Penelope Loves Lists

Penelope’s on Pinterest: get your daily dose of organization p*rn

Meredith — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:35:26 +0000

Hi all,

Just dipping in to say that I’m (finally) on Pinterest, collecting my favorite bits of Organization P*rn from around the web. Check it out here:

And, please, if you have any organization-related items or neat, tidy things being collected on Pinterest, please share links to those boards in the Comments below. Penelopes tend to be interested in similar things, so this is a great way for us to help each other waste time find cool stuff.

Assignment: Clean Behind and Around Your Toaster

Meredith — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:21:15 +0000

True confession: the other day, I gave into a massive craving for a Pop Tart. Ok. Maybe I ate two. (They really shouldn’t come in a 2-pack, should they? I mean, what are you going to do with the other one? Put it in a baggie? I ask you.)

As I went to extract said Tarts from the toaster, one collapsed back inside. And so, I had to come face to face with the fact that my toaster area was a blight on my otherwise pretty darn clean kitchen.

Before. Yuck and double yuck.

So, I had no choice but to let the little sucker cool down and give him a cleaning.

After. Isn't that better?

And now, because you’re so lucky to be a Penelope, it’s your turn. Yaaah!

Pretty easy job. Should take less than 2 minutes.

1) As my husband would tell us, please unplug the toaster before doing anything. He’s a FREAK on this topic, so let’s placate him.

2) Give the toaster a good shake. Upend the darn thing and shake it around. It may have a little door on it, you can unlatch it and really go for the gusto, or, you can be like me and just shake the stuff out.

3) Move the toaster aside and give the counter a good swipe.

4) Once the crumbs are gone, use some 409 to really get that whole area sparkly.

5) Replace the toaster.

6) Stand back and soak in that good “isn’t that better” feeling.

And yes, I’m coming to grips with the fact that I just wrote a post about toaster crumbs.

When Penelope Gets Pregnant :: Or, A Few Things I Know For Sure About Pregnancy and Childbirth

Meredith — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:00:06 +0000

I plan to do just a few posts about pregnancy and baby-related stuff. Not too many, I promise. I just wanted to get some of this stuff down before I completely forget it.

Getting pregnant wasn’t our issue (thankfully and luckily) but trying to get pregnant was a total mind screw.
After years (16, to be exact) of trying not to get pregnant, the action of not taking my pill and having sex with the intention of getting pregnant took a while to get used to. I thought it would be easier than it was. I thought the sex would be beautiful and natural, instead, it was, in a word, fraught. My husband was a trooper and I was a mess. Naturally. We need pillows with that statement embroidered upon it.

It is possible to go for 9 full months without ever feeling hungry.
With my daughter, I threw up for 4 months straight and then got super hungry. With Jackson, I never threw up, but went so long without feeling hungry that I almost forgot why I like food so much.

It is possible to consume two entire extra large bottles of Tums in 3 months.
The heartburn was my absolute worst symptom. Oy. It was like this baby had parked himself on my upper digestive tract. Didn’t sleep well for 14 weeks.

I am more than capable of worrying my entire pregnancy away.
When we decided to start trying to get pregnant I vowed I would “live in the present” and “not worry so much” once I actually did get pregnant. Nope. Uh uh. Worried the ENTIRE time. Every hour of every day. About the baby, about my old-ass body carrying said baby. About my previous miscarriage and it happening again. About my fibroid either choking off my baby’s food supply or blocking his way out. About my lack of weight gain and complete lack of appetite. About my belly not growing enough. About my belly growing at an alarming rate. About how the baby didn’t seem to move enough and then that he had a seizure disorder because he moved too much. About the baby having multiple sexual organs. About the baby not having all its limbs – even AFTER having an ultrasound that confirmed he in fact had 2 arms and 2 legs. (What? I thought one might disappear. Don’t judge.) I worried about my delivery, about my old-ass breasts ability to make milk. I worried my neverending worry would seep into my baby’s subconscious.

