father’s day

June 18, 2011 by Jane

I’m preparing Father’s Day dinner for Brian tonight since tomorrow night we’ll be at a cookout with my dad. So tonight, we are having slow-cooked barbecue pulled pork sandwiches, corn muffins, and homemade coleslaw. Dessert will be blackberry pie (not homemade, alas, but still pretty good).

Tomorrow morning I will get up early to make applewood smoked bacon, whole wheat pumpkin pancakes, and sliced cantaloupe melon. After that, I’m making two dips for the party: artichoke (at Brian’s request), and nacho bean dip. I’m also bringing some little Trader Joe’s appetizers I picked up yesterday: mini hot dogs in puff pastry, mmm.

So there’s gonna be some serious eating.

On that note, I’ve been running every day this week except Wednesday. This morning I was able to go by myself, which made it a whole lot easier. The route I’ve been doing is about 1.6 miles, with one uphill climb right in the middle, which I sprint. When we started on Monday I finished in 26 minutes. There was a lot of walking and complaining. This morning my time was 21 minutes. I actually ran at the beginning without stopping for what amounts to half the course, so 3/4 of a mile. Very proud of that, as my biggest hurdle is endurance. If I keep it up, I think in one week I will be able to run the whole distance without stopping. Though actually Brian is going to SF next week for four nights, which means I’ll have to run with the jogging stroller. That slows me down a lot, but then again, it’s also an effective handicapper. After running with that thing for a week, then running alone, I bet the course will feel incredibly easy. My goal is to do the loop twice: 3.2 miles. The equivalent of just over a 5k race.

Oh and my other goal is to lose ten to fifteen pounds. Yeah. We’ll see about that.

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small town life

June 16, 2011 by Jane

Sometimes we forget to lock our back door. Brian goes out walking around our neighborhood at 11:00 at night. There’s no one sitting on the sidewalk downtown begging for spare change. There isn’t trash in the street or the smell of piss everywhere. The shopping carts at the store aren’t fitted with locks to prevent them from being stolen. You don’t see smashed auto glass on the sidewalks. You hear frogs, owls and coyotes instead of sirens or random screaming outside at night.

So I love living here. I miss parts of the big city — mainly the ability to get any kind of food I want at any time. But I have traded it for a peaceful existence.

It’s not perfect — I don’t live in some kind of paradise or a gated community (yuck) or anything like that. There are still assholes who drive their giant trucks too fast down our road, there will still be a thousand stupid illegal fireworks set off ALL NIGHT on the fourth of July, people still let their dogs wander around loose or chain them up in their yards all day to bark at everyone.

But I don’t mind living here in the sticks. I could walk fifteen minutes from my front door and see horses and cows standing in their pastures. My town has fewer than 10,000 residents, but we are just a 20-minute drive from the boat that takes us to Seattle. It kinds of balances on this fine line; just a couple more miles away and it really starts getting rural.

Our weather is cooler than I’d like it to be, but I wouldn’t trade it for deep-freeze winters or 99% humidity summers. We don’t get giant flying bugs here, or tornadoes, or hurricanes, or blizzards, or 100-degree days. Grateful for that.

I’m glad we picked this town.

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yam and bean burritos

June 14, 2011 by Jane

Dinner tonight: roasted yams and yukon gold potatoes, black beans with corn and onions, steamed rice, cheese, all rolled up into wheat tortillas. Freya will be having cheese, tortilla, yams and potatoes. She is still not a fan of beans, alas.

Today was so freaking cold I wished I’d had my scarf when Freya and I went downtown to get coffee and run around at the waterfront park. Looks like our bullshit spring will soon be a bullshit summer.

Oh well. At least the cool air makes our morning run more tolerable. Today we did the same 1.6 mile circuit, finished it in 26 minutes with a couple short sprints — midway and at the very end. Felt great afterward and gobbled up a hard boiled egg and an apple.

Want to be reading Desert Solitaire but haven’t found the time. There’s always another chore to do whenever I’m not watching Freya. Reading and minding her are impossible to do at the same time. When she is asleep I do writing or housework or eat lunch. I know, wah wah. This is the ONLY thing I miss about my commute: the ability to read lots of books and listen to podcasts.

