Seven Quick Takes (8)

1. I am pleased to announce that I am now the wife of a full-fledged PhD! I am so, so proud of my husband. His defense talk was amazing, and he has worked so hard at this for the past five years--as long as I've known him--and he is so deserving of having that work recognized and praised.

2. Like the bunting I made? Complete with letters that were traced using alphabet magnets from our fridge? ;) I know, I know, I should have taken pictures for a tutorial, including how I couldn't find the T or the E anywhere and had to get creative and flip the L around different directions to make those letters. Hehe. But I like how it turned out. I know it is not centered over the doorway and it drives me a little bonkers, so sorry if it bothers you too! We have SO MUCH cake in the house right now. I baked one (now eaten), and Keith's adviser bought two (one of which is in our freezer). There was a lot of champagne, too ... but that disappeared rather more quickly.

3. Knitting has been slow this week. The first sweater is all but finished--the second sleeve needs to be sewn on (and I might redo the first as I'm not too happy with it), and then it needs buttons, and then it will be done! I have also started a blanket because I spotted some Malabrigo in Azul Profundo, which is one of the most beautiful shades of blue I have ever seen, and there was simply no way not to buy it. It's been growing about two rows a day, a very slow pace for me, but I'm guessing this week I will move a bit faster.

4. Now that Keith has graduated, he no longer has to work the equivalent of two jobs!! We are really looking forward to settling in to the new normal around here ... at least until the twins arrive in a few short months. Of course, we also have to move in the next month and a half or so, which entails buying a house ... but we're hoping that will all be set in motion by the end of next week. Basically it's a huge time of change and readjustment for us. But these are all good things.

5. So, after ten posts in ten days (!!!) I haven't posted in a whole week. Understandable, what with PhD graduations and out of town company and whatnot, but. Posting each and every day is a bit much, but it felt good to blog regularly, and I'm hoping it's a habit I can keep up until the twins arrive. I've also been thinking (with Christine's encouragement) about posting a series about living on a single income as a family. This fascinates me especially as we prepare to move out of the city, because the strategies for living on one salary look so different when you live in the country vs the city vs the suburbs--and even from city to city. I have a lot of friends who own just one car and are able to take advantage of public transportation and/or walk where they need to go. But that isn't going to be an option for us in a few months. (We already own two cars, and are incredibly blessed because we got both of them for free, although they have both cost us money to maintain as they age. Keith's car is older than we are!) So it is something I would like to explore here at some point.

6. As I type this, I am watching the garbage men drive down our alley and pick up all the trash. Today they are not yelling at each other in angry voices. (Maybe they aren't angry. Maybe they're just yelling to be heard above the truck. But most weeks they sound pretty mad.) I really love trash day. Seriously. I love the feeling of purging our home of things that don't need to be there and then these wonderful men come and take them away forever. :-P (Plus, when you think about it, isn't it a blessing that we have people that dispose of our garbage for us? I mean, what would WE do with dirty diapers on our own? Maybe if we were responsible for disposing of our own trash we would make less of it ...) I'm looking forward to moving for the same reason--evaluating the clothes and books and other things that tend to accumulate on our shelves and in our closets and pruning our household of clutter. I already have a small Goodwill pile growing.

7. I am still feeling okay with this pregnancy, although I wake up in the morning and feel like I've been doing crunches all night because my stomach muscles are so tired. I think I need to invest in a maternity belt pretty quickly. Michael has taken to patting my belly at random intervals and saying "beebee," but I'm not sure if he is trying to say belly or affirming that yes, we have told him a hundred times that Mama has two babies in her belly. He also thinks that whenever I open my computer it is for the sole purpose of showing him pictures of beebees. I guess that's a good thing, right?

Head over to Jen's blog to see more Quick Takes!