January 16 is coming up, and we all know what’s so important about that day, right? Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is it’s the birthday of a friend I had in elementary school. It’s weird how I remember stuff like that, but I can’t remember to get my teeth brushed before walking out the door. Really, the true significance of this day is that last year it was the last day of being employed and the first day of being a stay at home mom. At the time I wasn’t sure how that decision would all work out. I wanted to stay home, but I also was really sick of the stress going on at work. I wanted to make sure I was making this decision for the right reasons, not just to get the heck out of that job. So, now that I look back on the whole thing, I am thankful that the job was stressful enough to encourage me to think about quitting. Staying home is one of the best things I’ve done. I’ve been able to spend time with my kids, grow my business, and grow as a woman and mother.

This time last year I was making big plans for Jackson. I wanted to have each day scheduled with things to keep him stimulated and busy. He is such a high energy little boy, I wanted to make sure I offered him all he needed to learn and grow. In January I was too huge and tired from being 9 months pregnant to really focus on organizing our days. Plus, I wanted a little vacation before Archer was born. Well, February brought a newborn, and all the plans for structure went out the window. And now, Archer is 11 months old, and we still have no set plan. And we aren’t going to. There is so much going on with our family, that a structured day doesn’t work. But, we’ve managed just fine. I’m very happy with how the past year has went. Everyone is happy and healthy, so that tells me we’ve been doing something right.

So, for the year we are upon I plan to keep things similar to how they are. I’ll let life and the kids lead me to where we need to go. If Jackson has an interest in music, karate, or swimming, then that means we look for an activity to suit his interest. He’s old enough now to decide what things he’d like to learn more about, which is really exciting for me. I can’t wait to see what he excels at. As for Archer, we’ll continue mastering the walking thing, as well as learning to talk and eat solid foods–the normal one year old stuff.

We had a family meeting the other night about each of our goals. If you’d like to read about it, go here. But, there was one goal left out: my goal to have a garden! I’ll post about this at another time.

Last night my friend showed me the website The Shape of a Mother. It is dedicated to “letting out the secret” about how a woman’s body looks while pregnant and postpartum–imperfections and all. Here is the story of how it all got started.

One day I sat in a restaurant in Anaheim, California eating breakfast, when a woman passed by my table with her infant carrier in tow. As she lifted it up to fit between the tables, her shirt raised and I saw that, although she was at a healthy weight and her body was fit, she had that same extra skin hanging around her belly that I do. It occurred to me that a post-pregnancy body is one of this society’s greatest secrets; all we see of the female body is that which is airbrushed and perfect, and if we look any different, we hide it from the light of day in fear of being seen. That makes me want to cry. Sure we all talk about the sagging boobs and other parts, but no one ever sees them. Or if they do, it’s in comical form, mocking the beauty that created and nourished our children.

It is my dream, then, to create this website where women of all ages, shapes, sizes and nationalities can share images of their bodies so it will no longer be secret. So we can finally see what women really look like sans airbrushes and plastic surgery.

I really love this idea. This is definitely a topic that needs to be addressed. We shouldn’t be ashamed of how we look during or after pregnancy. We are the givers of life. If anything, we should be very proud of these changes that occur from having babies. We are beautiful!

Babies is a new documentary coming out that follows four babies from 4 different countries from birth to their first steps. The places range from Japan and Mongolia to San Francisco and Namibia. I just watched the trailer and had the biggest smile on my face for the duration of the entire thing. I can’t wait to see this!

I can’t just stick with a “look” for my website. There are millions upon millions of themes to choose from, and making a decision on just one has been pretty hard for me. Well, the previous one I had I liked, but making changes within the code was difficult for me. It wasn’t a simple job, because I am not an expert with CSS or HTML. Nor, am I even at the amateur level. I know a little, and I’m learning as I go through trial and error. So, this current theme is what I’m going to stay with. It’s simple and clean, which I’ve found I prefer. And, making little changes to make this website look like my own will be fairly easier. So, expect some minor color changes and maybe some change to the header. But, basically, this is what I plan to stick with!

Behold, the new look!