Ok, time to go grate the cheese!

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running

June 14, 2011 by Jane

Yesterday before lunch, the whole family (including Kona) went for a short (25 min.) run in our neighborhood. I am NOT a “runner” but I want to try as it’s excellent conditioning and a good way to increase heart rate the same way as with burst training. Since I am fairly out of shape, endurance-wise, I was able to run about two blocks without stopping, then walk, then run some more. We also included two sprints, both of which were on an uphill incline. Our total distance was a mile and a half. Freya rode in the jogger and hooted and wheeeeed throughout 🙂

I felt pretty great afterward and am not too sore today. I would actually love to make this a daily thing. I am determined to tone up my abdomen and legs, and shed at least ten pounds. If I could lose fifteen that would be miraculous. I feel like running each day and continuing to be conscious about my eating habits should help get this done.

Last night’s dinner was pretty awesome: a Thai beef salad made with grilled flank steak and a lime-based dressing that I made, and a bunch of vegetables, served over a small portion of brown rice. Next time I will cut some of the cayenne pepper. For I have what Brian refers to as a “baby mouth.” Wah, too spicy! Think I might also throw in a few more slices of avocado and mango to cut the heat as well, and add ginger to the dressing. It was so good though. The meat was perfectly grilled. Thanks, Cook’s Illustrated!

Shipped the backpack carrier back to Deuter yesterday using the UPS label they emailed me. It should get to their US headquarters in Colorado on Thursday, then hopefully next week we will have our new one. I still can’t believe our good fortune. Check these guys out if you’re interested in getting a good backpack of any kind. They are a great company.

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it’s monday

June 13, 2011 by Jane

I love cool summer mornings when the air smells fresh and flowery. Even the overcast sky doesn’t bother me if the temperature is mild. A multitude of birds are singing, there is a light breeze. I wish I was out for a jog right now. I hope that I get to that later today.

Right now my coffee is hot and all I can hope for is that Freya stays asleep until I have finished drinking it.

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deal of the century

June 12, 2011 by Jane

Today we took a trip across the Sound to where I grew up, Snohomish County. Brian wanted to bring some dinner to a friend of his whose wife gave birth a few weeks ago. They have another daughter who is almost Freya’s age and it was cute to see the two of them together. Freya was a little shy and the other little girl was a bit in her face, but Freya remained cool and even tried to share toys. Sweet pea. I also got to hold a newborn baby, and remembered how light they are and how they just sit there on your chest, staring off into space, not squirming or grabbing on or doing much at all except being adorable and soft.

After our short visit, we drove over to the Alderwood Mall, a place I often frequented and twice was employed back in the 80s. Since I graduated high school, the mall was gutted and rebuilt and renovated, and pretty much looks absolutely nothing like the dark ugly cave it was twenty years ago. Now it has the modern style of atriums and sky lights and an outdoor promenade. We went to Nordstrom so I could use a gift certificate on a pair of very cute pajamas on sale, originally $75, and I paid $32, woo hoo. After that we wandered around, could not resist a onesie and a pair of pink sweatpants on sale at babyGap, then Freya fell asleep. We strolled around with her outside, and then I saw the REI store.

I suggested to Brian that we go in and just look at the backpack carriers, get an idea of what we might want to get secondhand, and see what the price ranges were. It was crowded in the store — they were having this one-day sale event for members only: 50% off the last ticketed price of a pile of random items in a clearance bin. We found the backpack carriers and lifted a few up. A salesman helped us out and told us the price ranges, around $150 to $300. It was a bit daunting.

Then I mentioned I was a REI member, and he said actually I think there’s one of these in the sale. He went to get it, and came back with a large, premium model by Deuter (a German company I’ve never heard of but is apparently really good and has been around for over 100 years). It was clearly a nice one, and a look at the tag showed that it could be ours for less than $50. “This is a $280 carrier. It’s a really good one,” the guy said. Um, we’ll take it.

We got to the cashier and I was told I had a dividend (REI members earn cash back) of $6.50. She rang up the carrier for $45, then knocked another $6.50 off. The list price on this carrier was actually $289, and we paid $39.

