Man Plans and God Laughs

Yesterday I wrote about the things I had done and scheduled for the rest of the week. Well, as I write this now less than 24 hours, part of that plan for today has been all shot to hell. I was ushering E into the car when I tried to open the garage door and it suddenly gave a very loud KLUNK as it got stuck sideways. After some swearing (E has now learned the F-word), I determined that the cable on one of the sides of the garage door had completely rusted through, and that I need a garage door technician to come fix it. 

Anyway I managed to get hold of someone who came immediately, and he is currently working in the garage as I type this, so maybe our schedule today hasn't been entirely shot to hell. Which is a bit of a relief because I haven't seen Ilse in about 2 months, and seeing as she is heavily pregnant now, might not be able to see her for a while afterwards.

As an aside, I'm pretty relieved that E didn't put up too much of a fuss at the change in plans. I had told her yesterday that we were going to the gym today, and as I was getting her out of the house earlier had mentioned the gym. She seems to have understood that something was wrong with the garage door, and the little angry walk we took after seems to have placated her (and me, as we ran into some close neighbours and were able to vent).

Household Manager 101

This week has been (and will be) a little unusual, with some deviations from our usual routine. A fire truck will be visiting her school on Friday morning, on a day that E usually doesn't attend school, and I wanted to bring her/see the fire truck for myself. This means changing her usual Friday morning gym class to another day. Anyway, as I was trying to figure out how to juggle the fixed appointments with household errands like grocery shopping, it suddenly occurred to me that I'm almost like E's personal assistant. Throw in the fact that I also need to figure out schedules of things like when to grocery shop (how to best straddle the availability of time with freshness and availability of certain foodstuffs at home), it dawned on me that I was managing the whole household. Now, I don't know why this felt like a sudden revelation, because Jon always thanks for me organizing the household and getting things all lined up nicely, but it felt like one. It also makes me wonder how the hell working mothers to do, because I already feel like things are super jumbled up in my mind unless I write them down (which is getting stupidly difficult to do because we had to hide all the writing implements, paper, and post-its from a rampaging toddler).

Monday - 27 Sept

Dropped E off at school, and came home and napped for a short while. After I picked her up from school, we went to the library because I wanted to borrow baby name books for #2. Although Jon and I have already discussed names and settled on a default, I want to make sure I'm not missing any other good options. Anyway at the library, E had a blast playing with the magna tiles, the insects in resin blocks, and the computers. Then we headed home after I pried her off the computers, and we had random chicken nuggets for lunch. 

While E napped, I cleaned up her play area. I swapped out some of her toys for 'fresh' ones, and did the same for her bookshelf. Then I tossed all the dead houseplants around the house (of which there were many!) When she woke up from her nap, we had a small snack before going for a walk around the neighbourhood, since we were going to have leftovers and I didn't need to cook. We ended up running into quite a few neighbours, and spent an inordinate amount of time standing in the yard of one of our neighbours that had already put their spider Halloween decorations up, because E liked the spiders a lot. 

Before Jon came home, I called my Mum for a short while to say Hi. Then Jon came back and we ate. Not much else interesting happened after that. After E went to bed I read upstairs.

Tuesday - 28 Sept

Dropped E off at school, and came home to do translation of some Chinese books that I had purchased for E. I continued to pick up around the house, and then the cleaners came. After a while (half chased out by cleaning bleach fumes, half from not wanting to be in their way), I went outside and started trimming the boxwood shrubs outside the house. While halfway doing that, I got a call from the plumbers that someone was on the way. I continued working until he got there, which was at least an hour of work outside. By the end, I was having trouble gripping anything/doing the pincer movement with my left hand. Anyway, when the plumber arrived, I took it as a cue for me to stop. The plumber, Donny, managed to fix the problem rather quickly, but ended up finishing at a awkward time close to when I needed to go pick up E. Throw in packing up and writing a receipt, I ended up racing to go pick up E and arrived 12 minutes late. I felt pretty bad about that, but luckily E's school was understanding. 

After that we went to Dierbergs, to take advantage of the $5 Tuesday Sushi deals, and picked up some ham, cheese, brownies, and ice cream. We ate right when we got home, and then we called my In-Laws, for them to chat to E as she played. When we finished chatting, I went upstairs to take a shower because I felt sticky from all the yard work. Later, after putting E down for a nap, I took a nap too. I originally set an alarm, but I managed to turn that off because I was so tired, and ended up waking up close to 4:45pm. Luckily we still have leftovers of beef stew, so at least I didn't feel pressed for time. When E woke up, I called my parents and spoke to them until Jon came home.

