Wishful Slacker

Six O'Clock Scramble

I took both today and tomorrow off of work <smile> for some rest and relaxation.  I am going to keep the baby in daycare and have two days without work or diaper changes.  The baby was in a great mood yesterday and it made me hesitate momentarily to think that I was going to carry out with my plan and not spend more time with her during my days off.  BUT- I know that I need this time for myself, and that I will hopefully come out of it a happier and much more relaxed mommy. 

The plan today is to go grocery shopping on my way home from daycare (the one "chore" that I have planned for the long weekend).  After that, the sky's the limit.  I may nap.  I may sit outside with my book and an iced tea.  I may write a bit.  Jim is taking a half day and once he gets home we are going to ride our bikes around and go out to eat. 

I have been wanting to post about a meal planning service that we have been using now for about 2 months, but I have been so frazzled that I haven't been able to get to it!  And I wanted time to really test out the service before deciding if it was a worthwhile recommendation.  I am up and ready to go and the baby is still in bed, so now is as good a time as any! 

The website is called the Six O'Clock Scramble and I purchased a 6 month subscription from a deal website, pretty much on a whim.  As I think I have written before, I do enjoy meal planning and cooking.  The thing is that it takes time, and there are some weeks when trying to figure out what to eat practically puts you over the edge.  Plus there are so many other considerations- cost, healthy food choices, convenience- so it can be a bit tricky when you are also balancing a million other things.  I have used other handy food apps, websites, and cookbooks in the past (I really like the ipad Food app by Real Simple magazine) and really liked them.  But what is particularly nice about the Six O'Clock Scramble is that all of the deciding is done for you.  Each week you are emailed with the upcoming week's worth of meals.  The dishes are varied- some meat entrees, some vegetarian, they are healthy, and they are all relatively easy in preparation and cooking.  In the past 2 months we have made some really yummy dishes. 

There is flexibility as well.  If you don't like the idea of eating trout, which is one of this week's meals, then you can easily search through all the archived recipes on the website and swap a different one in.  In addition, many of the recipes list swapping ideas (tofu for chicken, etc), so you can really customize the plan if you desire.  You can save the meals that you particularly liked in your 'recipe box' so it is easy to find them again in the future. 

I particularly like the "delegate or do ahead" caption in each recipe.  I will sometimes start chopping or doing dinner prep during the baby's afternoon nap if I can.  Or if Jim is free to help me with dinner, it is easy to look at that line and determine the best way he can help out as my sous chef (or vice versa).  Each recipe comes with a really terrific side dish as well.  Here are some of the many we have enjoyed: Persian green salad with chickpeas and mint, curried rice with carmelized onions, white bean and red onion salad, and a French beet salad.  They have all been delicious. 

The Six O'Clock Scramble actually has a couple cookbooks that you can buy at Amazon, and they contain many of the recipes that are on the website.  But I honestly have been loving the catered aspect of getting this list of recipes and groceries that comes along with the website subscription.  It is so automatic- I go shopping, and then we are all set for many great meals throughout the week.  Many of the meals have given us leftovers.  And, the website gives you a total of 5 meals for the week, and you can add and decrease meals from that list.  So by signing up for this service you are not giving up your chance to splurge on macaroni and cheese or that dish you saw being made on Food Network that you want to try.  And it gives you the opportunity to take a break and go out to eat too :-)

Like I said earlier, I subscribed by using a discounted deal from one of the zillion deal websites that email me each day, and I honestly do not remember which site it was on.  However, I have not seen any similar deal for the Six O'Clock Scramble since then.  I got 6 months for $15 and the usual price at the time was $30 for 6 months.  In one of the Scramble's emails recently they mentioned that they are increasing their prices, but I don't think it was a very dramatic increase.  Speaking of pricing, one thing that I did not mention about the service is that the cost for the meals is really not bad at all.  I don't think that I have had to spend over $70 for 5 meals.  Of course, some weeks the grocery bill is heftier because I realize we are out of olive oil or have no more chicken breast in the freezer. 

