2014: Looking Back and Looking Forward

Is that sappy enough for ya??

Instead of letting the Facebook algorithm decide what was most memorable/interesting/exciting/newsworthy about this past year, I'm going to follow the lead of a friend of mine and fellow Navy wife, Liz Roscoe, who posted a retrospective over at her blog, "Ramblings of a Sailor's Lady."

http://ramblingsofasailorslady.blogspot.com/2014/12/2014-recap-and-onward-to-2015.html.

I wouldn't say I attach a huge amount of significance to New Year's - I mean, dates are pretty arbitrary (just try predicting when Chanukah will be next year relative to the Julian calendar!) and time passes no matter what date it is - but this was my first full year as a mother, so that deserves a bit of reflection in itself.

So here goes:

2014 Recap

1.     What did you do in 2014 that you've never done before?

- Pretty much anything related to raising/feeding/sleep training/accomplishing everyday activities with a baby.    

- Hired a babysitter (that's kind of part&parcel with the above, but it merits its own mention because it feels SUPER GROWN-UP)

2. Did you keep your New Years Resolutions & will you make any this year?

I was so sleep-deprived and foggy at New Year's last year...if I made any resolutions I sure as heck didn't write them down or keep track!

2015's goals are:

- Set aside time every week to sew.  Doesn't matter what, just get in that craft room and MAKE STUFF.

- Be more present for my baby girl.  Get off the computer, get off my phone, get off my butt and play, read, sing, explore with her.

- Get a job as a children's librarian!!  I think I have a really good shot at one and I really want it to work out.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Lots of people!  Some of them had their second, third or even fourth kid!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Robin Williams's death felt like a personal loss, even though it wasn't. Other than my very own 18-year-old cat who I rescued as a kitten on my high school campus, my family and friends are all doing okay.

5. What countries did you visit?

We were going to go to Canada over Thanksgiving but had to cancel because Eamon got a horrible stomach bug. So, no other countries visited this year.

6. What would you like to have in 2015 that you didn't have in 2014?

More time. Time for myself to rejuvenate and recharge. More sleep (though the lack thereof is largely my fault at this point).

7. What date from 2014 will be etched in your mind & why? 

May 10th. That was my first night "out on the town" for which Eamon was on solo baby duty, getting Ziva fed and bathed and to bed on his own.  It was a personal milestone for me as well as for him, and an important step in our parenting journey.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  

I applied for and got a job I wasn't able to accept.  I got hired as a children's librarian with the DC public libraries, and even though I didn't end up taking it, it was very validating and I was proud of myself. 

9. What was your biggest failure?

There were a lot of times I felt like I failed as a parent, but really, I was doing okay.

10. Did you suffer injury or illness? 

No, but the first time my baby girl got hurt because of me, I cried longer and harder than she did.

11.  What was the best thing you bought?

Oddly enough, a serger.  It's something I got just for myself (i.e. not for the baby or having to do with the baby) and it represents my goal of doing more sewing, perhaps even more complicated sewing, and learning a new skill.

12. Whose behavior is worthy of celebration?

I'm going to say the Pope.  I'm as far from religious as they come, but he has impressed me over and over again with his humility, charity, generosity of spirit and message of reconciliation.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled?

Just about every Republican politician in this country.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Baby clothes. I'm a sucker for clothes as it is, but having a baby to buy for is just dangerous.

15. What did you get really, really, excited about? 

I get really, really excited about a lot of things. But the film of "Into the Woods" was probably what I was most anticipating this year, and it didn't disappoint!

16. What song will always remind you of 2014?

The lullaby "Close Your Eyes," which my mom wrote the tune for many years ago, based on a children's book we loved.  She and my brother recorded a CD of songs for Ziva, and that song is on it - I don't know how many times I've played that CD in the car and sung it to her at night.

17. Compared to 2013 were you ___________ in 2014a. Happier or sadder?  Happier - I wasn't pregnant anymore!
b. Thinner or fatter?  Thinner, but I have come to terms with the fact that I will probably not lose the last 10 pounds to get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight ;-)
c. Richer or poorer? Strictly speaking, poorer, since I only worked very part-time, but I'd say getting to be home with my baby girl has been pretty enriching.

