After about 2 weeks of staying home with Henry while Greg goes off to work, I can honestly say that I'm lovin' this housewife life. Sure, the chores are repetitive and sometimes I long for someone to talk to (who will talk to me in actual words). But spending all day with my son has given me the opportunity to do some of the things I really love. I don't feel guilty when we take a long walk. I don't feel rushed when he hands me the same book three times in a row. I can sleep in as late as Henry does (which is sometimes 10!), and better yet, I can stay up late writing. I'm not too exhausted to cook dinner, and I don't feel the need to eat junk food to deal with the stress in my life. In fact, without any plan to diet or work out, the weight I gained in law school is practically melting off. I even get to read a book now and then, just for fun. While my house is usually in a state of chaos, I know that it won't be a month before I have time to clean the bathroom. I know that I won't have to worry about telling someone else every detail about how to take care of Henry, because I make the bottles, I change the diapers, I put him down for naps.
I guess the bigger question is: will I ever be able to go back to the world I left?
P.S.
Because Greg just fixed my shift key. Henry pried it off a couple of months ago and we just found it under our bed. It feels good to be able to capitalize at whim.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Shabby Chic Bunny Baby Shower
I meant to blog about my sister's baby shower last week after it happened, but she ended up getting induced that Monday (3 weeks early), and since she was right in the middle of moving, as you might imagine I haven't stopped had time to look at the computer!
My sister picked out this adorable shabby chic crib set with a mobile that had little white bunnies in dresses. Inspired by the cute nursery, I decided to try to do a shabby chic, bunny baby shower.
Here's a picture of the room before many people arrived. This actually Sarah's church's community room. The guys emptied out all of the extra stuff so that it would look really nice for the shower. Some of the guests who go to the church couldn't believe it was the same room.
The banner was simple to make, I just took some leftover scrapbook paper I had and cut out triangles and letters, then white circles to set off the letters. Then I just threaded some ribbon through holes I made with the hole-puncher, and put a little tape on the back to keep the ribbon spaced out when it was hung up.
You can't really see the centerpiece in this picture, but I got a case of 1 quart mason jars and painted some off-white, some sage green, and some aqua blue. Then I took a tooth brush and splattered a contrasting color on the jars. Finally I decoupaged on an image of a rose that I found online (very shabby chic), and finished it off with some dark brown ribbon. For the flowers I just went to Shop Rite and got some pink roses, white spider mums (they had to give me some other large flowers because all of the spider mums I'd ordered didn't come in), ferny greens and baby's breath. Then Trouwbottom came the night before to arrange them. (Did you know Trouwbottom was raised in a flower shop? True story.
For the food we decided to go with brunch to keep it simple. My brother-in-law's mom did the fruit. I cut up cheese and got muffins and danishes from Costco. I ordered shrimp and sandwiches, my mom and Sarah made some egg/cheese/sausage casseroles from a Paula Dean cookbook (yum!), and my mom cooked up some frozen tater tots.
I found a good video tutorial on how to fold these bunny napkins online. I made the napkin rings out of some ribbon and little puff balls from Michaels.
I ordered the chair covers from tableclothfactory online as well as the tablecloths and napkins. For the sashes, we used some rolls of that tulle you get at the party store and just added a small tissue paper flower. This picture is of probably the last chair I did, because the flower is smooshed and I was running out of tulle, the rest had a big loose bow of tulle. To make this size flower, I cut the tissue paper sheets in half, then the halves in thirds to make 6 small sheets from every 1 big sheet. Each flower is 5 sheets thick.
For the tissue puffs that we hung from the ceiling, I used whole and half sheets, and pink, brown, white, aqua blue, yellow, and polka dot tissue paper. We hung 3 over each table. To tie the flowers I used wire, and then added the ribbon to hang them before we fluffed them up. It really helped that we waited to fluff them until the day before.
Trouwbottom's whole family came to help out!
Here's the room with everyone starting to fill it up. I'm not sure how many people showed up, but 77 RSVP'd!