You name it, I worried about it. I literally challenge you to come up with something I didn’t both obsess about and Google. Seriously. What a huge waste of an uncomplicated, relatively easy pregnancy. I totally failed on this one.

A good doctor can make your pregnancy so much easier.
Try to find one who’s a Penelope herself. In the initial interview of your OB, I suggest asking her feelings about office supplies. If she lights up and says “Oh, I love binders and notebooks!” you’re in good hands. She’ll appreciate that you always have your list of questions neatly prepared and forgive you when you obsess over every little thing. My doc was amazing. Shout out to Dr. Maria Woods at Kaiser Pinole!

It pays to also have a team of sisters, moms and friends on hand to talk you down when you can’t reach your doctor.
My sisters (shout out to Melinda and Missy!), my mom, my friend Denise (who gave me ALL her maternity clothes) and many others were so incredibly supportive and never once laughed at me, at least, to my face. And for that, I’m grateful.

If you are prone to worry, stay OFF the message board for your “birth month club” on The Bump and other websites.
I fell into this trap in my first pregnancy and vowed that if I got pregnant again, I wouldn’t let myself get sucked into reading all the posts about people having miscarriages in the first trimester. It would derail me for an entire afternoon. Just wasn’t worth it. I actually stood by this vow to myself and I’m so glad. I ventured into my birth month club only after I was in my third trimester.

It takes hours to register for baby stuff.
You’re pregnant, you’re slow, you need a #*^!pile of stuff. Plan to have the outing take hours and bring your list (obviously), snacks and water. And a good friend to tell you to rest when you need to rest, but would rather “power through”. My sister literally forced me to sit down and I’m so glad she did.

Epidurals are sent from God.
Enough said.

Epidurals do not always work. In fact, they can be entirely ineffective.
Beyond all comprehension, but totally true. I lived it.

It’s a cliche, but that damn baby is totally worth it.
Even after 12 hours of labor, including 2 hours of pushing and an ineffective epidural. Even after pain that was more than I honestly ever thought was either possible or bearable, the moment they put Jackson on my chest and he let out a huge cry and then looked at me is 100% worth it.

That moment that makes all the worry and heartburn entirely worth it.

Finally. Introducing… Jackson

Meredith — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:57:44 +0000

Hi Penelopes,

Long time no see! I’m so sorry to have gone MIA for so long. Thanks to everyone who’s emailed asking if we’re ok. We are! In fact, we’re doing great.

I wanted to do a quick post to introduce you to the now 4 month old (!!) Jackson. He was born on August 16th and weighed 8 lbs, 8 oz. His entrance to the world was nothing I could have ever expected and probably deserves a whole post all to itself. Four months later, I’m just happy he’s here and healthy. Jackson is a super mellow baby, for which this mama is unspeakably grateful.

Being pregnant and having a newborn have taught me a lot about being a Penelope. And, both those things changed me, too. I can’t wait to write more about that in the coming months. Now that Jackson is a bit older and has a more regular schedule, I’m hoping very much to be posting her more regularly. I’ve missed you all so much.

Until then, some photos of our boy.

Jackson on his very first day - August 16th, 2011

Jackson today - full of smiles

A Book Not to Miss: “A Trick of the Light” by Louise Penny

Meredith — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 00:13:38 +0000

Very few things could bring me out of my flurry of baby preparations (I’m overdue by 2 days and counting!). But, a great book is one of them and I just had to recommend this one to you.

I just finished an advanced reader’s copy of “A Trick of the Light” by Louise Penny, the 7th book in the Three Pines mystery series. I’m so happy to report that it was every bit as good as I’d been hoping. And that’s saying a lot because Ms. Penny has set a really high bar.

So, why is this series, set in a picturesque small town in Canada, my very favorite mystery series?

