house of peanut

Here's your reading list for the week

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 May 2014 19:07:00 +0000

I've been blogging up a storm over at The Papercraft Lab, so I thought you might like to see what I wrote.

Nine numerical facts about nine years

My secret mobile photography weapon

101 things to document about yourself (useful for blogs, Project Life, art journals and more!)

What color is the grass now? (mentioned by author Laura Vanderkam on her blog!)

Apparently people have been finding these posts useful because my stats are crazy high this week. Hooray and hope to see you over there!

We're still having fun (and still blogging)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 May 2014 04:42:00 +0000

I was so excited about my clarity of purpose in my last post, getting all into Essentialism and writing that shizz down, that I forgot to say one thing. I am taking a break from blogging here, but I will still be writing at The Papercraft Lab.

I do like to write, but I can't maintain two blogs. I also can't write about *just* crafting 100% so my secret to keeping up my business blog is to make it more like this one, and open to other topics. Granted, they will at least tenuously relate to either photography, crafting or documenting interesting life happenings, but that covers a lot of ground.

So I'd appreciate if you could update your feed reader and come on over. Today I've got some time management tips for crafty folks.

Even if we won't admit it to ourselves

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 17:13:00 +0000

I am in the midst of an EXCELLENT book called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. It is the kind of book that resonates with the ideas I have in theory, but is compelling enough to get me to actually DO something to live those ideas.

In a way, it's a time management and productivity book, but instead of squeezing more things into your limited time, it's about choosing VERY strategically what is actually worth spending time on. I'm reading it slowly to savor it and I am thinking about how to put these concepts into practice.

To that end, I sat down today and wrote up my priority list. It hasn't changed, but I am committing to be disciplined about focusing only on these things instead of getting distracted by shiny things on the Internet.

FAMILY - kid-wrangling, being wifely (whatever that means), doing *fun* stuff together
HOME - finish unpacking after the remodel, laundry, dishes, keeping the filth and clutter down
CRAFT - work on my scrapbooks, and continue making them for others via The Papercraft Lab
SELF-CARE - exercise, eat well, cook at home, sleep enough
WORK - yep! Starting a part-time contract gig next week

Work was a new addition to the list and actually triggered the re-evaluation of my commitments. I am setting up shop as an independent consultant project manager (sounds so much fancier than it is!) and have a couple of clients for a total of about 20 hours a week.

Our new business covers my PM work and TJ's motorsports mobile app development. Here's the fancy new logo I got on Etsy. Pretty cool, huh? I have to say that as a papercrafter and lover of stationery, I was especially excited about choosing a logo.

Here are some of the things I am completing or quitting to "find" 20 hours a week for this work:

Completed Coursera Creative Problem Solving class online, which completes my credits needed for renewing my PMP certification for 3 more years.
Completed two scrapbooks for Papercraft Lab clients
Un-enrolled from two other Coursera courses that "sounded interesting"
Declined the role of coordinating summer playdates for our toddler group
Stopped taking custom metal orders in my Etsy shop (still selling ready-made items!)
Facebook (I may need to detox gradually - I've already removed it from my phone. SO hard.)
Quit trying to be "social coordinator" and making new friends - need to focus on my existing ones!
Buying the snack for T's preschool at Trader Joe's instead of baking it
Stopped watching TV (no more Glee, Grey's Anatomy, The Mindy Project, etc.)
Finishing a scrapbook layout that will be used as a "demo" in an upcoming class
Decided not to enroll the girls in additional classes this summer other than Little Gym
Blogging. I haven't been motivated to write much here, so I'm taking a break for a while

In addition to going through my existing activities with a fine-toothed comb, I'm trying to be VERY selective about what I take on. I have a tendency to add projects on a whim, or volunteer for stuff when asked, so this is going to be a significant mindset change. Wish me luck!

If you read Essentialism, I'd love to know what you thought.

Tuesday Lovin': Bastille (the band not the prison)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 04:42:00 +0000

Sometimes you hear a new song and you just have to stop and HEAR it, because it's so perfectly awesome on the first listen. I remember exactly where and when I first heard Bastille's song Pompeii.

It was a freezing January evening at the gas station near my parents' house, where I was filling up before the daily trip back to the house to "camp out" in the living room during the remodel.

While the song was playing, I used the Android "what song is it" widget to find out who it was and hopped over to Amazon MP3 to purchase it immediately. I should have listened to the other songs on the album and just bought the whole thing right there, but of course I was looking for instant gratification and had two kids perilously close to bedtime.

We've been listening to a lot of Pandora in the house, and after I gave Pompeii a "thumbs up", other Bastille songs started creeping into the mix. And I loved every song I heard. So I finally bought the whole Bad Blood album last week, and Oh. Em. Gee. It's amazing. So catchy and such great lyrics. Any band that leaves me the earworm of "Icarus is flying too close to the sun" is A-OK. Apparently if you buy the CD, the MP3 download is now free. (I missed this entirely since I purchased on my phone, sigh.)

I'm noticing a pattern. British male singers with obvious accents. Sound reminiscent of 80s music. Thoughtful lyrics not always about lost romantic love. Hello Passenger, The Script, Scars on 45. So I guess I've become predictable in my old age. But at least I'm finding new music to listen to!

Ready to Run

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 22:15:00 +0000

I have a love-hate, on-and-off, breakup and get back together again relationship with exercise. When I was 24, I lost 40 pounds by combining Weight Watchers and serious exercise. That was the first time in my life I tried running. I was inspired by John Bingham's book about getting started as a runner despite being middle aged and overweight. I love that he dubbed himself "The Penguin". I went to Alaska for one of his running clinics and it was awesome.

Because this is a blog post and that was 14 years ago, I can fast forward through all the sweat and side stitches and hours on the treadmill, and say that I went from no exercise at all, to a ton of walking, to running a 5K. It was glorious - I was thinner than I ever had been as an adult, I actually started to love running and working out and I gained some serious self-confidence in the process.

You know how the story goes. First it started with a new consulting gig where the gym wasn't so convenient and lots of dinners out. I eventually gained some of that weight back. In 2004 after I got engaged, I got my vanity on - I wanted to look *good* in my wedding pictures. So back to the gym I went. I got a trainer and a nutritionist and got back to running. I ran another couple of 5Ks in Seattle and learned to love running again.

But again, the lazy won out. I did work out fairly regularly, but stopped running. When I got pregnant with T, I stopped going to the gym entirely because I was SO tired all the time. I dropped my gym membership and haven't had one since (5+ years now!).

Two pregnancies later, the situation is not pretty. I have about 20 lbs to lose to get back to pre-T-pregnancy weight. And that was not a healthy weight for me, so it's more like 40-mumble pounds to get back to something actually healthy for my height.

One of my goals for age 40 (next year - arghhh!) is to get to a healthy weight for my height. I don't have a lot of time, and I do have a lot of work ahead of me. And yet I have been unmotivated to DO THE WORK. I can talk a good game, I can make charts and lists and motivational collages, but actually getting down to the treadmill and walking? Naaah.

And then my friend A told me about Beat the Blerch. It's a crazy running event hosted by the guy who draws The Oatmeal. There will be cake, and people in costume chasing the runners. This appealed to me. Plus, I love The Oatmeal.

