New Site – Check out Uncommon Motherhood!

Hello friends!

I’m thrilled to report that I’ve joined a little group of ladies for blogging at Uncommon Motherhood! It’s a collaborative blog. We each take a day of the week (and sometimes we even post on our designated day!). I’ve found that committing to one day a week on a shared blog is much more manageable than consistently posting on this, my personal blog. And, the writing, the ideas, the news, the photos…really, everything… is better on a site that has more hearts and brains, than less. It’s personally exciting for me to share this expression of my Christian faith.

I do intend to keep this site active for miscellaneous items, especially if they are unrelated to motherhood.

So, check out the new blog! There’s already lots of content there.

Love,

Miss Mary Clare

Human Development: suprising baby stages list

Everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Everyone, from somewhere in their consciousness, can pick out the stages of a baby’s development. Right?

Milestones such as:
Birth
Sleeping through the night
Crawling
Solid foods
Walking
Talking
Etc.

Any book, article, parent Facebook post easily covers these important stages. It’s everywhere. Even someone who doesn’t have kids knows that sleeping through the night is a key milestone, (more so for the parents than the wee babe)!

You know what? There are so many more stages. Our first child is over a year old now, and I marvel at the past year. I wasn’t ready for the whining stage, or the crumbs everywhere stage. We’ve already hit an, albeit minor, version of the terrible twos. Every once in a while, she prostrates herself on the ground. Luckily, we’ve not seen any head banging. Yet. Usually she’s prostrate because she hasn’t gotten what she wants, but sometimes we have no idea what’s upsetting her.

I can’t really blame her. These micro stages are natural and normal, and a lot less work for her than the major stages of development. It sure is an adjustment for us, though! When I first started feeding her solid foods, the main new workplace challenge was Bib Supply Chain Management. Just to manage the bib inventory, it got to the point where Erik and I would compete over who could feed Becks with the least mess. “No goop went lower than the chin!” was the first triumph. Then, we topped it with “no mess on the bib; we can re-use THIS one!” But the most accomplished among us (can you guess who this wonder of a person may be?) could feed our little angel without exterior evidence at all. “No goop on the face! Beat THAT!”  I’m not competitive. I just hate to loose. 😉

It’s a little daunting and a little rewarding and a lot of work. Yes, for the child, but also, for the parent. And if you’re bored with baby (because they finally are sitting on their own and it will be months of waiting before they crawl), never fear!  A new stage of development will soon be here.

(This post was originally drafted in 2014 for MissMaryClare.wordpress.com and published in August 2015.)

Project Update: Closet to Sewing Office Transformation

Many thanks for your kind words and support following my last post! I still don’t have answers, but I do now have more ideas, and hope. This week, I’ve used my new seeing room several times, though it’s unfinished. Take a look at that photo! We’re aiming to add shelving to reduce clutter. But it’s usable! One mending project on Friday took 90 seconds, and do you know, that’s all the time I had to spare on it? This fact still amazes me today.

The wonderful thing is that I never would’ve mended that darn diaper changing pad if we hadn’t started making the walk in closet into a sewing room. I’m content knowing that I accomplished something. It was my show and tell when Honey came home. And it doesn’t hurt that the annoying need to mend that particular item isn’t staring me in the face with every nasty diaper change.

Happy Trails,
Miss Mary Clare

Intent Research Minded Mamas

My current puzzle is looming large in my mind and our day to day lives. How does someone like me, whose mind and habit thrive on intense projects, tend to the many menial tasks of motherhood that interrupt such projects. Probably, I’m a researcher at heart. I’ve found that I’m most pleased when I’ve tackled something 100%, whether it’s the perfect transformation of a closet into a sewing room/office, or the historical question of whether “Bloody Mary” deserves the name. When a kid with a double ear infection wakes up crying and needing food and unwilling to take their meds, all of what I love to do seems trashed by those who I love. And I do love them. And I want to care for them, even for their menial needs. And, yes, I could consider them “projects”, but I don’t want to. They are people, not projects, and not research subjects.

All I Need with This Newborn: a Chest for Nursing and Arms for Holding.

All my other body parts are getting so little use, that when I did my hair the other day, my arm got tired. Seriously! It’s been that long since I used the arm in an up and back position. All my muscles are atrophying except those used for holding and lactating.

Which means I’ve discovered a new Rule of the Universe: Nursing Moms Will Slowly Evolve to Mere Armed Torsos, Lacking Triceps. Over a period of several thousand more years, we’ll see the gradual disappearance even of the back.

Scientific journals of the world, take note. This amateur evolutionist discovered it first.

Love from a heart that’s disappearing,
Miss Mary Clare

Update on our Life

We have a son! Little Joshua is a sweet little boy. We’re very happy with 2 kids for now, but giving birth was such an empowering experience (yep, what I read in the hippy books I found to be true), that I already find myself wanting to do it all – that part of having a kid – a few more times. Strange and inconsistent? Yes.

