More than enough

On Wednesday, my family gathered together for my grandmother's funeral. She had been 90 years old, and was living on her own with her beloved cats - which were named after characters in Pride and Prejudice - until just two weeks before.

My house contains more physical representations of my grandmother than almost anyone else. She's in the handmade braided and vestimade rugs, and in the Waterford wedding gifts she bestowed upon Peter and me four years ago, and in the Christmas ornaments she gave my sister and me each year.

It's seems fitting that I see her all over the house, because more than anyone else, she reveled in all things home. She could endlessly examine a house, soaking in each detail. Every inch of her own home was decorated with things she loved. She had boxes of meticulously organized holiday decorations that came out every year, and she's the reason my mom, sister, and I have a village and a full set of carolers.

My sister and I spent lots of time with my grandparents growing up, with a few afternoons a week during the school year, and a few days each week during the summer. For lunch, she made the kinds of foods that kids love - spaghetti with lots of butter and salt, macaroni and cheese with Velveeta (and always a side of cranberry sauce, for some reason), and individual tubs of Friendly's ice cream sundaes.

She loved shopping, and was a world-class bargain hunter. She had an amazing ability to remember the exact price of all the best deals she scored - a trait I certainly inherited. She could look at a mahogany headboard and say that she bought it sixteen years ago at a tag sale on Cooley Street for $10, but she'd talked them down from $15.

She saved and saved her whole life, but she and my grandpa always made it a priority to take vacations and go out to eat occasionally. They would go to South Carolina for the winter when I was growing up, and we loved visiting their condo over February vacations.

We never did that much with them, but the days felt full. Dressing up, playing with dolls, feeding the birds, watching old movies, taking a walk around the block. Sometimes we played cards or asked the Ouiji board questions about our future husbands, but she also took naps, did crossword puzzles, and watched Meet the Press. She didn't feel that they had to entertain us, and it served us well.

Being in her orbit was more than enough.

Looking, Playing, Wasting

Making: Excellent use of our new island - it makes our kitchen such a happy place to hang out in
Cooking: This perfectly autumnal mushroom lasagna
Drinking: A splash of wine nearly every night after Lizzy goes down for the night
Reading: This should say "slogging" since I've been working on this since August, but Longbourn
Wanting: Track pants, real bad
Looking: Oh so tired these days - I need an industrial strength eye cream or something :)
Playing: On my new iPad (I've become one teeny tiny percent more hip!) 
Wasting: Time searching for the perfect baby Halloween costume
Sewing: A new valance for my kitchen window (a total cheat answer because my Mom actually did the sewing for me!)
Wishing: I felt more clear headed
Enjoying: The evening routine we've worked out, which involves playing with Lizzy for a few hours when I get home, then her bath, stories, and bed, followed by dinner, a TV show, and dessert - always dessert - for Peter and me
Waiting: Until the October madness calms down in Salem before checking out this lovely looking exhibit
Liking: How settled our house is feeling these days, even as I make plans for a few more adjustments
Wondering: If we'll be able to pull off a big trip in 2015
Loving: My little clan more and more each day
Hoping: To make a batch of this in very near future
Marveling: At these awesome floating babies in Houston
Needing: To get some dates on the books with friends - we've been somewhat hermetic 
Smelling: Lizzy's head every night at 5:00 p.m.
Wearing: Ballet flats as much as possible before the endless season of boots begins
Following: The new-to-me blog Aspiring Kennedy
Noticing: How beautiful Boston looks this fall - the leaves have exploded in color in the last week
Knowing: Some Top 40 songs for the first time since college, thanks to a lingering Sirius XM subscription in our new-to-us second car (my current fave)
Thinking: That our new normal is starting to feel just that
Feeling: So excited to tag along with my sister to do some wedding dress shopping tomorrow
Bookmarking: Tons of recipes from Jamie Oliver's magazine - it's been a treasure trove of inspiration 
Opening: The windows just a smidge to get some of that delightfully crisp fall air in the house
Giggling: Over Lizzy's seemingly deep voice - it's seriously just like this when she laughs
Feeling: Lucky, lucky, lucky 

This post was inspired by Meet Me at Mikes!

The State of Things

Asters in honor of a new September baby!

This was an exciting, tiring, fun, full week in our household. The biggest and bestest news is that our niece, Caroline, arrived! I got to swing by the hospital on the day she was born to meet her. She feels absolutely light as a feather compared to the heifer I usually tote around. She has a darling, sweet little face, lots of dark curly hair, and is just such a dear. Peter and Lizzy haven't gotten to meet her yet because they were both fighting colds, but I'm hoping they'll be well enough for introductions over the weekend.

