Doula-ing

As of a couple of weeks ago I am officially a member of DONA, the organization I hope to become a certified doula through.  It may seem like a small step, but to me it is huge.  I'm so ready to move forward with this!  I'm so ready to be certified and be "doula-ing" for families as a certified doula. 

Yes, I'm already accepting clients, but being certified is kind of the dream for me.  First, I'll be more marketable which means more clients, but I'll also be more comfortable charging more which means more money.  Right now I need experience and people aren't willing to hire an inexperienced, uncertified doula for as much money as they would spend on an experienced certified doula.  It makes perfect sense, and I don't blame them.  I'm just ready to be in the latter category.

I actually now have a client (I think) who is a friend and former coworker. She is about 18 weeks pregnant right now, so we have a while to go before birth day.  I'm really excited about it!  With her permission I may post more about it later. 

The next step is to get my "packet."  It's only a cost of about $35, and I plan to purchase it with some of my Christmas money, but the clock starts ticking once I get it.  I believe I have 2 years at that point to get all of my classes done, get all of my certifying births done and get it turned in... and the real expense is in the classes/workshops.  It looks like there is one in my area in June that would at least cut out the travel expense. 

The biggest adventure in all of it is child care.  I love being a stay-at-home mom, and in some ways it affords me the flexibility to be able to be a doula, but child care is difficult.  Especially as an uncertified doula.  As I mentioned before, I don't get paid much to be a doula at this point (which is fine, really.  I love just being there.  It is amazing and brings tears to my eyes every time I witness a baby being born), and that means that I don't have much money to pay a sitter.  Most of my sitters are friends and family and most of them work days... which leaves me in a bind if I need to be with a client during the day.

I suppose like everything else we will make it work.  Of course, if anyone has suggestions I am very open to them!

Too long.

It's been too long.  I'm still adventuring and we're still in cloth diapers... hopefully not for long though.  Baby 1 is potty trained of course (he's 3 now), but Baby 2... well... he's ready.  He's 2 1/4 and he's been ready for at least the past 6 months.  At first I wasn't ready.  For the past few months I've been ready as well, but trying to potty train him with Baby 1 underfoot has proved difficult.  I like the 3 day method that my friend, Kari, used with Baby 1, (yes, she is a GREAT friend) but it requires locking the potty training baby and myself in the bathroom for the better part of a day... and we have one, very tiny bathroom.  That means that having Baby 1, Baby 2 AND myself in there is a tight squeeze, to say the least, but I dare not leave Baby 1 unattended. 

One solution to this problem is to have Baby 1 stay with someone else for a few days.  I've already talked with my MIL (mother-in-law) about this as she often has long weekends (and she is so wonderful!  She often keeps the kids for us), but the timing has just never come out right.  And when I think about my weekend schedule for the next few weeks it doesn't make me hopeful for the timing to come out right any time in the near future. 

Today is my hubby's 31st birthday (Holy cow! One of us is OVER 30!).  This weekend we will be celebrating his birthday with friends.  My father-in-law and his wife will be keeping the kids for us (which I think will be so much fun for the kids!  And I think my FIL and SMIL (step-mother-in-law) will have fun too, though they may be ready for a good long nap after we pick the kids up.  All in all it should be fun weekend for all of us, but not a good weekend for potty training.

Next weekend I'm hoping to make a long overdue visit to my grandparents in Alabama.  Again, it will be a fun weekend for all but not a good weekend for potty training.

The following weekend isn't booked yet as far as I know, but I really hope that we can get pictures done.  We are long overdue for getting the boy's pictures made, but every time I've picked a time to go get them done one of us has gotten sick.  Really.  One of us has been sick since the first week in November.  It's crazy, but I've about decided that unless one of us is hospitalized before then we will use the first weekend in February to get our pictures made.  We may be pale, have red noses, have a hard time smiling, be grumpy, or even puke on our clothes right before we get the pictures done, but we will have pictures, dang it!  But again, that takes several hours out of possible potty training time. 

Oh well.  I suppose it will happen eventually.  I take it as part of the adventure.  Eventually we'll beat the time-stealing "monsters" and get this potty training thing done!  Meanwhile, Baby 2 gets to sit on the potty (or stand beside it to "pee-pee") anytime he wants to!

And hopefully Mommy will be making it to her blog a little more often too!

Until next time!

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Cheescake Catastrophe!

It seems like every night this week I've been getting to bed after midnight.  I really hate that but all these things keep crowding in either convincing me that it's worth staying up late or just distracting me so I don't know how late it is.  I was so excited and convinced that TONIGHT I would be in bed by 10.  And yet, here I sit at 11:23pm writing this.  Why?  I'll tell you.

I decided to make a cheesecake.  I've never made a cheesecake before, but today, I went to the store and bought the ingredients.  I knew that I would have to wait until the boys were in bed before I attempted such a task.  Even the simplest recipes usually have to be saved for nap time or bedtime.  So at 8pm I put Baby One to bed and started this exciting endeavor.

