Showing posts with label Mothers Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mothers Day. Show all posts

Friday, May 2, 2014

7 Quick Takes



1. 
I ordered a new veil for Easter (which I ordered during the Easter season obviously...not at all in time for Easter Sunday), and it's here! I love the weight and feel of it, and am excited to not always look like I'm in mourning (since my other one is black). I know there are no rules for veiling really, but any other fellow veilers out there wanna weigh in on how you choose which color to where when? 

2. 
I have completely given in and serve Zuzu ketchup with everything. Well, not entirely true - sometimes I serve her mustard, olive oil, or pasta sauce - but she HAS to have "dippy" for every meal. I'm glad I didn't promise out loud that I'd never do that. 

3.
I want to know how it is that a random collection of items always ends up on my floors.  Nothing that makes sense, mind you! Just random items from around my home collect in odd places. As I type at the kitchen table, there sits around my feet: a 3-hole punch, a baby spoon, one orange crock, a silicon pastry brush, a pasta spoon, a pair of broken headphones, and a kitchen towel. On the other side, is a used cloth napkin and a fold-up yard stick. By my door is a bib, a book, a hair tie, and some exercise shorts. 

To be clear, I have used precisely none of these items today. I am interested in mounting secret cameras in my house and watching the tapes in fast forward so I can see how it is those items get picked up and then dropped there, all together. This could be a breakthrough in documentary film making. 

4. 
Which segways nicely to my next point: I AM A HORRIBLE HOUSECLEANER. I was going to write an entire post and ask for your help, but it was too humiliating to be honest about my struggles keeping (a very small house) for all of three people. 
You excellent housekeepers out there, share with me your wisdom! Do you have a cleaning schedule? How do you achieve it with littles running about? Do you give up nap time blog reading for productivity? And if so, how can I not do that and still have a clean house?
I'm dying to know.

5. 
My husband is gone all day today with the car (we're a one car family) and so I was automatically in a huffy mood to start my day. I kept trying to hit my mental reset button, but it just wasn't working. All this to say, those of you whose husbands are usually gone all day, I have nothing but respect. I fled to my neighbor's house for reprieve because for some reason, doing nothing at another person's house is pleasant for Zuzu, but hanging around our house induces wails and whines of unprecedented proportions. 

6. 
Did you husband ever tell you "you're not my mother, why should I get you a Mother's Day present"?  Mine did - the Mother's Day I was pregnant with Zuz. I was furious - but apparently, not alone. My neighbor reports her husband did the same thing. In retaliation, she hasn't bought him a Father's Day present since - and I think that was twelve years ago. (Hell hath no fury ecetera)
So Mother's Day is decidedly low-key around here. What does it usually look like in your house - or do you scorn it with the same fire that Valentine's gets these days? 

7. 
Update: There is now a robe sash and two mismatched socks added to the random pile by my bedroom door since I started writing this. The exercise shorts are gone.

Friday, May 10, 2013

7 Quick Takes

It's Friday! So I don't have to come up with an original idea, instead I jump on Jen's train of genius for 7 Quick Takes... 



-1-
Sooo this weekend is Mother's Day! My first one with a baby in my arms! Wooo! 
I also thought that I'd be celebrating it with my own mama, but a few things came up and she will not be traveling down to see me. I have no idea why (hormones? crazy genes?), but this has severely depressed me. Dinner last night was, therefore, 2 homemade chai tea lattes and two homemade Vietnamese banana muffins. 
I might have cried into my baked goods...just a little bit.

Banana bread recipe and picture from Simply Recipes...I call it Vietnamese banana muffins because a) I do not have a bread pan, therefore I make them into muffins, and 2) the only time I make it is when my Vietnamese friend brings me 10 thousand of these special bananas that grow in her parent's yard.

-2-
So I was telling Jen this the other day, but when I first came to Naples, I was so excited to be part of this dynamic Catholic community...but it seemed like everyone I would meet would suddenly reveal their SH. What is a SH? SECRET HERESY. These faithful Catholics would suddenly bust out with, "I believe in reincarnation!" or "abortion can be a loving choice." 
I have to admit, it's made me still a little wary of Catholics down here...is it in the water?!?

-3-
My husband did yard work today - gritty, hard work in the yard in the beating sun. He came in smelling of sunscreen and sweat. 
Moments like that I love looking at him and thinking, he is AAALLL mine. hashtag: something sappy and possibly inappropriate.

This is where we got all that free mulch - the lot being cleared down the street.


-4-
I made my own hummus today - really pretty easy. I'd like to take this opportunity and apologize to my grad school roommate because, when she suggested that I make my own hummus, I reacted like she'd just told me to bugger off. 
Sorry Rose. You were right - really wasn't that hard and it's better for me.

All of my grad school roommates - Rose in red, Jess in yellow, Ashley - head only, Abbie in blue? white?, Jen of course, and then me in grey (with short hair - before I dyed it blue).


-5-
What are people's policies on nap schedules...stick to them religiously, have roughly the same time every day, or just intervals (2-3-4 schedule)? What's important enough to move them? Just searching for some advice out there...I've been trying to keep Zuz on a schedule, but it inevitably means I miss out on a lot - play dates, girls night out, etc.  

happy morning baby


-6-
I've been thinking of starting to pump so I can have a bit more 'freedom' - but I honestly don't know how it would work. My angel is...not the best sleeper (to put it sooo lightly). I put her down for her 1.5 hour nap in the morning...and I have to go back in to soothe her to sleep at least twice. At nighttime, the soothing can be endless - sometimes I just give up and go to bed. And soothing = nursing. 
Is this just a phase I deal with until she self-weans? Which...I really hope she does. Because I cannot imagine trying to wean her - it breaks my heart. Sometimes I read weaning stories on the internet and cry. (did I just put that on the internet, Lorda mercy, someone do an intervention for me)

-7-
Although I do not get to see my mom this weekend, I DO get to travel to Orlando next week to see the WHOLE FAMILY. Beyond excited. I am so looking forward to seeing all of my siblings, nieces, nephews, parents, heck even my parents' crazy dog (also known as my Father's fourth daughter). Really really pumped to see everyone! 

Family time, Florida style...my caption for this pic on facebook is a perfect description of our beach days: 
pass the SPF 4, chatting chatting, what are you reading, do you see the kids, anymore pretzels, oops watch that wave, man I wish we'd brought beer...