30 Days of Happiness | This Living Stuff

It must be the weather. Every moment is delicious, even those that keep us inside. Just knowing that it's crisp outside rather than humid is enough to give me pause. This is my favorite time of year, with the ushering in of a spring a close second.

To celebrate, I flipped on our new oven and made my own rendition of Molly's banana bread. I threw in some nuts and chocolate chunks for good measure, and ditched the cinnamon crumble topping. And I accidentally undercooked it, so it's kinda gooey but good nonetheless. It went down perfectly with a strong cup of coffee.

A few days ago, I read Emily's post on her celebration of Rosh Hashanah. That the Jewish new year coincides with the onset of autumn is enough to make me consider converting to Judaism (almost). It's time to take inventory of life, let go of the past, learn from mistakes, and adjust. What I found most beautiful was this quote that Emily included in her description:

When we really begin a new year it is decided . . . who shall be truly alive, and who shall merely exist.

That is what it's all about, isn't it? This living stuff.

Here's wishing you a bounty of new beginnings and the determination to truly live!

30 Days of Happiness | Staying Outside

I suppose it's not the smartest idea to start a project like "30 Days of Happiness" when I know that the change of seasons is going to drive me outside and far, far away from the computer. It seems like 30 days is quickly becoming 28 or 27, but I'll persevere.

Today was the first cool day of fall. I opened the door this morning to let the dog out and took a deep breath. It was cool. Fall is here. Of course, cool is a relative term -- it was still in the low 80s.

The day was spent taking a walk, going for a run, sipping coffee on the back patio, sitting on the front porch, walking to the pizza place, and sitting with friends on the patio, drinking beer and eating pizza. I hesitate to say it was a perfect day, but it was darn near close. And this grainy, gritty photo is all I have to show for it.

30 Days of Happiness | Getting Cleaned Up

Lily, did you have a nice bath?

30 Days of Happiness | Treasures Found

We were up very, very early today. A friend of mine tipped me off to a community yard sale that was going on in the parking lot of a local grocery store, so Adam and I packed up our extra junk in hopes of selling off our lot. We didn't have as much success as we expected and made a measly $9.

But the morning wasn't a total loss!
We ended up with these cute little wellies for Lily. I can't wait for her to start stomping around so we can don our wellies and jump in puddles together.

I also bought these two framed ads from Good Housekeeping, February 1954, for $5. They're the perfect addition to our laundry room and sort of make me wish I wore dresses and aprons around the house. Sort of.

30 Days of Happiness | Grammar Girl

Who knew that yesterday was National Punctuation Day? I didn't until I listened to Grammar Girl today. Oops. As a writer and composition teacher, I feel obligated to embrace my nerdiness and give a comma a hug.

But mostly, I want to celebrate Grammar Girl. The podcast is great, covering all sorts of grammar issues as well as things like journaling, organizing, and dealing with foul language in a text. The podcasts are short, only five minutes or so, and they're a good, healthy dose of the proper use of the English language.

Grammar Girl, today I salute you!

30 Days of Happiness | Thursday

:: Started the day watching Young@Heart with Adam while sipping coffee.

:: Met friends for lunch. Didn't take Lily with me. It was a first.

:: Took an hour long nap on the couch. A whole hour -- unheard of!

:: Didn't grade a single paper or even think about grading papers.

:: Made homemade pizza for dinner and drank Harvest Ale.

:: Watched a new episode of The Office.

:: Went to be early.

30 Days of Happiness | Hello Autumn

Small signs, but they're there. I stepped outside and saw two red leaves in the yard. Two! Who knows how they knew fall was coming (since it's still 85 or so degrees every day), but there they were staring up at me as if to say, "Congratulations, you survived another summer in Alabama."

Next thing you know, my box of sweaters will start talking to me. And then my jackets and scarves and gloves. And then we'll have to turn off the air conditioner and have a fire in the fireplace and eat nothing but chili for weeks at a time. I'm getting a bit giddy just typing it!

Hello Autumn! Oh, how I've missed you.

30 Days of Happiness | Dinner Together

It's rare that you find us eating at the table. We're usually parked on the couch, TV on, balancing our plates on our laps or pillows. Since we've started feeding Lily some solid food, Adam and I have decided it's time to start eating at the table. Soon enough, Lily will be sitting her high chair and we want meals to be shared with the three of us gathered in the dining room.

I think a lot about what kinds of things I hope Lily will remember from her childhood, and this is one that I want locked in -- that her parents worked together to make meals, that we blessed the food before we ate, that we sat the table and talked and laughed and ended our days together.

Today was a doozy. I was exhausted from not sleeping well, read papers all morning then taught all afternoon, and then backed up into another car backing up in the parking lot at the school and shattered my taillight. So when I came home to find that Adam had grilled steak and bought a bottle of wine, I was elated to sit down and recharge with my two favorite people (even if one of them went to bed about five minutes into dinner).

