Did you read Blythe's post about simplifying her life?? It rang so true for me. Between that and The Nesting Place tucked in my carry on, I'm spending a lot of our current vacation mentally at home: ordering and redecorating our house, painting the gross highchair, actually printing some pictures.

In my home, I've struggled both to create workable systems and maintain the systems I create. Surprisingly, however, this has gotten a little better since I've become a mother. I'm better at it because I have more to keep track of, so I don't have the option to let everything slide. But, mostly, I'm better at it because being a mother has taught me that it's okay to be deliberate about systems that aren't perfect...that sometimes the only real problem with my system is that I just haven't embraced it as a system.

For example:

When Jake was a baby, we had a few bibs that we got here and there that didn't work very well. So when Lucy June started solids, I thought we needed a better system. Some people have those bibs that are bulky and plastic and basically end in a bowl, and those seem like they'd work. Or Zulilly had some bibs that I'd seen them on Shark Tank and thought they looked handy. After researching all the bibs and all the options and the mom blogs and the amazon customer reviews and feeling just overwhelmed at all the ways of managing this issue, I began to wonder just how we'd done this with Jake. I had already done this once without any of those fancy bibs, and somehow my baby grew up into a three year old. I thought back and remembered that I'd done it by feeding him shirtless. Strip baby. Watch baby "eat." And then tackle the whole kit and kaboodle with a washcloth. Or plunk the baby in the tub and call it a "bedtime routine." Point being: it had worked. So there I was staring at all the tabs in my browser with all these great bib options, and I slowly began closing them and deciding that I was ok with doing it that way again. 

Now I'm at peace with my bibless baby feeding. We are as messy as ever, but I'm no longer anxious about it.

I often hear new mothers lament about how they've let go of their standards. It makes me sad when I hear it. This post is a gesture to rebrand the flexing and stretching of motherhood that looks and feels a little like lowered standards. Of course, maybe your standards are lowering and you need to fight the good fight and turn yourself around. But maybe you're just learning how to be more at peace with chaos.

The End.

Cue image of my nephew's enormous mouth. This child is awesome. And his mouth is awesomer.

Sunday Sunday

Tuesday has us leaving on a pretty epic trip which involves multiples destinations, relatives, old friends, and...Oahu, so posting may be a little infrequent at the Good Ole R Log over the next few weeks.

It's been an unusual Sunday. We woke up this morning and decided to hit up the 7:30 Mass at a parish close to us so we could free up the late morning to go watch my brother preach at the historic First Presbyterian Church here in Houston. He's been their college minister for over two years and it was his first time preaching in the main service.

We left the kiddos in the nursery. And true to form, Jake ran gleefully away from his parents to play in the three year old classroom - absolutely no hint of anxiety despite being in a brand new place full of strangers - while Lucy June started fussing the second I dropped her in the "crawling nursery" and managed to get herself expelled by the third song in the worship service. I went back to get her and after hurling her horribly distraught self into my arms, she sniffed twice, exhaled and then was completely fine. Separation anxiety diva if there ever was one.

Jake wasn't like that at all as a baby. He didn't care much who he was with so long as he was they were helping him do whatever he wanted. Lucy June doesn't care so much what she's doing so long as she's with the right person. Me. Me. or um. Me. UNLESS there's a kiddie pool or a power cord involved. She'd probably trade me for constant access to kiddie pool or a good teething session on a power cord. Or maybe not, but it would be a hard decision.

Fifteen minutes of blogging brought to you by constant contact with mom's shins and full access to contraband mega blocks while big brother toy hoarder naps.

Where were we?


Right. First Pres. My big brother preached today and he did. so. well. During the "greet your neighbors" time, I told everyone around me that I was his little sister, and it was everything I could do not to let out a whoop when he was finished. He then came over to our house, and we very ecumenically drank alcohol together.

I hope you've had a lovely Sunday. I'm about to forgive myself for not completing half of my to do list for the day - which included, but was not limited to, finishing up this project, sandal-worthying my toenails, folding two weeks worth of laundry, packing, booking a rental car, loading up our devices with books for my beaching and Jake's airplaning - and continue my rewatch of Band of Brothers with my husband.

