In which I digress

First let me say that I am so....surprised and gratified....and just plain thankful for the responses so far to yesterdays post about my decision to birth my next baby at home. My readers are so amazingly respectful and supportive and constantly surprise me with it. Not everything you hear about rudeness on the internet is true. Each and every comment was wonderful and I really appreciate all the support and encouragement. Of course the comments on that post are still open for those of you that have questions about it and don't check my blog every 24 hours ;)

To answer Jess To the Lo's question: Am I doing a water birth? I don't really know yet. I know that I will use water at a comfort technique. It was HEAVEN with my labor with Zeke, I have very clear memories of curling up in the bathtub in a fetal position and the nurse joking about how perfectly I fit. My midwife also provides a birthing pool with her services so its really just the expense of the liner (cheap) to be able to do so. But I think to qualify as a water birth the baby has to be born under the water, and I'm not sure if when the time comes I will want to stay in the pool or get out and move to the bed. I'm open to both options and am going to leave it up to the moment itself.

To the previously planned post (in as much as I plan any post at least):

It's been a really successful last few days and I'm very proud of myself about it.

1. I was featured on SITS on Wed, which allowed me to break thru the 100 follower ceiling. (ok maybe there isnt a 100 follower ceiling but its a nice round number). Now I am the most popular person on the internet. Josh's words, not mine. I was all like....yeah....have you ever heard of Mckmama? Or Dooce? Or Bring The Rain? (In case you were wondering...he hadn't) I am most definately not the most popular mommy blogger on the internet, though, even IF Josh is so totally out of the loop as to not know who MckMamma is. Nor would I honestly ever want to be. Think of the pressure!!! Thousands of adoring fans that alternately build you up as an angel and a saint and THE BEST MOM EVARR and then get bored and tear you down because *gasp* you are human after all.

Although I hear that Heather (the blogger responsible for Dooce) and her husband have both quit their jobs and live off her blog now. And not only that but they pay an assistant. I could totally dig that... Except the whole Josh not having a job thing. I love the man but I also need him to leave for a good 8 hours sometimes.

Plus a lot of the really really popular bloggers (like MckMamma and Angie from Bring the Rain) got so because of some personal tragedy and people flocked to them to offer prayer and support. I love that the internet can be used in such a way (see the above thoughts on how surprisingly supportive the internet has been for me) but I dont ever want to be in a position to partake of the kind of prayer warriors that they have collected.

But I digress.

Being featured on SITS? It felt awesome.

2. I crocheted 2 newborn hats. They are thus:
and thus:
My original plan was to exchange the purple ribbon for a blue one if its a boy but on second thought I think even if it was blue the ribbon would be pretty femmy. Plus I know so many pregnant women that I'm sure I can find someone to give it to if I dont end up needing it. So my new plan is to just make 2 or 3 hats for each sex and give away the ones I don't need. Newborn hats are so small that the first one only took me about an hour to make and the second maybe 2 hours.

Now usually I dont start crochetting until mid September. I last until January and then nary pick up a hook and yarn again until the next September. I have a short attention span, what can I say? I decided to start early this year though because I have QUITE the project list. Not only will I need a few newborn hats and of course the dreaded newborn blanket (remember what I said about my attention span? projects that take more then 1 ball of yarn and a few days of my time are the bane of my artistic existence).

But BESIDES all the new baby stuff I also need:
-A new hat for Zeke. This hat from last year still fits him, I accidentally made it a little big at the time honestly, but now I'm glad because it may be my favorite that I have EVER made and now it will last 2 years. But he really should have 2 hats. Also it seems mean to make so much for the baby and nothing for him. So a new hat must be made. Im thinking a cute little wool beanie with a visor.

(ps, the cuteness of that picture is reminding me why I need to start spending more time on photoshop again...)

-Josh has also requested some gloves. And since I never crochet him anything, lets face it, 99% of yarn projects are fairly girly, I am really excited to comply.

-I kind of also want hand warmers for myself.

