Currently | Mid-October

+In My Head

FINALLY! The weather has cooled off, the sun has changed positions…it’s FALL! Ok, so, there might have been some mid 90* days in the last few weeks but in general it feels like Fall! That said, I’m now wondering where this year went. It seems like once July hit that the accelerator was pushed to the floor! It’s going to be bam!—Halloween—bam!—Thanksgiving—bam!—Christmas! I’m not sure I’m ready yet for a new year.

Forest has had many ear infections over this last year and this last one from September that never quite went away had our pediatrician finally decide to send us to an ear, nose, and throat specialist. Upon her recommendation we’re now moving forward with having ear tubes placed in his ears. It’s definitely nerve wracking for me and Chris but we know in the end it will be better for him in that hopefully there will be less infections and that his hearing won’t be jeopardized. I have ear problems and can barely tolerate a light wind even if it is 70* out, muchless anything colder with a wind.

More on the toddler front is that sleeping and walking is changing around here. In early September I started losing my mind with bedtime and it was just time to move him out of our room and into his room full-time. That meant that I started a new routine in his room at bedtime as well as deciding to sleep downstairs for awhile since his routine after 10pm was to wake up every 2 hours. I wasn’t interested in going downstairs every few hours, bleary-eyed, to put the kid back to sleep.

In the last week nursing to sleep had stopped working so well and so I finally started moving on to something else that I hadn’t been able to do before…nurse for awhile, give the kid his pacifier and then stick him in the crib to put himself to sleep. Now, mind you, I can’t leave the room while he does this quite yet. I have to stand over his crib and let him know I’m there, and towards the end I can sit down in the rocking chair. This is definitely progress. On a good night the routine is about twenty minutes whereas on a bad night it can be an hour. So, in response to all of this, his being able to get himself to sleep, is that he’s sleeping longer stretches at night. Sometimes he wakes up at 12:30 and then around 3 or 4, other times it’s 2 and then 4 or 4:30. I’ll get him back down in the crib after the first wake-up but so far after the second I just carry him over to the guest bedroom and we snooze until it is time to get up. The upside is that I’m back in my own bed again *and* sleeping longer without interruption. Someday I’d like these wake-ups to be just once and eventually for that ever fantastical thing called “sleeping through the night” to occur. Slowly, slowly. Patience is key for gentle sleep training…that and just general developmental changes!

+Watching

Homeland is back! Only three episodes in but I’m loving this season so far. Gah, I love Clare Danes!

I’m also watching on Netflix a show called Peaky Blinders. It’s a mob drama set in 1919 Birmingham, England. Very dark but has great acting. I’m not sure how I like the meshing of modern music with the period visuals, but it’s good so far.

+Outside My Window
Leaves are falling off of the trees. It’s looking gorgeous outside now with the bright blue Fall skies! Chris and Forest have been going down to the pond to fish after dinner most nights lately which lets me finish dishes and get ready for Forest’s bedtime. Sometimes I pop out there and sit with them for a few minutes. Sally duck is back but has joined the domesticated duck herd our neighbor let loose. Now that she’s going to get free food I wonder if she will ever leave in the summer again?! We’ve also got a pair of Egyptian geese flying around lately; not sure where they came from.

It’s just a great time of year!

+In The Art Studio
I haven’t done much in the last few weeks. I need to wrap up the scrapbooking photos I was working on so I can order another round. I’m thinking of doing some crochet cat and dog blankets for my friend’s Marc and Eliana at their business Project Pet Snip. She said they would be beneficial to use after a spay or neutering to keep the animals warm and cozy—and I have a ton of acrylic yarn that I have no idea what to do with. Sounds like a good tv watching thing to do this winter!

+In The Garden
I planted a lot of cool season crops over the last few days. Most of it was greens but I also threw in some radishes and will be planting carrots soon, too.

I’ve decided I need to spend one or two days a week during lunch to do some gardening since I’m losing my time in the evenings now. I’ll be pairing that with my workouts during the week. The flower garden is in a weedy state once again and some things are trying to go dormant, such as the banana trees. That means leaves are falling off and there’s just a general need to clean up the garden once again.

+Reading
I wrote my book report earlier this month. I haven’t done much reading since, other than get caught up on Dragonfly in Amber. I did buy Big Magic because I couldn’t resist after hearing Elizabeth Gilbert on so many podcasts recently. I have opened it up and flipped through the first page or two and it looks like a very easy read. Hopefully it is also thought provoking!

+Drinking
I’m back on the Ruta Maya coffee once again. Really, you can’t beat the price I can get it for at H-E-B. 2lbs for $15!!

+Loving

• How much Forest is changing on a daily basis! Light bulbs just go off daily for him! He’s in a pointing phase now where he points to things and we tell him what they are!
• Getting in the garden once again. I love this time of year and I have loved feeling more like my old self again. I’m never going to be who I was before Forest but at least I don’t feel as out of sorts as I did earlier this year.
• When we were in Austin a few weekends ago and visiting the Natural Gardener I bought a few small, very small, pots for my office at work. I ordered some succulents off of Etsy and they are now potted up and in my window at work. This was spurred because Chris has got himself a mini conservatory going on over at his desk at work! We don’t really have a space for plants indoors at home so making some space at work offers a chance to grow a few things we couldn’t otherwise.
• Working out! I found a gym very close to my office and joined it about a month ago. Since then I started lifting weights three times a week and I have noticed a considerable gain in muscles both in strength and in shape! I’m very happy about this! I have two months left in this program I am using and after that I need to figure out another three month plan. But yeah, already noticing more changes!
• Thred Up! I wrote about it last June with my first order. Since then I have ordered two more times; once for two pairs of workout shorts and more recently in order to spruce up my cool weather wardrobe. My cool weather wardrobe is in pitiful shape. Living in Florida for so long did not require much in the way of warm clothing and I just never built up anything once I returned to Texas. It isn’t *that* cold during the winter where I live here in the greater Houston area but it is not nearly as warm as south Florida! I’m slowly going through and making a donate pile of winter clothes I won’t/don’t wear and trying to build up clothes that are more my style now. This recent order was mostly a hit, though I did send three shirts back that didn’t quite fit. I’ll get store credit and reorder when that transaction is completed. If you are interested here’s a link for you to get $20 towards your first order.
• Ok, I’m not totally loving this because we’re in third place now, but I really need y’all to go vote daily for the next two weeks so the Florida Trail can win a grant for $25K towards rebuilding trail in St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. We were winning quite well until early October when votes were taken away from us and the set-up changed in which you need to verify your email address once so that the rest of your votes can count. It sounds like someone was doing some fraudulent voting. Really peeved! I don’t think we can beat the Ice Age Trail, which is currently in first place, but we are within enough votes that we might be able to pull back into 2nd place and secure one of the two grants. So, please go here to vote and be sure to check your email to verify it so that you can continue voting through the end of October. Forward the link to your friends and on social media, too!

I guess that’s about it!