So- to recap- the meals are healthy, quick, relatively inexpensive, and all the "planning" is done by someone else.  I have been very pleased with the Six O'Clock Scramble!  If you go to the site, I believe that you can sign up for a free sample newsletter with recipes to try.

Baby is up!  Time to get that kid off to daycare and to enjoy my day of freedom!

The Cottage

We spent last week at my parents' cottage near East Tawas, Michigan.  Their cottage is a warm and cozy home along Bass Lake, which is nestled among a cluster of lakes about a 15 minute drive inland from Tawas and Lake Huron.  The drive between Chicago and Bass Lake, after stopping to allow the baby to stretch her legs, took a lengthy 10 hours (and on the way back that kid would not nap and then threw a temper tantrum in the back seat of our car that literally lasted about 3 hours!).  We had a great time being away from the city and our busy lives, and every hour on the road took us further and further from it all.  We soaked up our time with the baby and consciously noted the hours when we normally would have been driving to work in busy, noisy Chicago.  Ellie learned what a blast it is to shove fistfuls of sand into her mouth the second her parents look away and we learned that, even during vacations, keeping a baby on a schedule is a very worthwhile endeavor.  My dad lit a bonfire during two of our evenings, and we roasted marshmallows for smores and stared at a gazillion stars that are so easily forgotten beyond city lights. 

Despite the fact that week-long getaways always pass by quickly, we still managed to get in a lot of visiting with my parents, sisters, mother-in-law, and my wonderful friend Liz, her husband, and her two babies.  Jim and I made it out to a movie at the fantastic East Tawas movie theater, which really deserves its own blog post because of its awesomeness. 

Here are some pictures from the week.  They are mostly of the baby, because, well, that's the way it goes now!





 

The pier on the "Big Lake" in East Tawas

And finally, I love the set of photos that this one came from.  To have grown up with such a kindred spirit of a friend and then suddenly to see your daughters playing side-by-side is really something else :-)


As you can see, we had a great week.  It is nice to be home, but it was wonderful to have our lovely getaway.  I forget sometimes how lucky we are to have that cottage and Bass Lake in our lives!

Bath tub reading

I have been having the HARDEST time posting onto this site recently.  This post, for example, is the product of three separate abandoned attempts to sit down and churn out something that has been dancing in my head the entire weekend.  Such actions have proven to be very difficult, especially now that Eleanor is moving ALL over our living room, which would be fine and I could let her be were it not for the sharp edges of our side tables and that annoying space beneath the couch that she continuously slides beneath.  It's a trap and our baby-in-residence has not yet mastered the ability to put her little body in reverse.  One thing I am learning about babies- they do not enjoy getting stuck.  But anyways, there is no big rush on the weekends, so why not sit back and watch this little mover as she covers vast amounts of space through the act of determined wiggling? 



But, again, when you've been hoping to create a blog post when an idea hits your head, like you used to in the good ole' days, but can't, it is like having an itch you can't scratch.  Once I do find the opportunity, I am often exhausted and my muse is squashed.  I set off this weekend to try and find a used baby playzone through Craigslist, so that the baby can have a little play area to herself with no immediate dangers around the corner, and Jim and I can actually simultaneously get ready on work mornings (gasp!) without one of us standing over the living room acting as a sentry.  We were in contact with someone and were all teed up to go pick one up this afternoon, when the seller emailed me late last night to say it was no longer available.  Oh, just drive a spear through my heart why don't you?!  Craigslist is coming up empty on any others (both for Chicago AND Detroit), so our baby hovering will continue (and I will never be on time for work again). 

