My Kick-Butt Diaper Bag

I bought Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby over a month ago and finally made this diaper bag today. Of course, it helped that my sewing machine stopped bunching the thread every time I sewed and started sewing a straight, even stitch again -- after I spent over an hour adjusting the tension.

The bag really was a simple sew (Lotta's not kidding). It took me a little over an hour, start to finish. I got the fabric from a little shop about a block from our house that specializes in upholstery fabric. I may even make myself another one, slightly modified, to carry books and graded papers to and from my classes.

Speaking of classes, I haven't even touched my syllabus. I have a smidge of guilt over it, but I'm sure it will all disappear on Saturday (then rear its head when we return from the beach). Classes start in two and a half weeks, and I'm in a bit of denial about working again.

This summer, in spite of its disappointments, has rocked and I've loved (almost) every minute I've gotten to spend with Lily. But I keep reminding myself that it's healthy for her and me to spend some time apart, and it's good for me to be out interacting with other adults (or college freshmen, as the case may be).

The State We're In

It was a tough weekend. For a good day and a half, I just wandered around looking at boxes, not knowing what to do next, and wishing I could cry about it. But I didn't cry. I didn't really do anything except talk and talk and talk with Adam about what the next step for us would be. Should we stay put (our landlord said we could) or find another rental or buy a foreclosed home and fix it up or bury our heads in the sand? What do you do when you have no idea what to do? Stay put. And that's what we're doing.

But let me say, unpacking most of our stuff just to put it right back where it came from is oh-so depressing. Most of it is still packed and our house is in disarray. I'll take care of it eventually -- right after I write my Curator article, start working on my syllabus, pack for vacation, get an oil change for my car, and bake something for the bake sale I'm missing this weekend. In the meantime, we're still keeping our eyes and ears open for another rental, though we're in no hurry to move. After this whirlwind experience, slow sounds good -- delicious, even.

Thankfully, we're getting out of dodge on Saturday. A week away will be fabulous!

In the Midst of Craziness, I Forgot to Mention . . .

that an article of mine appeared in The Curator this week. It's a wee anecdote and a recipe for banana split cake, a summer staple in my family. You should check it out and immediately make the recipe. You won't be sorry. While you're at it, read the other two articles -- this week is particularly good!

And because I just showed this video to Adam and it made me smile / well up with tears, take a peak at this. It. is. awesome. (Thanks, Johanna!)

Best Wedding Ever

Posted to New York Magazine by JPress on July 24, 2009

Click to Play | View Details

So It Goes

I don't know if you've ever read Slaughterhouse Five. I don't remember a whole lot about it -- something about time/space travel and a war vet -- but what I do remember is that every time someone died, Vonnegut wrote the same refrain: So it goes.

No, no one has died. But something almost equally tragic has happened. We're not moving into the new place. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. Apparently, the man we signed the lease with and his ex-wife have been to court over the house, it is actually for sale, and our lease is invalid. The landlord stopped by last night to inform us that his ex-wife had changed the locks and we had to go over there immediately if we wanted the stuff we'd already moved. Um, what?

He gave us our deposit back and we set up a time tomorrow with the realtor to pick up our stuff. In the meantime, almost everything we have is in boxes and we're not moving. And we don't know what we're doing next. So it goes.

I'm seriously considering running away and joining the circus. Sounds better than having to unpack everything again. Maybe I can teach Lily how to juggle.

Wondering . . .

:: how much work it'll take to make the new house feel like home

:: what I need to pack for vacation with a little person and what book I should read on the beach

:: if I'll have time to sew the diaper bag from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby before next Saturday

:: what it'll be like to go back to work, even though it's only for eight hours a week

:: if I should become a vegetarian (not sure I can do it) or start only eating grass-fed beef (not as easy to find as it should be) or just give up reading books like The Omnivore's Dilemma

:: when everything will feel normal again, if there is such a thing

Afternoon at the Park

New Digs

This is it! Our new abode. We spent yesterday cleaning and found that there's a bit of a flea problem that's supposed to be resolved today. So, we're not quite ready to move in, but we're still aiming to be moved by the 1st. (I'd hate to come back from sitting on the beach all week only to move more of our stuff.)

