The Harvest

I just got back from an amazing trip to California to visit my sister Amy. It was beyond beautiful out there--sunny, hilly, green. Completely breathtaking. Amy lives in a little A-frame wooden house surrounded by rolling hills and flowers and trees and blue sky. I felt like I was at some spa retreat that you'd pay thousands of dollars to go to. Only better because the host was so awesome.

Anyway the theme of the week was healthy eating. Amy participates in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and receives a box of locally grown organic vegetables every week. She then plans her meals around what she gets in the box. Add some whole grains and garlic and a cup of fresh-squeezed O.J. or raw milk to drink and booyah--heavenly meal. Every single thing I ate there was so delicious and felt so good to my body. Oh and the wine. Must include some good wine, hopefully from the organic vineyard you visited earlier that day.

Now that I am back I am full of enthusiasm and motivation. I want to eat this way. I want my family to eat this way. I want to feel good about my food and be able to pronounce and recognize every ingredient that goes into it. I want food to do more than just fill me up, I want it to nourish me.

So I'm letting my enthusiasm carry me as far as I can. I'm joining my own local CSA and attempting to follow the same simple meal-plan as we did in CA. In the meantime I made it a priority to use my first day home to visit the Dekalb farmer's market to pick up new vegetables, grains, and spices. Last night I prepared roasted root veggies and roasted garlic with homemade "mac-n-cheese" (really just pasta with butter and cheese). Tonight I'm making beets and beet greens over couscous.

It doesn't come very naturally to me to be creative in the kitchen or come up with meals, or to cook even (Jamie has done the majority), so this is daunting. But I am so so ready for a nutrition overhaul. I'm hoping my eagerness for healthier living will help the transition into forming a habit of this. I'm counting on my sisters and mother to hold me accountable. You too Jamie!

Oh! And in other news my little vampire-child (who accompanied me to CA) started walking at Aunt Amy's house. Everybody cover your knees!

Who Are You?

Sometimes I think my (small) obsession with vampires is rubbing off on my children. I'm starting to suspect that Juliet is really a vampire. Here are my reasons:

1. She doesn't sleep at night. Maybe this is because that is the natural time for her to be out and about. Here this whole time I've been trying to get her to sleep all night like a normal girl when maybe she isn't "normal".

2. She doesn't grow. I thought it was just me not being able to get past thinking of her as an 8-month-old, but not so. I just took her to her one year visit yesterday and she pretty much hasn't grown. She's just under the 5th percentile for height and the 10th for weight. You'd never know with all those rolls that she's actually a total shrimp! She hides her petiteness well.

3. (and this is the most convincing) The girl likes to bite. She will try to bite me repeatedly on the arm, leg, wherever she can reach, and cries or screams when I say no. But this is nothing, NOTHING, compared to how enthusiastically she tries to bite other babies' heads. She will claw and kick her way to them in her frenzy to reach their little heads, and fight and shriek when I hold her back. Really its quite disturbing (and hilarious).

Where does this come from? Did I read too much Twilight and watch too much Buffy while she was in utero? Is it because she shares her name with the actress who plays Drusilla? Is it because she was welcomed into the world under the soothing tones of Spike's Ballad (sung by my awesome sister)? Or are my suspicions true and she's been changed? Maybe she's a half-vampire like Renesmee (only with an infinately better name).

Hmm, this post kind of paints me in a crazy light doesn't it?

This Year's Girl

My baby girl is one year old today. I can't believe it! She seems so much younger to me. I don't know if its because she is short for her age, or that she still nurses so much and wakes up throughout the night, or if its just that she's my baby, but I just cannot get my head around the fact that she is already a year old.

Exactly one year ago I was having my incredible, intense, crazy waterbirth. Its strange how labor can hurt so very much, and yet I still feel nostalgic for the experience. I guess its sort of like running a marathon or climbing a mountain or something, where it feels like hell while you are doing it but afterwords you feel the most amazing sense of accomplishment (plust you get a baby out of it!). I still sometimes watch the birth video and think to myself, "I can't believe I did that!". I've witnessed many a birth and done it twice myself, but it still amazes me that we can actually grow a person inside our bodies, and even more amazingly can push them out. How is that even possible??

Anyway I digress. Juliet is no longer my little newborn, she's my babbling, standing, smiling, bouncing, peek-a-boo playing, clapping, waving, banana eating, cuddling, loving one-year-old little girl. And that, my friends, is just five-by-five.

Here she is just seconds after being born

And here she is celebrating her first birthday!