Staying Interesting and Interested

At a bridal shower a few years ago (Hi, Meg!) I played a game where everyone wrote down encouraging words about marriage on slips of paper and the bride chose her favorite. She chose:

"Stay Interesting and Interested"

Right now, I'm trying to stay interested in Jacob's enthusiasm for tiny houses. He was on a kick about a year ago and recently got back onto it. I can't say I encourage him very much because how do you encourage something like this? I'm pretty sure we graduated from tiny house potential as soon as we started having kids. I mean, currently, we have five people living in an 1100 sq. ft house. Per person, we're basically on par with the tiny housers. 

source

He really just wants to build a house on a trailer and drive it around and park it overnight in any spot where he wants to watch the sunrise. So basically what he wants is a "tiny vacation home" which I argue misses the entire point of the tiny house movement. 

For all I tease him about it, I find them pretty interesting, these quirky little buildings with all their nooks and hooks and crannies. 

But were he ever to drive home with a double axle trailer and tell me he was going to build a house, scratch that OUR house, on it...well...I mean for him to do that I would not only have to be on board, I would have to be on duty. 

Especially now that we have kids, staying interested in each others' hobbies is a lot more effortful than just an occasional "how nice" - being interested often means enabling the other person, we have to help each other stay interesting.

I'm the type that is a huge cheerleader for Jacob to follow some passion, but when he actually starts in on it I feel abandoned and overwhelmed, and bitterness mounts because I can't beLIEVE he's out there PLAYing when there are bedtimes to routine and diapers to change! 

Interested is when I let him pursue a passion even when it feels inconvenient to me.

Interested is when my husband is outside with his tools finishing what I'm sure is a very pressing project, while I scramble through the end of dinner prep with two hungry people clutching at my calves. 

Interested is when he comes in for dinner and proudly presents me with...a cherrywood muddler, and I suppress the lip-pursing, eyebrow-raising "THIS is how you've spent your last half hour?" face. Or half-suppress it...or perhaps I just own the snark completely while taking the muddler from him and making cocktails.

Sometimes I have to be more of a mom so he can be something other than a dad for a little while.

Sometimes I have to be more of a mom so our children can watch their dad be a carpenter. So I can watch him too.

I have my interests too. Things I pursue, that make me a happier and hopefully better person. He's interested in those things with me.

And often his interest surfaces around seven in the morning, when I'm nursing my sacred morning coffee as he takes the toddler to the bathroom and tends to the baby who's started to squawk, and he says too loudly: "I'm coming, Lucy June. Papa loves you MORE than his computer." And then to me "I'm just gonna change a diaper here, honey, if that's OK with you."

"Go for it!" I say. He would welcome help, but he mostly just wants me to remember all that he is juggling so I can play like I'm a blogger for a few more minutes. 

Recent Reads

I already told you that in the summer, I prefer to go full beach read. So most of these books fall into that category.

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green

I read this because I like to read books that are "all the rage." I really enjoyed it. If you're like me and you hate knowing too much about a book before you've read it, then don't watch the movie trailer. You get about 95% of the plot in the trailer. I suppose it isn't very plot driven, but still...It's a quick read full of angsty teenagers...who have cancer. I thought Mr. Green did a good job of making the teenagers feel like teenagers despite battling debilitating illnesses. The relationship between the two main characters seemed a little underdeveloped, but I may have only felt that way because I read it really fast.

Eleanor & Park

by Rainbow Rowell

While we're on the subject of love among high schoolers, I'll direct your attention to Eleanor and Park. It's the story of Eleanor who sits on the bus next to Park and soon starts reading comics over his shoulder, and it stays just that cute. Rowell does such a good job of conveying high school awkwardness and that all-consuming first love and the subplots of difficult family life give it some meat. 

The Language of Flowers

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Language of Flowers is a book about a girl just graduated out of the foster system who is healing from a difficult past and learning to accept a different future. Laced throughout the story is her obsession with the Victorian language of flowers; her passion for it interrupts her destructive cycles. As I read I kept comparing this book to What Alice Forgot in that it had a pretty compelling concept that lost a little steam once I'd gotten used to it, but then it ended well. Overall, I really enjoyed reading it.

Bel Canto

by Ann Patchett

When I read the synopsis of this book I was pretty uninspired. Opera and terrorists? How would that even work? But this book...I know a book has me when I stop being an English teacher while I'm reading it and just fall into the experience. Bel Canto did this for me. I loved it. It's hopeful and heartwrenching: a hostage situation meets Babette's Feast.

Housekeeping

by Marilynne Robinson

If Bel Canto moves us out of beach reads, then Housekeeping has us at Full Blown Literature. It was my first experience with Ms. Robinson, and my is she something. The book was on the heavy side - cold, foggy - but it was short and her prose is so effortlessly crafted with such a mix of eerie female characters, I highly recommend it - but probably as an Autumn read over a Summer read since it definitely isn't CandyLit.

7QT: Like Father Like Son

It's been awhile since I threw up some of what the Jacobs have been throwing down, so here we go.

The Big Jacob

Complaining about the picture of him in this post that exposes some knicks and bruises on his shins.

JACOB: It looks... It looks like I have some weird disease. (sighs) Now I have to go read all the nice comments on the post about the bed I made you.

>><<

After reading my post "On Money and Vacations and Marriage" where I complain about his careless spending habits:

JACOB: I come from a family whose relationship to money was very similar to...St. Francis's.
ME:

The Little One

Little Jake's favorite games:

1) Let's throw balls at each others' heads.

2) Surfer (Jake) & Surfboard (other person)

>><<

ME: Jake, how old is your father?

JAKE: Two.

ME: How old??

JAKE:

>><<

JAKE: Are you a kid or an ohdult?
ME: An adult.
JAKE: I like it when ohdults pick me up.

>><<

Describing an unpleasant odor on our walk:

JAKE: Smells like somebody's cooking a skunk.

>><<

Jacob was still in bed early one morning and little Jake ran in and jumped on his back:

JAKE: You can be my horse! Giddyon, girl. Giddyon giddyon, girlie.

Linking up with Jen for 7 Quick Takes.

Photo to Wood Image Transfer

One of the first things I ever pinned was an image to wood transfer. I used this tutorial here. I have since done lots of image transfers - usually I break it out for the tighter Christmases. I think it's a pretty magical DIY.

And the magic is all in the Liquitex Gel Medium which you can get from Amazon or Michael's. The Gel Medium lifts the link off of a printed piece of paper and adheres it to another surface.

MATERIALS

Liquitex Gel Medium

Mod Podge

Image Print Out (flipped)

Piece of Wood or Plywood

1. Sand and clean your wooden surface. Or get your husband to do it.

2. Print your image with a laser jet printer. But before you print it out, flip it horizontally (you can do this with Mac's Preview App so you don't need any fancy software.) Use the cheapest flimsiest paper available. I print mine out at FedEx and I make two copies just in case I botch the first one.

Trim off excess paper.

2. Cover your image with gel medium. Or cover the wood surface with gel medium. Or do both.

3. Press the paper - image side down - onto your wooden surface and smooth out any bubbles in the gel. I use a credit card to help with this. Let it dry completely. I usually just leave it for a night and come back.

4. Once the gel medium is totally dry, moisten the paper with a washcloth. Make sure it's totally soaked and then begin to rub off the paper. This is the most time consuming part. 

Do it slowly and don't press too hard or you might lose patches of ink.

I recommend working on the key parts of the image (faces?) first. You will almost definitely lose flecks of ink during the process. That's fine and is even kind of charming - but sometimes you accidentally los a nose or something and it's just not worth finishing. When this happens to me, I just let the paper dry back out, grab some sandpaper, and start over from the beginning.

The paper comes off in layers. You might have to do this step in two or three shifts because as the water dries you will better be able to see lingering fibers of the paper.

Rewet it and carry on.

5. Once you've removed all the paper and it's dry, cover it with Mod Podge. Maybe give it a couple coats.

And you're done.

Consider taking a picture of it in another room next to a succulent.

I'll eventually update this post with more images when I finish the other two pieces I was working on - I had to scrap one because I'm a dummy and the horizon was at a 30 degree angle. I had to scrap the other because I lost some ink and nobody likes a cyclops bride.

Good luck with your image transfers, and I'm happy to help you troubleshoot!

Birthday, Book, Bed, Blog?

No blog post happened today...for a couple reasons

{One}

My little brother turned 25, and we had ourselves a little party.

{Two}

Houston Public Library finally came through on a hold...

...good thing too because book club is in two days. Hopefully Ms. Patchett lends herself to speed reading.

I'm planning on putting up a wood image transfer tutorial on Wednesday, but for now I must book it up and then go and move some bodies around, so I have a place to sleep.

See you soon!