tornados of laundry and other such housewifely things

it's becoming abundantly clear that "weekend" is code for "disaster" in this house. except for that one weekend where things were unaccountably smooth and drama free, our weekends as a family are akin to bad weather. f3 tornados, i lovingly call them.

despite the fact that friday's cool, good-mood inducing weather had me believing we were in for a snuggly, feel-good, romcom of a weekend, it was, as is often the case recently, the woody allen of romcoms. everything was a bit off, and there was neither a respectable amount of romance or comedy.

i knew we were in for it when on saturday morning loverboy announced there was a dead animal of some indeterminately largish size in the crawl space that is accessible through our closet, just outside of which our sweet baby was napping. 400 dollars or maybe 2000 to come clean it up! said the animal exterminator on the phone. do it yourself! said the diy pest control place down the road (fancy that). mom and dad come help! said loverboy. yay! said i, as i eyed the mound of laundry, pile of dirty dishes and a wee patch of rug just visible underneath the new-always-off-season-midsummer-shedding layer of lars' fur. i would like to take a moment to say: my dog is molting. like a bird. it is seriously mangy. the clumps of fur i find around the house could bed a whole host of rodents. he especially likes to molt in the nursery. yay.

excuse me while i forget how to talk abut anything other than this house and this baby for awhile. i'm in the middle of a new motherhood/home-owning crisis right. you should know, i was going to write an incredibly creative, entertaining post about this weekend, filled with humor and peppered with woody allen references, but instead, i'm here to say this weekend was crap and woody allen. brilliant, aren't i?

suffice it to say, my crisis is manifesting as a crazy cleaning person. i feel like the tasmanian devil, whirling madly around the house, looking for my sanity inside washing machines and dishwashers. and i know. i know i have no one to blame but myself. i know that i'm supposed to just let everything around me go to rot while i stare at my lovely baby. people keep telling me to ignore the mess, spend time with my baby, get to it later...but when? in 8 months? 15 years? when is it that you can clean? and also, when is it that you can stop cleaning? it's like as soon as things are relatively tidy, everyone needs to dirty some dishes/clothes/diapers because it's time to eat again. i find myself making lists of things to clean, because i can't keep up with the insane cleaning woman in my head that keeps reporting new things it's spotted that need my instant attention.

i used to be a master procrastinator. i studied for finals around midnight, the night before. i wrote my wedding vows in like fifteen minutes. heck, i applied for college the day applications were due! but these days, i am incapable of ignoring the laundry or dishes for a day. (to be fair, our baby's butt would be bare if i did, and we're limited on counter space as it is, so...)

i actually left the house sunday during wilder's nap time to try to find some peace and sanity, only to end up at target buying things like bleach, fabric softener and dishwashing detergent! and that was after a million loads of laundry, dishes and vacuums of the carpet! holy mother of cleanliness!! where does it end?! i'm pretty sure i birthed 10 pounds of laundry along with this baby.

to top it all off, we only got to lie our lightweight, mostly flat, side-sleeping little selves down on 8 mattresses. nowhere near the epic mattress-buying adventure i'd planned. i should be happy there were any mattresses at all, though, what with the cyclone that took over my weekend. maybe i need one of those vacuum robots. don't you love buster bluth? he's my favorite.

and that is all. about time, huh?

in the eye of the storm:

paint and other goings on around here lately

our life in iphone and real camera photos: 

a perfectly sized baby.

always looking straight at the camera. such a smart cookie.

thursday mommy & baby play/prayer time...with donuts, always. 

go make this chicken pot pie with this crust now! you're welcome.

let's just keep him in his bath robe like always. 

weekends with baby are always an adventure.

we now have 8 different grays on our wall and i think we're going with the first set, wouldn't you know it. someone here is picky. also, i think i've been wearing that shirt for 5 days straight.

a no-makeup, still-in-my-pajamas, snuggling-with-this-one kind of day. i'll take it.

just a little something we made...

......

we pretty much think it's the greatest thing ever!