The vast percentage of my reading over the past year has been from the baby genre, but I'm always in the middle of a book for recreation.  During my maternity leave I plowed through The Hunger Games trilogy (for new moms out there, I'd wait until your baby is at least 6 months old before tackling The Hunger Games.  For weeks I feared that the Capitol of Panem was coming to snatch my newborn from me).  After that I needed a change of pace, and in my quest to tackle some of the classics, I chose A Tale of Two Cities next.  I have been reading it for about the past 4 months and can now say that I am about 65% of the way through (or so says the tracker on my Kindle).  I CANNOT get myself through this book.  Each night before bed I am able to read about one paragraph before needing to call it a night.  And with that pace, each night when I "open" the book (what does one say when reading a book on a Kindle? I "turn on" the book?), I can't remember what has been happening in the section before, so need to rewind a couple pages to get caught up again.  And I need a reading group or Cliff's Notes or something.  Are the Marquis and the Monseigneur the same person?  What is the point of that lawyer friend who is always hanging around the doctor?  I just realized in typing this that there are Sparknotes online that I might need to read!

Yesterday morning the baby went down for her nap and I decided to take a bath.  One of my favorite nice things to do for myself is to sit in a hot bath with a good book and a beverage (sometimes it is wine, yesterday it was my morning coffee).  While the Kindle is likely not the best choice for anything aquatic, I have an ongoing paperback "bath time book," which at the moment is Barbara Kingsolver's High Tide in Tucson, a collection of essays.  Having a book of essays as your bath time book is really quite perfect- by the time you have finished reading an essay the water has gone lukewarm and the baby starts to stir from her nap.  Not to mention that your comprehension withstands reading gaps of several weeks (as much as I would enjoy taking a nice bath numerous times a week, it just doesn't happen). 

This is about the third or fourth time I have gone through High Tide.  It was first gifted to me in high school by an English teacher, and then we reviewed it in an undergraduate writing class under the direction of another favorite teacher (you know who you are <3).  This collection was also frequently mentioned during an essay class that I took at Story Studio Chicago.  I have found that anyone who likes these essays is someone I would like too.  My tub read yesterday morning was "Civil Disobedience At Breakfast" (found on page 85), and I forgot how much I love this essay about motherhood.  "...the motto of my youth blazed resplendent on my breakfast table, the color of Florida sunshine" is the sentence that clinched it for me the very first time I read it.  Barbara Kingsolver's writing is such an art, it sometimes takes my breath away. 

Combing through "Civil Disobedience at Breakfast" yesterday morning was even better than the first time I read it, because I now have a child of my own.  We are not yet at the point of tipping orange juice onto the breakfast table, but I know those days are coming (and I think it's hard getting out the door on time now????  Just you wait, Lindsay....).   Reading about Kingsolver's thoughts about her fragile newborn being an extension of herself (Yes! I get that!) to suddenly acquiring her own will and independence (who keeps getting stuck beneath the couch???) so resonates with me, even though we haven't hit the one year mark yet. 

Almost every single ounce of me has changed since having a baby.  I love my baby girl more than I could ever have imagined- it wells up within me at the slightest thought and in any situation.  At work, when I see a mother in clinic holding her child, I can sense my own baby's chubby-soft leg beneath my hand, or hear her sweet sighs as she softly squeezes my arm.  Pre-baby, I was never really distracted by or understood the depth of love that lay hidden in those gentle caresses between a parent and his child. 

I am a part-time working mom.  I think it is good that I am able to do all of this- to get away and attempt to regain myself as an adult doing the work that I spent so much of my twenties prepping for.  I am grateful for my work, but there are times when the act of sitting at my desk as though I don't have a baby seems like I am faking.  Are my working and mothering roles mutually exclusive?  That line between working and mothering becomes further blurred as I hide out in the corner of my shared office and pump, and then waste time walking all the parts to the bathroom to rinse.  In the past, discussions with my work friends often led to plans to catch happy hour across the street after work.  But nowadays if someone asks me what I've been up to, I am more inclined to reply, "well, I have been thinking about if we should try out the Baby K'tan or the Ergo carrier instead of the snap n' go when we run our errands."  If the topic isn't on baby, I sometimes don't even know about what to talk about instead. 

