Usually, I really love the fall daylight savings time. It always meant that I got an hour more sleep, and how could that be bad eh? However, now that I have a daughter of my own who has an internal clock that is very well calibrated, I am going to start an organization called “Mothers Against Daylight Savings Time.”

Seriously just when I get her down to a routine with her naps all on time, they change the time on me. And a baby doesn’t know that you change the clock. I explained it to her, but it took weeks for her to get used to the fact that what she thought was 7 was really 6. So she spent some time waking up the whole house at 6 when she should have been sleeping until 7 or later. She used to wake up at 7 standardly and then go back to sleep–sometimes until 9. Now that stupid daylight savings time messed everything up, she rarely sleeps past 7:15.

This means that I get less blogging time because I am awake with her in the morning when I should be getting my “me alone” time. It means I get less sanity.

She also insists that I go to bed with her at night, which I don’t mind anymore. So my once 2am bedtime has been moved up to 8:30 ouch! That also means that my once 9am wake up time has also been moved up to 4am. Jared thinks I am crazy, but having a moment of silence is necessary–not to mention the fact that I have been working in my sweatshop non stop lately, and that is NOT an easy thing to do with a baby.

Do, though daylight savings time may be good for farmers, it is bad for mothers. Vive la Resistance.

Since Daphne was born, I have become a little obsessive about wooden toys. This was before the whole China scare. I am determined to get rid of anything that is plastic in her life and unnecessary. I am currently debating over whether I should get some glass bottles or if she is over that faze in her life. I did break down and buy a sippy cup that she loves, but I am found much better stainless steel alternatives, which I will consider trying to get people to get her for Christmas presents if they don’t want to do the buy a book thing.

Anyway, I am finally at the point that we have enough wood toys that I can eradicate any toys we have that don’t meet my standards. It is good to rotate the toys around anyway, so I think I will put away the plastic toys that she has been playing with forever and see how missed they get. There are only a few of them, and I am only getting rid of the ones made in China for now. I have a rain stick that was given to me by a crunchy mama that was made in Israel, and I love it, so it has to stay–where is that toy by the way?

I now have relatives cooperating in the wood toy thing, and it is wonderful. Her grandpa made her a rattle from scratch himself and her grandma bought her some wonderful rattles that are even my favorite toys right now. I intend to have her toys last for many children. I am excited about her having quality toys.

Now if only I could find or make her some wood blocks like I used to play with when I was a kid. The ones you can buy are really expensive. I wonder how hard they would be to make…..

I have a question. I compost. I like that I compost. I have a place to put all my food garbage and lawn garbage that I can then turn into soil to grow more food for us. How cool is that? It is the ultimate recycling.

We have no trees at our house, but our neighbors do. I need leaves for my composter to balance out the types of matter that I have in there. So, is it odd of me to knock on the door and tell my neighbors that they should feel free to deposit their leaves in my backyard? Jared said he was sure that no one would mind if I offered to rake their yards, but do you think that they would benefit from not having to fill their garbage cans with perfectly good compost?

Does that make me a Green Hippie Freak or what?

I think that NaBloPoMo broke me. I don’t get it. Somehow my commitment to post every day, which I was doing everyday without any outside influence took a negative turn, and I have been ignoring my blog completely.

Here are some of the reasons why.

I am going to NY soon, but before that, Daphne is having her naming ceremony. I have so much to do to get ready for that, but I am behind. I am trying to get caught up by keeping the house clean, matting the photos and organizing potential food for guests, etc. It is a lot of work, but I am staying on top of it.

I have opened a sweatshop, or so my husband must think. Julie and I recently got some wool to make diaper covers. I decided recently that I was going to completely change my diapering style. Not only was I going to change the system to include fabrics that I liked more than the fabrics that you can get in stores, I decided I am dedicated to making them all on my own. Many hours of work later, and many mistakes, I have sorted it out. As soon as my last bit of fabric comes on Monday or Tuesday, I will have my whole new diapering set up ready. It is not for lack of being up at 4 in the morning many days in a row so that I could sew undisturbed. I will feature some of my sewing products on my blog in the near future. They are amazing, and my husband keeps thinking that I am spending money on new things, when in fact I have made them myself.