So. Let’s talk detachment parenting. We’ve got these parents that have babies, right? And these parents (the ones I’m referring to) want their babies. These parents maybe even tried and tried again for these babies. But, once said baby arrives, it’s a dance to keep baby content without any REAL contact. I’m talking contact from breastfeeding. I’m talking contact from holding. I’m talking physical comfort! I see all these new parents that were so anxiously awaiting their little one’s arrival, and once he/she arrives, the baby is set to the side. New pictures of the baby are of the baby in the swing, bouncer chair, boppy, car seat, whatever. Wouldn’t you expect such a beloved baby to be seen in the arms of her/his mama, daddy, family, or friend? Isn’t that where they get the comfort they need?

John and I were discussing this after I’d seen so many pictures posted on facebook from new parents with the new baby and no parent to be found. I think that people are under the assumption that these contraptions (swings, chairs, etc.) are what the baby wants. Really, all they want is their parents. And REALLY, (after my experience with a breastfeeding baby) all they want is their mothers. It’s so disappointing to hear from new parents about the first few days after the baby arrives. “Daddy is napping with baby, while I’m cooking dinner.” Or, “Daddy and I went our for lunch without baby”, when it hasn’t even been a week since he’s been home. Those precious days after your baby arrives are so fleeting and should be savored to the last drop. Bonding is established in those first few weeks, but I’m not sure some new parents are aware of just how precious and important this bond is. I do know about needing a minute to yourself, and also, a minute with your partner. But, the trend I’m seeing is, the focus becomes far from the parent and baby relationship once they arrive.

I’ve done it both ways, the detachment parenting, and attachment parenting way, and attachment parenting wins. Your arms always beat the chair. Breastfeeding always beats the bottle. I wish that this was common knowledge. I wish that new parents knew (I wish I knew), that breastfeeding is seriously THE BEST. You can get any baby to sleep with breastfeeding. You can calm any baby down with breastfeeding. You can give immediate comfort to any baby with breastfeeding. You can try the swing, try the chair, try the pacifier, but Mama or Daddy will always win.

And maybe I’m an attachment parenting snob … or something. After parenting two little ones, I’ve figured out what supports a close bond with your baby and in result makes the whole family happy and stress free. (Well, maybe there is some stress. Let’s be real, here.)

2009 was a pretty good year. We started off with two major milestones. One being the decision we made for me to stay home with the boys and the other was the amazing home birth we had to welcome our son into our family. The experience with our home birth will be really hard to top. Everything following that has been great. Our family is growing and we are exactly where we want to be. I’m finally settled in to the stay at home mom role, and John is working every day towards his dream of working for himself. My business has shifted into making things that I truly love and I’m actually starting to be successful with it. Maybe this year, with Archer being older, I can spend more time doing craft shows and festivals. I think selling locally would be a good avenue to try.

ANYWAY, back to the family as a whole. We have grown quite a bit over the past year. Jackson is now in preschool and has gracefully filled the position of the older brother. He is so good with his little brother. Archer is nearly a year old and is very close to walking. He takes a step here and there. John is getting closer to figuring out what to do with his love for vintage things. He loves both the hunt and the items, and he’s ready to try to make some money from this hobby. I am in love with staying home with my boys, and I really enjoy working on getting my business to grow. Overall, we are really happy, and 2009 was very good to us.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Preparing for Christmas this year has been quite different than the past few years. We are now a household with 4 people living off of just one income. This is quite a jump from last year being a family of 3, living off of double what we are now. So, we cut corners whenever possible. Or, at least we try. Every other year a portion of the money spent on Christmas gifts goes towards wrapping paper. I get my love for making gifts look pretty from my Aunt Marilyn and my Mother. These ladies go ALL OUT when it comes to wrapping gifts. My Aunt, the interior designer, usually color coordinates her wrapping paper and Christmas tree decorations for the year. And I’m pretty sure she has this all planned and figured out before Christmastime has even started. I love it.

