Monday stickies...

And...
drink tea,
dance with toddler,
sew a podeagi,
have a cozy, catch-up-and-breathe type Monday?

I hope so! :)  Happy Monday!

Yesterday

 At 8.30 AM, we kicked things off by breaking the lid to the butter dish.  Butter is a theme in Nathan's life, so he did the honors. 

Shortly after, I shut the oven and the outer part of the oven door fell right off onto the floor. I kid you not.

Then I changed two poopy diapers.  Breakfast happened at some point. And it wasn't very healthy.

And then my favorite hair clip broke.  And the guard gate.

Thankfully by that time it was time for lunch and then naps, so the crazy level went down considerably.  :)  

And stayed mostly down for the rest of the day.  

Micah got home earlier than usual, fixed the oven door, then blessed me and made dinner (!) and then hung out with Nathan so I could do some writing.  Very relaxing, especially since it challenges me in a very different way than broken butter dishes do! :)

Better Marriages through Twitter!

I think I'll write a book and become rich and famous.

This morning I tweeted the following as I sat and sipped my Lady Grey tea that my sweet husband had made me:

Slightly feverish and cranky baby makes for a sleep deprived, headachy mama. Working on this one sip at a time.

I don't know why headaches make it so I can't remember the existence of pain medication.  Unfortunately, this means I generally suffer until Micah figures out what is wrong with me and hands me the ibuprofen.

My tweet, however, sent a text message to his phone, and to my surprise less than five minutes later, he arrived with a glass of water and two ibuprofen.  At first I thought he had just looked at me and known I had a headache, which was slightly more impressive, however I think this worked much better than our usual system.

So I'll try to remember to tweet next time my head hurts.  Maybe I'll be able to remember that...even though I can't remember to just take some ibuprofen...

Although, considering my level of crazy, I'd say the chances of that are pretty slim.

Anyway.  My husband is the best. :)

Peaceful Moments

It is always a good idea to have a toy or two stashed so that your toddler finds it a new and novel distraction when you really need him to play happily in the other room and let his sister nurse. She tends to get distracted when he is in here kissing her feet... although it is so sweet it's more than worth the delay!

monday musings

Today is Monday, a grey, drizzly Monday.  I have no stamps, and I do have bills that need to be mailed within the next few days, but the postmistress assured me when I called that she could have the mailman remedy that if I left a check in the mailbox.  Earlier, I dropped the milk jug lid in my mug of hot chocolate.  And before that, we had a rousing game of hunt-the-keys (and then a bonus round of hunt-the-shoe, thanks to N's love of wearing our shoes all over the house) this morning before Micah left for work.  

Yep.  Monday!  Back to the joy of the mundane.  Here are a couple links to what I'm catching up on reading this Monday-

This NY Times article on the safety of posting children's photos, names, info, etc, online has me thinking. I am going to be rereading this article a few times and thinking over whether there are things I'd want to change.  I do think I want to do watermarks on my public images... can Flickr do that for you?

...and...

I LOVE this beautiful post on babywearing by Leigh at Marvelous Kiddo.  She articulates well the ease and benefits of a lifestyle of babywearing.  She also had another great post recently with lots of pictures of babywearing around the world. 

happy Monday, friends!

A Rainy Fall Day

Today is the kind of day that just doubles the joy in baking, cups of hot tea, curling up with a book and two cuddly kiddos, wearing those warm winter clothes that have been packed away, and toasting your toes in front of the heater.

The maples are golden outside, the clouds are grey, but the fields are still green. I can't find my card reader, but when I do I'll have some pictures to share...

Beauty of the Mundane

This is a great post on Anne Bradstreet,  but I also loved how beautifully Mrs. Friedrich put this:

But the word "mundane" also refers to things pertaining to this life rather than things that are spiritual. In other words, everyday life is mundane. But it acquires a beauty and holiness when we see those everyday things, even the dirty dishes, as opportunities to serve God and bring glory to Him.

Mondays

Mondays are for dishes.

 

And laundry.

And catching up on baby cuddles.


(This is Miriam in the ring sling watching me pick blueberries this summer.)







Happy Monday, friends! :)

Butter in the carpet...

