Please excuse the extended absence, as after vacation we all ended up sick. Everything started out great when the three of us went to the Miami Zoo where Alex had a blast. We got to see Avatar and Fantastic Mr. Fox and enjoyed them both. But the day after Christmas on the long drive to see my family in Sarasota Alex started showing signs of a cold.
Once we got there it was full on and led to a lot of family stress. By the time we got home I too had the cold and a week later I'm still sick. Usually I'm the one that recovers the fastest since it is hardest on the family when I'm sick. Now here I am feeling a lot better in many ways, no more awful cough and I'm not exhausted, but my congestion has gotten so much worse and traveled to my ears. I'm getting checked out for an sinus infection tomorrow. The headaches I get are enough to knock me on my butt and that makes the days caring for Alex quite difficult. Alex is still a little snotty but happy overall.
But I'm sure that once I get better things will be great for us as I have a plan of direction for this year. Last year started out bad but ended on an upswing and I'm working to continue that trend. I've apparently lost more weight than I feel I have lost as people have been commenting a lot on how much better I look. The looking better comes from inside as I feel so much better as well, and this better feeling is tied with the lifestyle changes I made in 2009. And since I made them so gradually they feel natural and ingrained in me now.
We're still trying to get pregnant and it isn't going as I hoped, but I'm not letting myself get discouraged. Every month without pregnancy is a month I can prepare my body to be more healthy for it and hopefully not get so dang sick like the last time.
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Monday, December 21, 2009
5 reasons why leaving Boston is awesome!
Pros!
1) Blizzard!
2) Florida sunshine in December might not be the warmest, but the contrast to here more than makes up for that.
3) Avatar! Movies and dinner dates out! Free babysitting from family is a rare and wonderful thing.
4) Getting to leave the house without some big production. Unless going to the beach and then it is worth it.
5) Having family fawn all over Alex.
Cons!
1) Having a six am flight and having to get up by four am with a sleepy and most likely grumpy toddler.
2) Packing is never fun.
3) Cleaning the house.
4) No more green smoothies in the morning. Vitamix doesn't travel well and I don't think the stick blender will cut it.
5) Wasting my membership to the Gym. But I think there is one that I can use at my Grandmother's complex. Actually using it is another story.
As you can see the pros far out way the cons! We're not bringing the laptop and will have limited internet access, mostly from our phones. See you next year! Hope everybody has a great holiday and New Years!
1) Blizzard!
2) Florida sunshine in December might not be the warmest, but the contrast to here more than makes up for that.
3) Avatar! Movies and dinner dates out! Free babysitting from family is a rare and wonderful thing.
4) Getting to leave the house without some big production. Unless going to the beach and then it is worth it.
5) Having family fawn all over Alex.
Cons!
1) Having a six am flight and having to get up by four am with a sleepy and most likely grumpy toddler.
2) Packing is never fun.
3) Cleaning the house.
4) No more green smoothies in the morning. Vitamix doesn't travel well and I don't think the stick blender will cut it.
5) Wasting my membership to the Gym. But I think there is one that I can use at my Grandmother's complex. Actually using it is another story.
As you can see the pros far out way the cons! We're not bringing the laptop and will have limited internet access, mostly from our phones. See you next year! Hope everybody has a great holiday and New Years!
Friday, November 20, 2009
growing up
My little baby isn't a baby anymore and she hasn't been for quite some time now. I have pictures of her from the first four or six months on the side of my studio that I don't really pay attention to. Every once in awhile I look over there and see one and am stunned. It can be hard to link the two together even though there are physical and even personality similarities. But a toddler is a little person while an infant not so much. The first year is all about them developing into a person.
She may not be a baby anymore, but she still needs me and my attention a lot. Actually in many ways she needs me more than ever before. When she was a newborn she slept a lot and that gave me time to work on art or simple housework. Or I could wrap her up on my back while she napped and work on a collage. That doesn't work anymore and it hasn't since she became mobile.
But now that I am finally learning how to schedule myself as best I can things are starting to slowly turn and I am getting bits of my own life back despite the fact that her needs are continuing to rise. It is quite empowering. Right now I am able to work on my art at a pace that I can live with. One that doesn't leave me missing it with a whiny miserable voice in the back of my mind constantly. And what a relief it is, like a weight has been lifted from my life. And now the world seems brighter and much more manageable.
I've decided that this Christmas season is a wash for me as I am too far behind in promotion, networking and more too close to Christmas. Once I admitted this to myself I felt a great relief and that gives me the ability to come up with a new plan and a new goal. And that one is for 2010. In 2009 I got my health on the right track and I am now healthier than I have been in years, 2010 is going to be about regrowing my business. It won't be the same as before I had Alex or before the crash as things are probably only going to get worse. But I'll have a plan this time!
But that doesn't mean that you can't buy from my store this holiday season!