There is a catch, of course. The kickstand, which is the part of the frame that helps the carrier sit level while you put the baby into it, has a broken hinge. So that could make it a bit harder to get her in and out, unless we repair it. I already wrote to Deuter to ask if there is anything they can do in terms of helping us fix it.

But for a savings of $250, I don’t care that much. Aside from that flaw, it’s an AMAZING carrier. I can’t wait to use it with her on our next hike or beach trip!!

EDIT: Okay so it gets better. I emailed Deuter last night to see if they could help me with getting this hinge part fixed. They replied this morning (fast!), saying that no, it can’t be fixed, and furthermore, REI should never have sold a defective carrier as it is a huge safety hazard for the child. Therefore, they asked me to send the carrier to them (they would send me a prepaid UPS label), and they will replace it with a 100% NEW CARRIER. Yes, they are taking back our broken $39 carrier and sending us a new $289 one free of charge. Oh my god.

That’s what I call customer service. And while it may seem as though this company is “losing money” on this transaction, I can guarantee you who I will be looking at the next time we are shopping for a backpack for ourselves or for Freya. They have definitely won a new customer. I let them know as much in the email I sent thanking them for their amazing and prompt response.

So I shipped the broken carrier back this afternoon and hopefully we’ll get our new one in a week or so. Wow. And yippeee!!

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first yard sales of the summer

June 11, 2011 by Jane

Christina and I went a-yard-saling this morning, sans kids, which makes things move a lot faster. Here are my finds:

+ “The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses” book; 50 cents
+ “On Cherry Street” 1950s schoolbook reader; $1.00
+ “Crow Planet” hardcover book; 50 cents
+ Net bag full of beach toys (2 pails, a rake, a watering can); $1.00
+ Red Old Navy t-shirt (for me); 25 cents
+ Small green flowerpot; $1.00
+ Fisher Price dollhouse that opens up on two sides; $1.00
+ Black plush dog; 50 cents
+ Toy cellphone; 25 cents

Total: $6.00

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weird

June 10, 2011 by Jane

Feeling off today. I think the sleep deprivation is starting to erode my brain. Last night when we went to bed, I tried to soothe and cuddle Freya to sleep without nursing and she was not having it. She had already been nursing, but not sleeping, just kind of thrashing around the way toddlers do, humming songs, the usual goofing off. So we de-latched and lay there. I sang to her, I cuddled her, talked softly to her, and read her the story she wanted, but she continued to fuss and ask to nurse and cry. Baby you are almost twenty months old, you need to start falling asleep without Mama. But no. And then it was almost quarter to ten. So, not wanting to raise her stress levels any further, I surrendered and of course, she was soon asleep. Sigh.

It’s not going to be a fight, with me “winning”. I know she will stop when she is ready. I just wonder when the heck that is going to be. I envision us laying in bed, me reading to her, and her eyes falling shut as she succumbs to her own exhaustion. Someday, this will happen.

Anyway, today is a gloomy gray mess outside. Oh and Freya was wide awake at 6:30. We have been practicing the alphabet and coloring and reading books this morning but I want to go outside. I just have no plan or motivation. We could take a walk, but that doesn’t give Freya any exercise. I don’t know. I am just blah lately. I feel overwhelmed. I have a TON of work to do around the house, and NO time to do it. I have a lot of writing in my head to get out, and again, zero time. Yesterday during Freya’s nap I started trying to clean her room, which has turned into a junk repository for her outgrown clothing and toys and crib bedding, and a bunch of Brian’s crap. I have to sort out what to consign, what to donate, what to give to friends/family, and so on. Energy is low.

I just want our house to feel like, for once, it isn’t in some state of unfinished-ness. My office is unfinished — still need to build shelves in the closet and get a table in there for crafting and get Brian’s dresser out. Freya’s room is a mess and needs to be painted and needs curtains. Though I am working on that; I found a seller on Etsy who will make curtains for me using this adorable owl print fabric. She’s also making curtains for my three office windows, using a yellow and white zigzag fabric that will look so cool (I hope — waiting on swatches first).

