Staying Busy

Sorry, this is going to be a really boring post because life isn't exciting right now. Actually, we have had some birth parent drama in the last couple of days, but it's not something I can blog about. Don't worry, everything is fine with the baby and the adoption. Anyhow, if you aren't interested in the tedium of my life right now, you might want to skip this post because the next one will probably be a lot more interesting. :)

I realized this week that, although I dislike exercise in general, and aerobic exercise specifically, after Clio arrives it will be a luxury to find time to work out. So, I've been making it a priority to practice yoga and walk/jog on our treadmill. After I finish, I take a book and a glass of wine to the bathtub with me and use my Lush bath bombs, another luxury that will be hard to schedule in with a newborn in the house. I had been lazy with my yoga practice, so I'm pretty sore in my chest and hamstrings right now, but I love the feeling of being sore, knowing that it means my muscles are growing stronger as they repair themselves.

I've also been doing a Beth Moore bible study, because I'm afraid that her type of study, which I love, will also be difficult to accomplish as a new mom. For those of you who have done one of her studies, you know exactly what I'm referring to! She writes studies that take 30-45 minutes every day and likes to make her participants dig into the Bible by requiring you to look up dozens of verses from several different books of the Bible and read (usually) more chapters than most studies ask. I always finish each day's study feeling like I really learned something, but it takes commitment to stick with her schedule.

I'm also still working on cleaning and organizing tasks. Today I scrubbed down our bathrooms carefully, which I haven't done that thoroughly since right before Lucy was born! Because cleaning often feels so endless, it was fun to realize yesterday how much I've actually accomplished. Back at the beginning of the summer, I wrote down a list of jobs to keep me busy before Lucy's birth. I wrote them in a little spiral notebook and crossed things off as I got them done. Needless to say, I didn't get everything done before the Lucy debacle. And somehow, after our trip to Mexico in mid-July, the notebook got mixed in with vacation brochures and put away with my scrapbooking stuff, and I only recovered it a few days ago. As I flipped though the pages yesterday, I realized to my astonishment that I had managed to get every single thing on the list done. First of all, it was a tremendous blow to my world view to realize that I can still get things done without having a list in front of me...whoa. Second, it made me realize that I haven't just been running on a treadmill of tasks, I've been finishing things. For example (warning, my perfectionism is going to make some of you want to vomit): organizing my quilting and sewing supplies, organizing my wrapping paper and mailing supplies, listing things on eBay that have been sitting around for months, washing windows and completing sewing projects.

For example, during Christmas '97, while at my parents' house for winter break, I made a patchwork quilt out of random scraps of fabric from my mother's sewing cabinet. It is very simple, but nostalgic for me because some of the scraps I used were from things like my dad's old bathrobe, old pajamas of my brother's, a dress I wore in elementary school, the sheets from my old daybed, etc. The quilt is large (queen sized) and is a favorite of mine to cuddle up with on the couch...and...when Phoebe was a puppy, she liked to chew on fabric. Thankfully, we broke her of the habit long ago, but not before she'd damaged a few quilts and afghans. The patchwork quilt is the one that suffered most, and ironically, I was there the whole time she chewed it. One Saturday afternoon in 2000, I was sitting on the couch reading and Phoebe pup was up next to me. I thought she was sleeping, until I felt something wet on my foot and realized that she'd chewed all the way through the quilt. I should have taken a "before" picture because it really was incredible how much fabric and batting she ate. There were two gaping holes in the quilt (one was about 3" x 3" and the other was about 7" x 5"), and I was at a loss as to how to repair them because they were in the middle, not the edge, and they involved the top, batting and backing of the quilt. I washed the quilt by hand, to preserve the batting, folded it up and put it with my sewing projects to deal with later. Yes, that was eight years ago! But, I was victorious and managed to repair the quilt a couple of weeks ago. My repairs are by no means pretty to look at (the backing especially), but the quilt is whole once more and back in service.

Speaking of the dogs, Apollo is not doing so well. He hasn't had much of an appetite lately, and yesterday wouldn't eat at all. We weren't particularly concerned, because he has had appetite issues as he's gotten older and had a vet check-up in June, but then on his walk in the evening he was dragging behind us and finally just sat down on the sidewalk to let us know that he wasn't feeling up to it. Apollo is an old dog and has arthritis, but he still loves walks, so that set off alarm bells and we took him home. Climbing up the steps to the front door, we noticed that he seemed to have some weakness in his hind legs and so we brought him inside and put peanut butter on one of his pain pills so that he'd take it. He refused it. Those of you with dogs understand how bizarre it is to see one refuse peanut butter. Then J put the pill inside a piece of lunch meat and Apollo still refused it. I never thought I'd see the day. We eventually did get him to swallow the pill (with lunch meat) and he seemed comfortable for the night, but we just got back from taking him to the vet. They gave us some extra pain pills for him, plus antacid in case the pills make him nauseated. We'll go back in after a couple of days if his appetite doesn't return.