a funny thing happened on the way to summer.

once upon a time my little family of three was chugging merrily along through april looking forward to celebrating bubs' fourth birthday and eight glorious weeks of summer break. and then i got an email that flipped our world upside down. 

okay, a few background facts about our life:

a) we share a one bedroom apartment with a feral four year old

b) we like trees 

c) we need a change

back to that email. it was an invitation to interview for an art teacher position with an elementary school.

in colorado.

the end of an era.

for years, the mister and i have been dreaming of moving west but our focus has always been california. since that locale is completely out of our reach, we never pondered an actual move. enter keri, who should earn a commission for her relentless marketing of the glories of colorado. she planted the seed, even assisted in the job hunt, and suddenly moving across the country seemed like an option.

and then i landed that art teaching gig and the decision was made.

sayonara miami.

with that decision, our entire world was drop kicked into total chaos, since the timeline has been nothing short of nutty. the job offer arrived on may 29th and the bubs and i left for an already planned visit to california on june 9th. in between i finished the school year in miami, threw a 4th birthday party for the bubs, and packed up our entire house.

while i was in cali, the mister drove to colorado and found a house for us to rent, while i hired movers and rearranged travel plans. and then i left bubs in california with my parents. his first time being away from both of us. ouch. i headed to colorado for a week to join the mister working on the details of moving in and then off i went to miami for ten days to do all the moving out. alone. just me and the movers. 

the movers used 13 rolls of tape to wrap our furniture with blankies.

fingers crossed that the contents find their way to denver.

my mom's 1970s luggage wheels still going strong.

and now the mister and i are in colorado stuck in that special hell known only to those in the midst of long-distance moves -- all of your possessions are on a truck somewhere between your old city and your new one and you are living in a state of suspense in a mostly unfurnished house trying to subsist on frozen lasagna from costco. don't get me wrong, that lasagna is good stuff, but well, you know.

our new home.

meet pearl. my new ride.

needless to say, the last eight weeks have been overwhelming, but we are excited for this new beginning for our little family. bubs is still in california missing us like crazy, but soon he will be with us. we cannot wait to explore our new city with him and to see him frolicking in his very own backyard. this has been a big step for us, but we think it will be a good one.

missing my bubs.

wanted: poodle skirt. a dining table makeover.

in the sixth grade, i met blondie. i spent lots of time at her house and always marveled at the fact that no matter what, her family ate dinner at five o'clock. every day. for reals. so perfectly 1950's. so perfectly awesome. despite my mom's best efforts, our family drifted to the opposite extreme. occasionally we all ate dinner together, but more often then not, my mom had to catch us between our comings and goings to gymnastics, volleyball, hockey, etc. we ate at the kitchen table, kitchen counter, or sitting on the couch. at some point along the way, i decided that when i had a family, i was aiming for the 1950's version of dinner time. right.

my DIY assistant.

when the mister and i got married we had no table. we ate sitting on the couch or at the kitchen counter. but i wanted us to be able to gaze adoringly into each other's eyes over our plate of macaroni and cheese, so the day our ikea opened, we went and bought a little table and chairs. it was great for a few minutes, until our life swallowed it. and then big-E rolled in and that was the end of even thinking of dining at that table.

our starter dining set.

we ate all of our meals on the coffee table, sitting on the couch. we even bought the little guy his own chair, perfectly sized for him to join us at the coffee table. and when people came over, they joined us, on the couch. oy vey.

literally 1950's. no, thank you.

we have a lot of furniture. a lot. we had a full house of furniture and then a few years ago my grandmother passed away and we acquired more. the arrival of big-E exasperated the problem, but last week, as i was sewing at our "dining" table, i had an epiphany. get rid of all the little bits of unnecessary furniture cluttering up our two rooms and buy one big dining set. oh, and did i mention that we had no money for this? seriously, zero cents.

the mister painting the base coat under close supervision.

enter craigslist. i posted some of our excess furniture for sale and voila! moolah!! we even spontaneously sold our coffee table. exciting, although it was a rash move, because our living area is now devoid of all tables. oops. anyhow, we took our greenbacks and went shopping. we found an old queen anne-ish style dining set. probably built in the 1950's. $50. yes, please. SOLD.

