House of the Moon

I just cleaned the dishes, emptied the dishwasher, started to refill it, scrubbed the counters down and fed Anais. If I have time later today I will mop the floor in there.

Hopefully I will also sort the recycling and clean off the dining room table.

My roof now is covered in plywood and tar paper. Yesterday the old tile roof and the cedar shake below came down, Monday the new shingles will go up. The guys are supposed to come today to plop in a solatube in the guest bathroom, but they aren’t here yet.

I have a midwife n’ ultrasound appt. around 1 pm. I hope that all goes well and the news is good. This is, hopefully, my last ultrasound that I have.

It’s a cloudy but nice day today, so I will pack up some orders and hopefully also have time to get back in the studio this afternoon after the appointments. I also need to go to the store after the appointments and gather the goodies to make pad thai to take to a friend’s for dinner. I  have never made it myself, but I found a pretty good authentic recipe online that got good reviews, so I will give it a try. I am also going to try to get sticky rice from Uwajimaya to try once again to make coconut rice over the weekend, the chewy stuff you get as desert in Thai restaurants… I love it but never had the right kind of rice at home.

So it’s yet another busy day. I will also level off the soil in the veggie beds, now that they are full, take a photo of the leftover soil to see if a coworker of DLJ’s wants it, and take a walk, hopefully. That might be too much for one day.

One of my yellow onions has started to sprout. Any idea if it will make more onions if I plant it? I know garlic does not… you gotta get garlic specifically as seed garlic….

A sunny Sunday is  welcome indeed. It was sunny this morning, then DLJ made homemade waffles and I watched rain pour down. Now it’s sunny again with only a few puffy white clouds. I planted  a good 20 gladiolus bulbs, and seeded some containers to start some things indoors. Where to put them indoors, however, is a question. They must get sun….and not tempt the cats. Tricky.

Soon I am going to check if I need to make more pizza dough, and get items for DLJ to have for a nice snack after his hard work installing the second raised vegetable bed.

Things are going to get busy soon, and the ticking clock of the march of time is going to start clamping down. We have a wedding reception up in Tacoma in April, my Mom would like to visit in May, DLJ’s parents also want to come stay a little…I have a jewelry show in May as well.

One priority that I do have, but am unsure how to deal with, is seeing Thomas again before mid-July. It’s going to be difficult after that for several reasons. But with all the scheduling over here, getting the time free before June seems iffy. And before I reach June, I can no longer fly to him due to being deep in the third trimester. I’ve had delightful stays at his house several times, and he’s only been up here once. A few days would be terrific, visiting Hood River, some light waterfall hikes, and just hanging out one more time before I become a full-fledged Mom would really mean a lot to me. I am looking forward to the kid, but let’s face it, for a few years it will be difficult for me to go anywhere alone, and I really value my alone time with my friends. When I was living in CA, Thomas and I would do all sorts of things together, rides on the motorcycle through the hills west of San Mateo, where we’d stop with a bottle of wine and a picnic lunch and talk for a couple hours. Or throwing darts in bars, hanging out at the Water Temple, just lots of time talking, talking, talking. These days most of our time has been with others, and it’s been work time. Talking business, tasks, etc. We haven’t just hung out since I moved. So we both are trying to sort out a way to do this…but nothing has arisen yet.

Thomas is just one example of this, the most “in my head” one right now. So many things will change soon, and while I know the change is not forever, and I know good things are on the way…I wish I could see him, and other really close friends again like Allison, who lives in Boston, one more time just the two of us. Having a simple tapas dinner with Allison with sangria in Boston last fall was so much fun…when will that happen again? How do I come to terms with the temporary, but long loss of these things? Readers who are already parents, help? =) It’s easier when you are the Dad, and not the 24 milk bar, ya know? I’m going to be attached for a looong time. And I’m independent enough to be realistically curious how this is all going to work.

It feels like a Friday to me, even though it’s only Thursday. I am not sure why.

It will be time to go down to the studio soon, once World Have Your Say is done on NPR. It’s a good program, but listening to a bunch of people argue isn’t my cuppa while at the torch. I could bring the iPod down with me, I suppose.

