Bringing Back "Brought Me Joy"

Now that I'm relaxing a bit, and able to realize and appreciate things around me more, I hope to have more time to share those things that are bringing me joy, such as:

Best Ink - a reality show competition in the vein of Shear Genius (hair cutting/styling competition I also loved), but with TATTOOS! I stumbled on to it on HULU and I'm hooked. Almost makes me want to start adding to my back piece...And then I remember how much it HURT, and how much it COST, and I am just happy to watch :)

 

One down...

First week as a stay-at-home-mom is in the books!

It still feels kind of temporary and unreal. But actually, that's how everything has felt since TC came into our lives. Each day is about making it through, we're always in survival mode. We don't make a lot of long term plans because I really can't fathom much about the future, I'm so focused on the now. Will it always feel this way? Is this my new normal? Is it good that I'm not obsessing about what is next, or am I wearing myself out by constantly feeling on the edge? Will I eventually settle in and relax and feel in control?

This first week has been lovely. We've had an adventure every day, a cheap little distraction that got us both out of the house, gave Normy (the dog) a little break from our torture, and passed the day a little more fluidly. I didn't intend this to be our routine, as I'm actually sort of a homebody and was looking forward to sitting around in my pjs and not dealing with the world for a while, but it has been good for me to get dressed and change the scenery. We hit two mall play areas, ran a few errands, took a long walk, checked in on Grammy (can't just cut her off cold turkey!) and even ate a whole lunch out of Costco food samples one day. It's been good.

We all survived the first week of super mega tight food budget, and everyone got fed just fine. We got some "float" in that we already had a big stash of baby food, frozen dinners, and treats around the house from previous shopping trips, but overall I feel better about the possibilities. It was a little hard not to just buy a Cinnabun at the mall or whip through a drive through for a Coke - things I wouldn't have questioned much before, and appear so minor at just a few bucks each - but would have major trade offs now. Hard isn't the right word, it was fine - just required a little more thought & restraint.

Our budget is tight. It also is set up for the temporary, and not a great long term strategy. There are places we could cut - cable, in theory, or Internet - but I've decided that I'd rather have a tighter food budget and trade off Cinnabuns at the mall in favor of these few indulgences that bring me so much joy. At least right now. And I actually like Ramen noodles, so that helps a lot.

I found myself yesterday thinking for a moment "I wasted another day" when I hadn't accomplished anything on my "to do" list. And then I felt sad and guilty for thinking that.

It's like when TC was younger and I felt like all I did was try to get her to sleep, then tiptoe around trying to keep her asleep. It was like I was wishing her away, her waking hours at any rate. But at the same time, we BOTH really needed the sleep. It was temporary. And eventually, slowly, our lives have become more about the hours in between the (still too short) sleepy times.

Now that I'm home, which is by choice - a choice that required a lot of other compromise and sacrifice on the part of my whole family-a main goal is to enjoy it. To learn how to prioritize and appreciate what is is that we have compromised and sacrificed to make possible - staying at home. Raising The Cupcake. Keeping her out of daycare. Not dreading each day at the wrong job.

I hope that I can balance the additional perks - time to decide what I want to do professionally, the opportunity to accomplish tasks in off-hours,  with the additional pressures - do I HAVE to keep the house clean? (not so far...) How long until I will have to bring in some income?

And perhaps above all, I just really hope that TC learns to sleep in past 6:30am!
:)

Stuff I've gotten rid of this month:

Project: "organize + scrape up some cash" is going along beautifully. I'm sending stuff out the door by the boatload, and I haven't even had my yard sale yet. Here's a few of my big discards:

 

• Hubby's dumb broken boombox that took up way too much room in the bathroom and I cursed daily (got to throw it away when he was gifted a new, tiny radio - YAY!)

• My beloved creepy nun dolls - I had found them at the Goodwill and did a Happy Dance right in the store. I used them in the VooDoo Shop for my Romp in the Swamp Halloween party, and had them hanging out in my craft room for years before that, but they were ready for a new home. Luckily I saw a craigslist ad asking for CREEPY DOLLS (do you not love Craigslist?) and donated them to a dude who runs a nearby haunted house. I threw in a few other oddities I'd accumulated, and ended up sending a nice big paper box out the door full of junk (and to a cause I wholeheartedly support! Yay Halloween!).

• Almost all of TC's outgrown clothes. I thought I'd save a few things for sentimental reasons, but one day when I was looking through the boxes of stuff I'd lovingly washed, folded, and sealed away I was HORRIFIED at how many things had yellowed already! (I thought only formula babies did that?!?!?) I decided then and there not to hold on to things - I had photos for posterity, and selling the clothes (& gear) through the JBF sales pretty much ends up being a "trade in" effect where selling the old pays for the "new" and we keep the kid clothed. In the past 2 months I've gotten rid of at least 4 big tubs of baby &  maternity stuff, and made a little chunk of cash doing it!