30 Days of Happiness | Bangs are Back

Surely my stylist is going to have a fit when I see her next because I cut these myself. I watched a few YouTube videos on how to cut them, then I pulled out my scissors and snip, snip, snip. Not bad, eh?

What can I say? I needed a change.

30 Days of Happiness | Compliments and Complimentary Coffee

Who knew Lily and I would be so popular at Target today?

I got a late start after staying up far too late last night, and headed to Target to do some grocery shopping. Usually I try to get there as early as possible, like before 8 a.m., to avoid bumping into people in the aisles. My approach to grocery shopping is to get through it as quickly as possible. I don't linger. I don't price compare. I know what I want, so just get out of my way already.

Today, though, Lily and I got to the store around 11, and it was already packed with people. I put her in the sling, grabbed a cart, and off we went. Since we're usually there when almost no one is shopping, I had no idea that every woman and small girl in the store would stop us to smile at Lily and ask how old she is. Every single one. It put a serious dent in my plan to get done as quickly as possible, but I sort of ate it up. I mean, Lily is only this little for so long, so I might as well enjoy the attention. I love when people tell me how cute she is, and I love it even more when they smile at her and she flashes her little gummy smile back. That's my girl!

Then, to top off this most enjoyable trip to Target, I was given a coupon for a free drink from the Starbucks at the front of the store. A free drink? I'll take it! Of course, a line of women piled up behind us as the barrista made my latte, and they all oohed and ahhed over Lily. If only every trip to the grocery store was so sweet!

30 Days of Happiness | Corners of My Home

Slowly, we're settling in. Boy, is moving exhausting, especially when you're trying to make a house feel like a home. Every other time we've moved, Adam and I have used the shove-it-and-forget-about it method. We didn't decorate. We didn't think about having people over. We just made our space livable and then we lived. We also ended up with an attic full of unused junk and piles hither and yon. It just wasn't pretty.

But now! Now we are a family. And now I only work part time, so I spend significantly more time at home. It's really made me rethink what makes a house a home and how to make it beautiful in addition to functional. So, a little at a time, I'm working toward jazzing things up. I have plans for curtains and furniture painting (Lily's dresser is already in the works) and new dishes (Fiestaware, hopefully) and lots and lots of color.

In the meantime, I'm working with what we have and a house that is inherently appealing with its white moulding, gray walls, and bright windows.

30 Days of Happiness | Cereal Beard

After getting the green light from the pediatrician, we started giving Lily cereal this week. And the best part? Cereal beard. She's already getting better at keeping more cereal in her mouth than leaking down her chin, but of course it seeps out.

It's all I can do to resist licking it off her little face myself.

30 Days of Happiness | Morning Cuddles

The day just begins better with a cuddle. Having been up since 5:45 a.m., unable to fall back to sleep after feeding Lily, I needed a morning of lying around with my girl, taking note of her little hands and feet, and the way she giggles at the dog doing her dog things.

We had nowhere to go, so we just lingered. I kissed her. The dog kissed her. She wiggled around and made snow angels in the sheets. And we just enjoyed being together.

30 Days of Happiness

If there's one thing I'd like to achieve for my life, it's balance. If there's one thing that I'd say is missing from my life right now, it's balance. Life has become unbalanced, messy, scattered.

I went back and reread my Curator article on living simply, my preparenthood manifesto, my complete idiot's guide to authentic living. And then I half laughed, half sank into the chair at how naive my little pregnant self was. I knew becoming a mother would be hard, but I had no idea what I was in for. No one does, and if they did, they would probably never have babies.

In spite of things, I still believe strongly in simple living, and I still want to find balance and joy in my life. Somewhere amidst the chaos it's here -- I suppose I just have to find it. Our move plays a big part of it, leaving the old behind, erasing some of the mental clutter. I'm ready to move forward.

As I navigated around the interwebs this morning, I happened upon 30 Days of Happiness. It's simple: Every day, focus on the simple, the joyful, the peaceful, the happy, in an effort to genuinely appreciate living. It's time to slow down, relax, and get some perspective.

Tomorrow I begin my own 30 Days of Happiness.

In Hot Water

The water heater was fixed this morning and a long, hot shower was in order. It was heavenly. That is, until I realized I was standing in ankle-deep water because of the slow drain.Today was more muddling along. We unpacked a lot of clothes just to throw them in boxes to be donated. Adam mopped the floors. I organized the bedroom. We're making progress, indeed.

Garbage as Poetry at The Curator

My latest article is at The Curator today, a look at A.R. Ammons' book of poetry, Garbage. I read it in grad school and loved it. I'm sure my poetry teacher would be pleased. Check it out.

Settling In

This is it. We officially live in a new home, though I use the word live loosely considering the house still looks like a bomb exploded inside it. Where did all this stuff come from?

We're chipping away at it a little at a time. Piles are being sorted into things we plan to keep and those we're going to sell. Decorations are being hung. We're making decent progress.