She may not be a baby anymore, but she still needs me and my attention a lot. Actually in many ways she needs me more than ever before. When she was a newborn she slept a lot and that gave me time to work on art or simple housework. Or I could wrap her up on my back while she napped and work on a collage. That doesn't work anymore and it hasn't since she became mobile.
But now that I am finally learning how to schedule myself as best I can things are starting to slowly turn and I am getting bits of my own life back despite the fact that her needs are continuing to rise. It is quite empowering. Right now I am able to work on my art at a pace that I can live with. One that doesn't leave me missing it with a whiny miserable voice in the back of my mind constantly. And what a relief it is, like a weight has been lifted from my life. And now the world seems brighter and much more manageable.
I've decided that this Christmas season is a wash for me as I am too far behind in promotion, networking and more too close to Christmas. Once I admitted this to myself I felt a great relief and that gives me the ability to come up with a new plan and a new goal. And that one is for 2010. In 2009 I got my health on the right track and I am now healthier than I have been in years, 2010 is going to be about regrowing my business. It won't be the same as before I had Alex or before the crash as things are probably only going to get worse. But I'll have a plan this time!
But that doesn't mean that you can't buy from my store this holiday season!
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Post-Christmas
Happy Thursday! Hope everybody had a nice Christmas. Ours started out nice and quiet but ended pretty poorly. It was great to be around family and not have to deal with a long stressful drive, just an easy hour and a half drive to RI to see my aunt and her family. But the visit ended stressful with blee totally freaking out. We are pretty certain that she is allergic to evergreens. Her first allergy. Neither one of us have allergies, but I have it in my family. She had been at there house before with no problems, the tree was the only difference. Normally when she gets upset we are able to help her. Feed her, change her or simply holding her will calm her. But the only thing that calmed her was leaving. We will talk to her pediatrician about it on Monday and hopefully confirm. She got spots on her forehead and that isn't a good sign that this was just a fluke. This isn't a huge deal since I have never had a real tree and Jon only had one once. But it probably means we will never be able to spend Christmas with them again.
And we are such dopes we took no pictures of her! They got a couple of shots that we are waiting on, but nothing by the tree. It just didn't occur to us until it was too late.
The best Christmas moment for me was going on a walk around their quiet woodsy area with wide streets with my aunt and uncle with blee strapped to me in her fleece pouch. She slept the entire way and eventually I took my over-sized orange hoodie and zipped it up completely over her, even her head. I looked hugely pregnant again and carrying very high. Wonder if this is what the woman in Siberia that had teh 17lb baby girl looked like before giving birth.
It was so nice that I wore her the same way during my trip to the doctor yesterday. It was the only thing that made the trip bearable. I didn't want to bring the stroller in the snow, but she needed a place to sit during the visit so I had no choice. I put the diaper bag in it. Sure enough I would be going along fine and then run into a poorly dug out patch of snow and have to pick up the stroller and carry it over. It actually wasn't a big deal with just the bag in it, but with her that isn't easy. And my back never hurt. And I just love being close to her. She was awake much of the trip home smiling up at me and looking around in wonder.
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Much new art complete and getting uploaded and listed and even more being made. I'm getting ready for another big printing session this weekend. Weekends are really the only time for me to print. When she goes down at night during the week I have time, but am too tired.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Goals and Such - My Schedule
Last Day for Domestic 1st Class Christmas shipping. Orders need to come in by noon so I have time to package them and get them to the post box before the 1pm pickup. I am doing free Priority Mail upgrades to orders $30 or over. But the cutoff for that is tomorrow.
Something I have learned is that it is very important for me to have some sort of a schedule that includes getting to bed around the same time every night. More than anything I can do outside taking medication a sleep schedule is important to managing bipolar. In fact even when on an effective medicine combo messing with my sleep can totally override it. It is that important, but also very hard for me to stick to. I failed last week when I stayed up past two printing and I paid for it big time for a number of days. Right now my goal is to be in bed by midnight which I have mostly stuck to (once was up until 12:15) but I don't think that is good enough. I really should start winding down around 10:30 and be in bed around 11 so I can hopefully be asleep by 11:30 since it is hard for me to get to sleep. Always has been. This gives me a few hours of sleep before blee wakes up between 1am and 3am for a feeding and changing.
Another thing I have been doing has been using a list on iGoogle (kind of like Widgets for OSX but better since it is web based). I set seven reachable but important goals for the day. And I always rotate at least one out and one in each day to keep things different and help me get things done. And if something becomes total habit I remove it completely. Right now I am working on making wearing blee and exercising habit and I think I am almost there. Thankfully the two often go hand in hand since I am able to do certain exercises like squats while wearing her and using her as a handy weight.
I think I may start posting this here since the problem with the widget is that there is no record after the day is over. This way I can go back and cross things out and see how I am doing week by week. And see what I am doing.
1. wear blee (min hour total)
2. art
3. exercise
4. tidy up
5. List 2 Items
6. blog/ Flickr
7. rest
These are good simple goals to have that keep me from stressing about everything thing that needs to get done and helps me get more done because I spend less time stressing.
Also, I recently joined a group called BostonBabywearers and was rather disappointed because they never seemed to meet in Boston but always well outside the city. Not locations friendly for my carless butt to drag my three month old too. Heck, they weren't even on the T line unless you include lots of bus transfers. No thanks. So I politely spoke up and asked about meetings in Boston and a number of interested women in my area spoke up and now we are planning something in JP early next year. I'm excited about connecting with other mom's that I hopefully have more in common with than the one in the mom's group through church. Don't get me wrong those women are all very nice generous and kind hearted people and I like them. But I seriously feel like the odd duck out in that group. Even though I am not much younger than any of them I feel very young and I think I am the only one that didn't grow up Christian and that seems to make a huge difference. The only one with any doubts, or at least will admit to them. I really have a hard time opening up to them. I mean none of these highly educated upper middle class to downright wealthy women knew what agnostic means! One of them tried to define it but failed miserably. A for effort I guess? Having been agnostic the vast majority of my life, borderline atheist I was shocked by this. I want to continue going to that once a month meeting, but I think these babywearers may be a bit more like me. Or at least balance it out.
Time to get to some since blee is actually napping!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Last Minute
Tomorrow is the last day to order for Christmas in the US and expect it to arrive by Christmas using 1st Class mail. Pickup is at 1pm so they must be placed no later than noon to give me time to package and get to the Post Box. Priority upgrades available.
It wasn't easy to find the energy, but once blee went down yesterday I printed until my 11pm cutoff (roughly). It is hard because she no longer wants to take naps during the day. If I am lucky she will go down just long enough for me to shower in one and eat in another. That's it. Mostly she just wants to be played with and held constantly.
While I love this close bonding it is tiring. But I insisted on working and now I have a pile of pieces to scan in and a bit of a mess in my studio.
Other than maybe some paper cutting during down time no art today other than scanning and cleaning. Mostly I want to focus on her and cleaning up the house when I can. I can actually do quite a bit around the house while wearing her, especially with the Moby Wrap. But I don't know what was wrong with me but yesterday I kept messing it up.
These three pieces will go up in my shop today. I have gotten into a habit of setting seven things that I need to do above all else each day, switching one in and replacing it with something different daily. For example since I printed yesterday that won't be on my list today. I think keeping as much of a routine as I can is important to my health. That includes going to bed before midnight every night. I shoot for 11 but have a hard time making it. For me it isn't just about getting a good amount of sleep but sticking to a schedule or my brain goes haywire.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Merry Christmas!
To me.
The Happy Light Jon ordered for me Monday night came this morning, just in time for me to sit in front of it for thirty almost peaceful moments this morning with breakfast and (paper) journaling. This is to help treat the mixed state depression I have been going through very bad lately. Winter is rough on me. I can't take anti-depressants for a number of reasons so I am hopeful about this. It is quite enjoyable, the light itself and the routine of it could be. I haven't actually written in my paper journal since the day before I found out I was pregnant! First I was too shell shocked and then simply too sick and just out of the habit.
It was a good habit that I am going to try and get back into. It is one of the many things I am doing to try and feel better.
I have the block that can barely be seen in this photo almost completed then I have a small block to carve. Then printing. I am hoping to have all my carving done tonight. We have gotten in the routine of giving blee a nice bath then massage before bed and it is going quite well. Last night she slept her longest stretch yet, eight full hours. This after a horrible night before when she kept waking up every hour and a half or so all night. So far tonight is looking good.
Oh and I was featured on Trunkt the other day. I logged on to take down a sold piece and there I was on the homepage. This is the second time that I know of.
The Happy Light Jon ordered for me Monday night came this morning, just in time for me to sit in front of it for thirty almost peaceful moments this morning with breakfast and (paper) journaling. This is to help treat the mixed state depression I have been going through very bad lately. Winter is rough on me. I can't take anti-depressants for a number of reasons so I am hopeful about this. It is quite enjoyable, the light itself and the routine of it could be. I haven't actually written in my paper journal since the day before I found out I was pregnant! First I was too shell shocked and then simply too sick and just out of the habit.
It was a good habit that I am going to try and get back into. It is one of the many things I am doing to try and feel better.
I have the block that can barely be seen in this photo almost completed then I have a small block to carve. Then printing. I am hoping to have all my carving done tonight. We have gotten in the routine of giving blee a nice bath then massage before bed and it is going quite well. Last night she slept her longest stretch yet, eight full hours. This after a horrible night before when she kept waking up every hour and a half or so all night. So far tonight is looking good.
Oh and I was featured on Trunkt the other day. I logged on to take down a sold piece and there I was on the homepage. This is the second time that I know of.
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