Mildly Amusing Musings

On Childbearing.

2012-01-26T20:56:00.002-05:00

I write a lot about how much I like being pregnant. But I don't feel like that all the time. Pregnancy isn't easy for me. My hips don't work right when I'm not pregnant and when I am pregnant those hip issues cause me extreme pain and difficulty in moving while pregnant. My mood swings swerve in between being unable to feel happy to being numb, to being so happy I sob uncontrollable, and occasionally I have outbursts of rage that come from a really ugly place and then disappear almost immediately.

I write a lot about how empowering the birth experience was for me. The day of my son's birth was the best of my life. But I remember, in the back of my mind, how overwhelmed, exhausted, and defeated I felt during labor. I remember, every now and then, that labor was the worst I felt in my life.

I write a lot about the immense joy that motherhood brings me. But there's also times when Gideon frustrates me to the point where I just set him in the recliner, tuck a blanket around him, and give him a cinnamon roll. Mess be damned. And those poopy toddler diapers? I've cried from simply smelling it from across the room, cried from sheer laziness.

There's the article circling around the web called "To the Mother With Only One Child". As I told one of my friends, it might be the pregnancy hormones, but I was crying by the time I reached the end of it. (Have you noticed a crying trend recently? Motherhood did that to me.) This quote especially spoke to me: "Dear mother, don’t worry about enjoying your life. Your life is hard; your life will be hard. That doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong—it means you’re doing it right."

It reminded me of all the reasons that the hard things about childbearing and child rearing are a blessing. I am becoming a better person. I am dying to myself everyday and it's not horrible, it's wonderful! Everyday I have the chance to say "I will take whatever I want to do, throw it out the window, and replace it with whatever is best for you." to my Gideon.

And what blows my mind still further is that I am shaping this person, this little soul. Another one of my favorite quotes on parenting is "You are not managing an inconvenience. You are raising a human being." I have the most amazing privilege, and one that I wouldn't trade for any other career. I am shaping people. People who will go out and do things and go places and love other people.

All that to say this. Mothering is hard for me. While I would love for you to be encouraged while reading my blog I don't want anyone to look at what I write and think that I lead a charmed life with no troubles or that I am some sort of super mom who deals with her troubles with exemplary grace and patience. But I do LOVE what I do and that's what I try to focus on when I blog. I believe with every fiber of my being that everything I am doing is important. More important than anything else I could be doing.

Life is hard. But it is rich. And it is full of joy and purpose.

Snider Snippets

2012-01-21T23:46:00.001-05:00

I'm loving being pregnant. Baby Snider's sweet little baby kicks bring a smile to my face several times a day. Gideon has learned to say 'baby' and every time he sees one he goes "Baybeee! Aw!" and tries to give it a kiss. My heart melts.

Gideon is such a big boy. He's weaned. He hardly needs help at the table. When he picks his nose and gets a boogie on his finger he comes up to me, shoves his hand in my face and says "Ew!!!" He also gives raspberries every time he sees a piece of exposed skin.

I'm set up a tiny sewing corner in my living room. The attic I use as my studio isn't heated so it's a bit cold to work up there and I love getting to spend my sewing time with Silas and Gideon. I finished piecing my latest quilt top so I'll post a picture of that soon.

We went and got a Costco membership last week. Life. Changed. I just want to go there all the time now. It's a good thing it's across the city from me. Also, I will never ever be out of muffins again.

Silas and I have been renewing our love for board games recently. I bought him Shadows Over Camelot for Christmas which is a cooperative game. We've played with two different groups of people and lost both times. But I have high hopes for next time. It's super fun.

My best friend from high school got married today. I couldn't make it to the wedding, but I was reminded of being a teenager and wishing to be married. Of the five of us girls who were good friends in high school, four of us are now married and we're all aged 23 and under. And we were afraid of being old maids. Ha.

Return from the Epic Roadtrip

2012-01-14T14:51:00.001-05:00

Oh! Hey guys! You're still here!

I haven't been blogging because for the past month we've been on an epic Christmas road trip that involved traveling through 16 states and logging over 100 hours of driving broken up over 12 or so days. Basically, we drove to Oregon for Christmas.

