MamAnomolie

Sophie has way too many books. Don't tell my husband that I have admitted this. There is something about children's books that I cannot resist. I get pangs of guilt when I think about buying myself new clothes or things for the house, but books for Sophie is a rare guilt-free zone for me. (A) They are for her. (B) They promote literacy and learning when we read them together. Yes, I should go to the library more, but...wait a minute...no, this is my one guilt-free zone and I'm ruining it. Bottom line - Sophie has a lot of books.

Some of these are recent publications. We have fallen in love with Karma Wilson's and Jane Chapman's Bear Snores On series. We also love Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle and Jill McElmurry. Other of our favorites are oldies but goodies. It's so much fun to read books to Sophie that that I loved as a child. One such favorite is the Frog and Toad series by Arnold Lobel. When reading "The List" from Frog and Toad Together, however, I came to a startling realization.

"The List" is about Toad making a list of the things he needs to get done (a very smart idea) and checking them off as he completes each task (again, such a wise toad). He even writes down "Wake Up," which he has obviously already done, and immediately crosses it off of his list (OK, so toad may be a little OCD). Toad eats his breakfast (gets to cross that off of the list), walks to Frog's house (another activity checked off), and then takes a long walk with Frog. Toad has just crossed "Take walk with Frog" off of his list (I'm kind of jealous at this point, to be honest) when this happens...

Just then there was a strong gust of wind. It blew the list out of Toad's hand. The list blew high up into the air.

"Help!" cried Toad. "My list is blowing away. What will I do without my list?"

"Hurry!" said Frog. "We will run and catch it."

"No!" shouted Toad. "I cannot do that."

"Why not?" asked Frog.

"Because." wailed Toad, "Running after my list is not one of the things that I wrote on my list of things to do!"

Yep, right there. That's when it hit me. I am Toad. Sigh.

The blessing and curse that is my list (OK, who am I kidding, lists) will surely be material for a later post. Right now, I'm going to go check "blogging" off of my to-do list.

I know she is not yet even two, but from the very beginning Sophie has been what I can only call athletic. She turned over early, walked early, and moved on to running without looking back. She's known in our group as "the runner." I know that I'm not exactly an unbiased source, but she's really strong.

She recently had to spend a few days in the hospital. Everything is fine - I didn't share that fact to worry anybody, but rather to relate this. We spent every moment she was in the hospital right by her side, except for the spinal tap. The doctor told us that, as a mother herself, she recommends that parents not be present for the procedure. We waited anxiously in the next room, and when it was done were told that it took three full-grown men to hold her still for the procedure (and they were all singing the ABC's because we had told them that this would help calm her). My point? The girl is athletic...and this baffles Jonathan and me.

I'm not going to speak for Jonathan, but I am not an athlete. I was recently told by a mom that I met that she assumed I ran because I just seemed athletic. I'm outdoorsy. I played sports in high school. I have a scar on my knee from a college lacrosse injury. I've even biked a century, but don't let any of that fool you. I am not athletic. I'm about to reveal more than I should about just how uncool I really am.

I did play sports in high school - field hockey and lacrosse. Why field hockey and lacrosse? Because those are the sports you can start in high school having never played before and actually have a fighting chance. I was not good. I worked really hard, and that got me by...barely. In fact, I can remember my dad telling me he was proud of me because I had absolutely no genetic help on my side. Plus there was the fact that I couldn't see. I didn't have contacts yet, and I wouldn't wear glasses because they would fog up, so basically I was running around with a stick and a ball and I couldn't see. Picture that for a moment.

I did tear my ACL playing lacrosse in college. Duke had just started their women's team...I was not on it. I played club lacrosse...for about 40 minutes. I managed to injure myself the first game of the spring season. Now, to give myself a little bit of credit, there had been a fall season, and I did play then as well. There usually weren't enough players to field all of the positions, and I remember the goalie often being drunk. I'm not sure of the details because, as I think you're catching on to, I was not one of the cool kids.

I'll admit it - when that mom said that I just seemed athletic, I wanted to hug her. But no matter how much I run or bike or hike, the natural, graceful athleticism that you see in some people is just not in me. You know who I mean. They are the people that you see running in your neighborhood that just seem to glide, as though they are exerting no effort as their long muscles flex beneath their lycra. As opposed to the people like me, who you see running in your neighborhood and you just want to jump out of your car and cheer them on, because you can see how hard they are trying, and you know genetics are not on their side.

Again, I know Sophie is not even two yet. And please don't get the idea that I'm going to push her to do sports and be one of those moms. It's just amazing to see this little person mastering control of her body. While it does make some playdates difficult, I love that she is "the runner." I'm baffled by how someone who just learned to walk can have such good balance, how someone so small can be so strong, and how this little athletic dynamo came out of me.

