Two Girls Turned Forty
Hello old blog. Today, the fourteen day of August, 2022, Bethany Bordeaux turned forty years old. I wondered last night if I could surprise her by posting to our old blog… Was our old blog still up and running, out there on its own in a dusty corner of the internet? Could I remember the password? Turns out…. yes and yes! Sure, neither of us have been her for 6-7 years but the internet doesn’t forget. And so, for old time’s sake, here’s a post to commemorate our thirties and bookend the decade.
In the last 7 years, stuff has changed and also hasn’t. Bethany and I are still friends, duh. We still live in the same houses. We both have different jobs. We don’t see each other nearly as often as we used to.. But we did get to spend a few hours together earlier this year!
Throw a pandemic plus a couple extra kids in the mix and there’s just not nearly as much free time to randomly pass through or do anything else I guess. About those extra kids, we DID pull of something pretty impressive about 4.5 years ago. We managed to both welcome home baby daughters, within three months of each other. So yes, now we’re are actually four girls, and maybe one day, after they become best friends, they can start their own joint venture as they turn 30, in whatever the 2048 version of blogging is (yeesh shudder to think). And when they do, you best believe we’ll both be there commenting even if I have to make an account just for that purpose.
So how will we celebrate turning forty? Bethany already pulled off an kid free trip to NYC, so that’s a pretty good start. I looked back at my ‘turning 30’ list and maybe have an idea or two including but not limited to:
- Get bangs again
- Try a new fad diet… intermittent fasting perhaps?
- Join TikTok
- Tattoo?
- Get scuba certified
- Write a book
- Read a book
- Marie Kondo the entire house
- Start going to bed earlier
- Try melatonin
See what happened there? My list devolved from aspirational to basic 40 year old pretty fast but there we are. I’m going to keep thinking about a goal or two for this year, but in the meantime…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETHANY!!!!
I hope your day was fabulous and I look forward to another decade of adventures. Multiple people have told me that 40s are the new 30s.. guess we’ll find out!!
DIY Darth Vader and Baby R2D2 Costumes
Whelp here is one whopper of a #latergram. I meant to post these costumes last October but ended up working on the baby’s until you know, midnight on 10/30. Then I intended to post as a May the 4th celebration. And now here we are, a full year later.
But hey, Star Wars mania is in full force, and these are two kid costumes you can literally turn out at the last second if you ha.
My older son was dead set on Darth Vader for weeks ahead of time so I was prepared for that one.
What you need for Preschool Darth Vader:
- Black t-shirt and sweatpants (got mine at Wal-mart)
- Black gloves (Target has these for $1)
- Embellishments: I used cheapo craft felt, plus a section of black strap I found on the cord aisle at Joann.
- Black satiny fabric for cape
- Velcro
- Lightsaber (which we already had) and helmet (which cost more than the entire rest of the costume but it gets a lot of use. It does the Darth Vader voice effect, so yeah, worth it.)
The cape is velcro’d on at the shoulders so it can come off if needed. The felt decor and belt were just pinned in place then slowly sewed right around the edges with my sewing machine. Boom. Most impressive. (That is a Darth Vader quote, Bethany.)
For poor Davis, we had decided to stick with the villain theme and make him a Jabba the Hutt tail to wear. At that point in his life, Davis and Jabba sort of had similar body types. You know, the “rolls on top of rolls” look. (I miss those rolls!!) But then it was turning chilly and the Jabba tail just wasn’t coming together well.
And I ran across a picture of an R2D2 onesie on pinterest on approximately 10/29 that was just too cute.
So for this Baby R2-D2 costume you will need:
- White onesie
- Gray pants (Also wal-mart)
- Gray knit fabric to make your own infant cap
- Blue, black, gray, red felt for decorations
Decorating the onesie is easy: cut out the felt, pin it in place, and then sew around the edges with coordinating thread on the sewing machine. I had to sew the pieces on the arms by hand because the sleeve of the onesie was too tiny to fit my sewing machine. The sewing by-hand is a little tedious, but with the machine its shockingly easy.
Now about the hat… I searched the tri-county area for a gray infant cap but alas the ONLY available colors are pink, blue, and yellow. After panicking a bit, the fog cleared and I realized that such a thing could be made from scratch. Here is the tutorial and pattern I used, although I upsized it by about half an inch to fit a 6-month old (sniff sniff). The hat probably took an hour to figure out, and as any DIYer knows, an hour is practically nothing at all. I believe the entire R2D2 outfit took from about 9pm-midnight on Halloween Eve with at least 2 scrapped hats along the way.