18. What do you wish you had done more of? 

Slept.

19. What do you wish you had done less of?
Noodling around on my phone when I could have been playing with Ziva  I mean, she is very content to keep herself occupied, and sometimes it's good for her to do that, but she needs the best of me right now.

20. How did you spend the winter holidays? (Ed. note - this originally just said "Christmas" and that seemed unfair.)

We celebrated Chanukah at home, making latkes, lighting candles and singing blessings, and it was really sweet to see my daughter really starting to notice what was going on.  I sing to her all the time so I think she just enjoyed hearing my voice, and of course what 15-month-old isn't fascinated by candles??  But it's a tradition I hope will become as meaningful for her as it is for me.  On Christmas, Eamon had duty, so I went to see "Into the Woods" with a friend while her husband and two daughters played with Ziva, and then we all went to her mom's for Christmas dinner.  It was terrific!

21. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you this past year?

Sitting in the library storytime circle, "flying" Ziva over my head and having her spew a spectacular fountain of spit-up that covered me from chin to crotch. Not our finest hour.

22.  Did you fall in love in 2014?

Yes, with my husband, all over again, watching him blossom into his role as daddy.

23.  What was your favorite restaurant?  

We didn't really eat out very much, but Bella Luna in Suquamish makes a damn good pizza.

24. What was your favorite TV program?

Ongoing: "Downton Abbey" and "Call the Midwife."

New: "Forever."

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate in 2014?

I do my best not to hate people, but I make no bones about hating their actions, or their prejudices, or their ignorance.  I have zero tolerance for bigots, bullies and bozos.

26. What was the best book that you read?

I...um...didn't read any book much longer than a board book.  True story.  And I call myself a librarian.

27.  What was your greatest musical discovery?

A Swedish composer named Dag Wiren, whose Opus 11, Serenade for String Orchestra, I heard on Classical KING FM 98.1 and just adored.

28.  What did you want & get in 2014? 

I wanted my baby girl to be healthy and happy, and although she has her moments, she is, in weather parlance, "mostly sunny" and in excellent health.

29. What did you want & not get in 2014? A dog. Some day!

30. What was your favorite movie of 2014?

"Into the Woods" was awesome, but I actually enjoyed "Saving Mr. Banks" more than I thought I would.

31. What did you do for your birthday & how old did you turn?

I turned 32 in 2014.  I was in Los Angeles for the Fall Baby Bash - Mom's is Sept. 27th, Ziva's is the 30th, Mom's sweetie's is Oct. 5th and mine's on the 16th.  We met up with my friend Rose at Pickwick Bowl, ate junk food and passed the baby around while everyone bowled. We had a blast!

32. What's one thing that would've made 2014 more satisfying? 

More sex.

33. How would you describe your fashion in 2014? 

"IDGAF."  Like DKNY except with fewer f***s given.

34.  What kept you sane? 

Facebook, parent/child activities, yoga, and puzzles.

35. What celebrity/public figure did you admire the most?  Barack Obama.  I don't know how he hasn't just gone crazy from everything he has to put up with.

36. What political issue fired you up the most? 

Guns...no pun intended.  Becoming a mom has really brought this whole thing into focus for me. It's absolutely shameful that nothing is being done to curb gun violence and gun crimes.

37. Who did you miss? 

So many people!  I just don't live that close to most of my friends and family, and although I made it down to LA several times, it's still hard.

38. Who was the best new person you met?  

Sean Decatur, the new president of my alma mater, Kenyon College. I got to meet him briefly at my 10th (!!!!) reunion and then later at an alumni event in Seattle.  He's a good guy, he loves the Beatles, and he seems to really understand Kenyon's ethos and how to help it continue to do what it does best.

39.  Tell us a lesson 2014 taught you:

Parenting and being in the Navy are very similar. You can never really make plans, you are subject to the whims of children, and there are no sick days.

Historical footwear!!

Footwear is always the hardest element of re-enactment costume, because shoes are made so much differently than they used to be, and often of materials that simply didn't exist in period.  Sure, there are some modern styles that can be adapted, but then there are companies like American Duchess that make accurate, beautiful shoes you can be proud to wear with the costumes you've worked so hard on!