At the end of our busy day, we found ourselves at our favorite local establishment that, coincidentally, has the best happy hour around. The servers fawned over Lily, and we chatted with a few who knew us from a year ago when we were regulars. After a hard day's work, there's nothing like an ice cold Blue Moon straight from the tap (and, thankfully, lactating mommies can drink occasionally due to the marvel of pumped breast milk).
I took Lily to the park to run this morning. She cried the whole time. Then we got in the car to drive home and she started singing to herself. Go figure. At home, she quickly went to sleep. Lately, she flips from her tummy to her back when she wakes up, and coos and sings instead of crying. I didn't know such little babies did these things, but it's the cutest thing ever. Today, Adam is working, and I've been lying around all day thinking about how the house is a mess and there's no reason to clean it. I may be the laziest person ever.

Simplicity

The Simple Woman's Daybook is just lovely. I love the idea of taking time to reflect on the simple and beautiful things in life, especially when life gets hectic, say, when you're about to move, go on vacation, then start teaching all in a month's time.

For today...

Outside my window…
a neighbor is planting a tree in a wedge between slabs of concrete.

I am thinking…
about spending some time in the sun today.

I am thankful for…
a baby who is a champion sleeper. She slept 10 consecutive hours again last night.

From the kitchen…
French press coffee and a pile of recipes ripped from issues of Real Simple.

I am wearing…
a t-shirt and scrubs pants, my jammies.

I am creating…
a new syllabus for class this fall, a little at a time.

I am going…
to pick up keys to the new house today.

I am reading…
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and the August issue of Real Simple.

I am praying…
for a new perspective on my faith. In some ways, I think I need to start over.

I am hearing…
"Bus Driver" by Caedmon's Call and trying to remember the last time I heard this song. It had to have been junior year of college.

Around the house…
boxes are already starting to pile up. We tackled the living room yesterday; today, it's the utility room.

One of my favorite things…
is Lily's smile, especially when it comes because she recognizes me.

A few plans for the rest of the week…
Packing, going to the gym, and finding a bathing suit for vacation (one that actually fits!).

***

And, just because this is the simplest joy in my life, a video.

Life's a Beach

Hello. I'm tired. I was up way, way, way too late last night. Why? you ask. Because we're moving. In the next two weeks. Two weeks! Oh my goodness.

Last evening, we traded a check for a lease to the house we looked at Saturday morning. The weekend was a whirlwind and we got back from signing the lease, sat down, and I kept repeating, "I can't believe we just did that." As I tried to sleep, I was overwrought by my excitement and anxiety. Mostly, I'm afraid we're going to have to pare down our stuff a lot to fit into the new place. We already have nowhere to store our things, and this problem isn't going to disappear. But, as a trade off, we're getting carpeted floors (for Lily as she starts scooting and so we won't hear the cat thumping around all night), fans in every room, insulation (no kidding), a huge kitchen, a big backyard with a hammock (awesome!), and an extra $200 in our pockets at the end of the month. Not too shabby.

Our plan is to be in the new place by August 1, when we go on vacation for a week. Wish us luck.

Today, we drove south to visit a friend at the beach. Adam and I had an hour or so to sit on the beach, discuss the next few months of our lives, relax, and work on our tans (which are sorely lacking). These are the important things in life, especially when you have someone to watch your baby for a while.

Morning, Afternoon, Evening

morning
I put the finishing touches on this shirt from Alabama Stitch Book. I got the book from the library a week after Lily was born, but it wasn't until I saw how simple it was for Kate to make this shirt for her son that I decided I'd give it shot. Two days later, voila!