Because of the new baby, my mother in law has been staying with us for the last few days, and it's been such a treat. Lizzy is loving the extra attention, and Peter and I are getting spoiled by her cooking.

Since going back to work, I look forward to our weekends so much. Probably too much, because I hate feeling like I'm just "getting through" the majority of my week/life. On most Tuesdays, though, you can find me tearfully telling Peter that the weekend is way too far away and I can't possibly make it. But then I do (time hasn't stopped yet on a Tuesday, but my fear that it will is alive and well!).

It helps - tremendously - that Lizzy is over-the-moon happy to arrive to daycare each morning. She spends her days there being smiled at, played with, given toys, and toted around, and I really think it's her idea of heaven. I miss her way more than she misses me.

I also completely recognize that we are in a very, very lucky position right now - this a Champagne problem. We are all healthy and happy, and I know how lucky I am to not only have a job, but one that I really enjoy.

Anyways, I feel myself rambling along. I started this weekend tangent intending to say that I look forward to having two uninterrupted days with my family so much that I feel like I need to pack them to gills with fun and productivity. Have meaningful time with Lizzy one-on-one! Go to the farmers market! Establish ourselves at our new local church! Paint furniture, vacuum, clean out my closet...on and on. I don't exactly know what to do about this because it is actually the best time to do many of these things, and I want to have a balance of fun mixed in with everything else that needs doing. I'm sure we'll figure this out, but if you have any advice, it would be most welcome.

Wishing you all a very happy weekend. TGIF to the max.

Oh, and P.S.! Thank you for weighing in on the island. I went with white, but did pale green stools. Looks cute! I owe you a pic.

In the Midst of Living

I've been thinking about this post for months now, but I couldn't seem to figure out how to write it without seeming completely over the top in the cheesy/sentimental/sappy department. I thought you might attribute my behavior to pregnancy hormones, and perhaps this is still a worry with postpartum hormones, but I'm sharing anyway :)

My Dad is always declaring things to be "game changers," like really good apples, or a super soft new sweater. We make fun of him for this, but a few months ago, I read an article in Real Simple that was sort of a game changer for me! (Of course, I can't locate it for the life of me. If you know the one I mean and find the link, please let me know!). 

The gist - which we've all heard many, many times - is that we are not great at living in the present. I know, right? Some us dwell on the past, some romanticize the future. I tend toward the future. Too much time is spent waiting for things to come. A beautiful day, vacation, dinner, time and resources to work on projects around the house, a new milestone for the baby. 

The writer of the article said that she started saying, "I am in the midst of living" at different times to herself. It sounds so silly, I know! Weeks will go by and I forget all about it, but then it will pop into my head again, and I'll spend a moment thinking that right that second, I am in the midst of living my life. I find that the more mundane the activity, the more poignant it is.

Driving home from running errands, waiting in line at the grocery store, feeding a growing baby on the couch, stealing away to the back porch to read a bit when the sun is starting to set, drying the dinner dishes. All moments that make up my at times boring, happy, frustrating, funny, sweet life. I always feel remarkably lucky when I realize those things about my life right as they're happening. How extraordinary to be given so many ordinary moments. 

Glorious Summer

Peter requested lunch at Publick House on Father's Day, and it seemed like all kinds of young parents had the same idea. It was babies and beers galore!

It was such a beautiful afternoon that we went over to Crystal Lake afterwards for a little walk. It smelled a bit swampy, but there were tons of people swimming. Hearty New Englanders!

I said this last year, but I can't suppress the urge to say it again - summer, glorious summer, is here. I could not be more excited for school to officially get out, trips to the beach and Tanglewood, and putting all house-related tasks on hold for a few months. (Well, mostly - don't get too excited, Peter.)

This weekend, my parents are moving to their new house in the Berkshires. They sold their old condo in January, we've been missing our visits there so much. We're going to be busy getting it all set up for the next few days so that we can thoroughly enjoy it for the rest of the summer :)

Happy June weekend to all!

Old Manse

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we headed up to Concord to check out the Old Manse and the surrounding grounds. This had been on my to-visit list for a while, so it was a nice surprise that they were having an open house that afternoon!

The trails and gardens behind the house are stunning. Everything is in bloom right now! And, an important battle happened on that little bridge. (I think it looks way too small for an important battle, right? Peter assures me it occurred there.)