My first 10K, god help me

So in a fit of crazy, and encouraged by several friends, I signed up. The shortest distance is 10K. Which I've never run. The last time I did any running was in 2005. What have I gotten myself into?

I started where all new runners start these days. The Couch to 5K walk/run program. Now in our fancy age of smartphones, there's an app for that. It's fantastic- it gives you prompts to start running or walking over the music you're listening to. I really could have used this back in 2004. Or 1998.

I completed a week of running workouts before I got this horrible cold which I've had for about 2 weeks now. (Sigh). This means I'll probably have to start over. I couldn't even DO the Week 1 of that program - I'm so out of shape that even running for 1 minute 8 times was too much. So I scaled it back to running 35 seconds and I'll add more time slowly.

I've got 5 months before the race in September so I should be able to work up to 6.2 miles by then, *if* I can be consistent. That's the hard part, right?

Blogging the Remodel: The Nicest Bathroom I've Ever Had

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:48:00 +0000

I've had a few friends ~~hassling~~ asking me nicely for photos of our completed home addition/remodel project. There are many reasons I haven't posted them yet, except for a few quick ones on Instagram. I feel like the rooms need to be unpacked, or at least reasonably uncluttered, before I photograph them to post. We're still bringing stuff up from the garage, going through bins and making weekly runs to Goodwill. Losing both dogs within two months also made it hard to focus on non-essential tasks. We've unpacked enough to go through our daily lives, so there's less of a *need* to get the rest done quickly.

Also - we added 1000 square feet, but haven't bought a ton of furniture or decor to fill it up, by design. (Well, partly because we gave all our money to the remodeling firm.) We want to live with the space and see what we need, and figure out what we can repurpose from the rest of the house first. So many of the new spaces look empty. We just got the energy to hang pictures in our living room, which was only barely affected by the project.

I'll start in the top rightmost corner of the house - the master bathroom. In typical (horrible) 70s style, our sink and vanity were right *in* the bedroom. There was a separate TINY room with the toilet and small fiberglass shower stall. The toilet/shower area was so small you had to be very careful about where you stood so that you could open the door. When TJ got up for work super-early, he had to turn on the lights over the sink, which woke both me and whichever baby happened to be sleeping in our room at the time.

Our house has a lot of recycled rustic barnboard, but in the master bedroom it was overkill - all over the vanity wall, plus the wall behind the bed. There was also no bathtub, though we did have a (rarely used) hot tub outside on our deck, which we sacrificed for this project.

Here's a drawing of what it looked like:

Here are a couple of photos of the "before" space. We forgot to take photos of the bathroom before demolition.

One of the listing photos when we bought the house

Our wedding day, 2005

The design for the remodel had our new master bedroom and bath being built from scratch, in the "addition" part of the house. So we were able to design it exactly how we wanted it:

Fully enclosed bathroom - vanity area no longer part of the bedroom
Solid surface countertop - no more tile!!
Tile floors and shower stall
Larger shower area, with a bench for "stuff"
On-demand hot water heater (woot!)
TWO sinks instead of one
Large soaking bathtub
Room to turn around and close the door
No barnboard or 70s stained glass

We didn't need a HUGE, luxurious spa bathroom with a seating area - we just wanted it bigger than before and to use the space wisely. Here's the new design:

We love this one because the bathroom door can be closed, and even when it's not, the vanity lights aren't shining into the sleeping area thanks to that little "hallway" by the door. The closet door opens to a wall in that same hallway and that also doesn't disrupt the person sleeping.

I'm not a huge fan of the "toilet closet" with a door, since we're almost never in the bathroom at the same time, but apparently that's what people do these days.

Choosing the tile, cabinet finish, counter and paint was a painful process, and by the time we got to the bathroom, I just wanted to check it off the list. I found this bathroom online and used it as my inspiration:

Houzz bathroom

Here are the actual photos (you're welcome, A) - click for larger versions:

I chose the wood stain color early on, and had a challenge trying to find a light colored countertop that I liked that wasn't boring. We ended up with Cambria engineered quartz in Laneshaw, which looks sort of like Reese's peanut butter cup ice cream. I'm usually not a fan of the "fake marble" look, but it's got enough gold and silver sparkles so that it doesn't look like it's trying too hard to be real.

Most of the choices were cost-driven. The nice thing is that anything new was an improvement over what we were living with. We chose the same sinks for both the girls' bathroom and ours - a flat modern looking oval with a sharp inside edge by Kohler. We splurged on the HUGE soaking tub by Mirabelle, but didn't get the version with the jets. The showerhead and faucets were Grohe in chrome - nothing fancy but much nicer than what we had. I decided NOT to frame the mirror like the inspiration bathroom - it was just too expensive for the size we needed.

It was easiest to paint the bathroom in the same color as the master bedroom - Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, which is a warm grey. I'm surprised at how much we both love the color, considering I'm not usually a fan of neutrals. The "toilet closet" and ceiling are Benjamin Moore Morning Light - a warm cream color that we used throughout the house for ceilings and hallways.

Tile was the last thing we chose, and at that point, I was SO TIRED of all the choices. I asked our coordinator at the design/build firm we were using to narrow down the choices to matte cream colored tile with some kind of natural texture and a very subtle pattern. Bonus points for sparkle. One of the choices came in a variety of sizes, so I just decided to use that for EVERYTHING. 12x24 rectangles for the shower walls and tub deck, which I love, 12x12 square tiles for the floor, and the 2x2s on the shower floor. I love the simple, unified look. She also found a GORGEOUS rectangular mosaic tile by Statements that we used as an accent - it brings together the different colors in the woodwork, tile and paint. And it's got lots of sparkly bits.

Another choice I'm really happy with was the decision to use frosted glass windows. They're really opaque and "glow" during the day to let plenty of light in. At night you can't see *anything* from outside. This way I don't have to mess with window treatments near the tub and it gives the whole thing a cleaner look. I'm sure that many interior designers will disagree, but for us, simple and low maintenance is better.

It is pure luxury to take a shower in this lovely space now. The clear glass takes some getting used to, especially right across from the (frosted) window. But I love having my own sink and my own bank of drawers. And the tub, ahhhh. This is by far the nicest bathroom I've ever had in my own place.

Just another sad love song

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 21:32:00 +0000

I have been putting off writing this post because I just can't find the words to do it. But it needs to be written, so I can get through my grief instead of trying to circumvent it or pretend it doesn't exist.

On March 2, two months to the day that Spike left us, we had to let Peanut go too. We knew he probably wouldn't make it through the year - a 100-lb dog about to celebrate his 12th birthday - but still, I wasn't expecting it to be so soon.

Peanut, Dec 2013

He was the first of many blessings in my life with TJ. Without him, none of the others would have happened. Realizing how much fun it was to live with a dog made us look for Spike (well, actually, we were looking for a well-behaved beagle, but ended up with Spike). Caring for and enjoying dogs made me realize that maybe I could be entrusted with small messy lives, and that opened me up to the idea of having kids.

Peanut, Sept 2002

It's all due to this 35-lb gangly 6 month old puppy we adopted at the Tucson Humane Society in 2002. Now our hearts are full, but our house is so empty.

