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The Fam

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A Day to Tip Your Hat

Today is my Grandpa Anderberg’s birthday.

Right now, he’s probably chewing tobacco, swearing, and using a horse as a golf cart as he plays 9 holes in the sky.

I just thought today would be a good day to tell you guys about him.

Grandpa’s first name is Harlan, and he loved golf, cribbage, horses, and putting salt on anything he decided to put in his mouth. He also loved the living crap out of his family.

One time, Alli (my sister) and I decided to hide all of his cans of chew. We giggled quietly as we watched him move around the house, trying to keep his cool, and asking my Grandma if she knew where they were. After a little while, Alli and I realized that it didn’t look like Grandpa thought our little game was funny. In fact, the only time I’d seen him more pissed was when we (along with my cousins, Jessie and Lacey) managed to lock everyone (including us) out of their bathroom.

Finally, we retrieved the little cans from their hiding places and turned on our cutest, sweetest faces as we presented them to him.

Did Grandpa yell at us? Definitely not. Did he look serious when he told us not to do it again? Absolutely. In fact, I believe he took us outside to play Croquet after it was all over.
That’s what was so awesome about Grandpa; he was a big, tough, cowboy who could do just about anything…but we knew that under his hat and boots, he was just a big, fluffy, grandkid-loving bunny.

And we all miss him like crazy.

I’m not going to stretch this one out… I just thought the Blogosphere would be a better place having known a little bit about my Grandpa on his birthday.

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Happy (Crazy) Mother’s Day!

Wow…Mother’s Day number two for me. It’s pretty crazy…only a few years ago, I was student teaching (and NOT enjoying myself, by the way), worrying about lesson plans and graduating. Sometimes I just can’t even believe that in the past couple of years I’ve gotten married, moved to Texas, had a baby, and moved back to Nebraska. Now, when I call my mom and tell her “Happy Mother’s Day,” she says it back to me.

That, folks, is weird.

This Mother’s Day has me reflecting on the past year of Mommyhood. Something I’ve realized is that on past Mom’s Days, I haven’t really had any idea what I was recognizing my mom for. Sure, I know she changed my diapers and gave me baths and listened to me scream…but after this year, all the things my mom has done for me have become much more real.

Time for a list, friends. Here are a few things your mom has probably done for you that you might not be aware of:

1. Your mother was most likely a very smelly person.
Now, please, don’t think I’m insulting your mom. What I’m saying here is that chances for bathing can sometimes become scarce. Sure, you could leave the baby in the play-pen…but sometimes you’d rather smell like feet than listen to 10 minutes worth of screaming.

2. Your mom probably got mistaken for a crazy lady.
When you’ve got a little person hanging around you all the time, you do a lot of talking. I personally narrate a lot of what I’m doing. “Mommy’s just going to get these eggs boiling…” And when you have those rare moments when you’re actually by yourself, let’s say in Target or the grocery store, it’s a little difficult to kick the habit. “Oooh, Cadbury eggs are 75% off! Mommy’s pretty excited about that!” I can’t tell you how many people have looked at me like I’m a lunatic.

3. Your dear mother may have developed the eating habits of a homeless person.
Because, let’s face it, the kitchen floor is mostly clean (it’s only been trampled by family feet, so that makes it okay), and we’re not too good to eat the pulled pork you just tossed onto the floor.

4. But most importantly, your mom loved the living crap out of you.
Because she did, and that’s all there is to it.

So the next time you see a Hallmark card spouting whimsical prose about how much your mom has done for you…you should probably still give it to her, but make sure you tell her how much you appreciate all her years of acting like a total weirdo.

By the way, Mom, I love you, and thanks for acting like a lunatic for me.