Check these out:

http://www.american-duchess.com/renaissance-elizabethan-shoes/virginia-renaissance-shoes-brown

40 Bags in 40 Days: Days 22 and 23

I might have to change the title of my own personal take on this challenge to 40 Bags in...er...More Than 40 Days ;-) I lost steam on this project for about a week, but like I said, even if I don't do the 40 days consecutively, I still fully intend to do 40 of them!

Day 22 was YET MORE WORK ON THE DIGITAL PICTURES.  God, I have so many pictures.  My problem is, I take tons and tons and tons of pictures, but unlike Eamon, I don't edit them as I go (he's a smart guy).  And then I upload ALL. THE. PICTURES to my computer and they just SIT THERE languishing, the good with the bad, the wheat with the chaff, the blurry with the perfectly-in-focus, the best version of that gorgeous view with the 87 okay versions of that gorgeous view that I took just to be sure I really got the very best version I could get.  The thing is, you can't always tell from the back of a camera whether you got a good shot - it's easier and clearer on a computer screen.  Well, I can find a justification for everything.  It's a problem.  I guess you could call it digital image hoarding??  Is there a support group for people like me??

"Hi, my name is Sarah, and I keep every picture I've ever taken."

"Hi, Sarah."      

I really enjoy documenting important (and, okay, even not-so-important) stuff in my life.  That funny sign on the side of the road, the honeymoon Eamon and I finally took after 5 years of marriage, my baby's first teeth (side note: she is remarkably defiant about letting me get a good shot of them...and yet I soldier on).  I take these pictures because I want to remember things.  Of course, Eamon would say that you should try to live in the moment more, and that taking a picture manufactures a memory for you by superimposing a fixed image over the organic one your brain stores away (and also can't give you smells, sounds, ambience, etc).  This was the guy who was adamant that we not have a videographer at our wedding because he didn't want just their version of the experience to be what was captured and replayed over and over again.  I had to work to convince him to hire a photographer!    

Anyway...whew.  I had a lot to get off my chest about that!  Moving right along!

Day 23 I FINALLY tackled my desk and the file drawer/storage/printer, and now I can actually say that my desk area is tidy! I took the "before" picture of my cluttered desk...I don't even know how long ago - and I waited to post about this until I really, really had a good "after" I was happy with. But now the desk and the file drawer/printer surfaces are both visible!! I had so many things I wanted to scan for safekeeping just piling up, and not only did I put away/recycle/get rid of a bunch of stuff, the scanning projects are done too!! Now, what's *inside* the file drawer is going to be a whole other ballgame - I'm sure I will have bags and bags and BAGS of papers to shred/recycle, which will be very cleansing and cathartic in its own right. It's going to require quite a bit of time, and Bug's naps range anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half lately, so I might get to one or two hanging files per nap. We shall see.

Desk and file drawer before

Desk and file drawer after

                        

Perhaps the best "side effect" of all this decluttering, which others who are participating in the Facebook group have mentioned but hadn't really sunk in for me, is that once I've decluttered an area, I actually find myself making the effort to keep it that way.  It's like, now I know how good these spaces can look, and I have an ideal to uphold and aspire to.  It's really changed how I see my living spaces.  Suddenly a pile of random crap on the dining room table is UNACCEPTABLE!!  That's kind of shocking for me, but I'm not going to fight it.    

40 Bags in 40 Days: Days 18, 19, 20 and 21

Yup.  You've probably noticed that I seem to be compressing more and more into each blog post.  I'll admit that I haven't been working on this project every single day, but I am still determined to do (at least!) 40 days total, and I'm already more than halfway there, so I really think I can see this through.

