On Unbalanced Weeks and Dealing with The Murky Area

I had a lovely but hectic weekend, and am having trouble finding my footing this week. One of my best friends was in town for one day from Overseas, and I was able to drive 2 hours to spend some much needed quality time with her. I hadn't seen or talked to her in a year, and it was so special to have a day with her, and on her birthday no less! I wouldn't have traded it for anything, especially a week where my lunches were pre-packed and the counters were clean. With my husband's work schedule during the school year, a majority of the childcare and household activities are on me. It's something that we're working on, and is the main reason why I'm always looking for a Mama Life Hack or a way to streamline my routine.

Some days I feel like there is no way to ever get ahead, especially if I'm not feeling well or we were unable to get our critical household tasks done for the week. Other weeks, I feel like I'm on the top of my game, and I'm crossing everything off of my list. Perhaps I need to focus on the murky middle area and lower some of my expectations. Or listen to Marie Kondo and finally Tidy the rest of my house and solve all my problems (ha!). I'm working on finding my way, and remembering that as my son grows older and our routines shift,  I'll need to be flexible..

I don't think I'm different than others. We always have to choose, and weigh the odds. Sometimes, I say no to things, especially if it's with an acquaintance versus a lifelong friend that I get to see once per year. Other times, I think of what Henry will enjoy most. Sometimes I think about what I need for my mental sanity to be the best mom I can be, and I know that if I spread myself too thin, I suffer.

Last night we chose to play with our neighborhood friends for Pizza Truck Tuesday, instead of grocery shopping. I think it's evident that we all won on this outing. When I look back at my weeks, I'll remember the times where we played with our friends in the late afternoon sunshine after work, and will forget that we were all tired and cranky after a work day. I'll remember commiserating with a friend whose 4 year old was so cranky, she had to leave early.

I'll remember laughing with my best friend this Sunday while Henry threw rocks in the river. I won't regret not going to the grocery store, even though this week feels unsettled chores-wise. I'll remember the crisp air and neat shops we looked at in Elicott City, MD. I'll remember laughing at memories and trying to have 4 conversations at once with your best friends since it's been so long.

I'll remember catching up with our good friends in town from NYC on Saturday, and how Henry ran over to Mike's self portraits while visiting his studio to sit near Daddy. I'll remember playing with a soccer ball and having an impromptu picnic in Rittenhouse Square, like we did when we all moved to Philly in 2004 with our friend Coco.

We'll order the groceries online, maybe just this week. I'll settle into the murky middle parts of my weekly routines, and try to view it on a monthly basis as a whole, instead of week by week. And I'll be gentle with to myself, just like a wise friend told me to do when I was a new Mama. There are only so many hours, and only so many hours with a sweet little boy, who will grow up way too fast, as everyone tells me. But not today. Today, he is two.

Pink, Purple + Wutang

I always thought I'd be one of those people who wait to find out the gender of their child, but Mike and I both decided we wanted to find out. Last week, we had the opportunity to see ultrasound shots showing a very active, healthy, and animated little boy! He was yawning, and it was caught on the scan looking like Edvard Munch's famous painting, "The Scream". If you know me, I have a reputation for making crazy faces in photographs, so it's only fitting that my future son will be as ridiculous with his facial expressions as me. One of the perks about finding out the gender from a designer / crafter standpoint is getting to go crazy with colors. Though I'm not a stickler when it comes to gender specific colors (us artists love all colors), I knew if it was a boy that I'd have to contain my magpie tendencies regarding hot-pink, purple, sparkles, sequins, and shiny things. (It's ironic that I'm also a tomboy, right?)

Perhaps my sub-conscious knew it was a boy, since I held off after drooling over these pinks, corals, and peach skeins of Koigu at knitting circle.

After rethinking my girly color palette, I was inspired by my friend Kate Gagnon Osborne, who I think has amazing taste, and an adorable little girl to boot.  She recently knit this adorable unisex Tiny Rocky Coast cardigan for her daughter, and I thought I would cast-on as well in another color.

It's only fitting that I cast-on with Fibre Company Canopy yarn that Kate (and Courtney Kelley) distribute. If you haven't used Fibre Company yarn, you may not want to start. Anything else will feel like scratchy plastic yarn next to the luxuriousness.

I would usually not make a baby sweater with such pretty yarn, but I figure the cute little Skeletor deserves a few nice things to start with. We can always wash it. Right?!

But just to even out the clothing wardrobe, we are loving the Wutang Clan onesie given to us from my cousin, Ryan. I think it will be a ton of fun to use a small baby as a billboard. (Insert a crazy Marissa facial expression of pure glee.)

Space Planning, Pretzels + Mocassins

While I was helping my friend with furniture layouts for her new retail store, I decided to rethink my own apartment. We live in the second floor of a converted row home, and while roomy and very sunlit, the back studio / reading room doesn’t have much (any?) insulation and the room we use a bedroom is in the middle of the house without doors. We’ve done this to take advantage of our brightly lit huge front room which receives gorgeous Northern daylight from morning until evening. Another benefit is being shielded from the noises on our very busy street, including but not limited to trolley traffic every quarter of an hour, and thankfully less frequent vocal altercations.

This has worked fine for us for the past few years, but we’re thinking it’s time to make some changes. The main reason for the change is because I'm expecting a baby in February!

I am naively hoping not to uproot my entire life because of this impending arrival, but I'm sure some things will change, at least for a bit. I'm hoping to follow in the footsteps of the rational and wonderful moms I know, such as my own dear Mom, my MIL, sisters-in-law, and best friends.

We're attempting to go minimal and just get what we need (I'll tell you how that goes!). We're also very lucky to have lots of friends who are done having babies, and already sending things our way.  I am also very grateful that I've felt really well, and besides getting super seasick going deep-sea fishing in my first trimester, have not even been too nauseous.

In the meantime, my goal during pregnancy is to be very selfish and enjoy as much free-time and me-time as possible! I'm sleeping in on weekends if I want, reading tons of books, not pushing myself to be productive all the time, and knitting things for myself!

I'll probably do a little crafting soon, especially now that I'm at the halfway mark and it's going very quickly! I'd like to make a quilt, and maybe a couple of knitted goods as well. I started knitting the yellow blanket, and did make the onesies above for my parents to reveal the news. (Lola and Lolo are Grandma and Grandpa in Tagalog, the Filipino language. It's also sassy and fun, which my parents are!)

I've also made things for other people's babies! The cutest baby moccasins from Purl Soho, and a pretzel themed "Philly Baby" onesie at a recent baby shower.

Thanks for letting me share my news with you! Feel free to send along suggestions of what I should be doing in my "selfish" time!