-Plus I found a hat on Ravelry.com that I might DIE without. You know how that goes...

So lots of projects to get thru. And my goal is to get thru every single one of them (except the baby blanket) with yarn that I already have. Because they are all smallish projects and I have a lot of yarn around the house. And also, I'm on one of those dreaded things...a *whisper* budget.

Anyways, I think Ive digressed about 4 times already and the point was I have already started on my crocheting for the year and completed 2 hats. I did so without spending money on any yarn or patterns (another bane of my artistic existence is that I don't follow directions well or count my stitches....like ever. So I end up ruining a lot of projects that I think I can "figure out as I go". You try to play with string in front of a kitten and a toddler and remember what number you were on and tell me how it works for you. But I'm digressing yet again, I can tell because I used these ())

3. I baked my first Chocolate Zucchinni Cake. Josh often wonders why I cant ever bake a cake the way our ancestors intended, from a box and in a 9 by 13 pan. My excuse? Because its not preeeetty. But I decided to humor him slightly this time around. While the cake was not a box mix, I did bake it in the dreaded 9 by 13 and frost it from a can. No fancy stuff and not even a circle pan, layer of filling, or frosting bag in sight.

I got my zuchinni from my MIL's garden and the recipe from Epicurious. Here it is if you want it, but you have to find your own zuchinni. I recommend substituting applesauce for the oil, a cup of milk + a tbl of vinegar for the buttermilk (who keeps buttermilk in the house?), and mixing in the chocolate chips. Also if you have the kind of 6 year old child that will refuse to eat chocolate cake because of barely visible green flecks (hey, i've known children like this) then I would peel and puree the zuchinni instead of just grating it.

Did you see the above line about me not following directions well??

But the POINT (if I ever get to it) is that I baked a cake and that the cake in question was moist and rich and delicious and pleased all.

Oh and true story about baking this cake. (wait for it, this digressing is worth it) I put some butter on the counter (where Zeke cant reach, right?) to soften and decided to check my email. A few minutes later I look down at my son, who is holding the butter and EATING it whole. EWWW.

The Instant Messsage conversation went like this:

me: OMG!!!!

Zeke is eating my butter stick!!

K: EWW

WHY DO YOU HAVE A BUTTER STICK?

me: I was letting it soften on the counter

he seriously ate like a fourth of it!!!!

EWWWWW!

K: Oh

eww

So it was very "ew". And when I threw his stick of butter away and got out a new one to soften that darn kid was totally trying to nab it off the counter AGAIN. He may take after his aunt Brittany...I remember some family legend about her and a stick of butter and some sugar...

4. I cleaned, dried, folded, and put away 5....count them 5!!!!!....loads of laundry. Yeah, camping kind of builds that stuff up. And I know some of you do this daily but I have a family of 3...so I dont.

Plus our usual agreement around here is that Josh lugs the basket down the basement stairs and
gets eveyrthing cleaned and then lugs the baskets back up, at which point I take over and do all necessary folding, ironing, hanging, ect. I may be the queen of sweeping, the mistress of dishes, the goddess of bed making...but for some reason I CANT STAND running a washing machine and dryer. It's my kryptonite.

Our agreement began way back in our first apartment when I was afraid of the very creepy laundry room. There was this hallway of storage rooms right behind the marchines that looked like a prison hallway and a bunch of cells, it wasn't very well lighted, and as a workin' gal I always had to do the laundry after dark. Everyone knows in an apartment you DO NOT try to do your laundry on the weekend. That is a practice of despair. So since Josh was going to school full time (which as all students know is not actually equal to a full time job) he took over laundry duty. And in every subsequent apartment and house I was very careful to make sure I had some excuse as to why this division of labor had to continue.

I'ts not that big of a job but good God does it feel nice sometimes to have just 1 thing that I dont have to do.

But what with the camping back-up and Josh working late every day this week I had to take over the dreaded chore.

Carrying that last load up the basement stairs I swear the cat and Zeke were singing the Miss America Song to me. They are nice that way.