And that’s what we did in 2014. I’ll be back in a year to show you what I’m sewing this week. (more capes, duh!) Happy Halloween and may the force be with your sewing machine between now and then!
Circling the Wagons
– A Bandwagon Roundup –
I suppose we can thank social media for keeping us informed about what’s trending and what everyone else is doing. All these little ideas come floating into my world – try this diet! roll your jeans like this! here’s the perfect 365-day cleaning schedule! And I like to throw my own bandwagon experiments onto this blog, mainly to add my two cents to the collective knowledge. So, there are a healthy handful of bandwagons described here, and I was curious how many we’ve kept up. I did some reviewing of the blog archives, and here is the resulting status update.
1) Running. Bethany did a handful of half marathons. I did a 10K and kept up a jogging habit up for a year or so. Running/biking/racing in general is totally the exercise fad of the times, is it not? (Think of all the exercise fads! pilates, yoga, rollerblading, step aerobics, sweatin to the oldies, jazzercise. I digress.) For me, the move got in the way of my routine, and then pregnancy totally squashed my interest. The baby is now 9 months old, and I still haven’t put on any running shoes. I think about it occasionally but yeah, I probably won’t bother until the weather perks up, the hours of daylight get a little bit longer, and swimsuit season is on the horizon.
2) Bangs! Bethany’s still rocking hers. Mine are gone, but I need a haircut, big time. Jump back on? I think I’m gonna get a LOB.
3) Paleo. Bethany and Keith are still in on a casual basis, as evidenced by the numerous Paleo recipes she posts here.
4) Whole30. I tried this once (and blogged about it). I actually went for Round #2 recently and my husband even joined me. The second time, I was a little bit too lenient I guess, because I didn’t really feel all that much ‘better’ per se. I did drop a few lbs of babyweight so #winning. And in general, I think my cooking style has expanded to include more vegetables, coconut oil, and actual made-from-scratch recipes, so yeah. More #winning.
5) Oil pulling. Yuck, Bethany: how long did that last?
6) No ‘poo. Here we have our first bandwagon->lifestyle conversion!! Two years later, there is still no shampoo in my shower. This is saving us at least like $20 a year. Seriously though, my life is simpler this way, and my hair is still happier than it was in previous decades. Baking soda for me.
7) Juicing. Bethany – what is your game plan here? My take on juicing: I will continue to refuse to watch “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead”. Will not. That show must be the most compelling documentary on the planet, and I just really don’t want a juicer. Actually I like juice though. Hmm.
8) Blogging. I think blogging is going to be one of those things you look back on and go “oh wow that was so millenial.” Like how I feel about hotmail – so 90s. (Another aside: what will this particular decade go by? The Tens?) But here we are, 3 posts into our FOURTH year of twogirlsblog.
So, what am I missing here? I know a few I haven’t tried: essential oils. StitchFix. Chalkboard paint. I bet chalkboard paint is almost done by now.
The Last Paw Paw Muffin
Oh yeah hey blog! Its 2015, time for my annual post. Actually when Bethany posted her paleo recipe earlier week, she reminded me of this half-written post from last summer. Since 1/1/15, our paleo posts have been seeing an uptick in traffic, which I can only assume is due to new years resolutions. Meanwhile, I am trying a diet called “eat all the sugar and drink all the soda” (don’t recommended). So sorry to disappoint, but much like my diet, there’s nothing healthy for the remainder of this post. Womp womp. But there is a reference to the Jungle Book movie.
—–Written in August 2014—-
Well, its an exciting time over here in Johnson land. Having been here just over a year now, we’ve made it through all the seasons at least once and yet are still discovering new plants here and there. Since spring we’ve found a sizeable stand of wild blackberries, a mulberry tree, and two pawpaw trees.
Pawpaw, you ask?
Why yes, apparently they are the largest indigenous fruit in North America. I had never heard of such, outside of the Jungle Book song Bare Necessities.
Here’s the youtube if you’re craving some Baloo now. So good. Anyway.
