To live a long life

I don't know when I decided it, but I have long held the belief that I would like to live to at least 100, maybe even 125 if I can manage to keep my witts about me and my body moving.

So am always interested to read about people who have figured out how to live a long and healthy life.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html?pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB

So who is with me, let's move to Ikaria.  I better start learning Greek.

I do seriously think about what it will be like to be 85.  What will I do for a living?  What will I do for fun and  where will I live?  It makes me slow down and take things at a less frenetic pace (which I have an unfortunate tendency towards).  I hope to have a great garden then and to live in a small house with friends and family nearby (I like the closeness of my townhouse community a lot, but I sure wish some of my family lived here too).  I also hope that I will get to take a good walk and a good nap most days and that I will get to make things for grand and great-grand babies.

Dishes

Anyone who has been to my house knows that my dishwasher is mediocre.  It looks nice and fancy - stainless steel can mask a variety of ills - but it truly does not clean well and usually things come out looking a little dull.  So I tried rinse aids and vinegar and different types of soaps - all with little success.  Eventually, I came to just more or less wash my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, where I would run the normal cycle and have them coming out dull but allegedly clean.

After a few years of that - ok, maybe it was 5 or 6 years - I figured I would try just hand washing my dishes.  It turns out, that the process of hand-washing and rinsing is faster and my dishes are cleaner. So I have been doing my dishes by hand for about a year and it works pretty well.  I still use my lovely dishwasher occasionally (mostly as a drying rack) and at some point might switch back to using it full-time.  For now however, I am doing dishes old-school.  Also, a big thank you to Aunt Myrtle (Desiree's mom) who taught me how to hand-wash dishes efficiently when I was a teen-ager.

Autumn

This is my favorite season.  I get giddy the first time the air feels crisp outside and I smell the fall leaves.  I love the colors of the trees and the nights getting longer and cooler.  I love living with the windows open and the breezes blowing through the house.  I love apple and pumpkin picking and going to harvest festivals.  I love trying to get that last little bit out of the garden (my kale is still going strong).  It is just a good time of year to be alive.  That stifling summer heat that makes days seem like they will last forever is gone and fall seems to hasten things for me.  As if I only have a little bit of time to enjoy it all before the cold of winter descends.

I also love that I get to start baking with gusto again.  Pumpkin muffins are one of my favorite foods and I usually have muffins ready all fall long.  Inside the house, we start the season of decorating.  First we decorate for the Halloween and Fall, then the Halloween stuff gets replaced by a few Thanksgiving things.  Last but certainly not least, we get the Christmas decorations out and the whole house seems cheerier.

Work project

I finally found a project at work or rather it found me. I was "on the bench" for five weeks which is a nerve wracking place to be. It basically meant I had a job but was not making the company any money. That is not a good place to be for long. So I am thrilled to have a real project.

I am working on a counter narcotics study of our (the US) work in Afghanistan. It looks like I may have to travel to the infamously dangerous Tampa, FL; but thankfully not to Afghanistan. :)

Projects - Cross-stitch, VW, dehydrator

As mentioned, I love Alicia's style at Posie Gets Cozy.  So earlier this year, I bought a cross-stitch sampler kit from her.  It was so much fun to do, because once I got started, it was easy to just do a few stitches whenever Meredith would start playing with something.  And easy to set down again as soon as she noticed that I was not focused exclusively on her. ;)

Also, here is the finished lego VW van.  It turned out awesome and is perfect on my fireplace mantel.  Audrey and Claire both helped me with the van.

And last but certainly not least, I bought a dehydrator!!! I have a whole bunch of kale and basil to dry.  I am super excited.  Please don't be surprised if your Christmas present includes dried kale and/or basil this year.

Moving along

After our first week of school, daycare, and work;  we all took turns getting sick.  However, other than that, we are adjusting pretty well.  Audrey loves school and being with her friends again.  Meredith does not love daycare, but she is playing and calm when I pick her up everyday, so that is a start.

I am enjoying reconnecting with old friends and colleagues at work as I try to find a project that I want.  I am trying to stick with international public policy, but not the exact same project.  I would like to expand my perspective and work with other agencies.  I basically have one week left of looking for my dream project before the utilization gremlins come out to get me and I will be more or less assigned. 