Living Conditions

We're moving again! See, we're not very clean people. We tidy a little here and there, but every once in a while the mess builds up so much that its actually easier just to move houses than attempt to clean.

Ok so thats not true, but it is true we are moving! We renewed our lease in December, but I've been feeling quite cramped in our two bedroom apartment. Not that its a small place, but having the girls share a room at this age is HARD. Juliet already wakes up several times a night, so when Lydia wakes her up even more it is pretty infuriating. So yesterday I was sitting there in frustration when I realized, hmm, maybe we can do something about this. I talked to one of the managers and found out that there was a 3 bedroom apartment available here for only $35 more a month than we're paying! Woo hoo! Today we went and filled out the transfer paperwork and toured our new place. I love it! Apart from another bedroom, it also has a nice big laundry room and, best of all, a back door to our own little patch of grass. Yay! Otherwise the apartment is pretty much the same (except its a mirror image, which made me a bit dizzy).

We'll be moving the last Saturday of March. Or more precisely Jamie will be moving, as I will be in California. I did not plan it that way, but that is when we must move. Poor guy--I've been unable to help in our last 3 moves. If anyone is interested in helping (or volunteering their husbands to help) my sweet husband move us a couple hundred yards away, I'd be eternally grateful! Or if you just want to donate a box or two.

And for those who need to keep track of our new address (hard to do since this is our 4th address in 3 years) we will now be 3052A instead of 3046D. Everything else is the same.

I'm so excited!

Teacher's Pet

Not a giant Praying Mantis, but a small Cockatiel. Meet Ron.

Lydia and Juliet just LOVE him. I find him amusing. He's very friendly and we can get him out and hold him and pet him. When he wants to be let out he hops to the bottom of his cage and paces back and forth really fast. And he likes to groom our hair when he's up on our shoulders.

Come meet him!

I Was Made to Love You

I went to my yoga class today. I love yoga. I love twisting my body into poses that I never thought I could do. I love how I only think about what my body is doing for an hour and a half, and forget about kids, housework, lifetime drama, and all that. I love that delicious soreness I get later after I've excercised. And I think most of all I love that peaceful feeling I always get during and after I go, like my body and soul have been restored a little bit.

I'm all about restoration recently. Restoring my body (and specifically my health) with vitamins, medicine, rest, good food. Restoring my house to less of a disaster-area like state (little by very little). And definitely restoring my mind and soul. One imperfection about me is that I worry. A lot. When I am worrying, I feel like I have a lot to worry about. But sometimes, in moments of peace, I realize that I really don't need to worry about all that stuff after all. I spoke with a wise friend a little while ago who gave me two wonderful pieces of advice. The first was that in every situation, in everything that happens, I should just say "Wow, God. I can't wait to see how you use this to your glory!" I've been trying it out since then, and yep, it can pretty much work for anything. Its my mantra right now. Sometimes it comes out pretty sarcastically, and sometimes with a little more colorful language added, but after saying it, even if I'm saying as a joke, it has the effect of making me really think to myself that yes, some good could come out of this.

The other piece of advice was that in dealing with other people and their own life problems, drama, etc, that I should always think and act through love, not fear. This is such an amazing statement, and one that I would love to use in every relationship and situation I have. To remember that I am not in charge of other peoples' lives or happiness. What a burden lifted off! Can I really just love them, and not fear for whats gonna happen? What good does it do anyway to fear? Does it make us act any wiser? Does it help them? I doubt it. And I'm pretty sure that if you act purely out of love, you are unlikely to make a mess of things. God tells us above all to love. He made us to love Him and each other. On the other hand, I can't think of anywhere in the bible where it encourages us to fear and lose sleep over other people's problems.

I have a long way to go to make these things habits rather than goals, but so far even just having these things to strive for has made me feel more joy and peace in my life.

Wild at Heart

We are finally feeling better in the Nasmyth house! To celebrate, I went out last night to a friends birthday party and got my groove on. We had a time, I tell you. A time was had by all. You'd never have believed the bulk of the attendees were from my church mom's group. No flowered dresses and mild manners last night, no sir! We've got some sexy mamas in our group! We all danced our hearts out to a mixture of Nellie, Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, some classic 80's music, and other stuff I can't really remember. I haven't danced that hard in years. We also laughed, ate, drank, shared, and limboed. Nobody turned into a werewolf but it was still wild! It felt soooo good to just kick back, let go, and have fun with close friends! Especially after my seemingly endless confinement.

Today I'm a bit sleepy but very happy with my re-introduction into society. I love my friends!!! I also strongly recommend having dance parties like that monthly. Its good for the soul. And the body--dancing is an awesome workout!