I haven’t posted here since…February? A lot has happened since then, but there’s no way I’m going to catch up, so I’ll just start from now. The two big things are that we had our second baby, a beautiful girl named Miriam Anna, born at home on May 3rd, and we moved out of our West Philly apartment and into a lovely first floor of an old Victorian in a town just outside Philly. Oh, and Paul took a leave of absence from his PhD at Penn and is the CTO of a new startup that is doing very well. So now you are caught up and I will get on with the Yarn Along :)

I’ve been having a hard time keeping Miriam warm enough. I do think babies need to keep warm (see Kyrie’s Warmth Week series for a really great discussion on the whys and hows of keeping children warm - the last post is on dressing children warmly), and her hands and feet were often ice-cold since the weather changed. I’ve been bundling her up, but she needs some good wool layers, and every time I’d be just about to get online and order her some, I’d see the giant basket of wool yarn in and think, this is silly. I am perfectly capable of making her something.

What she needs most is a hat she can wear inside and out, with a tie so that it will stay on when she is on my back, which is quite often. So last night I cast on the Little Turtle Knits Pilot Cap - the perfect shape, covering her ears, with a tie, knit in super soft pink cashmerino aran (a wool/cashmere blend). This is a big step for me, since I’ve knit several things, but always “flat” things - blankets, scarves, and one very simple sweater that still has a sleeve to finish, but is basically knit in flat pieces that you seam together. This is the first time I’ve knit a pattern that I read line by line, with shaping and stitch markers and all kinds of things I have to look up on knittinghelp.com. I have no idea if the size will be right, but if not, I’ll find a newborn or a toddler to wear it and try again :)

Next in line is to finish her sweater and knit her some legwarmers and a Milo vest.

As for reading, I’m reading Anthony Trollope’s The Warden. Paul got me a lovely old edition for our anniversary, and I had no idea that 19th century Anglican church politics could make for such a charming story!

Please see Ginny to see what others are knitting and reading.

I realized I haven’t posted any photos here for a while. I usually keep them updated on facebook, but there are a few facebook holdouts (*ahem* Leah). So here is a selection from the past couple of months.

Christmas morning. James wants less picture taking and more eating to be happening.

Christmas is tiring. So much present opening!

Riding on Papa’s rocking horse and Grandma at Grandpa Jungwirth’s house.

Seeing college friend Courtney in California.

Making mischief with cousin Canyon.

Kaya has her best friend back!

I have my coat! Let’s go outside, Mama!

But WHY can’t we go outside? (Maybe because you are way too naked for snow).

Now we’re outside! Properly dressed!

After a bath to warm up. Towel from the aforementioned Leah who won’t get on facebook. (I mean, come on, Leah, my grandma is on facebook! So is Paul’s grandma! You can do it!)

Sometimes James needs to take a little break on the chair.

We made Valentine’s dots for Valentine’s Day. James had one, and all of a sudden, after many months of refusing to do it, miraculously remembered the sign for “more.”

This is blurry, but isn’t he a cute little dude? I love the sneakers and cuffed pants. Reminds me of Happy Days or something.

Breakfast is probably my favorite meal to cook. Sadly, I’ve been in a rut lately and we’ve just been eating regular ol’ oatmeal, Cheerios, and scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast! So yesterday I stocked up on some things in the Whole Foods bulk aisle and pulled out my favorite breakfast cookbook, Sunlight Cafe by Mollie Katzen (the author of the Moosewood Cookbook).  I love going through this cookbook for ideas! The only thing I don’t like about it is all the pancake and waffle recipes are based on her recipe for a mix you make up ahead of time and it includes soy protein powder (it’s also included in a few other recipes). There’s no way I’m eating soy protein powder, so I just ignore those recipes or leave out the soy.

I’m thinking of trying to make at least one new thing for breakfast each week, and if I can keep on top of it, posting about them here. This morning was pretty basic - just oatmeal with raisins, but I added a sliced banana near the end (so it cooks a bit), cinnamon, vanilla, two tablespoons of shredded coconut (because Paul wasn’t here - he hates coconut!), a tablespoon of ground flaxseed, toasted chopped almonds (just on mine),  and a teaspoon of maple syrup on each bowl. To be honest, it was too sweet and I could have left out the maple syrup altogether. It would have been really good with coconut milk instead of regular milk, but alas I did not have any!

Maybe next time I’ll post about the wheat berry breakfast bowls I’ve been eating all week. Or about the millet or polenta I got yesterday and intend to work into breakfast soon!

Time for another of Ginny’s Yarn Alongs!

