Currently: February 2014

Ooh, a new month, which means I can be lazy and write a "Currently" post and call it good. I haven't felt like blogging much lately.

Sushi with my Big Girl

LOVING - Our newly finished house!!! More photos and stuff later, but everyone has their own bedroom, TJ has his Man Cave/Office, I have my Woman Cave/Craft Room and the girls have their Crazy Cave/Playroom. And I have the nicest bathroom I have ever had in my entire life.

READING - Just finished reading Ames & Ilg's Your One Year Old to understand BabyM's developmental phase a little better. She is definitely a lot more frustrated about her limitations than her older sister was at this age. Also reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child AGAIN, because Mama needs to sleep through the night.

ENJOYING - Reading to BabyM. I was "worried" that prior to 13 months, she was not at all interested in sitting and listening to a book, especially once she became mobile. But all of a sudden, in the last 2 weeks, she is ALL about books. We will happily read 5 or 6 in a row, and she is super fun to read to - she makes happy noises when you read familiar parts, points out characters and pictures she likes, and makes the signs for things she recognizes.  Amazing.

EATING - I'm on a fish taco kick. I lived in San Diego for a few months during grad school, and never understood the appeal. It figures now that I'm really far from decent fish tacos, I'd get a craving. So far, the best ones have been at Redmond's Bar and Grill, which has become our new family favorite place to eat out.

LISTENING - Still obsessing about Toad the Wet Sprocket since their show last week. I have seen them 10 times in the last 21 years. That's a lot of Toad.

PLANNING - T has "Midwinter break" next week, and I want to make the most of it. I'm a little sad that her new school is 5 days a week, so having her home for a whole week is going to be nice. But we'll need to schedule some activities so we're not rattling around the house driving each other crazy.

MAKING - I HAVE A CRAFT ROOM AGAIN. I WILL MAKE ALL THE THINGS!  Well, first I have to find the desk surface under all of the crap I need to put away. And then I will make a few jewelry orders for friends and work on client scrapbooks. But just knowing I have dedicated space makes me so happy. I blogged about this scrapbook layout that I made just before the remodel started back in October.

Currently: January 2014

Inspired by Allison, I'm doing a Currently post for this month. It's hard to believe 2014 is well underway already!

READING - Struggling to find time to finish Scott Berkun's Mindfire: Big Ideas for Curious Minds. It's 2 weeks overdue at the library and I'm reading it for continuing education credit for my PMP Project Management certification. Between the nomadic life of the remodeling and figuring out T's new school schedule, finding pockets of time to read isn't easy. It's a fairly easy read, but I like to have time to digest each essay before moving on to the next.

WATCHING - paint dry. Literally. Our entire addition got painted this week. It makes me so happy to see the colors I chose after weeks of contemplation on entire walls in rooms. And it was priceless to watch T's reaction when she saw her Ballet Slippers pink room for the first time.

Follow Anandi's board on Pinterest

MAKING - Lots of One Little Word jewelry and keychains for myself and friends. A client scrapbook for The Papercraft Lab (two pending, three more on the horizon). Life is good.

ANTICIPATING - In 3 more weeks (fingers crossed!), we'll be able to move into the addition! So excited to sleep in our bed again, work on better sleep habits for BabyM, set up the craft room and new playroom, and finally have a linen closet! We may become shut-ins once the project is finished, because we will be so happy to have a real home to ourselves again.

LISTENING - to everything again! We bought two Sonos units and I'm in LOVE. Our music collection is easily accessible in the house over wireless, as is Pandora. Loving Toad the Wet Sprocket's New Constellation - first new album in ages from my Favorite Band Ever.

WANTING - IKEA Expedit shelving for everywhere - playroom, craft room, girls' rooms. Lots and lots of square cubby shelves to put everything in order.  The reality is that we won't be buying much until we can rearrange all of our current furniture and see what we really need.  We also have to figure out window coverings for all of the new windows - boring but necessary as the addition has a lovely view of two of our neighbors' homes.

Got a Currently post?  Let me know in the comments. I love reading these :)

Currently 3

I guess I'm on the "once a quarter" schedule for this prompt.

WATCHING:
I've dropped *all* TV watching.  I caught up with Grey's Anatomy before the Season Finale (May, maybe?), got annoyed with Glee after the shooting episode, and then just stopped watching TV entirely. I did see the movie Up a few weeks ago and was once again completely weepy during the opening sequence. Apparently I'm not alone, according to my Facebook friends.

READING:
I discovered how easy it is to borrow Kindle books from our library, so last week I read Maeve Binchy's last book (sniff), A Week in Winter.  I've now read all of her fiction. I loved it when I was 10 and still love it now. She's consistent in her style, but I noticed that her later books definitely showed the shift in culture of Ireland over time.  I also checked out Ayelet Waldman's Bad Mother on a reco from a friend, and enjoyed it. Some of the later chapters were really beautiful.

LISTENING:
I took T to see the Indigo Girls last week and she LOVED it. So we've been listening to them on shuffle in the car. Thankfully they have a lot of albums, so I'm not sick of it. Considering I discovered them in high school, it is surreal to be listening to them with my DAUGHTER.

