Posts filed under 'Family'
Happy New Year!
Inspired by a few simple/frugal living blogs, I’m going to try to stick even more to planning our meals in advance. We had most of January planned before we left on our Christmas vacation, but we had a few days to hammer out, and we filled in the gaps today.
1 ham & bean soup
2 pizza
3 chicken tortilla soup
4 cheeseburger pie
5 falafel
6 tuna pasta salad
7 vegetable gratin
8 tamales
9 pizza
10 lentil soup
11 peanut chicken
12 twice-baked potatoes
13 fish
14 burgers
15 chicken popovers
16 pizza
17 pasta & meatballs
18 pork w/mango chutney
19 bbq chicken & cornbread
20 red beans & rice
21 chicken stir-fry lettuce wraps
22 tomato couscous
23 pizza
24 BLTs
25 roasted chicken
26 chicken salad sandwiches
27 bbq lentils
28 beef goulash
29 falafel
30 pizza
31 stuffed shells
January 1st, 2009
Now we are one, baby. A year of life for you, and a year of a new life for me, your mama. In this short time we have already taught each other so much, and it seems impossible to comprehend that with each passing day we will grow even more. So before you grow any older, I want to say thank you, Reese.
From the first time I saw you, your eyes trying to figure me out, to now, when they reflect the innate joy you find in life, you have amazed me. You have taken me along to discover the world, and I am reminded how simple it can be. It’s hard not to be happy around you, because you are such a joyful boy. You have invented ways to make yourself laugh, and even the smallest things we do can send you into fits of giggles. I hope you keep that as you get older, because laughs are the cure for everything.
You have grown so much in the past year, even though you still don’t have much hair, just like I did as a baby. You love to move, and even though you keep one leg tucked underneath as you crawl, it doesn’t slow you down. Now you are cruising, and amazingly, taking your first independent steps. We know you can walk on your own, but you’re scared, and that’s OK. Lots of things in this world are scary, but hopefully Daddy and I will help you through it all.
Depending on when you read this you might be grossed out to know we are still nursing. But it is some of our most special time together, and we have taken many naps snuggling together after a good snack. Although Daddy gets nervous about you eating in public, I don’t mind, and we’ve even participated in a group nursing with 100 other babies! I do hope, however, that you keep from trying to get me to flash other people.
Sometimes I wonder what you will be like when you are older. I hope you enjoy reading like I do, and that you have a hobby you really love. I’m not sure what kind of job you might taken on, but right now you are such a sweet, happy guy that I can’t imagine it being something that didn’t have to do with helping people. We’ll be proud of you whatever you decide - but that is far into the future. For now, just be yourself. Curious about everything, full of hugs and giggles, and ready for each new challenge.
Love,
Mama
October 17th, 2008
I get an odd sense of satisfaction and pleasure from planning our dinner menus and grocery shopping. It’s like a game - what are things we can eat this week that will cost the least amount of money and be more than rice and beans?
My August goal is $200. This sounds like such a small amount, but I looked at our receipts for July and we spent around $240, not including the 4th. And this includes buying some crap we don’t really need to spend so much on, like $5.50 on a pizza when we have the ingredients to make pizza at home. Or the $7 bags of coffee we buy. At least the coffee keeps us away from buying it for $4 a pop (or drinking the swill at work), but it still seems like so much for something.
So anyway. My plan for August is to post our menus, grocery receipts, and out of pocket (OOP) cost. The costs will only be determined by what we had to buy this month, so if I end up making a meal with pantry stuff, the cost will be zero. Woohoo!
Got any cheap but yummy meal ideas? I’d love to hear them!
July 29th, 2008
For at least the past four weeks, every night I remind myself that I want to post in my blog, and I should really do it the next day. And every day I get caught up in taking care of Reese and then relaxing from taking care of Reese, and I forget all about it.
Tomorrow marks 10 weeks since I brought Reese into this world. Sometimes I think I have forgotten what giving birth was like, or that I missed moments of it. Or how small he was to begin with, given how much he has already grown. What everyone says about babies is true though, practically every cliche has come to life in my house. I suppose that is why they are cliches, right?
There’s lots of things that have happened in that time, and also not very much at all. If that makes sense. I’m still trying hard to maintain my own identity outside of being a mom, although I suppose in the first three months that isn’t so important. Still, I tried, and spectacularly failed, NaNoWriMo this year. Goal for 2008: finish that story. I still like the idea, although I really need to learn about writing for YA.
Speaking of, I think one of my goals for next year will be just to figure out what I want to do as a writer. I don’t seem to have all that much drive to get published. I really prefer editing, it seems, and writing articles or columns on my own time schedule. Maybe one of these days I’ll get off my duff and get to work on parent(hesis). Or keep constantly hounding my friends to let me edit their work, so I can add stuff to my resume and then hopefully get freelance work.
And hey, if there is a way I can combine editing with being a mom, I might as well do it. That is, until I see some other sparkly object in my path.
December 23rd, 2007
Pregnancy is weird.
Of course, it’s weird in many ways but specifically I’m thinking of the fact that sometimes I forget that I’m pregnant (aside from all the other things I forget, like updating here). That doesn’t seem possible given the back pain, exhaustion, and constant pokes from inside. But every so often it just sort of … slips my mind. I haven’t decided yet if this is a good or bad sign in terms of the impending labor. Either I’ll completely freak out at the sudden realization of what is happening, or I’ll be a cucumber. I’ll place my bets on the former.