Afterwards we went into the town center to hit up the Cheese Shop and a few other favorite spots. Lizzy was snoozing in her Ergo, so we took our chances and ordered a drink and some snacks on the front porch of the Colonial Inn. As soon as our drinks arrived, she started crying a bit (how do they always KNOW?!), but Peter walked her around for a few minutes and she settled right down, and we were able to toast to successful little adventures!

Mysteries Revealed

Checking in from Babyville, where the laundry is suddenly never-ending (and cuter than ever). 

Lizzy is long like me, and extremely hungry like Peter, so the darling pudge is starting to fill in. We can both say, "Yes, we were just like that."

Like all sane people, she's extremely annoyed by the hiccups. And unfortunately, she gets them all the time. I sometimes take her into our downstairs bathroom where there's an unreasonably loud fan that helps to distract her a bit from the injustice of another case of hiccups.

And of course there are all kinds of things we never could have predicted, but now happily know. She loves to tightly hold our hands, tightly grips the curtains in her nursery that hang over her changing table, and sometimes accidentally hit her own face.

We call her Lizzy, but I am such a nicknaming expert that she also gets called a lot of other things, including: Lizbert, Lizzy Bean, Gremlin, Piggy, Sweet Pea, Girly Girl, Diva, Demon Eyes, Milk Face, Lippy Lou, Missy Mae, and Lizzy Bizzy (by my Mom). The use of each one obviously depends on her mood and behavior :)

11 Questions Answered

A few pictures of life lately! The most delicious lamb ragu with feta and peas; Lizzy suffering through tummy time; a walk in the wood; and a photo my sister took of Lizzy and me on Mother's Day.

Melissa invited me to answer a few questions she posted to her blog, and while my answers are far from riveting, it was fun to put together. You should totally play along!

1. What has been your most favorite vacation to date? 
Paris! It's hard to beat Paris. 

2. Do you prefer big city life, suburban life, or a life in the country? 
I love that I have a quasi-suburban life right now. We are still super close to the city (10 minutes to Cambridge, and just a bit further from Boston), but I love our little house and neighborhood and yard. 

3. What is your favorite type of food?
This sounds boring because I like to think of myself to be kind of an adventurous eater, but I think my favorite would be classified as American! But maybe fancy-ish American?! Ha. My favorite type of recipe is basically everything on Food 52. 

4. How would you typically dress for a night out? 
Fun patterned shirt (like so) and hot pink flats (like so). Though it's been far too long since these items have left my closet!

5. What are you go-to accessories?
Scarves, earrings, necklaces, sunglasses.

6. How do you fix your hair?
Lately it's been air dried, but typically I give it a quick blow dry and smooth it out with a big round brush. I'm useless with hair products, so I tend to skip them all together. 

7. What make-up do you wear on a daily basis? Do you have preferred brands?
I wear tinted moisturizer, mascara, and blush every day, and sometimes add eye shadow and eye liner to the mix, as well. And always (always!) Vaseline on my lips!

8. What is your preferred workout?
I'm terrible about working out in the formal sense, but I like walking a lot, and will occasionally do some yoga at home.

9. Where is your favorite place to shop online?
Oh gosh. Predictable, but probably Amazon. I also buy things from Lilly Pulitzer online when they have big sales, and like Terrain a lot for gifts. 

10. Do you enjoy entertaining guests in your home or would you prefer to be a guest? 
I LOVE hosting people here - it's one of my favorite things. But because I know how much goes into it, I also really appreciate how wonderful it is to be a guest in someone else's home. I always pick up tricks that I want to steal from our friends who are also fantastic hosts! (The trick I'm always trying to relearn is "just relax and everyone will have fun," ha.)

11. What quality do you really value in your significant other?
Goodness, this is tricky, because is truly a very long list. Peter and I have opposite personalities in many ways (similar values, though, which I think is the key). He is patient, even-keeled, focused, and is an exceptional listener - all qualities I lack, and value very much!

Loving Lately

I got this book a few weeks ago, and have been slowly reading a few of these quirky, funny stories each day. It's perfect for these fuzzy, jumbled newborn days because each one is short, compact, and satisfying. 

I am usually very brand loyal, but after years of using Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer, I decided to give this one a go after seeing it mentioned on Whoorl (she is so lovely, and I tend to trust her beauty product recommendations). I was a little nervous about the fruit extracts being too scented for my sensitive skin, but so far, no issues at all, and it smells heavenly. And there's something very satisfying about being able to say your make-up comes from France, right? 