Week one back at work

This week has been rough.  Apparently, I was so focused on getting us personally ready to go back to work for me, school for Audrey and for Meredith to start day care; that I forgot about making sure our house was ready to support those efforts.  So Audrey ran out of clean undies by day two, milk was gone by day three and the one freezer meal I had made was eaten quickly. 

Luckily, my job has *not* been the stressful part.  Right now I am not on any projects, so I just go to the corporate office everyday and work on all the company requirements that used to make my life miserable (because I did them late at night on the last day they were due as I never had time for them during the workday).  Now, it gives me something to do.  It doesn't seem like as much of a pain to download, learn and understand random computer programs when that is your entire job instead of last-minute late-night adventure.  I have also been reconnecting with old colleagues, updating my resume, and looking through open positions to try to find something that fits.  Eventually, I need to actually be a profit earning employee.  Embedded into this mix has been losing my badge, reconfiguring my computer and all kinds of other little issues to make the days more interesting.

School for Audrey has been wonderful.  Audrey loves the magic of childhood.  She was excited to reconnect with her friends and she has already made some new friends who love princesses as much as she does.  Unbeknownst to me, she brought a miniature magic wand to school yesterday and 'the princess club' buried it in the school yard during recess for the fairies.  She also left something under her pillow last night for the night time fairies (like the tooth fairy) to get while she was sleeping.  If I would have known I would have put something there instead for her. :)

Daycare is going less well for Meredith.  She likes playing and she has been taking short naps at the appropriate times, but she isn't fond of drinking from a cup for her milk and she is luke warm on their food.  One of the other kids bit her arm the second day.  And she cries like crazy when she finally sees me at the end of her day - like all the built up frustration and anxiety of a long day all comes out at once.  To top it off, she is sick with a fever today, so I am home with her this afternoon.  Ryan stayed with her this morning, so I could go into the office.

This week felt crazy and frantic, like I have too many things to keep track of, and not enough brain power, sleep and organizing power on hand to do any of it well.  I backed into a parked trailer at Meredith's daycare and I keep physically dropping things (computers, phones, my badge, keys, etc).  It is as if I am both physically and metaphorically juggling more than I can handle.  I am sure it will all smooth out and calm down.  In fact, I can already feel myself thinking through household stuff in a different way (I froze two quarts of lentil soup after we ate some for dinner yesterday, so that I will have a few healthy dinners on hand).  Little things like that will start to add up and things will start to run more smoothly.  I have to keep reminding myself that it will just take some time and patience (and a few deep breaths) and soon things will feel more calm again.

New shoes

These are one pair of my new shoes for going back to work - comfy red patent leather. The other pair is nice and sensible black leather loafers (snake skin leather though - I had to add a little pizzaz).

Favorite blog reads

Lately I have only had Internet access via my phone and iPad. This has limited the number of blogs that I visit and without realizing it I found my favorites.

My all time favorite is: http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/?m=1. Down to earth is the title. It is written by a 64 year old australian woman who decided to leave the corporate world and simplify her life so that she could make her home her life. She writes enthusiastic and wise posts on just about anything and everything. Her blog has been so successful that she has now written a book (which I hope makes it stateside soon) and sometimes writes for magazines and does radio interviews.

My other favorite is: http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/. Poise gets cozie is written by a designer in Oregon. I love her style and I recently did a cross stitch sampler kit of hers and loved it. I love her photography too. She has just a wonderful aesthetic.

Garden adventures

Last year I really wanted to start a garden. So I built a 4x4 box and made a lovely concoction of soil (following the square foot method) and compost and planted every square of my nice little grid. It grew like mad. However, as a big pregnant lady I didn't have the energy to go out to harvest or weed or really anything that involved me spending any extra time out in the heat and humidity towards the end of summer.

This year I vowed to do better. So my neighbor and I went to some local gardening classes in February and March and planned and plotted our gardens. We even shared a seed order to a local nursery.

But then when Audrey and I went out to plant it started raining so we quickly sowed a few seeds rather haphazardly. I intended to write down what we had planted and where but instead...

This year my garden has been full of fun surprises. The squash turned out to be cucumbers. The lettuce is perhaps kale. Things are still growing like mad but I'm just not sure what they all are. I may have some carrots but that could be parsnips as well. I am quite sure that when I am a more experienced gardener I will laugh heartily at this garden of surprises.

Conflicted

I will be starting back to work in less than a month. Part of me is excited about that. I always enjoy work and I derive a sense of satisfaction and self from my job (no matter what it is).

However, a bigger part of me feels a sense of gloom over leaving Meredith in someone else's care. It was easier with Audrey because she was twice as old and I left her in the care of her aunt first and then her dad.

I know Meredith will do well away from me. She is a happy curious baby who will love having others to play with and crawl over. I am just not so sure I will do well away from her. :)

Happy birthday project

My wonderful sister Claire sent me the coolest birthday present - a Lego model set to make my own Volkswagen van!

There are 160 pages of instructions and over 1300 pieces. I am amazed at the detail already. I just finished the engine. Here is my progress so far.

Thrifting

Today the girls and I went to a new thrift store in the area. I am trying to be a super frugal person and so I think I should shop primarily at thrift stores for clothes and other household things. However, in general I don't really like them. They are too much of a treasure hunt for my tastes. Same thing with places like tj maxx. It just seems like more work than it is worth.

Strangely I love antique stores and shows. I am trying to figure out the difference. I think it is the clothing aspect. I like looking at furniture and decorations and what not but not so much clothes or shoes.

Speaking of clothes... There are some things that I think should not be purchased second hand - under garments in general but thongs in particular. This store had a whole aisle of thongs - one side for women the other side for men. The thought of it still gives me the heebie jeebies, I wish I had taken a picture. As my mom would say different strokes for different folks...

Cooking skills

I am fortunate. My mom taught me how to cook. It was just something she included me in for as long as I can remember. It is one of those life skills that has served me well. While I am preparing food or reading through recipes I remember instances of making those foods together or watching her cook them. (thanks mom).

There have been others who taught me a lot too. Mary taught me how to make quiche. She used to make it in France all the time. Recently Margaret gave me a jar of herbs de Provence and I remembered Mary telling me how she used it in quiche all the time.

Quiche with herbs de Provence is now one of my go to meals when I have leftover bits of meats cheeses and veggies. (tonight we are having sausage and spinach quiche)

Even with all the wonderful culinary teachers in my life I am always learning and trying new things. Tonight I made the pie crust which I don't usually do. Lately I've been baking our bread and that has been fun to learn about yeast. I have also been brewing my own kombucha. Which is quite good and easy once you get it going. And that is my personal conclusion for most homemade foods. While they may seem intimidating at first, soon they are quite easy. And they taste amazing.

Mommy necklace

I just ordered this necklace to help with my fidgety feeder. I appreciate a good pinch or a wack in the face as much as anyone but every few hours by my sweet baby girl while she is eating is a little much. Hopefully this necklace will do the trick to help distract her. It is double wrapped in the photo but I used it single wrapped while feeding her just minutes ago. She loved the necklace and was rubbing her eyes with it.

Expired

Yesterday I went to put some holiday placemats away in my black hutch. It was a tight squeeze so I looked to see what was behind the holiday linens. It was an entire food storage kit sealed in #10 cans that we have had for 10 years. The expiration dates were years since past. I threw them all out and wondered about the rest of my pantry.

I cleaned that out today. The oldest thing I threw out (condensed milk) expired in 1999. That means I moved it from college with me. I only make one thing with condensed milk - fudge. And I only make fudge every few years. Which explains the two other expired cans that I also threw out.

Note to self: I do not need to store condensed milk. I can purchase it as needed. :)

Cloth Diapering

My sister Elena asked me about my cloth diaper system. As anyone who actually uses cloth diapers knows, it truly is a system - and it is constantly changing. Since I wanted to post write my thoughts on the various cloth diapers anyway, I will answer her question with this post.

With Audrey, I used fuzzibunz perfect size diapers. They work really well - they kept her dry and fit well. We never had blowouts and we rarely had leaks, when we did, it was our fault for leaving the diaper on too long. However, I *really* do not like the pockets for every diaper use - where you have to stuff an absorbent layer into the diaper and then pull it out to wash it. (I do still think they are good for night time, to be able to add an extra layer of absorbency and let the baby sleep dry all night long.)

Before Meredith was born, I decided that I was willing to do a two piece system (old school diaper and a cover) rather than stuffing. I went to the local diaper store (I am so glad we have one nearby), Abby's Lane (highly recommend using them online too - free shipping, fast processing, discounts/promos with email newsletter, points towards anything with every order), to see what my options were. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are lots of options and that the covers now have snaps (or velcro (called aplex?)) and pins are not really needed. I bought a couple of newborn sized covers (which never fit my newborn who weighed over 10 lbs at birth) and a few hemp/cotton prefold diapers (think old school but better fabric) and considered myself ready. We ended up using disposables for her first few weeks instead because the newborn size did not fit her and the fuzzibunz we had did not accommodate her umbilical cord.

So I headed back to Abby's lane and found thirsties! I loved them. The diapers and the covers snap. The covers have gusseted legs that never blowout - so nice after having blowouts all the time with disposables. The diapers are so soft - a cotton velour on the outside and a soft micro fleece on the inside, are super absorbent, fit well, and they have this tunnel design that helps them dry quickly. Just awesome. However, having to snap both the diaper and the cover at every changing takes more time than my squirming baby will hold still for. I wished there was some sort of all in one option.

Lucky me, there are lots of all in one (AIO) diaper options. As Meredith started to grow out of her size 1 diapers at 3 months (that are supposed to last through 9 months, btw) I ordered two different AIOs to try - bumgenius freetime and grovia. The grovia is all cotton on the inside and that stays wet against the skin - I don't like that so much. The bumgenius freetime is awesome. It has the micro fleece against the skin, so it stays dry. It is possibly the perfect diaper. Thirsties just came out with an AIO of their own and I ordered one today. I have high hopes because I like the thirsties fit on Meredith better than the bumgenius fit (and they are cheaper than all the other AIOs on the market to boot!).

My system... I get a couple of thirsties wipes (love these guys) wet with water in the sink before I change Meredith. After I change her diaper, I put both the used diaper and wipe into a zip up bag (wet/dry type) that hangs on her changing table and put the new diaper on her - pretty standard stuff. I wash it all including the bag in hot water every morning. I never have to touch any messiness, I just turn the bag out into the washer and add 1 Tablespoon Rockin Green laundry soap. Then I do an additional hot rinse. I throw it all in the dryer and usually hang them (from a little octopus laundry dryer) until I use them, just to make sure every thing gets lots of air.

My system is always evolving with minor adjustments all the time. I plan to try homemade laundry soap rather than Rockin Green once I run out of it. I like the Rockin Green, but it is expensive. Also, I would like to line dry all of it - right now I do not have enough diapers to do that. I would also like to do the wash every other day, but again, that requires more diapers. I still like the diapers and cover system, and I use that to supplement the AIOs.

Finally

I did it! Almost three months after Meredith's birth and I finally went jogging for the first time. It felt awesome.

I have a new jogging stroller and I tried to use it last week but Meredith *hated* it do much that I had to turn around and bring her back. Today I went sans baby - just me and Audrey - because my mom is here for the holidays and was happy to watch her while I went. Also I got some great new gear that helped. I got a new pair of asics gel kayano 17 shoes, fancy compression socks and a muscle roller for afterwards. Those 3 things made a world of difference. Hopefully this is the first of many good runs to come.

Cool knitting project

Well I need a new project, like I need another hole in the head, so I am not starting this, but if I ever have a whole bunch of sock weight yarn around....

http://tinyowlknits.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/the-beekeepers-quilt/

What can I say, I love patchwork and I love hexagons and this is both in one - perfection!

Also, I am 36 and 1/2 weeks along...

32 weeks and counting...

I think we are past the point of no return, we are going to be surprised for this baby.

The pregnancy is moving along beautifully. Aside from it being hot and a bit miserable nearly every time I step outside, I feel good. I am eating well, drinking lots of water, milk and prenatal tea and trying to get lots of sleep.

I am going to have the baby at a birthcenter with midwives instead of at the hospital and I am super excited for that. I might even do a waterbirth, since each birth room has a huge and deep tub.

Also, we are planning on doing cloth diapers the whole time with this little one. And the cloth diapers these days are so cute. I am hesitant to get too gender specific just yet, but once I can, I am going to get some really cute covers. You can see my neutral favorites at: http://www.amazon.com/registry/baby/31O8DXJU4ZZ3U