But that’s okay.  I certainly don’t feel my age, and I don’t really act my age.  And now I have an adorable little baby boy to help keep me young.  We had a relatively quiet day.  Last night Bill made delicious strawberry cupcakes.  Very yum!  I had one as a pre-breakfast.  Then Bill made me delicious birthday ebelskivers for actual breakfast.  He and Joshua got me some super great gifts which we opened this morning.  All the parents called even though I didn’t talk to all of them.  Bill was out at a yoga workshop in the afternoon so it was just me and the little guy.  I did some unpacking while he napped and then he kept me busy for the rest of the time.  I have a few calls to return tomorrow, but I appreciate everyone trying to talk to me on my birthday!

We did make it out for a special birthday dinner.  We had a groupon for Mexican food, including Margaritas, and I have missed having Margaritas.  I’m not a big drinker but I do enjoy me a Margarita every one in awhile. Joshua was very well behaved and dinner went smoothly.  Then we came home and it was dinner time for Joshua, then bath time and bed time.  And it is certainly bed time for this mama!

On a slightly different topic, I have been doing a little bit of crafting.  Not much, but I knit a hat for the baby and I’m working on a shawl.  I’ve been meaning to take photos and blog about the projects.  Don’t worry, this won’t be a full-time baby blog, but right now he’s just so darn cute I can’t help myself.

I have also been thinking about my goals for the new year so I put up some yarn to destash on ravelry.  I should still destash more, and I might.  At least this is a start.  I queued up some projects too.  I’ve got really good stuff to work on, unfortunately I’m lacking the time at the moment.  I also counted the number of books on my “to be read” bookcase.  It came in at 75 which was not as bad as I thought it would be.  Those are actual books and doesn’t include what I have on my kindle.  My main concern is the amount of physical stuff I have which is why I can easily ignore the electronic bits.  In the process of unpacking I’ve been looking at lots of my fabric and am kind of excited to work on some projects!  I also really want to tackle my photo albums.  I have the photo albums from when I was a child which I am redoing since the original ones are falling apart, and I have a bunch of photos that need to be put in albums.  It is a time consuming project but I should try and spend one hour a week on it.  At least then I would make some progress on it.

That’s what’s going on here!  Birthday girl, out!

2012 promises to be a very different year for me.  The addition of the sweetest little baby boy to our family will present wonderful new challenges and opportunities.  I’m so excited to be staying home with him.  I’m also looking forward to getting back to yoga and finding time to pick up a shift or two at my local yarn store.  And somewhere I hope there’s time for crafting.  Bill is super supportive of all my activities that I know he’ll help me find the time.  We’ve also got a lot to do around the house, but want to balance that with spending time and doing things with our son.  When I think of a key phrase for the new year, one that comes to mind is “finding balance” but the one I’m going to go with is “be in the moment.”

That phrase is constantly running through my head as I spend time with my family.  We turn off the tv, put away our cell phones, set our books aside and just spend time together.  I’m taking in as much as I can.  As we feed him, cuddle, rock him to sleep, I just stare at him and take in all these precious moments.  It’s going to fly by, I know it is.  So “be in the moment” is my mantra for the year.

I didn’t do so well on my overall goals for 2011.  I read a lot (39 books) but didn’t cut down on my stash of books to be read.  I worked on a lot of projects and finished a lot, but didn’t reduce my yarn stash (in fact I have probably increased it).  I did live a healthier lifestyle in 2011, and weight less than I did a year ago!  I’m going to work at those same overall goals I had for 2011 and see if I can actually make some serious progress on them.  Moving was a very large motivator.  It’s a little ridiculous to have more craft room boxes than kitchen boxes.  So for 2012:

1.  Read 25 books.  I’ve adjusted my target because I know I won’t have as much time to read.  The real challenge will be to not buy any new books.

2.  Get rid of stuff.  Seriously.  My stashes are out of control.  Reel it in, girlfriend and make some progress on this!

