Happenings 22.9.16
DOING: typing on my computer while Joan naps. Ben is at our new house putting vents back together after the painter and floor people came. He's not a handy man, so who knows how it will turn out, but A for effort, right? I've been replying to emails after a few days off (we went to Adelaide for a Wedding) and bubba is napping for longer than usual so I thought I'd start another "happenings" post.
HEARING: the birds outside.
DRINKING: Green tea, coffee, water (loads, always) and sometime sparkling water with lemon.
EATING + COOKING:quinoa bowls, lamb stew and sourdough toast with avocado, hummus or nut butter. Sometimes I get wild and do half avocado, half hummus on my toast like below (always with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top). Oh, I've also been having a bowl of tart greek yoghurt with a generous heaping teaspoon of honey every night in bed while reading or watching Netflix. Eating in bed feels super indulgent and I'm super into it.
WANTING: moving day to be here! While we have loved our current rental, we are SO ready to be in our new home. 2 more sleeps to go!
PLAYING:Janet Lansbury's podcast while I pack. I find it useful to hear what other parents are going through and Janet's take on it, suggestions and stuff. It gives me solid ideas for how to tackle common situations that are already starting to happen. I find my instincts are often on point with what she suggests, however to hear her opinion helps me to feel confident in my actions and in turn be sure and calm when challenges arise, which is better for both Joan and I.
DECIDING: where we should buy a rug! We want one like this, though not gold, more brown/beige coloured. It's a boring colour choice, some may say, and possibly stupid because we have a kid but we're going for it. I also want to buy a couple of these but WHOA $$$$. Is that what home stuff costs? Perhaps I'm too used to the op shop.
ENJOYING: French press coffee more than milky at the moment. Not sure why, but I'm into the strong, black stuff.LOOKING: at my To Do list - buy chalk paint from Bunnings (to paint two cabinets), sell the cot on gumtree, look for rugs, oh and FINISH PACKING.
LOVING: the way Joan now says "up" (or "AHHHPPPPP") for everything these days. She uses it when she wants someone to pick her up or when she wants to get up from the table, of course, but also when she wants something to turn on (like the bath tap) or to open something like a container or a door. It's her call to action and it's adorable. I also love seeing Joan's fascination with buses (the wheels go round and round!!!) and planes. When we went to Adelaide over the weekend, our hotel had a great view of the street and buses below. Joan would watch and point and gasp while making a "round and round" motion with her finger. It melts me! And she adored watched the planes land and take off at the airport. To make the flight go smoothly we had snacks (bananas! and my friend got me onto organic baby puffs which look like gross, artificial cheeze puffs but are actually instead just gross, organic, carrot flavoured stuff. I won't buy these regularly, but the food manufacturing nature of the puffs kept her entertained when her two dingbat parents scheduled flights for when she'd surely be tired and grumpy). The snacks helped, so did favourite toys and rusk sticks, but you know what? If bubba is in a mood where she demands to stand and walk around yet we have to stay seated, the shit is going to hit the fan no matter what. I'm prepared for flights and I set things up to go as smoothly as possible, but in the end it comes down to her mood and the flight conditions (whether we have to stay seated for ages on the tarmac, for example). So we just cross our fingers it's an easy flight and feel happy when we see other babies on board because we know it won't just be us and that there are others around who get it.
BUYING: avocados and sourdough. Like, twice a week. They're keeping us going at the moment! Irrewarra's breakfast seed loaf is my favourite at the moment (besides my Dad's sourdough, but apparently our toast consumption of late is hard to keep up with).
PLANNING: what I want to do for my birthday on Friday. Ben will be home (he's got this week off) and we'll be in our new place, so I'm thinking brunch out, doughnuts at home and a simple pasta for dinner. I might treat us to some Zebra Dream ice-cream (my fav!) and a movie in bed. Yep, that sounds perfect.
WATCHING:The Sopranos. We love it. I think we're at the end of Season 3, so there's still a long way to go. We watch it in bed at nights (mainly on the weekend) with bubba next to us and the volume on mute (sometimes we use headphones) and even without proper sound and me sometimes straining to see the screen, it is still fantastic. Also, I recently finished The Jinx and thought it was incredibly entertaining and well made from that point of view (not necessarily from a journalistic or ethical viewpoint, you know? Real life crime dramas, I'm unsure about them...and I don't know the story in-depth enough to comment on that, but man it had me on the edge of my seat and the opening theme visual/song was awesome).
SAVOURING: this loooooong nap with a black coffee next to me. It's allowing me to finish writing my thoughts out and I'm really enjoying the reflection and release, as trivial as some of the prompts may be.
CONSIDERING: what flavour zebra dream icecream I'll get. Big decisions, folks, big decisions. It's expensive stuff, so for my birthday splurge I want to make the right choice. I might try the choc mint variety. We've had the salted caramel, latte and vanilla flavours before. Oh man, it's so tasty.
WEARING: lately I've been wearing jeans instead of yoga pants and it most definitely makes me feel more pulled together. I love my leggings, but after our morning walk I'll swap them for jeans and mentally this switch has done something...it's made me feel more capable of productivity, perhaps. Either way, I'm sticking to it. Getting dressed is a good idea. Who knew?
READING: after my last Happenings post, readers kindly sent me a bunch of fantastic book recommendations (thank you, gloriously lovely people!!) and from this I went with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I chose this one partly because it was the first book I typed in that came up available for loan at my library, and partly because of the rad name, and so far I am loving it! It feels like a gentle, jolly mind break every time I pick it up.
CRAVING: well, now I'm craving this. Bring on my birthday! I'll be 31. Feels like a "meh" age in terms of numbers. What does 31 mean to me? I don't know. I like the number 32, that'll be fun to say. 31? We'll see...
FEELING: excited about the move. It feels surreal... we will be home owners! After renting for 12 years and living in a total of 8 different places and 8 different suburbs (not counting when we moved back in with family after travelling and the time Ben lived in Sydney for 3 months), we get to call the shots. We get to do whatever we want to the house, deal with issues ourselves and take care and pride in our place like never before. I get quite emotional when thinking on the fact that this is where Joan will grow up. I hope to fill this house, our home, with joy and comfort and more children. I hope to create traditions and memories and really, truly live in this space of ours.