We had a wonderful time visiting with family and Silas and I took an overnight (Without Gideon!) trip to Seattle to scope out possible neighborhoods and search for a midwife. When we started home for Pittsburgh we took Ellie with us so she could come for a visit. We stopped in Arkansas to visit Silas's grandparents on the way home.

Through all of this Gideon has been growing up and becoming more and more of a little boy (complete with a variety of fart and burp sounds) and my belly has been getting bigger. I'll be 17 weeks on Monday. I feel little baby kicks every now and then. It's wonderful.

School has started and this quarter promises to be much less hectic. I'll be posting again with more updates and pictures from our trip soon, so see you again soon!

Baby doll Christmas quilt.

2011-12-27T23:17:00.001-05:00

For Christmas this year I made Maggie a little quilt to go with the dollies I got her for Christmas.

I got to try out my new quilting technique. Her name is also quilted into the center blocks if you look closely.

I also bought her a baby doll play pen and the quilt fits perfectly in the bottom.

Things to do while the husband is gone.

2011-12-14T21:49:00.000-05:00

My husband is coming home tonight after a 4 day business trip. I hate it when he's gone. He has to travel maybe 4 or 5 times a year for work. Did I mention I hate it when he's gone? This time around I tried to find a silver lining in his absence, though, and have made a list of things I get to do when Silas is gone that I wouldn't otherwise.

#1. Paint my nails. The fumes give Silas an instant head ache so I can never do it when he's home. I actually had no time for this due to being sick and finals. But this is my usual "entertain myself while Silas is gone" activity.

#2. Let the baby fall asleep in bed. We're usually pretty strict about Gideon going to bed on time and in his own bed so that we can have our grown up time in the evenings. With Silas gone I let Gideon sleep in my bed one night. How else would I discover that Gideon's preferred sleeping position is his face on my face?

#3. Eat hot ham and cheese sandwiches for dinner. Silas hates ham. I love ham. I love Swiss chese. Silas hates swiss chese. But I never buy either because, as previously stated, Silas hates them. But with Silas gone I went out and bought both and have been enjoying my little treat!

#4. Ignore the laundry. Silas owns exactly 5 sets of clothing. This means I have to do laundry every 4 days. And it annoys me. But with Silas gone I haven't had to do laundry at all! Whoohoo!

#5. Leave the butter out. Silas gets really annoyed when I leave the butter out on the counter. I like to leave it out so when I try to spread it on stuff it actually spreads. Silas claims it goes rancid. So when Silas is home I always put the butter away in the fridge. And this week? I left it out :)

So there's my list of consolation prizes for Silas being gone. But I'd trade them all for him being home! Only a couple more hours till he arrives!

Quilts, Cardigans, and Soup. Also, when I'm old.

2011-12-06T11:57:00.001-05:00

My sister just posted a recipe for Chicken Tortilla soup on her blog. And I just got to thinking about how much I would LOVE some chicken tortilla soup right now. But I don't have any chicken. Sadness. Maybe later in the week.

I had fittings for my models last night and I should be sewing alterations right now since the run-through is tomorrow night. But the only thing I'm motivated to do right now is make soup and make a Cathedral Window quilt. Oh, and sit here in bed in my yoga pants and cardigan.

I love cardigans. I love quilts too. Right now I have three and a half cut out and the fabric for three more set aside.

I'm going to be a crazy quilt lady who sits around sewing in cardigans when I'm old. My grandchildren will come visit me and I'll make soup and cookies and hot cocoa and let them sew together scraps on the sewing machine. And when we're done sewing we'll watch The Philadelphia Story and eat kettle corn and chocolate bars. I'm going to be an awesome grandma.

For now, though, I should probably, like, get dressed and make the most of Gideon's nap time.

But for the record I'D RATHER BE QUILTING!!!

Perfect Day

2011-12-04T21:59:00.001-05:00

Today has been the most perfect Sunday ever.

It started, as most days do, with the morning. Gideon didn't wake me up till nine (!!!) and when I went to get him he then laid quietly in bed with us for another thirty minutes cuddling with his baby doll. Then, instead of sitting on my face (his favorite way of waking me up), Gideon decided to tickle Daddy. WIN FOR ME!

