Balancing the Chronic House Party

Image from the very entertaining, sorryimissedyourparty.com

I can’t believe I haven’t used a neti pot until now. A neti pot virgin no more, I heart this ancient method of restoring anti-inflammatory love to the mucous membranes and sinuses. Yes, it stings. Yes, it feels like you are drowning even though you can breathe. Yes, you need to tilt your head forward lest it run down the back of your throat. No, you will not regret this.

My eyes are clear, I can taste, I can breathe. My ears don’t hurt. I am no longer freaking out about having to go to the doctor and having (for the second time since being in WA) the worst cold ever, at 35 weeks pregnant. I glance at my arsenal of anti-inflammatory ginger tea, Reed’s ginger candies, and garlicy couscous with cranberries and roasted almonds. I inhale the steam from the pot of miso broth brewing on my stove. I sip Kefir. I remember now, what it is like to live in the cold, dark, damp of the Pacific Northwest. Beautiful, green, surrounded by the constant party of family and easy to succumb to the foods that will keep my immune system weak: coffee, sugar, and bread/white flour products. Thank goodness I’m pregnant or I could probably throw beer into that list as well.

Image from the very entertaining, sorryimissedyourparty.com

Balance has been restored. Please stay.

I am quickly realizing that living with my parents, nephew and brother is not much different that living with crazy college roommates. For one thing, day or night, there’s always someone willing and able to party with you and/or make you food and/or eat your food. There’s always drama of some kind. I’m always shutting off all the lights. I’m always laughing at or with someone. The TV, which no one actually watches, is always on. Someone is always up reading something fascinating, controversial, or nostalgic. No one knows where anyone is, but they have a lot of guesses.

Image from the very entertaining, sorryimissedyourparty.com

They think neti pots, ginger candy, and couscous are weird but are willing to try anything twice. Sounds  vaguely familiar :)

A Corner and a Piece of Time

Sunflower from my Mom's garden. 2010 THE FINISH LINE.

Sometimes, while creating a map of the world, one is lucky enough to find a corner and a piece of time in which to be able to completely loose themselves to a mouth-watering and joyous obsession. As it is appropriate to both the season and the time in my life, I wanted to share this one.

Acceptance

When the spent sun throws up its rays on cloud

And goes down burning into the gulf below,

No voice in nature is heard to cry aloud

At what has happened. Birds, at least, must know

It is the change to darkness in the sky.

Murmuring something quiet in her breast, 

One bird begins to close a faded eye;

Or overtaken too far from his nest,

Hurrying low above the grove, some waif

Swoops just in time to his remembered tree.

At most he thinks or twitters softly, "Safe!

Now let the night be too dark for all of me.

Let the night be too dark for me to see

Into the future, Let what will be, be."

Robert Frost 

Scenes from the library room. 2010 THE FINISH LINE

When I come home for holiday visits and summer vacations, I like to stay in "the library room". My parents have a sweet collection of books, both old and new, and it's a fun and comforting place to sleep. I've converted the library room into a half-nursery now, but before I go to sleep every night, I usually skim through my Mom's collection of old poetry or fairy tales from before the turn of the century.

Scenes from the hallway of the library room. Some random great-grandmother's baby stuff. 2010 THE FINISH LINE

Mom and Dad also have a beautiful collection of history books and then of course, there are all of the childrens books from when we were kids. It is easy to get lost in this wonderland. My recent treasure is the compilation, The Complete Poems of Robert Frost (1949), from which I found this gem and several others.
Happy mapping, everyone!

Closer to My Heart

On a mini-hike along Quilceda-Allen Creek. In less than 2 months, I can wrap my baby boy up and take him too!

As the beautiful autumn days become shorter, the winter wrens set up shop around the perimeter of my parents' property, serenading winter with their warbling hymns, and the feasting, foraging evening bat shows become fewer as these mysterious creatures find their toasty winter roosts. I am realizing that my own seasonal clock is ticking as the baby in my belly grows stronger and bigger and literally closer to my heart, with each passing day. 

BAH (Badass Husband) on deployment (#3)

As I surveyed one of my 268 calendars this morning, I realized that BAH and I are coming up on the estimated halfway point of this deployment. While we don't tend to live life by merely "counting down the days" (because in doing so, you're not really living in the moment), I think it's safe to say we both feel a little differently this time around. We've cut ourselves some slack. His job is one in which he has no choice but to live in the moment. The safety of his ship and crew depend upon it. Being pregnant, I have realized my brain, which was previously pretty good at living in the moment, is actually living moment-by-moment...an entirely different and new concept, altogether. Bottom line: YEAY :)

About this time last year, when we decided it would be a perfectly good idea to have our first baby during a deployment. Yes, we were actually sober :)

While being apart during this time has, believe it or not, been less than ideal (in case any of you are planning a similar scenario), we have been blessed with an overflow of emotional and physical support from friends, family, and neighbors; a healthy and most intriguing pregnancy; and the ability to consistently communicate with each other, something neither of us dare take for granted.

View from beautiful Orcas Island, WA, just a hop, skip and a ferry ride away from my temporary home on Camano Island

Originally, I did not plan to leave our home in San Diego to live in Washington with my parents during this pregnancy. I had every intention of staying put, (feet firmly planted and arms crossed defiantly). However, as we started talking to our midwife about things like potential bedrest and the possibility of a cesarean section delivery, and then we watched Brother #1 and the Curly Blonde bring our beautiful Nephew (#3) into the world days before BAH left for deployment, me not doing the whole third trimester/birth/post-partum care on my own became with wiser choice. 

