I am married to Stephen. We are blessed with a wonderful Harriet Alice, Edmund Paul, and Beatrice Claire. We live in a cute 100+-year-old house which keeps surprising us. I like to sew vintage inspired clothes, experiment in the kitchen, read all sorts of books, and keep the children alive and educated.
Yesterday morning was totally gorgeous in every way. It was deliciously warm without much wind, so we loaded H in the stroller, put E in the wrap, and went on a two hour walk. We ran errands, ate at Subway, and took Harriet to see the chicks and ducklings at the farm store. She was thrilled. Steve and I think that we all have seasonal depression because as soon as it warms up and the sun is out, we feel like different people. Even Harriet was perfectly content to play calmly with her toys all afternoon after her nap and she didn't ask to watch a movie at all. This is huge because usually we are fighting the movie-nagging all day long.
I was super-excited to discover that Donut Man is now on DVD - with two episodes on a disk, at that! Jenny and I were chatting yesterday about Bible-based tapes or movies that we enjoyed as kids, and she reminded me about Donut Man. Harriet loves, loves, loves movies that are primarily filled with songs, so the Donut Man would be a great way to combine her love of the screen with something actually worth watching. I ordered her the Resurrection Celebration one, and I'm so glad that we'll have something on which to base our discussions of Easter.
Even though yesterday was a really good day overall, the evening kind of spiraled into unpleasantness. I have been working so. stinking. hard. to keep up with the house in a realistic way: I keep on top of the dishes and laundry, and I do a quick tidy of the bedroom and living room every day. It's not deep cleaning, by any means, but it keeps things under control. However, as little as this is, I have to choose to do chores in the few spare moments I have when E is sleeping, or whatever. I don't really have time for stupid extra messes, but they seem to be plaguing me nevertheless. Last night I found dog vomit on the couch (which equals washing the slipcover), dog poop in the basement (which equals finding time to go clean it up when the kids aren't needing me), and caramel coffee syrup spilled throughout my entire pantry (which equals taking everything out of the pantry and cleaning up the extreme stickiness). It was mess overload and I wanted to scream. Harriet took forever to go to sleep, as usual, but sometimes I just want her to sleep like a normal person. And our estimate for installing the privacy fence in the backyard was thousands of dollars more than we were anticipating. I was pretty frustrated.
Speaking of H and sleeping, I feel like we're at yet another crisis point that needs a solution. (Didn't we just have a major sleeping transition? Like only 7 months ago?) She really needs to go to sleep without so much rigamarole and stalling. Right now I'm spending a minimum of forty-five minutes laying down with her in our bed until she finally gives it up. It just doesn't work when I am trying to take care of E and retain any form of sanity whatsoever. I think we should get her toddler bed set up and teach her to sleep there. All of the attachment parenting books suggest jolly gentle transition plans, but Harriet is so stubborn that we may have to go cold turkey. I hate that. But it'll be worth it. Right?
I made these Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes for Clara's birthday party this evening. Boy oh boy. They are pretty much amazing...but then again, I would be perfectly content to eat a huge bowl of chocolate ganache. I may be going back to Jazzercise before my post partum six weeks is up, but I'm not starting my Treats Only on the Weekends until I absolutely have to.
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