I am still working on the blanket from last week, but it was getting awfully tedious, so I picked up a baby sweater I had started a long time ago, before I was pregnant with this baby. It seems to go so much faster after having worked on that blanket for so long!

It’s a very simple boat neck sweater from the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners book. This is only the second thing I’ve worked on from this book (if I ever finish the first thing, I’ll show that to you too!) but it was my first knitting book and it was what taught me all the basics of knitting. This sweater is definitely a beginner sweater - almost no shaping, two rectangles with sleeves sewn in. The part I love about it is the yarn - I used the recommended yarn, which is Debbie Bliss cashmerino aran, a blend of cashmere and merino wool. It’s so soft I want to take it to bed with me to snuggle with. I also like that, unlike the baby blanket, this will get used whether we have a boy or a girl. The green is brighter and grassier than what the photo shows. I have this same yarn in several colors, so I think for a girl I might embroider a little pink flower near the bottom, or maybe a blue train or boat for a boy.

As for reading, I’m almost done with the three-volume Kristin Lavransdatter that I posted about last week. It really is a wonderful book. It’s up there in my favorites with The Brothers Karamazov and David Copperfield. And I really think it’s the best book about a mother I’ve ever read, especially in the last volume. Kristin’s mother’s heart is so true to life that it’s almost hard to read, especially for a mother of a boy (she has seven boys). And Sigrid Undset’s faith comes through so clearly and beautifully, without ever being preachy.

Go over to the Yarn Along post to see what others are knitting and reading!

Ginny had the great idea of inviting everyone to show a weekly photo of what they are knitting and reading. I finally decided to participate after many weeks of feeling silly that my photo will look largely the same for many, many weeks! Because I am a slow knitter and I am knitting a blanket. I hereby swear that after this I am giving up the knitting of large, flat, boring things. I am going to learn to knit on double pointed needles! I am going to learn how to shape! And seam! And maybe even knit lace! But no more scarves and certainly NO MORE BLANKETS. But first I have to finish this blanket because I have a lot of yarn left and have spent too many hours on it to give it up.

To add insult to injury with this boring project, I only have a 50% chance of getting to use this blanket in the near future. I’m certainly not wrapping a boy up in this pink and gray blanket! So if this baby is a boy, we’ll stash it away and figure it’ll get used someday…maybe :)

I took the picture with the measuring tape on there so that when I post a nearly identical picture next week, I can prove that I’ve made SOME progress! About 8 1/2 inches so far…only 19 1/2 to go!

As for books, I’m in the final volume of Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. LOVE this book! It’s a novel set in 14th century Norway and follows the life of the title character. It was written in the 1920s by a Norwegian woman who won the Nobel Prize in literature for this work. Her portrayal of motherhood is perhaps the best I’ve ever read in fiction (as this article in First Things so beautifully describes) and I love reading about the deep faith of the newly Catholic medieval Norway. Sin is portrayed as something dark and sickening that harms one’s soul, and repentance is taken just as seriously, which is a joy to read about in fiction since modern fiction rarely acknowledges there is such a thing as sin or need of repentence. This book makes me especially long for a time when whole societies were religious - time is counted by feasts and fasts rather than by months and weeks, people had a sense of what was holy (as when a church burns down and Kristin’s family and neighbors risk their lives rescuing the holy vessels, the processional cross,  and relics from the fire), and there is a deep respect for God in all they do, and they imperil their standing with all of society when they choose to disregard God’s law. It really is a beautiful book, and even though I usually take an exceptionally long time to read anything, I’ve breezed through 2 1/2 volumes fairly quickly (for me, at least). If you choose to pick it up, do yourself a favor and make sure you get the newer translation by Tiina Nunnally. I started out with the old translation and it is truly dreadful. I’m glad I didn’t try and stick it out for the whole 1,100 pages! It’s also easier to manage in three volumes rather than one.

I’m sure my knitting will look largely the same next week, but perhaps I’ll have a different book to share by then! Check out Ginny’s site for links to all the other Yarn Along participants!

I love getting rid of stuff. I’m not sure I’ve ever been much of a hoarder, but having three, going on four, people in a 450 square foot apartment has made me much more gleeful about throwing stuff into bags and hauling them off to the thrift store. I am of the belief that having more stuff than you need or have room for does nothing but cause frustration and extra work. The thought that “well, maybe I will use this again some day” just does not trump the fact that it will make my life messier and more frustrating in the meantime. I feel much better when there is a place for everything, nothing is stuffed into place, and there is even room to add the inevitable additions. I love the William Morris quote “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” If there is something in your basement, attic, or worse, your kitchen drawers that you have not looked at or had use of in the last year (for many things, the last month), it is not serving either a beautiful or useful purpose. Now, that said, my apartment is still an overcrowded mess. Paul likes to remind me (usually after I have complained about the five bookshelves of double-stacked books again) that I own four cake plates and fifteen teacups. It’s just less of an overcrowded mess than it would be if I hadn’t taken all of those trips to Goodwill.