Oooh goodness, we are deeply entrenched in True Detective. The chemistry between Matthew McConaughhey and Woody Harrelson is fantastic, and the whole thing is just so suspenseful and well-done. Highly recommended if you're looking for a new show to become obsessed with :)

And finally, a few good things I've read lately:

• My Early-Life Crisis - "I was born a friendless virgin."
• A Day on Long Island with Alex Lee - James Beard award winning article by Francis Lam
• The Ultimate SoWa Food Truck Guide - excited to get back here soon!
• My Other Mother's Day - from new blog favorite Wee Mountains

Lilac Sunday

I heard about Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Arboretum last spring (after the fact, of course!), and thought it would be a pretty lovely way to spend my first mother's day.

We were driving back from Connecticut on Sunday after visiting family for the weekend. It was very warm in the car, traffic was crazy near the Arboretum, and Lizzy was hungry and had a dirty diaper. We really thought about turning around since it was starting to feel a bit more stressful than fun, but I'm so glad we stuck it out and were able to take a walk among the flowers.

It will take us a little while to figure out how to handle these little outings with grace and ease, but the only way to do that is to keep trying it out, right?

When I was saying good-bye to my Mom yesterday she said, "Mother's Day is a funny little holiday, isn't it? But it's an important one, too."

I hope everyone had a lovely day, whether you were celebrating your own mother or grandmothers, or were happily being celebrated. So many of my girlfriends have become mothers in the last year, and it was so fun to text each other throughout the day to check in with well wishes. I'm sending lots of love to each and every one of you!

Boston Walk-about

This weekend! It was just the loveliest. After painting my heart out on Saturday morning (actually, all three days of the weekend including painting - if feels never-ending, but we actually only have one room left!), Peter and I went into Boston to spend the afternoon at the Gardner Museum. It was the final weekend of their annual nasturtium display in the courtyard - so beautiful. They don't allow photos in the museum, so I took this quick picture in the lobby. Total aside, but I think all museums should prohibit photography - it's so distracting. I always want to be like...just buy the book in the museum shop!

From the museum, we walked through Kenmore and up along the final mile or so of the marathon route. It was packed with runners and visitors checking out the final stretch and the finish line, and I'm really happy we were able to see it.

And then we walked over to the Common. Things are just starting to bloom, and the sun was shining on our backs, and there was a wedding photo shoot happening on the foot bridge (Poor bride - everyone in the park was questioning her fashion choices. Those who live in glass houses shouldn't cast stones, fleece-covered Bostonians!).

We had a yummy dinner at JM Curley's, and our nice server brought me a bag for my left-overs when we were getting ready to leave around 8:30 p.m.. He was like, "The night is young! Who knows where it will take you." And I wanted to say, "No, sir, this night is actually very old, and my feet are about to fall off." But we just smiled and pretended that yes, we were about to do something cooler than head back to our suburban neighborhood and fall happily into bed after watching Louis C.K.'s opening monologue on SNL.

Lots to celebrate

(From the cute Oh Joy! Collection at Target)

There's been LOTS to celebrate in the Turner house this week. On Tuesday, I presented my final project for my class this semester which was super fun. It was about Amelia Bedelia (if you're wondering how to have the most fun in graduate school, it is in a children's literature program). Tuesday was also Peter's birthday! Since I was in class until later and we are still kitchen-less, we got fancy pizza from Max and Leo's and a frozen yogurt cake from Cabots - both dangerously delicious. 

Yesterday morning, I furiously painted the kitchen out of irrational fear that the next time I came home it would be with a baby after my external version appointment. I know that sounds like a weird priority, given the fact that the nursery room floor is still covered with newspapers and extra trim from painting stuff, but I can't make sense of the inner-workers of my brain, either. Anyways, that's done, and it looks good. 

Thennnnn the appointment. I had been so nervous for it, wondering back and forth what the right decision was. Where was my mother's intuition? But I did it, and I'm so happy I did. The baby flipped right around on the first try, and Peter and I are beaming with pride at his or her excellent ability to follow directions (when given a hearty nudge). 

I feel like we've been given this wonderful gift of waiting. The baby can take it's time, finish up cooking, and come to meet us when it's ready, and I'm so thankful. When I was awake at 4:30 this morning, though, I kept wondering how I would have felt if it hadn't worked. Would I believe I'd made the wrong decision? Hurt the baby and myself unnecessarily? I hope not, but it's hard to say.  

I had to sign a medical release form on behalf of the baby, and there was a slot for relationship to patient where I had to write "mother." My own mother asked me the other day if I could believe I would a be mom so soon, and I said, "No!" This seems to seriously call into question my intellect, since all physical signs point very strongly to yes, and yet still I can't entirely shake the feeling of disbelief. But making this one decision about trying to flip the baby around - the first of millions of decisions large and small that I won't be able to predict the outcome of - felt like a tiny step toward the reality of motherhood.

So, when Peter and I went to the fantastic new Alden & Harlow last night for a slightly belated birthday celebration, we were also able to toast to successfully navigating this first minor hurdle of parenthood together in tact. Here's to many, many more. 

Bits and pieces

Happy Friday, my friends! I hope you've all had a nice week. Our renovations have been chugging right along, though I've been fairly terrible about documenting any of it (hence this random, totally unrelated, but much more visually appealing pic of flowers!). Yesterday we had all of our new cabinets delivered, along with our dishwasher and stove. They were all piled into the kitchen when we left this morning, but I'm hoping that the base cabinets will be installed when I get home.

Since we opened up the wall between the kitchen and dining room, I knew that those rooms would be painted the same color. They're off of our living room, which is revere pewter, and I brought home silver mist (both Benjamin Moore). After painting the ceilings, I started cutting in with it last weekend, but immediately got nervous that it was too dark and similar in saturation to the revere pewter. This was, embarrassingly, keeping me up at night. Now that the cabinets are in, though, and I know how much white the rooms will have, I'm feeling better about it. AND, it's just paint, so I should really chill out. I definitely had less hemming and hawing about the floors/cabinets/counter tops, ha ha. (But if you'd like to weigh in, please feel free...)

Tomorrow is my baby shower, which I am so very excited for. Peter's staying home to work on laying down our new floors, which is a significantly worse way to spend a Saturday. Bits and pieces of incredibly sweet gifts for the baby from family and friends have trickled in this week, which is almost as fun as coming home to wedding gifts. We received one of those playmat thingies that are all crazy colors and flashy toys dangling from above. It's so easy for me to imagine a baby lying there, looking up at it, but it's still mind blowing to me that my baby will be using it shortly.

In other baby related news, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and they think the baby might be breech. Of course, I've been furiously googling "how to tell breech baby" and "make breech baby flip." I have an ultrasound in two weeks to check, but that feels so very far away. I feel like I can't do much of anything, just in case the baby's in the right place now? (And of course, I know that breech isn't the end of the world by any means, and that the baby still has time to flip on its own, etc., etc.). I should probably go back to worrying about paint.

I thought this post would be a quick bullet list when I started off, but I guess I had a lot of sharing to do! The only other thing I wanted to tell you was that I finally started The Goldfinch, and gosh it's good so far (though I still believe it's fairly audacious to make any book this long).

Hope you all have wonderful springy weekends ahead!

Just beyond

A chilly weekend away in southern Maine at the end of March doesn't exactly scream "baby moon," but that's what we called it.

Over the last eight years, Peter and I have taken many, many trips - both big and small - together. Our first was to Williamsburg, Virginia about six months after we met. The town was all decked out for Christmas, and we bopped around eating and drinking and generally feeling extremely adult about the whole thing. That Sunday afternoon was drizzly and cold, but there was a promise of fireworks once it got dark enough, so Peter got a taste of how serious I am about pyrotechnics because we stayed on that town green until the bitter, celebratory end.

Then there were the weekends in New York, before we lived there. Weekends in D.C., after we lived there. Weekends in Boston, before we moved here for good. There were wedding celebrations in Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, North Carolina. Winter weekends skiing in the Berkshires, driving into the wilds of Canada, bopping down to Newport.

And big trips. Taking off for nearly a month to roam around Brazil, and then Hawaii. Week-long stays in Paris, and Charleston.

In the middle of our Brazil trip, which we took off on just days after getting engaged, we went to different beaches all the time, ate so much grilled meat, brought cards everywhere we went to play gin rummy because everyone around us seemed to be doing the same, and I remember one night, probably about halfway into the trip when Peter and I were out at bar where the floor was covered with a thick spread of sand underneath our feet, he said very casually, "It's so lucky that I get to spend all my days with you."

In celebration of these days together, when it is just an us, we ate fried sea food, and took a long walk by the steely grey water, perched as gracefully as possible atop bar stools, and toasted to this lovely, lucky life we have together, and to all the lovely, lucky things that await us, just beyond our line of sight.

Which Way to the Bulb Show

Last weekend we went to the annual Smith College Spring Bulb Show. We used to go most years when I was growing up, but I don't think I've been for at least 10 years! It was such a great way to spend a warm, late winter afternoon. 

The first room is stuffed to the brim with flowering trees, tulips, and daffodils, and the smell is intoxicating. 

Doesn't this all feel so happy and bright?

This is the last weekend of the show, if you're in the area and are looking for a cold weather antidote!