One afternoon earlier this summer, Ransom’s Pawpaw (no joke) was walking through our yard and asked August about a tree bearing some unusual fruit. We had never even noticed it. I don’t think the trees had much fruit last year, or if they did, we missed it completely. A few google searches later, we learned that we were proud owners of two pawpaw trees.
As I learned from wikipedia, pears, apples, citrus, etc. were all brought from elsewhere. Besides pawpaws, the only actual indigenous fruits are basically berries and grapes.
That was in May and now, after much anticipation, the paw paws are ripening. The internet will tell you that they taste like a mixture of banana and mango. In my opinion, they are in the same genre as a mango, banana, or papaya (i.e. mushy) but really have a flavor all their own. Honestly to me they taste kind of like a starburst candy. And that being said, if a mango and a pawpaw were sitting next to each other on the shelf at a grocery store, I’d definitely grab the mango.
However, we’re not talking about grocery stores here. These are in the yard, and so obviously we’re going to eat them. And so what did we do first?
Pawpaw Sherbet
Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups pawpaw puree
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups very cold whole milk
1) Mix it all up, and then freeze in your ice maker.
———– end of old text, resume Jan 2015 ——
Step 2) would be:
2) Leave the sherbet in said freezer and then throw 90% of it out a month later when you need the container for a new batch of non-pawpaw ice cream.
The ice cream was fine but I like my ice cream to be AWESOME. We barely ate it.
I also made some pawpaw muffins and in fact, I am consuming the LAST one right now, in honor of this post. I made a big batch for the freezer in August and we’ve been working our way through them. They are kinda awesome with a unique flavor that’s closest to…. strawberry cake, maybe? They even turned faintly pink inside.
I just took my favorite banana bread recipe and substituted paw paw and slivered almonds for bananas and pecans, respectively. Most reviewers agreed that they were awesome, although in to be fair, all the reviewers were related to me (mother, father, sister-in-law, brother, husband, sons). Husband actually said he’d rather have banana bread.
And now, The World’s First Pawpaw Muffin Selfie
The end!
Bethany turned 32…. too.
Well, some years you go all out for birthdays (see: 30th) and some years you don’t. Apparently this year Bethany and I are exchanging .jpg files on the internet.
Its a new thing.
Bethany, I loved the chicken graphic as much as anyone possibly could. For your gift, I’m pulling something out of my back pocket that I’ve been sitting on for a while, probably good enough for a chuckle or too. Its that random blog comment you got ages ago from an extra-poetic spam bot. Enjoy!
Happy 32th old friend!
May we forever be blogging soul-mates.
*wink*
Composting for Dummies
Bethany mentioned composting in her awesome post on Monday, so today I will share about our new compost pile. We just so happened to start informally composting several months ago. {Read: not an expert.}
I happened to visit Bethany during her last composting phase, I think, although this was years ago now. I believe there was a plastic bin and some worms involved. I believe she referred to the composting process as “feeding her pet worms”.
That is one way to do it, yes. Maybe this is what is making Keith shudder – more mouths to feed. So much responsibility, and so forth.
So take heart, this composting thing does not have to be complicated. Here are my pointers:
1.) You can’t really mess this up.
Last summer, I let a patch of morning glory vine really get out of control. Here it was:
One afternoon I decided to reclaim my flower patch, so I spent a couple of hours literally rolling the Morning Glory vine into a giant lump. The lump was so big that I could roll it but not exactly pick it up. I’d say it was approximately the size of bathtub. And so there it sat in the middle of the garden the several months.
Do you know what it had turned into by springtime? Compost, {morning} glorious compost. (har har)
2) Add some brown, add some green.
Sure, there are some complicated composting methods out there. Lots to learn about ratios and turning and so forth. My “Self-sufficient Gardener” book has a whole chapter on it, complete with diagrams. However, the simplest method I’ve come across is, just dump about equal amounts of green to brown.
Sources of green: watermelon rinds, squash necks, all other veggie waste, fresh grass clippings, morning glory vine.
Sources of brown: dried leaves, dried weeds, dried grass, chicken poop, dryer lints, shredded newspaper, dirt
We’ve been following this formula very loosely for several months and haven’t had any odor problem. (Except for the time that August threw some dead fish in. That was stinky. Fish are neither green nor brown matter and don’t go in the compost pile, fyi. ) I suspect we add more green than brown in general, just because we have so many garden scraps, but nothing bad has happened to date.
3) Don’t let the perfect stand in the way of the good.
(My life motto these days.)