Friday evening as I drove the baby home from daycare, I passed a couple walking home from Pequods.  One of them clutched that characteristically wrapped cardboard plate of leftovers that I know so well, along a satisfied walk home that I used to know so well.  Jim and I would take turns holding that awkwardly shaped package of amazingness as we walked through the summer dim of street lights and looked into living room windows of the homes we passed.  As the couple crossed the four-way stop ahead of the line of cars that I had been sitting in for our entire trip home, tears sprang to my eyes.  I am not lying.  A couple walking home with their Pequods leftovers actually made me cry.  Immediately following this reaction was my thought that perhaps it is now time to shop for a babysitter. 

I do feel at times like I am going crazy with this transition, but at other times this new life feels as natural as putting on a pair of thick socks on a winter morning.  I love weekends spent with the three of us sitting together on the floor, yet an instant later I find myself yearning and missing that life of spontaneity and fun that we left.  I do think that this craziness is, for the most part, normal, and therefore continue to ease my way through these days.  I am thankful of so many things, particularly my husband for listening to my almost constant musings about being new parents.  And the ability to soak in the tub from time to time. 

So, on that note, we will continue on with our Sunday morning.  It will likely involve a myriad of baby toys, a lot of rolling over, and an occasional need for repositioning after reaching a dead end.  And perhaps a Pequods carry out....

For anyone interested in reading "Civil Disobedience at Breakast," I found it online through Google books :-)  Enjoy the day!   


 

Most people are up at 4:30, right?

It is earlyyy Saturday morning, the morning I've been waiting for for several days, and I can't sleep.  I think this little gestating bundle of joy inside of me is sleeping stretched out on her back with her legs pressed up against my belly button.  Or balled up and PUSHING against my diaphragm.  Being her father's daughter, it's no wonder that Little Punk is already pushing the limits on the sleeping space she has been physically allocated.  Whatever this kid is doing, I can't breathe.  And I can no longer sleep.

For those of you who share a bed with someone, do you find that, in those late night panicked hours of tossing and turning, you begin to thoroughly detest your sleeping partner?  As though they are purposefully trying to make you miserable with their sleeping?  My husband has been sleeping like a hibernating bear all night.  Just to rub it in, he likes to turn over slowlyyy and delightfully, snuggling his face into the pillow and splaying out his limbs.  Meanwhile I keep tossing and turning, trying to find a comfortable position where this baby is no longer reeking havoc on my internal organs, while his rhythmic sleepy breathing taunts me, "Ahhhh, this is awesome.......ahhhh, sleeping is great....ahhhh, I'm going to be so refreshed tomorrow...."

Hell no.  If there's one valuable asset to have on hand in ones "How to tackle life" tool kit, it's when to call it quits.  So now I'm out in the living room, reading, typing, and craving a bowl of cereal.  My cousin, asleep in the our second room, will no doubt hear me getting myself cereal at 5 in the morning, and think I'm crazy.  Then again, he likely thinks I'm crazy already.  And right now, I am a bit loony.  I'll admit it. 

I was out at Bed, Bath, and Beyond a couple evenings ago, gently caressing the giant body pillows that they have stacked high in bins.  I know I need one so badly, but I was a train ride and a walk from home at the time.  While the thought of me dragging along a body pillow the whole way home was a fairly entertaining thought, I was sure to have received strange looks on the red line, and could have explained to those who cared that the carnival had run out of giant garish teddy bears and were passing out body pillows instead.  I actually did receive strange looks from the B, B, and B employees for loitering at their pillow bins for such a long time, and I knew at that point that it was time to leave.

It's at 5 am that I began to regret the fact that I made myself a 9 am mani/pedi appointment for the morning.  Dudes, the coupon expires on Wednesday!  I had no choice!  Plus, I can hardly reach my toes any more, and haven't found a friendly passerby to help me clip my nails.  I am 6 months overdue for a dentist appointment, but God forbid I go too long without getting my eyebrows waxed and my toe nails done.  Priorities, priorities.

And now about that cereal....

