Dear Bloggers, are you there? It's me, Jen.

I'm on a kick folks. I'm trying to get back into the blogging swing of things and I realized I asked you guys a while back to interview me. Well here are the questions I got. Here's how it works. I'm answering questions that you gave me and if you want, ask me to interview you and I'll ask you a few questions that you can answer in a blog post. If you want to be interviewed, leave me a comment.

What advice would you give people thinking about having kids?

I got a lot of advice, some good and some not-so-good. I have two things to say to a woman who is thinking of going down this road. First, find someone you trust who you can run all that other advice by. Someone who will answer your questions honestly. Someone who will tell you what one woman told me when I was freaking out and exaughsted "Your only job right now is to feed that baby. Feed him, sit on the couch, don't move, and watch TV." It was the best advice I got, and exactly what I needed to hear.

Second, before you have a baby give a whole lot of thought to what your work/daycare situation will be afterwards. I didn't think about this hard enough before we got pregnant, and if I had, I might have tried to set it up so I didn't go back to work.

What is your favorite beauty product?
I'm such a lame-o with beauty products right now. I barely get makeup on in the morning. But every day I wear Loreal True Match concealer. That's the best. And I use Biolage Smoothing Serum on my hair ever day too!

What has most surprised you about being a mom?
How my relationships with all my friends and work has changed. I didn't anticipate it.

I also knew that you didn't have time for yourself when you had a baby. But really, I don't think you can quite grasp this concept in it's hugeness until you actually have a baby and realize, yeah, there's no time for much else besides that baby!

What has been the most challenging aspect and what has been the most rewarding in your short motherhood career?
The most challenging thing for me has been feeling like I don't know what the hell I'm doing. My whole life I've been halfway decent at most things I've tried. With this mom thing I constantly feel like I'm screwing up.

The most rewarding part is every day with the baby. Everything about him is amazing.

Who do you most admire and why?
I always have problems with questions like this. But mostly I admire people who volunteer and help others. I always aspire to volunteer and never do. I am lazy.

I also really admire my yoga teacher. There is something about her that is peaceful. She used to tell us during a kundalini yoga exercise to picture what our heart desired in our hands and I'd picture a tiny baby. A few months later I was pregnant. Go figure.

What is your favorite finished object and why?
My favorite finished object is my Fiery Bolero from the Debbie Bliss Interweave Knits pattern. I love the drape of the yarn I used and I thought it came out close to perfect for me.

When it comes to toilet paper - over or under the dispenser? Crumple or fold?

Over the dispenser! And I'm a crumpler, folks.

Posted by jen at 09:06 PM |Comments (3)

There are many recycling projects going on at Casa Lug. Mr Lug has been into zen and the art of lawn maintenance lately and has done some landscaping and also started a composting bin. Composting is fun - it's like your own mini landfill. Hopefully our yard and garden will benefit from it soon enough.

Another recycling project...Knitting with recycled silk. That's right. Knitting. I started knitting a scarf with some recycled silk that I believe I received as a gift a few years back.

I started the scarf in the car on a short trip and I'm almost done the first skein. This is the Jan's Sensational Scarf pattern from One Skein Wonders. I think it's a pretty good pattern to show off the texture of the yarn. I don't particularly love knitting with this stuff, but I do think that it makes for a really interesting fabric.

I've also been playing around a bit with Ravelry. I think it's so great that Jess and Casey are so successful with this site. I was at work and a co-worker asked me if I heard of Ravelry and I started laughing. I had no idea it had gotten so big that it would come full circle. I mean, hello, I've actually HUNG OUT with these two! It made me feel like I knew a celebrity.

Today felt like fall and in fact was the day of my town's "Harvest Festival." We'll be picking out Baby Lug's Halloween costume soon and getting ready for other autumnal activities. It's my favorite time of the year, so I'm saying a late goodbye to the summer...

Posted by jen at 08:41 PM |Comments (1)

I thought I'd blog about my recent obsession with what I'd consider the best show on television at the moment: VH1's Rock of Love. If you aren't familiar with it, it's a follow up to the successful Flavor Of Love where chicks competed to get into FlavaFlav's pants. Who are these women you ask? Well they're similar to, though not exactly the same as, the chicks who are now on Rock of Love trying to get to be Brett Michael's girlfriend. Truly, it is television at its best. What could be better than chicks competing to get into the pants of a washed-up has-been 80's hairband frontman? I dare you to find something more entertaining.

Who are these women?

What drives them?

What is going on under Brett Michael's hat?

These are questions that keep me up at night.

That and the prednisone/amoxicillin cocktail I am on. I've had a very strange week health-wise. I'd sum it up as my body eating itself. Or "when your skin attacks." I had an infection in my ankle and an outbreak of some kind of crazy cracked-out eczema on my hands. It's all under pharmaceutical control now, and I'm feeling better. The prednisone makes me feel a little bit like the incredible hulk - but other than that, I'm doing fine.

Posted by jen at 12:03 PM |Comments (4)

So Baby Lug decided sleep is for a**holes.

Mr. Lug and I were rather sleep deprived for many weeks, lets call the state we were in "waking coma." We turned to Dr. Ferber. I could go into the internal turmoil that Mr. Lug and I have been through during our recent "ferberizing" of Baby Lug. I could discuss how the method is controversial, how it both worked for us,and made us feel like terrible people, about the pros and cons, etc. But instead I'd like to discuss whether anyone has thought of turning the Ferber method into a drinking game. Here are my suggested rules:

• Baby wakes up crying - you both drink, then go in and check on baby.
• Wait 3 minutes and if the baby wakes up again during this 3 minutes, it's a waterfall until the 3 minutes is up.
• After 3 minutes whoever goes in to check on the baby is thumbmaster.
• Wait 5 minutes, if baby cries before 5 minutes is up, finish your beer.
• After 5 minutes, if baby is still crying, whoever goes in gets to make a rule.
• If baby continues to cry, you each pour some of your drink in a glass. Continue from beginning and whoever hasn't jumped out a window has to drink the glass..

Anyway - More interestingly: Baby Lug has veggies!

You got a little something on your face.

Mmmm! Sweet Potatoes!

That is my daddy's arm, not my mommy's!

Oh God, I think it's in my eye.

Who knew green beans were so delicious?

Posted by jen at 09:39 PM |Comments (8)