The Toaster Deal

Roomie and I made a deal.

If I orchestrated The Great Move, Roomie agreed that I could leave our cursed non-toasting toaster behind.

I got the toaster as a hand-me-down from my folks when I got married. No problem, I love second-hand stuff and I was grateful to have it. During the course of our four years at the apartment though, it finally reached its last leg. The little knobs on the bottom that determine how much toasting occurs, snapped off. The little trap doors on the bottom that released all the crumbly breadcrumb goodness, suddenly stopped opening, probably the fault of the preserves that have fallen from "on high" down the slot and have hardened on the bottom right near where the trigger release door opens (did I just write that?!). Not to mention the fact that it merely produces warm bread.

That was the last straw.

I love toasted bread (I'm going to recant this later on my green blog, because of the carcinogens that occur when you toast things… but pay no attention. I really do love things nice and browned, this is my blog, I can be frank here if I want). My toaster currently only toasts one side of bread, the other of which, is heated by default. Not good.

We are almost completely all done with The Great Move and Roomie hasn't mentioned my consolation prize. He said I could purchase a new one when next we are out in town and I see one I want. Fair enough, I thought.

But, it just so happened tonight that the bread that came out of my bread machine this evening seemed to be a little undercooked and was in desperate need of toasting… maybe we can get Roomie to take a drive with me tonight.

Photo credit: flickr - alwayschangingclothing

Inner-City Camping

This last weekend, I was really suffering from cabin sickness. Aoife and I had been down with a cold since we moved in the previous weekend, which meant no going out and no visitors coming in. By the end of the week, Aoife and I were both ready for some time away from our new home.

So… we went camping. Friday had a high of 27 and Saturday had a high of 29 but that didn't stop us. We drove away from our comfy new apartment, went to our campsite, cleared the area and while Roomie chopped up kindling and started a fire, I started putting up our tent, brought out the sleeping bags and tried to locate where I stashed the s'more supply.

By the time Aoife awoke from her evening nap on Friday, we were all set up and she was watching the glow of her first fire. Roomie maintained the fire well into the evening and by the time we fell asleep in one little heap under the blankets we were snuggled warm with the campfire and filled to the brim with dark chocolate-graham cracker-marshmallow goodness. (Now before someone calls me out on it, yes, I ate real marshmallows. I was going to make a homemade batch but I couldn't find kosher gelatin at the market and we were in a fix, so it is probably the first official non-kosher food item I've had since before I got pregnant. At any rate, that isn't the point of this post, so leave it alone, already.)

We woke up and Roomie went off to the loo and to put his contacts in, I flipped the thermostat and started up the electric griddle and then we both started making our camping breakfast: organic spinach, free-range vegetarian-fed eggs (over medium), scalloped new potatoes and organic zucchini seasoned with cold-pressed olive oil and vegan Spike. WAIT! What?!

Yea, we cheated.
We had to pay rent until the middle of February and since we had this fantastic empty apartment and some camping equipment that needed to be aired out and a three day weekend to enjoy it… well, we set up camp in our living room off Holland Road. We heard the drag racers and the ambulance sirens, but it felt like a retreat into the mountains. We brought the laptop since we still have internet, but we had little else. The three of us jumped back into bed after our breakfast and enjoyed some serious family time.
Aoife thought the tent was fantastic and Roomie was really relieved that we finally got to test out the air-mattress that we bought ages ago for our guests. Me? I was just having fun with my favorite two people, both of which are apparently pyromaniacs and want to know if we are going again this weekend?

Trash Talk

With all the trips I've recently taken from our apartment to our car to reuse our boxes for our move, I've been acutely aware of how much trash I create. I also used to live near a landfill that was created into a park, and now, I live near a landfill that is about to become a park. It seems I just can't get away from it.

With everything I put into the trash, I've started wondering: was that something I could have prevented? Here's a recent sampling of the refuse I put into a landfill and how I plan to curb that activity next time around:

• Plastic produce bags
• Herbal tea bag
• Paper napkin
• Kleenex (a lot of them)
• Cough drop wrappers
• Ziploc bag container
• Organic cream bottle
• Chinese bistro take-out container

Plan of action to curb my landfill contributions:

• Plastic produce bags: I will start bringing my own reusable bags to the grocery store. I will bring bags for produce items, for bulk dry goods and for carrying my items from the store.
• Herbal tea bag: Roomie and I have already started buying loose leaf black tea so that we aren't putting bags into the garbage and we can utilize the used leaves for composting, but I should start buying my herbal teas loose leaf as well since I cannot consume black tea because of Baby.
• Paper napkin: Yes, I really could go to cloth napkins. :D
• Kleenex (a lot of them): Oh, how delightfully old-school is this? I could use handkerchiefs… apparently, they aren't just for your hair anymore!
• Cough drop wrappers: I will find a brand that sells the cough drops in a single container, preferably in something highly recyclable, like tin and are not individually wrapped.
• Ziploc bag container: I have already cut out the useage of plastic baggies, but I will start encouraging Roomie to take his lunch Bento-style and not utilize plastic bags.
• Organic cream bottle: Our grocery store used to sell our cream in glass bottles (how cool is that?!) and then you could bring them back and get a credit on your next purchase of dairy. I know we have a dairy in town, perhaps I could follow-up on that. Of course, this brings up another valid point about participating in a cow-share. I could just use my own containers.
• Chinese bistro take-out container: Well, I probably should stop eating P.F. Chang's…

Wow. Everything in my trash bin was totally recyclable or preventable.

