[Not-Advice] So you found out that you're pregnant...

Since I'm using this blog to stash my own "advice" e-mails for friends, they don't really start before the 12th week of pregnancy, but I figured I should create one for that first trimester and stick it here.  You know, just in case. 

First and Foremost, just to get this out of the way:
This blog is really just about what worked for me - it's a collection of things I heard (from my doctor, my family, well-meaning co-workers, etc.), so you should always do what works for you - especially what is safe and reasonable for you.  This is not meant to be a strict guideline.  I am not a doctor.  What worked for me may not work (or be safe) for you.  Don't be stupid, use common sense, and think. :-)  Hopefully my insights on my pregnancy and parenting life will help you think through your own.  Much love and all that jazz.

And now... the first trimester:
So first off, the whole way we count our weeks of pregnancy drives me up a wall.  That first trimester you're thinking "I'm X weeks pregnant, but it's only Y weeks from conception" any time you look things up.  It just gives me a headache.  And if you were charting when you got pregnant, then you have the added bonus of knowing exactly when you ovulated, and that just makes everything more interesting - especially if your due date based on that date doesn't match up with all the doctor charts, etc.  Try not to let it drive you too crazy.

And don't stress about your lifestyle before you found out you were pregnant - very little will harm the itty bitty egg during that phase, so unless your doctor TOLD you to be worried, don't be worried.

My suggestion is to pick up a couple of pregnancy books that jive with your personality - the "What to Expect" line is NOT the only option out there.  I REALLY liked the "Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy".  But really, I didn't read ANY pregnancy book cover-to-cover.  I looked up things that bugged me or that I had questions about.  Afterwards, I thought that it might have been nice to be better informed in the beginning, so next time I probably will try to read one cover to cover.  There are some things that it's really nice to know from the beginning.

That first trimester is hard - you're exhausted.  You might be nauseous - or if you're like me, you aren't throwing up but the thought of any raw vegetable makes you green and you feel just kind of unsettled.  Try NOT to go overboard on the carbs though - set some good habits now and they'll be easier to keep later, when that entire chocolate cake looks REALLY GOOD (and maybe then you'll be able to limit yourself to just a slice).  And even though you're tired, try to keep your activity level up just a little - so that it's not so hard to pick it BACK up when you get the energy back.  Walks are really nice, and have the added benefit of getting you out of the house, maybe even with your partner, giving you a chance to talk about how you're feeling (if they don't know how you're feeling, they can't help you).

Also, if you want to do progressive belly shots, now is the time to start.  We didn't - I'm not too sad about that, but I kind of wish I had.

My biggest piece of advice is actually to try not to get bogged down in all the advice - because people will bog you down with it.  And sometimes it will be offensive to you (for instance I had a friend (who happens to be someone that I like quite a lot) go off on me the night we told her we were expecting about making sure that I still had lots of sex with my husband, because, you know, he has NEEDS.  I am still pretty proud of myself for not telling her off, but really, that sort of thing is no one's business but yours (in conjunction with your partner and doctor/midwife/etc.)).  So when all the well-meaning advice comes your way, try to pick and choose what works for you and let go of what doesn't.  And try not to fight with your friends about it when it doesn't work for you - just let it go and change the subject.

An Update, a Planned Return?

It has been well over a year since I posted here.  What can I say - life happens.  Generally, right after I posted last, M & I found out that we were expecting a baby in the early part of 2012, so things progressively got crazier and crazier.

They're not less crazy now, but I am seriously considering a return to this blog.  Mostly because now that I've been through pregnancy and a few months of parenting, some have asked me for advice, and I feel like I want to put that advice down someplace so that I don't have to re-type it over and over again, and instead, I can just come link to it, and then update it as necessary.  I think the blog might just be a good place for that.

And well, maybe it will inspire me to write more - other things for public consumption.

We had Quinton on January 29th, 2012.  He's seven and a half months old now, and he's extremely cute, if I may say so, myself.  We're pretty lucky.  Riley is finally bonding with him, too, and it warms my heart to see (even if some of her ideas of "play" make me nervous sometimes...). 

I'm back at work, and while I miss being home with Q all day, I do love my job.  I wish I could find some way to work part time and be a SAHM part time, but Mike is now in school full-time, so that goal is at least a few years off while I'm the primary bread-winner in the house.

Spring has Sprung

I am perpetually awful at keeping this blog up when I am not in the throes of a large project.  Since the big chair project, there have been a number of small ones - updating some dog beds for our new pup, Pepper, making some Christmas presents for family and friends, some jewelry projects.  Nothing large scale.