Top photo by Karen Suttles.

My sister is a cookie splitter. For me, it's a whole cookie or nothing. Let me explain...

My mom is known for making an assortment of delicious dessert bars over Thanksgiving. Every year she swaps a few of her standards for new recipes, and every year we say that we miss whatever bar was replaced. Pumpkin cheesecake bars, mixed nut bars, pecan pie bars and lemon bars. We love them, and could all eat ridiculously large numbers of them at all hours of the day. But we try and control ourselves.

My sister will cut a bar in half. That way she can have one bar total, but enjoy two different kinds. My thought process is completely different. I either want a full bar or no bar at all. There is no middle ground for me. I am all or nothing, and not just where cookies are concerned. I have heard people say that this can be a good trait. If I do something, I go all out. I am thorough and dedicated in my tasks. I've been thinking about this trait a lot lately, though, and overall, it's not so good.

If I have something wrong with me, my initial reaction is that I don't have time to deal with it. It will go away on it's own. Surely it's nothing. This is my mode of thinking, until suddenly it isn't. That pain in my side is no longer nothing, but a cancerous tumor that is about to take over my body. In a split second after weeks of the same problem it inexplicably goes from one to the other. All or nothing.

When I exercise, I have to do it every day, because once I skip a day, well then I may as well just sit on the couch and eat bonbons all day. It's like I have an on/off switch but no volume control. There is no glass half empty or half full. There is no half anything.

I think this has become more of a problem since I became a mother. All mothers are busy and slightly distracted. A wonderful little person is getting most of your attention, so other things cannot get as much focus as they used to. I used to wait to call friends back until I had a dedicated chunk of time when I could focus on talking to them. I would wait to clean out the pantry until I had the time and space to take every single thing out and scrub, toss, repackage, and arrange in order of fiber content. But now my all or nothing mentality combined with motherhood has made it so that the calls to friends and pantry organization doesn't happen at all.

So, with the new year, I am striving for balance. And a balanced kind of balance. See, I have even jumped into balance with a ridiculous fervor in the past. And militantly balanced just doesn't work. In fact, it kind of defeats the whole purpose. I am searching for some space between the "on" and the "off."

Photos courtesy of flickr. Top photo: walter.keller. Bottom photo:bibliogrrl.

Jonathan and I are not portrait people. As much as I want to capture moments of Sophie's life on film, I feel like having her sit for a portrait would not at all capture the essence of Sophie. Plus there is the fact that Sophie doesn't sit.

The photos I love of myself and loved ones are those that aren't so staged. We may be aware of the camera, but there is a sense of ease and playfulness that is hard to describe but easy to see. Karen Davis Suttles was able to capture our essence as a family beautifully on film, and for that I am so grateful.

Karen is Jonathan's first cousin. I know, how lucky are we to have such a great photographer in the family?! Last week while we were visiting Marion, NC, she offered to come take some pictures. Here is some of Karen's work. It was hard not to post them all on here. Thank you, Karen!

So, it's been awhile, huh? You know, I have to hand it to the mamas out there who have a baby and pretty much blog right on through. Seriously, I don't know how you do it.

My little Sophie was born at the end of March, and I am only ready to come back to the blog now...the first day of summer. I've been thinking about how I should re-enter my blog. At first I thought I needed an explanation for why I had been MIA for so long. You would think that having a baby would be explanation enough, but there are plenty of people who just keep on blogging. I am not one of those people. And I'm also not one to share all of the details of my labor or try to explain on a blog just how deeply I care about Sophie. There is nothing wrong with those kinds of blogs, in fact, I have enjoyed reading some of those blogs, but I am not one of those bloggers and this is not one of those blogs.

I simply didn't want to blog for the past three months, and if it's alright with everyone, I'm just going to continue on from here as though I were with you all along with no good explanation at all :)

I must admit, this year I have not been nearly as crafty in my gift-giving as in holidays past. I am happy to say that I have been working on knitting a scarf for a certain someone. Of course, the scarf is not quite done yet, and I can tell it's been quite some time since I've picked up my knitting since my finger is sore. My knitter's callus had disappeared and I'm now working on building it back up.

While I do love being crafty, patience is not one of my virtues, which comes back to bite me in my efforts to be crafty. I know how to knit, but after several failed attempts at hats, I mainly stick to simple scarves made of fun yarn. I know how to sew, but I'm definitely limited in my skills in that department as well. I once made a purse that was so horrible my husband suggested turning it into an art installation piece called "I hate sewing." It can be joined by my too big hat that I unsuccessfully tried felting into a bowl that I'll call "I hate knitting" as well as my melted and blackened mini-blinds that I'll call "I hate candlemaking."