Silas made gourmet oatmeal for breakfast/lunch. Silas makes the best oatmeal. First he toasts the oats in a pan on the stove, then he cooks them in milk, then he sprinkles some magic in. Seriously, I don't know how he does it. But it takes forever and produces the best bowl of oatmeal imaginable. And I don't even like oatmeal. I made bread so we had fresh toast too.

I let Gideon feed himself so he had to have a bath before nap time. If our drain backs up any time soon it will be because of how much oatmeal went in that bathtub... Once he was all dressed I said "Bedtime, Gideon." and he ran to his crib. The kid LOVES bedtime. And I love that he loves bedtime.

Then I went downstairs to put on The Holiday and wrapped presents. The Holiday is one of my favorite Christmastime indulgences. Then I made a little doll quilt for Maggie to go with her Christmas present. It took me about two hours because it was the first time I tried free motion quilting and I made some mistakes that I then had to pull out... and without a seam ripper as mine broke last week.

When that was done I came down stairs and Silas and I decided to order pizza for dinner. Our favorite pizza place in Bloomfield, Adrian's, just started delivering to our neighborhood and we are just over the moon about it. Gideon woke up while we were waiting for pizza to arrive and when it finally got here the three of us just sat on the couch. Silas read a book, Gideon ate pizza, and I just took in the goodness of it all.

Afterwards we began to get ready for church and the rest of our evening consisted of worship and fellowship. Not once over the whole course of the day did Silas and I have an argument that was not good natured. Not once did I feel rushed or stressed. It was just a wonderful succession of joyful moments.

My life is far from perfect and I haven't been easy to live with lately. I've been pretty stressed out with the fashion show and finals coming up. Plus the preggo hormones have me pretty emotionally fragile at times. This week I actually started to write a blog post that began "I'm covered in poo and totally defeated as a mother." It's a long story, but the short version is that Gideon as a total butthead to me all morning and then smeared poop on me and then sat on my head when I was trying to do yoga.

But God gives me days like this to remind me that life is good and that He is good and that no matter how much poo Gideon smears on me I can put him down for a nap, do a load of laundry, and start another day.

I finished NaBloPoMo!

2011-11-30T23:29:00.001-05:00

And I only missed ONE DAY. Which is much better than last year.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7 - FAIL
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 17
Day 18
Day 19
Day 20
Day 21
Day 22
Day 23
Day 24
Day 25
Day 26
Day 27
Day 28
Day 29
Day 30 - WAHOO!

I eat a balanced diet.

2011-11-29T23:51:00.001-05:00

Gideon simply refuses to eat sliced avocado. But mash it up with a fork and throw in some salt and lemon juice and the kid is SOLD. He at three avocados worth of lemon and salt guacamole for lunch. Does that even count as guacamole? Either way, it's delicious.

Thanks to Red Pen Mama's tweet earlier today I found myself craving mashed potatoes. So I decided to make them for dinner. After I put them on to boil I realized that I had to gravy and I had no potato masher. But you know what works great as a potato masher? The kitchen aid with the whisk attachment. And I added a whole bunch of cheese. Mmm.... cheesy mashed potatoes.

Then I went to Bible study and ate rice pudding and chocolate chip cookies and a tiny slice of pizza. And you know what I'm craving right now? Cottage cheese. WHY DON'T I HAVE ANY!?!?!

In which my husband saves my butt.

2011-11-28T22:37:00.001-05:00

This morning my sister IM'd me to let me know my site was down. Instead of my blog there was a page claiming my domain had expired. A ridiculous assertion as I had just renewed my domain for a whole year last month. I was at a complete loss as to what might be going on so I did what any self respecting programmer wife would do, I contacted my husband.

His first suggestion was that I had been hacked. At which point I decided to just not think about the fact that sometimes when that happens you can lose your entire blog. Everything you've ever written. If I had time I would have gone into full freak out mode. But I had too much sewing on my plate this afternoon to worry about it.

