Baby's First Hike

We got to take Steven for his first hike today.  It was just a small local hill, but a hike nevertheless!  And the weather was wonderful!  Jesse carried him on the way up, I carried him on the way down, and we got to enjoy a great view at the top.  Looking forward to working our way up to bigger and bigger trips!

Lent and Random Musings

Lent started this week.  Lent is the season leading up to Easter when many Christians fast or give up something in their life.  I've given up something for Lent a couple times before - one year I gave up Facebook, and another year I gave up having crushes on boys. (That happened to be the same spring that I met Jesse... yeah... that went really well...)

So as Lent approached this year, I wondered If I should give up something.  That thought lasted for about 1.5 seconds, and was followed by "Yeah, no".  With the full time job of caring for a newborn, plus working 10 hours a week tutoring, the thought of having something else to think about every day just seemed like too much.  However, as I thought some more, my attention was drawn to something that I have recently been trying to incorporate into my life.  So in a way I am ADDING something to my life for Lent... and the more I thought about that, I also realized that there is something I am trying to give up.  Not just for Lent, but for good.

The basic idea is that I am trying to find a sense of balance in my life, even though there is a baby who wants my attention every waking minute (and most of the sleeping minutes too!).  After the first few weeks of being a new mom, I began to realize that I will have to be very intentional about taking care of myself and doing things that I enjoy and find refreshing.  Thinking about this, I came up with 4 categories: my body, my mind, my heart, and being creative.  Taking care of my body includes things like getting outside for a walk, that workout routine that I AM going to start... someday..., having a nap, and making sure that I eat well. (A surprisingly difficult task - see the last post for an example!)  Engaging my mind is important to me, especially now that I have finished college.  I want to continue learning and growing.  "Feeding my heart" is the phrase I chose for the emotional/spiritual part of my life.  I realize that those aren't necessarily connected for everyone, but they are for me.  This includes spiritual disciplines like prayer, journaling, and Bible reading, well as things that uplift me, like playing music and spending time with a good friend.  I included being creative as its own category because I find great joy and fulfillment in things like writing, trying new recipes, drawing, crocheting, etc.  And I realize that these categories are rather artificial, with lots of overlap (for example, going for a walk does wonders for my emotional and spiritual health, as well as my physical health).

Now, before you make a comment on how that all sounds very overwhelming, it's important to know two things - these are things that I love, and that I spent a significant amount of time doing pre-baby; but more importantly, the idea is to do ONE thing from each category every day.

I still haven't managed it.

But that's not really the point.  The point is to be intentional about caring for myself, as well as caring for the little human that God has given me.  And this leads to what I am trying to give up - I want to give up being hard on myself, trying to be perfect.  At the end of a long day of feedings, burpings, changings, spit up on the floor, and poop on my pants, if all I've managed to do for myself is get out for a walk, that's OK.  There's always tomorrow.  And the next day.  But what I don't want to happen is for months to go by before I realize that I haven't been taking care of myself - or, even worse, to only realize it once I crash, physically or emotionally.

Will you join me, this Lent, in the challenge of caring for yourself?  And the challenge of being ok with not being perfect?

Grapefruit Marmalade

We recently acquired a significant number of grapefruit; however, no one in our household particularly cares for grapefruit.  So I did what I usually do when there is something in my kitchen that I don't know what to do with - I googled new recipes.  In my research I came across the idea of making grapefruit marmalade.  I like marmalade, primarily because when I was a child I was determined to like it, probably because it was "British", and I kept forcing myself to eat it until I actually started liking it.  So I figured that marmalade would be a good thing to try making.  And besides, I needed something that used a significant number of grapefruit.  Here is the recipe that I found: Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit Marmalade

I didn't quite think through the fact that canning becomes a whole new experience when there is a 5-week-old in the house.

So for anyone else out there who is crazy like me, here it is:

How to make grapefruit marmalade (while caring for a baby).

1. Cut 5 grapefruit in half, cover with water in a large pot and boil for two hours.

2. Drain and cool.

3. Try to calm the baby, who is fussing in his bouncy chair.  Apparently watching you work in the kitchen is not entertaining him.

4. Wash and sterilize your jars.

5. The baby is still fussing, so move him to his nap corner, hoping he'll fall asleep.  He does fall asleep - holding your hand.  He's so cute that you feel bad to move your hand, so you sit there for a while with him.

6. You finally get up the motivation to remove your hand and go back to the kitchen.

7. Just as you get going in the kitchen again, the baby wakes up and starts crying.  You go back to check on him and realize he needs a diaper change.

8. You change the baby's diaper, and while you're doing so you realize the load of laundry you had in the wash has finished.

9. You put the baby back in his nap corner and go to deal with the laundry.  While doing so, you realize you still have a basket of laundry that is dry but hasn't been folded yet.  You decide that it can wait.

10. You just get back into the kitchen and the baby starts crying again.  You look at the time and realize that he's probably hungry.

11. That reminds you how hungry you are, so you scour the kitchen for something that would be convenient to eat while breastfeeding.  Meanwhile, the baby continues crying and shows no sign of getting any happier, so you give up trying to think of something healthy and grab a bag of corn chips.

12. You feed baby while trying not to drop corn chip crumbs on his head.

13. The baby is once again happy to sit in his chair, and you try to decide whether folding the laundry or continuing with the marmalade is more important.  Marmalade wins.

14. Cut the grapefruit into chunks, and remove the seeds.

15. Baby is letting you know that once again all is not well with the world, so you check on him and realize that he needs another diaper change.

16. Change the baby's diaper.

17. With baby settled into his chair once again, put the grapefruit, peels and all, into a food processor, and blend until finely chopped.

18. Notice that the daffodil plant on the table has a double-headed flower.  Take pictures of it.

19. Put the grapefruit into a pot, along with lemon juice, sugar, and honey. 

20. Bring to a boil, and taste.  Realize it is still ridiculously bitter, so add more honey.  And more honey.  An embarrassing amount of honey.  Realize that marmalade from the store must have a ridiculous amount of sugar in it.

21. Your husband gets home and you look at the clock and notice that it is already the time that you had planned to leave for supper.  Decide that the marmalade has probably boiled for long enough.

22. Pour into jars and finish the canning process.  Aren't they pretty!

23. Go out for dinner, leaving the kitchen a complete mess!

One Month

It is amazing how a month can go by so quickly and also seem like forever.  It seems like Steven Ray has always been a part of our family, but at the same time it is crazy that he is already a month old and growing out of his infant sized clothes!  While taking care of a baby takes up the majorty of my time (ok, pretty much all of my time!) I am going to try to continue with updates here on my blog, for the benefit of family and friends that are far away.  Here are a few pictures from Steven's first month.

Brand new in the hospital

The cutest little guy you could ever imagine

Cuddles with Mommy - the best view in the world

He already has quite the little personality

A favourite expression

Photo credit - Uncle Andrew

One month old - and getting bigger every day!