Until Sunday.  Because, you know, spring has sprung.  At the end of last summer, things got a little crazy for us, and we managed to miss the fact that our sprinklers were not doing the job they needed to do on our lawn.  The result is that while we have spotty grass, we have a lot of dead spots, too.  It looks like we lost about seventy percent of our lawn, but very few were large patches, it was mostly interspersed.

So, we talked money and options and we picked one that will hopefully work for us.  We had the lawn prepped by a lawn service - power raked and scratched up, aerated, edged, and fertilized, and then we laid down Revive, new grass seed (a nice drought-tolerant blend from the good people at local garden source), and then we laid down 720 pounds of top-soil on top of it and watered the heck out of it.  I'll try to take some pictures this weekend, to give you all a good "before" look.  Now we baby the heck out of those seeds for a couple of months, and give the lawn a good chance to take root and get happy before the summer heat starts up.  We have new timers and new sprinklers, and high hopes that it will go well.

As a result of the re-seeding, we have blocked our puppy off of the yard - she has access to her doggie area at the back of the yard, but no longer has access to the yard to run and play.  Which means we go for more walks and outings, so hey, it isn't all bad.  We'll give her access back after the lawn is well established, hopefully by June.

The next step is to do some spring sprucing up of the mulch, and to turn all my new lovely compost into my vegetable beds.  I'll plant those out on Mother's Day, which the generally "safe" date here to plant outside.  My current plans are:

In the lower bed, cucumbers on one side, pole beans on the other, herbs and zucchini in the middle.
In the upper bed, two cherry tomato plants.
In the pots around the rear beds, mint, basil, and chives.
In the large pots down the side of the house, we'll plant patio tomato plants and some greens.

In order to prep the pots on the side of the house, we'll need to drill some holes in the ceramic pots - we have tried to make do with rocks in the bottom to give them drainage, but that just isn't working.

I'm looking forward to my garden this year!  And to veggies.  Mmm. Veggies.

Chair Project 2 - Complete!

This last week, and then especially this weekend, I spent finishing my Chair Project.  Namely, re-covering the pink chair (great bones, hideous color) with super-mod fun fabrics.  I spent Wednesday night with an old slipcover making a pattern for my materials.  Then on Saturday, I went to work.  Cutting fabrics, pinning them on, hand basting them with upholstery thread, removing the pieces, sewing them on my machine, pinning them back on to add the next piece, and so on.  It took all day Saturday and all day Sunday, but I love the result.  Please pardon the very grainy pictures - I took them with my phone.

Before:

And now, after:

We've placed one of our brown throw pillows on it and it makes the brown really pop.  It is a slip cover, for both the new cushion (not horsehair stuffed!), and the chair itself.  The cushion is machine washable and zips off at the back, and then the chair itself is dry clean only, but it zips down a back corner and then to give it a really tight effect, the sides tuck under and lace across the bottom, but, it's entirely removable, which is super convenient.

Love. It.

Now, to make an outside dog bed for Z, and then maybe a foray into clothes for R.

Finished!

All four chairs are done! :-) 

I still need to do the arm chair, but that can wait until I recuperate a bit.  In the meantime, I'm hoping all (or at least most) of my plants survive the torrential winds we've had here lately.

Decor

So a few weeks ago, I went fabric shopping with my mom.  I bought four fabrics, two to be used on an arm chair that she gave me that she was no longer using, and two to be used on our dinette chairs.

M & I have two dinette tables - one trestle, in a white/silver laminate with chrome, and one four legged in a yellow laminate with chrome.  We use the trestle one at our house right now - the yellow one is in storage at the condo.  We have four dinette chairs as well.  Three of them are standard chairs with a white and green vinyl covering, not in the best shape, but not too shabby.  One is an awesome arm chair, in red on the back and white/silver on the chair, also in semi-decent condition.  But it would be better if they all matched, and hey, if the seats had a bit more padding.  So there comes the fabrics.  And a little foam. :-)

Here is the before picture of one of the white/green chairs:

And here is how it looks with the new covers:

We love it.  It is a little more blue-green on the seat than it looks here, but the fabric is an awesome pairing with the tables and our living room.

One chair down, two more chair backs completed, three seats and one more chair back to go. Yay!

Time Flies

It has been over a month since I have written here.  I blame vacation, spring busy-ness, kiddos in school, among other things.  My baby plants have sprouted in the window and I'm hoping that they will limp along just fine until I plant them outside this weekend, along with seeds, and hopefully after Mother's Day, some other plants as well.