For our gift wrapping this year, we didn’t spend a dime. Well, the materials I used weren’t free and didn’t appear out of thin air, but I didn’t buy them for the purpose of gift wrapping. I used old pattern paper that John got for me at a garage sale. This is the best thing I could have done with them, because I can’t figure out how to use them properly. Or, maybe I just don’t want to learn how. I really dislike spending more than a minute to read directions and I enjoy making my own patterns. I’m probably going about things the hard way, but that’s how I do things, I guess. I remember my Algebra teacher in high school said he couldn’t figure out the process I used to get my answers, but that I should keep doing whatever it was I was doing because I was getting the right answers. Anyway, I also used some yarn I had sitting around for making the gifts look not so boring in their simple brown paper. The gifts that required bags were put into bags that I have been saving over the years from various celebrations–birthdays, baby showers, Christmas, etc. A few of the bags needed tags, so I used Jackson’s fancy scissors to cut out squares from some cardboard we had laying around. Then I attached the tags with safety pins. I’m not convinced that these are the most beautifully wrapped gifts, but they will do.

So, here you have it! Almost all of our gifts are wrapped. Of course, the presents for Jackson and Archer aren’t even here because Santa has not arrived with them yet. (Or, they could still be hiding under a blanket in the crib that NO ONE uses for sleeping.)

Oh. My. Gosh. So, the teething thing has turned into a not-so-fun time for Archer AND the rest of the family. He is generally unhappy and not satisfied by much of anything, which is completely out of character for him. So far, Archer has been a delight (and he really is even now), but this sprouting teeth ordeal has made him and me a tad grumpy. In his times of restlessness and discomfort, he has resorted to biting while nursing. You can imagine how lovely I think this is. I’m doing what I can to get the point across that this HURTS Mama, but it keeps happening. I know we will get through this stage, but MAN, it REALLY hurts!

I called my Aunt (who is absolutely wonderful) today. She was a nurse, a lactation consultant, had a homebirth, and practiced extended breastfeeding with all 3 of her children. To say the least, I admire her. Anyway, I was telling her the tale of Archer biting, and she said this was a “great problem to have”. Her intention was to say that it’s wonderful that I am breastfeeding and that I have all of this time to spend with my little one for such a problem to arise. I agree! What a lovely point of view! Thank you, Aunt Peggy.

So, I am busy. Very busy. The reason for this has to do with many things; many very good things. First, I’ve been making sales through my Etsy shop! I sold a few slings last week that I didn’t already have made, so that meant a little bit of time was spent with me at home sewing and John taking the boys out to do whatever (usually shopping at Goodwill or going somewhere to eat cheeseburgers) it is they decide to do. Then, I had a few iPhone cases to make for my sister-in-law for Christmas gifts, and for the love of iPhones. She just got one, and is in love like I am. I’ve also got a few other Christmas gifts on my things-to-make list, that I haven’t even got to. So, while all of these projects are piling up–and just so we are clear, I LOVE that I have a pile of things to make for people–John decides to go ahead and get a booth at the local flea market/consignment store/store-full-of-whatever-you-can-imagine. At first I was feeling overwhelmed. Why you ask? Because half of this booth is supposed to be filled with handmade stuff! Handmade by ME! Well, the overwhelmed feeling soon faded into pure excitement, because this is what we as a family want. We want to be in charge of the money we make. We want to work for ourselves. So, I look at this as the first step towards that. We are taking a slight risk (only because a family with 2 children and one income isn’t rolling in the dough) with putting up a little bit of money towards this booth that may or may not bear fruit. But, I think it’s a good risk to take, and really, it’s not much of a risk. I’m just a worrier. So, anyway! Our hope is that this booth space does us well, and new paths will be opened to move on to the next step in our entrepreneurial (wow, I had no idea how to spell that) life. Wish us luck!

So, I will be busy busting out iPhone cases, Upcycled T-shirt Bags, and whatever else I can think of that might sell at a place like that. Come see us! Or, if you want anything specially made, email me!

I started making something new that I am now selling in my Etsy shop. iPhone cases! Well, actually, this case will fit quite a few different devices. Check out my listings, if you are curious. I’ve had my own for a while, and decided to solidify a specific style to make and sell. The design I came up with has 2 pockets and is enclosed with a flap and vintage button. (By the way, I finally looked up how to sew a button hole. Turns out, the machine I use makes button hole sewing easier than I was instructed. All you do is choose the button hole setting, attach the correct foot, adjust for button size, and GO! It sews the whole button hole with a touch of a button! SO EXCITING!) The inner lining is a charcoal color felt. The pockets are deep enough for your ID, cards, and some cash. The second pocket can also be used for ear buds. Here’s the one I’ve been using!