After bouncing the idea around since Lily's arrival, Adam and I flipped through the classifieds for houses to rent. We found one a few blocks from where we live that's about the same size as our current house (minus one bathroom) that rents for $200 less than what we're paying now. So, we got to take a gander and it is wonderful -- big fenced-in back yard, huge kitchen, carpets. We're filling out an application and keeping our fingers crossed.

afternoon
Five Guys Burgers and Fries moved in down the street, so we thought we'd give it a shot for lunch. So did about fifty other people, leaving us to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. Lily pitched a fit while we were there and we left early -- the joys of parenthood.

We came home, napped, watched our new favorite show, Burn Notice (which makes me want to visit Miami -- ahem, Kate), and I went for a run, two and a half miles without stopping. Small victories.

evening
Adam is grilling chicken and I'm making this couscous. It is absolutely gorgeous outside, so I want to soak up every second we have before the sun sets and the mosquitoes start getting frisky. I'm also glad that we have Lily, who keeps us in at night, because Adam just told me about tonight's UFC fight that we could be watching at Hooters. Thank God we're not.

My Morning Jog

I've been running again. It's been about a month now, and it's been slow going. Literally. The first day I went out for a quick jog around the block, my miles were 11:30. I'm not sure that qualifies as running. At my dad's suggestion, I've stopped keeping track of how fast I'm running for now. I've just been putting on my shoes and hitting the road (or treadmill at the Y, depending on how hot it is).

This week, the weather has actually cooled down quite a bit and the mornings have made running outside tolerable. So I loaded up the car with the jogger and Lily and headed to a nearby park. (It's too hard to take the stroller down the streets near our house because the sidewalks are broken from huge oak roots growing beneath them. It's a bit inconvenient.)

And I ran.

The park is beautiful. It's right beside the art museum, so the trail includes several art installations. There's a pond filled with Canadian geese who like to retreat from the water and pretend that we're chasing them as we run by. In the meantime, I zigzag around trying avoid stepping on or running over their droppings and explaining to Lily between heavy breaths that they are called "honkers".

She doesn't know the difference, but I like to pretend that she does.

The Best You Could

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ah, yes. Leave it to good old RWE, the transcendentalist sage that he was, to articulate what is surely everyone's sentiment. You did the best you could; tomorrow you get to start all over again. In a life now filled with the quotidian, routine can be both a comfort and a source of distress. Clothes get dirty, then they get clean, then they get dirty again. The baby sleeps, then she eats, then she plays and goes to sleep again. These things that need tending don't yield many tangible results. But they must be done, and done the best I can.
Today was one of those crazy days where the routine was thrown out the window. We had errands to run and a doctor's appointment to attend, and Lily didn't get a decent nap all day. We did our best to survive. But survive we did. Now it's time to rest knowing that tomorrow is a new day.

Two Months! Already?

This little person celebrates two months of extra-utero life today! How did she celebrate? By getting her first vaccination. Because I'm a granola mom who likes to do things a bit differently (see cloth diaper in picture below), we're following the alternative vaccination schedule recommended by Dr. Sears. So, Lily didn't get the Hep B shot at birth or one month. Today was the first one, DTaP, just in case she falls on a rusty nail or develops whooping cough. She also got to swallow some Rotavirus. It was a big day!

It's amazing to me how she's growing. Lily sucks her thumb, holds her head up pretty well, plays with toys hanging over her bouncy seat, and smiles a lot. This week, she started sleeping in nine hours stretches at night, and she knows all the choruses to "The Wheels on the Bus," sort of.

July is here and we Crandalls timidly approach the oncoming dog days of summer. We have received standing invitations to the beach and a friend's apartment swimming pool this summer. We also are looking forward to spending a week in August at a condo on the beach with my mom, stepdad, and brother. It might just make this summer heat tolerable.

Before we know it, it'll be time to go back to school. I've received my teaching assignment for the fall, two sections of composition on Mondays and Wednesdays (and I already have a sitter lined up -- yes!). It'll be Adam's final semester, and he'll be gearing up to take the paramedic registry test in December. By then, I'll be rejoicing in cooler temperatures.

For now, happy July, one and all!