perfection = soap and cake

It is a perfect, cloudy fall day of soap- and cake-making. What could be better?

(I have always been obsessed with these cakes for the bazaar in  Disney's Pollyanna.)

When I was pregnant with Alexander, I fell in love with the smell of soaps and cleaning supplies of every kind, an obsession that has not entirely left me now that he is 9 months old.

Today I made homemade laundry soap, two gallons of it! It is the easiest thing in the world, and costs one cent per load!  My favorite moment by far, in all of the soap-smelling and stirring, (neither of which is really required by the recipe) was grating the bar of ivory soap with a cheese grater. The lovely sensation, the slippery ease and the pile of soap shavings, along with the increased soapy smell did my heart good.

I would have taken pictures, but in the moment, I forgot.  Well, I did take one boring one, but the pile of soap shavings was already dissolved, so how much fun is that?

I also found this post about making cakes like the ones in Disney's 1960 Pollyanna. I will try to take pictures when I make that.

It's a wonderful day when...

This morning we ate breakfast with my Mamma.  She had a meeting in San Antonio yesterday and had to come see Alexander, who hadn't seen his Gigi since he was 3 months old!!! They were both so excited!

 

During a long nap, (not my own, just to clarify) I potted some sweet potato vine for the front porch, and generally cleaned up the yard.

We walked the library where we saw a book about goblins.

We had a good music time together.

Today was completely overcast almost all day long.

We went to Walmart and bought chocolates and a bikini.

And Steve and I had our first really good talk in a while.

Not every day is perfect, but some days are.

It's Monday...

  

    

Sometimes putting flowers on your head can make all the difference.

I can hardly eat muffins in an agitated manner, can I?

Several months ago, I had a rather glamorous Thursday. I even took pictures of it and subsequently promised to blog about it later. The glamorousness sort of faded as time went on. However, I still have the pictures, and I think I'll try to revisit what lingering glamour is left by finally blogging about it now. That's a good way to celebrate on of the most uninspiring, un-glamorous, UNmotivated weeks I've had in my entire life. (That week is happening right now.)

Mmmmm. Butter London paintnolish. :)

 One of the best things about Glamorous Thursday was that I was able to ignore the impossible mess around me and just enjoy my day with Alexander and his blessed smiles and naps.

 A robe from a thrift store might not seem the most glamorous thing to be wearing all day, but it is when the tag says two special words: Neiman Marcus. And I any day where you see the word "vogue", no matter where, becomes a little less mundane.

Oh, here's the mess. A small part of it, only. I guess I thought it was glamorous too. It sort of is, isn't it?

Red lipstick adds a lot to your day sometimes. Especially if it happens to be Chanel.

I know Alexander seems to think so...

And I also know that I got the inspiration that day to paint my bedside table mustard yellow and avocado green. It was a great day. I don't know when I'll be inspired to have another glamorous Thursday, but I hope it will be soon.

In case anyone's listening...

It's odd how I don't at all mind certain pictures of myself now that I distinctly remember hating at the time they were taken. That gives me hope for the ones taken this past week/weekend in Rockport...

I'm still thinking about blogging, and reading everyone else's blog, I just never do it these days. I will soon...

Alexander smiles like you wouldn't believe, and he has a sweet little, actually rather big dimple on his left cheek. He does a huge wide open laughing smile, but I like his happy little gummy smile the best.

And my hair is dark brown and I have bangs now. I'm re-reading the Emily books with great satisfaction not to be jealous anymore at every mention of her dark hair and pale skin. And we've had quite enough road trips for one 3-month-long little lifetime so far!

Cheers til later!

Today

I had a rather glamourous Thursday a while back, and I was going to tell you about it. I even took pictures. I'll tell you about it next time.

Today I cleaned, swept and mopped our dining room for the first time since Alexander was born!! (Sanna came over and did it right before Christmas, but this is the first attention it has had from me.) I can't tell you the billowing piles of dog hair I've been stepping over for WEEKS!

I made a gargantuan triple recipe of this chicken chili: some for us, some for our freezer, and some for a family at Steve's work who just had a baby.

I went to mom's group at church. Before I left, I needed to nurse Alexander and also really wanted to take a little bath, and thought that Alexander could stand a bath too, since he hadn't had one since Saturday. So I did all three of those things at the same time! It didn't quite go much faster than doing them each separately though. Apparently Alexander doesn't nurse well in the tub because he is obsessed with looking at the faucet. It doesn't have to be running, it just has to be there, and then he looks at it. Every time.

Since I was out, I went to Taco Bell and ordered a mexican pizza in the drive-through, only to realize that my credit card was at home in the dryer. No junk food today!

I nursed Alexander a bunch of times, and he loved it.

Steve came home from work and ate chicken chili with me and then did the dishes while I fed Alexander.

It was a really good day.

How hard is my life?

Alexander nurses for 2 hours every time he nurses. My nipples feel like they're being hammered through with red hot nails every time he nurses. And when he nurses shorter, I'm in a horrible, stressful dilemma of whether to pump, or see if he needs more milk right now. My emotions are all messed up and I miss my husband when he's at work almost to the point where I can't function.

I was just texting with one of my sisters who's reading a diary of someone who was on the Oregon trail. She had her first baby in a covered wagon at the age of 16. Like many other women, she probably got pregnant again right away and was that way all during the many months hard journey. And then, when the journey ended, life was probably still pretty much just as hard. Those women didn't have hot baths, or perfume bottles surrounding them to make them happy, and all they had to put on their excruciatingly sore nipples was a probably literally starving baby. No tea, no hot chocolate, no bottle for their husband to feed to their baby when they were too tired.

My life is really easy and when I think about these women, I think I can handle this.