3.  Continue to live a healthier lifestyle.  Get back to yoga, try jogging again, eat less takeout and eat all the fruits and veggies we get from the CSA and farmer’s market.

The thing that worked well for me was monthly goals (although I fell off at the end of the year).  So for January I want to:

1.  Finish unpacking craft room.

2.  Read two books.

3.  Make quilt sandwich with my mystery quilt.

4.  Update yarn stash on ravelry and identify yarn to be destashed.

5.  Work on granny stripe blanket.  Add 10 stripes.

Bill and I received the best gift we could have asked for this Christmas, a healthy baby boy.  I delivered our son on December 16^th, and our lives haven’t been the same since.  We’re so biased, but he’s a beautiful baby and our greatest joy.

I can’t exactly tell you why I didn’t blog about the pregnancy.  It wasn’t a big secret, though I did keep it relatively low key.  In the back of my mind I think I didn’t want to jinx it.  I’ve had three friends lose babies late in their pregnancies and while I wasn’t actively worried about it, the idea was always sort of hovering there.  It didn’t keep me from bonding with the baby, but it may have kept me from shouting about it from the rooftops.  I always meant to bring it up on the blog; I hinted at it a couple of times.  For whatever reason, it just seemed weird to me to say “hey, I’m having a baby!”

I had a relatively easy pregnancy.  A little nausea at the beginning, some sciatica off and on in the last trimester, but overall it was not bad at all.  I did catch a cold and was sick for my last two weeks and that I could have done without.  I have to say that I did a very good job of managing my stress.  Buying a house, having some big work done on it, and moving during my last trimester could have been a recipe for disaster but in very un-Margaret-like fashion, I just rolled with it.  We made decisions quickly, we didn’t agonize over the problems or delays.  It helped that we had a great contractor who knew our deadline and worked really hard to get the work done in time.  Any issue he had, he presented with possible solutions which made it pretty easy for us.  And he finished the bulk of the work the day before I gave birth.

As for the giving birth part…  It was interesting.  Bill and I took a childbirth preparation class at the hospital which was very helpful.  We had an idea of how we wanted things to go.  I’d go into labor naturally, we’d have an unmedicated vaginal delivery, and a healthy baby boy.  Things couldn’t have been more different than our ideal plan.  The little guy didn’t want to come out.  I was given an extra six days and then I checked into the hospital to be induced.  They gave me something that night to sort of loosen up the cervix and then next morning at 6am, they started the pitocin.  I labored for six hours without medication but at 2pm, I told Bill we had to see how far along I was because the pain was getting bad.  At that point I was at about 5 cm, and I asked for some medication.  There was no way I was going to last another six plus hours without some “help.”  The narcotic took the edge off the pain, and I got more after an hour, but when the contractions were every 60 – 90 seconds, I asked for an epidural.  I like to think that I have a high tolerance for pain but I couldn’t take it any more.  Bill was a great birth partner and gave me all the support and encouragement I needed.  And from 3:00 to 4:00 pm, I needed a lot.  I asked for the epidural around 3:00 and of course the doctor was in surgery but I was her next patient.  It would be about 15 minutes.  I think I got the epidural around 3:50.  How I was able to stay still during the procedure was beyond me.  I know I was motivated not to move, but I was still having very painful contractions.  Regardless, when the epidural kicked in around 4:00, I was a different person.  I went from someone who couldn’t talk or keep her eyes open to an almost normal person again.  Much to Bill’s great relief.  At this point, we were both able to take a breath.  I took a nap and Bill relaxed.

My doctor had checked in on us earlier in the day, and came by in the evening.  She was concerned that I wasn’t making very much progress.  We came up with a plan, and waited to see what happened.  At 9pm, after many adjustments to the pitocin, not much had changed.  I wasn’t having productive contractions, I was still at 5 cm, and we all decided it was time for a c-section.  Forty minutes later, Joshua arrived.