Temporary Solo Parenting: How Am I Going to Be An Optimist About This? Six Ways.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Mar 2014 00:16:00 +0000

I would not trade my husband for anything - he truly shares parenting with me and now that BabyM is no longer breastfeeding, he is 100% interchangeable with me where kid tasks are concerned.

The one time that's not awesome is when he needs to go out of town. Fortunately it's pretty rare (2 one-week trips in the past year), but during the time he's gone it feels like an *eternity*. 12-14 hours a day of All Mama, All the Time plus random night wakings gets old fast.

A tropical drink always helps.

I should also say that I know a lot of people are doing this on their own *every day* with no help from a partner. My hat is off to you - that is hard work. I know I'm lucky.

Here are some things that helped me get through this past week. In less than 8 hours, I'll be back to 50% Parent, so yay!

1 - Stick to bedtime. I cannot stress this one enough. My girls usually go to bed around 7-ish, which usually means "somewhere between 7 and 7:30". Not this week. This week, both were tucked in, Mama out the door, by 6:30pm SHARP for BabyM (who sleeps remarkably better with this earlier bedtime) and 7:00 ON THE DOT for T. I needed a bit of time to decompress at night, had to stagger bedtimes to get each one's routine done, and REALLY didn't want to deal with more night wakings than necessary. This was also true for BabyM's nap - I made sure *every day* that we were home on time and we didn't have a single day where she refused. Small victories, yo.

2 - Minimize commitments. This is another one of those "survival mode" things. I didn't accept play dates, volunteer work, or extra errands that didn't need to be done this week. We managed to get T to preschool, Spanish class and Little Gym on time. I took M to her toddler group, because she loves it and I don't need to entertain her for that 2 hour stretch. We bailed on T's second Little Gym class of the week today in favor of Pajama Day at home. It's been lovely. On the stressful side, I (stupidly) decided to go through with my plan to bake blueberry muffins for T's class when it was her day to bring the snack, since I had promised her I'd do it. Next time I'll pick something store-bought.

3 - Eat simply. We did a big grocery run on Sunday so we were well-stocked for the week. Meals usually consisted of a protein, some fat, a fruit or vegetable, and a small portion of something whole grain. Super easy options, like a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and a tangerine. Oatmeal, apples and breakfast sausage. Things I can grab from the pantry and require simple heating - no major cooking. (Blueberry muffins not included!)

4 - Get a babysitter. T is in preschool for a few hours a day, but BabyM is my shadow ALL.DAY.LONG. And she's in that lovely phase where she's active and into *everything* and totally not interested in logic or reason. Fortunately, we have an awesome babysitter who comes every other week for 3 hours, and this was one of those weeks. If it wasn't, I'd ask her anyway. It was lovely to get a break just for one afternoon. I got a pedicure, went to Starbucks, had a lovely drink and dinner at a local pub, and went home refreshed just in time to put the girls to bed.

5 - Sleep when they sleep. Some people hate this one, remembering it from the newborn days. BabyM is still an unpredictable sleeper so I try very hard not to stay up too late. One or two nights this week, I put the girls to bed, spent some non-quality time vegging out online, then went to bed myself before 8:30pm. The extra sleep was heavenly. Some afternoons I snoozed on the couch while the girls had nap/Quiet Time. It felt ridiculously slothlike and lazy, but since I didn't have backup on those days, I had to be well rested or I'd be a grouchy mess.

6 - Plan something FUN. This goes against #2, Minimize Commitments, but I planned it before TJ left, put it on the calendar and talked it up as our "super-secret BIG FUN SURPRISE field trip". This gave T something to look forward to mid-week, helped keep her mind off missing Daddy, and filled up one afternoon of this long, long week. We visited the Seattle Uwajimaya, a huge local Asian grocery and gift store for cream puffs, some Hello Kitty shopping, and dinner. We went after BabyM woke from nap, and got back in time for bed. It wasn't super-elaborate but it was REALLY fun.

Something unexpected always happens on these weeks. Last time, when M was 4 months old, our power went out and I freaked out about all the frozen breastmilk in the fridge. Fortunately, the power returned before any of it defrosted. This time, our old dog Peanut, took a turn for the worse. He's been having more problems related to his advanced arthritis, but this week has been a LOT worse, possibly due to the fact that he misses TJ. There have been more calls to the vet, but thankfully I haven't had to take him in.

Here's hoping that the next 8 hours or so stay uneventful. I'd love to hear your tips on coping with occasional solo parenting of little kids!

Currently: February 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 22:41:00 +0000

Ooh, a new month, which means I can be lazy and write a "Currently" post and call it good. I haven't felt like blogging much lately.

Sushi with my Big Girl

LOVING - Our newly finished house!!! More photos and stuff later, but everyone has their own bedroom, TJ has his Man Cave/Office, I have my Woman Cave/Craft Room and the girls have their Crazy Cave/Playroom. And I have the nicest bathroom I have ever had in my entire life.

READING - Just finished reading Ames & Ilg's Your One Year Old to understand BabyM's developmental phase a little better. She is definitely a lot more frustrated about her limitations than her older sister was at this age. Also reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child AGAIN, because Mama needs to sleep through the night.

ENJOYING - Reading to BabyM. I was "worried" that prior to 13 months, she was not at all interested in sitting and listening to a book, especially once she became mobile. But all of a sudden, in the last 2 weeks, she is ALL about books. We will happily read 5 or 6 in a row, and she is super fun to read to - she makes happy noises when you read familiar parts, points out characters and pictures she likes, and makes the signs for things she recognizes. Amazing.

EATING - I'm on a fish taco kick. I lived in San Diego for a few months during grad school, and never understood the appeal. It figures now that I'm really far from decent fish tacos, I'd get a craving. So far, the best ones have been at Redmond's Bar and Grill, which has become our new family favorite place to eat out.

LISTENING - Still obsessing about Toad the Wet Sprocket since their show last week. I have seen them 10 times in the last 21 years. That's a lot of Toad.

PLANNING - T has "Midwinter break" next week, and I want to make the most of it. I'm a little sad that her new school is 5 days a week, so having her home for a whole week is going to be nice. But we'll need to schedule some activities so we're not rattling around the house driving each other crazy.

MAKING - I HAVE A CRAFT ROOM AGAIN. I WILL MAKE ALL THE THINGS! Well, first I have to find the desk surface under all of the crap I need to put away. And then I will make a few jewelry orders for friends and work on client scrapbooks. But just knowing I have dedicated space makes me so happy. I blogged about this scrapbook layout that I made just before the remodel started back in October.

All Things in Time: Guest Post at WhatToExpect.com

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 04:11:00 +0000

I was asked to write a guest blog post for the What to Expect website for their Word of Mom column. I wrote about T learning to read and my anxiety around that particular milestone. It generated a lot of discussion amongst my friends on Facebook.

I hope you'll check it out!

And this is all we need

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 25 Jan 2014 23:40:00 +0000

Since we cut our family income in half almost exactly a year ago when my paid maternity leave ended, we have re-assessed a lot of the solutions we were using for convenience.

Though I love Amazon Fresh grocery delivery with all my heart and soul, we couldn't justify the higher prices and $75 minimum order, so I stopped using it. For the items we buy regularly it was cheaper for me to go to Whole Foods (!). Given that our "regular" grocery store is Trader Joe's, which is a lot less expensive than either of those options, I went back to traditional grocery shopping.