I spent several months thinking about starting a compost pile but was held back by all the complications. Forget about all that. You just need a place to pile the compost, a shovel/hoe/rake, and a container with which to carry the kitchen scraps out to the pile. After that, just get started.
I looked around for a suitable kitchen container for a while to no avail. So now I use chip bags or other soon-to-be-trashed items. Then when they get funky with slightly too old kitchen scraps, I just pitch them. No need to wash.
Here are our duel compost piles. Right now, Bin 1 is the compost for use in the garden. We used a lot of it in the garden this spring, and now as you can see, its grown a healthy layer of grass. Bin 2 is where we are actively composting. Once we use up all the compost from Bin 1, we’ll switch. The door on Bin 2 is removable and fits either bin.
Having the piles right there on the ground means that the worms and other critters can just make their way in and out as they please. i.e., no responsibility. August gives our pile a quick stir with the hoe when we are adding a batch of scraps, but otherwise there’s no maintenance.
For urban composting, I’d probably use some pallets for walls in order to make it match my chicken coop. But if that’s holding you back, perhaps just find a discreet corner behind the shed or something. Its just a glorified dirt pile, you can always move it.
4) Chickens get first dibs.
More customized advice for those of us with urban chickens: I think the chickens are more efficient composters. So, I’d give them priority on any veggies or fruits you would normally feed them. Then you can add their poop to the compost pile.
Here at the Johnsons we are composting very haphazardly and its working out just fine. Our weekly garbage back is much less “messy” and of course I love making something valuable from trash. Who doesn’t love that?
Moral of the story:
Make a small pile of dirt and dried grass clippings. Start collecting your kitchen waste and throwing it out there. The end!
What I Did With My Maternity Leave
Just like that, my new baby is 11 weeks old and I am back to work. What?!? Where does the time go?
So instead of ‘what I did on summer vacation’, here’s my essay on my 11-week break from working.
First, I attempted to grow the largest baby on the earth. Although I didn’t exactly achieve Guinness Book-level baby, I came close enough. We have a seriously large child over here. I mean, they all grow up too fast but one Sir Davis has grown VERY quickly. It hurts a mama’s heart a bit to be constantly putting whole groups of onesies back into storage. We have blown tall the way to the 9-month stuff. 9-month old baby clothes! Sniff. 17 lbs. Also, #backache.
And this picture is several weeks old.
Second, we have also pretty successfully grown the largest tomato plants on earth. They are threatening to take over the entire garden. Well, the cherry tomato is trying to take over all the other tomatoes at least. I can’t really claim this as a maternity leave activity because we have done exactly nothing to make them so huge. I do sneak out there when I can to tend things when I can. Up next: canning tomatoes? What are we gonna do with all these?
Fun times in the garden.
Large tomato. Our secret is… nothing. Luck.
Third, we have all taken luxuriously long naps, day in and day out. Yes that is a LIE. Ransom’s daily nap has gone from a solid 2.5 hours to more like 45 minutes some days. I can’t complain, many kids his age don’t nap at all. Meanwhile Davis has become the champion of cat-napping. No, its not good for his little 11-week-old brain development, but I mean honestly, what am I gonna do. There’s no arguing with babies sometimes. They wake up when they feel like it.
No one is actually sleeping in this picture.
Fourth, we have played with the LEGOs. Pirate ships, tree forts, castles, race tracks, all manner of wheeled vehicles. Ransom is a die-hard Lego lover, and he has entirely too many of them even at the tender age of 3.5. (They are hand-me-downs. #daddyisapackrat.) While playing Legos with Ransom, I have been cogitating on the most efficient Lego organizational system. I’m still tweaking it, but once we get done, I promise to share with the internet. When I do, a light will shine down from the heavens (with a chorus of angel voices) I’m sure because this has got to be one of the most enduring problems of the modern era. I mean, what do you do with ALL THESE TINY PIECES? His room is a serious construction zone/disaster area ALL THE TIME. Really though, what’s clutter in the grand scheme of things. Although stepped-on legos do hurt a lot.
Ransom has entered the ‘weird picture face’ phase.
Fifth, I dabbled in Paleo cooking & eating again. I wanted to try to recapture that “energized” feeling I felt during that Whole30 (okay whole25) I did last year. This year we made it just under two weeks (Whole11?), and then we had some travel plans and it wasn’t worth sticking to the diet while staying with family. Plus I really wanted to eat some gluten. ha. But, now that the garden veggies are coming in, I am determined to up the health-factor in my cooking. So get ready for some OKRA recipes because we are going to have a lot of that to eat.