transformation.

we bought it. dismantled it. recovered the seats. repaired it. and painted it. now, it is so delectable. and we can all eat together at a proper table. we can even invite friends! and we can teach big-E some proper table manners. happy mama. now i just need a poodle skirt.

swoon.
(ignore the lack of any other decor. we have a toddler.)

wonky windows #19.

 this week in our wonky world.

on monday we found this sign hanging in our building. now, the mister and i are no strangers to living life without running water, but no water at all? for five hours? with a baby? oh dear. i decided to fill the bathtub, so there would be water for washing hands and bucket baths. yes, a bath in a bucket. the mister filled up a giant soup pot. when i was filling up a pitcher and some water bottles, the mister suggested that i was going a bit overboard, because we would not need that much water.

and then i woke up in the morning and found this...every thing that would stand still long enough to hold water was full. when i asked the mister what it was for, he said it was just in case we needed some more water. apparently, he had changed his tune. 

despite our preparation, i still managed to end up in the shower with no water. see, i went to the gym and when i returned, i planned to use pringle's bathtub to take a bucket bath. but then the mister pointed out that the water had not yet been shut off, so i could take a shower. my gut told me it was a bad idea, but i did it anyways. that's right. i drained the bathtub and got in the shower. of course you know where this is going...i got halfway through my shower and whoops, the water stopped. so there i was, dripping wet, with conditioner in my hair, and no water. thank goodness for the mister's arbitrary desire to fill every container in the kitchen. i raided the mister's stash of water, dumped it in a bucket and finished my bath. thankfully, the rest of the water shutoff was a total non-event.

little things that make my world go 'round.

yesterday the mister sent me a text message asking if i could go to the grocery store to pick up some things. "smooth peaches" were on the list. do what? exactly.

there are lots of peach trees in lesotho. they were first brought to the country in the early 1900s by french missionaries (so the story goes) and can now be found in every village. as a result, the basotho LOVE peaches. but there are no nectarines. i guess that is why the name "nectarine" has simply not stuck in the mister's brain. he discovered nectarines during one of his first visits to the grocery store and was immediately in love with the hairless peaches.  after living here for four years, he still calls them "smooth peaches." and every time he says it i giggle and adore him a little bit more. in my world it is not the big stuff that matters, but all the little things that add up to our life together. like calling nectarines smooth peaches.

 

the peach tree outside my hut in lesotho.

driving home from the grocery store with a bag of smooth peaches, i could not help but think of a song i first heard a couple years ago. i was at one of my best friend's weddings and her husband's cousin-in-law, dick siegel, performed his song "the little things." quite possibly the world's most perfect song. you should listen to it. it will make you smile.

Find more artists like Dick Siegel at Myspace Music

minimalist amusement.

a week after the mister and i found out we were pregnant, i dragged him to the local baby store. my goal was not to show him all of the things i wanted for our baby, but rather to show him the vastness of the world of baby products, most of which i was hoping to avoid purchasing. i had rather strong opinions on what i wanted, but having never before had a baby i was not always sure what things were optional. i tried to find a list for guidance, but oh geez. i found gads of lists and they were all endless. yikes. in the end, we just went with our gut, buying the bare essentials with a plan to add as needed. we are not trying to deny pringle anything, we are just raising the kid on a budget. it turns out there is even a name for this... the minimalist baby.

this week the mister and i decided that pringle NEEDS a crib mobile. perhaps this seems like a strange necessity, but let us examine the facts. one, the kid is obsessed with the things that dangle from his play gym. and two, the kid wakes up at the crack of dawn and wants to play. clearly he needs in-crib entertainment....anything to buy us a couple extra minutes of z's. we pondered an ikea mobile, but it does not come with any way to attach to a crib. not sure why they call it a *crib* mobile, but that is a horse of a different color. long story short, it was not working for us, so the mister and i joined forces and made pringle a mobile.

the mister attached the arm of an adjustable lamp to the side of the crib and i sewed together some bits of cloth. we put it all together and now pringle has an adjustable crib mobile. he cannot take his eyes off of it. just in case he does, we also stuck a mirror on the wall so he can talk to himself. frugal-style fun and games.

baby got back.

the pepa.

