It's Loverly

Lately, a big part of my life involves learning and preparing.

Things I’ve been learning about lately:
(most learning has been alongside my partner in crime – having a learning buddy helps)

–Hypnobirthing. We’ve been taking a great class in this really logical approach to birth that focuses on relaxation and doing away with fear. I won’t go into the details here, but just ask me if you want to know more. It’s fantastic.

–Bread baking. We’ve been working our way through the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. So far we’ve made loaves of bread (wheat, basic white, and peasant), pizza crust, and rolls. To be honest, the last several batches haven’t been made by me, but the learning process has been a joint effort – and the rewards have been very tasty.

–Caring for an infant. I feel like I know nothing. The book Heading Home with Your Newborn has helped me to feel more prepared and more aware without too much of the panic-inducing stuff.

–Baby-led weaning- Patrick first heard about this in a story on NPR. Since then, one of the blogs I read (Cooking with My Kid) starting discussing it. Fascinating, and something we’re seriously considering for the little one when he/she is ready.

-Cloth diapering – A dear friend of ours has cloth diapered her 8-month old most of his life and she did a ton of research leading up to it. She’s been amazing at teaching us all about it, sharing resources, and helping us figure out what can be a very confusing world. I’m very excited about our decision to cloth diaper, and glad to have a great resource!

-Re-painting furniture- This was a divide-and-conquer effort at refreshing the dressers we got off Craigslist for the babe’s room, but we both did our reading and YouTube-tutorial-watching beforehand. I sanded – by hand and then with the power sheet sander, which is awesome. Patrick primed and painted. I think we did pretty good.

And this is only the beginning!

This is where we’re headed with the baby’s room. So far the walls are painted. We have the chair, which might be painted. We have the dresser (below), which will be painted a yellow similar to the dresser above. We may or may not have a crib. Window shades will be ordered this week. We’ve purchased and framed the submarine print (that giraffe!) We need to find a rug- looking for something not super expensive, ideally natural wool or cotton. Possibly gray, maybe brown or tan. Suggestions?

So, we have some projects to tackle. The goal is to have the room just-about-done by mid-March so that we can focus on the final preparations and enjoying some down time before the new member of our family arrives.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress!

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Chair- Ikea Poang – ours currently has a black frame, contemplating painting it white
Crib skirt- Dwell Studio for Target- Hippo
Giraffe and Submarine prints – Threadless Artist Shoppe
Yellow dresser- Erin of Domestic Adventure (love their nursery!)
Wall color- Behr Tidepool
Dresser and nightstand (which will be a side table next to the chair) via Craigslist.

In the year leading up to our wedding, all of the emails and ads that came my way from the wedding industry seemed to be about how if I didn’t spend money on this or this, my wedding wouldn’t be the best day of my life. Worry! Or about how perfect I had to look. Stress! Or how much it should look like a magazine wedding. Or how far behind I was on the 600-item To Do list a website had created for me. Stress more!

In the months leading up to the birth of our baby, the emails and ads have either been about the millions of dangers to me and my baby lurking around every corner or about how awful everything is/will be. Topics of recent emails from baby industry websites include:

• 21 Pregnancy Symptoms You Shouldn’t Ignore
• Puffy Eyes
• Swelling and Edema
• Too Much Exercise
• Your Aching Back
• Not Gaining Enough Weight
• Exercises to Avoid
• Gaining Too Much
• Getting Enough Exercise
• Foods to Avoid
• Exercise Don’ts

The message is clear: Experiencing a Big Life Moment? BE AFRAID OF EVERYTHING – what you’re doing, what you’re not doing, what will happen if you spend too much, what will happen if you don’t spend enough, EVERYTHING. If you’re not AFRAID, then at least be STRESSED.

My last post was 7 months ago. Inspired by a number of recent blog revivals I’ve noticed, I’m thinking about trying again.

There is snow snow snow outside and I’m 6 months pregnant with a long To Do list in front of me.

I’m going to revive this blog with the purpose of sharing projects (cooking/baking/house/etc), observations about life in Albany, and who knows- maybe a bit about impending motherhood, if I feel brave.

Over the past 6 months I’ve traveled to Michigan to visit my best friend and her new baby (twice), spent time in D.C. for work and fun, had many houseguests, completed a new patio (lots of help there), learned about gardening through planting my first vegetable and flower gardens, ran a few 5ks (including one when I was 10 weeks pregnant, ouch), spent time in Northampton, Lake George, Woodstock, and various other locales, ran a conference in Boston for 200+ businesswomen, took another yoga class, and, well, learned a lot about this whole having a baby thing.