At 9:20 I was wheeled into surgery.  The baby was born at 9:42.  At 10:10, I was wheeled into recovery.  At 10:30, my mom arrived to see her grandson.  It was amazing.  While the birth didn’t go anywhere close to how we had hoped it would, it was still a positive experience.  The nurses were amazing, my doctor was great and worked hard to get us a vaginal delivery, but it wasn’t meant to be.

The end result was a healthy baby boy and we just couldn’t be happier.  He’s two weeks old now, and we are all so blessed.  Even when he looks at me like I’m a crazy lady.

Time is getting away from me.  We’ve been in our house for two weeks and not much has changed.  We are still without a kitchen but getting close.  A lot of progress was made this week.  I have my fingers crossed that all my kitchen stuff will be in the actual kitchen, nicely put away, in a few days.  I hope, I hope, I hope…

My dad went home yesterday.  We had a nice time together although it was kind of a crummy visit.  He knew we would be packing and moving and under construction, but knowing it and living it are two different things. He was a huge help and we spent quality time together but it wasn’t super fun.  Bill was sick for half of my dad’s visit and I caught his cold and wasn’t feeling well for the last few days he was here.  We did take him to see the Blackhawks who were in town for a game.  The Hawks lost 1-0 but it was an exciting game.

That’s about it.  I’m in absolute denial that Christmas is in three weeks.  Are we sure it’s December.  You’re positive??

I think it is pretty accurate to say that we are living in a state of chaos these days.  We officially moved on Sunday.  It took five men eight hours (of serious hustling) to get us moved over.  They moved about 95% of our stuff.  Over the past couple of days we’ve made about ten more trips, filling up Bill’s Forester with various drawers, framed things, boxes full of miscellaneous stuff…  We still have to move over our outdoor potted plants, bird bath, a few miscellaneous things still in the garage, and all our refrigerated and frozen goods.  The fridge stuff will have to wait until next week because the one we have in the garage is small and will most likely be full of our catered Thanksgiving dinner.  Our kitchen is nonexistent at the moment.  It looks like this:

We have a little station with a toaster oven and microwave.  I’ve set up a little area with our plates and various food items.  Definitely a “making do” situation for the next week.  We will kitchen cabinets next week, hopefully early next week, and then I think the kitchen will come together pretty quickly. We will be heating up our Thanksgiving dinner at the old house tomorrow and bringing it back to eat.

Almost all the boxes were put into what will eventually be my craft room and the garage.  And the garage was already about half full with appliances and various things the contractor needs for the house.  There’s a few boxes in the different bedrooms, but not that many so we still have room to maneuver and get things set up.  We need to spend some time this weekend getting the box room in order.  I think it will be at least ten days before any of the kitchen stuff can be unpacked, and my craft room is the lowest priority.  We need to get those boxes in separate corners of the room so that we can address everything else.  But even in our bedroom, we are in a bit of a holding pattern because we aren’t get the house insulated until December 9th and the attic access is in our closet.  We don’t want to load up the closet only to have to unload the stuff for the workmen to get access, or even worse have that stuff get insulation residue on our clean clothes (or any of my shoes!).

Thank goodness my dad has been here because he’s been a huge help.  He was on his hands and knees helping us get the floors ready the night before we moved in (so much construction dust!), packing boxes, moving boxes around, etc.  He was originally going to help Bill do the attic insulation but after some thorough research, we decided it would be better to have someone else do it.  There’s other “little” jobs around the house that we can have him help with.  There’s no shortage of things to be done!  We have agreed to take a day this weekend to get out of the house and do something fun and non-housing related.

The animals have been super through the move.  It’s going to be a tough couple of weeks for them as the workmen are here finishing up the bathroom, kitchen and laundry room.  That’s right, I don’t think I’ve mentioned that the main bathroom is still under construction, though the shower and toilet work, but no sink yet.  We’ve been sharing the teeny tiny bathroom in the master suite.  Chaos, I tell you!

I think that in a few weeks we will look back at this and laugh.  Right now, I just want to crawl under the covers and take a nap!

