I enjoyed a lot of “unplugged” time over the past couple of weeks, but I guess it’s time to get back to real life. It takes me about three or four days of being mostly offline to really feel free, and then once I’m free I really don’t want to go back! :)
So, I should give you a report on our Christmas tree. I’m still glad that we saved money and bought a $50 tree at Whole Foods, but this tree ended up being a bummer. About a week before Christmas, it started drying out (not due to being empty of water) and you could really see it drooping. By the time we took it down a few days ago, it was brown and super duper dry.
Now I understand what people mean when they talk about real trees drying out before Christmas (though this one wasn’t a needle-dropper, really). In the past, we’ve always either cut our own tree or gotten one that was cut in Colorado just a couple of weeks prior. Those trees lasted well into January, so there is a huge different in a real-tree-that’s-fresh-cut and real-tree-that-was-cut-a-few-months-ago.
I took the ornaments off the tree and Jeremy took it out to the garage. We offered the 7yo a quarter for every strand of lights he took off. He got to $1.75 and called it quits. After Jeremy tried his hand at it, I was summoned out to finish what I had started, so to speak. I am the lights person for the tree, and I take great care in wrapping the cords around the branches and the trunk so there are lots of lights with minimal loose cords showing. Jeremy thinks it looks great but always forgets what a pain they are to take off so I usually have to be the lights-taker-offer, too. ;)
PSA for all of you first-time pregnant ladies: one of the things they don’t tell you about pregnancy is that your hair will fall out and grow back in during the first year postpartum. For me, I start losing my hair around four months, maybe, and it gets bad enough that the shower drain has to be cleaned out weekly.
It’s all good for a month and then the hair starts growing back in around nine months postpartum. You may think this is no big deal, but you have probably never experienced hair re-growth quite like this. You’ll have annoying baby hairs sticking out from your ears, your forehead, and the nape of your neck. Think about the wacky ways your baby’s hair has grown in and that’s about what it will be like for you.
I complained about the postpartum hair thing to a then-childless friend and she thought I was crazy. After she had her first child, she came back and told me she understood what I was talking about. Be warned! You may lose your baby weight and feel normal by six months, but the hair will haunt you for an entire year! :)
So far, I’ve set one big goal for 2013: sleep through the night. It might sound like a silly goal but I haven’t had eight straight hours of sleep since 2005. (OK, spot me maybe two days per year.) The baby will be one and weaned soon, and I’m not pregnant, so I’m hoping this will be a reality in the next few months. We have some other goals (launch my new From Garbage to Gourmet ebook, pay off the van, and move to a new house) but the “sleep through the night” one is top priority. I just hope that it will be as awesome as I think it will be to sleep through the night!
I love reading your comments – feel free to jump right in with your own daily chatter! :)
$1.99 for Pantry Essentials (gallon) at Safeway
I so hope you meet your sleeping through the night goal SOON!! I personally haven’t had it as bad as you have…my first child was a thumb sucker and what a treat that was! (Except when she was still sucking her thumb at 5 yrs.!) The third however didn’t sleep much at all…not even naps.
For me personally, a full nights sleep is a make it or break it deal on how the day goes…but after a while you get used to it and learn to make do. I forget what it’s like and then when it finally happens again I remember how AMAZING it really is! You will not be disappointed!
Thanks! Ironically, my oldest was not a thumb sucker but my next four were and they still woke up at night (though probably not as much as they would have without the thumb). Two of them quit on their own, and another has mostly quit, but I still find her thumb in her mouth when I check on them at night. I bought some of the nasty-tasting nail polish but I haven’t had the heart to try it yet.
Hi Carrie,
http://www.coastal.com is offering a free pair of prescription glasses(you have to pay for shipping) with their promotion code firstpairfree. If you have a high prescription(like I do) you have to pay extra for the “ultra thin” lenses but if you have a pretty low prescription then all you pay for his shipping.