Catching Up

Wow—that was one long (unintended) hiatus! Somehow I thought that maternity leave would mean having more time to devote to the ol’ blog—you know, while my angelic baby slept for hours at a time during the day and I, well-rested and organized, would have plenty of time to read, cook and post thoughts about life and my newfound motherhood.

Ha!

In reality, my four months of maternity leave went by in the blink of an eye and my baby, while sweet and adorable, was not the world’s best sleeper during the day or at night which meant that a large part of my daily schedule consisted of trying to get her to sleep, thinking about how to get her to sleep, reading about how to get her to sleep and/or trying to get some sleep myself. Add in the busy holiday season plus some additional worries about finding loving and reliable child care (for when I went back to work) and weight gain issues and that was that. Now I am back at work and things seem to be going well. As Aimee gets older, all the things I worried incessantly about while on maternity leave seem to be finally falling into place—while not the world’s greatest sleeper she is sleeping most, if not all, of the night now, she’s gaining weight (thanks to a combo of breast milk and formula) and at seven months (!) is so active and fun to be around. 

I have lots of stories to share about all of it—and hopefully, I’ll be able to do that on a somewhat more regular basis now (famous last words....). I’ll be honest—there’s not a whole lot of interesting cooking going on these days but when  and if I find that secret to cooking dinner during the week while working full time and spending quality time with my baby and husband…I’ll be sure to post about it :) In the meantime, I hope the two of you who still check this blog on a regular basis will find the baby related stuff of interest (or at least enjoy the pictures) and you’ll stick around for the rare occasions where I try a new recipe, like the results, and actually remember to take a picture of it to share !

 

Catching Up

Once again I have to apologize for the utter lack of posting this week. It was rough one, y'all. Between a crazy amount of work and the chaotic uncertainty that came with agonizing over and then preparing for a government shutdown (which thankfully did not end up happening), I came home each day physically and emotionally spent. I've spent the better part of this weekend trying to catch up from all that while still getting things done and having a little fun in the process.

Yesterday Jason and I swung by the home site after a few errands and lunch at Dogfish Head Ale House-- progress continues! Then Jason decided he would teach me to learn how to drive stick in the parking lot of a middle school down the road. My first lesson was not very successful. I think I managed to stall out 4 times in a row. And this was in a relatively flat and open parking lot! Perhaps we'll try again soon.

This morning we walked to Clarendon and had breakfast at Northside Social which was definitely a nice way to start the day. I've also treated myself to a little online retail therapy thanks to a JCrew gift card and the Friends and Family sale at Ann Taylor Loft. I plan to spend the rest of the day relaxing--reading Tina Fey's new book Bossypants (which I bought to read on my Kindle yesterday), perhaps baking some bread, and enjoying my latest obsession--grapefruit spritzers (half pink grapefruit juice and half seltzer water).

Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be rested and ready to face another work week.

Catching Up

Remember the other day when I said regularly scheduled posts would resume yesterday?? Well, consider that a belated April Fools joke since it clearly did not happen. My bad. We spent a good portion of the day yesterday observing Easter with Jason’s family and then I spent the rest of the day catching up from a long and tiring week of household mishaps, allergies, and long flights.  I had planned to do a post about the Thai Beef Salad I was going to make for dinner last night but we ended up having a bigger than expected Easter lunch with the in-laws so I decided to nix it. Not to worry—it will most likely make an appearance sometime soon since it is a household favorite (and also because I now have a piece of London Broil in the freezer).

I will warn you now that the next couple of weeks are going to be particularly crazy ‘round these parts as I enter the seven-week-up-in-the-air home stretch and while I hope to maintain a somewhat regular posting schedule there may be gaps and lapses here and there. But please stay with me—once April 20th rolls around, things will be back to normal!