In the meantime, I'm on a heavy stint of freezer de-stashing - we must make space by using up last year's goods so that we can pack away this year's goods as well.  I am looking forward to freshly grilling meat and veggies on the BBQ all summer - I think that it's one of my favorite parts of summer.

Riley has asked to give her mom some chives and a pepper plant from our baby plants for Mother's Day.  Hopefully she will enjoy them and maybe they'll even give her an actual pepper or two... ;-)

I also decided that it was time to start re-covering furniture in the house.  I have the material, and now I need some trim, some velcro, and a lot of patience (I have a zipper).  But it will be (or hopefully will be) beautiful when it's done.

Baby Steps

In my third year of attempting-to-grow things, I am taking new and interesting steps towards feeling productive and successful.

Over the weekend, we moved the majority of the second tier of the old ground cherry planter up to the front of the backyard, where we will now use it for vegetables.  We got all the stones moved, and now we just need some pavers to cover the tops, and dirt to fill in.  We also picked up a Jiffy starter greenhouse to start our ground cherries, and I also picked up seeds for bell peppers, serrano peppers, and chives, to try to start those from scratch as well.

I also have seeds for:
carrots
beans
broccolini
greens
basil
cucumbers

And then I also want to grow:
mint
thyme
rosemary
oregano
tomatoes

And of course, some flowers.  We're going to plant some simple wildflowers in the old ground cherry planter in the back, and then do some petunias, etc., along the side of the house.

All in all, I feel like we're making progress on the garden.  I really want to do a drip system this year, to make watering the vegetables, at least, a lot easier, but I know that's not necessarily possible.  We'll hope, though.

I am not a gardener.

I am not a gardener.  I say this because my mom looked at me the other day while I talked her ear off about my little 8x8 space that I call my garden and said "when you were little you hated gardening and you swore you would never grow up and become a gardener."

And then I look out into my mom's back yard, front yard, and container gardens, and back at her, and I say "I am not a gardener."

Because my mom is a gardener.  Me?  I just like to try to grow some things. 
And sometimes it works.  And sometimes it doesn't.  But I like it.  And mostly, I like growing FOOD.  I really believe in going local, organic, not eating things I can't recognize the ingredients list on, and other things like that.  But I'm not a fanatic about it (I still have a down home constant craving for Kleck's spicy mac n cheese, which I don't make as well as he does, for some unknown reason, for instance).

I figure, I buy this way when I can afford to do so, and when I can't, well, THAT'S OK.

And along the same lines, I like growing my own food.  I liked that last summer, even though none of my cucumbers ever made it to edible stages and my tomatoes tried to take over my patio, and I ripped out all the dead herbs not realizing they were perennials.  Oops.  Hey, at least I know what a perennial IS.

So, I am not a gardener, but this year, I hope I have some fun and some success, at growing some things.

Pondering on Growth and Change: New things ahead!

So after letting this blog sit empty for a long time, I think I know what I want to use it for.  I'm not the type to dedicate a blog to just one thing, but I don't really want to use it as a journal, either, so instead, I'm going to dedicate it to a number of things, namely:

• Gardening: I always told my mom I'd never be a gardener.  And really, I don't feel that I AM a gardener.  Last summer, though, we planted some veggies and some herbs and I really enjoyed that, and eating the fruits of our labor, so we're going to do some more of that.  Mom has outfitted me with seeds, and while I unfortunately think I killed my perennial herbs last fall (since I didn't realize they were perennials, oops), it means that all we need are some herbs and my tomato plants.
• House & Furniture Renovations: We're pretty much where we want to be with the house until we make the call of "add-on or move" next year, but there is always room for some furniture renovations and some last fixes in the meantime.
• Cooking: I am learning to cook and bake (both healthy and just tasty, but I try to find a balance where the two meet), and sometimes my finds are just a little unusual.  Plus, the Munchkin (aka R) is 9 and while not nearly as picky as she once was, still a little trepidatious about liking new things unless they masquerade as familiar items.  We're getting there, though.

So, starting soon, I plan to post more, likely mostly on these three topics. :-)

Rebuilding.

You might have noticed that all the old posts when *poof*.  Then again, you might not have stopped by here for a while, who knows.

In any case, I felt like the blog had gotten FAR too fragmented and decided to scale back while I decide what direction to go with it.  Stay with me, I'll come back.  If you have any suggestions, you're welcome to leave them, too.