But at least we finally have things together in the house. We knew we had to buy furniture, but you kind of forget about all the other things you suddenly realize you need, like curtains and art and rugs. And then there is the outdoor equipment, which for us consists of a lawn mower, a hose without a reel, garden gloves, and a hedge clipper. At least that has done us pretty well so far, considering the metric ton of shrubbery planted in the yard. The previous owner told us that they only trimmed once a year, in February when pretty much everything was dormant. Good thing we didn’t check the place out in late summer, because after living here a month and a half everything was out of control. You can be we’ll be ripping a lot of it out in winter and then planting things that don’t grow five feet in all directions, including up.
Final note on baby stuff - why must everything be so cutesy, and if it is actually cool, why is it so freakishly expensive? At least I managed to snag an Ugly Doll when we were last up in Minneapolis. Somehow, it and the lamb we bought in Paris don’t look so strange together.
August 14th, 2007
As if pregnancy wasn’t enough to make me constantly analyze life, this week I found out one of my friends has a brain tumor. Not cancer, but scary stuff nonetheless. We’re about the same age, so even though she had no symptoms to clue her in, I’m now thinking about all those other problems our bodies hide from us.
It doesn’t help that the little guy is measuring behind and I have to have an extra ultrasound. I’m not so worried, as our families are mostly small and I’m not expecting to have a basketball star for a son, but still. It’s just another one of those things. I can’t see inside my belly, so I just have to rely on all the dancing he does to know he is OK.
With all of this it’s no wonder I haven’t been very invested in working on my play for ScriptFrenzy. Maybe scripts just aren’t my thing, because it is already June 15 and I have only 2,500 words written. (The goal for the month is 20,000.) Then again, it seems like I haven’t been able to do much of anything creative since I found out about the baby. At first I was too tired and sick, but now I’ve just lost the drive - or can’t get my brain to work.
So it’s probably a good thing we’re going to the Twin Cities next weekend. We’ve already got a lot planned:
breakfast with my mom at Louisiana Cafe or Bon Vie
Lake Como
the Walker, for the Picasso and American Art exhibit
a quick trip to Loring Park to see the old ‘hood
shopping, of course
a hopefully low-key baby shower
minor league baseball
a day trip to La Crosse
breakfast at Sunny Side Up or French Meadow
elf tree at Lake Harriet
Phew. I think that’s enough.
June 15th, 2007
Now that I’m over the sickly feelings of pregnancy, I have something much more troublesome to worry about: the hormones. In the course of this evening I’ve gone from being totally happy to wanting to strangle someone to crying in the bathroom to being very irked in general. Whew. They say the baby can tell what your mood is like, but it’s really hard to keep a sunny attitude when half the people you thought were your support group really don’t give a damn.
In happier news, this weekend we saw our friends get married in a lightning-fast ceremony and then the groom serenade the bride with a rewrite of “Ice, Ice Baby.”
Sunday we made it to Deep Eddy and mostly stuck to the 3′8″ end of the cold pool rather than having to work in the 7′8″ end.
And on Friday, we had the anatomy ultrasound, which will pretty much be the coolest thing ever until the baby is born.
Oh yeah, and it’s a boy: Reese Alexander.
June 4th, 2007
Of course it has to rain the entirety of the holiday weekend. Oh well. I don’t seem to be up for much of anything these days - but that could be due to the lack of sunlight.
We have lots to do at home anyway. Time keeps moving faster and faster, and soon it will be July and we’ll need to move. But first we need to take care of all of this stuff we have. Every time we move we get rid of things, but there is still too much. And it’s only going to get worse when the baby comes. So in a way, the rain this weekend is a good thing. Time to purge the closets and bookshelves again. This time I’m tempted to just haul everything off to Goodwill instead of trying ebay and half.com.
Although time is moving quickly, it feels like all I’m doing lately is waiting. Waiting for my next appointment, waiting for our trip to the Cities, waiting until we can move into our house. Maybe that’s why I can’t seem to get things done around here - I’m a procrastination kind of girl. And the bed is really, really comfortable these days.
Despite the rain I hope to try and get out of the apartment and this funk for at least a little bit. Blackberry picking is high on my list, as is swimming. We meant to go to the pool or Springs two weeks ago, but haven’t made it yet. Crossed fingers. Plus, a friend’s birthday is this weekend and he’s requested barbecue all the way out in Llano. And Bob isn’t one to turn down barbecue.
May 25th, 2007
I wasn’t kidding in my last post title. Last weekend we met with a realtor and looked at about a dozen houses. This weekend we’re meeting up to sign some paperwork because we put in an offer and it was accepted.
So, I think we’re buying a house. Holy crap.
Sadly we’ll have to get a Pflugerville address, but considering the houses in the good neighborhoods of Austin are impossibly expensive for us, this is a good alternative. Plus it is close to my work and the Pflugerville schools rank higher than Austin schools. It seems strange to have to think about those things, but I’ll have to get used to it.
This house was my first choice, but I don’t think it was Bob’s - he was really excited about a house that we’d have to do a lot of work on. Aside from the painting we’ll inevidably do, I don’t think this one needs any work at all. Even the front and back yards are landscaped with lots of trees and other plants. And when we walked in I said, “Wow.” Considering it is the only house I was that impressed by, it’s a good thing the other one was already under contract.
Only downside is that it is a one story, but given that two-story houses in Texas almost always fall victim to McMansion syndrome, this is probably a good thing.
Just wish there was a basement.
April 7th, 2007
Just a couple of quick things:
Paris photos are finally up on flickr. The whole set is here. I’ve labeled all the photos but they don’t have descriptions yet, sorry. Have I mentioned I still haven’t finished my travel journal from the trip itself? I’ll get around to it, really.
Bob and I made a video. Check it out on YouTube here (it might not be up yet)
March 25th, 2007
Previous Posts