holding off until sweater is done

Hello Loves,

I’ve missed all of you but I’ve stayed away until I could photograph myself in my finished sweater I’ve been knitting for about 9 months. I was almost done on Saturday, and then I realized that I did half of the collar incorrectly and I humbly tore it out.Plus I want to add an I-Pod pocket on the arm for upcoming nursing fests.

The Rebels, Ladybird and Coco, are perfecting their tantrum skills on me. Sometimes I have the fortitude to rise above it and stay calm. Other times I yell, scaring even myself with the magnitude of my outburst, and we all end up in a pile crying and hugging, with apologies flying. The second happens more often than I’d like to admit.

On the workout front, I’ve officially hung up the too small sportsbra and committed to yoga and swimming and walking. I’ve also started reading The Thrive Diet and I love it. It is an accumulation of all the Vegan lit. that has interested me for the past year+, and the author , Brendan Brazier, is a pro Ironman. Vegans can kick butt– without cooking and eating it, first.

This is the week where I need to be somewhere warm next year. I am done with winter, even though it isn’t done with me.

Off to finish the sweater, then walk the dog before picking up the Rebels from daycare. Today is my day alone. Daisy Dog is sunning herself in the living room. Time for reflection and a big salad that little hands won’t eat. Joy.

“For those about to rock, we solute you.” -AC/DC

2009 Resolution; Less  Soccer [Mom], more Rocker [Mom].

1. Get rid of this God-awful-helmet-hair and get something with some style. I currently look like a news anchor cum Republican Senator’s Wife. Time to bust out some layers and add highlights and low-lights. I need to find a hairstylist who is worth his or her weight in overpriced hair product.
2. Early to bed, early to rise. The resolution to wake up, and actually get up, dovetails into Chris’ desire to start attending morning yoga classes. I will be expanding my Mothering Hours from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.  I will get to bed by 9 p.m. to make up the lost morning hour.
3. Learn to play guitar. This resolution came to me in a dream.  I woke up at 2 a.m. thinking “I should really learn to play guitar.” Go with it.
4. Figure out my fancy new camera and this darn WordPress. I love and fear my new camera. Repeat after me, “Knowledge is power. Knowledge is power…..”
5. Make a felted camera case for fancy new camera. And a camera strap. I will post instructions on Brownbuilt, or better yet, make them and sell them on Etsy. Maybe this will offset the cost of the fancy new camera. Yeah, right.
6. Birth Brown #3 sometime in late May, early June. Have a “Welcome Baby Summer Solstice” party instead of a baby shower where everyone brings a  frozen dish instead of  baby gifts.
7. Burn old journals and datebooks that just sit in my studio and bum me out. Do this after Baby is born so I can toast, and drink, to my mistakes and remember that mistakes brought me to the beautiful place that is my life.
8. Prenatal yoga once a week. And then postnatal once a week until I can start running. How do I stack a running jogger for 3 kids? I must look into this.
9. Continue to go the the gym 3 times a week to  workout and visit with Laura. I resolve to be supportive, not envious, of her half Ironman training.
10. E-bay and/or Craigslist all the fancy, useless stuff that is packed away in my basement and cluttering up my drawers. Put the money towards a new sewing machine and  baby hammock.
11. Paint the kitchen lavender. For about a year everything I do, sew, paint, and knit is a shade of purple. Again, go with it.
12. Knit myself a pretty nursing shawl. It will probably be purple. Maybe navy with light lavender edging for contrast. First I must finish eggplant colored shawl-neck sweater I started in 2008.
13. Redesign and make another Mei Tai sling for Baby. This will be prototype #3 for baby #3. I will post the design on Brownbuilt.
14. Graft dying apple tree to new dwarf trees. Cut down  mammoth dying apple tree and use the trunk + 12′ to make an awesome fairy-fort for the girls. Determine what constitutes a “Fairy-fort”.
15. Make chicken tractor and acquire 4 chickens.

Upon reviewing my list, it doesn’t look very “rocker” at all. Except for #3. The point is to not let my artistic spirit get lost in the undertow of raising children, working out, making dinner and keeping this tiny house from exploding at the seams.

I still need to wash the dishes, but I can throw on an i-pod and listen to the Yeah,Yeah,Yeah’s while I scrub.

Yoga weekend. Thanksgiving Canceled. She’ll be comin’ Round the Mountain….

I am posting pictures of our ladies yoga weekend on Flickr. It was such fun to knit and chat and eat great food and do lots of yoga. If I was in a sorority, I would want it to be like this was. We arrived on Friday night, itching to go for a walk. Then we discovered that it was the opening of deer hunting season, and unless we packed our florescent orange jackets and yoga pants, we were best to stay around Artha. So off to the yoga studio, then back to the house for huge bowls for guacamole and burrito fixings. Saturday we greeted the day with more yoga, breakfast prepared by the owner’s of Artha and then some goal building. Then lululemon‘s Natalia directed us in some goal building excercises. I built an inspiring  collage and listed S.M.A.R.T. goals for the next 1/3/5/and 10 years.  And S.M.A.R.T. is an acronym for  Specific,  Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic, and Timely goals. Of course I wrote them in pencil, so the goals can shift. It is so important to take time to realize your dreams and write them down, especially when surrounded by earth loving, beautiful mothers, who have such great goals of their own.

Other news, we all got the flu on Wednesday night, so we canceled Thanksgiving and rescheduled it for Sunday at Grandma L and M’s house. It was just the 6 of us, but the grandma’s pulled out all the stops and we had a traditional feast, complete with a pumpkin pie that Chris prepared.

[They'll] be coming round the Mountain… my sister-in-law, her boyfriend, and their terrier are moving into our spare bedroom. I have been in a frenzy of sorting and uncluterring, trying to eak out more space in our 1200 sq. foot ranch. They live small in Japan and I refuse to give into the American McMansion… although sometimes I do wish for my own bathroom and closet. But then again, who doesn’t wish for such things. As mother always said” If wishes were horses, beggers would ride.”