Random posting monday

self interviewing questions because I cannot think of anything to say, except: nightmares=crap and I just want some decent sleep.

1. What is your favorite smell?
Mmmm...chocolate..or Lemon meringue pie...or,or clean laundry dried in the sunshine.

2. Did you/would you/are you co-sleep(ing)?

Oh yes oh yes oh yes. When little berry was born, I was convinced she would be one of those crib babies. We had it ALL READY. In fact, I was in labor and freaking out, rewashing her bumper at 2am....but then that night we brought her home (remember, I had her at a birth center, we came home 3 hours after delivery) and Pappa Starbucks had his mother over. BIG MISTAKE!!! I was, and still am, angry about that. I had a natural childbirth specifically because it meant I could go home and have my baby to myself!!!
Anyway, we brought her to bed with us and she's been there since. It was wonderful in Europe when we were traveling. Pappa Starbucks hates it and has recently began sleeping in the guest room which is OK because we are all happy at last. Don't even get me started on the 'marriage bed' right now.


5. What's your favourite colour?

Yellow. I remember being a kid and loving green, like forest green, and thinking "I will never love anything as much as I love this deep forest green it is just so beautiful!!" but of course that was my brain on childhood, so it didn't stick.

How do you feel about saving money, things, etc?

I'm a big saver.I am a thrift-store shopper and a coupon clipper and we really do save money. With that being said, we don't have much in savings. The economy wiped us out several months ago and we haven't exactly found our feet yet, also, we just did the math and Pappa Starbucks spends approximately $1200 a year at Starbucks. Which makes me ill. He is not a saver, so our methods are often at odds.

What do you like most about the current season?

Oh, pickles! I LOVE FALL. I have the most vivid memories of fall leaves blowing around, changing into deep colors, the smell, the feel of the air, fall is just spectacular. I guess mostly I love the feel of the air, how I can breathe in big lungfuls (nice after such a hot summer) and never feel overheated. Of course, it's 96degrees today so that may not be a constant!

Most recent dream?

I've been having nightmares lately, truly disturbing dreams where my family is in danger of being eaten by a grizzly bear that we can't escape or that I fall in front of a train and I am holding my baby. I don't like dreams very much!

Exercise Nine

In the summer, the house grows hot, so hot
With steaming, stewing pressurized tomatoes
Deep sea green cucumbers in their baths
slowly turning to pickles in the winter.
Okra waiting patiently in a basket for
a turn at the sink,
Green beans sitting on the porch being plucked
away at until their boiling is due.
Once it's July, the whole kitchen floods
with mason jars, clear jars
quarts, half cups, pints all stacked in boxes
My mother assigns me with millions of them
and a single sharp brillo pad in the yard
Plunging my small hands into the jars
I scrub and scrub eager to hand them off to
my mother for approval. This is the task
hated most, readying the old glass banks
for prizes I would choose to never open.
Sometimes, I sneak away and bring back feathers
or plunge my toes instead into the cold hose water.

A genuine breastfeeding baby doll:

A friend of mine just came back from NYC and stayed with us for a few days before starting back to college. She and I were talking about my renewed desire to nurse until Little Berry weans herself- whenever that may be, something Pappa Starbucks is horribly against but don't get me started.
Anyway, she mentioned this doll she had seen in the city. I give you the new hip doll

that I am buying at least one of my nieces for Christmas, if only because they aren't allowed to sit in the room (seriously) while I nurse.
That teensy part on the box is a flower that ties on and the baby latches onto (magnetically I suppose):

What strikes me as funny is that Cuppycake already does this with her babies, brings them to me and tucks them in my shirt, that is. The flower part seems like it could cause some confusion. And God help those girls who will grow up thinking those first days of nursing will be "that" easy.

Photos snatched from Google images

Proof

I had so many ideas for blog posts this week and didn't get around to any of them. Things are hectic again here because Pappa Starbucks has decided he's applying for that program he wants placement into so badly, again.
Deadline is tonight.

I realized yesterday that I was letting a lot of things go that I normally wouldn't in order to help him out as much as possible, Little Berry confirmed that this morning, energetically pointing out my 'unkempt' nature taken yesterday: when I brushed my hair, she stood up in the crib, pointed, and said "WOwwwwwwwww!!!"

Europe

Some pics I just found in my phone of our daily excursions in Europe. It was so, so beautiful, so liberating. Wonderful.