Random Things

Whenever life changes even slightly for me I immediately seem to fall into this abyss of panic - utterly unable to function beyond a basic level.  By which I mean that I had a baby, and she is nine (nine!) days old and this is the first time I have been able to blog.  It's just past four a.m., and I've given myself exactly 21 minutes to say what I can before forcing myself back to bed.

I can't even begin to tell a birth story or anything that would be remotely interesting to readers, and so I'll tell you the things that have been floating around my head.

1) Writing at night reminds me of a scene in this show that David and I watched recently called If These Walls Could Talk.  See, there's a British historian, (who is a marvelous dresser) and she discusses the evolution of different rooms in a house, one being a bedroom.  Apparently in Tudor times there is some evidence that they slept in two parts, waking halfway through the night and doing productive things that they didn't have time to do during the day - talking, reading, etc.  I don't know if this is true, but it seems as though it could be true because I also do this.  I'm very tired in the evening, and so I go to bed, sleep several hours, and then wake up refreshed at some ridiculous time in the morning and spent an hour switching laundry around, etc. before having to go back to bed.

2)  It also reminds me of a passage from Douglas Coupland's Microserfs where the main character talks about writing by the light of his laptop.

3)  The house is spared from totally falling apart because David's parents are here with us until tomorrow, when they leave to go visit other family and head home.  They revel in doing my dishes; I haven't got a dishwasher and their help is invaluable.  I have no idea what I'll do when they leave - likely curl up and die.

4)  Because I'm an idiot but the alternative was too awful to imagine, I signed my son up for soccer this year.  So tonight, instead of eating a lot of Tylenol and lying around on the sofa watching Time Team and moaning about my life, I get to get dressed and pack three children into the car and go watch my four year old clump around a field.  I hope it doesn't rain.  Otherwise I'll be watching from inside the car, and being stuck with the disagreeable two year old and a nursing baby inside a car for an hour sounds like hell.

5)  Baby and David and I have plans to drive into the city today minus the big kids, who will stay with their grandparents.  We're going to go shopping, so that I can avoid having to do that with three again for a little while.  For some reason I thought grocery shopping was a Totally Possible Activity on Saturday, with a 6 day old, and two tired small people, and me sore and grouchy and without any real list of foods.  It was NOT.  Also, I'm used to being stared at but strap another baby to me and it's a whole 'nother level.  Although one very fine lady smiled at me in the produce aisle.

6) I only have six minutes left on the self-imposed time.  I think I need advice.  Post partum clothes?  What on earth am I supposed to be wearing at this point?

7) Yesterday I came across a whole bunch of little wild strawberries.  I love strawberries.  I picked them all and brought them home and would like to do it all again today but I know my limits.  I cannot possibly go shopping AND pick strawberries and not develop a twitch.  Really, that's the sum total of my parenting advice - know the limit you can reach before experiencing facial tics.

8)  Speaking of strawberries my inlaws brought me 14 litres of them from a u-pick because, well, let's face it I'm not likely to be going to a strawberry u-pick anytime soon.  I made some freezer jam and froze the rest in bags.  I am still somehow hopeful that I can go before the  season is up...maybe next week?