My mom made the chocolate bunny pops from some Easter molds I found online. The pencils were from Oriental Trading Co. and were for the games, although because there were so many people we ended up playing the timer game (set a timer and when it goes off whoever's gift the mom is opening gets a prize), to make it simpler. So the pencils were just an extra favor.
A bad picture of the cake, which was actually really nice and tasted sooo good. Chocolate raspberry, from Wegmans. I also ordered Italian pasteries, which were a big hit.
My sister's high school English teacher and good friend gave a great talk about using your words to uplift and encourage instead of tearing people down. Great advice for busy moms!
Henry was very tired but managed to stay awake and in a good mood for almost the whole shower.
My sister picked out this adorable shabby chic crib set with a mobile that had little white bunnies in dresses. Inspired by the cute nursery, I decided to try to do a shabby chic, bunny baby shower.
Here's a picture of the room before many people arrived. This actually Sarah's church's community room. The guys emptied out all of the extra stuff so that it would look really nice for the shower. Some of the guests who go to the church couldn't believe it was the same room.
The banner was simple to make, I just took some leftover scrapbook paper I had and cut out triangles and letters, then white circles to set off the letters. Then I just threaded some ribbon through holes I made with the hole-puncher, and put a little tape on the back to keep the ribbon spaced out when it was hung up.
You can't really see the centerpiece in this picture, but I got a case of 1 quart mason jars and painted some off-white, some sage green, and some aqua blue. Then I took a tooth brush and splattered a contrasting color on the jars. Finally I decoupaged on an image of a rose that I found online (very shabby chic), and finished it off with some dark brown ribbon. For the flowers I just went to Shop Rite and got some pink roses, white spider mums (they had to give me some other large flowers because all of the spider mums I'd ordered didn't come in), ferny greens and baby's breath. Then Trouwbottom came the night before to arrange them. (Did you know Trouwbottom was raised in a flower shop? True story.
For the food we decided to go with brunch to keep it simple. My brother-in-law's mom did the fruit. I cut up cheese and got muffins and danishes from Costco. I ordered shrimp and sandwiches, my mom and Sarah made some egg/cheese/sausage casseroles from a Paula Dean cookbook (yum!), and my mom cooked up some frozen tater tots.
I found a good video tutorial on how to fold these bunny napkins online. I made the napkin rings out of some ribbon and little puff balls from Michaels.
I ordered the chair covers from tableclothfactory online as well as the tablecloths and napkins. For the sashes, we used some rolls of that tulle you get at the party store and just added a small tissue paper flower. This picture is of probably the last chair I did, because the flower is smooshed and I was running out of tulle, the rest had a big loose bow of tulle. To make this size flower, I cut the tissue paper sheets in half, then the halves in thirds to make 6 small sheets from every 1 big sheet. Each flower is 5 sheets thick.
For the tissue puffs that we hung from the ceiling, I used whole and half sheets, and pink, brown, white, aqua blue, yellow, and polka dot tissue paper. We hung 3 over each table. To tie the flowers I used wire, and then added the ribbon to hang them before we fluffed them up. It really helped that we waited to fluff them until the day before.
Trouwbottom's whole family came to help out!
Here's the room with everyone starting to fill it up. I'm not sure how many people showed up, but 77 RSVP'd!
My mom made the chocolate bunny pops from some Easter molds I found online. The pencils were from Oriental Trading Co. and were for the games, although because there were so many people we ended up playing the timer game (set a timer and when it goes off whoever's gift the mom is opening gets a prize), to make it simpler. So the pencils were just an extra favor.
A bad picture of the cake, which was actually really nice and tasted sooo good. Chocolate raspberry, from Wegmans. I also ordered Italian pasteries, which were a big hit.
My sister's high school English teacher and good friend gave a great talk about using your words to uplift and encourage instead of tearing people down. Great advice for busy moms!
