Of course I get sick on vacation. Talk about frustrating. I feel a little better today, but I’m still disgusting. I woke up this morning with what I thought was blood on my palm, however, it won’t wash off. What the hell?
Also, last night I dreamt I was a bent wire ball hanging out with Justin Beiber. Seriously?! What the hell? And I wasn’t even taking cold medicine. Maybe my snot is eating my brain.
Feeling oh so Merry (and a little bit sneezy and sick) on this brilliant Christmas day! Merry Christmas everyone! And now, an avalanche of Christmas photos.
A Christmas Eve swing.
A Christmas Eve “monster hunt” with Buddy.
A homemade Christmas Eve cake – my first ever completely from scratch:)
A Christmas Eve mediocre family portrait.
An angel in a Christmas Eve dress.
A Christmas Eve stocking from Grammy Jane.
Santa Claus came to visit.
Christmas Eve wore Taylor out.
The Christmas Chicken was here!!!!
Santa brought a Toodie doll!
Holiday aftermath.
A turkey and his turkey.
A very Bacheecho Christmas.
A little holiday cleaning…
Ok, ok, this wasn’t today. Our house is thrashed holiday style, but this is a good picture from a couple of days ago 🙂
Merry Christmas, and a happy and productive New Year!
What a strange couple of weeks I’ve had. Things are crazy busy, what with Christmas insanity, work, regular life stuff, and to top it all off, I have been experiencing what I’m pretty sure is weaning induced mental illness. Geeze! I wasn’t prepared for the intense mood swings, lack of patience, crying stints, and all around craziness that comes with the end of breastfeeding. Wow. I’m down to one nursing a day on the days I work, and even then last night Josephine told me that one of my breasts was “not working”.
Add in Christmas time, where I swing between not wanting to do anything for anyone and wanting to buy everyone I know something special. From utter annoyance at everything to complete joy because I really do love this time of year. Totally bipolar. And there’s never enough money, and I run out of time to bake, and, and, and….
Right now my morning trips to the gym are saving me (and the poor souls who have to live with me) from going off the deep end. I walk out of the gym with a grin on my face at 7:40 each morning. It feels good to move. Hip hip hooray!
But it is Christmas. And I need to switch it up, slow down and really enjoy the next week.
Because the incessant frosty the snowman watching, off key Christmas song singing, unbridled joy of this time of year with Josephine will only last so long. I need to embrace it and enjoy it.
I’m pretty sure that my 13 day vacation from work that starts tomorrow where I get to stay home and be productive (read, lazy and relaxed) and the fact that I am FINISHED! Christmas shopping will help with all that enjoyment of the season 🙂
This little Frosty loving girl helps too.
Breakfast with Frosty.
Posted in hollidaze!
Tagged attitude changes, Christmas craziness, hormones, mood swings, Weaning
This unfortunate incident happened in my kitchen this week. Glass and molasses everywhere. I also dropped a sheet of baked gingerbread cookies and parchment paper into the oven and burned my hand/smoked up my house. Christmas baking is not going well this year. That’s it… I am officially suggesting we postpone Christmas until I’m in a better mood. Bah Humbug!
Want a close up of my molasses nightmare? Here ya go.
For some people, family comes easily. They meet, fall in love (or fall in like… whatevs), do the deed, wait a few months, then pop out a baby.
For others, it’s more complicated. These are couples with fertility issues, same sex couples, single women (and I’m sure men, too) who want babies, yet haven’t found a partner to procreate with.
For those people, too, there is an unknown. A lack of information. The possible feeling of isolation and confusion as you step into this process that is more complicated than you and me and a baby makes three.
When I was pregnant and planning a home birth I took solace in reading home birth story after home birth story. It helped me to know that there were so many others making the same journey as I was. It gave me strength and helped quell my fears. Information is powerful. Knowing that someone has navigated a similar path to you can do more than someone just telling you that it will be fine, that everything is going to work out. Everyone wants to know that they are not alone. At the same time, I read non home birth stories too. I believe it’s important to be able to hear stories of experiences that are different from your own so that you can feel empathy, understand differences, and grow as a person. Blogging is a great vehicle for delivering information and telling stories. So are documentaries.
Our friend Rick is making a documentary called Between Friends and Family about his journey as a known sperm donor for a same sex couple with whom he is friends. As stated on the film website, “In 2008, Mel and Cary asked their neighbor, Rick to help them start a family. They planned to share the birth mom role and eventually have two children, and they were looking for someone willing to be a donor for both pregnancies. Rick agreed and began documenting their evolving relationship, a project that three years later has become a personal documentary that explores boundaries and the gray areas Between Friends and Family.”