Penny’s writing is superlative. Her prose is beautiful to read even as it advances each thrilling plotline.
I have such a crush on her lead character, Armand Gamache. Sure, he’s old enough to be my father, but he’s soooooo sexy and quietly commanding. Love me some Gamache.
Her cast of characters is amazing. Each one is so fully drawn and real, I feel as if I’ve known them forever. And I care very much what happens to each of them as the series goes on.

But what I love most about Penny’s Three Pines series is that she’s written it as if she firmly believes her audience is intelligent. She doesn’t overexplain, or drop stupid red herrings, or repeat herself or pander to the lowest common denominator. She writes for smart readers and I respect that. Too few authors do that these days, especially in the mystery genre.

The new book is due out on August 30th and if you’re all caught up with the series, make sure you’ve pre-ordered it.

But, if you want to start from the beginning, and I highly recommend that you do that with this particular series, here’s the order in which you should do your reading:

Still Life
A Fatal Grace
The Cruelest Month
A Rule Against Murder
The Brutal Telling
Bury Your Dead
A Trick of The Light

If you love a good mystery, and especially a good police procedural, you owe it to yourself to check out Louise Penny’s books. If you do, please let me know what you think!

Finally ready to officially take a break (plus a few photos)

Meredith — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:04:37 +0000

Hi Penelopes,

I’m so sorry for yet another round of radio silence here at Penelope Loves Lists. The truth is, I’ve just been so conflicted as to how to handle this period of my blogging life.

As you know, I’m getting ready to have our baby in early August (I’m at 37 weeks -almost there!). The preparation for the little guy (and, even more so, for being away from work to be with him) has simply taken all energy out of me. And so, I’ve wanted to just post that I’m taking a long term break.

And yet, I didn’t want to take away my option to post if all of a sudden I had a bolt of energy and inspiration simultaneously. And I felt guilty for not posting. And I felt guilty for pushing myself to do more than I should.

And back and forth I’ve gone, all the while simply not posting anything.

Man, I am so tired of myself.

So, I’m finally making a decision and putting the blog on official hiatus for a while. I’m not sure how long that will be. I may post in a week, or it may be a whole lot longer. I just don’t know. I hope very much to be back for real in the next few months, but I’m giving myself the option to just see how it goes. Which is very, VERY difficult for me. I’m so not good with “go with the flow.”

I’m thinking this may be my season to learn to do just that. And that’s a humbling lesson to learn, isn’t it?

I deeply love this website and all of you and I miss our interaction, so I look forward to the time when life enables me to be back in full Penelope action.

Until then, and because so many of you have been sweet enough to ask to see some photos of my pregnant self, I’ll leave you with a few pictures from our recent family and maternity photo session with the fantastic photographer Lisa Farrer. Seriously, if you’re in the SF Bay Area, Lisa’s the person to see for family photos, belly shots, baby portraits or wedding photography. Super, super talented photographer and really sweet person. She made my entire, photo-phobic family feel extremely comfortable.

Our spectacularly blended family

Me and my very patient husband

The cliched heart-on-belly shot. Just had to do it.

29 weeks pregnant

Our Boston Terrier, Cooper.

Have a wonderful summer and fall, Penelopes. I’ll see you soon.

Genius Idea for the new mom: Sticky Bellies

Meredith — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:50:19 +0000

True confession time: I’m not so great at taking photos. In fact, I suck. Horribly. There are entire years of my childrens’ lives that have gone mostly unphotographed. I know. It’s truly terrible.

It’s like I was born without the proper photo-taking gene. I believe my sister got every last ounce of that gene in our family, unfairly leaving me with zero. (Which is odd, because I’m older, but who am I to question the way these things work?)

But, I do very much want to document the first year of my son’s life by taking a photo of him every month in roughly the same place and position. We’ve all been inspired by Nicole at Making It Lovely, right? She’s done this for both her kids and it’s a wonderful way to watch them grow.