That’s most of it! There was also: replacing the cabinet pulls in the kitchen, two weeks of swimming lessons, a stomach virus, a couple of trips to Columbus, a couple of power outages, a partridge, and two pear trees. Oh, wait, make that a couple of paw paw trees. yes, seriously. More on that later. Now we are three days into the next ‘new normal’, and struggling to adjust to another new routine. I’m now working half-days for the rest of the summer, and looking forward to it, but also missing our totally carefree do-whatever-slash-survival days.
2014 Garden Tour
Besides our actual new baby, we sort of have another new baby right now, albeit one that is much much quieter – the garden! Knowing we’d be having the baby this spring, I was envisioning more of a “3 tomato plants and a pot of basil” type of garden for this year. Happily, I underestimated and we’ve got a lot more going than I expected. (Tip: Low expectations can be so rewarding!) Both my husband and I really enjoying working out there, so I find it easy to run out there for a quick errand to pull a few weeds or stir the compost. And, I should also mention that we got off to a great start due to a heroic effort on the part of my parents. My mom (and dad and husband) spent an entire afternoon out there, and those of you who know her well will probably be amused by that.
Additionally, the previous owners really put a lot of work into their garden and we definitely got a leg up by picking up where they left off. The dirt is super rich from being heavily composted and “worm juiced” and so forth. Its all soft and easy to till up. Plus there are several semi-raised beds which help make things neat and tidy. And there may be an irrigation system that we aren’t sure how to use exactly. Thanks previous owners! (We’re not as ridiculous as you thought.)
Anyway, this year we are growing:
- 5 tomato plants
- 4 types of peppers
- A bed of strawberries
- Two beds of okra
- About 50 sweet slips
- Two long rows of lady peas
- Peppermint, spearmint, and lemon balm
- Plus the previous owners’ leftovers: cilantro, leeks, onions, garlic, and asparagus
I’ve been meaning to pick up some oregano. There is talk of planting corn. And I think that should cover it.
In case you are wondering, “lady peas” are my husband’s favorite and frankly they are about the best type of peas I’ve had. I’m not a huge fan of peas in general. However, they are hard to find, even at local farmer’s markets. But, I believe I found some on a website appropriately titled “rareseeds.com”. My husband is skeptical that they are the “right” thing, but only time will tell. The little seedlings are definitely doing good, so we are pleased with our purchase from that aspect. And I’m kinda looking forward to making some future purchases of weird produce from them – like red okra or purple tomatoes.
Now for the “tour” part:
The blueberries are looking good. Last year we gathers at least two gallons worth. And this year looks about the same.
It appears to be a good year for produce in general. I guess the plants appreciated all those polar blasts. The peach tree has a promising crop (as do the plum, the pears, the apples.) Fingers crossed! I wonder if we should be spraying with something?
I should start making plans for jams and jellies. Mmmm.
Asparagus from the previous owner, now gone to fern. We harvested about 8 servings worth, of which I ate at least half – so good! Better than store bought. Now we wait for another crop in the fall. I also want to look up whether there’s anything we could do to get MORE asparagus out of these plants. More is always better in the garden.
Onions in “flower” mode? I don’t know.
Tomatoes and pepper plants, all in a row. I took this pic last week and those tomatoes have doubled in size.
Strawberries in the foreground, garlic in the rear. Leeks on the right. Still haven’t eaten a leek. Mom had to identify them, I was clueless.
Nowadays they are looking kinda worse for the wear, so I suspect their season may be ending.
This is our wild forest of cilantro. I’m hoping to harvest some seed (coriander) off these puppies, in order to eat it, and also in order to plant more cilantro in an actual pot or bed, and not just out in the middle of everything.
(It appears that something is on/in my camera lens.)
These are the little sweet potato slips, growing like crazy. They know they’re in Mississippi where the best sweet potatoes come from, I guess.
Peas in the front, okra in the rear. The okra ain’t looking too hot. August thinks its the shade, I wonder about the quality of the seeds we bought. We are thinking about putting a few more seeds out. However, okra is a heavy producer. Theoretically I still think we’ll have more okra than we know what to do with.
