Buy Nothing Month

We don't have TV at home. I mean... we have a TV, but we have no TV reception. I used to get a fuzzy version of channel 9, but with the digital switch, that's gone too, so I'm down to zero channels. This works really well for our family.
But.
But when I have the chance, I TV-binge (It's one of the reasons why having no TV at home works so well for us - I just don't have it in me to turn the dang thing off once it's on!). While we were in Atlanta, I had the TV on basically whenever we were in our hotel room (which was kind of a lot). I fell hard for HGTV and all their real estate shows. I watched hour after hour of people looking for a house (and wandering through all these great (or admittedly not so great) houses), or fixing up or staging a house to sell, or redecorating homes after buying them.
So guess what happened when I got home?
(Besides major TV withdrawals, of course.)
I was unhappy with my house in a big way.
My house is small. My house has electrical outlets in all the wrong places. My house has no closet space to speak of. My kitchen is minuscule. The only (!!!) bathroom is roughly the size of a postage stamp. The list goes on and on.
The thing is - I love our house. My house is cute. My house has lots of pretty features.
It finally hit me - it's not my house's fault!
I have too much stuff, and all the stuff I have is completely disorganized.
So I came up with a plan. A simple plan: Buy NOTHING until Christmas (except for food, toiletries, and gifts), and get rid of some of the stuff that's accumulated but is no longer being used.
I've blessed some of my friends with clothes that no longer fit anyone in my family, I've made some little advent gifts with fabric I've hoarded for several years, and I've only been to Target once in three weeks.
My birthday is in December, and I'm happy to report that this year will be the first time in probably about a decade when I won't have to shrug and smile awkwardly when people ask me for a wish list, since I've abandoned my amazon "just one more CD and I get free shipping" habit and my Target "I think I deserve a movie" habit.
I haven't been without moments of weakness (like, look at this! And this! And this!), but overall, this has been easier than anticipated. Yay for not buying stuff!

Alright, woman. Enough!

Peachy

Just over a week ago, The Husband had to attend a training in Atlanta, GA. Since I didn't feel much like single-parenting for a week and a friend of mine told me that Atlanta was a super-family-friendly, happy, delightful town, we decided that we'd all go together.
I was envisioning a hotel in walking distance to, well, everything. I wanted to go see the zoo and the aquarium and perhaps check out some historical sites.
Turns out the training was about 14 miles north of downtown (where EVERYTHING is located), the hotel we were staying in was right next to the office park where they training was taking place, and we had decided not to rent a car (since that would have cost more than my flight ticket), so I was sort of stuck.
Our first day there, I ended up taking Noah out to walk to a nearby grocery store, ALDI, that recently expanded from Germany into North America and is so far only to be found on the Eastern side of the country. I was extremely excited about this store, not because it's actually an exciting store, but because it's like a little part of home, transplanted for my enjoyment. The store was eerily similar to its German counterparts - right down to the, uh, pretty linoleum flooring. ALDI was the big excitement of day 1.

The next morning, I braved a one-hour busride followed by a short subway ride to see the Georgia Aquarium. The busride was complicated by the fact that Noah was not allowed to sit in the stroller (which would have forced him to be buckled in, which would have made my life a lot easier because it would have cut out that whole delightful hour I spent making sure he didn't climb and/or fall off his seat/onto the seat in front of him/out of the window) and by the no-eating-on-the-bus rule, but we survived.*

The aquarium was a short walk away from the subway stop, so we actually got to see Centennial Olympic Park, which has all kinds of neat fountains, two playgrounds, and a huge grassy field.

I love aquariums. Love. There's just something about watching fish swim around happily... I can't quite put it into words. At any rate, I really enjoyed the Georgia Aquarium.