Henry was very tired but managed to stay awake and in a good mood for almost the whole shower.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Wish List
Christmas is a very big deal around here, and Christmas presents are always abundant. (I know, it's not about that...). While I enjoy a nice pile of stuff on Christmas morning, I hate when I get a gift that I don't want, and that my family didn't really want to get me, but they felt obligated to buy just because it was Christmas. That's why last year when my mom asked me what I wanted I politely asked if she could just give me the cash she would have spent on my gifts so that I could use it for things I really needed (mom jeans to replace my maternity clothes, an estate tax text book, a gas bill, you get the drift). My mom was happy to avoid shopping, and I was happy to get a gift I actually needed. But... I have to say that there is something about that feeling of excitement when you see a box under the tree with your name on it and you don't know what's inside.
So this year I suggested that we make Amazon wish lists for Christmas. That way we're not buying each other a bunch of useless crap nobody wants (instead likely we'll be buying useless crap that we do want).
What's on my wish list? Some dishes that I love, some uggs, a bag, some books for Henry, a ridiculously nice camera that no one will be able to afford (but I can dream can't I?)
Some of these things are practical, others show what I really like, but all in all, the list doesn't really capture what I need right now. If I was to make a wish list just for today, this is what would be on it:
1) a maid!
2) a massage
3) someone to take Henry to go get his shots/some painless way of getting his shots
4) professional servers to work at my sister's baby shower
5) an office to retreat to in my house
6) someone to vacuum out my car
7) an otherwise harmless parasite that would cause me to suddenly drop 20 lbs.
8) a day all to myself
So this year I suggested that we make Amazon wish lists for Christmas. That way we're not buying each other a bunch of useless crap nobody wants (instead likely we'll be buying useless crap that we do want).
What's on my wish list? Some dishes that I love, some uggs, a bag, some books for Henry, a ridiculously nice camera that no one will be able to afford (but I can dream can't I?)
Some of these things are practical, others show what I really like, but all in all, the list doesn't really capture what I need right now. If I was to make a wish list just for today, this is what would be on it:
1) a maid!
2) a massage
3) someone to take Henry to go get his shots/some painless way of getting his shots
4) professional servers to work at my sister's baby shower
5) an office to retreat to in my house
6) someone to vacuum out my car
7) an otherwise harmless parasite that would cause me to suddenly drop 20 lbs.
8) a day all to myself
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
No work and all play
Today was my first day trying out this stay-at-home mom thing. Greg's new job officially started today and Henry and I were left to our own devices. My staying at home is in the trial phase, since I've never done it and we're not quite sure that I won't go insane.
In general the day went well, although through some random circumstances we ended up without a car and it was way too hot to walk outside, so we were pretty cooped up. Henry has a lot of energy and needs to crawl around big spaces in order to be happy. Our cottage does not qualify as a wide open space, so he was mildly cranky until Greg got home and took him for an evening beach run. Whenever we take Henry to the beach, we just put him down and he takes off crawling in any direction for about a mile, then winds his way towards the ocean to play in the surf. At first he would pick up shells and try to taste them, and I would take them away. Pretty soon he would just pick up the shell and hand it right over to me! Now he just examines stuff for a minute and then throws it away.
I am definitely going to have to make a more structured schedule/routine, because playing on the floor with Henry's toys and reading those Llama llama books 10 times in a row may make him happy, but it's going to drive mommy crazy.
In general the day went well, although through some random circumstances we ended up without a car and it was way too hot to walk outside, so we were pretty cooped up. Henry has a lot of energy and needs to crawl around big spaces in order to be happy. Our cottage does not qualify as a wide open space, so he was mildly cranky until Greg got home and took him for an evening beach run. Whenever we take Henry to the beach, we just put him down and he takes off crawling in any direction for about a mile, then winds his way towards the ocean to play in the surf. At first he would pick up shells and try to taste them, and I would take them away. Pretty soon he would just pick up the shell and hand it right over to me! Now he just examines stuff for a minute and then throws it away.
I am definitely going to have to make a more structured schedule/routine, because playing on the floor with Henry's toys and reading those Llama llama books 10 times in a row may make him happy, but it's going to drive mommy crazy.
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