....and we're back

What can I say? Holidays, family, winter. It was not my intention to be gone for over a month from this blog but here we are. Happy New Year! Welcome 2011! My boy is going to turn 2 this year, this month in fact. That's just crazy.

We had a wonderful holiday season, always crazier than you want it to be and I always have so many ideas about how it will be different (and better) next year and then I forget them in the final weeks. Like how I'm going to make all my gifts, and make an advent calendar, not get Q too many gifts, have less plans, be calmer, etc. Yeah, that flies out the window during that last week where I tell myself - just one more thing, just one more party in there, we can do it.... I always regret it though. Mark my words, it will be different next year! I'll write a blog post soon about all the things I'm going to try to do different.

Since then we've been home just trying to keep up with life. Hard stuff with a toddler underfoot. I have tried to carve out some time for crafting. I've been neglecting my sewing (among other things, like this blog!) for knitting and have been churning out some woolen wear to get us through the cold weather (and snows) we've been having. I don't think I enjoy anything quite like I enjoy seeing my kid wearing things I knit.

I can't wait to show you the knitting and other things we've been up to! I promise not to go away for so long again :)

Birth, Death and TTC

11 days I've been away from my blog and so much has happened and is still happening. I'm swamped, literally swamped in a house full of stuff and emotionally swamped with everything the title of this blog post implies.

Birth - I have a new niece or nephew on the way and my heart swells with the idea of this child and the place it will hold in our hearts. I also have an honorary niece on the way and I can't wait to hold a little one again.

Death - My 92yo Grandpa had a stroke on Thursday morning and has been in the hospital since then. His days are numbered and the family is gathered by his bedside spending precious moments in his presence. I feel so many things about his impending passing that I don't even know how to start expressing my emotions. I love him so very much and I miss him.

TTC - that'd be me.

Umm Qais

is arabic for 'mother of Qais'


and it's also the name of a place in Jordan

Blog.hmmm.

Sorry for the weird color changes, I'm feeling like I want a new look around here - haven't found it yet. still working on it....

101 in 1001

This is big. I really want to do this. This list was also really hard to make. The harder it was the more meaningful some of the things on the list became, and some silly ones made the cut too.

My mission: Complete 101 preset tasks in 1001 days (~2.75 years)

Inspired by: Day Zero

Personal
1. send a secret to Post Secret
2. write a fan letter
3. become a CPST
4. join a book club

5. give blood

6. go to a baseball game with my grandpa

7. fill one journal

8. write a poem

9. complete our wedding album

10. read Time Magazines Top Ten Books of all Time

11. Get a PenPal

12. Do CPR/First Aid Certification

13. read the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
14. pan for gems at the State Fair

15. complete a 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle

16. Join a CSA

17. dye my hair (3/10/10)

18. take an art class (sculptural needle felting April 2010)

19. sew a quilt (5/22/2010)

20. knit a sweater

21. lose 30 pounds (in progress)

22. Pay for a strangers meal in a restaurant

23. go to a broadway show

24. see Casablanca (done 11/11/09)

25. finish reading Harry Potter

26. fast for Ramadan

27. learn how to can (July 2010)

28. go to the movies. alone. (done 1/31/10)

29. get my root canal finished
30. read Bill Bryson's 'A Short History of nearly everything'
31. organize all my loose recipes
32. buy and hang 'y las dos fridas'
33. have a yard sale
34. go skinny-dipping
35. go ice skating
36. attend a meditation retreat
37. join the YMCA (Feb 2010)
38. sell something I made
39. Post something on FreeCycle.org (Rug! 9/21/09)
40. sleep under the stars
41. sleep 8 hours straight (ha!)
42. *private goal*
43. get a wii
44. hike a section of the AT
45. get new glasses (December 09)
46. scan old family photos (January 2010 for Grandpa's memorial)
47. log 100 miles in 100 days with my strollerometer
48. call Christina
49. attend a birth besides my own (Lorelei 4/8/2010)
50. grow sunflowers (planted 5/12/2010)
51. go tubing
52. get a bike
53. organize my photo boxes
54. for every book I bring into my home, let one go (In:5 Out:13)
55. host a giveaway on my blog (2/3/2010)
56. get a nice set of flannel bedding
57. dress up for halloween (Completed 10/31/09)
58. hem all my pants to the correct length (can you believe I've never done this?)
59. write at least one (snail mail) letter a month
60. get a professional family portrait taken
61. attend a midnight mass

With/For Q
62. Start a college fund for Q (3/8/2010)

63. Take Q to an art museum

64. Take Q on a city bus (Completed 1/22/09)

65. Write Q's birth story
66. start some sort of baby book/scrapbook for Q (started 6/13/2010)
67. Get Q a birth certificate (Completed 12/3/09)
68. take Q to church where we were married
69. Paint 'on the day you were born' canvas (I'll have to explain this one later)
70. Take a baby sign language class (Completed December 2009)
71. introduce Q to my great aunts (Completed November 15th 2009)
72. EC exclusively for a full week
73. introduce Q to Rami and Reem
74. take a swim class with Q
75. take a mom and baby music class

With/For B
76. Pay off all consumer debt (in progress)
77. have another child
78. bring B a picnic lunch at work (10/9/09)
79. take an overnight with husband, without child

80. create a will
81. get a safety deposit box (3/8/2010)

Travel

82. Go to FRFF

83. Visit Rock Point School (July 2010)
84. Take my family to New Mexico
85. Go to NYC
86. Take Q overseas
87. Go swimming in the ocean
88. Take Q camping (5/15/2010)

Service
89. serve food at a homeless shelter
90. participate in a march of dimes walk (Scheduled for April 24, 2010)
91. take part in buy nothing day
92. attend a political rally

93. Use all of B's community service time doing service as a family

Food
94. make Tom Kha Gai soup
95. make homemade marshmallows (3/11/10)
96. make my own puff pastry
97. get an enameled cast iron dutch oven

98. make pesto with a mortar and pestle
99. learn to make an awesome sangria
100. take a wilton cake decorating class
101. Join Tuesday's With Dorie (Joined 9/22/09)

blog

so obviously this blog is turning into a baby/family blog instead of a personal “what’s going on with me” blog so I’m thinking about moving its location, look and format….

I’d also like to start putting stuff up here about some of the crafts I’m doing, more about parenting stuff that I’m learning and reading about