Noah was delighted to be allowed to run around, and we ended up going through the exhibits kind of fast, but after a quick lunch break, he fell asleep in the Ergo and I had the opportunity to sit down in the amphitheater-like room in front of the big fish tank. It's dark-ish and there is classical music playing softly on the PA... it was a nice treat for me in the middle of a long, exhausting day.
We spent our last day in Georgia recovering from our field trip, playing in the hotel pool, and walking to a book store where Noah played with the train table while I read a trashy magazine that had been left in the kids' section by a thoughtful parent.
Aside from a little snafu with our plane (they found a leak in the hydraulics at the last minute, so we had to change planes) and a ride on an airport shuttle that seemed to take forever to get us home, the return trip was uneventful.
It's fun to travel, but it's great to be home. :)

More photos are here!

*It was the ride home with a tired Mama and a tired Noah that was more or less unbearable. That hour was worse than the 4.5 hours we spent on the plane getting to Atlanta!

caterparty, part II

After considering and reconsidering several possibilities, I settled on making Noah's party a Very Hungry Caterpillar party. I spent a lot of time and effort on making the invitations. Brenda had the wonderful idea for making it an accordion-folded caterpillar, and I loved it, so I didn't mind slaving away cutting out ovals until the proverbial cows came home. As an added bonus, all the guests were extremely impressed with me for making these, and several families told me that their kids actually played with it. WIN!

I included two photos of Noah to show how far we've come in just one year. It's amazing how much growth and development happens in such a short time... I wish I could learn that many new and groundbreaking things in just one year!
The plan for the party was simple - we rented a local park with ample picnic benches and tables as well as a really neat wading pool for the kids to play in. A lovely place to cool off and entertainment for the kids? Check!

I made cupcakes:

Since it was so hot, I actually left in the middle of the party and picked the cupcakes up from home. Because I really didn't want the frosting to melt, I left them in the boxes for people to grab, though it would have been much cuter to arrange them more nicely:

(And yes, there was a second box. I made two big batches of cupcakes.)
I actually frosted the head of the caterpillar with home-made frosting dyed with boiled-down red peppers since I was/am a little paranoid about feeding my kid artificial colors. I can't recommend it... neither the color nor the consistency turned out very well (which was actually fine, since Noah didn't care and nobody else knew). The eyes and nose are made from banana slices and raisins. The cupcakes were probably the one thing I was the most freaked out about, but I am really happy with how they turned out in the end (thanks to Bethany's help and my own non-idiotic-ness).
For food, we had assemble-your-own sandwiches (which was inexpensive and very fitting with the theme, since the caterpillar eats through all sorts of sandwich-related stuff: cheese, salami, pickles, green leaves... you get the picture). We also had fresh fruits & veggies and some lollipops - basically most of the items the caterpillar eats through.
But you know me... I didn't stop there. I spent hours in the kitchen the morning of the party, using an apple corer and drinking straws to poke holes into our food. I know you guys get it, but I had to explain the holes to a few people later that day. :)

To keep our food cool, I used aluminum pans filled with ice cubes and set smaller aluminum pans inside. To make the food-choosing easier, I took more photos of the food from the book and pasted them onto the lids of the pans:

We simply used paper plates, napkins, and tablecloths in green, red, and yellow. For decorations, I made table tents with photos of Noah. These ended up making great party favors for the doting family members.
I also prepared a craft (making fingerprint-caterpillars on strips of cardstock as bookmarks), but the kids were so busy playing in the water that it went largely ignored (which is much better than not having something prepared for kids who are suddenly very bored).
There was a ton of gifts...

...and some delighted cupcake-eating/smearing.

In other words...

...successful party!

caterparty, part 1

(Hey, did you know that you can either raise a toddler (aka defend your house) or blog about living with one? Forgive my blog silence.)

Noah's birthday was, of course, celebrated in a big way. I started thinking about party themes months and months before his birthday, which is amazing considering that I'm usually more of a "Oh, hey! Your birthday is next week. Should we call some people?" kind of a party planner.


