She flies through the air with the greatest of ease…
My new favorite thing is making time in my day to take Reese to the park. She LOVES to swing, and here is the evidence:
Nevertheless, we enjoy going to the park these days. Especially since it’s a beautiful 75-80 degrees most days now and I get in my exercise by biking or power walking us to different and distant parks.
Happy Easter!
New Loves
As a general rule, I seem to be incapable of sitting back and doing nothing. I like being busy. There are times when I turn my focus to certain things and let other interests, responsibilities and friendships fade into the background. There is a whole world of things that interest me and I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of most of them. That’s the joy in life! Discovering new things that make you happy and actively pursuing them. I love that- while most of my life these days revolves around my family- I am still pursuing things that make me happy. Things that are just for me. Things that broaden my scope beyond the walls of my cozy home and make me feel important and special and useful. So here are the new things I’ve been filling my time with recently…
1. Photography. Not new by any stretch, but I have definitely been whipping out my camera a lot more often lately, and not just to take pictures of Reese. I have loved photography for as long as I can remember. I have always looked at magazines, wedding albums, posters, and thought-man I wish I could take pictures like that! I have only taken one photography class in my life but it feels like more because my FIL is like an encyclopedia of photography. He is always lending me his tips and tricks and I take them gratefully. Lately I’ve been taking a lot of friend’s pictures, and I’ve had the opportunity to shoot children (other than mine)for the first time. I have totally fallen in love with this new range of subjects and find myself begging everyone I know to let me shoot pictures of their children:). Right now I take pictures purely for the love of it, and the experience, but someday I would love to be a professional photographer for real. For now I’ll take all the practice I can get!
2. Bike Riding. I had been taking Reese to the gym for awhile and leaving her at the daycare while I hit the stationary bike for 5-10 miles. Then Reese decided that she would scream bloody murder be a bit fussy for the daycare workers every time I left her there and proceed to cry until they finally came to get me a half hour later. So I decided that maybe there was another solution. Bingo! Mark and I have had a bike trailer in storage at his parent’s house for 2 years now since we bought one to put our dog in just because we were planning ahead for the baby days:). Mark’s mom also had a bike that I could borrow. Voila! The weather has been beautiful and I have been enjoying it perched atop my bike towing a quite content Reesey behind in her chariot. I feel like I’m 10 years old again when I ride that bike with the wind blowing in my face and no hands on the handle bars.
3. My new job. I simply can’t handle being bored. And so, in addition to my 2x weekly babysitting jobs, my usual SmugMug duties of shipping queen, taking care of Reese, taking care of our home and my sweet hubby, I have started working for SmugMug’s customer support from home. It’s fun and challenging and I can do it while Reese sleeps, which is key. I am really enjoying it, and the extra money doesn’t hurt either.
4. Gardening. I have never, NEVER grown anything in my life! I am reminded of an incident when Mark and I were just married and we were having a casual conversation about having children someday. Mark joked that he would get me a potted plant and see if I could keep that alive. Then I would graduate to a pet dog, and we would see how that went. If I did ok with that then we could talk about having a baby.
I killed the plant.
I rarely watered it, stuck it on a dusty shelf where there was no sunlight. It amazingly still lasted a few months, but it eventually died. I think it took me awhile to notice it was dead too.
Let’s just say that I don’t have a knack with plants. But I did ok with the dog! He’s alive still at least:).
Mark and I are now in a living situation where we are responsible for a yard for the first time. Neither of us have any idea what we are doing. It’s quite overwhelming. While most people would like the idea of planing a garden and flowers, it is not really my thing. I have no idea how to take care of plants, or even how to plant things in the first place. So Mark and I let the yard run wild for a few months. Hey-it was winter! Then the weeds began to take over and we knew something had to be done. After a few Saturdays of weeding and some weed killer spray, the yard looked marginally better. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I went to Lowe’s and bought tomato plants, strawberry plants, gerber daiseys, hydrangias, and some other random flowers. I have no idea what I’m doing, just planting them and watering them and hoping they grow. Pray for my little plants! With me as their keeper they are going to need it!
So if I’m posting less that I used to it’s because of my packed schedule. Just when I start to think my life is becoming boring, another opportunity presents itself. I’m loving life and having the greatest time delving deeper into abilities and interests I never knew I had.
*Upcoming Adventures*- Sewing curtains for Reese’s room, painting our living room, and teaching an enrichment class about photography!
The MacAskill genes are kicking in…
Ummmm, I thinks she takes after her dad?
(If you didn’t catch it- yes, her shirt says “newbie”)
The SmugBunker
When SmugMug moved into a new office last year, everyone got a decorating budget to make it a bit less boring. My friend Craig and I decided to create the SmugBunker, complete with radar-scattering camouflage netting, gas masks, WWII shovel, grenades, etc.
And the SmugBunker was featured today on Lifehacker, a nifty little site that gives tips on staying afloat in an increasingly technological world.
And we won! Woop!
Today
Today I felt powerful.
Today I managed to get 3 loads of laundry done.
Today I put in 2 1/2 hours working from home on the computer.
Today Reese took 2 naps, each in excess of two hours. When she woke up she was smiling and cooing in her crib rather than wailing.
Today I cleaned the kitchen, swept the house and loaded the dishwasher.
Today I found time to walk Reese and Cibo to the park and push Reese on the swings. Thus I exercised, Cibo exercised, and Reese was content during her fussiest time of the day.
Today I took a nap.
Today I took Reese to a doctor’s appointment. I held and consoled her after she had to have her blood drawn and my brave little girl barely cried at all!
Today I got to take a shower (which is not always the case these days:)).
Today I wore something other than sweat pants and an old t-shirt. I also put on make-up!
Today I felt confident.
And it’s only 7:30pm…
All too often I feel so powerless in my own life. I simply do not have enough time in the day to do everything that I think I need to. I push myself to be more productive, more patient, more active, more caring, and the result is complete exhaustion at the end of the day which clouds my view of the situation and makes me feel like it was all in vain. I don’t know why I feel like I have to do everything. Why I feel like the world will stop turning if I don’t fold the laundry. I get myself so wrapped up in the menial tasks and I forget to enjoy the simple pleasure of playing on the floor with my daughter for an hour and not worrying about all the other things I could be doing. But today? Today I felt happy, and patient, and relaxed. Days like this are few and far between. So I’m just going to sit here and revel in the feeling of pride in a day well spent.
The ABC’s of Me.
I was tagged by Ruth so here we go! Read more »
The Adventure begins!
My husband and I have passed the previous 4 1/2 years of wedded bliss pretty uneventfully. So it seems only right to rock the boat and bring some babies into the mix to enhance and brighten (aka stress and complicate) our lives. Our first baby girl was born in May 2007 and we’ve been enjoying stumbling through the ups and downs of parenting ever since. We look forward to this adventure we are embarking on and hope this blog helps you to follow along as we share about the trials and joys of parenthood!