So, let’s try this again, shall we?

The 20-something woman who writes this blog put out a call to women older than herself to write letters to their 20-something selves.

The results have been great (I’m always inspired by Maggie Mason– all of the letters are inspiring and comforting in their own ways.)

Things on my mind lately:

• Household budgeting and sticking to it. We updated our budget and our efforts to be more aware of our finances. Being married and owning a house has changed the way we approach money- we’ve reassessed our savings goals, spending priorities, planning ahead, and looking at household finances as a whole rather than just who pays which bills.
• Returning to my running routine and challenging myself to run longer races.
• Upcoming house projects: Painting the blue room, cleaning up the yard, planning a new patio and gardens.
• Springtime in Albany. I forgot how lovely it is, but these first few warm days have me remembering tulips and parks and sunny neighborhoods and sidewalk lunches.

Originally uploaded by nicolemperle

I’ll get back to this blog one of these days, I really will.

In the meantime, happy Valentine’s Day! It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. After we moved into the house my parents’ brought over (re: giddly dumped) some boxes of my old things, including some journals from elementary school. In first grade I wrote an entry about how Valentine’s Day was my favorite holiday “because it’s close to my birthday.” My reasons for liking it are a slightly less self-centered these days- I like the cheeriness in the bleak winter, the chocolates (dark, please) and cupcakes, making valentines for my friends, the sweet sentiments, and the reminder to stop and appreciate the sweet things.
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“Who knows how to make love stay?

Tell love you are going to the Junior’s Deli on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to pick up a cheesecake, and if love stays, it can have half. It will stay.

Tell love you want a memento of it and obtain a lock of its hair. Burn the hair in a dime-store incense burner with yin/yang symbols on three sides. Face southwest. Talk fast over the burning hair in a convincingly exotic language. Remove the ashes of the burnt hair and use them to paint a mustache on your face. Find love. Tell it you are someone new. It will stay.

Wake love up in the middle of the night. Tell it the world is on fire. Dash to the bedroom window and pee out of it. Casually return to bed and assure love that everything is going to be all right. Fall asleep. Love will be there in the morning.” – Tom Robbins

As of tomorrow, we’ll have lived in this home of our own for one full month. It’s been a whirlwind of unpacking, visitors, a new job, setting up, cleaning, and getting reacquainted with this town.

We’re at a point where we can cook meals in our kitchen and relax in our living room. Other rooms are still a work in progress: the office(s), the extra room, our bedroom, the basement. There are still new lights to put up and photos to hang- and plenty of projects big and small. We’ve managed to devote parts of each weekend to making a dent in those tasks though, and slowly this is becoming home. (I’m grateful that any further painting as well as outdoor projects have to wait until the spring- at least the pressure is off there!)

Being homeowners is great and stressful, fun and expensive. A new journey- one requiring patience, an emergency fund, compromise, creativity, and a lot of can-do attitude. We’re feeling our way along, and picking up new skills as we go (home improvement area as well relationship!).

We’re getting to know our neighborhood, too. We’ve already spent time at The Fountain, Ultraviolet Cafe, the Spectrum, and Spinners, as well as with takeout from Ichiban and Sake Cafe. We’ve made a list of places to try, and places to visit.

Transition is the theme for now- missing old places, discovering places both new and familiar, making a home of our own, finding and keeping connections. Looking forward to Christmas morning in our home, Christmas eve and day with family, and New Years with good friends. Salut!

It’s a busy, busy week- new job, working on the house, packing, moving, you get the picture.

But I wanted to share one thing, as belated as it may be (and I hope it’s not too late):

The beloved Adirondack Girl Scout camp that I attended for many summers – and that has been around for 70 years- is at risk of being closed.

Camp Little Notch has been among the very special places in my life– and the lives of so many other women and girls.

For more information on the history of the camp, the issues at hand, the enormous movement that has been working to keep this amazing piece of land in the hands of the Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York, and to add your support to keeping Little Notch open, visit
http://www.friendsofcln.org/

And media folks, if you’re listening: please consider covering this story. This is a story of love and friendship, nature and inspiration, of helping girls grow strong, and the power of place. And, sadly, it’s the story of the economy and the choices that have to be made. It’s a story worth telling.