The other thing we gave up was our weekly yard service. We hate doing yard work, and our yard had never looked better, but at $50/week it was definitely not a necessity.

We dropped our Costco membership - every time we went to the store we'd spend $200 in stuff we weren't intending to buy, just because it was there and a great deal. See ya!

Ditto the weekly organic vegetable CSA-type box from various places. I was never great at staying on top of it (how healthy we'd be if I was!) and it was more than I'd spend on just the things I know we'd eat, even at Whole Foods, so we dropped it.

But the one thing I haven't quit is our Amazon subscription orders for various household items. For many items, like non-perishable foods, cleaning products, personal care stuff, and dog food (yay!), Amazon has a special "Subscribe and Save" option that allows you to get that item regularly. You choose the interval from 1 to 6 months, and you can "skip" months, or postpone deliveries if you don't need it right away. If you have 5 or more items arriving each month, you get 20% off on the whole thing, and that's where the magic happens.

When you don't get the 20%, the subscription is probably slightly more expensive than buying the equivalent item at Target. But for the convenience it can't be beat, especially for things like a 30lb bag of dog food - shlepping that and a 25lb baby to the car at the same time is physically impossible for me. And now that I've figured out what we need on a regular basis, I've got 5 items every month, so I always get the 20%, which makes it slightly less expensive (and that doesn't even count the gas and time needed to go to the specialty pet store, Target, and the grocery store).

Amazon has changed the program over time - you no longer get to "lock in" the price at which you subscribed, so I've noticed some things rising in price over time and have had to cancel a few when they got too expensive. They moved to shipping all subscription items together on the same day each month and I can't adjust that if I need something sooner. You also don't get Prime 2-day shipping on the items, so it can take a week for them to arrive (but they are excellent about getting here before the day Amazon tells me they should arrive).

For the first few months, I had to log in mid-month and adjust things as I figured out how we used them, but now that I've been doing this for a year, most of the "regulars" are set up perfectly.

Here's a quick list of the things I have on subscription:

Soy milk - 8 64oz shelf-stable cartons. Only a few dollars more (total) than Trader Joe's and they show up at my door. We go through more than this in one month, but it's a good start.
Wellness "Old Dog" food - this can only be found locally in specialty stores, for almost $20 more than we pay on Amazon. Plus the bag is HEAVY.
Organic Applesauce Cups - I use these for T's lunches and quick snacks. Shelf-stable and hard to find locally.
Peter Rabbit Organics "Squeezy Fruit" - hard to find locally and much cheaper than individual packs at Whole Foods
Larabars - both girls love these, and the price is comparable to Trader Joe's individual price
Cetaphil Restoraderm Body Wash - the only thing that works on T's eczema. Not always available locally.
Toilet paper - I hate running out of paper products so we buy the big box.
Paper towels - Ditto
Huggies Overnight Diapers - comparable price to Target which doesn't always have them
All Free & Clear Laundry "Pods" - can't find these locally

I'm not a personal finance expert, so I won't claim this is some fantastic money saving trick, but it does help me avoid extra trips to Target, affectionately known as the "$50 store". In addition, we rarely run out of the essentials like toilet paper, overnight diapers, or our favorite kid snacks, so there aren't as many "emergency runs" to the grocery store. Did I mention I dislike grocery shopping?

If we ever have to go into financial lockdown, I'll re-evaluate whether we need all of these things, but for now it works really well for us to have them just show up at various intervals. If you're on the fence about setting up a subscription, I'd recommend trying it. You can cancel items anytime before they ship and adjust the timing as needed. I love it, especially since we don't have any kind of "warehouse club" membership.

And yes, I do have Amazon ads on my blog, but I wrote this post spontaneously. I love me some Amazon shopping.

The Lists of 10 and Making JustALittle Progress on Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 04:41:00 +0000

This is another one of those posts where ideas I've read in different places come together and make me think that maybe I'm not *always* wasting time online. Hah, who am I kidding, I waste prodigious amounts of time online.

I finally finished Scott Berkun's Mindfire essays, after the library sent me 2 overdue email notices and a paper one. I'm sure I owe them enough in late fees to have bought my own copy of the book.

My favorite essay was the one on creativity. I can't find it online, though I suspect it's somewhere on his blog. The salient points were:

Creativity isn't some magical power that only a lucky few are blessed with
Creativity comes from combining known ideas to make new ones
You need to "practice" being creative to get better at it

One of his suggestions was to keep an "idea journal" handy so you can jot down interesting thoughts and ideas. It's a pretty simple concept and reminded me of something I read ages ago about doing a "daily brainstorming practice" in order to keep those creativity brain cells humming. I wish I remember where I read that, but the only thing I can remember was thinking that the author was a little...odd.

Yesterday a friend posted a link to this fantastic blog post about accomplishing goals by making just 15 minutes a day for them, instead of procrastinating until that mythical time where we'll have a HUGE chunk of time to work.

Guilty as charged here. Before kids, I worked best under pressure, spending whole days cranking through projects fueled by Starbucks chai and lots of PB&J sandwiches. Well, as you can guess, with 2 kids under 5, I don't get the luxury of whole days to myself to work on personal projects.

My final inspiration was Laura Vanderkam's excellent article listing things to do when you have 5 minutes instead of checking email.

Do something creative with that pocket of time!

I combined all of these concepts with my love of making lists, and made a list of 10 things I could do to further my goals for the year, all of which can be done in little pockets of time. Some of them are one-time tasks that I can cross off, and others are ideas that I can keep using.

10 Quick Ways to Progress

Plan our next meal and make the shopping list
Take a very short walk (anything more than 5 minutes is a win)
Write a blog post (hello!)
Sort one folder of digital photos
Clean up a small space (counter, shelf, drawer)
Read a few pages of a book for my PMP certification credit on my phone
Figure out how I'll get exercise tomorrow (or today if there's time!)
Come up with 5 Paleo breakfast options
Update my Etsy shop incoming order notes
Create a "template" for meals to make planning easier (eg 2 vegetables, a protein, etc)

Now my challenge is to figure out WHERE to keep this list so I'll see it. I have a OneNote notebook online which I can access on my laptop and phone, but I haven't gotten into the habit of using it. I need this list to be "in my face" so I can avoid the siren song of Facebook and the false promises of a clear Inbox.

But I know it's working, because just reading this list gets me fired up to DO SOMETHING instead of zoning out online. Thoughts?

Lately I've been losing sleep

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 19 Jan 2014 05:07:00 +0000

BabyM is not a good sleeper. I won't go so far as to say she's a BAD one, because I know it could be MUCH worse. But at 15 months, I can count on two hands the number of times she has slept through an entire night without waking, and I'm not close to running out of fingers.

Cute, funny, smart. But not a great sleeper. Yet.

There's not much I can do about it now besides vent here. Since Nov 11, we've been in various transitional sleeping situations thanks to the huge home remodel. We moved her crib to my parents' place which was her first time sleeping in a room by herself. After a month, we decided sleeping at home all together at night might be easier, so at night she's in a Pack N Play in the living room, with her sister on a mattress nearby (out of sight) and me on the couch. She still naps at my parents' condo in her crib.