Daphne is being more and more needy lately, which means that I have to hold her and sleep with her longer, which is a direct hit to my blogging.

I had company over.

I am heading out of town for Thanksgiving.

I had 3-4 weddings and 4-5 photo sessions that needed to be edited. I am down to 1 wedding and 2 photo sessions, which, with the help of my new apprentice, should take place soon.

I am working to get some more promo and stuff set up for my business so that I can work next summer!

Jared has been feeling a little worse lately, so I am trying to help him take up the slack to feel better. I hope we are on the road to improvement for that.

I have plenty of blogging ideas, so stay tuned. I also decided that I am going to process photo and video in the next day or two, so don’t turn that dial.

I have been running around like a mad woman while I try to sort out the end of my wedding season. I think that I have given up on NaBloPoMo for many reasons.

My list of weddings to edit is huge, and needs to be handled as a first priority. I have wedding clients waiting for photos, and I am editing away, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have a lot of weddings.

I am heading to New York in under a month, and the things that need to be done before I leave, are many.

Daphne’s naming ceremony is on December 1 and I am going to have all of my art up at that time. That means I have to mat it all, which comes to around 110 photos to mat… OUCH

I have got to get my house clean and organized.

I cannot type on the computer with my baby awake, which leaves me only a few hours a day available to do all my computer work, and god knows that I could spend much more time than that.

If it is any indiciation, it took me 72 hours to write this blog post. Yes, it has been open that long.

SO, I am going to host my on NaBloPoMo when I get back from NY.

More photos and videos of the baby to come soon, just not sure how soon!

So I totally blew it on day 3 of the NaBloPoMo thing. How is it that I work so hard to update my blog at other times and I WANT to, and then it comes down to me comitting to actually posting every day, and I can’t do it? So,I am backdating this post. I have my reasons why I didn’t post. I was at a wedding, blah, blah, blah.

The truth is that the universe was even giving me the benefit of the doubt by giving me an extra hour to try to make it (in honor of daylight savings time), and I still failed.

My only reason, I got home from a wedding late, and I was bushed. After reviewing the photos that my partner took, I blew it and went to bed, especially considering that my baby hadn’t nursed in almost 10 hours, which is torture for any women that can understand that!

And I have successfully completed day 2 of NaBloPoMo!

Stay tuned all month. I promise, it will be good!

I am knitting a new diaper cover for Daphne. It is pretty involved, and it has involved a lot of work from me. I plan to make it then shrink it to her size then hand dye it and then soften it. This is quite a process. I have a feeling that I will be done with it by the end of tomorrow. I am excited and nervous about it all at the same time. You will be seeing photos. However, if it does really work out, I may never blog again because I may end up sucked into knitting land!

I was reading in a magazine lately the financial worth of a stay at home mom. Apparently, the calculated value of a mom that stays at home and takes care of everything is valued at around $120,000 per year according to salary.com!

This is very exciting. I feel like what I do is worth a lot, and now I know. The numbers make sense if you look at it. I have a case for staying home anyway, but this is a very good case. I don’t want to be away from my baby just so I can make money to pay for the daycare for me to be away from her. I am committed to being her mom, and that means that I am in it for the long haul. It is a bit of a sacrifice, but it is still wonderful. I get to see everything that she does that is new and exciting, and nothing is better than that for a mom!

Tomorrow my 2nd photographer, Brandon, and I are heading out for the last wedding of the season. I am feeling a little sad this season is over. I still have some photos to edit, but for the most part, the season is over, and it has been a serious blast. The couples have been amazing to work with.

I only hope the next season is as good as this one has been. More on the changes for next year coming up in some more posts. Stay tuned.