Sleep, glorious sleep

This is my ode to sleep. It is entirely under-rated as a hobby and totally unappreciated as a cure for a great many ailments. How often have you heard someone say, "It'll be better in the morning." And you know what, it almost always is. I believe my next major purchase will be a new mattress. After all, we spend about 1/3 of our lives in bed. (For me it's more like 4/10, but who's counting?)

I love sleep. But you know who hates it? The very young. They have absolutely no respect for the sanctity of sleep. Ironically, they need more than the rest of us. Or do they? I'd like to see some data on this one. My angel could stay up all night, until she simply crashes into a puddle on the floor. My darling step-son has been surviving on 2 hours of sleep for most of his life! (That's cumulative, by the way.) My husband has trouble sleeping if he takes a nap in the afternoon. (Which then necessitates a nap the following afternoon, perpetuating a dangerous cycle.) On the other hand, if I were lying prone, in a cool, dark place, I could sleep for 24 hours if no one woke me. Apparently, it's a gift.

I can sleep anywhere, too. You know those people you see sleeping up-right in a plastic chair in the airport? That's me. It's a talent I've developed from a very young age. I have also passed this talent on to my angel. As evidence, I would like to present you with a little game called, "Guess Who's Sleeping." I posted some pics of my angel and I (as a child) in the blissful state of a stolen nap. Can you guess who's who? (Yes, I know, the photo quality and the "That 70's Show" props often give it away, but just play along. Okay?)

The first one is me, half on a chair and half on an ottoman. The second is the angel...half on the couch and half on an ottoman. Now more:

How small do you have to be to sleep on a chair? I think my angel (top) and I (bottom) have proven that a little "tucking" goes a long way.

Am I hungry or sleepy? There's no need to decide! At least she made it half-way through her sandwich! I couldn't even wait for lunch to be served!

So, go on, enjoy a nap now and then. It's good for you! I promise, no one will judge you. In fact, they'll probably be jealous!

Room for a princess

In preparation for our newest family member, my angel is giving up one of her bedrooms. (Okay, before you judge me, allow me to explain.) Previously, she had her bed and dresser in the smallest of the secondary bedrooms, (which is the size of a reasonable walk-in closet) and her toys in the larger bedroom, also known as "the playroom". After a half-hearted discussion on where the baby will sleep, my angel magnanimously offered her "bedroom" for the baby, moving her bed and dresser into the "playroom". I personally think she was simply laying claim to the larger of the two rooms. She's no dummy.

All the "experts" say that these kind of moves should be done early, so the older child isn't feeling displaced by the baby. (Although, any kid who's paying attention at all will know they're getting displaced a little.) The angel is quite happy with her new room, which is crammed to the gills with her things. (Her favorite colors are pink and purple, and it shows.) Here are a couple pics of the new "princess" room:

The daybed fits in a little nook in this strangely shaped room. The wooden loft offers space both below and above for playing, and doubles as an extra bed for Brother #2 when he visits for summers and weekends. (Brother #1 is 17 and has a job, so he rarely sleeps over these days.)

The next step is to get the husband to dig out the baby things from the storage shed. (And I do mean dig, as they are in the back, on the bottom.) However, hauling endless loads of stuff into the house tends to give him a nervous condition, so this might have to wait until after the holidays, when I am undeniably distended with his child. (I think he doesn't really believe in pregnancy until he can see it with his own eyes)

Am I glowing yet?

Everyone always says that pregnant women have a "glow" about them. I suppose we do have a different aura, possibly from our complete inability to think about anything but the baby we are carrying. It still surprises us how everyone else can go entire hours without thinking about our pregnancy! (Husbands can go for days without thinking about it, until they are brutally ripped back into reality by the bundle of raging hormones that used to be their wife.)