Eventually Silas got back to me to let me know he had fixed the problem. I hadn't been hacked and my blog was ok. There was a problem with some code I had entered into my template over a year ago from an outside site. The site was now gone and through a complicated series of events those two lines of code had not only take my site down, but made it impossible for me to fix it.

I asked Silas if I would have been able to fix it without him. He answered in the negative and said he had filed bugs with blogger regarding the problem. I don't even want to think about how much time I would have spent trying to fix it without his help.

As a side note, several of you have reported issues with commenting on my blog. Silas says there is indeed, a bug with blogger's embedded comments. Since I love comments and, you know, I love you all, I will be switching to a different comment service soon. I have a big deadline coming up on Wednesday so it will have to be sometime after that. BUT SOON!

And as I post this my husband is making food for us. At 11:30 at night. And there are wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. I am so, so grateful for Silas and all he does.

How many binkies can you find?

2011-11-27T20:00:00.000-05:00

A peek behind Gideon's crib...

I would feel worse about this...

2011-11-26T11:30:00.000-05:00

... if I hadn't told Gideon 87 bazillion times not to play with the toilet seat.

I actually never saw him touch it again after this incident.

What a heartbreaking face!

Post Thanksgiving Thoughts

2011-11-25T10:54:00.001-05:00

Pregnant on Thanksgiving; the only circumstance in which it is acceptable to eat ham slathered in cool whip.

The only thing Black Friday means to me is turkey and cranberry sauce and mayo sandwiches. Or in Gideon's case, mayo and cranberry sauce sandwiches...

It turns out that many of my family members read my blog and I didn't even know! Aunt Linda is probably my biggest blog fan. Hi, Aunt Linda!

Gideon is trying very hard to understand headphones. He's skeptical.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Sniders

2011-11-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

This day has been filled with joy and happiness. That's what happens when you take some time to think about all the wonderful things and people and opportunities you've been given. God is so good to me. I do this every year so I'll go ahead and share my list of things I'm thankful for. As always, this is not an exhaustive list! Just what's been on my heart lately.

#1. My husband. No, really. I am so, so thankful for my husband. If it weren't for Silas none of the other things on this list would be possible. *mush*

#2. My son. So much work. So much joy. So many slobbery kisses.

#3. Family. I've been so homesick lately. I've been skyping with my siblings and calling my Mom, even though I hate the phone. I've also had some interactions with Silas's family lately that have just reminded me how blessed I am to have such great inlaws.

#4. School. While I occasionally gripe about how I have to get out of bed at the buttcrack of dawn to wait for the bus in the freezing cold, I really am so thankful for this opportunity to further develop my skills and broaden my horizons.

#5. Our move to Seattle. While sad to leave Pittsburgh, I'm ecstatic at the thought of only being a few hours drive from our families. Plus, THE OCEAN and THE RAIN. Basically, PACIFIC NORTHWEST YOU ARE MY GEOGRAPHICAL SOUL MATE!

P.S. My grandma makes the best stuffing. There isn't any left over and I'm sad about it.

No cameras please.

2011-11-23T10:55:00.000-05:00

Fabric is my vice.

2011-11-22T18:16:00.001-05:00

Seriously, I can't help myself. Gorgeous fabric on sale? Going in the cart. It's like a sickness.

Today, however, I had the pleasure of buying fabric and not feeling bad about it because I really needed to purchase the last bit of fabric for my collection. Due to my large stash of fabric I only actually needed to buy a few cuts of fabric. This is the dress I bought for today.

It's 20s inspired so that piece on the front is entirely covered in gold and silver sequins. And since I won't have time to be in my studio much this next week or so I'm hoping I can get a bunch of the sequining done since it has to be done by hand. That will be my Thanksgiving project!

While at the fabric store I also picked up some fabric to make Gideon a quilt. I've decided that I want to make a quilt for each of my children so I had better get started on Gideon's before the baby comes or I'll be quite behind!

Gideon LOVES going to the fabric store and he was thrilled that I allowed him to touch some fabric this time. I pulled a couple of bolts to get his reaction. Two in particular caused him to squeal with glee. A print with some dogs on it and a print with cars on it which immediately caused him to start making car noises. So those were the two I got. Gideon wanted to keep his hands on them the whole rest of the shopping trip.

