Secret Agent Josephine Gg print winner

Forgive me, blog people - I completely dropped the ball on telling you who won the print give-away during Brenda's book tour!

Random.org chose comment number 6, which came from Christy at Jinxyisms.

Christy, I'll be emailing you to find out your mailing address, and then you should get your print in the mail very soon! Congratulations!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Pretty:

One of my Christmas presents - a quilt that was made by my mother-in-law's mom and grandma. Click on the picture to read the full story behind the gift.

Happy:

Noah at the airport, watching our plane being loaded up with luggage and food.

Noah and I are in Germany, visiting family! We've recovered from our jet lag(s) (which took a bit longer for me this time because I managed to catch a cold when I was really sleep-deprived) and are having fun with Omi and Opa, Aunt Inka, and other assorted family members and friends.

Funny:


Inka gave Noah a camera for Christmas, and he's been taking photos of everything. He captures things from an angle we adults have never even really considered, so it's been fun to see his photos. He's got a few blur issues because he lacks practice in pushing the buttons without moving his camera-holding hand, but he's taking really interesting - and sometimes funny - pictures. The self-portrait you see above is one of many. Seems like he's been paying attention during 7days!

Real:

you can read more about this photo on flickr - just give it a click

After some elaborate calculations (and a bit of quick googling), I realized the other day that I'm in my sixth month of pregnancy! As in, five months are completely DONE!
I'm sure that by the end of April, I'll be singing a different tune, but for now I'm ready for time to slow down just a tad. I have diaper elastic to replace and a quilt (for Noah, ahem) to finish, among other things!


Pretty, happy, funny, real is the brainchild of these ladies here, who are encouraging their reader to find contentment in the everyday perfection and imperfection of life.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Pretty:

pyramid in motion

window star

oranges with cloves for smelling good

There's been quite some decorating and crafting around here! The pyramid is imported from Germany - my parents brought it when they spent Christmas with us here two years ago. The best part of the pyramid was the look of wide-eyed wonder and happiness on Noah's face when he saw it in action for the first time.
The window star is just something I whipped up the other night (she said smugly). My grandfather made these stars with great precision (or so I perceived it as a little girl). Each point is folded individually and they are overlapped and glued together to make a star that you can use and re-use during Advent and Christmas season for years. (As long as the sun lets you - they can get pretty bleached out.)
Noah and I made those oranges together. The cloves were a lot pointier than I remembered, so I was actually surprised how long Noah stuck with it. He's got a lot of determination.

Happy:

my hand looks fairly mutant-ish here

Gingerbread was made last Sunday afternoon. I've not had much luck with gingerbread in the past, but this turned out really well. So well, in fact, that it's almost time to make more! It goes without saying that Noah was an enthusiastic little helper. I'm hoping that he'll soon grasp the concept of not cutting one cookie out of the center of the rolled-out dough... but I'm not holding my breath. He's three, after all.

Funny:

leaves!

Real:

There are a few things that are too real for me this week, but photos don't exist of any of them.
Perhaps you can help me with this: I'm taking a water aerobics class two nights a week now. I really enjoy it, but the pool is very chlorinated. I'm usually in the water up to my chin (because the air is kind of chilly), so I end up breathing in the chlorine fumes for an hour while I exercise, and it's burning the mucous membranes in my nose and throat, which is surprisingly painful. Do you have any ideas what I can do to protect myself or at least stop the pain more quickly? I lay awake in bed at night after class because my throat burns. Not good.

Pretty, happy, funny, real is the brainchild of these ladies here, who are encouraging their reader to find contentment in the everyday perfection and imperfection of life.

tree

7 Sachen

I'm jumping on the 7 Sachen* bandwagon - an idea from the lovely Frau Liebe. Every Sunday (or sometimes Monday), 7 photos of things I used my hands for that day.
Unfortunately, I didn't remember the project until late this afternoon, so more than half the day went undocumented.

 Baked gingerbread boys with my human boy. (Turned out delicious if a little spicy. Hello, Cardamom!)

Rinsed a lot of dishes, which makes me grateful for my dishwasher - at least it does most of the work!

Stroked my growing belly.

Tried on every sweater I own, found out that not a single one is long enough for me AND baby to wear it.

Played some Christmas music on the piano.

Harvested one of the little mandarins from our little mandarin tree. My tasters tell me it was delicious.

Lit the second candle on the advent wreath. Christmas is going to be here and gone before we know it!

* 7 Sachen is German for "7 things."

rambly bullets!

This has not been the Best Week Ever, so I've been reduced to bullet blogging.

