in the garden

Our garden is one of my happy places. We grow a garden every summer and last year we grew a small winter garden as well. We're still finding our way with the winter veggies but we've gotten pretty darn good with our summer plants. My dream is to, one day, have a big garden with a fence and a gate, and rows long enough to walk through :) We'll get there...but for now we're just enjoying the time spent with the earth and the yummy fruits of our labor!

Here's our Summer 2013 lineup:

Husky Cherry Red Tomato
Bush Goliath Tomato
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Burpless Hybrid Cucumber
Rainbow Chard
Poblano Pepper
Jalapeno Pepper
Basil
Thai Basil
Rosemary
Thyme
Chives
Okra
Green Beans (caged, not vine)

basil

Thai basil

thyme, rosemary, chives

chard

poblano

cuke

okra

zucchini

cherry tomato

bush goliath tomato

Alden loves being outside and seems to enjoy watching us work with the plants so maybe we've got a future little gardener :)


I'm so excited to see how these plants do this year! We grow tomatoes, cucumbers, poblano and jalapeno peppers every year but this year we're experimenting with okra, squash and zucchini as well. The chard is leftover from our winter garden and it's still going strong. Who knows how everything will turn out but we've already eaten some of our tomatoes and they're delicious, so I have high hopes for the rest of the crop :)

I hope everyone else has good luck with their summer garden!


much love, L&N

a day in the life.

what our days used to be like:

wake up when we want, get ready, go to work, run errands, lazily walk around the grocery store while we decide what to have for dinner, go home, play with the dogs, water the garden, cook, eat, drink some wine, watch TV, go to bed whenever we want, read our books, etc.

essentially, we did whatever we wanted, whenever we felt like it while still accomplishing the usual adult things like paying bills and doing laundry.

what our days are like now:

6:00 am
alarm goes off. I check to see if the baby's awake or close to awake...sweet, he's still asleep. back to sleep myself. :)

6:30 am
baby's usually awake by now, nursing. Nick's in the shower while Alden eats. baby's done eating, we snuggle and play in bed until Nick gets out of the shower. Nick takes Alden to get a diaper change and outfit and I go pump (since I have so much milk from no overnight feedings I have to pump in the mornings to relieve the achy boobs). Before getting settled on the couch for my morning Medela date, I put frozen milk in some warm water to thaw, let the dogs out (feed them too, if we're having an efficient morning) and get bottles (both for pumping and for Alden) ready to be filled.

7:30 am
hanging out on the couch pumping, reading my 10 minutes of Real Simple (it seriously takes me months to catch up on my subscription since this is the only time I have to flip through them) while Nick finishes getting the baby cleaned up and ready for the day. I actually really enjoy these few minutes- they force me to slow down a little and take a second for myself. Nick takes the baby into the bedroom with him to start getting ready for the day. when i'm done pumping, i put the milk in the fridge, check on the thawing milk (add more warm water if it's still frozen) and get my pump packed up. i check the diaper bag to make sure everything is there for daycare (cloth diapers, wet bag, extra outfit, wipes, etc.) and get Alden's bottles filled and packed up.

8:00 am
Nick is ready so he leaves the baby in the bedroom with me while he gets our breakfast and lunch packed. I get ready for work and sneak in some play time with Alden. Alden goes in his swing for the few minutes before we head out while we get everything packed up, put the dogs away, lock doors, etc.

8:30 am
usually out the door (some mornings earlier, some later) headed to daycare. since we all ride together, this is a nice few minutes for Nick and I to chat and listen to NPR :)

8:45 am
drop Alden off at daycare. chat with his teachers for a couple minutes, hug the boy and head to work.

9:00 am
we park the car in our campus lot and have a relaxed few minutes together as we walk from the parking lot into downtown. after a few blocks, we kiss goodbye and Nick heads onto campus while I head downtown to work. (most mornings I'm actually in the office by 9 but it totally depends on when the baby wakes up, i'm really happy when I get in by 8)

...WORK...