I tried to teach myself to crochet recently and ended up feeling quite the failure. I need to take some classes. I need to find more people to help me. But most of all, I think I need more patience. I hear that patience helps in child-rearing, too, so I better start working on that now!

For today, I'm just happy that I'm creating at least one homemade goody for the holidays. Merry Christmas everyone!

During this holiday season, I'm just realizing how appropriately I have named my blog. The anomalies seem to abound this time of year.

I come from a Jewish family and my husband from a Christian one. Our personal views are very similar, but people always ask about what we do for the holidays. It actually works out very well. We go to my parents for Thanksgiving/Chanukah and to his parents for Christmas. Everyone is happy. Oh, and let me clarify that Thanksgiving/Chanukah thing. Religiously, Chanukah is not one of the more important holidays, so it has become a tradition in my family to celebrate it while everyone is home for Thanksgiving. That way my mother can claim two holidays in one, further ensuring that we will always go there for Thanksgiving.


Not only do Jonathan and I come from different religious backgrounds, but his family is from the rural south while mine is from the urban north. Our wedding was somewhat of a culture collision, and it was great. At one point my cousin asked Jonathan's dad if sparklers were a southern tradition. He replied that he had thought it must be a Jewish thing. But let's get back to the holiday anomalies!

The day after Thanksgiving, we always have a Jewish deli-style lunch. While Jonathan cannot wait to dig in to the lox, whitefish salad and egg salad, I won't go near the stuff.

Jonathan gave my mother truck antlers as a Chanukah gift this year. I'm not sure truck antlers have ever been given for Chanukah. The same can be said for the hitch hauler that is currently wrapped in Chanukah paper downstairs for Jonathan. And the Redneck Dictionary he gave my parents a few years ago.

I like to shoot mistletoe out of trees. I'm quite sure I'm the first person in my family to ever do that. I'm not too bad at it, either!

Anyway, my point is that I enjoy the irony and celebrate the diversity that our families bring. So, from our crazy family to yours, Happy Chanukah!

So, in my very first post, I wrote about how I only ate meat if it was wild game. And that was true. It was true for many years...and then I got pregnant. Let me tell you, this little girl does not appear to be a vegetarian. At about week 6 the cravings began. And not just for meat in general. As my husband said, "You didn't go to grass-fed beef. You went straight to the bottom of the barrel."

It's true. I made Jonathan go to the hardware store that had the hotdog stand in front. For a 4-day period after my morning sickness had just started, the only thing that would make me feel better was Campbell's Chunky Sirloin Burger soup. That's the kind with the miniature hamburgers in it. As a kid I used to eat it and the hamburgers even had tiny black lines that were supposed to look like miniature grill markings. Thankfully they have done away with those.

I've had a reuben kick, a gyro kick and a buffalo wing kick. Before becoming pregnant, I had quite a sweet tooth. I even looked forward to being pregnant partially so that I would have an excuse to eat as much ice cream as I wanted. Alas, I have not craved ice cream at all. My only real cravings have been for pickles and crappy meat.

In the beginning I felt so sick that I just threw my hands up and resigned myself to eating whatever my body craved. I'm not sure yet what I'll do once I have the baby. I had been quite committed to my wild-game-only eating ways before I got pregnant. I would like to say that I'll go back, or at least avoid canned beef, but only time will tell.

Welcome to my blog! I'm so excited to begin this endeavor, but you, dear reader, are probably wondering what kind of endeavor this is. And what kind of a name is MamAnomolie?

Well, first the easy half of the explanation. I am about to be a new mama. I'm five months pregnant, and I've been feeling my focus shift more and more to motherhood and parenting. I am preparing to leave my job for full-time motherhood. I feel very lucky that I will be able to stay home with my little girl. Also a bit apprehensive and nervous, but mostly thankful and enthusiastic.

And why Anomolie? I feel as though I am a bit of an anomaly. For example, I don't eat meat except for wild game - a trait which offends carnivores and herbivore alike. I strive to take into account the environmental impacts of my purchases and habits, but I have a weakness for wrapping paper and Starbucks. I research personal care products and household cleaners for environmental health issues, but I won't hesitate to eat those bright orange "circus peanuts" candies that you buy at the gas station.

In the past I struggled with my anomalous tendencies, feeling like I had to pick one thing or the other, but I now realize the two sides are part of who a am. I am an anomaly, and I've embraced that. So much so that, while I am normally tyrannical in my pursuit of proper spelling and grammar, I've decided that I like the look and feel of 'anomolie' better than 'anomaly.' So there.

So, welcome to MamAnomolie. I hope you enjoy, laugh, learn, and discover new resources and inspirations on green products and lifestyles, healthy products, parenthood, arts & craftiness and whatever else this anomalous mama throws at you!

Thanks for stopping by!