Toddler Testing Boundaries

“That paper is not for your mouth. Let’s not eat paper.”

…toddler looks around and puts a different piece of paper in her mouth:

“No, that’s paper, not in your mouth, please. Why would it be okay for the 2nd paper if not the 1st?” (with a grin).

…toddler looks up at parent, down at floor, then stoops and puts yet another piece of paper in her mouth. Is again told to take it out, but the parent realizes it’s a small plastic toy:

“Oh, ok, that’s ok; that’s a toy.”

…toddler scans the room, zeros in in a coloring book, brings it to her mouth:

“No, that’s made of paper. Take it out please.”

…we move on to testing the bouncy seat toys, looking at Mommy after licking each:

(sigh) “Yes. I guess that’s ok.”

…the taste testing tour continues with a backpack (“it’s ok in theory, but that’s Daddy’s, so it’s not ok to taste it if he doesn’t want you to. Clear?”), footstool (“um, I guess that’s ok.”), etc.

Real Life Training is complicated,
MMC

Real World Word Problem for House Wives

This is the kind of word problem we should have had to work in school:

6. Sam has a desk job and wears jeans to work every day. If Sam has 4 pairs of jeans and also gardens at the end of the day 20% of work days, how often does his wife need to wash his jeans? (Bonus points for answers that don’t require a wash for every wearing.)

I wonder whether HomeEcc classes back in the day covered this. It’s just another reason I wish I was born 100 years ago.

Pensively,
Miss Mary Clare

PS: When you have the answer, would you please raise your hand and share with the class? Thank you!

Purse Repair. DIY Sewing. Mom Pursinality Episode 1.

Frugal to the point of recklessness.

I like the bag my in-laws gifted to me a couple Christmas’ ago. Problem is, I’ve been a Mom Purse person since high school (many years before my actual state in life warranted such a title, incidentally). Folks of the Mom Purse mentality understand that paring down what’s carried in the purse is never a good solution, even when shoulder a soar from the sheer weight of the items.

And don’t bother thinking that something that hasn’t been used in a month ought to be tossed aside from the purse. No! It may be used next month. You see, folks with Mom Purses thrive on having EVERYTHING handy. You don’t need EVERYTHING every day. But you do need EVERYTHING, eventually. And if you don’t, surely someone you encounter will need it. For instance, 1 pen is never enough in a purse. This, of course, is because someone will need to borrow one when you are using yours. Hasn’t this happened to you? Let’s stop a moment, assess our lives, and realize that all of us, at some point or other have either been the beneficiary or the benefactor of a spare pen. We all need Mom Pursinalities in our lives.

Wait. We were talking about this specific purse. Sorry. I felt the need to explain Mom Purses. This particular one is lovely, but of very light weight fabric. Ergo, it burst at the seems. Several of them. As in, the weight of the necessary items in my purse caused the fabric to pull away from the seems.

Here’s an example. There’s a big hole that shouldn’t be there. This wouldn’t be a problem for a reasonable person of the Minimalist Pursinality. Like my sister. My brain will never understand this http://wechoosetolivethislife.blogspot.com/2011/06/some-summer-organization.html.

One may think that I should just get a stronger purse to suite my pursinality (oh man, I’m having fun with this pun. Sorry! It’s punny! It just came out, out of nowhere!). A new, stronger purse would that would cost money and time. So I’m going to modify this one to suit my Mom Pursinality.

My goals: repair, add compartments, reduce strain on current seams, preserve exterior appearance while enhancing shape definition.

I’ve gotten as far as repairing the burst seems. Will I ever get to the re-enforcement and enhancement stages? Stay tuned! Time will tell.

Love,
Miss Mary Clare

Photo: shabby chic & cottage style inspiration.

I took this photo last week using our tablet PC. It’s completely raw and unedited. I didn’t even crop it. Not to be bragadocious, but I think it’s perfect. Sure, there are several things wrong with it from a fine photography perspective. I probably will never hang this on a wall. You can see our window screen, for one thing. And the yards aren’t exactly pleasing to the eye. What I love and what makes it, to my mind, better than an edited or well-planned image, is that it speaks for itself. It captures the reality in the same way it captured me out of the corner of my eye while I was busy with many ordinary things. It’s beautiful. It’s ordinary. It’s unexpected that the two would become one on a random Saturday when I’m cleaning the high chair tray for the 10th time that day and hoping desperately that nap time will come soon.

Also, this photo is in style! I’ve never wanted to pin myself down to a trend (even if I love it!), but I can’t help but notice that this photo would be great inspiration for anyone re-decorating their home in the popular cottage style.

I’ve been thinking a lot about ordinary life. As a friend shared recently: ‘God must really love ordinary life, because he sure created a lot of it!’. This image is there in the midst of our ordinary life. Ordinary life is full of beauty.

I want to share this with you in hopes that your day today is ordinary.

MMC