4:30-ish pm
i leave work, walk to the car and head to pick up Nick at his building. we head to daycare to get Alden, talk with his teachers and take our time getting in the car while we "chat" with the baby.

5:00 pm
leaving daycare, headed to run errands or going straight home.

depending on what we've done that afternoon...

5:30-6:30 pm
home. let the dogs out, play in the backyard for a little while (frisbee with Buster, walking around with Alden, watering the garden, checking on the veggies, etc.) and get everything unpacked. at the end of each day we have: dirty diapers from daycare, dirty bottles from daycare, bottles from the milk i pump at work, shields, valves, membranes, etc. from my pump, and empty lunch boxes (mine & Nick's) that all have to be cleaned! I normally try to start some dishes and laundry ASAP when we get home while Nick has the baby.

6:00-7:00 pm
start dinner. Alden usually eats somewhere in this hour so I take him and we play in his room or read books or he hangs out in his Jumperoo with Nick in the kitchen while he makes dinner & Alden nurses whenever he gets hungry.

By 7:00 or so Alden is usually ready to be in his swing (we've found that he benefits from a few minutes in the swing in the evenings to help him "chill" from all of the stimulation of the day) for his "evening nap". the baby typically falls asleep and we eat dinner while he's napping. this is also the only real time during the day that we watch TV anymore (if you know us, you know that we like our TV shows so this is a big change for us...). We can usually watch one or two (if they're short episodes) recorded shows a night, which means that we have a DVR full of stuff that we haven't seen (which, incidentally, has made me very careful to get on facebook when a show we love has recently been on...spoilers galore, people!)

8:00 pm
Alden is awake so one of us grabs him from the swing and the other takes in the dinner dishes and cleans the kitchen a little. we'll all hang out on the couch together or go in Alden's room to play and change his diaper, etc.

8:30-8:45 pm
we get the baby's bath going and do our bathtime routine (lights dimmed, humidifier on, white noise on, warm bath, cuddling in the towel when we're finished)

9:00 pm
Alden is out of the bath and he gets some diaper time before getting dressed for bed so he can cool off and relax. Then, Nick puts him in his sleep sack and he nurses. He usually falls asleep eating and I put him in his crib (lately I'm trying to catch him before he's really asleep so we can start reinforcing his ability to fall asleep on his own).

9:15 pm
Alden is asleep. Video monitor is on and with us in the living room. This is when one of us is usually finishing up dishes and cleaning the kitchen, moving laundry, etc.

9:45 pm
We, finally, are both sitting down at the same time. We either watch some TV, read, play on our phones or just hang out. Most of the time we don't talk a lot, we just chill and relax from the day :)

10:00 pm
Laura's usually headed to bed since the baby still wakes up at night to eat (some nights and only once, but still, it messes with your sleep patterns) and she needs a lot more sleep than Nick does. Nick hangs out on the computer or in the living room until he comes to bed (which is at who knows what time since I'm normally out like a light as soon as my head hits the pillow).

And then the next day we wake up and do it all over again :) Things may be a little crazy right now but our sweet little family is enjoying the ride!

much love, L&N

rough day

I had a rough day on Sunday. Alden did too. Alden's rough day probably had a lot to do with mine, but still...rough.

I've never been a big fan of Sundays. Most of the time I spend the day trying to catch up on all the things I wanted to accomplish the previous week but didn't have time for while living under the cloud of the work week starting up again. Generally, I'm just a little annoyed on Sundays. The past couple of weekends were great, though. I had escaped the Sunday curse and we had had relaxing but productive weekends. That is, until last weekend :/

I had my first experience of being "Mommy-ed Out". I didn't even realize it was happening until I was so far under that I felt overwhelmed. I had a week where I felt a lot like Mama and nothing like Laura. I'm an independent woman that needs some solitary time and some "brain food" every day to keep me sane. If I don't get some time to myself (whether it be a shower, some quiet reading time before bed or time in the garden) every day, I get overstimulated and end up in a bad mood. If I don't have something to stimulate my mind every day (keeping up with current events, reading articles, learning something new), I get restless and irritable and mopey. These are not good mental states to be in, so I try to make sure I do some of the things I enjoy every day. It's better for me and it's better for my family.

