NaBloPoMo

Once I get into bed, almost nothing gets me out.

Even when Sawyer awakes with a cry, I try my best to convince Steve to get him (my rationale is that he can fall back asleep within seconds while it can take me hours). Last night, it was legitimately my turn, so I got up, led him back to bed and rubbed his back for a few minutes. He was quiet and seemed to be nearly asleep so I returned to bed. A few minutes later, he awoke again and started a cycle of coming to his gate, crying out, and returning to his bed. It seemed like the cycles were getting longer and he was clearly okay, so I decided to let him figure it out on his own rather than start the pattern all over again.

In the meantime, I was starting to fall asleep again when Steve's elbow crept into my space. I pushed it back and he took that as a sign that I was pushing him out to get Sawyer - in my groggy state, I wasn't able to tell him otherwise.

Okay, that was a bit of a long aside.

My original point was to show that I just don't get out of bed - not to pee (even when I was pregnant), not if I forgot to brush my teeth, not if I forgot to submit my timesheet, rarely even for Sawyer.

But this month, I have gotten out of bed after I've almost fallen asleep, not one, not two, but THREE times because I had forgotten to blog that day. Today was one of those days. We were watching friday public affairs on public television (I know, a riveting friday night activity) and I fell asleep on the couch before Steve pointed out I should go to bed.

As I was falling asleep, I suddenly realized I hadn't blogged, and that today was the last day of NaBloPoMO. For several minutes, I started writing a post in my head and then decided I had come too close to posting every day to miss it just b/c I didn't want to get out of bed. So I did, and here I am. 30 days, post every day. Let's see where i go next. Maybe I will actually post before 10pm one day!

fridge friday

This is a fridge friday post, sans pictures.

Today is the last Friday of November and the bottom shelf of our fridge contains the same cabbages, rutabagas, turnips, and beets that were there on the first Friday of November.

Perhaps my goal for this weekend will be to figure out how to use them up. Kim-chee, rutabaga fries, turnip soup, roasted veggies. I'm guessing the beets might be done for.

amish friendship bread

Today, a coworker gave me some starter mix for "Amish Friendship Bread" - each day for 10 days, you "mush" it together in a ziploc bag. On day 6, you add 1 cup milk, sugar, and flour, and on day 10, you divide into four more bags and give three to friends, keep one for yourself, and make 2 loaves of bread with the remainder.

Apparently, it is more like sour cream coffeecake than bread. One of the ingredients is "instant vanilla pudding mix" - not exactly a stereotypical amish item, I would think.

I'm looking forward to trying it.

books and movies

This week, I finished the books Plenty, Sammy's White House (by Al Gore's daughter), and Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls for my bookgroup. Next, I'm planning to read Food Politics.

Tonight, I watched the movie Cassanova.


Someday, I will blog before 11pm and actually have more to say about the things I read and watch. But that someday is not today.

a little democracy

Sawyer attended his first town meeting tonight. There was a meeting to conduct a straw poll about where a new elementary school should be placed.

It was held in the junior high gym and it was standing-room only - probably 1000 people.

For most of the time, Sawyer played in the lobby -pressing buttons on the water machines, counting doors, walking on the windowsill (6 inches from the floor). Finally, the presentations were over, the commenters were done yapping, and it was time to vote. I had convinced him to go into the Ergo, and we went into the gym. We had all (well, not the wee ones) been given day-glo index cards which would be counted. I told him I had to hold up the card to vote. At which point, he started pointing to other cards and saying "vote" "vote" "vote."

a orange... doon-doon?

Sawyer's birthday today. He had a great day. He gave me a recap when he was getting changed into his pjs this evening:

- blow candles!
- cake!
- pay-do Finn!
- Didney!
- fire truck!
- orange doon-doon!
- happy birtday to me!

translation:
- blow candles! (we had candles this morning, this afternoon on cake, and this evening at dinner - he is fascinated by them.)
- cake! (it turned out great - you'd never guess it was wheat-free, egg-free, although my frosting could use some work)
- pay-do Finn! (after our little party, we stopped by to deliver cake to Finn's older sister and were invited in to do some play-dough)
- Didney! (he adores her, even though she had a cold while visiting today)
- fire truck (he got a fire truck from Uncle Eric and Auntie Marie, as well as a little wood fire truck/ambulance/police car trio this morning)
- orange doon-doon (aka an orange balloon - we hung two green balloons from his doorframe and put balloons on all dining room chairs, and an orange balloon was just floating around
and he played with it quite a bit.

He also talked to grandma and grandpa on the phone and actually talked and sang to them (usually, he just stares at the phone and then gives it a kiss). They got him a very cute letter train that says "Sawyer" - he got to open it first thing this morning and played with it for a long time, forming different "words."

birthday preparations

Tomorrow is Sawyer's second birthday. I've been slightly fretting for the last week or so about how we would celebrate. Didn't want to do something too big but also didn't want to just have us. It turns out that his daycare will be closed tomorrow afternoon so he'll be home for the whole afternoon. Two of his friends from the neighborhood will come over for a birthday snack and opening presents - between the gifts from relatives and us, the table looks awfully full.

We've been reading books about birthdays for a few days now - it will be fun to see what he thinks.

Here's a picture of the table that will greet him in the morning (after he sees the two balloons hanging from his doorframe).

We'll let him open one present (from grandma) in the morning and then the rest in the afternoon.

I also decided to bake a cake. Last year, I made cupcakes because it had been so long since I attempted to bake anything more than banana bread. But I was slightly inspired this year. Since one of the kids has allergies to dairy, eggs, and nuts, I found a highly-recommended chocolate cake recipe and am currently bakingthat -I'll keep my fingers crossed to see how it comes out. It only took 10 minutes to mix in one bowl so that's definitely a plus.

A full report coming tomorrow...