sometimes things are not better in the west. no offense to the myriad of companies producing baby carriers, but the developed world has simply not designed any product that carries babies as efficiently and perfectly as the women of developing nations. i have seen pictures of how it is done in other countries, but lesotho is the only country for which i have first hand experience. they use a blanket and a gigantic safety pin. that is it. it sounds too good to be true, but i assure you it is possible. thanks to my two year sojourn in lesotho, and the fact that my best friend and her mother both had babies, i learned how to pepa (carry a baby on my back). about a month ago i decided pringle was ready to pepa, so on my back he went. other people seem surprised at how much he likes it, but not me. let us think about this...he is tightly wrapped and happens to be strapped to one of his favorite people in the world. what's not to love? anyhow, i started off using my tjale (a blanket women wear around their waist or shoulders, similar to a picnic blanket - mine was given to me by my in-laws) and when at home, i carried pringle around on my back all the time. but i was not mentally prepared for venturing out in public. i have this awful tendency to get a bit timid about doing out-of-the-ordinary things in public, so obviously strapping my baby on my back and wandering the grocery store was totally NOT in my comfort zone. ugh.

boring blue blanket.

but then a friend saw a picture i had posted of pringle on my back and she mentioned that my blanket is boring. she is right. it is blue with blue stripes. well, i cannot say that i needed another sewing project, but i like a good challenge. and i realized that maybe if i made a special pepa blanket, i would be more at ease using it in public. as an added bonus it would be lovely and hopefully not be as hot as an acrylic blanket, which is mucho importante in miami. so i pulled out my fabrics and voila!! a quilted cloth to carry my little pringle. now when people ask me what carrier i am using, i am going to tell them it is a "pepa" by lerato. and they will be super jealous, because their hands-free carrier ain't as fantastic as my hands-free carrier. 

the new and improved pepa blanket.

ain't it lovely? i am still not 100% confident using it in public, because i feel like a fish out of water, but i am working on it. i am building up mental stamina... i used it walking downstairs to get the mail, to a yoga studio grand opening, and in the mister's company at the grocery store. it has been wonderful, but it definitely gets a lot of stares and comments. i know i know...time to stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking and just worry about what is best for me and my baby. easier said than done, but i am trying!!!

pringle loves it!

wonky windows #18.

while the mister and i were running errands, i found myself snapping pictures. it seems that i am constantly entertained by the vehicles around us.

the back of this truck lists the number 1-800-CLUCKER. it made me giggle. when i saw the side of the truck, which features a large chicken, it all made much more sense. further research has informed me that apparently this company is one of the leading poultry distributors in florida. who knew.

there is something about seeing ginormous target trucks rolling down the street that warms the cockles of my heart.

we pulled up next to this car and the mister said "do you think they are scouts?" i was dumbfounded. since the mister is from lesotho, there are gaping holes in his knowledge of non-essential american culture. which makes it all the more entertaining when he pulls a gem out of thin air. when i asked him how he knew about scouts, he said that there are boy scouts and girl scouts in lesotho. fun fact i never knew about his country. although, i still don't know how or why he linked this car with scouts, because i do not imagine the scouts in his country have a ride like this.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

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.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

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.

mommy list.

**warning: some folks might consider this a sappy post. you're gonna have to deal. i just had a baby...sap is now in my blood.

while i found pregnancy to be a delightful experience, it has nothing on the fascination of life with baby. when the doctor put my little nugget on my belly and i stared into his wide-open eyes, i could not believe that i was finally holding my precious pringle. so perfect and so complete. despite having taken all the requisite science classes in school and having previously seen tiny babies, i still marvel at the fact that this little thing popped out with ears, hair, eyelashes, eyebrows, fingers, toes, and nails. i had tried to envision life with pringle, but having never experienced it, it's a little hard to imagine.

before you have a baby, there are lots of folks who are ready to give you unsolicited commentary on what to expect. they typically focus on the humdrum and negative, reminding you of the poopy diapers, sleepless nights, and the expense involved in bringing a baby into the world. i tried to just nod and smile whenever these folks felt the need to speak their mind and kept reminding myself that obviously there is a reason why people say "congratulations" when a baby enters the world. luckily, in my life there were lots of positive folks, excited for the impending arrival of our little nugget and readily telling me how my life was about to be turned inside-out, but in a wonderful way. it's hard to put into words the amazingness that comes with a newborn, but if i had to try to explain, these are some of the things that keep me constantly fascinated with my little guy and mommyhood...