Today, I found this product, which I think will make the project easier for me. It’s called Sticky Bellies. It’s a pack of 12 stickers that you can stick on the front of your baby’s onesie or shirt each month. They’re adorable. They’re designed to look sewn on, for that handmade vibe we’re going for with these photos. They make it easy to tell how old baby is in each photo.

And, at just $15 for the pack, they are a great shower gift for any new mom.

I hope Sticky Bellies makes a million dollars on this product, because it’s such a genius idea.

Guest Post: Dreaming Big, One Line at a Time

Meredith — Fri, 20 May 2011 04:22:36 +0000

While I’m crazybusy getting ready for my maternity leave, a few fantastic bloggers have agreed to do some guest posts here on the Penelope site. I’m so grateful for the help.

Today, a heartfelt rumination on effective list-making brought to us by Alexis Anne from Clean, Smart, Simple, Style.

I am list obsessed- always have been, probably always will be, it’s just in my nature.

Making a list is a necessary part of my life when I am trying to accomplish something. But I have to confess: sometimes lists stress me out. A list with no check marks is the worst kind of visual reminder of everything that you haven’t accomplished.

I used to make lists all of the time, but over the last few months I noticed that I wasn’t making lists very often, and I finally figured out why. I couldn’t stand making a list in the morning and seeing it without any check marks at the end of the day. The things that I wanted “To Do” weren’t translating very well into a “To Do List” because I was confusing goals with tasks.

I’ve been dreaming about big things, and setting lofty goals. But sometimes even after several hours of work towards a goal, I don’t “finish” anything, and I can’t cross anything off of my list. I get frustrated, and in the moment I feel like I will never reach my goal.

I’ve always been easily frustrated and impatient. As a kid, if it didn’t come easily to me, I generally wasn’t interested. But when I started playing the piano at age 5, it came easily enough that I stuck with it. No one expects perfection from a 5 year old.

As I grew older though, the work became harder. Songs would take weeks, if not months, to learn. Luckily, my teacher never expected that I would learn something overnight. Every morning I would practice at the piano for 30 minutes and slowly work my way through my lesson for the week- piecing together the notes to my new song. Not surprisingly, I’d often become impatient with my progress and race hastily toward the end, fumbling over notes until the melody was nearly unrecognizable.

Without fail, my Dad’s voice would chime from the other room, “Stop. Go Back. Break it down. Try it again.” He was a stickler for reminding me to learn it line by line until I got it right. Perfection never happened over night, but if I worked hard enough, I eventually reached my goal..

Today, as I find myself trying to move full speed ahead to my goals, impatiently wanting them to happen overnight, I find myself remembering the 30 min of practice a day approach, and the Xs that my piano teacher would mark at the end of the line in my sheet music as the visual reminder that I was not required (or allowed) to do it all at once.

I hear my Dad’s voice reminding me:
Stop. Break it down. Try again. One line at a time.

Even away from the piano, I need to break things down and tackle them one line at a time because when I make a list, I now know that I need to cross things off regularly.

I’m learning that you can’t just write what you want to do. You have to think about exactly how you’re going to do it, and THAT’S the part that you have to write down. You have to break it down into manageable pieces and devote a tiny increment of time to these task every day.

Work on X for 30 min
Research Y for 15 minutes
Contact 2 people about Z

Move through the list line by line, and then less than an hour later you’ve earned the right to put a check in the boxes next to X, Y, and Z. No more blank “To Do Lists” taunting you with what you haven’t accomplished, just visual proof of the steps that you’ve taken towards your goal.

It’s good to have goals. It’s great to write them down. But from one Penelope to another…what’s the point of making a list if you can’t check some stuff off today?

In addition to dreaming big and making lists, Alexis Anne shares ideas and inspiration for home organizing and design at her blog Clean, Smart, Simple, Style.

The Perfect Backbend: or, why I want to be a parent again

Meredith — Fri, 06 May 2011 16:41:40 +0000

As I’ve mentioned, my husband and I have three children in our blended family, which has been in the blender for 12 years now: he has 2 boys, aged 12 and 21, whom I consider my own sons, and I have a 16 year old daughter.