• A whole bunch of baby formula samples - some expired (boo) and I had to throw them away, but I was able to send 3 canisters to the Postal Service food drive (and they were picked up right at my door!) so they will go to someone who needs them now.

• A whole bunch of crappy socks & underwear in the trash. I followed the Discardia rule of putting a  garbage can in every room (okay, I didn't put one in every room, but I put one in my bedroom) and it made a HUGE difference! Instead of piling stuff on my dresser to throw away, or just not dealing with it, I pitched things on the spot and BOOM - way more drawer space, from stuff I wasn't wearing anyways.

• 
  The "Puff Daddy Forever" flag I've had since 1999 I guess. Despite not being a PD fan, I held on to it for all these years and throughout all my moves because it was a memento of a fun night. It was time to let go. The memory was enough. The flag could go.

• A pair of giant platform shoes, 17 paperback books, a set of DVDs, and a baby dress - all sold on Ebay, and all for surprisingly more than I thought!
 
 
• MY JOB & ALL THE UNHAPPINESS IT BROUGHT! It still doesn't feel quite real :)

 

 

 

It can't be a spoiler if there is no plot to begin with...

Last night my "book club" took a field trip. In case you are new here, my "book club" at one time DID read and discuss actual books, but at some point we switched to watching TV shows instead, and instead of barely meeting once a month we upped it to once a week and attendance is better than ever now. We mostly rally around True Blood, but when that is on hiatus we try other strange combos of gratuitous ab-shots and paranormal tangents, such as Walking Dead, Spartacus, and Sherlock Holmes. Usually followed by an episode or two of Wipeout or American Ninja Warrior. While I still maintain the "book club" moniker, others have dubbed it "art film night."

So clearly "willing suspension of disbelief" is not a problem for us, everything we watch (and often discuss quite scholarly) is strange and absurd (even the reality shows) and yet, last night, I think we hit on the most unbelievable of all...

Battleship.



O.M.G.

I cannot even completely fathom what I just watched. And it's not the aliens that are throwing me. I'm tangentially okay with aliens, though I always prefer they don't show them directly (it's easier to believe if they're sort of imaginary still, like a book, and usually scarier) and of course when they DO show the aliens, you start deciding if that jives with your own idea of aliens, and questioning the special effects, and it just snowballs. Aliens should be implied, not fully exposed. And let's not even wonder why a movie based on a board game decided to work in aliens. This just happened. And it was potentially the MOST believable part of the movie.

More believable by far than Taylor Kitsch's character falling through the roof of a convenience store (twice) in order to impress a chick with a burrito, and then being tased (twice also). And then joining the navy, being assigned to the same area as his brother, and being made captain of the competitive soccer team.

More believable than the flattest sea imaginable with nary a wave (let alone a tsunami) despite bombs, huge spaceships, and other sky-scraper-sized debris plunging into it at a high rate of speed.



Probably more believable than Rhianna in the navy.

Definitely more believable than a crew of WWII vets helping to arm the floating museum that was once a battleship and taking it to war (with a Japanese captain nonetheless!) no questions asked.

Yeah, that last one is where the uncontrollable laughter really overwhelmed the levies and we all pretty much lost it. I have a hard time believing they could have written or filmed that "plot twist" with a straight face. I really liked Armageddon, but this was like an SNL parody of that...only serious? I expected to hear Aerosmith at any moment (and would have probably died of laughter if that had really happened).

I'm also a fan of the Friday Night Lights series, but it seemed to me that Riggins was playing Riggins and Landry was playing Landry...I am pretty sure we only went to see the movie in the first place because of Alexander Skarsgard, who they killed off much too soon (so soon we kept wondering when he would pop up again).

There were 20 minutes of bad action-flick previews, so we knew we were in for something outside of our demographic, but I don't think words can accurately convey just how laughable this movie was. I actually had a great night and was fully entertained, but I can't help but believe that was NOT the intention.

I suggest seeing this movie in an empty theatre so you can "MST3000" it. It's almost impossible to keep quiet and watch.

Oh, and Kitsch, I'm worried about you...first John Carter is a box office joke and now this bomb...I want to cheer for you, I really do, but you make it so hard...

Look! A whole post without mentioning TC!

Toddle Along Tuesdays - Firsts

We are in a string of firsts - my first week as a stay-at-home-mom, and by extension our first trips and adventures that will eventually become boring old everyday occurrences but are currently exciting and new to both of us. Right now each day I don't go to work feels like such a gift that everything new qualifies as a favorite first.

