Wish me luck: Job Hunting

Long story short, my department was restructured and my position was eliminated. So I'm now unemployed and am currently working on getting a new job. I've been on a few interviews for jobs in my field, so things are moving along. I've been working in higher education (Institutional Research), which is where I've been interviewing.

While still working on the job stuff I am trying to figure out ways to get some creative time in. I figure that could help with this transitional time. Plus too I hadn't been getting as much writing / jewelry time in with the baby. I do want to make sure to spend plenty of time with her, she'll only be this young once. Right now it is just a balance of everything. And as she gets a little older the two of us can draw / paint together. With her being so little I think I may sketch more often. That has less parts to clean up quickly for when she needs me.

I've been debating for awhile what changes I might want to make to my blogging time. I keep toying with the notion of making a "mommy" blog. I like to mention daughter here occasionally, but I want to keep this as my main writer / life blog. I also want to blog about more local topics, kid related places could go in my mommy blog while other topics could go here. And I'm also thinking of blogging about topics relating to my field. Not sure exactly what I'd write about yet for that. It would depend on my audience.

Yes, ramble post of ramble. I've been wanting to mention job hunting for awhile, and every time I think of what to say I debate about what to include. This blog is writing with a slice of life, and right now this is a pretty big slice of life.

Thousand Acre Swamp

For a family outing we went to the Thousand Acre Swamp today, for a little walk. This is a picture I took with my phone while we were on the boardwalk section.

I took more pictures with the actual camera, but the phone is handy while baby naps on me. (She's teething). Hopefully I'll upload some of the other pictures this week.

A poem a day

I've decided to either write or read a poem a day. Today is "Imagine your Village" by M.J. Iuppa.

I sat in on a mindfulness meditation session yesterday and see a link to poetry. More on that later as I set the phone down to read. (and wrap up my break)

Outwalked the furthest city light

I've had Robert Frost's Acquainted with the Night poem stuck in my head intermittently for awhile now. There is something about the rhythm and feel of that poem, even though I have trouble remembering the words.

Tonight the poem really seemed to fit. I was taking recycling out to the end of our driveway and glancing at the stars peaking out from over the tree tops. Crickets sang thier summer song while a cool breeze carried the soft scents of freshness. Looking around and feeling everything the line about walking past the furthest city light hit me.

Kind of ironic in a way, from the end of our street the city skyline is visible.

Butterflies in my Garden

We have had more butterflies than normal this year, it was even a news story awhile back. With the baby I haven't been able to get outside with my camera as much as I would have. Yesterday my husband had some daddy daughter time and while I was in the kitchen I noticed a butterfly on my coneflowers. So I grabbed the camera and went outside.

When I first went outside I startled the butterfly. It was fun watching it flutter around me in a great circle before coming to land on the flowers again. The first shot I took had my house siding in the background. I knelt down and got a shot with trees in the background instead.

Later that day when I was carrying my daughter around I saw another butterfly through the window. I handed baby over and grabbed the camera. I again startled the butterfly and watched it fly around. This one was a bit trickier as it kept moving so it took awhile to line up the broad part of the wings. The first nice wing shot ended up a silhouette.

Well, there is some detail on the butterfly. But the lines from the siding make this look more snap shot. I did get a better shot after this.

It had landed in a different part of the garden so I took the shot through a gap in the coneflower stalks. And yes I do need to weed my garden. This guy has something wrong with his wing, but he flew just as well as butterfly 1.

My husband, daughter, and I sat outside together for awhile. The temperature went down after dinner and with the breeze it was pleasant in the shade. We sat in our front yard and enjoyed watching the breeze in the trees. Daughter loves the outdoors. Those little baby eyes watch the green leaves against the blue sky. She also watches people and cars going down our street. I think she was even watching a white moth flit across the garden from the kitchen earlier.

While the three of us were outside I saw a yellow butterfly. I still had the camera, but before I could get a shot it flew across the street and didn't come back. I had taken a picture of a little moth earlier though which turned out alright. One of our front yard chairs is in the background. I think it adds something to the picture.