But you know, I think that is only part of the "glow". Personally, I think anyone can have the glow, even if they are not expecting, but following these simple steps:

1. Immediately, and completely, quit smoking, drinking alcohol and caffiene, and stop taking drugs. (both the street variety and the OTC stuff which includes Advil and artificial sweeteners)

2. Begin eating well balanced meals and taking a multi-vitamin the size of my first car.

3. Drink a ton of water, which should be easy because after you cut out the stuff above, water is pretty much all you have left.

4. Sleep for 10 hours each day. This should include at least one nap.

5. Avoid harsh chemicals. This gives you the perfect excuse to let your roots grow out, and to skip out on household cleaning. In fact you should give up cleaning completely to make time for the nap mentioned in Step 4.

I promise you, if you did all the things mentioned above, you will be "glowing" in no time. Well, all this healthy living is making me sleepy, so...

Shout out to plastic bins!

Without plastic bins, my house would look even worse than it does! Someone asked me recently what my organization "scheme" was. Apparently some people organize with baskets, others are label freaks. I am a plastic bin girl.

In my younger years, before kids, I used to have an entire room dedicated to sewing and crafting and general packrattery. After 4 moves in as many years, as well as the addition of my angel and all of her stuff, it was time to pare down. I bought some clear plastic tubs for crafting materials, and have been striving to keep only the stuff that will fit in the bins. I have one filled, to the brim, with paint and painting supplies. Another contains Sculpey clay and molds, while a third holds cards, stencils and pretty pens. The fourth holds my sewing do-dads (bobbins, thread and what-not) but my sewing machine is separate, as well as any fabric for a specific project. The exception to this "bin" rule for crafting is my knitting paraphernalia. I do loves a good yarn sale! I try to keep it organized in my bedroom, though I could probably open a small yarn shop with my current stash. These days fancy yarn costs about 6 dollars a skein, so when I find them for two bucks, I tend to stock up.

Aside from crafting, I've also found plastic bins invaluable for holiday decorations. The husband seems to believe that most people have roughly two boxes of Christmas decorations and that's it. Well...I have ten Christmas boxes. The benefit of the plastic bins is that the stuff inside stays clean and dry, they stack really well in our storage shed, and you can get them in different colors for different holidays! My Christmas ones are mostly green, my Halloween/ Thanksgiving boxes (yes, plural) are black and orange and the Easter boxes are clear.

We also use plastic tubs for toys. My kids don't have a toy box, they have several. This helps keep the My Little Ponys out of Barbie's household and vice versa. The goal is to only have one type of toy out at a time, which works most of the time! (Sometimes the Ponys need a Lincoln Log corral.) But my favorite tip, stolen from one of my teacher cousins, is the Lego blanket. Most people with Legos know they are a serious PITA to clean up! (Pain In The Ass) And anyone who has ever stepped on a Lego knows the pain of not getting every single one. We designate a smallish blanket (we use an old baby blanket, but my cousin was using an old bedsheet) and all the Legos HAVE to stay on the blanket. (When I see them off the blanket, I take 'em away) When the playing is over, you just pick up all of the corners of the blanket and drop the whole thing into a plastic tub. Done.

One thing is certain. If we ever build our own house, and the husband would like that, we are having a "Mommy's room" for sewing and crafting. Mostly so I have a space to stack all of my plastic bins!

Happy organizing!

Weddings and Funerals

I am finding an alarming resemblance between the two. You put on nice clothes, you sit in church and everyone's crying, though for distinctly different reasons. Then you go to a reception and eat on paper plates, either perched on your lap or occasionally on linen covered tables. You talk to the people around you, typically the same people you talk to everyday, so there isn't that much to say. And there tends to be flowers everywhere, though no one can say exactly why.

Last weekend we attended my niece's wedding. (I'd like to take this time to remind you that the husband comes from a huge family; he is the baby out of nine kids. And his nieces and nephews range in age from 1 to 32. Our peanut will be the 30th grandchild!) It was a beautiful spot and was an outdoor wedding. So, naturally, it rained the whole time. And man was it cold! It's amazing how easily we are chilled in early fall after being warm all summer. (But 40 degrees is cold...I don't care who you are.) The wedding party shivered their way through the ceremony, then climbed into their ski jackets like the rest of us! Otherwise, it was a beautiful wedding. (Congratulations, Angie and Jon!)