I hope he grows up to enjoy textiles as much as I do.

I am not a baby boy.

2011-11-21T22:46:00.001-05:00

Today I was looking through some pictures of me when I was a baby. I pulled out this one to show Silas how much Gideon looks like me.

For reference, Gideon.

Silas's response? "Wait, who is that?" "It's me!" I replied indignantly. "Oh. You look like a boy." "WHAT!?!?!" I quickly shuffled through till I found this picture.

"See! I don't look like a boy." I said as I showed him the picture. "Um. You look like a boy." "I'M WEARING PURPLE OVERALLS!" "And?" I found another picture, sure to prove my case. "You see?" I said.

"You look like a boy in a dress."

...

"But you look a girl now!"

...

Rainbow Chevrons Quilt

2011-11-20T23:52:00.001-05:00

I'm totally hooked on quilts. After my first quilt for my color theory class I decided to try a little bigger project. This was the result.

My dear friend, and midwife, MeriBeth is expecting her first girl after six boys. I made this quilt as a gift for her baby girl, Zipporah Elisabeth who is due to arrive in a couple weeks.

I started quilting it and quickly realized that I was going to need a walking foot for my machine for a quilt this size. I was reluctant at first... but I'm now sold. EVERYONE GO BUY A WALKING FOOT!

I already cut out the fabric for my next quilt and I can't wait to get started piecing the top together. Oh yes.. and I ordered a darning foot for freehanded quilting.

I <3 quilts!

Toddler Adventures

2011-11-19T16:57:00.001-05:00

Silas is at a robotics competition (Go Terrabytes!) and won't be back till very late tonight so we've been carless all day. It's not usually a big deal since I'm very much enjoying just chilling on the couch with nothing to do and nowhere to go. But at about 3:30 this afternoon Gideon started freaking out

After trying to squeeze a coat hanger over his head and spinning around in circles till he got so dizzy he fell over he decided on a change of scene. He kept bringing me his shoes and when I ignored his shoving of shoes in my face he went and banged them on the front door. *sigh* "Good thing I changed out of my footed pajamas*" I thought to myself.

So we put on our matching black peacoats and went for a stroll. We walked to the end of the block and crossed the street and walked to the other end and then back to our house. I let Gideon walk around to the back yard and that's when he saw our bike.

I say "our" bike because there is a baby seat attached to the back and Gideon and I almost always bike together. Anyhow, he had seen our bike, he ran up to, and then began making excited grunting noises whilst pointing at his bike helmet in the bike basket. "Why not?" I thought and so we loaded up for a bike ride.

We didn't go far because we live half way up a giant hill so going anywhere other than our street would require either walking the bike, which I hate, or some serious pedaling, which I was way to tired for. But Gideon was more than happy with just going up and down the street a few times. It's the little things in life that make great adventures for toddlers.

My heart explodes with happiness.

I love my son.

*Don't judge me. I lurv them.

Hippy Baby

2011-11-18T23:56:00.000-05:00

Gideon digging into a bag of dried cranberries.

Wait, does this make me a fashion designer?

2011-11-17T12:37:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I got wind of a fashion show being put on by some of the upper classmen in the fashion department at the Art Institute. After talking with a few of the people involved I decided to take my maternity line sketches to the audition. The worst they could do is say no.

The audition was last night and I arrived with my finished garments, my sketches and fabric swatches. I had half and hour before my color theory class started and I figured I'd have plenty of time. WRONG! There was quite the line of people waiting outside the judging room and each interview was taking much longer than I had anticipated. And all of the people who were coming out of the room were grumpy and said the judges were not being nice.

I wasn't nervous before... but now I was! I do not take criticism well. And I don't just get all defensive and mad, though sometimes I do. Mostly I feel hurt. It's a stupid way to take criticism, I know, but I can't help it. I have very fragile self esteem and I want to cry if I ever hear anyone say anything bad about me or my work. Ridiculous, but there it is.