And that's a wrap for my Saturday photography "trip". It was enjoyable to get out with the camera again, even if it takes more time to then share the pictures. I've gotten rather used to my cell phone with the share button. And I'm glad to be getting this post together before daughter wakes. Yes, insert joke here about baby alarm clock. At least she doesn't cry when she wakes, she just coos and babbles really cute.

Apptastic: Kids Doodle

So awhile back I'd Tweeted about blogging about apps I've tried out. I was playing with this app tonight and thought it would be fun to blog about. I got the free version for my Android.

Pretty much this app has a random element to it. Each time you touch the screen there is a different color, or line thickness. You can tap a button to randomly select another brush.

This is something I play with when I want to randomly Doodle. And I also let the baby make a drawing on occasion. I don't want her to have too much screen time.

They also make an app called Paint Joy which has a color selector and some different brushes. I use that one when I want a bit more planning with a picture.

Worry Stones

I'm having trouble falling back asleep after having been up with the baby. As I look at the patterns of shadows cast across the blinds while trying to fall back to sleep I've been thinking of random things.

One idea flowed into another in that unique way that happens in the wee overnight hours. A burnt card leads into a fond memory of worry stones.

I grew up in a small town, our little block surrounded by fields and woods. Down a path a ways there used to be a fairly large pile of shale rocks. I was young at the time so it may have seemed larger. It had enough to it for us to climb on.

My family used to take walks to shale mount. My brother and I would climb up on it, reaching the peak fairly easily. We would sit on the dark warm rock and overlook the surrounding field, and the woods a little farther away.

And some times we would do worry stones. See the thing about shale is that it is brittle. It cracks apart easily and has sharp edges. We would use one piece of shale to write on another creating a worry stone. We would put down a few words about something that was bothering us then toss the worry stone over the side of shale mount. It would then break symbolic of letting go of the problem / worry.

Sometimes in life you do your best but things are still rough. You Do what you can, ask for help as possible, and take a deep breath while letting go of what can't be.  The stones were a nice tactile and focal point for this.

3 am wisdom and bits of a childhood memory. I'm not 100 % sure where shale mount actually was. The clearest part is the worry stones.

Feeling out of touch, thanks reader app

So I finally had some time to spend reading some of the blogs I follow. I loaded the reader app on my phone and started looking at posts.

But the app only has stuff up to late April. Even though I saw blogs with more recent updates once I went to the actual blogs. And I hit the update button on the app a few times.

I think I may have to get on a computer and mark stuff as read in web reader. With little one its hard to do much online unless I'm on my phone.

Whiskers, one year later

I was going to call this post "one year with Whiskers", but then I figured it sounded like something bad happened. And I should have posted this last month, so I guess this is a year and a month with Whiskers.

Last year my neighbor died leaving behind her four year old male cat. My husband and I would see the cat when he spent time outside. He was happy sitting under the bushes and watching the local wildlife. We debated about taking him, with already having three cats. He had a place with a family, but when that fell through we decided to take him.

We picked him up from the vet and got him settled into our back bedroom. He had space of his own while getting used to us. He got out of the room that evening and we struggled to carefully get him back. He was in our family room huddled in a corner and snarling. Poor thing didn't know what to make of everything.

Now he's completely at ease with our house and the other cats. He plays with Maya, the 6 year old cat. He tries to play with Toby, but Toby is to old to play rough.

And Whiskers is our pal. Once he got settled in he started jumping on us and sitting on our shoulders. It's quite a surprise to have a cat leap from the floor and land chest high. He loves to get pets and for us to play with him.

Now that we have the baby he has taken to being a lap cat. It doesn't matter who is holding the baby. Sometimes he will find another lap, and other times he will sit with whoever has baby. He also likes baby gear. He sleeps on the changing table, and climbs into her stroller. He also likes the chair in her nursery.

It's a rainy day

After a few hot sunny days we have rain today. As I was walking through the soft showers it got me thinking of being home with Baby Girl. When it rains I like to hold her near a window and sing the part of the rainy day song I remember.

It's a rainy day, its a rainy day
It's raining outside and I can't go out to play.

I need to look up the rest of the lyrics sometime. As she gets older rainy days will be good indoor craft days, she can have fun making things.
And reading is great for rainy days. We even do that now.