this week

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We thankfully felt a bit of September on our skin this week and as I write this, I’m still wearing fuzzy slippers, a fleece jacket and clasping a hot mug of coffee. Ahhhh. With the cooler temps and plunging humidity levels, we’re all sleeping better at night and I have to believe that the week has been a lot more easy-going and less edgy because of it. 85 with 80% humidity really takes it out of you, eh? I even told a few people last week to remind me never to be pregnant in the summer again. And today, I’m feeling at ease. 60 degrees and a full night’s sleep will do that to a mama at 29 weeks.

With a bit more pep in our step, we had a full week of nesting and playing…

  • painted the front porch of 605 with my Dad and watched the neighbor cat walk across it
  • grilled more pizza
  • enjoyed our first backyard tomato (“Mama, it’s RED! We can pick it!!!!”)
  • ate my body weight in fresh peaches and the season’s last sweet cherries
  • sorted through more baby clothes, shoes, toys, diapers
  • swam with the evening’s long shadows
  • began to transform the guest room into a cozy space for little birdie #2
  • moved one of the guest beds into Wren’s room and she decided to sleep in it (!) instead of her crib
  • shopped for a leotard, tights and ballet slippers for the little birdie’s first dance class
  • paid off my car loan (yesssssssss!)
  • started planning a mini babymoon/anniversary getaway for late September
  • made a peach pie and a fresh green bean salad to take to my Grandma’s 90th birthday party tomorrow
Happy weekend to you! Any big plans? May you enjoy some relaxing moments in your nest. XO

Designs from the Shed: upcycled feed bags

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My mother-in-law gifted me with one of her original, upcycled feed bags this summer and it quickly became my favorite, always-packed beach tote. Aren’t these cool? She makes them out of old animal feed bags, like this one for bird seed, or for horses, goats, bunnies, etc. They have a woven polypropylene (think: durable, easy to clean) exterior and she lines them with vintage fabrics and adds thoughtful details like the bright green rim with yellow ric-rac. Fun!

Here are a few more details…

At this time Judy only takes custom orders for the bags. She will make you a bag based on colors/style/feed bag designs that you like. Contact her through the Designs from the Shed Facebook page.

 

 

nesting: the whites

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With a taste of cooler air on my skin this week, my nesting for our next little birdie has kicked in. I sorted through most of the little birdie’s infant clothes this week: whites and colors, stained and clean, summer and fall. I had forgotten a few things: just how tiny she once was, how incredibly much she spit up, and how adorable newborn white onesies are.

I enjoyed hanging all the little white pieces on the line and marveling at the sweetness of it all. Little birdie #2 just might smell like tomatoes too as our tomato forest is quickly gaining on the line. I clearly remember Wren smelling like sugar cookies when she was first born. I don’t think tomatoes and sugar cookies are a great combination, but I guess there are worse things to smell like, right?

How’s your week going, lovelies? Has it cooled off where you live too?

balance schmalance

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At first I was disappointed when I grabbed yesterday’s photos from my camera.  I was looking forward to seeing some gorgeous images from our cloudy morning at the water’s edge. But my exposures were all messed up and I still don’t exactly know how it happened. So instead, the images are all blown out! Boo hiss. But when I spent more time looking at the photos, I started to see the beauty in the mistakes. In the rushed moments.

The other day I received a message from a friend who said that she admired how I seemed to have it all together. Ha ha ha! I replied that it might seem that way from a carefully-curated glimpse into our world via this blog, but that usually means that I haven’t taken a shower in two days. Or if I made a great meal, it means that there is likely a mildewy pile of laundry awaiting me in the basement. Or if I meet all my client’s deadlines, then the little birdie is probably having a meltdown right behind me as I e-mail the last ad off to the paper. Or if the house looks clean and organized it means that I’m procrastinating my client’s work. Or if I somehow (miraculously) am wearing a clean outfit and have some mascara on both sets of eyelashes, you’ve got to know that I probably had some help with the little birdie that day, which enabled me to find time and energy to think about what I was putting on… Balance, schmalance.