Remember the Lake

Everyone in my department today seemed bogged down by uncomfortably jam-packed to do lists.  I went through my weekend successfully blocking out work, but this morning entered the Monday morning Shower of Terror.  As the water sprayed down and I stared at the white tile, I recalled with increasing stress the items I needed to complete, one by one.  There is really no such use of going over these things in the shower.  I mean, what are you going to do about it there?  Not much.  What the shower did help me with was in securing a giant elephant to my chest, which chilled there for half the day. 

Having an elephant on your chest is not comfortable.  My sweet and wonderful office mates and other coworkers seemed to have similarly-large and uncomfortable zoo animals squashing them as well.  We chuckled over how very little we socialized.  Not that we typically spend an entire day talking, but for our sanity we rely on each other's company.  Today we were all too busy to worry about sanity.  There just wasn't time.

In the middle of the day I began longing, let me repeat- LONGING for a vacation.  You can just tell when your psyche is in desperation of a break from work.  I'm not talking about a lazy weekend type of break, but an "OH MY GOSH, everyone is working but us and all we have to do is have FUN!!!" type of sojourn.  I...need...it....  My family is heading to England toward the end of July, so relief is in sight, even though it still seems so far off. 

As I sat at my desk, I suddenly imagined Jim and I sitting by the shore of Lake Michigan, our eyes lulled by the galunking of the waves and the boats speeding off into a world that you know will likely never include you, but fascinates you to watch anyway.  The sun began to set and the skyline turned shades of orange and purple.  Once the mosquitoes began their buzz, we packed up and headed home.

Here's the beauty of this story- the setting of this daydream is literally half a mile from my office.  Sometimes I need reminding that I can go on a vacation after all, as long as it's after 6pm and I've changed into a pair of jeans. 

Let's talk about pants

At 14 weeks pregnant, I've developed a lovely belly paunch that becomes more pronounced as the day progresses.  I start off the day in a non-pregnant body and then climb into bed at night clutching the "gas baby" that has emerged.  During one of these gas baby evenings I turned to my husband and asked him if stranger would think I was pregnant.  He considered this for a minute before replying,
"Well, not pregnant.  But...they may just think you look a little pudgy." 

I took no offense to this- I wanted my hubbie to tell it to me straight.  Because I do look pudgy- as someone would who has been at the mercy of disgustingly unhealthy food in order to get through a day.  Blech.  Hello 10 pounds.

ANYWAYS, this leads me into the subject of this email.  Pants.  A few weeks ago, all of my pants suddenly became too tight, and my first maternity-type purchase (which I planned for the day of our first ultrasound) was a Bella Band, which allows you to conceal the fact that your pants are unbuttoned or unzipped.  Smart thinking, whoever came up with that one. 

A couple of weeks ago, I realized that I had reached an point of no return with my blue jeans, even with a Bella Band.  So I went out and bought two pairs of Old Navy maternity jeans, which are the cat's meow.  Let me tell you, after these, I don't think I will ever go back to normal jeans again.  Ever.  They're still pretty cute and fit well, but have a stretchy waistband, so you don't feel like you have to suck in your gut when they're on.  One pair are low-rise, and these would be ideal for wearing regardless of whether or not you're pregnant.  The other pair have the gigantic bib-like fabric that pulls up to your chest, Steve Urkel-style.  Probably not something you'd grab at non-pregnancy times, but heck, for lounging around the house, they'd probably still work.  Awesome pants-moment #1 (pictured below are the cool low-risers).


My second pants-related enjoyment came this week at work, where there was a scrubs sale for nurses.  Now, I am not a nurse, nor do I have the opportunity to wear scrubs at work (this ability would really complete my life, by the way).  But the thought of lounging around this summer with a pair of extra-stretchy scrub pants sounded too good to pass up, so I went and got myself a pair.  This fulfilled my awesome pants-moment #2.