We took a step toward finally upgrading something in our house from cheap n’ crappy to beautiful. Our bedroom has this huge arched window. It faces a very bright street lamp right in front of the house, which shines into our room all night long because the half-moon part of the window isn’t possible to cover with normal blinds/curtains. I can’t believe we have put up with it for three years, frankly. And now that it’s summer, it also lets in daylight at five in the morning and ten at night.

One option was to get a fan-shaped shade, which would be fixed. It could not be opened, thus darkening the room during the day. Plus that would then sit on top of a square of blinds, and basically look shitty. I actually thought this was our only option. But then the guy from the blinds company came out to the house and told us about wood shutters. Duh. So we are getting those for both bedroom windows and they are going to be fantastic. Pricy, but a sound investment for sure. I’d actually love to then replace all of our cheap white plastic blinds in the house with stained wood ones. Hey, a girl can dream.

There is a LOT to change in our house. Floors, walls, roof, ugh. A lot. And not a bunch of money, so it will have to be spread over a few years. But in the end I would like to, for once, live in a place that I really, really love.

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foulweather bluff

June 5, 2011 by Jane

Such a beautiful warm Sunday we had. We went out to a small and hidden away beach with Christina and her son Evan, a beach which was deserted and required a short hike through a pretty green forest. So magical. Freya had to play in the sand for a while, then I took her down to the water’s edge, and we looked at the shells and anemones in the very low tide. She wanted to stomp her feet in the water. She loved it. Two hours flew right by, and then it was time to head back. Amazingly, she remained awake on the drive, but once home it wasn’t to tough to get her to nap, which she did for her usual two hours. I then ate lunch and watched tennis and relaxed a bit. Then we went downtown with Brian for iced coffee and hanging out on the grass by the marina.

And now I should be writing. Or sorting through Freya’s old clothing. Or whatever. But I want a nap! Alas. And I’ll need to start dinner shortly, but it should be easy: black bean and chicken nachos, and the chicken is already cooked.

This has been our first REAL summery weekend of 2011. I hope there are many more to look forward to this season.

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rocking chair

May 31, 2011 by Jane

When I was pregnant, I became obsessed with the notion that I needed some kind of rocking chair or glider for nursing. Now of course that is a totally laughable concept. I’m sure a very good glider chair might be nice to have while nursing but it’s by no means a necessity.

It was among a lot of other things I was so *sure* I would need, like a crib (did not need one, wish I had never bought one) or a pump (got a hand one, used it like three times, Freya has still never drank out of a baby bottle) or a bunch of organic clothing (ha ha ha ha! yeah a $5 Carter’s onesie will do just fine). Oh and the wipe warmer. Lol. And cotton, reusable wipes. Ha ha ha no.

So, I almost spent like nine hundred bucks on a really super nice glider chair. Seriously I came thisclose to ordering it. But the price tag thankfully stopped me. I wisely instead spent ten dollars on a regular oak rocking chair, and then found an inexpensive cushion for it. I had these visions of how I would sit there in the rocking chair feeding my baby and maybe even reading a book. Lol.

I never sat in that thing with Freya. We nursed on the couch, or on the bed, and still do. Occasionally, sitting on the floor. I’m trying to picture why I would need to rock her back and forth while she was trying to eat. I guess I could have held her there on my lap while getting her to sleep, but I’ve always been fine standing up to rock her or dance with her if it comes to that.

Anyway, I just sold the chair and cushion on craigslist for $30. Sasha got more use out of that chair than anyone. And before he died, Simon sat underneath it a lot because I think he felt safe enclosed by its legs. Poor old guy.

The funny thing is that while I was pregnant I was all adamantly opposed to a baby monitor and a changing table. And now I find that those two things are indispensable. I don’t know what I’d do without either of them.

It’s proof that before you have a baby in your house you really do have no idea what it’s going to be like. And it’s totally different for everyone. I’m sure plenty of you might have found a wipe warmer to be something you totally needed and liked using, or even used a glider chair to nurse your little one. I sure am glad I only spent $10 instead of $900 to find out if I needed one or not.

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