extra burp after bedtime. I dashed upstairs, squeezed her burbs out, and put her back down.

That's when things started to slide off kilter. Usually she goes right back down, no fuss, easy as can be. It's bliss. But not tonight. She was very fussy.

Diaper change. Rocking. Attempted to nurse again. More rocking. A couple of 5-minute crying sessions (sometimes she just wants to be left alone, and she will cry for 2-3 minutes and go back to sleep; it sounds awful and I certainly don't like it, but sometimes that's what she wants). Turns out she was only content and willing to sleep if I held her.

Groan.

Of course I want to hold her. I love to hold her! And since dad is gone camping, I was going to have her sleep in our bed when I went down for the night. I just wasn't prepared for that to happen at 8:30!

So I shut down things in the craft room, closed up the basement, cleared the pillows from our bed, and brought the baby into my room. Where she fussed for 0.2 seconds and then fell asleep. I didn't have high hopes that she would stay asleep, but I needed to get myself ready for bed, so I just prayed that she wouldn't get too upset while I was in the bathroom.

Uhhh.... she didn't. She just continued to sleep. In fact, she's been peacefully asleep for an hour now. I guess this whole week of telling her, "You're going to sleep in our bed on Friday when your dad is gone. Lots of mommy cuddles!" really went to her head. :o)

So I sneaked around the house for about 40 minutes, first getting myself ready for bed, then getting the kitchen cleaned up, then starting a to-do list for tomorrow. Nate will be gone most of the day so it will be an all-day mommy/daughter date. Awesome.

What does our typical Saturday look like these days? Glad you asked...

We do a whole lot of running around. In the olden days, before the baby (we call this time in our lives "BK"), we would run errands any time, whenever we needed. But baby girl is needy and has her own schedule, so now we have to work around her. Plus Nate is currently the main person in charge of the young men in the youth group, so there goes two evenings a week. And I'm working part time. So the TO DO items pile up during the week until, finally, it's Saturday.

There's pretty much always a Saturday (usually morning) grocery store trip. We're trying to do a good job of planning our meals a week at a time, and making sure there are lots of leftovers. (This is all part of a broader plan to eat healthier, smarter foods -- but that's probably a whole separate post.) On Fridays we make our list of meals and compare the recipes to the food in our cupboards. Saturday we squeeze in a grocery store trip, usually between baby's naps. Sometimes we start cooking through our meal list on Saturday, but sometimes it doesn't start until Sunday. Either way, we're usually polishing off the assorted leftovers by the next Friday and ready to start the cycle over.

(Side note: Lately, it seems like our lives are nothing but one continuous loop. Every day follows a similar schedule; every week is nearly identical to the one before and after. Sometimes I lose track of time -- when someone asks me about my weekend, I have to wonder if my memories are from the current weekend or the one before! It makes me feel like an old person. :o)

A couple of weeks ago I finally had enough time on Saturday to make bread again. I haven't made bread since BK. I was probably 8 months pregnant the last time I baked bread. It was liberating to pop a couple of loaves in the oven again.... but it didn't help that Nate consumed all of it in about 5 days. (No joke.)

Hmmm....

It's my bedtime. I think there was more that I wanted to say, but I have to stop now. This bright screen is totally giving me a headache. So, rather abruptly.... The End.