I just turned around and noticed in horror that Nathan had two large handfulls of butter.  He was standing there in the office, on the carpet, and then he gaily threw each handful down.  Oh. my. I thought we were doing better about him getting into the butter, but maybe that was just me getting better about putting it away after meals.  The tally - 3/4 of a stick of butter, divided among the office carpet, living room rug, and dining table chair.  No real lasting damage.  This is precisely why I hate carpet and bought an inexpensive rug for the living room!

And it isn't even 9 AM yet!  Maybe mama's computer time needs to wait for naptime...? ;-)

Red Wine on a White Tablecloth

... an inevitable casualty of our cups running over. ;-) Actually, it was a small child *ahem!* whodunnit, as they say.

Any success stories on getting out red wine? What should I try? I've got it soaking in the washer now. Of course, things being what they are, the washer had to get unloaded for that to happen, but really that is just a bonus because otherwise it would've gotten overlooked over the weekend no doubt, which is just gross.

Ouch!

I haven't spoken to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt her.
- Rodney Dangerfield

So true... I frequently have to do the verbal equivalent of sitting on my hands, because really, Micah doesn't need to come home at night and be subjected to hours of me recounting what occurred to me while hanging clothes, what the cat did today, or how annoying it was when there was nothing but junk mail in the box!

My Days These Days..

People ask me what my days look like. I think I've finally figured out the honest answer to that, and it is, I have no idea.

I frequently look back at the end of the day and it is a blur of diaper changes, baths, hauling Nathan down from the chairs, tables, benches, stairs, beds, and sofas he climbs, nursing, naps, giggles, messes, making food, washing laundry, dishes, to-do lists that grow instead of shrink, half finished projects, more nursing, diapers, naps, and tears (usually, just the babies, but sometimes mama too). In the few minutes since I sat down to write this, baby monitor next to me as they sleep upstairs (6.36 AM), I've realized that I don't remember if I paid the electric bill this month (if I didn't it's late), I've looked in the stack of mail and discovered my husband's paycheck (which should've been deposited), and I've thought I should go put the dishes away/hang clothes/clean the office for the company coming this weekend/find the missing vaccuum part/find the electric bill.

I ought to keep a diary for a day, jotting down each thing as it happens, but since I haven't journaled much since Miriam's birth I don't see that happening any time soon.

...

Since starting this, I've fed Nathan breakfast, nursed M, taken a load of laundry off the line, hung a load of laundry on the line, started another load in the washer, downed two glasses of water, given Nathan and Miriam baths, confirmed that I did indeed pay the electric bill, and put Nathan down for a nap. It has been a good morning. Nathan toddling around outside picking clover blossoms as I hang laundry. Miriam smiling back at me. Nathan putting his head on Miriam's feet to 'hug' her as she nurses. Green grass blowing in the wind. Nathan's glee at splashing in the tub.

I'm not going to try to polish this all up because then, frankly, it won't ever get posted... dishes need washed, floors need swept, and I need to get going because they're both asleep! :-)

Tweetering

Just a PSA that I've succumbed to the twittering. If you already have as well, you can follow me here.

As an aside, does anybody else think its creepy that people "follow" you? If I noticed people following me on the street, I'd be a bit freaked out...but apparently it's a good thing if they follow you on Twitter. Huh.

Merry Christmas!

Nathan thinks Christmas is quite exciting!

A little stressful, though, when you aren't allowed to eat the ribbons off the presents...

But all in all quite interesting and fun...

... and sometimes a bit exhausting, requiring a long winter's nap...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

General Update on Life

Last week... Amy, one of my out of state bridesmaids, came to visit. We had a good time and addressed lots of wedding invitations, sipped many companionable cups of tea, had chocolate, stayed up late talking about everything and nothing, and went shopping for fabric.

This week... I bought 200 pictures of my good looking fiance and myself- I threatened to wallpaper our new kitchen with them, but was persuaded to put them in wedding invitations instead. ;-) I mailed most of those yesterday...I'm still rounding up a few stray addresses, but most of them are now sailing through the postal services channels, and hopefully ending up in the right places!

Today... I went into town and had a safety inspection done on the family car, and did some shopping.

There. :-) I figured I should at least let you all know that yes, I'm still alive... also, that I'm doing wonderfully well. I'm busy. But happy. :-)