I finally finished Julia’s quilt and shipped it off to her, along with a few gifts for her new daughter.  I’m happy with how the quilting turned out.  I was super torn with how to do the actual quilting, especially since I’ve only done a total of 4 quilts.  I knew I wanted to emphasize the diagonals in the middle section, and I thought outlining the large stars would look good.  At the last minute, I decided to do the small stars too.  They were actually easier than the big stars and went quickly.  I wasn’t able to get any good photographs that really show my work, but that’s okay.  I also did the binding, agonizing over the correct shade of red.  I sent my friend photos with 3 choices, but the lighting in the house is bad so the photos weren’t super accurate and she left it to my judgement. In the end, I think I went with the right shade of orangey-red.  Gracie misses this quilt.  She took every opportunity to curl up on it.

Along with the quilt, I sent a little sweater dress I knit.  The pattern was super easy, although I made some modifications based on feedback from other Ravelry users.  (Here’s the ravelry info.)  I used some leftover Sundara yarn which is super soft.  The only downside is that it’s hand wash, but hopefully that isn’t a big deal.

I also sent a little elephant which I made from the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts.  The elephant was relatively easy to make and I think it turned out well.  In fact, I made two of them.  One is for another friend who is having a baby in a few weeks.  I think the hardest part of the elephant was stuffing it.  I took my time doing it, and once it was done, it looked like I should have stuffed it some more.  My only complaint with the finished product is that they are hard to photograph.  It doesn’t help that in both cases, I was in a hurry too.

The last thing I included in the box for Julia was a cotton hat.  A basic roll brimmed hat, but with nice soft Blue Sky Organic Cotton Yarn.

It’s a big relief to get those things out to Julia.  She received the box and was very happy with how her quilt turned out and she like the gifts.  Yay!  Now I can focus on packing which is good, because we are moving in about 10 days.  Ack!

Actually, not really.  But I am watching Dancing with the Stars and the Bangles just sang the song, and it IS Monday…  We had a busy weekend running errands, making decisions for the new house, and doing some manual labor.  My back is a wee bit stiff from raking up rocks but that’s not too surprising.  We did still find some time to relax and watch football on Sunday which is my ideal way to spend a Sunday.  We also made some enchiladas which I’ve had a taste for.  They were soooo good.   The bonus was we made extras which I will be enjoying for lunch!  All and all in a wonderful weekend.

Today I decided to bake some zucchini bread, which I have been meaning to do for awhile.  We had all the ingredients and it came together quickly.  I’m not sure there’s a better smell to fill the house.  I love it when Bill walks in the house, sniffs the air and the first thing he says/asks is “what did you make?”  It helps that the oven is about two feet from the front door.  I was also motivated to get back to Julia’s quilt and I’m hoping to finish the quilting this week.  Now had I packed up a box or two, I would have considered this a manic Monday.  I’ll just have to settle for it being a regular Monday.

I got next to nothing accomplished.  And what I did accomplish, I did not photograph.  The temperature heated up and we had a week in the 90s which made me pretty much useless.  I had been making super progress on my girlfriend’s quilt and then I ran out of thread.  I got more but it’s three weeks later and I still haven’t touched it.  Now that the weather is better, I really need to get back to it.  I started a book at the end of August, and you’d think it was War and Peace with how long it took me to finish.  I just finished it Friday.  It was Full Dark House by Christopher Fowler, a mystery set in World War II London.  I really did enjoy it, I just didn’t pick it up very frequently.  I did finish my Sunshine Day Afghan and drop stitch scarf but that was the extent of my productivity.  At least I got something done.  My in-laws were in town for a visit, and as much as I’d like to blame them as a distraction, no can do.  We had a lovely visit and I had plenty of time to relax and knit.