Last week was OK but by the time the weekend came around, I was already exhausted. I had been feeling kind of crappy all week (allergies, I think), had been struggling with work-life-mommy balance, and was just ready to have a nice weekend. We started off great: Saturday morning we slept in a little, went to the farmer's market, Trader Joe's and the library, had a nice lunch at home while Alden napped and I got a little cleaning done. Since we had had such a great Saturday, we decided to try and replicate the "rhythm" of Saturday on Sunday- we did our weekly grocery shopping and some errands in the morning, were home for lunch and tried to get Alden to sleep. He didn't want to nap, his teeth were bothering him and all he wanted was to be cuddled or to be nursing (note below).

*Note: since I'm breastfeeding and since I'm reluctant (to say the least) about giving bottles at home, I am the primary food-giver for Alden. This is a choice that I made and I wouldn't have it any other way...but it makes things difficult sometimes and I'm still learning how to keep everything running smoothly all the time when I have such a huge inflexible time commitment to the baby.

It also didn't help that I felt like the house was a mess (which drives me crazy), I hadn't had a chance to sit and relax by myself at all (something I really need to be able to do to keep my sanity), and all of the things Nick wanted to get done were outside chores. Because most of the weekend chores that Nick takes on are related to outside (mowing the lawn, trimming bushes, last weekend he took apart, cleaned, and put back together an air conditioner unit for our garage, etc.), it means that by default, I'm inside with the baby. But, my chores don't disappear so I end up trying to get my stuff done (laundry, dishes, organizing, general tidying, etc.) while also watching Alden. Normally, it works out fine. Alden will take a nap giving me enough time to get some laundry started, run the dishwasher, get bottles cleaned and tidy up in the living areas and Nick can be out in the yard while we're getting everything done inside. On days like Sunday when Alden is fussy, not willing to nap, clingy and moody, it makes for a pretty miserable afternoon.

*I would also like to interject here that: 1) the "chores" I'm talking about are not, in any way, assigned to either of us. They are just the tasks that each of us naturally gravitates towards and so they are divvied up in the way that it works best for our family. we are not, even though it may sound like it, a "man chore" and "woman chore" type of household and, 2) I am not trying to whine, vent or complain about my husband. We've already talked about all of this and I'm writing this post more as a reminder to myself of how to better balance the challenges of being a Mommy in the future. (My husband rocks. He cooks, cleans, changes diapers and does anything else I need him to do. He is amazing, for the record.)

All in all, I spent most of the day feeling trapped doing activities that were stressful with a baby that was hurting and miserable. I found myself quietly telling myself, "Remember, in a few hours, everything will be fine and Alden will look at me with a smile on his face and squeal with delight during one of our games and I won't care that this is miserable right now." Even so, there are times when you know, with your brain, that everything is OK but you still feel, with your heart, that things are horrible and they will never get better. This is the place I was at.

Enter my hero of a husband who said, "I'm not going to mow today. The grass isn't that long and I can do it one afternoon this week." That's all it took for me to calm down and feel like life was manageable again. Just that one thing. Apparently, knowing that he was going to be inside to help me out and give me some time to get some stuff done without a baby in my arms was the only thing I needed. Alden calmed down, Nick played with him in his room for a while and by the time the baby (finally) fell asleep and napped, we had decided to blow off cooking for the night and Nick ran out to pick up some dinner. While he was gone I mixed up a batch of lactation cookies and they were happily roasting away in the oven when he returned. We ate a quiet dinner while Alden slept and by the time he woke up, I were rested and ready to be a Mommy again.

Lesson learned: ask for help. before I get so overwhelmed that I feel lousy and horrible. Asking for help doesn't make me a bad Mom, it makes me an efficient one ;)

this makes it all better :) 

much love, L&N