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Home is What You Make It

This picture doesn’t have much to do with this post, other than I took it at my parents’ house and it’s just super cute.
Anyway…
This has been (and still is) a pretty crazy week. We moved to a new apartment, Paul’s gone on a work trip, and I’m chillin’ at my parents’ house. By “chillin” I mean chasing a 13 month old baby around their tile-floored, stair-filled house. Don’t get me wrong, I love being here, it’s just not as relaxing as a small, baby-proofed apartment.
That being said, I have to admit that our current apartment is definitely not relaxing right now. Charlie and I left a very cluttered, box-ridden apartment on Friday, and although Paul did a lot of organizing after we left, the boxes are still there, and I’m sure the place feels like a not-so-disturbing but still-unpleasant episode of Hoarders.
Although I’m not happy about leaving our new apartment in disarray (I’ve recently begun to understand why my parents made us clean the house before leaving for vacation), I’m glad I got to take a break from moving-stress and visit the most home-like place I know right now. Mom and Dad have done a serious amount of remodeling, but it still feels like home and my brain is (a little) more at rest simply by being here.
One of my long-time foes has been home-decorating. There have been a couple apartments/houses I’ve lived in where I did an okay job of nesting, but most of my previous living spaces looked like I should have been eating Ramen every day and wearing flip-flops in the shower. Our last two apartments can be included in the Ramen category.
Hold the phone here…Aren’t I married? Don’t I have a child? I thought that a well-decorated and comfortable home just came along with marriage and children like a package deal…right?
Apparently not.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’m not a big fan of how our new apartment looks. We only have two windows and the carpet looks like poop. Oh, yeah. Brown, splotchy, 1986 poop.

So here’s my newest mission: strategic, well-planned decorating (and serious organization) for our new home. If I’m spending my days living and working here, I need to be pleased with my surroundings, no matter what size or shape it is.

Looking around my parents’ house has given me a few things to remember while I decorate our apartment:

1. Mom and Dad have remodeled their house to be exactly the way they want it…We may not be able paint or knock out walls, but we can definitely put forth the effort and save the money to make our apartment exactly the way we want it.
2. My parents’ house is filled with windows and light and I just love it…Whatever we do in here, it’s got to make the place feel lighter.
3. In the future, I would love to have a house as big as Mom and Dad’s…but after this last week of chasing Charlie around it, I’m actually pretty thankful for our 650 square feet.
4. And finally, even if for some reason I never get anything on the walls, Paul and Charlie are better than any decorations, so I’m already way ahead.

So here’s to simplification, beautification, and organization! If you guys have any awesome resources or apartment decorating ideas, I would be thrilled to know about them!

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My Soapy Valentine

WARNING Since I ranted and raved on Valentine’s Day, I’ve decided to write a more appropriate post today. Sorry if I make you puke.

As a scatterbrained, creative-type, I tend to have a lot ofmoments in which I have to make myself stop and just think about what’s going on around me. You may not be able to tell that my gears are grinding away, but if you catch me with a zoned-out look on my face and my mouth open just enough to stick a piece of chocolate in there…I’m probably having a moment.
I had one of those on Sunday as I watched Paul make soap. That’s right, soap. Uncolored, naturally scented lye soap. He weighed and measured oils, heated them on the stove, mixed lye with water, and mixed it all together. As I stood there (trying to wrangle a crazily squirmy baby) watching him methodically stir the soap, I was overcome with the feeling of being in total awe of my husband.
I’ll never forget sitting in the passenger seat of my friend’s car, (back when I’d just met Paul and had no idea that I’d ever actually be with him, let alone get married to him) wondering what it would be like to be with this guy who does what he wants and goes about everything ever-so-logically.
Isn’t it weird to think about our significant others before they met us? Even if you’re currently single, think back to previous partners. Isn’t that just weird? Back when Paul used to make soap regularly, he had no idea who I was. He had a life full of people and routines that I knew nothing about. This person is one of the absolute most important people in my life; how could we possibly have not known about each other?
As I watched Paul make this soap, I felt like I was stepping back into a time I never knew; like I was watching a documentary. This is a little thing from his past that makes him who he is; that makes him the man I am so completely in love with. I’m so excited to discover more of these little tidbits of Paul in the future. It’s kind of like starting winter and finding a twenty in the pocket of a coat you haven’t worn in years.

I’m looking forward to reaching into all of your coat pockets, Paul. And I’m not being dirty. I love you.

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My First Guest Post!

It’s true!

Someone has asked me to contribute a guest post to their site!

So, hop on over to my cousin Lacey’s blog and check it out!

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My Little Man of the Cloth: Part Two

Warning: I am probably going to use the word “poop” a few times in this one.

Being able to bathe in a bathtub full of money is, of course, a great incentive to change your diapering ways. I know, however, that when we’re discussing something that involves touching poop, some people need more than financial motivation.