Today was our second day of Ladies of Leisure and I decided we'd better get used to not spending any money (or driving around wasting gas), so we took a trip to the playground, a walk around the neighborhood, and then came home to test out our new toy.

First day with The Cucpake's new water table.

 It was easy to set up (I actually did it in the house yesterday and she played with it dry for a long time). If you read the reviews on Target.com a lot of people complain that the "waterslide" made of those colorful pieces isn't secured, it's just stacked. That's true. She knocks it over immediately. I don't care. I bought it for the base, not the toys. And for the price ($29) this was a great deal. We have plenty of other toys to dunk in the table.

Such as the tiny Tupperware pitcher she filled up and dumped IMMEDIATELY on her head, before I even blinked:

She sputtered, laughed at herself, blew her nose, and then did it again.

That Dr. Pepper isn't hers, it's mine but just like the Plums Baby Food yesterday, she grabbed on to it on our walk and wouldn't let go for an hour and a half. Apparently it makes a good (free) water toy too.

Soaked! Luckily I HAD grabbed a towel before we started, but I was a little bummed the fun didn't last longer - after she drenched herself she immediately started shuddering and shivering (though it was pretty warm out) so we packed it in and called it a day. Lunch, Nap, and time for me to catch up on bills. Even that is a "favorite" - organizing our new lives, around our schedules.

In retrospect, this is only interesting to me...

But I'm going to post it anyways. MOST of my life is only interesting to me these days, and I'm okay with that.

It's actually a little intimidating to wake up and have a blank slate before you. Here's what TC & I ended up doing on our first day as ladies of leisure:

- Just for kicks The Cupcake decided to wake up early, around 6am. But she did sleep through the night (even if I didn't) so I can't complain too much. We played around the house for a few hours, mostly with her new "BAA!" (big pink ball - $2.99 at Target).

- Breakfast was a bit of a battle, she ate one container of food but rejected the 2nd AND rejected her "nana" (banana) which she usually loves, so I knew we needed to switch things up a bit. I packed a bag, tossed Norm a chicken patty, and we fled.

- I wasn't actually sure where we were going until we were on the road, but we headed towards Toys R Us and I remembered they had Plum Organics squishy food packets on sale for $1 this week, which is a great deal and they are really convenient for travel, so we made that our first stop. TC was very happy to walk across the parking lot holding my hand, and then pleased to sit in a cart, but once we wandered down the aisle with playhouses and chairs and outside toys she started pleading "down! down! down!" and it was so cute that I gave in.

Strategic error.

She had fun running around for about 10 minutes, at which point I was too tired to continue chasing her and buckled her back into the cart. There were many tears. More sad pleading of "down! down!" It was pathetic and I almost buckled. Luckily the tearsdried up when we headed to the food aisle to get what we came in for, and she clutched one of the food packets for THE NEXT TWO HOURS.

- She kept that packet (mango/sweet potato/millet) clutched in her hand in the car ride, and throughout our next trip to Target. I was in search of a 2nd pair of some awesome capri pants that are NOT available online, and were gone (in my size) at the other 4 stores I had looked at. Interesting discovery: Target stores are A MESS on Monday mornings as they haul out new merchandise. But it was pretty quiet, so I finally got someone to look up what stores DID have my capris, and after a quick phone call, we headed to Target #6.

- I still had a few more bucks on my gift card, so I picked up a water table for The Cupcake. I'd been coveting one for a while, the kid LOVES to splash, and we've had some beautiful hot days lately, and there was one on sale this week for $29, so I decided to blow the balance on that. During our loop around the store TC started to "woof" in the dog accessory aisle, point and yell "nana!" at the bananas, point to the fly of my pants and say "bu!" (button), and sweetly whispered "hi!" to at least 6 people. It was a strange word explosion, but she was in a good mood. And she was still clutching the food packet.

- bank pit stop. I love drive-through ATMs. Moms of the world salute you.

- she FINALLY released it when we stopped in to see Grammy and she had to run and open all the drawers in the kitchen (washcloths! dish rags! Tupperware! AMAZING!). We enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches and then headed home for TC's nap.

- She slept well, 2 1/2 hours, during which time I caught up on MadMen and ate a fancy Magnum ice cream bar (it was the closest I had to bon bons!). Decadent.

- Hubby mowed the lawn while I thew together dinner, and we ate on the patio (GORGEOUS NIGHT!). TC destroyed herself with pasta sauce and pureed peas, got dunked in a bath, and it was time for bed.

Things accomplished: good deal on baby food, 2nd pair of my favorite capris FINALLY secured, awesome summer toy acquired, free lunch scammed from Grammy, mama time enjoyed, and Cupcake entertained.

We could get used to this :)

Guess what I'm doing today?

 NOT GOING TO WORK, THAT'S WHAT!