I am beginning another household purge since we have to make room for another Jungwirth in our one-bedroom apartment, and I started with James’ baby clothes. Since some people asked me how I went about it on Facebook, I thought I’d outline how I did it here. I don’t have any great method. I don’t have labeled clear plastic stacking tubs, although that sounds like a great system, especially once you have multiple kids to clothe and save hand-me-downs for. I have a couple of shelves in our room for his current clothes and diapers, one cardboard box in the closet, and a small old suitcase. I don’t want to get rid of all of his baby clothes, since there is a 50/50 chance there will be another boy to wear all those clothes in just under four months, and a much greater chance that there will be one eventually. But his clothes were stuffing all the shelves (I honestly couldn’t fit outgrown SOCKS on his shelves), the box and suitcase were bursting, and there was extra stuff on our closet shelves and in plastic bags stuffed into the closet. I know for sure there was stuff in each size that James never even wore because it was more than we needed.

So I did what I often do to begin an organizing project. I made a spreadsheet.

It looks vaguely like the one linked to in this post. I made mine from newborn to 5T, and alongside listed:
pajamas
pants
shirts
one-piece outfits
shorts
total outfits-winter
total outfits- summer
sweaters/sweatshirts
undershirts
socks
shoes
hats-summer
hats-winter
mittens
coats
swimsuits
dress outfits (such as Christmas or Pascha outfits)
other (such as snow suits)

Then came the mess. I got out everything he owns, separated it by size, folded everything and put in piles by type (i.e. pants, shirts, sweaters, etc). Then I decided how much of each size I REALLY needed to keep. It is a very rare week that I don’t get through all the laundry and as we add kids laundry turnover will just get more frequent, so I really don’t need more than a week’s worth of anything, even taking into account some extras for worn out stuff. Also take into account what your children actually wear at different ages. You probably need more newborn PJs than 18 month PJs. If you have a spitty baby or one prone to diaper blowouts, you probably need more onesies (or more clothes altogether. Or a laundry service :)). Taking all this stuff into account, I started tossing the excess. I had over 30 newborn onesies. James never even wore most of them. I had something like 14 pairs of of 6 month pants. It also helps to keep outfits in mind – if you have way more pants than shirts or pants that don’t go with anything else, you can probably throw some out. I tried to keep just a week’s worth of anything in any size, knowing that we’ll probably add more with the next baby anyway. If you have lots of space and intend on several more kids, it might be worth keeping more in order to account for stuff wearing out, but we don’t have the luxury of that much space right now. I tossed anything that was stained or worn out or that I just plain didn’t like, like uncomfortable looking pants or anything that was an ugly color, because it would never get worn anyway. Once I pared everything down, I wrote what I was keeping on my spreadsheet. This way I can see holes to be filled when I’m at a yard sale or where I still have plenty and should not buy the yard sale stuff no matter how cheap it is. For instance, somehow I only have one pair of nine month PJs? James grew very slowly from 6-10 moths or so, so I guess I kept him in his 6 month clothes for a long time, until he hit a growth spurt and was all of a sudden in 12 month clothes. But for the next boy, now I know from my spreadsheet what I may need to add without digging through all the clothes again.

And now you all know that, if we have another boy, we don’t need ANY onesies.

And if we have a girl, we’re in big trouble. I have no idea where I’d put an entire second baby wardrobe!

I took a picture of his newly organized shelves, but our computer doesn’t feel like uploading them now. I’ll try to add it later. But I cleared out two shelves, and all the rest neatly fits in the box and suitcase now. I got rid of three paper grocery bags worth of stuff, plus another one for my clothes (which will certainly be added to as I continue the purge).

I finished James’ stocking just in time!

I know it’s pretty late, but I forgot to post my three books for November. This month I am reading:

The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by Herself

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers (Paul and I both read Dorothy Sayers mysteries when we don’t feel like reading anything “serious” :)

I’m only in the first third of all three of these, so I think I’ll carry them over to December and add something for Advent reading as well. On the Incarnation seems appropriate, as does rereading The Winter Pascha.

Warning: this post is about diapers. If you cannot imagine why anyone would talk about, let alone TAKE PICTURES of, diapers, then that’s ok. You can come back later. This is for all the other cloth diaper geeks. And while I’m at it, this is a favorite post from another cloth diaper geek.

