Saturday, September 11, 2010

Taking my life back...by the sweat of my brow

Ha ha, we are all sweaty here right now. I am obsessed with weather.com, hoping that by some miracle the low for the night might drop below 75 degrees. No such luck yet. I am also obsessed with tracking the tropical storms and hurricanes that are popping up just about every week now. I take a special interest in the model predictions for the storms, with the multicolored paths spelling potential destruction for any land masses in their way. We are crossing our fingers the storms stay clear of the Magic City.

So I'm trying to take my life back now, i.e. making more time for living. I am finally recovering from the whole PhD 'experience'. For the first time in years I managed to keep the home relatively clean the entire week (no small feat for a self-proclaimed slob), which is amazingly helpful for alleviating stress. I think a little order in the home makes for some order in the mind.

I am still basking in motherhood. I have thrown myself into the culinary art of baby food. It sounds like it would be kind of boring, steaming fruits and veggies and then pureeing them into mush. But I am finding a challenge in coming up with appetizing flavor combinations, and have also been playing around with making grain cereals from scratch. I made some millet for little N last week, and it was actually really good. Much better consistency than the dehydrated stuff. Little N is right on track on the development area, meaning he started crawling this week. This is quite distressing to the cat, who is now constantly pursued from one napping position to the next.

I have also had to update my wardrobe lately. I was wearing mostly scrubby clothes to the research station, but now that I am teaching I have to look professional and 'scholarly' (Ha!). It has been fun putting together looks that reflect 'professor'. I even have some glasses I wear for reading that I hope make me look more serious and less, well, young.

It's been really fun so far moving into a new life path.