There was one little thing we did that took up a bit of time in September.  We bought a house!  We started looking in August and it didn’t take us very long to find the right one.  It was built in the 1960s and hasn’t been updated so we are having some work done before we move in.  Meeting with contractors, shopping for appliances, filling out tons of paperwork…that took up a bit of our time.  I’ve even gotten started packing though we won’t be moving for a few weeks.  I’d rather do a little bit every day instead of rushing around at the last minute.  I’m excited to be moving and settling into our permanent home.  We’ve been living in a state of “make do” since we’ve been renting and it will be a relief to have our own place where we can come up with permanent solutions.  Like no more microwave in the craft room!  We’ve been storing a bit of furniture in the garage for when we got our own place so if it doesn’t fit in the new house, we can let it go.  And color!  I can put color on the walls.  There’s a lot of work to be done on the new house, but we are excited to see the transition from someone else’s 1960′s house to our updated home.  We are also trying to teach ourselves patience.  The transformation is going to be a multi-year process (and forever on-going), and I tend to want everything done now.  Margaret will be practicing patience.

Rather than add any new goals for October, I’m going to roll my unfinished September goals forward.  Hopefully I can make significant progress on that list, in addition to getting my packing done.  That should be more than enough to keep me busy!

I find it hard to believe that ten years have passed since that horrible, horrible day.  It’s gone by quickly, but also feels like it was yesterday.  I’ll never forget how wonderful a morning I was having on 9/11/01 and how differently I felt a few hours later.  My thoughts today keep wandering back to those who lost their lives and those who lost loved ones on that day.  In reality, we all lost something.  Apart from sadness, I feel incredibly grateful for those who work every day to keep us safe.  From the soldiers here and abroad, to the police, firemen and EMS workers, to all the people gathering intelligence and fighting terror in ways we don’t even know about.

May we never forget, always remember, and continue to learn.

I have been meaning to get to the September Goals post for a couple of days.  Every morning when I walk I run through them in my head, but I haven’t put fingers to keys to get it in writing.  But first, I’m super excited about some tomato sauce that Bill and I made.  We’ve tried to make tomato sauce, or spaghetti sauce, a couple of times, but with no great success.  We had a bunch of tomatoes from our garden begging to be used so I grabbed this recipe I had ripped out of one of my magazines.  This is the best tomato sauce we have ever made and it was super easy!!

Roasted Tomato Sauce (adapted from Country Living Magazine September 2011)

Makes 3 cups, Working time 10 minutes, Total time 1 hour 40 minutes

2 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes, quartered
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoons crushed red pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons fresh oregano

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In a 9×13 inch baking pan, toss together everything except the basil and oregano.  Roast for 1 hour.  Remove pan from oven and fold in basil and oregano.  Cook for 30 minutes more.

In a food processor, blend vegetables until pureed.  Use immediately, refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze.

Of course I made some modifications because we had more tomatoes, probably closer to three pounds.  I used an onion and a half, and two red peppers, a bit more olive oil, salt and red pepper, and quartered four cloves of garlic.  I also used a little black pepper and omitted the oregano because we didn’t have any.  Our tomatoes were super juicy so there was a lot of liquid in the pan.  We spooned out the vegetables and left the juices and that made for the perfect consistency once the veggies were pureed.  If yours is too thick, you still have the juices to thin it out a bit.  The sauce was delicious!  And did I mention how easy this was?

Okay, so now onto my September Goals:

1. Finish Julia’s quilt!!
2. Baste, quilt and bind my mystery quilt.
3. Read 4 books.
4. Finish my String Theory Scarf that I just started.  (Rav link here)  (I have been obsessed with this pattern every since I found it about three weeks ago.)
5. Finish Sunshine Day Afghan.
6. Finish (?) my needlepoint project.  (This is wishful thinking.)
7. Make 2 baby gifts for friends.
8. Make a Christmas gift.
9. Sew a new top for myself.

This is an insane list.  Things have been a little hectic here, and my brother-in-law is visiting so I haven’t been very focused on my projects so far this month.  Hopefully things will settle and I can focus a little better.  Let’s hope!!

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a photo of my babies behaving in my craft room.  See how nicely they are sharing the bed?  I think it was more a battle of wills than a desire to get along.