Days 18, 19 and 20 were all the same thing, which means that it actually makes sense to put them all in one blog post!  So there.  I have a VAST backlog of digital photographs on my computer that not only need extensive weeding (do I really need that blurry picture of my cats when there are four THOUSAND better ones??) but also need to be much better organized.  As I was going through them, I noticed that groups of pictures from various times in my life and places I've lived were all scattered throughout the big "My Pictures" file.  Even just creating meta-folders for "Life in Boston," "Life in Hawai'i" and "Life in Washington" made for a much more streamlined and less overwhelming collection.  There are some folders, obviously, that can stand alone, but that was a good place to start.  And because I only really have small windows of time when I can do any of this stuff (thank you, 6-month-old baby whose naps are a complete mystery right now) I just kept with it for a few days straight.  Momentum is a good thing.

Day 21, I undertook the small but satisfying job of decluttering the hall closet.  I tidied and came away with two bags to donate - scarves and hats I no longer wear, plus a nice suit jacket (doesn't fit anymore and the matching slacks are long gone), as well as three pairs of shoes.  I also hung up three baby carriers that had been living on the backs of chairs in the dining room.  Quick, but worth it!

Cluttered hall closet

         

Clean hall closet

                

Two bags to Goodwill!

40 Bags in 40 Days: Days 15, 16 and 17

Again, I find myself playing catch-up, at least in documenting this process.  But I haven't fallen off the wagon yet!  As you'll recall, this whole "program" ostensibly coincides with Lent, with Sundays being the "days off."  Well, my "day off" last week was Thursday, because that was the day my mom arrived and I knew there would just be a lot going on (so, it was totally not a "day off" in the sense of actual rest, just a "day off" from the 40 Bags challenge!).  I wanted to leave some of the biggest jobs for the weekend because I'd have her help, so Sunday would be a work day - and we got so much done!!

I love my sewing room SO MUCH.  Having a dedicated space for my machine, patterns, books and tools is seriously awesome.  Before renting this house, Eamon and I had only lived in one-bedroom or studio apartments, which meant that if I wanted to sew, I first had to find a surface big enough, flat enough, and stable enough for cutting and measuring as well as actually placing my machine on, then I would do whatever I was doing for that given project, and then it all had to be put away somewhere so we'd still have a functional living room.  I actually asked for a big folding table for my birthday one year, and that was a pretty good solution, but it wasn't perfect.  Now a sewing room is going to be a "must-have" for every new home because it's just so great to be able to leave everything "as is" in the midst of a project and come back to it later; it's really hard to get any momentum on something if you have to take the time to remember what you were doing and where you were on a project.  When I was pregnant I did a ton of sewing - mostly making maternity wear for myself and a few small baby projects here and there, but after Bug arrived, it was pretty much out of sight out of mind where the sewing room was concerned.  I completely neglected it and didn't even want to go back in because it was such a mess!!

Well, I don't even know how many bags/boxes of stuff we hauled out of there - maybe 10-15 all together??  Recycling, trash, giveaway/donate - plus we organized all the gift wrapping stuff, put away all the dresslengths and bits of fabric I had enough of to save, and put all of my historical costuming stuff in one box so it's easy to find.  What a transformation!!

Now that's a room I want to sew in!!

The sewing room was a particularly exhausting endeavor (toward the end of the day I got really snappish at my poor mother, who was only trying to help) so when she left on Monday I gave myself permission to take a breather.  Tuesday was another digital day - I pared down the backlog on my DVR to a much more manageable (and realistic) list of shows.  For example, I record The Daily Show and Colbert Report every day, and I love both of their takes on the news, but lately it's just been impossible to keep up, so I narrowed those down to ones where I was really interested in the guest interview.  

This Wednesday I tackled the bathroom.  The sink had become an eyesore, and the bathtub wasn't much better.  I have a bad habit of buying toiletries and what my mother calls "lotions and potions" and not using all of them, so I wind up with a million half-empty bottles lining the bathtub shelves.  I took out a bag of recycling/trash and neatened the surfaces.  I think it's a big improvement.    

Yes, there's still a lot of stuff out in view, but the difference is it's all stuff we use every day.  Both areas are more streamlined, too.
 
Onward and upward...