So friends, come visit us later this summer. I will cook you stuff straight from the garden and it will be fabulous.
Newborn Survival Guide
I’m feeling like a total rebel right now because its actually “nap time” and the babes are asleep, which means I should be napping too, in order to properly stave off the sleep deprivation. That’s like Rule #1 of Newborn Survival.
But ya know what???? I don’t feel like napping!!! Mama free time!!! Wooo!
Crazy town, I know.
Sorry.
Today I wanted to jot down my thoughts on surviving the onslaught of the second child. Its a bit different that having that first child – but in a good way. Actually, its much better than I imagined. Actually, we are pretty much having a blast over here with Mr. Davis. Here are some ways that Baby #2 is different from Baby #1.
Those long sleepless nights aren’t quite so long.
Having that first child is a bit of a shock to the adult system. Parents instantly go from having total control over your own life to basically none. The newborn takes charge of your sleep schedule, shower schedule, eating schedule, social life, work life, and so on. Eventually, little by little, you regain some of that control, but not all of it. As parents of a 3.5 year old, we still can’t stay up all night watching 6 consecutive episodes of _____ on Netflix without serious consequences. The preschooler won’t sleep in. In fact, he’ll probably wake up earlier than normal because kids have a sixth sense about these sorts of situations. That doesn’t always mean we make the right decision about the number of shows to watch.
I remember thinking at those 3am feedings with Kid #1 that I literally might die from sleep deprivation. Who even knew it was possible to survive on 2 hour naps for weeks (months) on end? Hey, I survived.
The sleepless nights were what I most dreaded about having another baby. Thankfully, its not nearly as bad this time, not as painful as I remembered. Knowing what to expect and knowing its doable makes all the difference. Its just one more feeding, and the house is peaceful and quiet. Life goes on. 🙂
Ransom’s last day at preschool was ‘Wacky Tacky’ day. He was a natural at it.
That panicky inner voice in your head isn’t nearly so loud.
With the first baby, even I, the most laid back person of all people everywhere, could hear that voice in my head telling me that Child #1 was probably dying every time we couldn’t get him to stop crying. Or at least starving? Some being emotionally damaged? Something else terrible. Baby #2? We’re more able to hang on to our sanity and just enjoy the little guy, even when he’s crying.
He doesn’t really cry that much after all.
I think they are performing a freestyle rap duet here.
Enjoy it, none of this will last very long.
Again, with the first, we were more worried that he was… not sleeping long enough… not developing healthy napping skills.. depending on being rocked to sleep… not getting enough to eat… getting too much to eat… Baby #2? If you want me to rock your sweet little noggin to sleep, sure, I’d love to. There will be plenty of time for self-soothing later.
Davis has already outgrown this onesie. 😦
Cut out everything.
To get the most out of this oh-so-short newborn phase, really, cut out all the stuff. Forget it. It’ll wait. I knew this the first time, but I really really get it this time. I’m doing a much better job at doing nothing.
I cut out cooking. Its my favorite hobby (truly eating is, if we’re being honest) and it takes up a big chunk of my time. I get a lot of satisfaction out of running our household on mostly-from-scratch, healthier-than-average meals. (Cheaper too, icing on the cake!)
This month we are eating meals I froze in the last few months, take-out, and preprocessed foods like pop-tarts, cheetos, frozen pizza, canned soup, PB&J, cereal. No one has died yet. I’ll ease back into cooking in a few more weeks, but for now, bring on the high fructose corn syrup. In fact, we’re having ‘breakfast for dinner’ tonight which will involve scrambling eggs. Baby steps!
We also used exclusively disposable plates, cups, and plasticware right at first. Sorry earth, I’ll make it up to you later. There’s just no time to wash dishes right in the beginning. I stopped worrying about the recycling (its not easy here in the boonies but I do my best), but I just don’t need a counter full of drying tin cans these days.
So in summary, to make this easiest, I recommend you take all the shortcuts and don’t feel bad about it. Its certainly working for us.
Regression… its real.
Make lists and set timers.
New mamas do have a little free time. It just comes in unexpected bursts, at ever varying times of day, for unknown lengths. What works best for me is to keep a list of things that I’d like to accomplish. Keep it simple.. e.g. paint toenails. That sleep deprivation will keep you from being able to remember anything ever, unless its written down.
