Changes

Things have been changing like crazy around here. But most significantly, I'm working on realizing a little dream of mine. It involves a whole lot of sewing and a teeny tiny business that just might go somewhere. EarthAppleStudio is the home of my new venture and all the blogging I've been doing lately. I'll still use this for more personal and littles related blogging, at least that's the plan for now. Come have a look!

One Month

I promised myself to blog every (week) day for a while and so far, so good. It's taken a surprising amount of discipline to do it, in part because the days seem to go on until about 9:30 or so, then cleaning up and then blog? Oh my.

But it's been good. It's been very good. It's been a wonderful way to reflect on my life. It's given me a reason to get the camera out more often, to notice my life, to look for the positive, to see what is unique about our family and our life. There will be more...

For now, I'm home solo with two little ones while Papa braves the snow at a conference in DC. Pumpkin is sick. She has the absolute most pathetic little scratchy voice cry. She wants badly to be by mama all the time. Peanut is helping a lot. He set the table for breakfast today. When we were done, he cleared it, without being asked. It was so neat.

I'm reading Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline, which was recommended by Meg at Sew Liberated. It's having a big impact on the way I talk to Peanut and a positive effect on his behavior. Thank goodness. All the biting, hitting, pushing over (I call it three-year-old tourettes) was driving me nuts. Or I should say, I felt angry when he hit, bit, pushed. It's happening less. We're getting through. There's hope.

Otherwise, we are just having slow days, staying home, eating out of the freezer, and looking forward to Papa coming home!

Pictures of me

I just discovered, to my delight, that one of the witty and talented women I've met this year in Hyde Park has a witty and wry blog - Fancy Toast. If you're not feeling tempted to click on that link - you must. I only looked for a minute but saw (1) googly eyes on the back of one very cute baby's head and (2) recipes for parrot. She also managed not one but two husband compliments. I should do that more often because mine really is great.

But here's the thing. If it weren't for her cute profile picture, I might not have realized she was really the Erielle I was looking for. I know her for something entirely different, namely Peanut's Music Together teacher. Food blogger? Now there's an unexpected surprise. It turns out not everyone puts everything out there all the time.

And this brings me to the thought that inspired this post. Anyone looking for me (the real life one with an actual name, although a terribly common one) would find "Notablogger" and a picture of a crocheted bird. What is that all about? Well, it's about needing to feel a bit protected from the exposure that comes with writing about all kinds of things here. For example, my knitting and sewing obsession is kind of private. In daily life, I don't actually have a circle friends who do hese things quite so obsessively. Our family's schedule doesn't really allow me to participate in much extra-curricular crafting, so joining crafting groups has been dicey, too. There's a great knitting group here in Hyde Park, but they meet on Mondays from 5-8. If I race over there in the car after dinner, I can squeeze in half an hour. Oh, and I have to take Pumpkin. Like a lot of things, this will probably change in time, but right now it's a bit frustrating.

So in a lot of ways, this is a very public but very private space where I get to explore who I want to be or wish I could be. My real life face is here, somewhere, I'm sure - but elusive. Like I'd like to think I am!

Unbelievable!

I don't participate in many blog give-aways or contests. But when Benita at Chez Larsson challenged her readers to guess how many boxes she would need to move, I couldn't resist. Guess what - I was right! Go have a read and enjoy!

An Ideal Moment

I could have spent this afternoon doing something on my list. Let's see - there's the Summer blouse muslin, the pile of papers sitting on the desk begging for attention, moving pictures from camera to computer (always a chore), folding the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, putting away toys, or any other thing that seems generally mama-like and responsible. But I didn't. Peanut is off on an outing with his grandparents. I'm on my own with Pumpkin and she's a piece of cake so long as I wear her, so I recharged batteries instead.

Recharging involves a latte (I'm two days late on taking care of this reward), a bookstore trip (in which I buy nothing, of course), writing a lot, reading blogs and other interesting things on-line, and allowing my mind to wander. I have been allowing myself to explore the materials of a more creative life, but would like to help my brain shift gears as well. Some poking around lead to discovering Danny Gregory's Creative License which I now think I might have to read or at least own. I found a couple more amazing blogs to be inspired by: innner pickle and apples with honey. It's also possible that I need to challenge myself to open up and write or rather to open up when I write. It's funny to realize that you're being evasive even when you journal. Or maybe not evasive but certainly vague, ambiguous, general. I'd give you an example, but...

So this has turned into an ideal me moment. I've accomplished nothing but it feels like the world is one, no two shades rosier about now. And that while the sun's setting. Not bad at all.

Drawing

This picture just makes me smile. Peanut loves to draw and is now enthusiastically making "zeroes" both big and small with help from anyone he can convince to draw with him. I've been much inspired by Amanda Soule and her lovely post. When it came time to buy art supplies as an Easter gift, I decided to go ahead and spend on quality instead of quantity. The results have been outstanding.

Peanut's first color pencils are a set Lyra Ferbies that I picked up in Haarlem. The price tag made me pause a full five minutes in the art supply store before just buying them. However, they have more than proven their value already. Today was the first time any of them required sharpening. Maybe we just don't color much, but the Crayola crayons I also got are half way to trashed, so the credit goes to the pencils!

The Rock Crayons were a gift from a dear friend who seems to not only be able to read my mind but even sends gifts to my parents' place when I visit there! I've been coveting these since first spotting them here. They came out for the first time yesterday and are an instant hit. Even the grandparents are in awe over their utter coolness.

With some luck, there will be daily drawing in our future. My only complaint now is that our roll of paper is packed away with everything else in storage and we're using individual sheets instead. I really liked the roll and being able to cover the entire table surface. It was a good way to silence the perfectionist who keeps reminding my 22 month old son to color on the paper only. Any tips?

Ask and the Internet Shall Deliver

Last month, I was grumbling about the internet. More specifically, I was grumbling about the fact that Hulu doesn't work outside the US, making it impossible for me to watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. My complaining is over. The internet delivered in the form of (1) a helpful comment from alala and (2) YouTube. I'm watching now. Life is groovy. The internet is back in my good books.

Blogging Research

Over the past couple of years I, and a few folks I know, have ventured into blogging. It's kind of fun. It's sometimes just another thing that I'm not getting done. The obsession with finding out how many people are reading it is probably not very healthy. What has been most interesting for me is discovering the many, many blogs out there. I started out following a couple of knitting blogs and friends. Then some design and productivity-type blogs. Now I'm leaning more towards sewing blogs (many) and especially mama-blogs, of which there are quite a few. These tend to alternately inspire me and convince me that (1) sending my son to daycare may be pretty darn selfish, (2) my craftiness is a blip on the screen of craftiness possibilities, and (3) I have got to learn to take and post much better pictures of my boy!

There's another category entirely, though, that's catching my attention now. It's the blog in which someone chronicles a project with a view towards writing a book. I'll call it the research blog. Now, some of the blogs out there are kept by ladies (for some reason, I follow almost exclusively female bloggers) who ended up writing a book. But I know of at least two cases in which the blog specifically chronicles the research leading up to a book: The Happiness Project and Living Oprah. And here's the reason I'm writing about these two ladies: what if I were to blog my dissertation research? I can't imagine how mind-numbingly boring that would be for anyone reading. At least, that's my first thought. On the other hand, it would also be an opportunity for receiving comments and suggestions that might otherwise never reach me. So, it's kind of tempting. I'll have to think about it.

But first, let me add a gazillion links to this post and get it on-line. Then check my stats...

mental health day

From Life in Holland

So, today I'm doing nothing. Well, nothing technically productive. It's 11:45 and so far I've read a lot of blogs, written a few emails, reduced my inbox to 100 through liberal use of the delete function, chatted with a girlfriend for nearly two hours on the phone, and drunk two cappucini. That means I haven't checked work email, read another chapter of From Higher Aims to Hired Hands, finished my presentation for class on Thursday, deposited money into our joint account (although that might actually have to happen), folded laundry, put away dishes, or really done anything on any to do lists. But you know what, we had house guests for a month, it's grey and cold outside, and this really is all OK. Tomorrow's another day. I'm going to embrace my mental health day an go to the thrift store for a wander.

Ducks in a Row

You may have noticed that I've been away from BlogLand for a few days. If so, thanks for the attention. I've been busy getting all my ducks in a row and working on a couple of deadlines. It was ever so slightly exhausting. Will be back soon. In addition the promised review (still coming), I should probably write something about rethinking resolutions.

The Joy of Sharing Books

The only thing better than reading book is suggesting books to other people, and what a reward when they take your advice. A couple of weeks ago, I recommended one of my big childhood favorites, Mr. Popper's Penguins to Natasha over at Maw Books. She's just posted her thoughts if you're curious. I may have to read it again myself...