40 Bags in 40 Days: Days 12, 13 and 14

I've gotten quite a bit behind with blogging lately, but I have a good excuse: my mom is in town!  We haven't been crazy busy - mostly she just came to visit for a long weekend so she could snuggle her grandbaby (Mom still lives in Los Angeles, so pretty much jumps on any chance to come up here and spend some time with Bug).  But just the general upheaval of having a house guest, even one who is as welcome and helpful and wanted as one's Mama, can throw things off.  She has been immensely helpful with this purging project, though!  I had a few key areas I wanted to tackle while she was here and we made so much progress!!  I do come by my packratitude honestly - there were a few times she actually tried to talk me into keeping something I really just wanted to get rid of ;-)  But for the most part having a partner in grime is motivating and makes the work go faster.  So without further ado, here's the rundown of the past few days!

Wednesday: I finished up in the bedroom, organizing Bug's clothes and putting away my mound of clean laundry (although can you really call it clean when it's been sitting on the floor for weeks??)  I also did some more work on my desk, but not enough to take an "after" picture - as soon as I finish the surface of my desk, the drawer, and my files, then and only then will I feel like my desk is DONE.

Bug's clothes gone through for outgrown stuff, tidy and organized

\

No more laundry pile!

One box of baby clothes and a bag of her gDiaper system ready to donate/give away!

Thursday ended up being my "day off" this week because that was the day my mom arrived, and I knew we'd work both days this weekend, so although ordinarily I would give myself Sunday off, this week I switched things around.

Friday was the area *next* to my desk, which needed tons of attention.  It had just become the burial ground for all kinds of crap - things I was planning to put up on eBay, stuff I had intended to donate long ago and just never had, it was a mess.  Walking from my desk to the couch was an adventure.  But now it's all either on eBay, donated, or at least tidied - and the exercise ball, which has been rolling around between my and my husband's two desks aimlessly (often catching on the backs of our chairs or tripping one or both of us) finally has a home!!

Cluttered corner:

Clean corner: 

We had enough energy that the cleaning extended to the rest of the living room.  The couch and coffee table had kind of been my "home base" in Bug's early days and weeks for when she was nursing every fifteen minutes (or was it twenty?), and it had gotten to the point where it was really overflowing with her books and toys and pacifiers and various other accoutrements.  My mom made me see that I really needed my coffee table back - and did we ever reclaim it!!

Coffee table in disarray:

Coffee table clean - you can see the surface!!!

Actually *using the storage* under the side table, imagine that!

 One bag of recycling and two bags and a box to donate!!

Saturday was somewhat less exciting in the sense of having something physical to show for the work, but I did actually do some digital tidying.  My mom brought her laptop, which still had some *very* old files of mine on it (we're talking, writing I did in the 90's, at age 8 or so) as well as college application essays.  She asked me to go through it all and see what I wanted to keep and what could be deleted just to free up the space on her hard drive.  College is well behind me (my 10th reunion is this summer...yipes!) so I had no trouble deleting the college application stuff.  A lighter laptop, in the metaphorical sense, is a good thing!!

40 Bags in 40 Days - Days 10 and 11

Monday's job was to finish the task of uploading all of the pictures and videos from my cell phone to my computer so they can be added to our cloud storage.  I still need to pare them down and weed out the ones that are fuzzy or have poor lighting, but it's really hard to delete pictures of Bug!!  Also she's constantly in motion, so a lot of them are just fuzzy because of that.  I did some more organizing though, moving them into the appropriate folders (for example, I now have a whole file dedicated to just pictures of my husband with her because my mother-in-law requests them often).  This is an ongoing process, of course, because I take about fifty million new pictures of her a day, but knowing that everything up until a few days ago is now in multiple locations gives me peace of mind.

Tuesday I started in on my desk.  It had just become another of those catchalls for papers, CDs, stuff I intended to file or "do something with" (like scan into my computer) and just junk.  Also, the contents of my desk had begun migrating onto my printer and even the nearby couch, so that needed to be curtailed as well.  There's still a huge pile of random crap next to my desk that I need to go through.  Some of it I already tried to sell on eBay and failed, some of it is stuff I want to keep but it just ended up there because it didn't have another home, or again, I have plans for it but just haven't done it yet (like getting posters framed, that kind of thing).  I have a "before" picture of the desk but I haven't quite finished the job, so I will post an "after" when it is satisfactory.

Desk:

 Desk overflow: