Getting out of the house

Despite the fact that I'm still sick, I had to get out of the house for awhile today. What I thought would be a quick trip to run a few errands turned into a three-hour jaunt with my mum that left me exhausted, but very glad to have not spent another day cooped up in the house!

Going totally against the compact (let's be honest - we're not even really doing it!), I went out and bought Peachfuzz a whole bunch of new clothes for winter. The weather has been getting cooler lately, and despite me thinking she had a whole wardrobe of winter goodies, I discovered that three pairs of trackies and a couple of jumpers does not a winter wardrobe make. I was counting last winter's stuff, forgetting that she was only 8 months old then! So the girl will now look very stylish in her 2 new pairs of leggings, 2 pairs of cords, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of tracksuit pants, 3 long-sleeve shirts, 3 singlets, 3 pairs of socks and a pair of shoes.

After this little shopping expedition, I can see why I was originally drawn to the idea of the compact, and why I think I need to seriously revisit it. Once I pulled one thing off the rack, it was so easy to just keep going. I felt quite guilty about supporting the whole "Made in China" industry, and the ease with which I just kept choosing more and more stuff. I thought about my dreams of making and thrifting my children's entire wardrobe - what happened to that? I was discussing it with Papa Bear tonight when he came home, and I figured it's because of a lack of preparation. I know I want to learn to sew well enough to make clothes and I have patterns, fabric and a machine at my disposal. The problem was getting to the point of desperation and having next to nothing for the girl to wear. Because my sewing skills aren't up to scratch, the easiest thing to do was to go buy new stuff. I didn't look in even one second hand store! So the moral of this story is, I need to be prepared. I need to learn to sew while we all still have plenty of clothes, so that when we start to need replacements, I am ready to go.

Oh well, another lesson learned I guess. After the mega-shopping spree, we had a trip to the library. I love going to the library. It's like a giant treasure hunt, and though I always go in with one specific thing in mind, I am always surprised at the gems I come home with that I never thought about. I am always eager to get home from a visit to the library and sit down with all my books and a cup of tea, browsing and trying to weigh up what to read first. Of course today was no exception. Here's what I'll be perusing for the next three weeks:

100,000+ Baby Names by Bruce Lansky - We are absolutely set this time around for girls names. In fact we have four that we pretty much adore, and may have trouble choosing between should this baby be a girl. But boys names have us stumped! We have a short list of names that are "okay", but nothing that "really sings to me" as I keep saying. Papa Bear agrees that although the boys names are okay, none of them has been kind of "yes, we have to call our son that" type of names. I bought a baby name book with about 1500 names in it, and we couldn't agree on any except two that are just okay. So this is the reason I was in the library in the first place, trying to find a good baby name book. If we can't find something we love in a list of over 100,000 names, we're in trouble! As well as the typical list of alphabetised names, this book has information on how to choose the right name, popular names throughout the decades, names around the world, the impressions names make and more. I'm excited to start reading and finally find that perfect name.

The Candle Cafe Cookbook by Joy Pierson, Bart Potenza and Barbara Scott-Goodman - The Candle Cafe is a famous vegan restaurant in New York, so when I saw this book, I had to grab it. The few pictures in the middle of the book are amazing, and though most of the recipes seem a bit sophisticated for every day cooking, I've already picked a handful I can't wait to try.

Nature's Pharmacy for Children - I guess I picked this up because we've been sick lately, but I've been more and more interested lately in natural remedies for everyday complaints. I've only flicked through this quickly, but if it proves to be a good read, it might be going on my wishlist. I'd like a book of this sort to have on hand as a reference for when my kiddos aren't feeling the best.

Children's Rooms by Joanne Copestick and Babyspace Idea Book by Suzonne Stirling - These were my happy "I was totally not looking for that" finds for today. We've been discussing how we will do the kids rooms once this baby arrives, and as yet, I don't think we've really made a firm decision. Should they share a room or have their own rooms? How will we make it work either way? Both these books have some great pictures and design ideas that I hope will inspire us and help us figure out just what we're going to do.

Wow, I think that's enough reading material for me (and for you - congratulations if you've made it this far!) for awhile. I'm off to have a bowl of steamy pumpkin soup and curl up with my books!