Now, for the first hour and a half that I was working on said endeavor I was also putting Baby One back in his bed every 2-5 minutes or so.  This probably contributed to some of the following Cheesecake Catastrophes.

Catastrophe #1:  I had only 1 cup of Graham cracker crumbs when I needed 1 1/4 cup.  Fix #1: I proceeded to substitute the final fifth of the crumbs with Golden Grahams cereal.


Catastrophe #2: Realized that I had misread the measuring bowl and had actually crushed 1 1/4 LITERS of graham crackers and Golden Grahams cereal.  Fix #2: I put the remaining crumbs in a Freezer bag and put them back in the graham cracker box to use later (for all the cheesecakes I make).

Catastrophe #3: In trying to melt the chocolate (Oh yes, there is chocolate in this cheesecake) I burnt the chocolate.  I've never seen burnt chocolate before.  I realized that I didn't know how to work my microwave (which is relatively new).  Fix #3: I read the instructions (Oh yes, I did!) and tried melting the other half of the chocolate bar all the while thanking GOD that the bar had TWICE the chocolate I actually needed, thus giving me a second chance.

Catastrophe #4: I realized that I had no idea how to wrap a springform pan in foil to avoid the water bath leaking in. Fix #4: I looked it up online.  Found no very useful suggestions and did the best I could.  We'll see how it goes.  Who knew there was such a thing as a "Leakproof" Springform pan?

Catastrophe #5: Lumps!  Horror of horrors there were LUMPS in my batter!  I'm hoping the taste is enough to make that forgiveable! Fix #5: Not much of a fix for this one at this point.  I didn't put a couple of larger lumps in though.

Catastrophe #6: I put the springform pan with the cheesecake in it in the roasting pan (The only thing I could find that was big enough to put the springform pan in) and went to pour hot water in the roasting pan.  I definitely spilled water on top of my cheesecake.  The aluminum foil is certainly not going to take care of that one.  Fix # 6: Lots and lots and LOTS of paper towels.  I stuck just the corners in until I stopped getting water on them and started getting batter.  I think it's going to work out all right.

Catastrophe #7: I put the cheesecake in at 11:15 and it's going to take 1 hour and 10 minutes to cook, then, an hour to cool and THEN I can put it in the refrigerator to chill.  This means that I am for sure going to be up past midnight AGAIN.  Fix #7: Somebody help me!  Why do I keep staying up past midnight when I know the babies are going to have me up no later than 7 (and probably more like 6)?



So why am I making a cheesecake?  A dear friend of mine is having a birthday soon and I was hoping to surprise her with a cheesecake on Sunday when there will be a gathering at her place.  Even with all the catastrophes and one more late night, she is totally, completely worth it.

I'm just hoping for no Catastrophe 8.

The FLYbaby Diaries

I've started a new blog!  I promised I'd tell you about it!  Hop on over to The FLYbaby Diaries to learn more about it!

Basically, I "met" a beautiful woman who calls herself FLYlady a long time ago.  You can "meet" her too at www.flylady.net.  She gave me some useful tools for conquering my clutter and keeping my space tidy and I've done it halfheartedly for some time.  Now, I'm committed.  It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to get done.  This diary will follow my progress in this specific endeavor and hopefully encourage others in the process.

Enjoy!

I can't seem to get this updated!

I know, I know.  It's been forever.  Problem is, it's been one thing after another keeping me from posting.  Our computer was giving us fits for a while.  It likes to just turn itself off at random.  It really is quite a dinosaur and I guess I can't blame the poor thing for being tired and ready to join the great network in the sky.  It still does that some, but not as much (for now).  Oh how I wish we could afford a new one, but it will be a while yet before that happens.  Here's hoping this one holds out until we get another one!

Then, Hubby and I share said pitiful computer.  He uses it for job searching and projects that he's being paid for (and to play on) and I often feel like I can't commandeer it for my own purposes.

AND, lately when I've tried to pull up Blogger it won't pull up correctly so that I can actually post something.

Then there are babies and life and all the other things that keep me busy and unable to get on.

Anyway - I do not intend for this to be a pity party!  I just want to explain why it sometimes takes a while for me to update.  Now to let you in on what's been going on:

Baby Two's first birthday was on Monday.  We had his party on Sunday.  I will update with pictures soon if I can.  I try to save my pics for a Wordless Wednesday.

I'm still trying to get reading done in pursuit of becoming a doula.  I finally sat down with my doula and talked to her to get her advice/encouragement/etc.  It was a great meeting and I feel like I have a direction to go in now.  She's incredible!

We're currently having trouble with Baby One's Jack-in-the-box syndrome.  We put him to bed at night and he just keeps popping up.  Sometimes it happens several times in a minute.  Usually I try to be stone cold and put him back to bed as many times as it takes, but somewhere around 15 times I usually loose my cool, spat his leg and say, "You must stay in your bed now."  Sometimes, believe it or not, that works.  It always works for at least 10 minutes and then we have to repeat the process.  Next week I have an idea how I'm going to handle it.  I'll let you know how it goes.