• I'm blogging from my shiny new laptop (which of course is awesome and NOT part of the not-the-best-week-ever thing), so until I figure out some photo-related stuff, there are no photos. Sorry.
• I had a chiropractic adjustment yesterday. It involved a lot of massage and only gentle cracking (oxymoron?), but I'm really sore now and have come to the conclusion that I need to break up with chiropracting in general. The idea of someone pretzel-ing me into a strange position and the pushing until my bones pop is just not palatable to me. Part of the paperwork I filled out was an "informed consent" form that mentioned a risk of fractures and paralysis... very unreassuring, frankly. Plus, when I got a massage (that ONE time I got one), I actually felt better afterwards. This has been a full 24 hours of soreness that's actually worse than the back pain I had when I went in. FAIL. (Though I'm neither fractured nor paralyzed, so yay.)
• I've started taking a low-impact water aerobics class at a center that mostly does therapy-related stuff for people with disabilities. They have a pool and their classes are open to the (paying, but not much) community. It's a good (though a bit slow) pace for me (right now, ask me again in two months - I'm sure I'll be huffing and puffing when the baby gets bigger), and my fellow water-exercisers are really nice. Now when I tell the nosy nurses that I exercise twice a week it's not a lie anymore! Yay!
• It's December! Today, Noah got verrry excited about his advent calendar (of which I will show you a photo soon, I promise). So excited, in fact, that he asked me at least once each hour if it was "tomorrow" now and he could open another gift. I hope this tapers off as December goes on!
• Another reason why today hasn't been awesome: My friend is closing her store. I worked there for a while (actually longer than I stayed at any other job!), and it has always felt like it was my store, too. So I'm sort of heartbroken about it. I'd love to buy it, but this is not the time in my life to take on such a huge endeavor. Also, I know that I'd be a terrible mother and wife if I owned that (or possibly any other) store, AND I'd never be as good as a store owner as my friend has been. I wish I could just win the lottery for her.
• Mommy Guilt Moment of the day: I wasn't feeling great (sore back, sad etc.), so I was in bed with my laptop while Noah played in his room. That is until he came in and asked me if I could call his grandma to see if she had time to come and play with him. Ouch.

That, I think, is it. Happy beginning of December.

moving right along

Happy first week of Advent!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The pies are defrosting as we speak, the bread for the stuffing is drying out (aka being stale-ified), the turkey is defrosting in the fridge, and I have enough potatoes to make food for a small army.
I made cranberry sauce on Sunday, and it turns out that making it ahead of time was a really good idea, because it gave me the chance to boil it again on Monday (when I realized it hadn't thickened up properly), and then it gave me the chance to eat some of it when my brie sandwich was boring. Yum - cranberry sauce is one of my favorites.
Happy Thanksgiving!

G is for Girl with Greencard (with Giveaway)

I'm so excited to be part of Brenda's (aka Secret Agent Josephine) super-stealthy book tour! Brenda has  written and illustrated three beautiful kid's books!

I have a tendency to be picky, and I'm certainly picky about which books are on Noah's shelves (and not only because I'm the one who gets to read them over and over and over again). These three have my stamp of approval.

stealthy reader

They're a good read-aloud length, and there are plenty of chances for Noah to help me read - he can recognize some of the letters, and he loves to tell me what each letter is for. And thanks to the letter 'N', he now knows what a newt is (he guessed salamander and gecko first... much to my amusement).

"Bo biddly bum bum?! HAHAHA!"

The illustrations are, as you may expect, charming and whimsical and funny (typical Brenda). The books are colorful and playful and funny, which makes them a hit with kids (and parents).
As a matter of fact, Noah liked them so much that I bought numbers as an ebook for my iPod. So far, I have kept that a secret from Noah - I'm not great at sharing my overpriced electronics with a (well-intentioned, usually careful, though often sticky-handed) three-year-old. I have some doctor's appointments coming up though, so when the waiting room gets boring, Noah will get to read Numbers on the iPod. I'm sure he'll love it just as much as I do.


If you know anything about being a secret agent, you know that disguises are of the utmost importance. Not to worry - Brenda's got you covered with printable, cut-out-able, stick-on-able mustaches of all colors and shapes! Click here to download! The green tea brews in tranquility. You know how I feel about mustaches...

har, har, haaaaar!

 Add a few accessories and fly completely under the radar!

trying hard not to laugh

Now here's your to-do list:
1. Leave a comment on this post to enter the giveaway for a beautiful print from the ABC book. Tell me which disguise you couldn't do without on a secret spy mission.
Comments are going to close on November 30th, and I'll randomly pick a winner on December 1st.

2. Click over here to buy one or all of Brenda's books! (They make great Christmas presents, too.) If you've already done that, consider leaving a review.

Brenda's amazon author page with links to paperback and kindle editions of all three books

ABCs on iTunes
Colors on iTunes
Numbers on iTunes

paperback and nook editions of the books at Barnes & Noble

3. Download the template for the mustaches, print, cut, and go under cover! If you take a photo of your mustachioed self, I'd love to see it - why don't you upload it to flickr and add it to the SAJ's Undercover Crafts pool?!

4. Keep checking Brenda's site so you don't miss any of the stops on the super-stealthy book tour! Remember, there's a special give-away for those of you who collect all the secret code sentences. And of course, there'll be lots more stealthy crafts and giveaways and interviews with Brenda!

5. Cuddle up and read a book to your little secret agents!

Working

I've been working on a big project for a while, and we're finally ready for a preliminary reveal:

This little person is due to arrive early in May, which puts me at around 15 or 16 weeks.
I've been feeling alive and human again since the first trimester ended, which is a pretty amazing feeling when you've spent a good two months constantly nauseated and a part of that time feeling that things like "standing up" and "walking around" required more energy than you actually had. One day I will perhaps tell you about the Persistent Heartburn of Doom, but I'm currently just too happy not to be dealing with that anymore.
Supposedly, the baby is the size of an avocado right now, so here's a nice little comparison:

Anyway - we're thrilled.