So I’m going to just get that whole issue out of the way. You don’t actually have to touch poop. Well, no more than the accidental poop-contact that we are all at risk of encountering, regardless of whether we use cloth or disposables. (When a baby slams his/her foot straight onto the diaper in the midst of a mid-change wrestling match, no one is spared.) There is this great invention out there called a “diaper sprayer.” It’s a little contraption that you hook up to your toilet. It uses a high-pressure spray that obliterates anything in its path and, more importantly, keeps your hands clean.

There. No more excuses. Save money, keep your hands clean.

Here’s another good incentive for all you vain mothers out there.
Every mom (or dad) has some kind of vanity-based hang-up when it comes to her (or his) baby. At first, mine was the ‘baby ghetto booty.’ What I’ve noticed, however, is that my initial hang-up has actually morphed into something I am quite happy with; very stylish half-nudity. I’ve got plenty of half-naked pictures of Charlie, and I’m pretty excited about the fact that he looks totally stylin’ in all of them. (Now, remember: I am not dissing anyone who is doing disposables; I am simply trying to show people what they’re missing by not using cloth.) What looks nicer in pictures? A baby butt cutely wrapped in an apple-green, fleecy shell? Or a butt wrapped in Mickey Mouse paper? I’ll let you answer that one.

Do you buy organic food because you don’t want things like toxins, chemicals, and dyes entering your body? What about your baby’s skin? You think Mickey Mouse magically appeared on the front of that diaper?

Cloth diapering is no longer a fold-and-stab-your-finger-on-giant-pins kind of endeavor. There a bazillions of different options, but I’d like to show you what we use.

The first diapers we invested in were the “Flip System” by Cotton Babies. We ordered our Flips from the Cotton Babies site. This is a really helpful catch-all website, as it features about every version of cloth diaper, and is great if you’re just starting out and want to explore your options. The Flip System is a one-size-fits-all system that uses inserts and shells. In this particular case, we opted out of buying the inserts and buying pre-foldsinstead. A pre-fold is the “old-fashioned” version of a cloth diaper, but we don’t use pins or rubber pants. The pre-folds were less expensive than the inserts, so we voted for the cheaper option.

Note Do NOT be fooled by the Flip disposable/biodegradable inserts. They are too narrow and a poopy situation would just obliterate the insert, I think.

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All you do is fold up the diaper and stick it in the front and back flaps. Since Charlie is a boy, we fold it in the front-flap area; you would fold it in the back for girls. Notice all the snaps: you can modify how you snap up the diaper in order to change the size.

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What’s awesome is this: if it’s simply a wet diaper, or a fairly-tame dirty diaper, you just throw it in the Diaper Champ and hang the shell up to dry. We bought 6 shells and about 36 pre-folds, and end up washing diapers about every 2nd to 3rd day.

Each brand of cloth diaper has its pros and cons. The pro for the Flip is the need for only about 6 (you could probably even get away with 5) shells to get you through a couple days. The con: there is nothing between your baby’s skin and the actual diaper, so you have to change a little more frequently in order to avoid discomfort.

We finally decided to upgrade to a one-size-fits-all brand of “pocket diaper” calledFuzziBunz. We got ours from Nurtured Family, because first-time customers get a 10% discount. This system involves microfiber inserts and fleece pocket diapers.

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fuzzicollage

Pros: Moisture is wicked down into the inserts, leaving the fleece almost completely dry. This means you can keep the diaper on the butt for much longer.
Cons: Since the inserts go under the fleece, you have to wash the whole diaper, meaning you will need to purchase more diapers than you would if you were using the Flip system.

Both methods have their perks. You might only buy a few pocket diapers and reserve them for overnight or travel use, and use Flips for the rest of the time. Like I said, these are only 2 brands out of a bazillion. We chose the one-size-fits-all diapers because it seems to be more cost-effective. If you use other kinds and love them, please leave a comment!

Finally, something that can’t be ignored is the environmental impact of disposable diapers. Landfills are overflowing with them, and hundreds of thousands of trees are being chopped down to accommodate the thousands of babies that are being born each day. The time it takes you to rinse a few diapers in the toilet is about the same as the time you spend running a bag out to the trash.

So what do you say? Save money? Have cuter baby pictures? Help save a few gagillion trees?

 

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