And you know what? Some days this juggling act drives me (a bit) crazy. But most days, I just accept it as my version of “normal” and do the best I can with the cards that are dealt that particular day, with the deadlines that are ever-looming, with the tantrums that maybe could have been prevented, with the raspberry jelly stains on my growing bump.

sunhat AND a bib!

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Lovelies, you’ve got to check this out. I wrote about Roen Design earlier this summer in regards to their Leelanau Peninsula kids clothing and Roen Design just released their newest product: a sunhat and bib in one! Not only is it pure genius, it’s a-door-bell too, isn’t it? I told Forest of Roen Design that I am not usually a bib-using Mom, especially when we’re out-and-about, but if it were built in to something else, then I would be more likely to use one (instead of relying on my stain stick…). Would you? Have you ever seen anything like this?

You can get your hat/bib combo right here.

blueberry bonanza

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Happy August, lovelies! We started the morning out with an early blueberry bonanza to beat the heat. Apparently, I just can’t eat enough fresh blueberries because we picked some last week too, but my supply was already getting a bit low. They’re just soooo good right now. I’ve been eating them by the happy handful every day. And no, I haven’t turned into a Smurf yet. Yet!

Truth be told, the little birdie isn’t a great blueberry picker at this age – maybe next summer. She loses interest in picking after about, oh, 60 seconds. But she loves to run up and down the rows, check in with her friends (err, boss them around), and occasionally, pop a big, plum-sized one in her mouth. Pure northern Michigan summer!

She also had a great time with her good friend, Cora. And they didn’t even fight over anything today! Girls are so funny: one minute they’re pulling each other’s hair out over a toy and the next, they’re hugging and laughing. Or holding hands…

How are you celebrating the arrival of August and beating the heat in the midst of these dog days? Any great blueberry recipes I just HAVE to try? Send ’em my way. Until then, we just eat them straight out of the bowl! mmmmm.

Cyberspace friends, thank you so much for your thoughtful, thought-provoking, understanding and encouraging thoughts regarding my anxiety over the arrival of little birdie #2. Your support and advice means a lot. Thank YOU.

yikes

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The title of this post might more aptly be called “anxious” or maybe “worried” or during a few choice moments every day, “terrified.” I know people have more than one child every single day and still others have many more than just one child (take, for example, The Mom across the street with 13!) But lately just having ONE (feisty! strong-willed!) child seems like a lot. Today marks the 27th week, which means I’m really getting into the third trimester now. This also means that there are only about three months (plus some pocket change?) left until we welcome another little birdie to our nest. Yikes!

I’m not really worried about taking care of the new baby (although I should probably add that to the worry list, ahem) or even much about labor & delivery. Been there, done that… I’m mostly worried about, well, everything else. How will I have enough love for another child? How will I keep Wren from killing the new baby when she realizes it isn’t going away? How will I find time to continue my work? How will I be able to make healthy meals and keep the house in a *reasonable* state? How will I ever have time for Chris again? How will I go to the grocery store or run an errand with a baby attached to me and a toddler running for the hills?

Again, I know people do it all the time, but I just can’t really picture how it’s all going to look and feel. I guess this is part of the wonder and mystery of life’s unknowns. The unknowns that keep life interesting, worth getting up in the morning for. Good intentions go a long way, right? Say yes, please.

In the meantime, I’m nesting. It helps to devote the worried energy to practical things, no? I decided we just needed to paint the house right now because I couldn’t take the peeling paint anymore. Great timing, ha! Truth be told, I’m just trying out paint colors on the back of the house, but the process has begun. I’ve also been organizing and reorganizing the little birdie’s toys in some new-to-us bins that I found on Craigslist (thank you, stranger!) Already, she’s discovered toys that had been buried at the bottom of the old bins. It was totally worth it. On the cooking front, I made a big pot of split pea soup the other day. You know you have a pregnant brain when it’s 87 and humid and you decide that cooking a big pot of split pea soup sounds like a good idea. Yeah. I also made a huge batch of homemade granola bars in an effort to have healthier, not-from-a-bag snacks on hand. So it feels good to be creating things, cooking healthy meals, focusing on what we have control over now because I know pretty soon it will all be thrown up into the air. And hopefully some of it will be caught.

Have any tips, lovelies? Please and thank you.