Brother #3 and Long Time Girlfriend (LTG) at Seaport Village in San Diego

Brother #3 and LTG flew down to San Diego to help me temporarily pack up and cover our little house for 5 months, and we packed up the Jeep and road-tripped it up to Camano Island, WA, where we all currently reside. BAH and I feel very lucky because we have the most wonderful neighbors EVER...the kind you can leave your keys with as you traipse across the world year-after-year, and never look back; The kind you can trust to oversee major construction of your house while you are gone and pregnant and worried about everything; The kind you will never forget; The kind you can never repay. 

Brother #1, the Curly Blonde, and Nephew #3 picnicking in Julian, near their home in CA

I miss these guys. The last couple of times BAH deployed, I have had the privilege of living 20 minutes from my best friend and her husband, who just happens to be my brother. Ah, the many, MANY memories of running races, training for marathons, drinking copious amounts of wine, sneaking cigarettes with Brother #1, sleeping on their couch, and devouring the Curly Blonde's delicious cooking...I am sure they are secretly breathing a sigh of relief that I am not there to be a bad influence on them right now! Just wait until they are up in WA for Christmas this year...If you think having just had a baby will deter me, think again :)

Mom and I in Northern Idaho at my parents' cabin last fall

Living back in the Puget Sound region of Washington has given me an opportunity to get reacquainted with this beautiful place, the change in seasons here, as well as the majority of my family, BAH's family (the inlaws), and my old friends from the high school/college years. I've often described my family as being on the eccentric side of life. I'm not sure what that makes me because I'm sure our son will describe his Dad and I with similar wording one day, as we drag him to used bookstores and out to random pubs in the quest for the perfect brew and as we plan family trips to the most uncool, anti-Disney places in the world :) 

Dad (circa 5 years ago@ Brother #1's wedding reception because he's always being a goof in every picture and this is literally the only recent good one I have, which is sad and something I would like to remedy in my time here )

My parents seem really excited about having a baby in the house again, and considering the fact that they had 5 kids and were fun parents, I am looking forward to their advice and complete lack of concern for anything in my spreadsheet or pregnancy/baby book, which has every page folded and underlined and written in :) I think they must be surprised at how OCD their oldest kid turned out, but even I know enough to know that they could write their own version of such a book and be right. There's a difference between pure talent and pure science, just as there is a stark difference between doing something because you're passionate and doing something because you're trained that way.

I jokingly told my husband once that sometimes I imagined my path in this life to be me with a flashlight  that keeps running out of batteries, trying to map my way through this dense brush with a wet napkin and a pen that keeps running out of ink, but I am sure there is some kind of stunning view on the other side. I am glad our paths finally converged in this life because now we can take turns holding the flashlight :)

I look forward to the other half of this adventure and to the things that grow closer to my heart with each passing day. 

Random Sampling of Joy

You know you’re in the Pacific Northwest when they start combining bank drivethrus with espresso stands, banks still have drivethrus, and people only really go to Starbucks for the access to bathrooms or wi-fi. 

Stanwood, WA is the gateway farm community guarding the one bridge on and off the [Camano] Island. There used to be this random little espresso stand on the Island who used my favorite coffee ever from Caffe Vita Coffee Roasting Co. in Seattle, but they closed the stand a few years back. Camano Island Coffee Roasters have since become my preferred local favorite, and this is one of the stands they have up in the community.

Stanwood has about 60 espresso stands, but my favorite thing about this town is not the coffee or the views of the North Cascades and the Olympic Mountains, it’s the alpacas. 

Aren’t they the sweetest animal ever? 

Sustainable (and expensive), alpaca wool is quite a hot PNW commodity, and one day I would like to crochet an alpaca wool afghan...Maybe I will opt to do this sooner than later :)

The pumpkins are out already, and most of the spiders have disappeared, so Nephew #1 and I decided Auntie Becca should stop gawking at the alpacas just long enough to get a jumpstart on practicing our mad pumpkin carving skills this weekend. 

Nephew #1 is a pretty skilled little pumpkin carver (we take our carving very seriously in this family, so might as well start them off young). All I did was trace the pattern and show him how to get some leverage using the mini hand carving saw. He figured the rest out on his own.

I'd say he's pretty good at figuring things out, in general. The other day he asked me if the baby was afraid of the dark. No, I answered, he loves the dark...it's warm and safe and comfortable. Well, Nephew #1 explained, it's a LOT different once you get on the outside! :)

So I hear...

Listeria Schmisteria!

Mouthwatering, disgusting pink of paste and pork parts, you are salty goodness.

I think I might be seriously fired from life. Yesterday morning, I watched Brother #3 make a bologna sandwich before he left for work. I didn't even realize people still ate bologna. I have heard that pregnant ladies are not supposed to eat bologna, hot dogs, or other processed meats, but since I don't really eat these things, it was never anything I paid attention to or researched obsessively. However, as the hours passed until lunchtime, I couldn't stop thinking about how delicious it looked, smelled, and sounded.  Finally, in a rush of  pure adrenaline and rebellion, I made/devoured my own bologna sandwich. Potential listeria, carcinogenic sodium nitrites, and processing that shouldn't be regulated as safe for human (or any living being) consumption aside, it was amazing.

Ingredients for being the worst mother-to-be ever: mechanically separated chicken, pork, water, corn syrup, contains less than 2 percent of salt, sodium lactate, flavor, sodium phosphates, autolyzed yeast, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate (made from sugar), sodium nitrate, dextrose, extractives of paprika, potassium phosphate, sugar and potassium chloride.