On a great night, she doesn't wake at all. This has happened maybe 6 times EVER.

On a good night, she'll wake once for milk around 1am, drink it fast and go right back to sleep.

On a not-so-good night, she'll wake twice for milk but go right back to sleep.

On a wretched night (like yesterday), she'll wake at 1am, drink milk and then be awake for HOURS, and woe unto us if we try to put her back down. Eventually, around 5am, she'll go back to sleep for a few hours. And of course by then, we can't get back to sleep.

Big Sister T has been oblivious to most of this - once she's out, she sleeps like a ROCK. It's amazing, really.

I know what I need to do with BabyM - work on getting her to stop waking at night for milk and eat more during the day. Let her cry for a bit after confirming she's ok (doesn't need a diaper or ibuprofen, isn't sick, etc). But we can't start a new sleep plan while we're all camping in our living room.

So we're gritting our teeth and getting through the next couple of weeks. The project is almost finished - we have paint on the walls, bathroom cabinets and counters, some window trim, doors and lighting installed. This week all the flooring should be complete and the following week is for all the little details and cleaning. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, salt over the shoulder, etc.

And then we can work on getting better sleep around here! I am so ready to accept that challenge.

For a giggle, check out my friend D's post about parenting and sleep on her shiny new blog.

Currently: January 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 07:55:00 +0000

Inspired by Allison, I'm doing a Currently post for this month. It's hard to believe 2014 is well underway already!

READING - Struggling to find time to finish Scott Berkun's Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds. It's 2 weeks overdue at the library and I'm reading it for continuing education credit for my PMP Project Management certification. Between the nomadic life of the remodeling and figuring out T's new school schedule, finding pockets of time to read isn't easy. It's a fairly easy read, but I like to have time to digest each essay before moving on to the next.

WATCHING - paint dry. Literally. Our entire addition got painted this week. It makes me so happy to see the colors I chose after weeks of contemplation on entire walls in rooms. And it was priceless to watch T's reaction when she saw her Ballet Slippers pink room for the first time.

Follow Anandi's board on Pinterest

MAKING - Lots of One Little Word jewelry and keychains for myself and friends. A client scrapbook for The Papercraft Lab (two pending, three more on the horizon). Life is good.

ANTICIPATING - In 3 more weeks (fingers crossed!), we'll be able to move into the addition! So excited to sleep in our bed again, work on better sleep habits for BabyM, set up the craft room and new playroom, and finally have a linen closet! We may become shut-ins once the project is finished, because we will be so happy to have a real home to ourselves again.

LISTENING - to everything again! We bought two Sonos units and I'm in LOVE. Our music collection is easily accessible in the house over wireless, as is Pandora. Loving Toad the Wet Sprocket's New Constellation - first new album in ages from my Favorite Band Ever.

WANTING - IKEA Expedit shelving for everywhere - playroom, craft room, girls' rooms. Lots and lots of square cubby shelves to put everything in order. The reality is that we won't be buying much until we can rearrange all of our current furniture and see what we really need. We also have to figure out window coverings for all of the new windows - boring but necessary as the addition has a lovely view of two of our neighbors' homes.

Got a Currently post? Let me know in the comments. I love reading these :)

I'm on my way, home sweet home

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 05:30:00 +0000

Our huge remodeling construction project is scheduled to finish in 27 days. It's about 2 weeks behind the very aggressive schedule they posted at the beginning. The estimate was 14-16 weeks, but the actual schedule was for 13 weeks. So the 2 extra weeks aren't terribly unexpected, though I cry a little inside every time we meet with our production manager and he moves the schedule.

Someone told me that cats are very attached to the house they live in, and tend to freak out if you have to take them somewhere else. I must be part cat. We've been in a state of limbo for about 8 weeks and I'm feeling very unsettled and unfocused.

At first we thought it best for me and the girls to move entirely to my parents' condo (which they don't use in winter), and TJ would stay overnight with the dogs at home, after spending the evenings at the condo with us. We did that for about a month, and it was very stressful for me. Being the nighttime go-to parent every single night is hard! (And it made me realize how often TJ picks up night duty!)

So once the major demolition was done and the new portion of the house was framed and insulated, we moved back home. We have a living room, family room, bathroom and kitchen available to us, so it's definitely livable. We're camping out in the living room - BabyM in a Pack N Play, T on her mattress on the floor, and one of us on the couch, while the other sleeps downstairs to keep Peanut company. (He has too much trouble moving on the hardwood floors to sleep upstairs with us.) Surprisingly, everyone sleeps pretty well in this arrangement.

Despite being pretty cramped, it was SO much less stressful to have everyone in the same house, even if it was a construction zone. We get up just before the construction guys come, get ready, and leave the house for the day. The girls nap at the condo, and we head back around 4 when the construction is finished for the day. On weekends we hang out at home and it feels pretty good to be all together in OUR house, despite the lack of bedrooms and all of us sharing one bathroom.

This week we're back at the condo full-time because they're priming and painting the addition, and it's pretty stinky. So back to being unsettled and solo parenting at night. For a few days it's not too bad.

This photo that TJ sent me keeps me going:

My craft room got painted today! The color is Benjamin Moore 606, Island Paradise, a warm saturated aqua green. I can't wait to see it after the second coat and in person, but I can already tell from the photo that this was the right choice for me.

This and the attached playroom were on my dream list. A purpose-built space for me and the girls to work together on crafts, schoolwork, and fun. I haven't planned out yet where everything will go, and what else we might need to furnish them (definitely more shelving!) but will play it by ear once we unpack everything.

I haven't posted more photos of the project because I haven't gone through them yet. We've taken a ton, but our lives have been so complicated - construction, travel, holidays, preschool drama, and of course, Spike.

So I've got to live with another month of unsettled-ness, and then we can move back into our space. So exciting!

I grieve for you

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 21:27:00 +0000

Spike, age 13.75
March 25, 2000 - Jan 2, 2014

We let him go yesterday. It was the saddest thing I've ever had to do. But that takes me immediately to a place of gratitude - my life has been so blessed and lucky that the saddest day of my adult life came at age 38 for a dog who had lived a full and happy life, 10.5 years with us.

A short list of what I'm thankful for, in honor of Beagle:

I have a husband who not only gets why I am so sad, but also feels it deeply himself
Our vet, Dr. E, who we only met a few weeks ago. So professional and compassionate. I wish we had met her when our guys were young.
The three road trips we took with him: my solo trips to Vancouver and the Bay Area, and our family trip to Canada.
We had some time to spoil him and say goodbye.
The vast number of things that Beagle taught us:

patience (oh the patience he required!)
how to deal with gross things that need to be cleaned up
how to live with someone who hears and understands what you're saying but just chooses not to do what you're asking
the best place for napping is the one with the soft blanket and pillows, rules be damned
don't settle for kibble when there is lunchmeat available

Thank you for choosing us, little guy.

This feeling calls for everything that I am not

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 21:47:00 +0000

Spike came to us 10.5 years ago, on my birthday weekend. After we got Peanut and moved to Seattle, we had been thinking about getting another dog. I really wanted a beagle. TJ did not. I saw an ad in the Micronews, the now-defunct internal newsletter at work, for a family looking to find a new home for their 3 year old beagle.