I finished reading the book I had been reading last night. 

Wednesday - 29 Sept

Today after I dropped E off at school, I came home and napped. I cleaned up a little around the house, and started the whole process of mid-week laundry. Then I went to pick up E. While picking her up, I realised I had left my phone at home, and so ended up immediately returning home to fetch it. Then we went to a nearby playground, and while E played (it was empty and small-sized), I looked through one of the baby name books that I had borrowed. When she was all played-out (and I was coincidentally done with that book), we went to Aldi to get the weekly groceries. I had also used the time at the playground to mentally plan what food to cook for the rest of this week, while ensuring that we used up all of our leftovers.

After getting home, I made a tomato, ham, and cheese omelette for the both of us to share. Then she played outside with her water gun for a short while, and I finally put her down for a nap, and hopped on the computer to start typing all of this out. I still have to: 1) finish the laundry, 2) pay the lawn mower guy (if he comes today), 3) finish going through the other baby name book. Tonight will be leftovers again, the final batch of beef stew with homemade bread that I made last week Friday. Boring, but makes my life and budget easier. 

Thursday - 30 Sept

• Rescheduled toddler gym class: 10am
• Kill time/figure out lunch: 10:45-11:45am
• Go to Ilse's place for a long-overdue playdate with Leo: 11:45am
• Leave for home for naptime: 2pm
• Pizza leftovers for dinner? + salad from Aldi

Friday - 1 Oct

• Arrive at E's school to see the fire truck: 10:30am
• Visit Hartke Nursery to spend Hartke Bucks (Oct only)
• Lunch?
• Hang out with Lynne, if weather permits
• Naptime
• Tilapia for dinner - sides?

Saturday - 2 Oct

• Dinner with Adem's family (Jon's colleagues)
• Get more mulch (can be Sunday too)

Sunday - 3 Oct

• Make Chili con Carne for dinner

Gardening Again

In the last week I started gardening again. I also started visiting plant nurseries again. Within a week, I have managed to visit all my favourite plant spots: Sugar Creek Nursery, Dauster's Greenhouse, the Kirkwood Farmer's Market, OK Hatchery, Rolling Ridge, Maypop, Greenscape Gardens, Lowe's and lastly Hartke Nursery. To my disappointment, the Kirkwood Farmer's Market didn't have a lot, and OK Hatchery wasn't selling many plants either (though this is normal for them). Anyway during the last week, I've also racked up at least 7 hours of gardening, and have acquired a light sock tan again.

I figure I don't have much time to get all the gardening I want done, mainly because I will soon become too big to bend down properly. That being said, at 20 weeks+ pregnant, I still feel remarkably small thanks to all the weight I lost in the first trimester. I've only just started gaining weight, and only exceeded my pre-pregnancy weight about a week ago. 

Elephant Ears

 

Last year when Jon and I were wandering with E around a trail at a nearby park, we stumbled upon a delightful little grove of these gigantic Elephant Ears surrounding a rock, which made for a really cute photo spot for E. After seeing that, I felt inspired to grow Elephant Ears too, even though I had seen them before in Singapore and never really paid much attention. 

Anyway, during a warm week in March, I planted 3 Elephant Ear bulbs near where the old dead Pin Oak had been in our front lawn (see, patch of dead/struggling grass in the foreground). The few weeks after that though, it got cold and the ground froze again. Plus it even snowed in April for a day, if I recall. I was sure that the Elephant Ears were a goner, because the bulbs are susceptible to rot and freeze damage. To my surprise however, 2 of them started to emerge around June.

Today, in the first week of September, the plants still stand - though not as impressive as those I remember from the park. They're about waist high for me, so slightly less than a metre tall. Still, given that I had planted them early and did nothing to help them thrive after (besides ringing them with rocks to protect them from the lawn mowing people), they've done a good job for themselves. The variety I bought could also be the reason for their height, it seems like there are many types of Elephant Ears, with some single bulbs alone retailing for $15 or more. It remains to be seen of course, whether I remember to dig these fellow up when they've died back to the ground, and whether I will plant them in again next year.