MAKING:
Project Life 2013, of course. I've also started an online scrapbooking class challenging me to dig into my prodigious stash of supplies. For the next four weeks, there will be 3 challenges per week. That's twelve layouts, in case you were lazy and didn't want to do the math. That will get me a significant chunk of my "favorite photos" album done, which I'm excited about.  Tomorrow I've got an all day crafty session planned, at a fundraiser crop. I had to miss the last one, because M was only a few weeks old. Super excited about that.

FEELING:
Out of sorts, a bit. Part of it is likely sugar withdrawal from the new Whole30 I've started.  BabyM is teething, so she's a little angry about that, especially when it's time to sleep. Can't blame her, but man, we've had a LOT more crying the past couple of days. She's usually not much of a crier.

T may be dropping her nap, as evidenced by her staying up until 11pm the last couple of nights because she's "just not sleepy". Which had to happen sometime, but it's hard to know what she needs when she's got dark circles under her eyes.

PLANNING:
How to spend the last 3-4 weeks of our summer break. Thinking of stepping up the "Mama School" activities as we've had lots of playdates, Story Times and other things keeping us busy.  Just bought books on teaching reading and Singapore Math, so I get to keep my Asian parent street cred, right?

LOVING:
Yesterday I got to hold my friend A's 2 week old baby, and OMG. So tiny. So precious. So lovely. I can't believe how big my own BabyM seemed after holding BabyC.  That was a gift, to see how far we've come in 10 months, and another reminder to really live and notice what's going on with my girls.

Now your turn!

Linked up with Kristin, who's running the Currently project.

Currently 2

Wow, I am feeling uninspired to write, so now is a good time for another 'Currently' post.

WATCHING:
Still nothing. Haven't watched any TV in weeks.  I'm sure we've got episodes of Glee, Grey's Anatomy and The Mindy Project to catch up on. It's just not a priority for the tiny amount of free time we do have, since none of those shows are kid-appropriate.

READING:
Scott Kelby's excellent Adobe Lightroom 4 book. TJ bought it for me for Christmas. It's very dense and full of information so I can only read a few pages a day.  But I've learned so much already and I'm just starting Chapter 2.  Yay!

LISTENING:
I really need to listen to more music at home. Hmm, I'm starting to see a trend here - no TV, no good fiction, and no music.  Maybe that explains the grouchiness.

MAKING:
Project Life 2013. I actually should be working on the second half of January now, but Lightroom is moving too slow for me. I'm also trying to finish my 2012 holiday album but am feeling very apathetic towards it.  I am pretty stoked about the greeting card set I made for my neglected papercraftlab shop.

FEELING:
Grouchy. Not sure why. Have been eating more sugar and white carbs than usual, so I suspect that's part of the problem. See also: 4 month sleep regression.

PLANNING:
Bought a super cute bright red Martha Stewart binder today so I can get my domestic bliss on.  I need to have a place to track my daily, weekly and monthly personal tasks, and it's too easy to ignore them on Google Calendar, where I have them now.  I think I'm a paper girl at heart.

LOVING:
Had a ton of nice one-on-one time with T this week.  We had a couple of outings, dinner, a trip to the symphony.  Feel like I'm not missing out on her life as much now.  Also, BabyM is nursing fewer times a day so I'm not trapped in the bedroom nearly as much.

Now your turn!

Linked up with Kristin, who's running the Currently project.

Currently

When I got really into papercrafting last year I started reading a bunch of new blogs - one of them is Kristin's.  She's got a new project called "Currently" where she writes about what's going on right now, each week.  It also makes a great entry for Project Life pages and she's got some really cute downloadable printable journal cards for exactly that purpose.

Since I know myself, I won't commit to doing this weekly. But I liked the similar "right now" prompt I did back in September (and what a momentous "right now" it happened to be!).

Since I'm sick and my brain is full of goo, this is perfect.

WATCHING:
Nothing. Haven't watched any TV in weeks.  I'm sure we've got episodes of Glee, Grey's Anatomy and The Mindy Project to catch up on.

READING:
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. You know when that comes out we're having sleep troubles. Also on a lighter note, I just started Here I Go Again for BlogHer Book Club.

LISTENING:
Whatever's on the radio. I'm not driving enough to plug in my phone and listen to good music.  Sad!

MAKING:
Starting Project Life 2013, finishing 2012 holiday album. Super excited about both! Also, taking custom orders in my Etsy shop so I'm making some One Little Word necklaces and Valentine's Day gifts.

FEELING:
Sick, sick, sick. Horrible sinus infection. Very tired and icky, but getting better.

PLANNING:
Just getting started doing my 2012 business taxes and need to finish by the end of the month. Trying to do a little at a time. Also starting to think (just a little) about the end of maternity leave which is in about 6 weeks.  Sigh.

LOVING:
Fabulous husband taking over 3yo duty as well as keeping the household running while I lie uselessly in bed. Also thankful for the in-laws who are here and willing to hold a baby or drink "tea" with the 3yo.


OK, your turn!  Link up your 'Currently' in the comments.  I'd love for you to play along.