Last week at the dog park, Spike @ 13 years 9 months

I remember the first time I spoke to his previous owner - he called me back during a class I was taking at work. I was so excited about meeting Spike (who started out his life as Scooby, not a good name for a beagle IMO). TJ and I drove over to their house that night, nervous and trying to make a good impression because it was clear they were willing to wait to find the right, good home for their dog.

We thought the best idea would be to dogsit Spike for a weekend so we could make sure he and Peanut would get along. Spike was pretty much all wrong for a second dog choice - he was older than Peanut, hadn't lived with other dogs before, and was also male.

They spent the weekend checking each other out, and quite frankly it was clear Spike didn't like Peanut at all. He wanted to be the dominant dog, but "that stupid big puppy" just didn't get it. Reluctantly by the end of the weekend we were about to return him. Then I looked out the window and saw them actually playing a game of chase, and both were having fun.

So he stayed. He's not a good dog, but he's a nice one. He is not interested in pleasing us, he barks in the yard (sorry neighbors) and never did get the hang of walking nicely on-leash. He got really sick in 2007 after he escaped over the fence at the dog park and ate something gross. He had to be hospitalized for that incident.

Now he's nearly 14 years old. He's got some arthritis, his kidneys are only working at about 25%, and he's got a tumor in his bladder that can't be treated. A few weeks ago, our vet said he only had a matter of weeks and anything we did was palliative.

I am sad. But we are also lucky. Lucky that we had 10 healthy fun years with him. Lucky that he adjusted to babies in the house, despite being a non-kid-friendly beagle. Lucky that we have some time to say goodbye and love on him.

Spike and Peanut are my first dogs, so I've never had to go through this. I spent a lot of time assiduously ignoring the possibility that one day they won't be with us.

But now it's time for me to step up. My insightful husband told me a while ago that our dogs would teach our daughter one final life lesson when it's their time to go. It's a lesson for me, too.

Spike's time is very soon. He started limping today and is obviously in pain, which we're managing with medication. Our vet (bless her) has been calling every few days to check on him. I don't know what the next few days has in store for him, but we will provide him with a warm spot on the couch and all the lunchmeat and aebleskivers he wants.

Your family loves you, little guy.

My 2014 Theme in One Word

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 20:49:00 +0000

I'm in the midst of planning for the New Year. There's something irresistible to me about the shiny goodness of a brand new year and I love setting goals and making resolutions.

Remembering what they are and doing something about them once the shine of the new year has worn off is another story, though - I definitely need to work harder on that!

One of the things I've done for the last few years is picking my "word of the year". Since Ali Edwards has trademarked "One Little Word" and I don't actually take her classes or do her album project, I'll just refer to mine as my yearly theme.

As usual, my word came to me without much trouble. I've got some behaviors I'd like to change, and to my surprise they're all related:

Too much idle reading and Facebooking online rather than working on my blogs or businesses
Too sedentary - not enough exercise
When frustrated with my kids,I tend to disengage, instead of gently teaching what I want them to learn
Hubby has pointed out that during arguments, I tend to just shut down and stop talking

I'm an introvert, and need lots of quiet alone time. That's not going to change.

But in order to grow my businesses, protect my health, mother effectively, and nurture a great relationship with my husband, I need to "stay in the game" and be willing to get my hands dirty, so to speak. I can't be passive anymore, with my time, with my health, or with the hard parts of my closest relationships.

At first the word I chose was "active", which is the opposite of passive, and encompasses all the things above. But I am more motivated by a verb than an adjective. I need something I can use as an exhortation to *DO* something.

This is a logo designed by Nick Harrison. I love that it's simple. And hot pink.

So I decided on ENGAGE. It has multiple meanings, but I like the energy it represents, especially within relationships. Staying engaged rather than passive and disengaging when things get frustrating. Engaging in regular physical activity. Engaging in activities that further my businesses instead of wasting time reading articles about taking action.

I'm planning to make myself a handstamped sterling silver cuff bracelet with my word on it so I've got a constant reminder. As I've done in the past, I can make bracelets, keychains or necklaces in copper, brass, nickel silver or sterling silver for you too. Email or contact me via Etsy if you're interested! I'd love to work on a project for you.

So, what's your word for 2014? I love hearing what other people are working on!

2013 Creath Family Holiday Letter: Temporary One

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 21:01:00 +0000

I usually have this post written by Thanksgiving weekend, but we've been traveling two weekends in a row which is highly unusual for our homebody family.

December is shaping up to be a challenging month for us. We pulled T out of her preschool due to safety issues and mismanagement, which breaks my heart because the teachers and program are excellent. But having active construction while the kids are in session, and putting kids in a building that failed inspection just a week ago are no bueno in our book.

We also decided to "camp out" in our living room at night so that we can all be together rather than sleeping in separate houses while our house is being remodeled. It's actually working pretty well but we now have to coordinate logistics between what we bring to our house and what we are leaving at my parents' place, and when we're spending time at each. BabyM still continues to wake several times at night but we'll tackle that issue later.

And if that weren't enough, Spike has been diagnosed with kidney failure and a tumor in his bladder. He's 13, so we're lucky to have had so much time with him. We're keeping our fingers crossed and loving on him as much as we can.

Well, that's a depressing beginning for a holiday letter, isn't it?

Now on to the good stuff - we are 2 months into a HUGE construction project to turn our house into our perfect *forever* home. There's something for everyone - BabyM finally gets her own room, the girls get a playroom conveniently across from my new ENORMOUS craft room, TJ gets his own office with a door, and the dogs get their own half of the yard separate from the kids.

T turned 4 in September and some of her favorite things are:

Vancouver, Canada (we took a mama-daughter trip there last weekend)
Her new Kindle (early Christmas present)
Playing pretend, usually involving food preparation of some sort
Vienna Teng's new CD AIMS (yes, I am heavily influencing her choice of music)
The all-Christmas music radio station

M turned 1 in October and she currently likes:

Walking! (This is new, and she still crawls about 50% of the time)
Stacking cups of all kinds
Tackling her big sister, then hugging her
Lint and dust bunnies
Her toddler group

Peanut is 11 and doing pretty well considering his age and size.

TJ started his new job at ESPN in February and likes it a lot. In April, I decided NOT to go back to work at Microsoft after my maternity leave with M. It's been fun and challenging to be home with the girls, but I love the more easygoing pace of our days.

I also continue to make handcrafted stamped metal items and jewelry in my Etsy shop, Anandi's Laboratory. In August, I started a new venture, making custom handcrafted scrapbooks and photobooks at The Papercraft Lab. I'm pleased to say that I got some nice publicity, and have exceeded my initial sales goals. (Wouldn't be a holiday letter without some bragging, right?)

My parents spent June through October at their place nearby in Redmond, which was great. We just returned last week from visiting TJ's family in Tucson, AZ, and were able to schedule a quick family photo shoot there so we can finally update the photos on our mantel!

If you're still reading this far, thank you for indulging me :) Best wishes to you and yours for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014!

A Christmas Miracle and Gifts for 1 and 4 Year Olds

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 19:42:00 +0000

Last night I finished our Christmas shopping for the girls. A week before Thanksgiving, no less. I'm on fire!

