on mothering

Having a newborn to nurture is probably my favorite thing in the world.  I’m so grateful to have this beautiful child in our lives.  He has so much growing to do yet it feels like I have known him forever.

My pregnancy was full of whining.  Serious wah wah wah, pretty much everyday.  If only I’d known it was him in there!

Life is slowly getting back to normal- if there is such a thing. I went to Target yesterday only to forget my list at home and ended up running through the store at a runners pace as I was suddenly afraid the baby would cry his little newborn cry in the store.  I felt so on top of things when I drove there and once I arrived all I wanted to be was nestled in the pillows on my bed at home. 

Which is where I am now, and it’s very nice indeed.

G’nite!

very blessed

In the early hours of Sunday morning I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

 

Ken and I are so grateful and elated he is here.  It is humbling to love this precious new life. 

We named him Sawyer, he is so small and sweet!

We’re home now and the adventure is just beginning…

a variety of stuff

I’m tired of winter food.

I want the lighter fare of summer.

It’s been the kind of weather that if you find a sunny spot outside that is sheltered from any wind-no matter how gentle it may be- you can stay warm.  But in the house it feels cold.  Until you turn on the heat then it gets too warm and stale.  So you complain.

I’ll complain again around late August when I’m tired of heat and humidity and want to make beef stew and hear ducks overhead.

I finally have the go ahead to be a little more active.  It feels weird.

I can’t stop making baby stuff.

My husband had a big day at work last week, he gave a speech and I sat with my children and cried.  Partially out of love and partially out of hormones.

I also cried during an episode of Happy Days yesterday, so I’m not sure what that all means.

Sam doesn’t look like Sam in this picture, his sisters have already had a laugh over it but it is still my favorite.

This might have been the first big function our oldest didn’t attend- we missed you, Hadley.  Having grown up kids is hard.  You can’t help but be proud of their independence and their newly sprouted life skills but at the same time you want them home so you can pick out their clothes and they can ride in the minivan with the whole family.

That’s all.

 

A Really Dumb Thing

Sometimes I do some really dumb stuff, this is how I learn.  Looking back at the dumb stuff always make me shake my head in disbelief…really? I did that?

Add in pregnancy and a traveling husband.  My husband will deploy again shortly after this baby is born- his 7th deployment!  Until then he will be here and there and everywhere and hopefully in the delivery room when the time comes (When? When will the time come???)

I have a history of events that just happen whenever he is away.  Whether it’s the hot water heater flooding the house (1998 and 2007) or a raccoon that  breaks into your coop and removes the beaks from all but one hen (2000). Car accidents, broken bones, the dog dying.  If it seems like a weird, freak thing it will happen when he is away.

A couple weeks ago on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon he drove out of the yard for a trip to Virginia.  I made the kids some lunch and as a treat set up a little picnic outside.  We were eating and saw little Sally O’Malley (the cat) in the kitchen window so I went inside and brought her out.  She doesn’t go outside.  She pranced and danced around the yard close by like a little ballerina.  It was the sweetest thing ever. 

Then I realized it wasn’t a brown leaf in the yard she was playing with…it was a brown bat.  A bat? Out in the day?  I know enough about bats and rabies to realize this was not a very good thing at all.  We put her in her cage and killed the bat- it was showing it’s fangs and acting quite scary.  I called an emergency vet that was nonchalant and hinted she should probably be put down as she hadn’t had her 12 week rabies shot yet.  So I called more vets and kept getting similar answers.  The state wouldn’t test the bat for rabies because there was no human contact or broken skin.  I couldn’t believe I would have to put our sweet little Sal down. Just because I brought her out for less than 30 minutes and she found a bat.

We kept her caged for a few days and I didn’t know what I was going to do. The last vet I had called ended up calling me back and found a woman willing to rescue her and keep her quarantined (the state says 6 months). 

This woman has rescued over 200 cats through the years from being put down.  She has little Sal in a sunny little bedroom with a big window all to herself.  No cage…it was breaking my heart to imagine her in a cage for 6 months. She sends me pictures and has marked Sept 19 on the calendar as the day we can have her back. She asked for no money or food.  I can visit her anytime.  Her selfless act of kindness has had me in awe. 

There are good people in the world, she has inspired me so much and I am so grateful.  Sally quickly became part of our family, I miss her so much!  I try and never spoil my kids but am just the opposite about our cat.  Cats should be spoiled and Sally was the perfect queen of our castle.

I feel lucky this has somewhat of a happy ending- I hope.  I feel confident she won’t come down with rabies, though with small kids and pregnancy the vet wouldn’t let us keep her as the risks are too great and I get that.  If you know Laura from Jaffrey hug her…she is an angel!

 

The Marcia Brady Dress and some other sewing stuff

There is a huge stack of works-in-progress on my sewing table, most of which is for my eight year old.  I hope to finish it all before warm weather is here to stay. 

This fabric reminds me of the Brady girls and their groovy room, which isn’t so bad.  Molly likes certain prints and I like certain prints and if Marcia Brady green and pink is meeting halfway then all is well.  The dress pattern is from here.

The truth is I really fell in love with this yellow fabric, Molly didn’t like it at all.  But chance had it that I found myself in the same store for another reason just a few days later so I bought it and made her another dress. 

She likes it now :)

I’ve made her some other things like pull on pants and easy stuff that she can lounge and sleep in.  The clothes in stores for her age group alarm me, I want to keep her cute and little as long as I can.

That is why she has rainbow pants and the modern day Dorothy pant outfit…because she is cute and little and loves color and singing Beatles songs while she rides her bike up and down the driveway. 

Eight years old is a great age to be.

a little color for a misty March day

The kids have the day off from school,  it is a lazy day to say the least.  A day in which a nap is inevitable. The younger ones and I were nestled under my favorite red plaid blanket reading books, when unbeknownst to me I woke with a stack of Berenstain Bear books aside my face and no children to be seen.   These children must be getting tired of their  mother.  Do they remember me when I was a bit-o-fun? When I splendored in glitter crafts and paint?  When I didn’t hobble around like an old lady in a ski accident?

Anyhow whenever I feel worn out I always revert back to the days of yore and what all the women before me went through.  They had so much everyday work just for regular meals and clean clothes. Often I look through the ephemera saved by my great-grandmother and it never fails to inspire me.  She went through so much in her life but still managed to find beauty everywhere.

  

These images are from her scrapbook from 1900-1915. 

Now I feel like I have the energy to put the clothes in the dryer, start the dishwasher and listen to it whir and rattle as it cleans my dishes.  And maybe if I’m really ambitious I will send a note to my husband at work and ask him to bring home pizza for dinner. Being a spoiled modern housewife is such hard work!

heavyweight

Our rooster is conceited and ornery. 

I tried so hard to like him.  But he’s such a creep!