So now that it’s just us geeks, I have a pretty awesome diaper stash. Mostly due to the generosity of a friend, Tina, who I know only online. Due to medical complications resulting from five c-sections and major abdominal surgery resulting from one of them, she doesn’t think she should have any more children, at least not for a very long while, and when her youngest grew out of her impressive cloth diaper stash, I was pregnant with James and she shipped them all to me! I had another friend send me her extra prefolds, and another send me all her Prowrap covers from when she used a diaper service. THEN a friend from church passed down all of her Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers to us. We have the small and the medium size so far, and currently use these most of all. The sum total of what I bought was 11 unbleached prefolds (which I didn’t really need, as it turned out, but I love them and used them constantly) and a few Snappis. Oh, and I also bought some used BumGenius diapers from another online friend for cheap since they needed new elastic sewn in, but I never did this so I haven’t used them yet (I’m saving them for if lots of my diapers wear out…which may never happen with this many diapers). All this generosity was a huge blessing since we are having our first two (at least, maybe it will be three? We’ll see) kids on a grad student stipend. Cloth diapers save you a LOT of money in the long run, but it can be a big up-front investment if you buy it all new.

Lately I’ve been putting James in disposables for nighttime since someone ELSE gave us a giant box of disposables that we never used and he was leaking out of whatever we had him in at the time. But now we’re out of disposables and I really would rather not waste the money on disposables if I don’t have to. After asking around, people most often recommended either double-stuffed pocket diapers or a doubled prefold with a felted wool cover.

If you are unfamiliar with wool for diapering, it is awesome stuff. It is naturally antibacterial and water-resistant, and so can be used for a diaper cover, and it never smells no matter how many times you use it. When it’s felted, it’s even more waterproof, so it’s often used for nighttime. But it can be EXPENSIVE. I was just about to buy a couple wool covers for nighttime today when I pulled out the rest of my stuff from Tina and found SO MUCH STUFF I forgot about! NINE wool covers of various kinds that will fit him now! Lots of PUL covers! Since I’m stripping diapers today and sorting out what I have for James and for Chickpea when he/she arrives, I laid it all out and took pictures since I promised Tina I would do so like a year ago. So here is your major diaper geekery for the day.

This needs explanation since it’s hard to see it all when it’s stacked up like this. On the bottom left are nine wool covers of various types. The types shown here average $30-50 a piece. Next to them are fifteen small fitteds (with the occasional AIO, but they seem to leak so I put a cover on anyway). Above those are five PUL wraps and a swim cover. Next to that are a few pairs of training pants, and above those are 12 or so large prefolds (we currently use them for changing pads). Next to those are five Grow Me a Rainbow “prefitteds.” Last I checked they were out of business, but I love these diapers. They are a prefold cut to shape with elastic around the legs, with a skinny second layer cut from a prefold as an attached doubler. They’re getting small for James but I still squeeze him into them since I love them so much. Above and to the right are six prowraps and two PUL covers of unknown labelage. I also have at least six newborn-sized prowraps, but they are probably under the bed. We used these all the time with James, and they worked great (also a good option for newbies, since they are easy to use and very cheap), but next time I’ll use wool covers more.

Next to the prowraps are THIRTY infant prefolds, both unbleached and bleached (I like the unbleached best since they are softer and fit better, but the bleached worked just fine). Seriously, who needs thirty infant prefolds, especially when you have a zillion other diapers. Some people get 36 prefolds for infants that wet a lot, but my thirty are in addition to 15 fitteds and 12 Fuzzi Bunz, so I know I’m on the ridiculous side. I keep them only because they are my favorite infant diaper and if we have anywhere close to as many kids as we hope for, they’ll wear out and become dust rags eventually. Below the prefolds are three piles of pocket diapers. Imagine the row with the pink pocket diaper having a pile of Fuzzi Bunz on it, because they are in the wash. We use these most of the time these days. I think I have…14? With a Bum Genius and a GroBaby thrown it? Something like that. Next to those are 12 small Fuzzi Bunz, and next to those are the 12 BumGenius dipes I mentioned above (need elastic). Then there are two giant AIOs that I haven’t used because they are still huge and bulky on James.

Whew. That was a lot. But I have two more pictures for you!

Here is all the small/infant wool. Wool is stretchy, so I squeezed James into most of this until just recently, when I could no longer get those cute orange longies over his booty.

Below is the larger wool that I found this morning, although those reddish longies should have gone into the first picture. They were stashed away in the “girl” bag - I never could bring myself to put James in them, although now looking at them again, they are a lot more red than pink. After that, we’re done!

