Home is the most important place in the world.

thanks IKEA for reminding me.

Things have been different around here since my MIL came to stay with us at the start of February.  I'm definitely appreciating the help, but I'm not in any sort of pattern or routine anymore and this makes me a bit insecure and uncomfortable.  I just don't seem to be in control, and I'm not getting as much done as I used to.  Oh well, we all have trade offs, no?
I was thinking about it a bit more today as I started packing for our trip to Greece and I realized that when I'm home alone with George, I have a lot of things going on in my mind, but they're all figured out and in some sort of order.  When he's down for a nap (like now), I can run back and forth and mentally check things off my list, or sit down and physically check things off my paper to-do list (do you keep one?  I have a big notebook and whenever most of the things are crossed off, i start a new list.).  When I'm on my way here I'll drop that off, if I'm going upstairs, I'll take that with me.  If I go to check my email, I'll bring these cans to the recycle bin in the office.   If I'm paying bills I might as well sort some filing then too.  But this system of home organization often means that there's piles of stuff in places until my daily movements give me the chance to shuttle them to where they belong.  It works for me, but having someone else in the house has disrupted my balance a little.  I do more chatting and less shuttling.  The result- I bet she thinks my house is a mess!  Anyway..

So, I had intended to write this post last week and I have another post floating around in my head that I hope I can get written down before we board the plane on Thursday.  If not, maybe when I get back.  I went to a quilt show over the weekend.. lots to see, do, and think about.  I really want to share..

But George just got up and has come to find me, so I'll end now with a final house and thank Jen for turning me into a house-block addict.  I made this one for her month of the Rosey Little Bee.

A day in the life

Amy invited us to play along and tell about our daily schedules.. here's what a typical weekday looks like around here:

7:30  George wakes up.  He has probably started to stir about an hour earlier, but I pacify him with a boob and we all get more sleep.  We know he's really awake when he starts poking our faces or trying to dive head first over us to get out of the bed.  Lately I've started putting him down on the floor and trying to get a few more minutes of rest.  He likes to play with the sock bin in my closet, but he also gets into things he shouldn't too, like C's glasses, or this morning when I found him crawling underneath our bed..

7:45  Sneak away while George is playing to brush my teeth.  I can't do anything in the am until my teeth are brushed.

7:50  Pick up the munchkin and head to the kitchen to make coffee for Costas.  He gets tempted to stay home and play with George so I try to give him a push out the door- on good days I make coffee and lunch.  On bad days I make him hold George and make his own coffee. 

8:30  Breakfast for the 3 of us.  Usually cereal for the adults, yogurt with fruit and/or oatmeal for the kid.  C and I use this time to chat and catch up on the day's plans.  I really like that we have breakfast together.

9:00  George and I head out to Stroller Strides or a playdate.  Today we went to a music class at Orly's Treehouse.  After class we have snacks (read: coffee) with other moms & babies. 

12:00  Naptime.  I try to plan to be on my way home from somewhere around noon so he can fall asleep in the car.  Once we get home I make a pot of coffee, check my email, and try to get some school work done.  I used to sew during naptime, but now it's coming down to crunch time in the semester-- I've got an exam on Thursday so i shouldn't even be blogging now..  I have quilt projects all lined up for winter break though.

1:30  Lunch for George, when he's done we play for a while.  If I was lucky, I threw in laundry before breakfast so there'll be a load to fold together in the afternoon.  He's getting really good at laundry.  While he plays I can usually sneak off and check my email.  I may get 10 minutes before he's banging on the office door.  We catch up with family and friends with phonecalls in the afternoon, and in general just hang out around the house.  Twice a week though the babysitter comes for 2 hours so I can get some more focused studying done.  Thank god for that!

4:30  Maybe a second, short nap, if he's worn out from playing. 

5:00  Start dinner.  Depending on the meal, I usually start chopping and measuring while he's naping so I can saute and throw stuff together once he gets up.  We eat all of our meals at home (Costas takes left overs or a sandwich 5 days a week for lunch) and I'm getting much better at meal planning, shopping for what we need (less frivolous purchases), and using what we have.  This is a huge step for me as a housewife.

6:30  George gets dinner and I'll probably get a snack.  Then more playing (and some mindless tv) til Costas gets home.  Twice a week he gets a bath, but no more than that due to pretty bad excema.

8:00  Costas gets home.  He plays with George for a while and then maybe we'll have dinner as a family, but if George didn't get the second nap, I'll let Costas eat first while I put George to bed. 

8~9:00  Bedtime for the monster.  Definitely flexible, depending on when he got up last and when C gets home from work.  I hate to put George to bed without seeing Daddy, but sometimes Costas has to work late.. 

9:30  Unwind in front of the TV with C.  Sometimes I try to study, sometimes I go hide out in the sewing room, sometimes I do both.  Lately I can't handle more than 1 hour before changing activities so if I have more than 2 hours to myself I tend to bounce back and forth between sewing and studying.  Of course I can also blow 2+ mindless hours playing on line, but then I go to bed feeling more tense (neck soreness) and very unproductive. 

12:00 Bedtime.  Sometime around midnight George will wake up and I'll go get him and bring him to bed with me.  I let him nurse as much as he wants through the night and we all sleep better. 

Our days are long and it's often exhausting keeping a 13 month old stimulated, happy and safe all day.  But he's a happy kid and these days I'm usually a happy mom.  There are ups and downs of course, but I'm thankful for the recent upswing, especially during crunch time at school..  This week has been unbalanced in terms of school work to sewing, but that's ok.  Overall, I'm really glad that I found a good balance this semester-- taking time to sew keeps me more focused on schoolwork when it's study time. 

How do you get it all done?

An argument about priorities caused me to be very productive tonight. After putting George to bed (at 10 pm) I mopped the floor, took a shower and ironed 5 shirts. Afterwords I took the iron upstairs and sewed for an hour.
I had not had an especially easy or relaxing day-- We did storytime at the library and snacks at the mall and while George alternately napped and played with the babysitter I spent 4 hours researching and putting together a presentation for class on Thursday. I'll admit I did waste an hour zoned out in front of stupid TV (Cake Boss) but I felt I had gotten a lot done today-- before the argument.
So I must ask all of you more experienced wives and mothers: How do you make yourself do it all? Yes, it's not a question of finding the time or the energy, I think the reason I don't get it all done is that I can't force myself to do it. What do you think? All comments welcome, thanks.

new

Yay!

The Chaos that is my Sewing Room

After a week of unpacking I have made progress, tremendous progress, in the sewing room. Heck, I can see the floor in most places!
I emptied and broke down 5 or 6 moving boxes, moved the table and chairs in, and sorted, sorted, sorted. It's been fun, and after reading Kathie's post this morning, my motivation is up to keep at it for another week~

These pictures were taken last weekend, after I did most of the heavy lifting. Figure I'd document the process and be able to enjoy my hard work, looking back on it from my clean, pristine, organized & functional sewing room. Well, I'm not there yet... but hopefully by spring?

The room has closets along one wall, which will be great for storing fabric out of the light. Sadly, my old fabric shelf didn't fit up the staircase in the new house, so this is my temporary set up..
Almost completely unsorted (I tried to keep non-cottons separate from the quilting stash), a lot of it is still in cardboard boxes because I ran out of room on my little metal shelf here.


There are built-in shelves at the ends of the closet, nice and sturdy to hold heavy books, or tons of Japanese quilting magazines... (sorry for the poor pic quality, photo-shoot time is usually rushed or interupted by my little helper).

George was a good sport through it all. Thank goodness for this rocking chair. As long as I keep singing, dancing, or jumping around to keep him entertained, I can spend as much time as I like in here.

This corner will eventually be my design wall, but for the time being it's holding UFOs, thread, batting, and other notions I may "need" as the unpacking process slowly progresses.

The room is functional now.. I was able to sew Poppy's pouch yesterday and it's getting easier to find things when I need them. The actual sewing machine is still set up in the guest room across the hall and I think it will stay there until things are more organized and less cluttered. Right now I need all the table space for sorting. I was looking on craigslist this week for used furniture-- cabinets or shelves, because there's no way I can have the room the way I want it with things in boxes or piles everywhere. I'm thinking about disassembling the old shelf, bringing it upstairs piece by piece and reassembling it. It's a bit selfish of me though, because it has found a very useful home in George's room and is now full of baby stuff. Oh well, I'm happy that any progress is made in here, no matter how slow, and I'm sure I'll find a great shelf or cabinet once the springtime garage sale season starts.

(Do you think I should make curtains a priority? Seeing the pics on the blog makes me realize I need to get some control over that sunlight...)

what we've been up to

Just a little update.
Lately, George and I have been trying to get into a weekly routine. We go to Stroller Strides, go grocery shopping, and do a lot of laundry.

Landscaping

(there's nothing like capturing a photo of a man in your tree from the second story window..)

Did I mention that we were naive home buyers? When we were house hunting, we'd look at a house and say "Oh, we like this, " or "No, I just don't like that." So when we found this one that I thought was just so "perfect," and it came time to make an offer and make demands in the contract, we were a little relieved to have finally found a house and didn't stop and think about stuff like "What should the seller FIX before we buy the house?"

We knew we wanted the pool removed, but until it was, we had no idea that the backyard looked like a small overgrown jungle. Actually, there are (were) a lot of small trees on the property that were hopelessly overgrown and causing all sorts of problems. My romantic house-hunting notions of "Oh, it has fruit trees" didn't register as, "Oh-my-god, these 8 trees are planted within 8-12" of the foundation and must be ripped out ASAP."
I guess we live and learn. So we hired landscapers to rip apart our property, leaving some well-placed trees (a tall pine and two pear trees in the backyard) and take away everything else. So far this has meant two truckloads of shrubbery/branches/etc. including two large trees from either side of the driveway. After those two trees were down, the property (and the house itself) looked HUGE. It was awesome!

The landscapers are here again today and still have tons of work to do (three sides of the garage were "junglized"). Before and after photos may not be possible, I'll see what I have saved from "before" and then search the house for the camera connection cord to upload some "after." Bear with me. xoxo.

***Edit*** Before & After photos:

Two big trees near the driveway (and frustrated looking husband):

GONE:

(sad looking stump-- will be dug out this afternoon):

Overgrown small trees along the driveway:

GONE:

Wilderness along the side of the house:

And trees growing INTO my kitchen window:

GONE:

WHAT IS THIS?:

Answer: The Garage!!:

Backyard/Jungle:

And now, Ahhhhhhh~~~~

Surprise finds

I spent most of the afternoon unpacking the kitchen boxes and realized several things:

1. this house has about half the cabinet space as our last place.

2. the cabinets go to the ceiling, meaning I need a step ladder to reach half of the shelves.

3. I love my dishes <3

4. I have a pretty sizeable collection of cute Japanese dishes..

I was planning to put all the cute ones on display in a tall glass cabinet so I could actually use them, but that cabinet is filling up quickly and I keep finding more...

(sorry for the glare, I haven't had time to find good spots to take pics in this house yet)

Some of these I haven't seen in years, always packed out of the way so I could access the "daily" dishes. Well not anymore. I love these dishes! some of them I've had since 1996 and I've been carrying them around with me with each move. Once I find somewhere to put them all, I want to actually use them. And once they're better displayed (like, not on the carpet), I want to photograph and talk about them too.

Ahhh, moving. you'll never know what you'll find.

Settling in

I've been in NY since Friday night but this move is proving to be more overwhelming than I had anticipated...

I love the house, Costas, not so much. (wait, I mean that he doesn't like the house, not that I don't like him). Everyday I run around and unpack some boxes, but today marks 34w and my energy is really really low. this doesn't help when my to-do list is all the sudden really really long. At least there's internet..

Will post details and maybe even photos soon. Bear with me.

Housewife in training, Part 2= Ironing

I have decided that Wednesday will be Ironing day. Somehow by relegating this most-undesirable task to one day a week makes it seem a little more manageable. See, Costas is a big man. His shirts are often XL and most are Polo Ralph Lauren button downs. He looks great in them; maybe I'll appreciate that more now that I'm the one ironing.
I did 5 today. I couldn't stand to do anymore. Maybe Friday will become Ironing Day too.
Do you iron? I mean, I assume most people reading my blog are crafters of one sort or another, but aside from fabric projects, do you do the ironing for the family? Do you like it? And how much do you iron? Everything from bedsheets to underwear? I feel most reassured when I get feedback from real people. Thanks.
In other news, the weather is absolutely fabulous today so I took advantage of it by stitching a little outside with a glass of lemonade. Ended up with a little sunburn, but that's ok.
I also thumbed through "What to Expect when you're Expecting," the food parts mostly. Their guidelines seem impossible to live up to. My nausea is mostly gone, but I still don't have much of an appetite. I'm doing really good drinking milk & water, but when it comes to food I'm ready to throw my hands in the air. It's 2:30 p.m. and I still need to consume 7-8 whole grains, 3 protein servings, and all but one of my fruits & veggie servings. Costas wants pasta for dinner because he's fasting, but I think I'll need a side of chicken, shrimp, molasses, and half a grapefruit in order to be able to sleep without worrying. Once again, advice greatly appreciated~

getting back into the stitch of things

Since I started grad school and then got pregnant, I have lost all interest (and free time) for sewing. It's spring break now and I desperately wanted to get back into the creative groove, so before Mrs. K left, I actually broke my "no new fabric in 2008" pledge and bought a bag of scraps from Ann's Fabric & Sewing Machine center in Canton. They have a "Treasure Chest" and you can fill up a large zip lock bag with scraps for about $10. I thought new scraps would inspire me to sew some more diamonds on the Travel Quilt #2.

But then of course I was busy. The last two days of the Kubota's trip we ran all over Boston, and then on Saturday morning C & I headed to New York to go house hunting. I had washed some new scraps, but didn't have time to iron or cut out diamonds. I did manage to stitch a few stars in the car though, which was nice, and now that I've got some time this afternoon I wanted to sew some more. Thanks for the comments on my post about morning routines. This week I'll do a little trial and error and see what works. I really like the "Monday is wash day, Tuesday is ironing" sort of old fashion routine, but at the moment my weeks don't have much of a routine either.

This morning worked out ok though:

+Shower

+make coffee

+throw in laundry

+make breakfast

+unload dishwasher while breakfast was cooking

+eat & discuss grocery list

+clear dishes, wash pans/coffee pot

+change bed linens

+change wash loads

+blow dry hair

then C and I went to buy a Lottery ticket (our first ever) and pick up my car at the shop. He went to work and I stopped for a few groceries. I'm trying really hard not to turn on the TV.

I could do more chores but I think I want to sew now..

Housewife in training, Part 1= Routine

So, now that I have the house to myself again.. it occurs to me that I am going to become a housewife. I used to want to be a housewife desperately. In Hokkaido I meticulously observed every single thing Mrs. K did, knowing that my time would come some day. But then it's here now, and as I noticed this week, I'm not good at it.

During their stay, every morning Mrs. K would walk Costas to the door as he left for work while I lazily slept off some pregnancy fatigue or other exhaustion. He thought it was really sweet of her. So I tried it today, and it is really sweet. And then he left, so I started to clean the house.

my first host mom in Kyoto used to vacuum the living room every morning after Otoosan left for work. Most Japanese women I know do laundry first thing in the morning, so I did that today too. I even hung it outside because it's really nice out today. yes, but, it feels strange. maybe it's the pregnancy.

And what about making a lunchbox? Oh, so many things to remember to do, so many things to get organized...

what should I do next?

for those of you who are housewives, what are your morning routines?