Getting moved and settled

Moving and moving with a young child in tow, are two completely different things. The process of getting everything packed moved and then unpacked again, organized and put together in ways that feel, logical, beautiful and homey all takes twice as long as it should! 

Though Guiny is only 13 months, she is very much (though not completely) out of the "baby" stage. She toddles all of over and gets into as much as possible. She's always trying to climb and I've just had to order my first set of child safety locks. I thought perhaps I wouldn't have to buy any, Guin is usually really good at listening when I tell her no, even when she doesn't like it. But at this stage the cabinets are just too available and too interesting.

The bathroom is pretty much done as is the living space. The kitchen is also very close to finished and the bedroom, well I guess that's half done. The spare bedroom is quite a mess though, at the moment it's kind of storage and things I don't know what to do with.

But hopefully it'll be done enough soon that I can do a proper post with pictures and everything. Till then here's a somewhat dark picture of the living room.

Being Intentional

I mentioned in my post about the Miracle gel nail polish that I was trying to be more intentional with my life. I feel like it's really easy when you become a mom, especially a stay at home mom to get a bit shall we say lazy or lax with your life. Now when I was a teenager I was very intentional about my appearance, I wasn't over the top but I was intentional. I brushed my hair and put on at least eyeliner everyday and I would take ages in my closet finding what I wanted to wear, I think I owned one pair of sweatpants and I never wore them.

Now as a stay home it's easy to find myself wearing the same shirt 3 days in a row with badly chipped nail polish, dry skin, hair that hasn't been brushed and no make up and really, really not caring. But that reality has started to bother me recently. Not just my indifference towards my appearance, but my indifference towards a lot of things, from my appearance, to my health, to relationships. I remembered recently a time when I was in college and God challenged me to "fast" make up for a week, and it was actually really hard because I had gotten to the point where I cared to much. Now though I feel the pendulum has swung to far in the opposite direction and I'm needing to pull it down to a normal place again.

So this years resolution is to be more intentional. I am not going to wait till Newyears to make it either, 'cause let's face it there is no time like the present. We signed a contract for our new place today, lots of change is coming and it's going to be a good season. 

So I challenge you, any of you ... If you are feeling lazy about your life, make a change and make this the year of intentionality.

First year being a First time mom

I have always wanted kids, ever since I can remember. But being the baby of the family I never got a hole lot of experience taking care of them. Nonetheless going into this I had every expectation of being super mom! I was going to breastfeed and pump, I was going to baby ware and get everything done and blog a lot and make a huge vegetable garden and still find time for arts and crafts and writing maybe even pick up guitar again! I was going to do it, do it all and be fabulous! Well that isn't really how it went.... at all.

So labor and delivery went well, I wasn't scared or nervous I didn't want an epidural and that's probably good because I wouldn't have time for one if I did. Contractions started around 4 am on the 7th and I went to the hospital in the afternoon and they said oh your only about a centimeter dilated and three days early, first baby just go home honey, it could be days before this baby pops out. So next morning 5 am arrived back at the hospital they looked at me and said we'll check but they might just send you home or have you walk (I'm thinking I'm not walking anywhere) and at 5:58 am my little Guinevere Annette came into the world at 6 lbs even and 19.5 inches. She was so tiny and so perfect, with the deepest blue eyes and the blackest baby hair. Everything was going smoothly, she found my breast and latched on within an hour or so and the hospital does rooming in with all their newborns, so that was nice.

Labor wasn't all that bad, and honestly the thing that hurt the most was having the monitor strapped to my belly. But oh boy after ... I was not prepared for how painful the postpartum experience would be, or how long (it took over 3 months for me to heal completely).

And then there was the breastfeeding problem, it started out great and for the first month she only ever gained weight, she wanted to nurse almost constantly and I was exhausted but she was gaining and growing. Then some strange thing happened and she was still nursing all the time but it just wasn't enough. I tried supplements to produce more milk and even cut out dairy (which was dreadful) but it didn't do much and for some other dreadful reason I just can't pump. So after fighting a loosing battle for a while, I ended up supplementing and as much as I had wanted to be super mom the stressed exhausted mom I had become was so beyond happy for the 5 minutes of peace a 4 oz bottle of formula could bring.

That was all on the up and ups but of course life never throws just one thing at you and adding a squirt of lemon to that paper cut was just what I needed. I was still nursing and she was still ravenous and also a terrible sleeper so I slipped into a bad habit of letting her fall asleep while nursing just so I could have a break. She still will not go to sleep without me 75% of the time (bad habit, not going to repeat that mistake).

Also I couldn't find a nursing bra that fit properly and my breast were super sensitive so wearing anything more then a loose shirt  was extremely painfully and I couldn't do it for more then an hour or two. I remember going to a woman's meeting one evening and thinking its all moms and girls and I'm going to forgo the pain tonight, they might not even notice, they did though, no one said anything but it was obvious and that was the last time I did that. 

Another big issue was Guinys problem with car seats it is so much better now, but she still doesn't like it. When she was about 2 weeks old we went to my friends wedding an hour and a half away and the ride took probably 3 or 4 hrs because she screamed and cried the entire time and we kept having to stop. Side note we got a 5-50 lbs rear and front facing type car seat and that helped considerably.

Around 5 months I started feeding her baby food because she just wanted real food so bad. I almost wished I had started a bit earlier because after that she finally seemed to normalize eat and drink and then actually be full and okay for a while not so constantly hungry. But oh could she eat, no airplanes for her one mouthful swallow, open mouth, another mouthful swallow, open mouth and cry when the 4 oz bowl was empty and then when we started eggs and noodles and cracker and things she could actually pick up and eat oh you would not believe how happy she was. And she would eat anything and I mean anything (except green beans).

The summer went by fast and she went from rolling to crawling and then cruising along furniture, just last week she started to walk  and already she try's to run. She has 4 teeth and another two obviously not far behind. She's about 27 in tall and oh she must be 19 lbs or more by now. She loves to sing with her daddy and she has the sweetest giggle. Also she loves dogs, my brother and sisters pittbull is her favorite, and any other very large dogs. Actually she loves most animals except giraffes. She hates being strapped down (car seat high chair etc) unless she's going for a walk in her stroller, she loves the fresh air and sunshine. Oh she also loves sorting laundry and dusting furniture (mommies little helper).

Special thanks to my mom and dad and husband but esspecially my mom for all the help.

Till next year!

A Final Update

For a few weeks at any rate. I know it's been a while but I have a million excuses, life has been quite busy and quite stressed the last few weeks. And to be entirely honest I've been exhausted and my mind quite lacking in topics of interest, and things worthy of the time it would take to write and read them. But we'll be on the ups with lots to share when we get back.

Where are we going?   China.    How long?    Three weeks.    When?    In three days.

So the rest of my week will be quite busy, trying to finish everything, pack everything, clean everything, and hopefully forget nothing! Well here are some garden pictures  as well as a few of my corset for you and if you think of us say a prayer for easy, safe, successful and enjoyable travels.

Thinking about Feminism, Family and Priorities

Just in the past few years I've noticed more and more young families with multiple children. Even in advertising you see it more and more, three or four children running around, more compact car seats and cars that have room for more of them. Moms who want to stay home and are finding ways to make that dream work, not allowing the social norms of "feminism" to make them feel bad about not having a career.

Now I'm not saying there is anything wrong with having a job, or wanting a job or even enjoying a job ... But to treat those who enjoy being "stay at home wives & mothers" as though they are letting themselves and "all their sisters" down by being somehow less then they can be is ludicrous! I would go so far as to say the feminist movement is probably one of the least feminine things that has ever happened to women! Yes we can do most anything men can do (we are after all human beings), equal in rights and abilities, but to say we are "the same"  it just isn't true, and believing that is really letting yourself down. We are different, just as every individual is different from another (thus the term "individual") we are meant to be different and it's a good thing, we shouldn't be afraid of it. And I think more and more woman are beginning to think this way.

Perhaps society is slowly returning to a more natural way of thinking about life. Life has gotten so big and so complicated, but it really doesn't have to be and I don't know about you but I'm ready to make my life more simple, more relaxed, filled with family, love and hard work.

Just this morning I got out a notebook from Guins baby shower, in it was written tips and motherly advice from those who have gone before me in this adventure. All of it was good, but the note from my sister in laws mother was particularly touching. Unfortunately it was also quite long so I'll just give you a synopsis.

"Keeping priorities strait seems simple enough. #1 My relationship with God #2 My relationship with my husband and #3 My relationship with my Children. But when life gets hectic it's easy for these relationships to get out of order. It's easy for our children to slip into first because their needs are so ever present and occasionally overwhelming, they become in a seance 'little gods' and that is not good. Even if we manage to keep God as #1 it is easy for our husbands to slide into 3rd place. As believers our spouse should never want to be first but they always need to be second. Having second place in our heart helps them maintain their own position as head of the family, allowing them to do their job the way it needs to be done. Also the security this order gives to children is fundamental, knowing and being able to see the priority that God and their daddy have in your life, builds security and respect in their hearts. When you have young children they consume much of your time. Thankfully the intensity of relationship is not based on time but intentionality and purposefulness. Keeping time to focus on the Lord even if only for 5 minutes a day is crucial and always keeping a strict bed time for the children not only assures that they get enough sleep but also that there is time for you and your spouse to spend time together as adults."  

That's a simplified and shortened version but it is something I think I should try to read monthly to remind myself. It put me in mind of a book I read (most of) called The Creative Counterpart, she also talked about keeping that set of priorities. My goal for the rest of this year is to work on keeping my priorities straight and my life simplified.

No Photo Update

No pictures, the only real difficulty I've had "blogging with a baby" is finding the time to take cool pictures. But it's been too long since I posted last and if I don't post something soon I'll roll into a non-blogging slump. It's been busy this month ... well last month actually, hard to believe it's May already! We took a trip to D.C. And then to Philly for my sister(in law)s bay shower, which was really a lot of fun, I had been dreading both of those as Guin doesn't go for car rides, she's not that baby you drive around just so she will sleep. Despite all that she travelled really well and the only problem we had was exhaustion from not getting a nap all day.

Last week I also had a pretty exiting trip to a local second hand store I'd never been to before, perhaps sometime I'll post pictures of my haul but for now I'll just tell you about it! I found some nice wool sweaters some of which I plan to keep and some I plan to unravel and re-use, at 25 cent each I couldn't resist. I also found a couple shirts and the grand finally which has me quite excited ... a 4 pelt sheep skin rug in great condition for only $30! It could do with a rinse, fresh air and a fluffing, but is all in all in great condition and for something like 10% the original price.

Well let's see now what else? My little girl has been eating anything I'll feed her (except green beans) and I think will probably be crawling soon. Today has been good so far I managed to cook and mash up some sweet potato and also some pear for freezing, hopefully I can do some banana too!

The garden is looking lovely with all the rain we've been having, seedlings sprouting lettuce growing well, radishes, peas, onions and garlic sprouting higher and the trees and grass as green as green can be! I guess that's all for now, if my sleepy baby will actually start sleeping at nap time maybe the next post will have some pictures!

Blogging Yourself

              

As I'm sure you've all heard before "write about what you know!"  This applies not only to novels but also very much to blogging. I have heard people many times refer to blogging as "online journaling" but to be honest that never made much sense to me. I guess in my mind journaling will always seem at first glance to be the same as keeping a diary and a diary will always in my mind be the place where little girls write silly things they don't want anyone else to read. Now I know of course that that is not at all the case and there are many kinds of journals to record many many different and unique topics. That said, I was think about a post I wrote a little while back call Scattered and I realized that what I wanted my blog to be was not really ... "Me". I was wanting my blog to be like the blogs that I enjoy reading.

To be quite honest, as much as I would love to write about "going to a dinner party at my friends house, eating a delicious dinner of pasta,chicken cutlets and arugula salad with wine and a chocolate pear tart for dessert." Like this post by Joanna Goddard. Or share pictures of the sweet early morning date I had with my husband all dressed up in a cafe in New York like this post from Love Taza. The fact is that I am a very different kind of person, with a very different story and a very different life and that's okay ... it's good. And as much as I might not always like it, it is who I am and that's what makes life fun, the diversity!

So what is my life like? My life is slow, my life is a bit solitary, my life is a baby girl and gardening. My life is waiting all day so I can hug my sweet husband when he gets home. My life is making new things out of old junk. My life is the wind in my hair and the earth between my toes. My life is making the bed and doing some laundry, washing dishes and occasionally making dinner. My life ... is unique and that's part of what makes me me. And that is way beyond okay!

Scattered

Check out my Pinterest board Cut Flower Garden
for this and other pictures.

My blog post may seem scattered and a tad slapdash recently, but I guess that reflects how I have been feeling in my life. Writing blog post always seemed so easy and when I had my daughter I thought this is a great time to really get into a routine of writing every day. But since she was born back in October I've felt very "uninspired" to write, not that I don't want to write, it just seems every time I sit down to do it that I just really have nothing post worthy to say. I'm sure that isn't true and perhaps it's just a strain of writers block. But in all honesty I think it's because I have so little time to be creative these days, no time to do things let alone photograph and write about them.

You see my little girl is the sweetest most adorable thing, if I had a dollar for every time someone stopped to tell me how sweet, adorable and beautiful my baby girl is it would practically be a second income for us. However, she is not a sleepy baby and she is always wanting to go and see and do, which as I'm sure you can imagine doesn't leave much extra time. But that's alright I think, because it's a beautiful messy life with a baby in the mix and I wouldn't have it any other way!