Outside my window…
It’s a lovely day. I think we’ll go to Malcom X Park for the afternoon.

I am thankful…
That the Sunday before last I came home from church and then went off to a coffee shop for the afternoon. Lately I’ve been falling asleep with James every Sunday afternoon, but I felt up for it. Then I came home, made dinner, put James to bed, and all of a sudden it was eight pm and I felt fine. Huh. After two months of exhaustion, all of a sudden I was fine. I didn’t crash, nor feel like I was going to have a meltdown. I also hadn’t felt even slightly nauseous. And it’s continued for the last week. Second trimester, here we come!

I am hoping and praying…
For a friend at church who may have a tumor on his spine. Please say a prayer for the servant of God Joseph.

From the kitchen…
I’m cooking from Saving Dinner (the book, not the website or the mailers). It’s turned out to be a little too expensive to follow it exactly, and even too much when I make my usual adjustments. But I’ve found a lot of easy recipes that Paul and James like and it is sure nice to have a weekly menu and shopping list all planned out for me, so I’ll keep tinkering with it. The recipes are all fairly easy (less than 30 minutes of prep time) and fairly healthy. She also lists serving suggestions for each main dish to make a balanced meal, which consist of very basic things that need no recipe - salad and baked sweet potatoes, or broccoli and pasta, or baked potatoes and steamed kale. I like things that make me have to think less. There are usually one or two recipes that are either already fasting/vegan or can easily be made so, so it’s not too hard to fit the two fasting days into it.

Towards rhythm and beauty…
I know exactly how to make our daily rhythm work best for right now (I make no promises for May, 2011). I even now have the energy to do it. But the habits have petered out, so I have get that will trained in order to get our rhythm back.

I am reading…
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. It’s hard to read. Interesting and worthwhile, but anything that includes words like “the liquidation of 50,000 Jews” on a regular basis is hard to read.

I’m also jumping ahead on November’s book and peeking at the beginning of The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by Herself. I’m excited to read that one.

I am pondering…
This post. I may write a post of my own on it soon.

I’m creating…
Still working on the pink blanket. Knitting a blanket is slow. I’ve decided that I am not a “process knitter.” Process knitters knit because it is relaxing and they like passing the time that way. Knitting for me is stressful. My shoulders tighten up and I have to think very hard about what I am doing. I do it only because knitted things are pretty. I think I need to make booties next time. Hey, my camera’s working! (sort of). Here’s a progress shot.

I’m also thinking about really getting started on some organizational notebooks. They will eventually house seasonal menu plans and recipes, my housekeeping notes and schedules, and lots of ideas for traditions and projects relating to the Church year. I’m going through Mat. Emily’s blog (especially her “Orthodox Home” category) for lots of ideas for what to do with very young children for both seasonal and faith learning. Most of the blogs I read are focused on learning for much older children, so I’m so glad Emily has archived all these ideas for little ones.

I am listening to…
Handel’s Messiah. Normally I don’t turn on the Christmas music until November 15th (the beginning of the Advent Fast), but I’m making an exception for this. And laughing every time the “Oh we like sheep!” part comes on.

On keeping home…
I’m redoing my homemaking charts. Go ahead and laugh, but I’m more likely to actually do it if there’s a pretty chart telling me to.

A few plans for the rest of the week…
We’ll go visit James’ godmother and her newest little baby Caleb, and hopefully stop by to see our friend mentioned above in the hospital, if he’s up to it.

ffg    James Benedict this week…
Well, first of all, he types, apparently, as you can see on the prompt above. We celebrated his name’s day on Saturday and he had his first brownie (I had originally planned Palestinian food and dessert since St. James was bishop of Jerusalem, but homemade pizza, beer, and brownies seemed like an acceptable festal substitute :)) He was quite enamored but I’m afraid it might have given him a tummy ache :(

Still not walking, but stands for quite a while on his own. He still loves his books quite a lot. We may need to change up his nap schedule soon - he takes an epic morning nap, sometimes more than three hours, but then sometimes won’t take an afternoon nap at all. He just sits in his bed and talks to himself, sometimes for an hour or two! I don’t think he’s ready to give up the morning nap, and going from noon until bedtime without an afternoon nap is too much, so maybe I’ll try cutting the morning nap short and see what happens.

He’s extra snuggly lately, and right now is standing by my chair with his head on my lap, sucking his thumb.

Chickpea this week…
“Fingerprints have formed on your baby’s tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you’re having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.” - babycenter.com

A picture to share…
You actually get some this week!

And here are the remnants of our dinner for St. James’ Day: