Trying for Stable

Am home and it feels good. A bit overwhelming but good. I spent yesterday soaking in the company of a few friends after stocking up on local raw milk and good fresh eggs from a farmer friend. Family is good but they fill a different tank than my mommy-friend community. It was nice to be back. Had a lot of good discussion, shared some laughs and let our children run wild together in one big squirming heap in the wading pool in front of us.

After the visiting I promptly went home and had a great big panic about the state of the practical things in my home. I washed the dishes before leaving and did all the laundry but there are still 4,000 things that suddenly need doing. How does that happen?!? The tomatoes need tying up, the cucumbers are in desperate need of harvesting, the front of our house looks abandoned for want of string-trimming, there are clothes to sort and put away after all that laundry, suitcases to unpack, a fridge that needs cleaning etc. etc. etc. I am not sure if I feel more inspired and ultra-motivated or overwhelmed and snowed under. Tough to decide sometimes.

I am trying to take today and get my feet under me, make some parts of my home pretty again and begin an organization/sanity restoring plan. There is never time enough to get every little thing in my life in order but I am determined to do the very best I at making productive stabs in the windows of time I get. Life is so punctuated by nursing breaks and potty visits and diaper changes and naps these days that I find it very hard to work on anything very cohesively. I live a pixelated existence with any number of fragmented, mosaic-style goals on my current plate.

Am trying to be in the moment, live easily, speak love and also work ambitiously towards creating the kind of life I mean to live. "Let the standards slip only when you must!" I tell myself, "But never cheapen the standards to make them weak or anemic just because life is full of challenge." Its a tall order but its the path I'm on right now.  I lit a candle, I made a nice To Do List, and I'm hacking away over here. If you feel like bringing an understanding spirit, a load of inspiration and a giant mint-iced tea...feel free to drop by!

Life Audit

Time for a bit of big picture, self-inventory. Its always good to know where we are exactly. Alison at BrocanteHome, one of my favorite blogs, calls this a Life Audit: part list, part reflective essayettes. Lets have a go, shall we?

One, Two, Three....GO!

Today I am: Hiding from the heat, holing up in the air conditioned public library and any other handy cool location trying to keep the heat rash down on the baby and minimize the whines from the big kids and the mommy.

Feeling:  Hot. Also Pretty happy! I'm losing weight, feeling much more emotionally stable and ready for the next phase!

Reading: Good Calories Bad Calories (brilliant and important book, completely rocking my world apart!!!!) and for fiction fun, Chalice.

Eating:Steak on the grill, local, raw milk, and a few baby red potatoes from our garden doused with fresh parsley and swimming in butter.

Planning: The last details of the playroom's reorganization! An encouraging reveal coming...

Dreaming:Of our trip to Hawaii to visit Miq and Penny, coming up this fall. Reading guidebooks happily and plotting all the possibilities. I am imagining fresh fish, amazing coffee and pineapples to kill for not to mention swimming with sea turtles and sunsets over white beaches. Bring it on!

Wishing:For central air. A spends all day in a giant air conditioned icebox of an office and comes home loosening his collar and soaking up the heat and I am sweaty and grouchy and dehydrated and incredibly unwilling to hear in my presence his bitter words about the modern wonder that is zoned cooling. Boo! So much for my desire to live an authentic, salt of the earth, old fashioned existence.

Doing:A lot of plant watering. This killer heat has been making things grow like crazy but also makes keeping up on the fluid end a big, big job. Tomatoes require a lot of drinks, y'all!

Working: On getting back into the swing of normal life. Potty training, my daily chore list, teaching reading, using my menu planner...etc.

Celebrating: The loss of Ru's first tooth! Hooray for this super cute milestone. So heartwarming to see how incredibly excited he was about that first real wiggle after so much waiting and waiting and waiting for it to finally happen to him.

Grateful For: Babygates. I never really thought I'd be saying that but there it is. Nib has morphed into the kid who never listens, doesn't  come when he's called and is always speedily getting into something...albeit with a glowing smile on. I sure loves me a little control sometimes.

Tomorrow I will be: Having a home day, catching up on laundry and sweeping the second floor clean...and please, God, please...enjoying some cooler weather? 

This Month I need/want to...

• Finish painting the kid bath.

• Find the book we lost from the library.

• Get the kid clothes sorted out and stored properly.

• Eat more corn on the cob.

• Attend the local music festival!

• Store or give away the potato crop we harvested.

• Take Ru out alone for an outing.

• Start my yoga class again! (yay for six weeks postpartum!)

  There you have it. My life at the moment in a little nutshell. Wanna show me yours?