Gift bag galore

I am now in the midst of nesting (just a few more weeks to go until baby #2 arrives!) and have discovered a treasure trove of baby gift bags I didn't throw away that were given to us with presents for our daughter. They are good gift bags that can be reused. The question is - what do I do with them? I am reluctant to throw them away because they can be reused and they are nice; the only problem is that I have so many and I don't think I have so many baby gifts to give in the near future! We are talking about several dozen gift bags here. What do I do with them?? Any ideas??

Update on Belden's bananas

Belden's has caught up with the rest of the stores in the area when it comes to banana prices. Today I went in there today intending to buy bananas and there they were, those beautiful bananas staring at me at 49 cents a pound.

Oh well - I enjoyed the party while it lasted.

Pesach Insanity

Pesach is THIS WEEK. AAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!!

Unfortunately, Pesach is not one of my favorite holidays just yet. Maybe it will be one day, but I'm not there yet. All the cleaning and worrying over kosher l'Pesach utensils and dishes and food makes me nuts and I feel like it makes people forget the true meaning of the holiday (wow that sounds so Christmas-y). But, there is no getting around it - it is what it is.

At the moment, I am eating straight from a pint of ice cream. Good ol' strawberry ice cream.

So far I have kashered my Pesach silverware (to go to the mikvah tomorrow), got both cars cleaned, had the house cleaned, cleaned the fridge, run both ovens through the self-cleaning cycle, and cleaned the stovetop (to make the cleaning much simpler tomorrow when I actually go to kasher it). I (really my husband) have made room in the pantry for all of the non-Pesach items I need to remove from the counter. Not bad, eh?

Tomorrow, we are going to toivel and kasher everything else - counters, sinks, stovetop. It's actually not as much as it sounds; we have granite countertops and the stove is clean - just need to do a final wipe down and do the kashering thing. And the sinks are stainless steel (nothing like renovating a kitchen with Pesach in mind).

I still have last minute shopping to do, errands to run, phone calls to make - all that fun stuff. I never do seem to get around spiritually preparing for the holiday until I have downtime during the holiday itself (although now with a kid, I don't know how much downtime I actually will have).

Off to bed...it's late...

Tip - Pesach purge: the medicine cabinet

Ever since we moved in, we have utilized two cabinets in two bathrooms for our personal hygiene/medicine stuff, in addition to a bin for our daugher's things. This has led to a bit of disorganization, with bandaids being in one bathroom and something else being in another and where is the thermometer?

The pre-Pesach cleaning time is a good opportunity to solve this problem and organize things. It really doesn't take more than a few minutes (or at least, it shouldn't). I removed expired medications, organized all the different types of bandaids in one location, moved all of the non-essentials together, and basically coralled everything together in a logical format which makes the cabinet work for me instead of against me (hello more space!). I bought a set of two plastic trays at Walmart for 75 cents. Cheap and useful!

It's a good time to take inventory, update the first-aid kit, get rid of the old stuff, and see what you really have so you can use it up instead of always buying new (where applicable). See - cleaning can be fun!!

Pic of bookcase

Here is a pic of the bookcase that made me feel so productive last Sunday (read here). In case you are interested. The blue-pink-white boxes that are inside the shelves I purchased at The Container Store. They are a bit more than what I would have liked to have paid for them, but they are made of mesh and are collapsible and just fantastic, so I like to think that I will use them for a long time, in or out of the bookcase, so they are worth what I paid for them. I also think the colors brighten up the space. Prior to this bookcase, we had a low, brown 3-shelf bookcase that contained our books on the top shelf, our daughter's books and other paraphernalia on the bottom 2 shelves, and the crate in the pic and another bin with all of her toys next to the sofa. Magically, this bookcase makes everything so much more organized, and has room for our photos and books!!! A real breakthrough!! The fact that I am still writing about it indicates just how much this bookcase has changed my life.

No tv? Can we even go there?

The subject of our television unit (and tv consumption) has now become a regular topic of conversation for two reasons:
1. The tv's current home is the guest room, but with a home office, future baby room, extra bed for guest all competing for space, we are not quite sure where to move our tv to next. We don't want it in the living room, and we don't want it in our bedroom.
2. The digital conversion that for some unknown reason Congress has made a priority (over seemingly less-important issues like cancer research, poverty eradication, and literacy) has brought up the issue of either buying a new tv (although ours works just fine) or converting it to digital.

We are not big tv watchers, especially since we don't have cable/satellite. We mostly watch tv to kill time, either to put off going to bed or to watch something totally mind-numbing. The news we get online, and life is too busy to make time for shows when they come on. We've taken to watching tv and movies online, so it's on our schedule and where we are comfortable.

So why not just get rid of the tv? That way, I don't have to worry about where to place the set in the house. If there is no set for me to just turn on, I won't have the temptation of getting sucked in to some show. I won't have to worry about converting it to digital! One less thing to do (and to clean - those things attract dust!).

But television is so wrapped up in our culture it's almost difficult to imagine a life without it. The set is there right now, but I hardly use it, but I know it's there for those rare times when I do want to use it. What will happen to me/us when there is no tv but the desire to turn it on and go through the (five) channels? Will I feel lost? Will I feel a big void in my life? Will our children grow up deprived? (no, they won't. I know plenty of people who have terrific kids but don't have a tv and their kids seem to live just fine)

What say ye?

Job vs. Career

This topic has been on my mind a lot lately. Obviously the economy has everyone concerned about their jobs, and working mothers have always struggled/juggled/questioned/dealt with the balancing act. I have always assumed that I would be a working mother, and I have pursued both a career and motherhood passionately. I am fortunate to have a job that I love, and I love coming home to a little munchkin who sometimes showers me with kisses, sometimes just keeps on playing with her toys.

This particular pregnancy has made me question a few things. I have been on disability leave from work for a little while, but recently my doctor released me to return to work. However, I am far along enough in my pregnancy where my doctor does not want me flying anymore. Flying is pretty necessary to my job in order to work at client sites, since we do not have much work that can be done locally. I managed to work locally after the first child was born and the practice was aggressively pursuing the Houston market in the quest for additional local work. Much to my surprise, HR rejected my request to return to work, citing my restriction against flying which prevents me from fulfilling my job responsibilities.

This has made me wonder how much longer I will be able to work at my current job. I still love it, and I would love to work there as long as possible, but perhaps this career path is not conducive to the family situation I am looking for?

And then the bigger question - do I want a job or a career? Does it matter at this point? Can I really reconcile all of my goals in life?

So I have been pondering that lately. Wondering what my next move should be, whether I should think in completely new directions or stay the course but find a more local company. This is a really huge deal for me since this is really the first time someone told me that I can't do something - I can't work because I can't fly? Are you kidding me? With a laptop and WiFi and a Blackberry, I can't work??

All I know is that I am still extremely lucky right now, and I know that my company is a family-friendly company and I hope to come to a mutually agreed upon conclusion to this question.