Nursing Necklace

DS is a very distractable nurser these days which makes breast feeding a bit difficult. I have been looking at nursing necklaces for a while and this week decided that I would try to make one. I already wear a large piece of amber on an adjustable leather cord most days and DS loves to play with it but it is too short for him to play with while nursing.

I found this lovely ring and pretty wood beads at the craft store today and created this necklace with a two yard length of fairly heavy leather cord. I tied a knot in between each bead as is done with amber teething necklaces to minimize choking hazards and tied the cord together after the first three beads on each side to make a loop that DS can also hold on to. Like I did on the amber necklace, I also made an adjustable slip knot closure so that I can make the necklace longer or shorter as needed.

So far DS seems to really like it, however I have to convinc him that he should keep the nipple in his mouth and the necklace in his hands, not the other way around. Hopefully we will get that sorted out and it will help DS to be a bit less distracted as we try to nurse.

Our Trip to the Farmer's Market

A new farmer's market opened up recently and is fairly close to our home but we had not gone to it yet. This morning Will and I got up early and left the house when DH left for work. I am very excited about this market! It's not very large but the produce was beautiful and there were also vendors selling eggs, chicken, seafood, beef, lamb, sorbet, bread and other baked goods and local honey as well as several handicraft vendors. One of the stands selling lamb also was selling beautiful wool yarn!

My purchases were as follows:

• new potatoes


• strawberries


• spinach


• romaine lettuce


• whipped raw cinnamon honey


• lamb stew meat

I came home and started putting together a lamb stew for dinner incorporating the lamb and the potatoes. I plan on serving this with a spinach and strawberry salad this evening. If possible, I also would like to make some bread to eat with the honey. We will see how patient DS can be with me this afternoon.

I would love to be able to go to the market to purchase ingredients for dinner at least once a week. It is so much fun and I love talking to and learning from the local producers!

A Half-Cleaned House and A Productive Morning

To explain this unheard of phenomenon, I guess I should back up to last week. A friend emailed me about setting up a play date for our children. I suggested that I host knowing that this would be a much needed kick in the behind to get the public parts of our home all cleaned up. I had been trying to do fifteen minutes here and there a la flylady but that has not helped to make significant progress and I became discouraged and gave up for a few weeks.

Fast forward to this week. Wednesday ended up being crazy and I was up very late but I managed to get the house clean and make some goodies for the play date. I spent the day trying to work and entertain DS the best I could. While he was awake I did tasks like sorting through mail/papers and putting things away in the living room/ dining room. He was not a cooperative nap taker so things like the bathroom and kitchen had to wait till after he went to bed for the night. My wonderful DH pitched in and we got it all done. The play date went over well and after they left I did do some basic straightening up and swept the crumbs off the floor. (It is amazing how many crumbs our sweet little one year old visitor was able to create. I'm in trouble 6 months down the road!)

Last night before bed I managed to get all the toys we had been playing with put away and the kitchen decently straightened up. This morning I wasn't feeling great (probably due to too many goodies from yesterday) so I decided we would not be able to attend the large group play date as we had planned. After nursing DS we came down stairs and I had breakfast,(some of my yummy baked oatmeal and homemade yogurt which are good foods for the unhappy but hungry tummy) and played with DS for a bit. I then decided that I should give the floors a basic sweep and vacuum the living room rug which gets dirty so fast! DS played in the exosaucer while I did this. It took next to no time and I think he was excited by the vacuum! Then we went to the kitchen, washed up the breakfast dishes, and made dinner with chicken in the crock pot and rice in my trusty rice cooker, ran the dishwasher, put in a load of laundry and cleaned up all of the mess there. This of course was all done while playing games of peakaboo with a kitchen towel and singing. I am amazed but DS did not get cranky till I was almost done with all of that. I put him down for a nap (Yes! He actually went down for a nap!) and now I hardly know what to do with myself!

So I know all of this probably seems pretty basic, but in our house since DS was born 6 months ago, productive days like this have been unheard of. It feels strange but exciting! Now if I can just keep it up! I think this is where I may turn back to flylady. Once things have been done well I can see the 15 minutes here and there actually working to keep things done.

Next big project will be the bedrooms! Maybe I can tackle one of them next week! The wonderful thing about having things done down here is that now I feel free to think about other projects (like bread baking) that I would like to pursue again!