Thanks to our huge construction project and the fact that we're living temporarily in my parents' condo, this Christmas cannot be about piles of *stuff*. When we were packing up our house to move out, I realized how much we have accumulated that we don't even use - clothes for all of us, toys that no one plays with, random kitchen gadgets. I'm no minimalist, but I love the idea I read somewhere about keeping only what's "useful, beautiful, or loved".

So with that in mind, I finished off my Christmas shopping last night on Amazon.

For four year old T:

Amazon Kindle Fire HD (8GB, no ads)

This is her BIG present. I'm rolling my eyes a bit at the idea of a four year old having her own tablet, but I think it's a sign of our technological times, and she will actually get a lot of educational (and fun!) use out of it. We have two trips coming up, and we'll give it to her early to keep her occupied on the plane and car. I chose the version without "special offers" for an extra $15 to minimize her chance of clicking and purchasing something accidentally.

I'm still working on setting it up (I'll write another post later), but will load up a few kids' books, fun apps, music and videos for her. This also means I'll get my phone back at restaurants and waiting rooms!

Tickets to "The Snowman" at the Symphony

Seattle Symphony has an awesome Discover Music series for older kids (6-12) where real symphony musicians play and the conductor explains the music. The entire show is about an hour, which is perfect. This year they will show the movie The Snowman while the symphony plays the score live. I think T will love it.

A large magnifying glass

Like most kids, T is a born scientist who likes to study the world around her. Because she wears glasses and hasn't yet mastered the idea of closing one eye, things like kaleidoscopes, telescopes, microscopes and binoculars are tricky. This magnifying glass set will be perfect for inspecting slugs (she loves them!) and the fine print on various boxes that she's always asking me to read.

Las Lechucitas (Owl Babies in Spanish)

Owl Babies is one of my all time favorite kids' books and T loves it too. This summer at one of the excellent Spanish Story Times at our library, we found out the book has been translated into Spanish. It's a pretty simple story so I can probably manage reading it to her. And soon she'll be able to read it to *us*!

BOB Books, Set 1

This set of beginning reader books was recommended by a friend. T is very close to being able to read - she has a lot of sight words memorized, and can sound out other simple words with some help. She really wants to read by herself and studies her books carefully for hours (and has memorized many of them!) So I'm hoping these simple books will be good practice and encouragement for her.

For 1 year old M:

Nesting stainless steel sauce cups

Yes, this sounds crazy. But these little cups are her favorite toy at our toddler group. They're metal, make fun noises, and she loves to nest and separate them. She also loves to put things in them, hand them back and forth to other people, and pretend like she's giving you something to eat. $5.79 for 12? Awesome.

Egg Shakers/Maracas with handles

This is another find from her toddler group - when the music teacher brings these out, the babies go crazy. M loves them - they have thin handles and are light, perfect for chubby baby hands. We'll need to keep an eye on them to make sure they don't break, but they are quite sturdy.

Hand Kite and Wooden Eggs

More hippie crunchy toys for BabyM. Watching her interact with the simple toys at her toddler group is amazing - she is so focused and interested in them. I found this Etsy shop, CakeInTheMorn, through a search and fell in love with their wood toys.

The "hand kite" is a smooth wooden ring with a large silky scarf tied to it. The eggs are solid heavy wood, good for putting in things and figuring out gravity and balance. I think they might fit in the nesting cups - we'll have to find out!

For both girls:

Christmas PJs from Old Navy

Since T now wears regular girls' sizes, and M is still in baby sizes, I couldn't find any matching pajamas. I probably could have looked at Hanna Andersson, but we have a LOT of pajamas already and I didn't want to spend a lot. But I love the idea of special December PJs, especially when we cuddle up and do our Book Advent. T got penguin and snowflake PJs, and M got some cute red ones with a Christmas mouse.

I'm happy with our short list of presents and love that many are things that will be enjoyed through the month of December. I've found that both girls get overwhelmed when there are too many boxes to open and new things clamoring for their attention. Having just a few presents on Christmas Day will be much better, I hope!

What about you? Have you started your shopping yet?

Wordless Wednesday: I gots me some toofies right here

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 05:56:00 +0000

Tuesday Lovin' - Passenger and Amazon MP3 Impulse Buys

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 18:03:00 +0000

I spend a lot of time in the car as a cliche suburban stay-at-home mama. Most of the trips are short - to/from preschool, grocery, Target. So I listen to the "regular" radio a lot rather than plugging in my phone to listen to *my* music.

Every now and then I'll hear a song that makes me buy it immediately. I love you, Amazon MP3, for those impulse purchases from my phone.

Passenger's "Let Her Go" was one of them:

I have a weakness for British and Irish male bands and singer-songwriters. What I love about this guy (and yes, Wikipedia tells me it's a guy and not a band) is that you can clearly hear his accent. It's so delightful. :) On a side note, his real name is Michael David Rosenberg, which seems way too serious for a musician.

Since I loved the song so much, and the album was only $6 ($5 now!!) compared to $1.29 for the single, I bought the whole thing, and BOY am I glad. This is absolutely my new obsession - every song is amazing. I love that you can clearly understand his lyrics, which are often brilliant.

There's a song called All the Little Lights which made me weepy while driving the girls to the zoo yesterday - it talks about how every time you feel love, you get another little light in your heart, but how they also go out when something bad happens. He draws such a lovely picture with his words and simple music.

He does have some kid-inappropriate language, but I feel strongly about purchasing music the way it was intended by the artist. If T starts to pick up on it, I'll rethink listening to it in the car.

I really hope I get to see him live. Let me know what you think!

Five Year Journal - The Easy Way

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 21:45:00 +0000

**I like to consolidate all my writing here. This originally appeared on my blog at The Papercraft Lab a few months ago.

I get lost in the Internet sometimes, clicking around to different blogs, reading papercrafting message boards, browsing Etsy shops. A few weeks ago, I found a really neat DIY project - making a five year journal. Each day of the year has a page, and you write 1-2 lines on it for each of 5 years. After the first year, you can look back at what you did that same day the previous year. Very cool, right? As expected for women in my demographic, I pinned it to my "someday" list of projects.

Right now, I'm trying to get my business off the ground. I'm also home with 2 little kids all day, since preschool is not yet back in session. We're currently in the middle of a home addition project, which means we need to find space in our house to move things out of the construction zone - aka massive decluttering. I don't NEED another project right now, no matter how cool it is.

As is the Way of the Internet, I got another nudge to do this by L aura Vanderkam, one of my favorite nonfiction authors. She talks about keeping a short file of "awesome things" as a sort of quick journal.

The final push was via email from a close friend. She sent me a DesignSponge post about making (guess what?) a five year journal. Hah. Clearly the universe is telling me I need to do this now.

It's something that appeals to me a lot. I have a daily planner where I've been jotting down daily memories to include in our family's Project Life scrapbook, which details our day-to-day lives. (more on that in another post!) But when the year is over, I'm not sure I want to keep this planner around.

So I finally gave up the idea of *making* a five year journal, because I don't have time for that right now. I went to Amazon and ordered one. I had several options, and chose the robins-egg-blue one from Chronicle books, thanks to its hardcover and elegant gold lettering and pages.

