Betcha Never Knew...

We are learning all kinds of new things about building your own home from scratch. From septic systems to sound systems, every little decision has to be made by us. And to make a decision you have to do a lot of research. That being said, sometimes your research (especially online) can lead you on all kinds of odd tangents.

We were researching septic systems (like this one) and somehow came across these and these. That's right ladies and gentlemen. Incinerating and composting toilets*. Now if you look on the sites thoroughly you see that the...ahem, smell, is supposed to be, um well, minimal. But I submit that if you have a giant "human" litter box in your home the smell will be anything but minimal. But that's just me hazarding a guess.

Can't wait to see what I find when we are researching vent hoods. Or bay windows.

*Disclaimer--I know nothing about these toilets or the companies that make them, this post is just meant to be funny as I am sure the companies and their products are of superb quality.

Thanksgiving Thursday!

No "Therapy Thursday" gripes today!! Today I will list a few of the many things I have to be grateful for...

• The two most beautiful daughters on the planet!


• A husband who loves me just the way I am and works hard to provide for his family.


• A wonderful, loving family who are all in good health.


• A safe home in a great country. (At least until January 20th--I Jest!!)


• A BFF who is always there for me with stellar advice, or just an ear to listen.


• Chocolate--in all it's splendid forms.


• This blog. Which is turning out to be so much fun!

Hope you all are having a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving weekend!

Presents!

Here's what my wonderful family showered me with for my birthday!

From my brother and sis-in-law:

Isn't this gorgeous?! My sis-in-law made it and you can check out her other stunning creations for every season here.

My wonderful husband surprised me with this. I am starting to collect nativities. The whole thing looks like it is carved from a tree. The back is covered in 'bark'. I should have taken a picture of that also.

And then my mom and dad gave me COLD HARD CASH:

And my four year old hand picked these "because it's your birthday!"

What a great birthday!!!

34

Thirty four years ago today I was born. The story goes that mom went to the doctor on the 25th and the doctor said "no, go back home." She did and her water broke. And at 3:05am on the 26th I arrived, all 8lbs 3oz of me. She did it without drugs. I must give props to that! My dad says after I was born when he would drive home from the hospital at night (a thirty mile drive) he could not wipe the smile off of his face. He and mom spent Thanksgiving in the hospital that year. I've always enjoyed the fact that my birthday falls so close to this holiday, and even sometimes on the actual holiday. My parents named me Meredith Elaine. Meredith after a Dallas Cowboy. I truly love my name. Here's the best recent picture of me. I use the term best loosely.

Thirty four is such an odd birthday. Not yet thirty five, but clearly past thirty. I met all my goals thus far. I've graduated college. I had a very short, but fulfilling career as a police officer. I wanted to be married and have my first child by age thirty and I did that. Although not really my doing so much at God's. I've survived some stormy stuff. A miscarriage, a breast biopsy, IBS. And my mother-in-law. (I know, I know, you want the story on that, but let's save it for the next big drama-fest. With Christmas just around the corner, you know there will be something.)

I don't feel old. I don't even feel old enough to be a mom. But realistically I'm almost halfway done, right? In another thirty four years I'll be sixty eight. Okay. Well sixty eight isn't over. In fact these days, sixty eight is just about retirement age!

Hmmm. What else about me? In addition to being a Stay at Home Mom Extraordinaire, I also am a Close To My Heart Consultant. (So occasionally I may post something resembling art some time.) I have a really full life!

This next year will be bringing many exciting changes. By my next birthday, we'll be in a new home, maybe expecting a new baby, and of course, another year older and wiser!

Strawberry Cake

We have a tradition in our family involving strawberry cakes and first birthdays. Well, it's a tradition now. When I turned one my mom baked me a strawberry cake. It was pink and in the shape of an elephant. I am told that I stuck my hand in it and promptly wanted the icky icing off of my hand. When Little d turned one, Strawberry Shortcake dolls were just making a big comeback and since they had been a favorite of mine, I used that theme for her first birthday--complete with a strawberry flavored Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake. She ate it very neatly.

I knew that Little m had to have a strawberry cake as well. We just had to decide on what the cake would look like. I decided (finally) on a cupcake theme. So under this pink swirled confection with pastel dotted sprinkles lies a strawberry cake. Last night at her party Little m took a few licks of icing but slightly gagged on the cake. (She's not really eating very many solids yet.)

God-willing we would like to have another child someday. If it's a boy I wonder how to make a pink cake look masculine. I may have to start a new tradition. And I'm pretty sure it will involve John Deere green and yellow.

A Post Script to Today's Gripe

My wonderful awesome husband just mopped my floors. IlovehimIlovehimIlovehimIlovehim...

Therapy Thursday

Okay, today's gripe...cleaning house. I am (I think) a neat freak trapped in a procrastinator's body. I hate hate hate clutter, but I live amid clutter. This was not always the case. I am an organizer at heart. Given a day to work on a closet full of disorganized junk, I can do an HGTV quality makeover. I love the feeling of accomplishment. I think better when things are organized, I am in a better mood, I am at peace. So why is my house not organized? In a word-children.


I was a housewife prior to being a mother. Our house was organized, neat, dinner on the table when hubby got home...the whole nine yards. But while I may have recovered from childbirth, our house never did. Toys are constantly out, clothes everywhere and let's not discuss the dirty dishes. I can literally put away all the toys in the afternoon and within one hour it does not look like I did anything.

It's like vacuuming. Vacuuming used to be my favorite household chore. What looks better than freshly vacuumed carpet? Now after the floor is vacuumed both kids lay on it and make carpet angels, then proceed to put toys, scraps of paper, and books all over it to hide the newly vacuumed carpet.

Aha! Maybe this is why I procrastinate cleaning. I know the results won't last. For example, Sunday we are having a small get together for little m's first birthday (her first party got postponed). I am not even attempting to clean the toys until that morning. And for added security I am moving all the toys upstairs, so they can't crawl back out onto the floor so quickly.

I don't mean for this post to sound ungrateful. I love that I have two stong healthy kids that have the ability to make chaos. I love that the first thing they do when I finish putting their books on the shelf is to sit in front of the bookcase and take them all out again, looking over each one like it's a lost treasure.

For the record, I know what you are thinking. "Teach your children to clean up after themselves." Yes, I'm going to get right on that. I just need to sort the laundry first, go through this stack of mail and catch up on at least one year of sleep.

Sucker for a Survey

Interesting little survey I found. I am a complete sucker for these things. It was titled "What do your feet say about you?" Usually these surveys do not end up describing me at all. This one is pretty accurate, surprisingly. So here's the entirely-scientific-I'm-sure-since-it-is-based-on-the-length-of-my-toes-and-the-height-of-my-arches results of my feet quiz.

You are pretty average in your expressiveness. You can express yourself well, but you don't always want to.

You are a somewhat passionate person. A few things get you very fired up, but you're usually pretty laid back.

You are an assertive person at times. You'll pull out all the stops to get what you want, if it's worth it. (Hmmm, here I must say I am not terribly assertive with people I'm not close to.)

You take a while to fall in love, but once you do, you stay pretty attached to your partner.

You are not easily frightened, but you have a few strong phobias.

You are intellectual and philosophical. You are more concerned with thoughts than action.

You are very spoiled. You don't work unless you have to, and you love to be waited on. (I don't know that I'm "very spoiled". Especially now with two kids aged four and one. Who has time to be spoiled? Although... if my husband lets me I will sleep in late every morning he is off from work!! I desperately love to sleep in!!)

You are not easily influenced by other people. You hold your ground and are true to your beliefs.
You can take your own survey here.

Now here's what my feet would say if they could talk...

"For the Love of God woman! Stop bashing us into EVERY SINGLE THING you walk next to. And think about getting some steel-toed boots. After all, you should be nice to us--we've been told we are 'damn near perfect' by a near stranger, and we are perfectly proportioned. Show some love!"

Here's a little funny story for you. I recently had to go to the doctor because I had a painful spot on the bottom of my foot. I thought it was a random piece of glass or splinter. Turns out it was a corn. Ewww. Anyway that's not the funny part. The time I went to the doctor prior to that visit? I needed an xray for my foot that I had slammed into the baby gate. That was two years ago. It seems the only time I go to the doctor is for my feet. Who knew being a SAHM would be so hazardous to the health of my feet?

Back to the title of this post. I am also a sucker for those email surveys. Not the tired questions you've heard a million times, but the ones with the new unusual questions. So how about you? Email surveys, love 'em or hate 'em?

Isn't She Lovely...

My littlest girl turns one today. Such a milestone! She smiled early, laughed early, crawled early and walked at ten months. The one thing she didn't do this year is take a pacifier. Or a bottle for that matter. (When I told my hair stylest this she said "well how did she eat?") I smiled. Breastfeed of course.

I never set out to be a longtime nurser. With my first daughter (who is now four) I nursed for three months. This time my goal was four to six months. Little m had other plans. I survived four bouts of mastitis, two colds, her teething and more sleep deprivation than I thought a person could handle. We tried every bottle/nipple/pacifier on the market. Even ordering a $12 specialty bottle of the internet and rush shipping it here for $50 during a particularly stressful week. Through it all I had the incredible support of my husband, my parents, my best friend and even my oldest daughter.

At eight months I was able to wean her during the day when she started taking a sippy cup thanks to my husband's help. Naptimes and getting her to sleep at night were nightmarish. She fights sleep like nothing I've ever seen. Unless of course she was nursing. We decided that this week we would wean her from her nighttime nursing. At first I was emotional, but I knew she would be fine.

Last Saturday I nursed her for the last time. I shed a few tears, because after all this was a long emotional journey we took together, but then I was completely fine with it. And she performed like a champ. She let my husband put her to sleep, give her a nighttime cup of milk (formula). And has been--fingers crossed--sleeping somewhat better!

Well I didn't start this post to discuss my breastfeeding journey, but that marks a great deal of what this first year was about. I say that breastfeeding a baby for any length of time is liking running a marathon, breastfeeding for a year is like completing the the IRONMAN. So where's my gold medal? I just have to look at her beautiful smile and there it is! Happy Birthday Little Bit!!

Therapy Thursday

Therapy is supposed to be cathartic, right? Here's my cheap version of therapy...I've decided to use Thursdays to post about a gripe that I want to get off my chest. You can post your gripes in the comments, too. This week: the price of our dream home.

We were cruising along ready to build at the end of the year, and then the economy struck. Our little nest egg of stocks that were going to cover some of the building cost is now of course worth less than we paid for it. (Thank you Barney Frank.) Well if that wasn't enough, the bid finally came in this week and BAM, not as low as we were hoping. Not even close.

So where does that leave us? Back to the drawing board. Meaning we will be using our own sweat way more than hiring someone to do stuff. Like painting. And framing. And roofing. And exterior siding. UHHGGG!

But I can't complain too much. Others around the country are losing their homes. We are safe in our home and about to build our dream home. There. The therapy worked. I feel better already.

So do you have something you want to get off your chest?

Monumental First Post

Your first blog post is supposed to be really great, right? Make people want to read and all that. So first I guess I must decide what the focus will be of this blog--family-oriented tidbits, scrapbooking, politics, religion, mother-in-law? Maybe just a little of everything.

Next, how much info do I give out? What if said mother-in-law comes across it and figures it out? Who would want that? Pictures of the kids, what about online predators? Geez, why did I start this thing anyway?

Okay moving on. What should it look like? Too much color, people will go nuts trying to focus. Black and white, too boring. Too many pictures and dial-up users, like my mom, would strangle me. No pictures, who likes those blogs?

One thing for sure I know, if you don't post often, people delete you right out of their favorites. So at least twice a week, more is better. (I promise to try to not make too many grammatical errors. Although I love fragments. And parenthesis.) In summary, if your reading and if you have suggestions, suggest away!

Mere

Hi!

Test post for new blog.