My name was finally called, ten minutes after my class started. But whateves, I've been doing really well in that class and if I'm late my professor will be cool about it... I hope. I went in there, showed them my pieces and they asked me a few questions. They wanted to know what school I had transferred from and I said I was mostly self taught and hadn't transferred from anywhere.. One of the judges said it was very impressive work and another judge started laughing "He hasn't said that about anyone's work all night."

Long story short, they loved my work and I'm going to be showing five looks in the Eyes on the Boulevard fashion show on December 9th! Like with real models! I might even participate in the designer showcase afterwards where buyers can come and look at my work! Squeeeee!

So I'm excited about that and my professor didn't even ding my attendance points because he loves me and because he loves my quilt. Yay for happy endings! And here's one of my sketches for my collection.

Reason #892345343

2011-11-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

Me: I think I'm just gonna take a shower.

Silas: I thought you were gonna take a bath?

Me: I was. But I don't have time.

Silas: Take a bath. You need it.

Me: But I...

Silas: TAKE A BATH.

Yet another reason I love my husband. He reminds me to rest. If he didn't remind me I kinda think I never would.

Homemade Butterfingers

2011-11-15T21:03:00.001-05:00

Yup, that's right folks. I made homemade butterfingers. Except, I don't really think they're home made... I'd just call them "cheaper butterfingers" and here's why. The two ingredients which I used to make them were peanut butter and... get ready for it... candy corn.

First I mixed melted the candy corn in the microwave. Then I mixed in an equal part of peanut butter. Lucky for me my bag of candy corn corresponded perfecting to my jar of cheap peanut butter.

Then I just spread it in a foil lined pan and stuck it in the fridge for a couple hours. After it had hardened I cut it into bars.

Then I melted half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. If I wasn't lazy I'd have done this in a bouble broiler. But since I AM lazy I just did it in a pan. I probably could have also done it in the microwave.

Then, using a frosting spreader I covered the bars in chocolate.

And TA-DA! Butterfingers! The taste and texture is remarkably close to the original. Only they get less crunchy when warm. And I wish I'd covered mine in milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet.

I now have about 12 of these in my fridge but, due to stupid pregnancy weirdness, I'm currently suffering from a butterfinger aversion. Does someone want to come take these off my hands?

8 Weeks

2011-11-14T19:58:00.001-05:00

I'm 8 weeks along today. And I'm feeling it.

If I'm not constantly stuffing my face I'm wanting to barf. I'm happy to be feeling a little queasy, as I was really worried at first at my lack of nausea. And now that it's here, of course, I'm not really enjoying it. I need to remember to eat a snack every hour or so to keep my blood sugar up and I'm ok. But today I got carried away with my sewing work during Gideon's nap and by the time I realized I hadn't eaten lunch I was so nauseated I couldn't even make myself something to eat. So I just laid in bed till Silas got home from work and brought me dinner.

I'm tired. So tired. Pregnancy insomnia is in full swing and not being able to sleep at night is a problem as I DON'T HAVE TIME TO SLEEP DURING THE DAY! When I was pregnant with Gideon I slept from noon to 5 pm. Almost every day from about week 7 to week 12. I didn't really have much on my plate so that was perfectly acceptable. I no longer have an empty plate. And I'm tempted to start shoving things off of it so I can do a faceplant in it. But I know I'll regret it if I start dropping balls. Look at me. So many mixed metaphors.

But despite these annoyances, the very worst thing is that I'm an emotional wreck. No, really, a wreck. I can't even count the number of times I've cried today, let alone this week. Today I sobbed over a dirty diaper because it smelled bad. Then I made myself a cake. Everything Silas says makes me cry. Everything from "You're beautiful!" to "That blog post is full of typos." has been in tears. It's freaking ridiculous.

I know I can't let my emotions control me. But I'm not really sure how to go about acting like a person whose hormones are not being all cray-cray. *sigh* Soon this part will be over and I can move on to the fun part.

Day of rest and chili.

2011-11-13T23:18:00.001-05:00

Five sleeping
hours is not
enough.
Falling asleep
during church.
Morning sickness
quelled by
stewed tomatoes.
Silas madethree meals
today.
Gideon gave me kisses.
I'm not nearly
grateful enough.
Maybe tonight
I will sleep.