Photo credit: flickr - alex_lee2001

Communing with the Almighty

Our place of worship celebrates communion once a month. I'm not sure how this all worked out exactly, but somehow this is the first communion I remember since the Baby was born. I likely was out nursing, or changing a diaper or trying to get her to sit still for the fourth hour of church… poor thing.

Perhaps for that reason alone, sitting with my daughter, I began to think about how she will process this event later and what I will say when she asks what I am doing and if she can do it too. As I sat in the back of our church this Sunday, teary eyed, holding my sleeping babe and thinking about Christ's sacrifice, I imagined the conversation going something like this:

"(whispering) Momma? What is that?"
"I'm partaking of Communion, Aoife."
"(still whispering) Why do we do that?"

"(deep breath) Not that long ago, God allowed himself to be a little child once, just like you. In his entire life, he never sinned. Yes, he cried when he stubbed his toe and his tummy rumbled when it was time to eat and he asked questions just like you do, but he did no wrong. When he grew up and was a little older than Momma and Daddy, he started teaching people about God the Father, because people had forgotten. One night he was having dinner with his friends and he took the bread and drink off the table and asked that people share a meal regularly in remembrance of Him: of His life and then of His death and resurrection (when He came back to life). People forget things quickly sometimes and Jesus wanted us and our families to always remember Him.

Would you like to share communion with Momma?"

photo credit: flickr - fuzuoko

Dragging along

My heart is heavy. I have been taking down wall hangings and frames from our walls, packing our china and listlessly walking from room to room. We've signed our new lease on Tuesday and have a month to move and suddenly, my heart is sad. Aoife is bouncing in her doorway jumper just two feet from the very location she inhaled her first breath of air. It absolutely captures my heart watching her move. What sweet memories.

I remember feeling this way before... I was 13 and we were moving to Arizona. We lived in a suburb of Milwaukee that (in my adolescent mind) was idyllic. We lived in a huge brick house and I had a bedroom that was larger than I have since had in the last dozen years. I loved our church, my school, my friends and moving was going to be traumatic.

I've moved five times since then and have learned to let go of a lot of the attachment that remains with loving a place of habitat. Except now. Yes, I knew I wasn't going to live in this apartment forever. But this is where my life with Joshua began. This is where we brought our wedding shower gifts and where he first brought me home after our honeymoon. It was where my daughter was born. It was where we celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, promotions...

Roomie reminds me that this is our first move together. Before this, it was His stuff and Her stuff... now it's ours. Stuff from our travels, our wedding, our mutual tastes. We get to decide together how our new home will be pieced together. Roomie sat in our dining room (sans table) of the new place last night and as I stood unpacking spices, dishes, and boxes that just arrived from Turkey, we laughed about blunders in the old place (when my brother was living with us).

This start is new, and it's together... and I'm excited. Maybe we'll have Baby #2 in the new place... wouldn't that just be memorable?!

Unsettled

Roomie, Baby and I drove over to the new apartment today. They gave us our keys and told us we could come back tomorrow to sign the lease since they weren't ready for us yet. "That's fine", I told them and ran back the car shaking the keys for my husband to see. Baby was asleep in the car so Roomie went in first to scope around and then I could run in.

When it was my turn, I ran up to the building (it was raining... oh the luck) and I instantly found that the key sticks in the door. I opened up and found that it had been freshly painted and had (relatively) new carpet.

"Nice", I thought.

I started walking through the space... smaller than I remembered, and it didn't have furniture in it yet. I paced through the rooms: "the hutch will go here... I don't think our couch will fit this, maybe over here against this wall instead?" In trying to figure out the bedroom layouts and how our things will best occupy them, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. "What are we doing?!" Oh, saving $500 a month was my left-brain's reply.

As I turned off the lights and walked back to the front to leave, I suddenly felt tired. So much work, so much effort all while offering stability for Aoife and consistent effort in school and in our normal home agenda.

This will be good, though. It will be a great community for us. Closer to school, church and our friends, this may be the change our life has been needing.

The nagging spirit in my heart came back: but it's smaller, it doesn't have Southern exposure, we loose a bathroom, a private kitchen and extra storage... this place doesn't even have a pool!

Maybe that doesn't matter this time around? We'll downsize and make room for our little family and then use this as an opportunity to springboard into the next chapter of our lives.

Now, about that front door key...

Aoife, I love the way you...

1. laugh at how I sing "Singing in the Rain" while I'm showering.
2. look when you first rouse from your nap. Your soft blue eyes melt my heart.
3. lick your lips when you are done eating.
4. give me the "I love you" look.
5. lie in bed and watch me sleeping when you first wake in the morning.
6. always respond to my voice.
7. keep me company at night. Your breathing is so precious.
8. giggle when I nibble on your ribs and gum your arms.
9. enjoy Jane Austen films with me.
10. humor my attempts to tell you about the highlights in my Economist.
11. shake your head "no" when the answer is most surely "yes". It's completely comical.