After I'd settled on a theme, I started bugging Bethany about cupcakes. The cupcakes were a major stressor for me, and I had millions of questions! Thankfully, Bethany is a very patient person, and virutally held my hand through the whole process. She even almost made the cupcakes for me, seeing how she is the queen of cupcakes, but she had prior committments for party day (which also meant that she, Annalie, and Troy had to miss the party).

After some emailing back and forth, Bethany and Brenda decided to come up to hang out and to do some hard-core party brainstorming. I had been gripped by pre-party panic... I was completely paralized and couldn't plan or prepare anything because there were just too many options! I had a date, but that was pretty much it. Out three brains put together did wonders for me! (Also, hanging out was fun!) The panic lost its death-grip, and before long, I was shopping for supplies, printing out photos, and cutting construction paper... (And ordering balloons, which I will no be doing again, ever. Driving those things home was the worst!)


(Stay tuned for part 2, which I'm sure I'll write sometime before Christmas, if Noah ever naps again, which is not a sure thing.)

Ohhh, it splatters!

Ohhh, it splatters!, originally uploaded by girlwithgreencard and fabric!.

I had the bright idea to make fingerpaint today. I googled how to, then mixed water, corn starch, and food coloring. I followed the directions, but my paints came out super runny (as you can see). I think next time I'd try to make a paste by adding slowly and gradually adding water to corn starch.
However that may be, we "painted" today. It was an insane mess, and as is to be expected, Noah really, really enjoyed himself.
And so did I.

FAIL!

Remember that bit about starting a couch-to-5k program?
It all started with a good friend telling me that she was soooo excited to train for a 5k. My first thought was that this was a silly idea because, well, running is so... well, I hate running. The program she told me about sounded really good and easy enough, so thoughts of the possibility of training with her swirled in my head for a day or so. Then, I had half-ish of a beer with dinner, and suddenly, that couch-to-5k program sounded SO VERY AWESOME! I'd be a running runner! I'd be buff and fit and generally... yar! I shot my friend a quick message saying that I was in, and went on my first workout the next morning.
The first workout was fun. It felt completely manageable to do 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking alternately for 20 minutes. I was only minorly sore, and because I also started riding my bike on the same day (INSANITY, THY NAME IS SONJA!), I never could tell if it was the running or the biking that made me sore.
This morning, I went on my second run-workout.
I knew I was in trouble when I felt absolutely zero motivation to actually go and do it. After my second running-minute, both of my knees ached ever so slightly (a warning - this stuff only gets worse with more exercise), and my shins felt a little splinty (or I'm a slightly hypochodriacal person, who knows). I was sweating and panting.
I suddenly remembered that I hate running. Hate it.
I couldn't think of any good reasons to make myself go through with this silly 5k thing.
So I'm not.
And I am so happy about it.

things I have been doing instead of blogging

• twitter-ing
• facebook-ing
• flickr-ing
• watching Chuck, then re-watching Chuck
• talking other people into watching Chuck
• hanging out at the beach
• painting pottery with Bethany
• riding my bike with Noah on the back in his new bike seat
• cooking from my new cookbook
• starting a couch to 5K program to prove that I can do it
• playing board games with friends
• re-arranging furniture (IKEA has new stuff! Squeeee!)
• working

one

We celebrated Noah's birthday by eating cake,
playing in the newly built sandbox with brand-new super cool sand toys

and having dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town where Noah got to eat his first few bites of restaurant food (he approved). After dinner, we tore into the pile of presents, played with the bounty, and then tucked a tired big boy-baby hybrid into bed.



It was a good day, celebrating a good year.

big boy

easy rider, originally uploaded by girlwithgreencard and fabric!.

I know you're all angling for birthday photos, but those'll take some more time... Meanwhile, here's the big boy, ready to ride his new favorite thing.

teaser

sleepy snugglefist, originally uploaded by girlwithgreencard and fabric!.

Somebody is having a birthday today... maybe this mommyblogger will get around to writing a proper entry for the occasion later.