When we decided to have another baby, a question I got a lot was “But, why? You’re 37, you’re in a great, busy place in your career and your kids are grown out of that “needy” phase. You’re almost there! Why do it again?”

I’ll tell you why.

Because, these things happen.

The other night, my 16 year old daughter came to me with a problem. She’s in the “tumbling” segment of her high school gym class and they will be graded on being able to do the perfect backbend.

You know what I mean. This one:

My daughter hasn’t ever been interested in gymnastics (a somersault was as far as we got when she was little), so she’s never learned to do a backbend. And the fact that she was struggling with it was really bothering her. She is going to be TESTED on this. And she’s a true Penelope. If she’s going to get a grade, it’d better be a good one.

Before I go on, a bit of background on my daughter. The thing is, she rarely needs my help. Since she was young (like, 5) she has been able to figure out and execute nearly perfectly anything she puts her mind to. School comes easy to her. I mean, she works very, very long and hard, but the actual organization and doing of the work is fairly natural to her.

Unlike with my sons (who are smart, hardworking boys, to be sure) she’s never needed my help. The boys needed me to teach them to keep themselves on task, to manage their time and assignments, to wrangle in their various items of school-related paperwork into a workable system.

Not my daughter. She practically came out of the womb organizing a binder.

All this to say, she’s so easy to parent that sometimes the Leo in me feels unneeded. Narcissistic or not, it’s the truth.

But this night, she needed me. Almost in tears, she came to me for help in learning to do a backbend. I hid, admirably, my joy at being asked for assistance.

I was a bit frustrated that I couldn’t actually show her how to do one. I’m more than capable in my normal body state, but now that I’m 6 and a half months pregnant, a backbend seemed neither possible nor advisable.

So I stuck to going through the various tricks I’d learned back in my childhood gymnastic classes. At first, no luck. It seemed impossible for her. Her arms just didn’t want to lift her up into position.

And then, with a few more tricks and adjustments, she started to see how it might happen. And then, with more work together, she got it. Perfectly. She did it again and again, shocked that something so impossible just a few minutes before, was now not only possible, but easy.

She thanked me profusely and gave me the tightest, least “teenaged” hug she’d given me in forever. She must have thanked me 10 times. Later, right before bed, she quickly laid on the floor to do it again and was so happy it had now become muscle memory for her. Easy! She was delighted. She smiled that smile I used to see all the time but is a bit more rare these days.

And that’s why I want to do this parent thing again. Because every time you can help your children gain a new skill or overcome a challenge, it’s all worth it. Your joy at their successes far, far outweighs joys for your own accomplishments.

I’m not in the business of oohing and aahing over babies for babies sake (though they do smell awfully good) but I am all about helping to create happy, productive humans.

One backbend at a time.

New obsession: Girl of All Work

Meredith — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:00:07 +0000

Very few things make my heart skip a beat faster than a new online retailer of pretty office supplies. Maybe a shirtless David Beckham. No…I’m actually more excited by this new find.

Have you seen Girl of All Work? Penelopes, you must.

Their site isn’t huge, yet. It’s focused and well-curated. It’s no See Jane Work – yet – but it’s got tremendous potential.

I love every item they’re offering. The designs are exquisitely cute and the prices are reasonable compared with similar retailers.

Here’s a glance at what went into my shopping cart at Girl of All Work today:

Classic Tiles Page Flags

Peel and Stick Tabs

More Peel and Stick Tabs

Birdie Notebook with both lined and blank pages

A Teapot Journal for jotting down recipe ideas

My only two suggestions for the awesome people at Girl of All Work? More and larger images, especially showing the inside of notebooks, tablets and pads and more inventory. I know they’ll get there soon. They’ve got so much potential here.

Have you found any great new online retailers lately to help you find pretty office products? Let us know!