It’s partly sunny here today but chilly. Still, I will go for a walk once my studio work is done. I think fro now until 11 I will make a batch of red cabbage slaw to go with dinner.

Some days I get up and after I say goodbye to DLJ I want to go back to bed, but I never do. There is always so much to be done! I don’t even know what our plans are this weekend…more getting the house in order, probably, DLJ has started moving his things down to his office, now that the new flooring is in. The living room will be a living room again. I have a lot of stuff to list on Craigslist. I am not sure when I will have time to deal with that, maybe early next week.

I also have some glass things I want to try out…but I need to get through my orders first! Maybe I will add a little extra time onto the end of today’s session for some play.

March is flying by.

DLJ can finally move his office back into…well, the office. The flooring has been put down, after a little touch up paint, all his books, desk items, computer, everything, can come back out of the living room. The storage, shelves, etc., can leave the garage.

I painted our planter box wood over the past few days, a little every day, so that we can have two raised vegetable beds in the backyard. They are drying in the sun right now. That task complete, I am working on further emptying out my office to become the kidlet’s room. I will miss my office, but all I need is a small desk, and there is room for that in the library/guest room. Since the guest bed is a really good couch, it doesn’t feel like a guest room, so it will be a good space for me to use most of the time. And DLJ said I can sit down in his office, of course, but I would do that only temporarily. I think we still work best with our own private corners, so to speak, and this house is big enough we can still have that, even with the kidlet.

Later today we will go to the Japanese garden to enjoy the plum and cherry trees that are in full bloom. Last night we went out to celebrate a birthday with a lot of friends, and had a good time. We left early since DLJ was very tired from a long week of work.

I have some glass orders to fill, hopefully tomorrow and early next week. Maybe after that I can get going on a project I want to try! =) “Work” before pleasure.

I did make a bracelet the other afternoon, with my Horizon beads. It’s very summery, down to the little fish swimming near the water.

Today seems to be all about cleaning house. I updated my chat lists, removing old folks I don’t talk to anymore. Made some modifications to my friends list on LiveJournal, did some housekeeping at the communities there that I am mod for. I will clean the real house as well today, and I think I will tackle the fridge as well. It’s raining today after two wonderful days of sun and nice weather, where I did a lot of walking, filling glass orders, and getting errands done.

Tomorrow I am going to the Recycled Gardens, which is a nusery type place the next town over. They are a volunteer organization, you can get plants there that have been removed from construction sites or donated to the company. Proceeds go towards spay/neuter programs for pets. I wrote earlier requesting information about volunteering with them, and tomorrow I am going over to see what they need and what I can do. I am looking forward to it as I have wanted a volunteer activity this year, since I work at home and am on my way to being a stay at home Mom, I want a way to contact and communicate and give back to the community since I have the luxury of time to do so. This also ties into my ever-stronger desire to be more simplistic, and involved in community rather than sitting at home watching TV(which I don’t really do, but I can easily be a hermit all week if I am not careful). If it really works out, it is an example I can set for my kid as well in the years to come.

I hope it is a good fit.

I want to walk to the store to get some ingredients to make raspberry chocolate chip cookies (I baked them in a dream a couple nights ago) for DLJ. The rain is rather light right now so with the Australian hat and raincoat, I might be able to make the daily walking trip!

DLJ finally left work, he had to stay later than usual. We are going out for dinner because we got a gift certificate for flying on Alaska Airline for $20 off. I am hongry!

It’s been raining and chilly all week, keeping me me out of the studio. I have several orders to take care of, so I have to get in there by Monday at the latest. It is a busy weekend so it might not happen before that.

I have been cleaning out my office to make it a room for the Kid. Slowly. We will get it done in time.

I really am wanting Spring to show up with warmer weather. I don’t mind the rain when it’s not so cold. Tomorrow is the SE Portland Artwalk. This year I am not in it, but going to it with DLJ and a friend. I need to focus on the Glass Gallery in May. I am really looking forward to that event, mostly to see all the work of all the other guilds and groups that are the same weekend, the metal guild, the wood guild, the bead society…Cool!

I’m going to go rest until DLJ comes home.