wonky windows #17.

wow. it has been a while. thanks to keri for reminding me that we should not neglect the windows!!!

this week is a window into a simple delight.

this melts my perfectionist heart.

seven weeks ago i gave birth to a little munchkin who likes to eat every two to three hours. since i opted to breastfeed him, we are sort of attached at the hip (well, actually it is the boob). pair that with the fact that his lack of vaccinations means we limit his excursions to public places and i am a stay-at-home mom. when i say stay-at-home, i mean, i literally do not leave the house. okay fine, i do. but it is rare. tuesday and wednesday pringle and i attend exercise class and on sundays i go grocery shopping.

holy organization. the joy, the joy.

the grocery shopping is sans pringle, which means it takes a bit of finagling. i needed a time that fit with the mister's studying, class, and work schedules, AND fit the munchkin's eating and sleeping schedule, so i picked sunday morning. early sunday morning. so early that i had to look at what time the store opens. 7am. that's right, this night owl heads to the grocery store at 7:00am sunday mornigs. eek. but there are some distinct beneifts. 1) it is easy to get an awesome parking spot. 2) the store is practically empty. 3)  the checkout lanes rarely have a line. 4) the bread in the bakery is still warm from the oven. and 5) the store is untouched, which makes it look delectable...hello produce!! which leads us to this week's pictures. these displays are always present, but by the time i used to show up in the afternoon, they were a mess. this organization; this perfection; this gloriousness, makes me want to sing from the rooftops.

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hanging on to the future.

when i think of myself, i kinda still think i am a kid. but technology seems to be around simply to remind me of the gap between generations and the fact that contrary to my beliefs, i am no longer a kid. i have always chuckled about (and cheered) my mom's escapades on the computer and, most recently, her foray into text messaging. but the reality is that my smug little self is now getting lost in the dust. let's face it...i only took up text messaging, because i became friends with some young-uns, who were quick to help me realize that phone calls were so 1990s. so i got with the program and started text messaging. shortly after, the same friends convinced me to join facebook. i did and now i feel the urge to check it every three minutes. somewhere in all of this i discovered smartphones (hello, iphone!!), online education (yay master's degree), and blogging (wahoo!). despite what i thought was technological prowess, it still seemed that the future of communication had swept by and i was just hanging on to its coattails by a fingernail.

stuck under a sleeping baby.

and then i had a baby. sometime in a sleep deprived moment, probably stuck under a sleeping pringle, i jumped into this thing called twitter. you may have heard of it. i signed up for an account in 2008, but not really understanding it, i never tweeted. it is a strange concept, but i think i love it. although, it does seem like it is the perfect breeding ground for stalkers. details details. and now in my determination to at least ride ON the coattails of the future, i signed up for google+ (have not yet figured out its purpose) and thanks to mrs. nipper knapp, as of last night i am now a member of pinterest. i have only pinned a few things, but i think the idea is a gem. i wonder what is next. i am trying to keep up, but something tells me that in twenty years, pringle will be looking on in amusement as his mom tries to figure out the latest technology that is the backbone of his generation.

now that i am on top of all the latest social networks (i think), my latest adventure is to try to convince some companies that they should give me their products to test and review on my blog. see, i was bopping around on the internet looking for reviews of various baby products the mister and i are considering for purchase, when i realized that there are lots of folks out there receiving products to test out and review on their blog. i decided that since i spend inordinate amounts of time on my computer anyways, i should at least put my time to good use!! but i am thinking that if i want to convince companies that i have some clout, i might need a few more folks following my blog. so i need YOUR help. if you are a member of google or facebook or twitter or pinterest, you should find me and FOLLOW me!! no seriously, you should. all the cool kids are doing it and it makes me smile to know there are people out there. plus maybe it will help convince some corporates that swimming in brine is the bees knees. cant wait to see you in the world wide web!

google friend connect: follow my blog by clicking on the "join this site" button (left sidebar). 

facebook: swimming in brine - i would provide a link, but they wont give me one until i have 25 people - all the more reason YOU should find it and like it. :)

twitter: @swimminginbrine or you can click my name in the twitter box (right sidebar)

pinterest: pickel swimming

nice to meet you murphy.

"if anything can go wrong, it will." ~murphy's law.

who, ME?!?

in my pre-baby life i had some run-ins with murphy. now that baby is here, murphy visits every 5-7 minutes. awesome? well, no. not exactly. but it does keep you on your toes and teach you how to see the humor in life. these are the top 10 new rules in our life.

1. if it is inconvenient or impossible to take the baby out of his car seat, he screams. conversely, if it is convenient or possible to take him out of his car seat, he is sound asleep.

2. the baby will scream hysterically during a car ride, only bothering to fall asleep when we arrive at home.

3. the baby will happily hold the paci in his mouth when you sit with him. he will drop it the moment you walk away.

4. when you are prepared with a rag to catch spit-up, the baby will just burp. when you are entirely unprepared, the baby will barf all over you.

5. the baby will make hundreds of cute faces when the camera is in the other room. retrieve the camera and the baby just stares at you.

6. if you need the baby to sleep "just five more minutes,"so you can finish something, he will wake up. if you want the baby to wake up so you can do the 2am feeding before you drift off, he will stay asleep. 

7. when you put the baby in a cute onesie you would like to look at all day, he will happily soil it within the hour.

8. when lying on top of you (aka you cannot get anything done), the baby will sleep soundly for hours and hours. if you try to put him in his bed, he will be awake within 60 seconds.

9. the more tired the baby is, the harder it is to put him to sleep.

10. if you are early you will breeze right out the door. if you are on time or running late, the baby will gleefully provide you with a diaper explosion that will require you to change his diaper and outfit, and possibly even your outfit. the severity of the explosion is directly proportional to your tardiness.

all in a days work.

if only we were always this calm.

the mister: hi honey.

me: hi!!!

the mister: how was your day?

me: busy.

the mister: oh yeah? what did you do?

this puts a damper on productivity.

me: oh, you know, lots. ate breakfast. watched the tour de france broadcast. three times. played on facebook. for four hours. called the bank, which was uber-frustrating, so like all sane folks, i cried on the phone with the customer service representative (everyone cries when they call their bank, right?). nursed the baby. tried to soothe my crying baby. it took three hours. ate some candy. played on twitter. watched the baby sleep for two hours. pumped. ate some lunch. and then you came home, so that's it.

tales of lesotho. happy faces.

just discovered this unpublished post that i wrote last august, shortly after our trip to visit the mister's family in lesotho.

a tourism poster from the 1970s.

lesotho holds a special place in my heart...not just because it is the mister's country, but because it is full of friendly faces. some of the faces i know, some of them i don't. basotho love to smile and laugh. when you consider their circumstances, you would think there is no reason left to laugh, but they do. if you look at their clothes, possessions, and houses one might think they have nothing to give, yet they are unfailingly kind and generous. they open their hearts and their homes with no questions. my favorite times in lesotho are laughing with the people i meet and i can only hope that my spirit is as unbreakable as theirs. here are a few of the smiling faces i met during our trip.