Getting Settled

Here's the run-down on our lives, list-style. :)

Our apartment is perfect (for us), and we love our ward. The neighborhood is so safe and cozy--we don't feel that we're in the city at all. (Very different from last summer--we had a very urban place.)

Also, Michael is loving his job, which is the key element.

We've dived (doven?) right in at church too. I've already sub-ed in the Primary, we're doing a ward temple trip tomorrow, I've been to one enrichment with another one on Saturday, and the Bishopric is stopping by tonight to visit us. Also, we're having the missionaries over to teach us a discussion on Saturday.

Wow. No wonder I'm tired. When I put into words, I'm doing a lot.

As for the home front, I'm grinding wheat and baking bread Little Red Hen style. I've been "grocery store shopping" the past few weeks. That is to say, I'm shopping for a grocery store. I've found a few good ones, but now it's time to price compare! :)

Otherwise, I've been working on getting up earlier so I can have some time to myself before Nathanael's up, as well as reading the Book of Mormon in that time. It's an uphill battle, but I'm still climbing! :)

It is amazing how not-new I feel. It seems like I remember so many people from last summer! That part is very good news! :) Well, I guess I get to go back to making our clean-out-the-produce-drawer-before-it-goes-bad dinner.

This moment has been duly noted, and will be deducted on your timecard, "That is all." (Michael, do you ever read this--'cause you're the only one laughing. Well, maybe I'll send a link to Peter too.)

And, my photos for the day.

A Precarious Balance

I'm still here! It's been a while since I posted--I've been busy being a mom. :)

As for adventures, it was a rainy (drippy) Seattle day today. We had a very exciting night with Nathanael which resulted in a very lazy Saturday morning. (The pancake breakfast was finally ready around 2:00 pm!)

But I've been thinking a lot about why I feel so terrible when I stay indoors all day. I read Ben Crowder's post today on a similar topic which really got me thinking about it.

I love to get out and see people, breath fresh air, move my body. I feel alive when I interact with others. But this is only part of it. The other side is accomplishing something. Each day around dinner time I do an only partly-conscious assessment of the days activities and I feel a pang of guilt if I realize that nothing tangible was accomplished. (It somehow feels more tangible, even if it's not, if it involves others.)

This poses interesting challenges as a stay-at-home mom making a concerted effort to rest more! I get to remind myself that I am still recovering from fairly major surgery less than three months ago and that I also use tons of extra calories breastfeeding and toting around my beautiful son.

This brings me to another topic I was contemplating last night: my work as a mother consists almost entirely of activities that will continuously need to be redone. For example, feeding, washing, organizing, comforting, resting, playing. The entropy in the universe being what it is, my children, husband, and I are continuously getting hungry, dirty, disorganized, distressed, tired, and bored. This is good, as it means I both have a very important job, and one that will be needed for the foreseeable future! (Read: forever.)

However, it can be frustrating as when seen from a temporal perspective I produce no tangible results. At the end of the day, every nap I put Nathanael down for, he wakes up from and every meal he eats turns into another diaper to change. Ultimately, he is healthier and happier (and bigger!) for all my efforts, but when Michael gets home at the end of the day and I look back at my 8 hours I see only maintenance, while he can show me his code and tell me what he learned while writing it.

Obviously, the answer is in the problem: lose the temporal perspective and focus on the eternal! Nathanael is far more precious than Amazon.com, or any of their programs, or even the money Michael earns there. This sounds simple, but it amazing how much energy I glean from making sure I read the scriptures at least once a day on my own. It also helps tremendously if I clean the kitchen once, and then leave it!

The real solution, though, is to rest plenty, shower every day, drink a LOT more water than I think I need, and then leave the house. On Wednesday, I had the hankering to make some cards, so I looked up a local stamp shop and off we went. I ended up signing up for a card-making class the next day, so we did the forty-five minute (one way) excursion again. It was worth it--I had a great time. But at the end of the week I was pretty tired, and I started wondering if I had swung too far in the "pushing it" direction.

As for today (Saturday), Michael took us out to eat dinner in Pioneer Square (we got gyros at a little shop on the corner of 2nd Ave S and Main St--delicious!) Then we went to Safeway and picked up some must-have-before-Sunday items. Of course, Nathanael napped for part of the trip and cooed and laughed for the other half. He is a perfect angel! By the time we got home I felt great about the day and was ready for another round of feedings and diapers!

Well, this post is getting long, and Nathanael's finished his midnight snack and is now sleeping peacefully again, so it's time for me to do the same. (A mom has the wonderful charge of making time for the spiritual when faced continually with the demands of the temporal!)

p.s. Do any veteran mothers have wisdom for me on this topic? How did you do it?