1. the wild-eyed look he has when he is fighting sleep.
2. he squeaks.
3. his soft and squishy little knees and elbows.
4. his baby sneezes.
5. the way he relaxes at the sound of my voice.
6. the way his hair smells.
7. he has the hiccups about 17 times a day.

8. he throws his arms above his head when he is sleeping.

9. after nursing, he turns into a limp noodle.

10. his look of nonchalance as he lets rip a LOUD poop.

11. he purses his lips and scrunches his eyes when i put kisses all over his face.

12. watching the mister play with him.

13. when he is tired, he closes his eyes, raises his eyebrows, tilts back his head, and rolls it around, in some sort of weird stretch.

14. as sleep-depriving as it is, i love that he would rather sleep curled up right next to me, than 9" away on his bed. (yes, the white sheet right next to him is his bed, but it is too far away from mommy).

15. his serious study of the world around him.

16. his chubby cheeks.

17. his hair is all over the place and completely uncontrollable.

18. watching the myriad of faces he makes when he sleeps.

19. he falls asleep on my chest or on my lap and i want to melt.

wonky windows #16.

a window into our wonky world...
the mister and i love fruit. not fruits and vegetables. just fruit. we occasionally eat vegetables, but it is fruit that finds us in the grocery store four or five days a week. mostly we eat bananas, strawberries, pineapple, nectarines, and apples. but a few months ago we added watermelon. don't get me wrong....we always enjoyed watermelon, we just did not consume it that often. now i happen to be a lucky lass, because i am married to a championship watermelon picker. okay fine, he has not ever won a championship, but if there were such a contest, i would bet a lot of money that he would come out on top. he honed his skills in the fields of lesotho, so the grocery store with plenty of pickings is no match for him. we always got the lovely little watermelons, which according to this ny times article, are called "personal melons." right-o. they are about the size of a honeydew melon, seedless, taste delicious, and fit nicely into the refrigerator. oh and the mister and i can consume one in less than 24 hours.

the twenty-eight pound monster.

as of last week, those personal melons are old news. we have now regressed into the world of seeded (gasp!) and gigantic watermelons. last week the mister brought home a giant that was probably close to 20 pounds. ummm...we ate the whole thing...in 6 days. today, the mister was not feeling so bashful. he bought a 28 pound behemoth that is so gigantic it will not fit inside of the bag he was planning to use to keep it fresh. are we having a party? uhhh..nope. sharing with seven other families? uhhh..nope. this massive gem is just for the two of us (well three...pringle is a hungry little one). this leaves me wondering...is it possible to consume too much watermelon???

THE quilt on speed.

ummm...so remember a few days ago when i was a bit worried that perhaps i might never finish pringle's quilt? yes well, apparently my fears were completely groundless. i was totally possessed and energized on saturday, so i got to work.

totally wacko knee pads.

i laid out all the circles...crawling around on my makeshift kneepads (some of the mister's socks strapped to my knees) until i was completely satisfied with the placement of each circle. around the time my knees were ready to fall off, despite the "knee pads," the circles were ready for pinning. since my knees could take no more, i flopped onto my rump and scooted around pinning down every single circle. and then i had to iron each circle to activate the fusible interfacing (glue) so the circles were attached to the background fabric. finally i had to sew circles around the edges of each circle. holy bananas.

did i mention that there are ninety-two circles? just in case you did not get it the first time, there are NINETY-TWO circles!!! as you can probably imagine this entire process was rather overwhelming. needless to say, it is with relief and disbelief that i can tell you the front of the quilt is complete. well, as long as you are willing to ignore the seven empty spaces reserved for the fabric en route from the mister's family in lesotho.

next step...the back of the quilt. the little pieces are all sewn together. now i am waiting for the rest of the fabric to arrive (hopefully tomorrow). once i have it i can finish the back and then finish the whole quilt. gasp. it is starting to seem like maybe, just maybe, this quilt will be finished before the little one's arrival. phew.