Wordy Randomness

Every blog needs a little random thoughts post every once in a while...

Dairy: During the time I nursed Clara, I didn't pay too much attention to what I ate. I always said, eh, she'll get used to it. Plus, it seemed like her spitting up and fussiness was so inconsistent with what I ate so I didn't make much of an effort to figure out if it was anything with my diet. With Hazel, her spit up, both volume and frequency, seemed to pattern my dairy intake. So, I have decided to try and limit my dairy. I'm not completely stopping, but I have definitely noticed a difference, mostly by not eating cereal with milk or yogurt on my granola in the morning.

Water: We have a good size lot with plenty of trees, bushes, etc. About 95% of our 35+ trees are irrigated, all the shrubs/bushes are on a drip system and although we do have grass in the front, it's not much. Of course you can never know just how much your utility bills will be when you move to a new place, but I thought I had made a pretty conservative estimate. You can imagine my surprise when I got our first water bill and it was over $160 (for those of you in Mesa, this wasn't my City of Mesa bill, that includes sewer, trash and gas, this was JUST the water). This was about double what I'd planned for. I compared notes with people that had pools, much larger grass areas being watered, more people in the house, etc. etc. and decided something was definitely wrong, especially considering it was winter. When we moved in, we put the water on a little more than normal to revive the plants. So, we turned the water down a bit, fixed some leaks in the drip and sprinkler systems, repaired broken sprinkler heads (it got a little humorous because every time Jason would replace one head, one or two more would break the next day) and waited to see how much our bill dropped. You can imagine my surprise, yet again, when our next water charge was almost $190. Obviously something was seriously wrong. I went on a little hunt around the property and discovered the oleanders lining the perimeter of our property were all on a "drip" system that appeared to put out a stream of water rather than a drip and was getting watered multiple times a day. Anyway, long story short (maybe this isn't so short, actually), we turned the water way back, completely turned the water off to the oleanders (they get plenty of water with the irrigation) and walla! our next bill was $90. Oh, happy day.

Lemons: We have a few lemon trees. One has lots and lots of lemons. It makes me happy because the lemon tree we planted at our old house gave us 5 scrawny little lemons last year. Anyway, the tree has not been well maintained and there were two other trees planted within a few feet of it. Jason got rid of the other two trees, which were holding up a "branch" of our lemon tree. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but said "branch" was about 35% of the tree. But, it had to go. It was hanging on the ground and made our yard look sloppy. We obviously didn't want to waste all the lemons on it so Jason and Dan picked them all off and then a few days later, Jason juiced them, with a little help from Lucas and Rachel. We now have 28 quarts of fresh squeezed lemon juice in our freezer. If I invite you over for dinner, just plan on having lemonade to drink. Some of the lemons were the biggest I've ever seen.
I don't know if these pictures are too small to see Lucas' face. I hope not, because his little expressions are sure to make you smile.

Epidurals: Before I had Clara, child birth did not scare me. After I had Clara, child birth did not scare me. After I had Hazel, I'm a little scared of child birth. Not because I can't handle it (since I learned sometimes we have to handle it whether we choose to or not), but because it is SO unpredictable. The 45 minutes of labor before I had Hazel were worse for me than the 6 minutes I spent pushing her out. Even still, if I knew my next labor would be like that, I'd do it epidural free in a heart beat. But let's face it, that wasn't exactly normal. If I knew I'd be in labor for 6 hours (or probably even just 3... :)), I would probably opt for an epidural. So you see the problem, you never know. And that's why I'm scared. What if I decide to go without an epidural and it's 6 hours of horrible laboring? Good thing it will be a nice long while before I have to make that decision again, eh?

Details: Speaking of epidurals... I haven't decided if I am going to post my big, long labor story. I will tell it to just about anyone, but there's something about posting all that detail about the labor and delivery of my sweet little baby that makes me feel like my personal life has been violated. Don't ask, I might be crazy.

Pintata: I made a pinata for Clara's party, but we ran out of time. Instead, we did the pinata at my parent's on a Sunday night. I wasted way too much money buying stuff for the inside (it was mostly toys since I was pretty sure no one was suffering from sugar withdrawals), but after seeing how excited the kids were with their little treasures, I didn't mind. Oh, and Clara calls it a "pintata". (Other words she alters: termamites and medcine).

I was too cheap to buy a pinata and too lazy and pregnant to make one. So, I used a graham cracker box and wrapped it like a present. The yarn broke after a few rounds so Jason bravely held the string while the older kids broke it apart. Fortunately, there were no injuries.

Thumb nail: I was walking into Clara's room and jammed my thumb into the wall, braking my nail on both sides. It's going to take a while for the nail to grow beyond the skin that it's still attached to. I have to protect it and be mindful of it every time I do something because every time something catches on the broken part and pulls the nail up, it makes the skin underneath bleed. Only at times like this do I realize how much I love and appreciate my thumbs!

Overdoing it: I was pretty lazy the first two weeks after I had Hazel. I often think lazy days are what motivates me. I'm not the type of person that can be lazy day after day after day. But I also can't be an over-achiever day after day either. Both lifestyles get old, which is why I tend to alternate. The only problem was trying not to feel lazy left me feeling overdone.

Cookies: I think we'll bake a lot of cookies this year. At least until I figure out what else you're supposed to do on Sunday when you have 8:30am church. Today, the first batch we made resulted in some pretty burnt cookies. I've mostly figured out my gas oven, but when Rachel was here, she made me some cookies and they kept burning. It was weird. I've overcooked plenty of things in my oven, but never burnt something. And no, it wasn't user error. Anyway, it happened again today and I realized the problem. A standard cookie sheet doesn't fit sideways into my oven. Awesome, I know. It will fit longways, barely. However, Jason discovered that you can put the cookie sheet on the guides the racks go on and it will fit sideways. But today I realized that method gets the pan too hot, resulting in cookies that look lovely up top

and more like charcoal on their underside.

Guess we know not to do that anymore.

Music: Angela recently made me a CD using a list of songs I have accumulated over the last year plus other similar sounding songs of her choosing. I have listened to it over and over and over again. Don't worry, there are 52 songs so I won't get sick of it any time soon. I love how the songs make me feel. Happy. Hopeful. Energized. I think my very favorite is All I Want Is You by Barry Louis Polisar.

2 Kids: I have two kids! I was driving home from Beka's house one night and for the first time really thought about the two carseats in my backseat. I had just one for so long, it never seemed like there'd be a second. Having two kids 4 years apart definitely eliminates some of the busyness of two kids. I'm pretty sure the adjustment is a little easier than if Clara was younger. I also realized when you have another kid, your love really does multiply. It's the time that needs to be split, and that's what I need to figure out. That part has been hard for me

Clara: Still sick. Poor girl. But I'm hopeful she's on the mend (finally). Today she crawled into the fort we made and just laid there for over an hour. But it's the first time since Monday that she's been fever free without medicine. Yay!

Preschool: I was pretty set on not putting Clara in preschool next year. She's a smart girl, I don't feel like it's important that she's reading before Kindergarten, I figure she's getting enough learning with Aunt Kathryn and I didn't want to have another time and financial obligation. But, I think I'm reconsidering. I've been thinking about it and I think Clara would really like preschool. She told me she doesn't want to do preschool with me, she wants to go somewhere. So now I'm looking for something just right for Clara. I don't want to pay a bunch of money for her to learn things she already knows or for babysitting, but I also want her to have fun and not feel like learning is a chore. I want it close to my house and in the morning, if possible. Suggestions, anyone? Please and thank you.