I’m so excited about this film and cannot wait to watch and learn. But documentaries, unlike a free blog, cost money. This is where we all come in. There is a great website called kickstarter.com. Basically, it is a platform for people to pledge money to help to fund a project. It helps to get projects off the ground without having to sell rights, sign deals, and be creatively under someone’s thumb. It’s brilliant. I’ve seen it used to raise money for various recording projects with great success.
Rick is using kickstarter to raise money to complete his amazing documentary. The deal with kickstarter is that no money changes hands until the fundraising goal is met. That way the creator has enough money to complete the project, and pledgers are able to see a final result. Please take a minute to check out his page. There are giving opportunities from $1 up, and any little bit helps. There are great incentives to give as well. If you pledge $25 to the project, you are ensured a DVD copy of the film. So, really, it’s just like pre-paying for the DVD. Awesome.
Please click here for the Kickstarter page and check it out, support if you can. You can also like the film’s Facebook Page for up to date information on the project. Even sharing the page with others via your own social networking avenues can help. Thank you!
Photo via www.betweenfriendsandfamilymovie.com
Posted in Think about it
Tagged babies, between friends and family, birth, communication, documentary, families, kickstarter, pledge, Rick Dillwood, sharing, story
My first day at the gym went, well, swimmingly! I was unnecessarily nervous and even drove slower than normal into Modesto. Silly, I know.
Everyone was super nice and the pool was not crowded at all (only two other people swim at 6:45 a.m. in December. Can you believe it?). I didn’t forget how to swim or my bra (but I did forget my work socks and had to wear white tube socks all day, no biggie). Tomorrow, though, I’m going to make sure my bathing suit is on right side out, because, yeah, two laps in I realized that it was on inside out. Leave it to me to embarrass myself on the first day.
Posted in 30 While 30
Tagged 30 while 30, exercise, getting in shape, health, Lap swimming
Tomorrow is my first day going to my new gym. I’m a little nervous. Like the first day of high school. I hope the mean kids don’t pick on me. No, but really, it’s going to be a whole new routine, getting ready for work at the gym. I hope I can still swim. Also, I hope I don’t do anything stupid like forget my bra at home.
So, I joined a gym yesterday. This is my effort at ramping up one of my 30 while 30 goals (you know, the big mother of a goal where I want to be satisfied with my health).
My work was running a payroll deduction deal, and so I joined up. My gym is in Modesto (about 30 minutes away), and 5 minutes from my work.
I know what you’re thinking. “What the heck?! When are you going to go to the gym? You’re always bitching about not having enough time.” Well, here is my brilliant answer. In an effort to wean my beautiful two year old (also on the 30 list) I am going to STOP pumping in the morning. This takes me about 30 minutes, the bulk of my morning prep time. (I figure my milk will slowly dry up and she’ll just give up).
In an effort to be super quiet in the a.m. (as to not wake my sleeping family) I already prep everything I need the night before. Put my clothes in the living room, pack my breakfast and lunch, everything is ready. I figure I’ll just pack that stuff in a bag and pack a gym bag, and then I can just get up, throw on my gym clothes and leave. Ready to exercise. I’ll shower at the gym, get ready, and head to work. I’m just supplanting my pumping time (already my least favorite time of the day) for gym time (which I’m hoping I’ll grow to love). A good plan, I think.
I’m hoping this will be successful, since the gym has a pool and swimming laps is my favorite form of exercise. However, I am inherently lazy, so this could backfire. I could end up not going and being out money and up on guilt. Only time and my motivation levels will tell.
I’m also hoping that it will help my increasingly foul mood (holiday blues, anyone? I am not quite ready to blog about it, but holy jesus, I have a case of the jaggities. I’m really not pleasant to be around lately. Just keep repeating: It’s the most wonderful time of the year -yeah right).
So there it is, a little progress on the list. It almost makes me feel happy. Gets better every day.
Posted in 30 While 30
Tagged 30 while 30, getting healthy, Gym, Motivation, swimming laps, working out
I’m so proud of our little fur baby. This weekend he killed his very first mouse. He’s not too outdoorsy, so this was a big deal! Awww, he’s all grown up!
(and, yes, we live in the country and occasionally a mouse will get in. That’s why we have Bacheecho the Brave!)
Posted in life on the farm
Tagged Cat, hunting, killing mice, mouse in the house, predator, prey
When I turned 30 I had to renew my license. This meant also getting a new picture taken since the one only current license was from when I was 17. This was the most traumatic part of turning 30. In order to put it behind me, here it is… What a difference 13 years makes:
1998:
And 2011:
Hmmm, along with more wisdom I’ve seemed to acquired more chins. 🙂
lazy to living in 