:)

the last hurrah

happy new year's everyone!

this year has been amazing and i can't believe it's almost over!

it seems like just yesterday i started this blog.

 in 2011:

i began the big fête * jazz turned 30 * there was a snowpocalypse

and i made snow angels for the first time * lars wore the cone of shame

jazz took me to see peter pan for valentine's day 

i worked for student media & got published  

we made sandcastles on the beach and celebrated our third anniversary  

we went to stone mountain for the 4th and lived with the in-laws again

i spent my summer (class) watching movies * we discovered how much we ♥ pizza

k visited from japan * we made our first movie and ran our first 5k

we moved into a not-apartment and finally had people over for dinner

i turned 29 * we fêted an engagement in charlotte, nc and a wedding in austin, tx

i interned at atlanta magazine and passed my 45 hour review

i also discovered hot yoga and did a friend's wedding (& engagement) photography

we went to a dumpling party * lars turned 2! 

i baked pies and we made a magical winter wreathe.

i'm so grateful and happy to have had such wonderful blog friends/readers.

all your support and encouragement means a great deal to me,

and i might have given up without it.

so thank you!

 i'm looking forward to celebrating another year, even though

i probably wont be blogging every single day, cause, you know,

it's kind of hard, and right now i'm off to celebrate the new year

with jazz on the lake with no internet for at least 48 hours!

but don't worry, the big fête isn't over!

:)

happy 2012!

oo da la li

sometimes, the sky threatens to fall,

you wake up feeling like the world is ending,

(or that it should),

nothing seems important or interesting...

so i put on gloves and deep-cleaned the house.

and by that, i mean mopped and cleaned out

the microwave.

then, i went to whole foods and splurged on organic apples,

garlic-stuffed olives and a white english cheddar. 

i also made  acorn squash. 

which is maybe supposed to be a winter vegetable.

but i kind of feel like breaking the rules right now. 

:)

work harder

#12

The Glass Castle.

If you haven't read this book, go out and buy it immediately. I'm serious. It might change your life. Ever since I read it, I've been thinking about how good I have it, even when I think I don't, or, especially when I think I don't. It reminds me that I have enough, that actually, I have too much. That I should be very grateful. And maybe learn to live a little less wastefully. Certainly less materialistically. Yesterday, Jazz and I went over our budget and thought about financial planning. We're adults now, so we have to do that. It's new for us.

Every time I came inside from the cold these past three days, I'd think about how I have indoor heating and plumbing, and I don't have to sleep with a tarp over my head to keep out the rain that falls from the hole in the ceiling. Or, I'd think about how we can have three square meals a day if we want, more even, and we don't have to fight over a Hershey bar for dinner. I thought about how none of my shoes have holes in them, and if they did, I'd just chuck them out and buy new ones. Basically, I'm completely (at least physically) without want.

There is also something about knowing that if I had to live on melons, or food out of the trashcan, I could. Not that I'd want to. And not that I'd EVER want to subject my children to that. But it can be done. It's a freeing thought.

This may not seem particularly inspirational to some, but for me, it was a little light. To know that if we don't ever get to buy and restore an old farm house in the country, or live in a beach house, or even, if we never own our own home, it's okay. 

That's not what life's about. 

I don't know why but this book reminded me that life is about bigger things than where you live or what you do or what you eat. (Obviously.) But the thing is, for the kids in the story, that's PRECISELY what life was all about. Yet, perhaps they were stronger because of their childhood. Maybe they wish they hadn't grown up that way, but I envy parts of what they went through. 

They were not as spoiled as we are. They learned to appreciated things that we take for granted.

I think hearing their story made me a little stronger as well. 

Maybe I should go live in the mountains?

P.S.

In some places people know today as "Work Harder" day. In light of the past three snow days we've had (and the subsequent lack of school work I've had to do), I find that extremely amusing. On the other hand, we're going to have classes on Saturday to make up for this past Monday. 

Yep. Fun is never free. You hear that kids?