Ahem, moving on.
I had written down on a scrap of paper somewhere a few things I wanted to write about and report on...great Pinterest ideas that I tried and that worked, products that are proving so useful with this new baby, things like that. Who wants to guess where that scrap of paper is? No really, any guesses would be helpful, because I have no idea.
A couple of things I CAN report on:
Project: Decluttering!
Perhaps all well-intentioned mothers start their year off with a huge commitment to de-cluttering their lives and homes. And perhaps in light of the lost scrap of paper mentioned above, this seems comical where I am concerned. But I really, truly have been going systematically through my whole house and gathering up stuff that I know we can live without: books I will never read but just liked having on my shelves (guilty), stacks and stacks of paper in the filing cabinet that were completely useless and outdated (tax stuff from 2003...back when my husband was single and made engineer-type money...no one wants to see that now!), magazines, crappy plastic toys...all recycled or given away. I have made many trips to Savers to donate to Hope Services... getting a great start to some tax deductions for 2015.
I was gleaning this idea from multiple sources: Pinterest, the Buy Nothing movement (not a chance that I will buy nothing, but certainly living with less!), and Kathi Lipp's challenge for living clutter-free. I knew nothing would work for me except something I created for myself at this stage of life, so I made a list of 30 spaces in my house that need to be de-cluttered and I set about using the month of January for the job. I won't feasibly get it all done in January because I've been taking weekends off, but I have done maybe half my house, and big spaces of it, too. The list is on my desk, staring me in the face, so hopefully I will stick with it until I'm done!
Reading: All Joy and No Fun
In my (snort) spare time, I am reading a fascinating book called All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox o of Modern Parenting by Jennifer Senior. You can go to the Amazon link to read an actual synopsis, but all I can say is that while I've been trying to read fewer secular parenting books (so many styles, so much advice!), I'm glad I made an exception for this one. It helps me step back from the day-to-day of parenting and how overwhelming it can be, and look at it from a cultural and sociological lens. Somehow viewing it in a macro sense helps me deal with the minutia, especially as I have been off work and home with the kiddos a lot more often. So far, I highly recommend it!
Also checking out Baby Led Weaning, which we will be doing with our new little one when the time comes. I realize this will only be in a couple months. Excited for no more purees!
Trip: Converge PacWest Pastor's and Wives Retreat, Pismo Beach (and surrounds), CA
I won't bore you with details but we did get a chance to have a little break, leave the big boy with my grandparents and go with the baby to a retreat with a bunch of fellow pastor's and their wives down on the beautiful central coast!
Here's the view from our room.
That is all. =)
Coming Up: Back to Work
Soon and very soon, I will be heading back to work, baby in tow. The logistics of this and having the big boy go to school for more days when it is already a battle to get him to go two days a week...and then having a baby with me while I try to work? Yikes, I must be crazy.
But the thought of staying home all day instead of getting paid for three or four hours of work a day doesn't really appeal to me either, so I guess I will have to try! I don't hate being a stay-at-home-mom, but I suffer from a little bit of anxiety which can turn into a little bit of agoraphobia if I am cooped up too long. I start to freak out that I can't leave my house because...I don't know, schedules will be messed up, the world will end? As much as I can think rationally about it now, in the throes of the everyday it rears its ugly head and I think my boys would suffer from becoming little baby recluses. Therefore, I will try this work thing. I'm so grateful that my workplace is so small and accommodating, and that I have an office with a door I can close to nurse or whatever.
So that's me. A crazy de-cluttering, reading, working mama.
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| Wouldn't trade a thing. |
