happy at home

It is so nice to have some time to be home.

This last week I have been struggling with a cold that just won't go away.
In an effort to heal and boost my health, I have been trying to sleep lot and lots
(propped up on pillows to breathe), have been swilling green tea by the gallon (& little coffee),
and drinking green smoothies for breakfast every day.
Fresh pressed apple juice, frozen blueberries, bananas and peaches, and big handfuls of chard or kale.
Delicious. So nutritious. I love to start the day with something green.

Now: the start to the weekend. A Friday evening grocery trip with Minou to replenish the bare cupboards, and a plan for cozy cooking tomorrow: leek and potato soup, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, homemade pizza, and blueberry pie. I love to bake, and like to bake several things together when the oven is hot.

Keeping these p'tit minous fed is a constant job. P'tit minou deux has been requesting a second supper every evening, usually at lights-out time. Unless I'm on my own way to bed, I don't argue; we go back downstairs and it gives me a chance to get a vitamin and another fruit and veggie into him as well as another serving of dinner or a pbj. We have worried a bit over this one and his light appetite over the years, so I enjoy watching him eat. He is 13 now. I'm expecting to look up and find him as tall as me any day now.

This weekend I will also be making a trip to the home-improvement superstore with Minou when he goes to buy supplies for the attic. Drywall is next. We'll be sleeping there soon. I'm planning to buy painter's tape and get our downstairs ready to paint before my mother-in-law arrives for a visit in three weeks. We have had had warm, bright colors in our living space for several years now. It was my choice, an antidote to the winter gray here. The living room has a long red wall (dark brick red) and bright sunflower yellow walls. I'm tired of it now. I want a look that is more serene, peaceful. Our ceilings will stay white, and the floor downstairs is an off-white tile. For the walls, I have been going back and forth between a true white, off-white, and a pale tan/taupe.

What do you think? What would look more serene?

Sleep, Glorious Sleep...

Sorry for my recent silence. Perhaps you can tell from the post title exactly where my spare time has been going!  I don't know why I have been so tired lately, but it's real. This level of fatigue reminds me of when I was simultaneously in the very early stages of pregnancy , planning a wedding, and working in a bakery/cafe that required opening the store at 4:45 a.m (and no, I'm not pregnant now--Minou is in France, plus there's that T). I can remember leafing through catalogs of wedding registry items at Penney's (not yet a minimalist!) and Minou leading me through the home sections of department stores, when ALL I wanted to do was curl up on those lovely display beds with their puffy matching pillow shams and comforters. And sleep. And sleep. And dream, and sleep...

Part of the problem is that I don't like to go to bed at night. A natural night owl, I get a second wind, or get distracted easily by a good book I'm reading in bed and forget to watch the time. Or sometimes, I don't want to go through the trouble of my nightly teeth and gum care routine, and just put it off. Gretchen Rubin wrote about this delaying bedtime problem in her wonderful book The Happiness Project. However, I do have to get up and be at work in the morning. My start time isn;t too early most of the week, but the dog noses me awake when he thinks it's time to go out in the morning, usually around 6:30 a.m., and then the chickens need tending to. Once I'm out of bed it's hard to go back to sleep for a short hour. So basically, I think I've built up a little sleep deficit. Add to this the fact that I do very well with a full 8 hours, not so well with less, and I have been grouchy and less than sharp...not a great combination!

I also wonder how much increased physical activity may be contributing. In solidarity with the Minimalist Fitness Challenge, I'm trying to step up my exercise intensity a few times a week. I even started jogging again--so slowly, but with happiness. Although exercising makes me feel much more lighthearted (love that endorphin rush!) and energetic in the short term, it could be that my body needs more sleep time to repair afterwards. And speaking of both fitness and sleep, did you know that not sleeping enough plays a significant role in predisposing toward overweight and obesity? It has to do with the regulation of leptin, an hormone that affects perception of satiety and is produced by adipose tissue. Overweight people consistently have high blood levels, leading to resistance, similar to insulin resistance in Type II Diabetes.

So I'm allowing myself to nap on the weekends, and sleep in (gasp!) til 8 or 8:30. Decadent! And lovely! And I seem to have and remember interesting dreams when they happen in the morning. Last night, for example, I was eating a big plate of broccoli and cauliflower from a farmer's market. (??) It looks like we are finally out from under the rainy grey skies we have had here in the Pacific NW while the rest of the country sweltered, but I still have two comforters piled on my bed. I love to sleep with an open window, fresh air, and heavy, fluffy covers. Preferably white.

How about you? How much sleep do you need? How do you like your bedding?
Are naps allowed?

Dear RAS

Dear Reticular Activating System,

I do appreciate the role that you play in regulating my sleep-wake cycles. Also, I have come to appreciate what I once took for granted: being a generally heavy sleeper who can fall asleep almost as soon as my head hits the pillow (this no longer seems normal after being married to someone who is easily awakened by noises, worries, or dreams and can't get back to sleep until dawn). However, I do have a request: this ongoing state of hyper-alertness during sleep does not need to continue! Just because a tree branch scrapes the window, or the dog is catching balls in his sleep and running in his dreams, doesn't mean that I need to have my auditory pathways activated and find myself fully awake to evaluate noises multiple times per night. Especially at 2:38 a.m. Always, for 7 nights now, at 2:38 a.m. Could you calm down a little please?

Thank you,

Mama Minou


It's interesting to me how many women that I've talked to about this phenomenon have said "Oh yes, that happens to me when my partner is away too..." Is the same true for men when their partners are away, do you think?