And then, if I’m doing anything that is time sensitive, do set a timer. Again, you’ll totally forget you started that rice boiling, and 30 minutes later be wondering what that weird smell is. (did it) I prefer the oven timer because it keeps beeping until someone addresses it. You can set reminders in your phone too, for calls that need to be made, bills to pay, etc. These things come floating across your brain at that 3am feeding, but then they are nowhere to be found in the light of day.
Selfie.
Download some e-books.
Okay last tip. Babies take up an enormous amount of time with their round-the-clock feeding habits. You will be chair-bound like, 4+ hours per day. I downloaded some books to read on my phone with the kindle app. Even though this isn’t my preferred way to read, I can easily manage my phone with just one hand. And having something intelligent to do keeps your brain from rotting out. 4+ hours is too much time to spend on facebook!!
Next time, I look forward to talking about something besides babies! Although I do love babies. 🙂
Packing on the lbs.
Wins and Losses
You win some, you lose some. Here is an update from the Johnson household the last few days.
First, obviously bringing home baby Davis is a big one in the ‘Win’ Category. We did successfully name the child before leaving the hospital – Davis Charles Dale Johnson. (I’ll have to explain the name sometime soon!) Davis is a good sleeper, although he’s better at it in the day than during the night lately. He’s a cuddly little chunk, and I am perfectly content to sit with him sleeping on my shoulder all day long. He has one dimple and he flashes his sweet smile a lot. Sure, I know they aren’t “real” smiles but who cares?? 🙂
On the other hand, I forgot that baby delivery actually does require some recuperation time. So although Davis is sleeping a lot and I theoretically have a lot of free time, I’m pretty much couch-bound. That’s maddening, because there is plenty to do. On the other hand, I guess my condition is pretty conducive to typing out long rambly blog posts.
Here’s a fun tale. Friday morning I went to fill up my giant thermos (must stay hydrated) at the fridge and the found the dispenser wasn’t working. Opening the freezer, it was noticeably too warm in there, and some items had already begun to thaw out. PANIC! Ransom had just returned from his grandparents, I was a little low on sleep and high on hormones, and now, the freezer full of food that I’d managed to put aside for post-baby meals was THAWING. This fridge was our one Mississippi craigslist purchase, a standard-grade 7-year-old Kenmore. So began deliberation about whether to try to fix it ourselves, call a repair man, or just buy a new one. My newborn-addled brain was no use. Meanwhile the food was THAWING. We found basically the exact same refrigerator for $800 at the nearest Lowe’s so we opted for replacement. My parents headed off to Lowe’s to pick it up for us. August and Ransom carted the whole contents of the old refrigerator over to his mom’s house. Then a couple of hours later, while everyone was still out of the house except for me and the babe, the darn thing cut right back on.
Clearly something was frozen up and now it had thawed out. I heard the compressor fire back up and the water dispenser started flowing again. Agh.. Now that fridge resides in our garage, colder than ever, while we figure out what to do with it. Sell it ‘as is’ on craigslist? So all this is a big ‘LOSE’. I mean, I’m glad the old fridge is gone. It had a squirrely ice maker and always made weird noises. Surely it was only a matter of time till it really broke down for good. But I could’ve done without the random $800 expenditure this week.
After all, this is the week taxes are due, speaking of losing.
Enough negativity. Here’s another one for the ‘win’ column. The day I went into labor, my parents and husband spent the whole day working in our garden – weeding, tilling, planting. It all looks fabulous, about 50 times better than what I was planning for our 2014 gardening effort. So far we have tomatoes, a variety of pepper plants, strawberries, several herbs, and at least three plants that came back from last year: leeks, asparagus, and cilantro. Who has ever eaten a leek? Not me, but I intend to get on that soon. There are also two more beds that need to be planted. I think my excitement over all the progress in the garden was what finally sent me into labor, and the rest is history. I’d love to be out there weeding right now, instead of gazing longingly from the couch.
And yet, guess what the forecasted low temperature is for tonight? 29 measly degrees. The supposed frost date for our area is April 10th. So I guess we’ll try our hand at frost protection tonight. The actual time below freezing is just a few hours, and the garden can be fairly easily protected. But was about all the buds on our poor fruit trees? I can’t think of a way to protect them, so I guess we’ll just see what happens. I
**Update: the forecast is now 34! Fingers crossed!! We may just make it through with minimal damage. August is out covering stuff now.
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