This afternoon I am attending a funeral for a sweet lady. We all called her "Oma", which is German for "grandma", even though she was not technically our grandma. She was the mother of one of my mom's dear friends, and the grandmother of one of my friends. She was always in attendance at holiday gatherings, and she was not only sweet but hilarious! She had a thick German accent, which seemed to get thicker if she'd had a few glasses of wine! (Or a couple cordial cups of Cherry Herring!) And she talked so fast that sometimes you could hardly understand her. But when you could, she had some of the most amazing stories to tell! I interviewed her for a Philosophy paper I was writing a few years ago, and she led a fascinating life. She lived in Germany during WWII. Some stories she couldn't tell because her blood pressure would skyrocket, and her doctor asked her not to go into those stories anymore. (We can imagine the kind of atrocities a young woman might witness during a war that was taking place practically in her backyard.) But some were funny! Like the time she and her girlfriends filled stockings with excrement and climbed up on the roof to throw them at the Russian soldiers below! (What can I say...girls will be girls!) And when the war was over, she and her baby would go to the train station everyday to see if her husband would be on it. He was being held in a POW camp, so he wasn't on the train. But everyday she'd be there, just in case that was the day he'd come home. Someone at the train station offered to adopt her baby, since they figured she was a widow and just hadn't dealt with the loss yet. But she and the baby kept checking the train everyday until one day, he was on it! (That's the kind of stuff that only happens in movies!) They were able to emigrate here after the war, and lived back east until moving out to Montana in their golden years. Oma was the person who made my angel laugh for the first time when she was a baby! (Although, to be fair you couldn't help but smile when you were talking to Oma!) She had an amazing life.

I suppose that's the best any of us can hope for. At the end of our days here, people will look back and say "She lived an amazing life."

Enciente

At long last, I am pleased to announce that the husband and I are expecting another child! This will be my second (biological) child, and number three or four for the the husband, I lose track. Because of our previous problems, I was waiting until week 12 to make any "announcements", but it turns out everyone already knows. Apparently, I really am that bad at keeping secrets, even my own. Mostly it stems from the fact that I haven't been drinking alcohol for the past couple months, which from everyone's reaction is extremely out of character for me. (I'm not sure I like the way that I'm portrayed here...) Not drinking at my sister's wedding was a dead give-away for most of my friends and family, and the ladies at golf league noticed right away! But, I think that most people knew that we were trying, and they were ready to pounce on any little info that might indicate good news.



The husband and I have been "trying" for about 4 years now. The first two years were unofficial, but when that didn't pan out we sought medical assistance. After some tests, thankfully covered by insurance, we were diagnosed with "unexplained secondary infertility". (Which is medical code for "we have no idea what's going on, but we checked the Magic 8 Ball and your 'outlook is good'...") I took some prescriptions and had some more blood work done, (If you ever need blood drawn, ask for Linda. She's the best.) and only two years later, here we are!



There are a few things about this pregnancy that differs from when I was pregnant with my angel. First of all, because of my recent miscarriages, I am tentative to get super excited or run out and start shopping for the baby. Not that I'm not excited, but there is a part of me that has to hold back a little, for self-preservation. And that's too bad. Another thing that is different is with my angel I started to "show" at about five months. With this baby, I started to show about five minutes after the pregnancy test. Right now my jeans are fastened with a rubber band, and I'm only 3 months along! The best part about this pregnancy is that the husband gets to experience it! When I was expecting my angel, he and I were living in different states. (Not intentionally! It just happened to work out that way with our jobs.) So he missed a lot of the middle stuff, really only being present for the beginning and the end! Now he knows the joys of morning sickness, (I can't stand the smell of meat cooking!) exhaustion and all the other little first trimester gems!

If everything goes as planned, my peanut will be joining us the middle/end of March. I'll try to keep you posted as news develops. In the mean time, keep your fingers crossed!