THEN, as though my lounging pants-spree could not get any better, I received a pajamagram package from my mother-in-law for Mother's Day (how sweet is that?) containing a pair of pajamajeans!  Yes, pajamajeans, pajama pants with the style and fit of jeans.  They are so soft and stretchy.  You know those days where you stay in your fat pants and begin feeling like a total lazy bum around 4pm?  Well, now with pajamajeans you feel like you're dressed to go out (psst! but you're really not!).  These will do wonders for my psyche!!!  Awesome pants-moment #3!!!

Now, often in life we follow the "one step forward, two steps back" model.  As you can see, these pants are all for casual and lounge-around-the-house wear.  None of these options work so much for where I spend the majority of my time- the office.  I have had zilch luck in finding good maternity work pants.  I checked out both Gap and Old Navy, and all their work pants looked hideous on me AND the Gap pants were really expensive.  I went to a maternity place here in Roscoe Village which definitely catered to individuals not stuck on a genetic counselor salary.  Their tops ran about $80, and I couldn't even find good business-casual pants anyways.  Sigh.  Meanwhile, I will peruse leads on craigslist, and see if I can drag myself to a Target. 

Sorry, Boss.  If this fails, you'll soon find me prancing to work wearing bib overalls (cue the Green Acres theme).

Summerworkstoryidea.doc

I was just digging through my writing folder on my laptop and came across the word document titled above that I apparently created on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. 

Being that it is winter, and dark, and cold, I thought I would share it!

The peaceful quiet of a summer evening

            Little bugs fluttering in the evening sunlight

            Sound of insects

            Swaying in the hammock

            Knowing you don’t have to go to bed

            Watching your mother or father flick on the light inside the living room

            Smacking at a mosquito on your leg

            Sprinklers

            Smell of grass

            Sound of a lawnmower

            Smell of barbeque

 

Remembering this, in the middle of my working adult life

            Having forgotten what that moment of peace is like

            Forgetting that feeling of stillness

            Always having a to do list

            Always having to watch the clock for bedtime

 

The last of the cottage memorabilia

It is Friday, and I am running around like a crazy person right now.  We've had a very busy week- busy during the work days, busy during the evenings, thoughts about work during the evenings, and thoughts about the evenings during work.  So argh- I haven't been able to post any of the nonsensical jargon that I usually enjoy spewing out during the week.  But, hopefully life will settle and I can get back to it!

I'll leave you with a few last images from our week in East Tawas.  First, I took this picture of a box I found in my parents' storage room in their cottage in Michigan.  The label my mom wrote on it just cracked me up.  Couldn't we just get rid of some of the extra straws???

 

 

And here are a few other touches around my parents' cottage that I love:

I wonder if these guys have names?

 

 

 

And last but not least, we have this handsome guy, who also was able to enjoy the Michigan wilderness with his parents.

 

 

City? What's a city?

 

 

 
 

Website of the Week- Pure Michigan

Many of you know that Jim and I do not take many days off of work, nor do we frequently leave Chicago.  The last time we left the city was in the month of May (minus trips to Oak Park and one trip to the suburbs.  I don't feel that counts).  And, perhaps you've picked up from my previous posts that I NEED some vacation time.  NEED.  As in, if I don't take a vacation soon, things will not be pretty.  Of course, once I return from vacation time and see the mess on my desk at work, that will also not be pretty.  But oh well something's got to give!

For our wedding anniversary next month we are going to take a few days off and drive the Lake Michigan Circle Tour.  We are also calling this the Michigan Financial Stimulus Tour because of our intention to pump some money back into that home state of ours, at least until we reach Wisconsin :-)  As I am in the process of working out our Stimulus Tour itinerary, my selected website this week is Pure Michigan.  Many of you have probably seen the commercials (my sister-in-law informed me that Tim Allen narrates- and oh my goodness I never realized that was him!).  When we first moved here, my husband chuckled at me every time one of those commercials came on because they incited instant melancholy for my Michigan roots.  The incredibly sappy music definitely helps in this emotional mush-fest!  Enjoy! And visit Michigan!