But, as is apt to happen in a house that's been unoccupied for four months, there have been a few surprises. First, the vent on top of the water heater has a hole in it and the gas man wouldn't turn it on because of the carbon monoxide hazard. It's supposed to be fixed tomorrow. Until then, no hot water. Then, last night we went to use the oven and, lo and behold, it didn't turn on. Gas came out of it, but the oven stayed cool. This, too, should be resolved tomorrow.

The good news is that we've met quite a few of the neighbors and they are terribly nice. They want to trade phone numbers and recipes and wave hello and know our names. I'm literally in neighbor heaven. And there's a young couple who live next door. Adam has already made plans to watch football with them.

Also, when the cable guy came to hook us up, he had no filters to limit us to basic cable, so we now get 77 channels but only pay for 20. Is this better than a hot shower? No, but it's close.

Autumn Revisited

I love fall. It is my most favorite season of all, and every year since we moved south, I always lament over the lack of color and miss autumn in the northeast. I can't say that this year will be any different. But we've made it over the scorching mount of August and are on the downward slope to cooler temperatures. Thank goodness.

Stepping outside in the cooler mornings this week reminded me of autumn last year. It was by far the most perfect season I've experienced here -- cool, crisp, and full of possibility. In my mind it's sort of romanticized, mostly due to the fact that I was pregnant and survived the fright of the first trimester and knew that the pregnancy would stick. It was the last autumn before I became a mother.

I revisited some old photos as I transferred them from our old computer to the new, and can honestly say I took full advantage of the season. We hiked in the woods, visited the farmer's market, and spent plenty of time walking around the neighborhood. It was the first time I had really paid attention to my surroundings and tried to capture them with my camera. And, not to be overly dramatic, it was a rebirth of the creativity that had propelled me through childhood.

As we've been waiting to move, I've realized that my creativity has been stifled. My sewing stuff is packed up, the house is a mess, and every day has felt like work. I'm looking forward to having a new house to decorate, spaces to fill with photographs and artwork and color, and a new perspective on the ordinary aspects of my life.

I hope for this autumn is that it will be bursting with creativity, just like last year only better. Now I have Lily. Everything has just that much more meaning. Though it's certainly not all sunshine and roses, the most amazing and inspiring thing I have is watching that little girl grow and learn and change.

Perhaps she is my muse.

(How's that for overly dramatic?)

Don't Stop Believin'

So, I am very much ready to move. We've been in a holding pattern for weeks -- really since the last move fell through in mid-July -- and I'm ready to get on with the program. But we're still here and we're still waiting. Earlier this week, Adam went to the new house to see if the water had been turned on and found that the air conditioning wasn't working. So we're waiting to get the green light that the air is on and we can get some cleaning done. We're hoping to be moved by Tuesday. Fingers crossed.

I cannot wait. I've just about had it with the house where we live now. The floor plan makes no sense and we don't have any closets to stash our stuff. These weren't really problems until we added a third person into the mix. Now it's a nuisance to try to take a shower because I have to go through Lily's room to get to the bathroom. Also, the door to her room leads to the kitchen, making me reluctant to make any noisy culinary creations. (Why would you put the door to a bedroom off the kitchen? Why?)

In a lot of ways, I've been feeling like my life has been in a holding pattern and I'm hoping this move will break me out of it.

Dear Lily (at Four Months)

Dear Lily,

Today you are four months old. My, how time flies. Every week I count how many I've known you, but they are starting to get too numerous, so now I'll be counting months. Four months!

Yesterday, I asked Daddy if he thinks motherhood suits me. You would think I had asked him if the sky was blue. Yes, of course. I guess I just needed a little affirmation.

A long time ago, before you showed up, I wasn't actually sure I would ever want to be a mother. This world is a crazy place and I didn't know if it would be fair to bring a child into it. But my heart stirred and stirred, and I realized that bringing you into the world could make it a better place. That is my hope for you and for our family, that the world would be better because we are here.

This month, you learned all sorts of tricks! You giggled for the first time, though you still don't do it very often. You also realized that you can squeal and for days all you did was squeal. Daddy and I would laugh whenever you did it, especially when we had laid you down in bed and your little baby sounds broke the silence.

You also reach out and touch my face now. When I am feeding you, occasionally you'll stop, look up at me, and reach for my face. I kiss your hand and pretend to eat it, and you always smile. This morning, though, you reached for my hot coffee and I realized that this is the beginning of the end.

We think you are going to lose your gummy smile to some teeth soon. You gnaw on Daddy's and my fingers almost nonstop. And the drool! I never knew so much saliva could come out of one little person.

Being your mommy is the best job I've ever had. Even on the darkest of days, knowing I can kiss and cuddle you makes my entire life worthwhile. I look at you and know that someday you'll grow up and have a baby of your own, and you'll know this joy for yourself. But for now you get to be the recipient of all my love and attention.

I love you, Peanut!

Mommy