I started writing in it back in August. Sometimes you just have to choose the solution that works best now and gets those memories on paper, instead of the pie-in-the-sky DIY project, no matter how cool it sounds.

Three bits of parenting advice that changed my life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 21:46:00 +0000

My friend J and I have known each other for 22 years. We met in college, became roommates, and now live in the same city. I don't see her as much as I'd like, thanks to busy family schedules and a lake that separates us (though let's not be dramatic, it's only about a 20 minute drive.)

Not only is J generous with her hand-me-downs, she has given me a few pieces of parenting advice over the years which are pure gold. These were not unsolicited drive-bys - they were little gifts that came when I asked questions on the parenting e-mail list we're both on. Her younger child is a couple of years older than T, so she's got more experience, but recent enough that she's still got useful details.

Baby Zombie Eye

If she hadn't told me about this, I would *still* be wondering why my kids never nap and wake up 10x a night. It was THAT life-changing for us. When T was about 12 weeks old, I posted a question to our email list about naps. When did we expect babies to be on some kind of schedule? How do we accomplish that?

Most of the answers came back as "it's still early", but only J gave me the info that changed our lives significantly.

She told me to keep an eye out for T's "tired signs" and mentioned her baby used to get this glassy-eyed, unfocused look when she got tired (long before she'd get fussy). Once she saw that, she'd try to put her down for a nap. Experienced mamas, this sounds so obvious, right? But as new parents, we assumed that a newborn would just fall asleep wherever she was, and we didn't have to *do* anything about naps. Hah!

So we made a plan. T's other tired sign was nice and obvious - yawning. We counted yawns. When she got to Zombie Eye or 3 yawns, we'd put her down for a nap - nurse her and put her in the crib in a darkened room with white noise. If we got to the 2 hour mark without seeing these things, we'd try for a nap anyway. And O. M. G. This worked wonders within days.

Prior to doing this, T would stay awake for HOURS (because we were too dumb to realize she needed help to get to sleep!). One day at 8 weeks or so, she was up for 9 hours STRAIGHT and then cried for the next 3 (who wouldn't!).

We tried the same tactic with M, except she doesn't typically get Zombie Eye until it's too late, after she gets to the fussy stage. M's tired sign? Eye-rubbing! Again, super obvious, so lucky us. But with M we had to be even more vigilant because she masks the tiredness and gets her second wind easily when people are around playing with her.

Don't get me wrong - we were blessed with two fairly good sleepers. But we never would have discovered that had J not given me this magic advice.

No Power Struggles

J told me there were a few things you couldn't make a kid do: eat, sleep, and use the bathroom. If you try, you'll get stuck in a horrible power struggle. It's better to avoid getting into that position.

Again, *so* brilliant. It got me out of the mindset of "she *should* be doing xyz", or worse, "she *has* to do xyz". I keep this one top of mind, and trust that my girls will do these things when they need to, with our help and routine, of course.

This helped me get through potty training with T and her current habit of waking up in the middle of the night to play in her room. It makes me less crazy when M gets up at 1am and is ready to PARTY. We just go downstairs and she plays in the gated living room while I nap on the couch.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still annoyed when they don't do what I (think I) need them to do, but I don't get all dictator-y about it. Most of the time, anyway. I'm still a work in progress.

Fair Isn't Equal

J told me this one before I was pregnant with BabyM so it didn't really sink in at the time, though I recognized it for its brilliance. She said her grad school adviser told her that fair didn't mean everyone got the same thing - it's each person getting what they *need*.

*So* true for siblings, especially those with different personalities and big age gaps. M doesn't have the attention span for more than one or maybe two short board books, while T would love to read together for hours. I don't try to make sure I read the same *number* of books to both girls.

I know M loves it when I just sit in the playroom with her and let her do her own thing. T wants me to participate actively in her games. What fills each of their cups is pretty different, despite them being sisters in the same house with similar temperaments.

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I'm grateful to have a wise friend like J! What about you - what did you learn about parenting that rocked your world?

This has gotta be the good life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 21:55:00 +0000

We've been working on proposals and plans for our upcoming remodel since early this year. It's been a slow process, and for a patience-challenged person like me, painful. I'm ready to move in already! I finally got used to the wait and thought about the remodel in the future with an unknown start (and end) date, "sometime in 2014".

Except now, it's *really* starting on Monday. Our city approved the construction permit yesterday and at 7:30am on Monday, guys are going to show up to dig a hole in our yard.

Technically, they've already started. They spent the last week building the fence that will separate the dog area from the kid area in our yard (they'll finally be able to play outside! and not in dog poo! yay!), removing our deck and hot tub to make way for the addition, and taking off the siding to prepare. We also got a new furnace since ours conveniently decided to give up last weekend. (When it rains...)

But these things still seemed like preparation, part of the many steps and meetings we've had since April. We still didn't have a *real date* when construction would start, and consequently, didn't have the project plan of when it is supposed to be done.

But now? It's ON. And this means we need to get moving on all the interior selections - bathroom counters, flooring, paint. Cabinet hardware and lighting. There are a million tiny decisions that all affect the final price. Many of them are things we genuinely don't have an opinion about, and each item has hundreds of choices. I totally understand why President Obama doesn't choose his own clothes each day. It makes my brain tired, too, to have to evaluate tons of different, mostly equal options about things that aren't going to really affect the quality of our lives.

TJ and I are pretty good at working through decision-y stuff like this. It's very similar to when we were tossing around names for the girls - I bring a handful of options and ask him to choose, or at least eliminate the ones he hates. He brings a few options as well, sometimes.

There have been a few perfect, lightning-bolt, "that's it!" choices so far, just like with our girls' names. The countertop in the girls' bathroom is Cambria Whitney, a sparkly engineered quartz that's mostly white with silver glittery specks. I love me some sparkle. The photo does not do this justice.

The cabinets in the master bathroom are going to be a deep espresso, almost black. In the girls' bathroom, they'll be a rich reddish brown. Both are shaker-style with very clean lines, like the kitchen cabinets we redid in 2004 and still love.

We found a carpet style that we both like that's got a sort of irregular horizontal line pattern in it, but can't finalize the color. We know we want laminate flooring through the downstairs, including the playroom and craftroom, but again, can't narrow down a color.

We have no freakin' idea what kind of floor we want in either bathroom. To reduce costs we want to consider alternatives to tile, but TJ hated the funky Marmoleum.

We haven't really thought about paint at all, except that T is VERY SURE she wants pink. I hate taupe-y colors and things that are not-really-a-color. TJ does not want our house to look like Rainbow Brite threw up in it.

So we're kind of stuck and still have a ton of decisions to go. Luckily we have a neighbor who just earned a certificate in Interior Design and she's going to help us. Our first meeting with her is today and I'm so excited to get some of these things narrowed down.

All these decisions are floating around in an "open loop" inside my head, and it's bugging me. I can't visualize the room from all these individual pieces - it's so different from putting together a scrapbook page or a card because I can't just lay it all out and look at the end result.

But oh, the luxury of getting to design brand new living space. Lest you think I'm complaining, I realize this is totally a first world "problem". I am so grateful for this chance to make our house into exactly what we need.