Top 15 Benefits of Being Unemployed

15. Having strangers wonder to themselves, "Don't people have to work anymore?"

14. Family day trips to Multnomah Falls and the beach

13. Being available for doctor appointments, carpet cleaning, and other appointments

12. Lavish homemade lunches (followed by a nap)

11. Reading or watching a movie on the couch

10. Grocery shopping in the middle of the day in the middle of the week

9. Having a clean house and no need to do chores on the weekends

8. Relishing in an empty playground, swimming pool, etc. and no lines when running errands

7. Greeting the mailman, UPS and FedEx drivers, in-person

6. Having the time to volunteer

5. Watching Oprah and cooking shows on the Food Network

4. Napping in the afternoon (or morning)

3. Hitting the gym when no one's there

2. Spending time with my awesome husband

1. Quality time with my cutie pie daughter

Balancing

As any parent knows, balancing is not an easy act. It's a mixture of compromise and multi-tasking. Now that bar studies are well under way, as in, there is much more work than I have time for, I am called upon to balance my priorities once again.

Although I have always been blessed with great time-management skills, being a mom has changed the way I balance because I would rather spend every waking minute with my daughter. But I can't. BarBri has me by my neck collar with its daily rigor of 3.5 hour morning courses 5-6 days/wk plus homework assignments requiring a bazillion hours of your time per day.

So, I must make compromises and sacrifices where I can and this has yielded the following "results" thus far:

1. I'm not going to kill myself to get the daily assignments done. I will do as much as I can during the week and use the weekend to catch-up.

2. But I will also devote an entire weekend day to my family, which means no studying and squeezing in my chores (cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping!) on the same day.

3. Sleep is important, and I will never compromise that one.

4. I allow myself 30-45 minutes a night to rewind before bed, such as watching tv or reading a magazine.

5. Because Nicole's sad face breaks my heart every time I leave in the mornings, I will come home early once a week (on Wednesdays) to spend some quality play time with her.

6. I will allow others to help me (i.e. cook, clean, and take care of Nicole).

7. Exercise is important too, which is why I like to take Nicole out on walks, allowing me to get a workout and spend time with her!

8. The sacrifices I've made sometimes means that I will not be taking practice tests during the hours of 9-5pm and sometimes the only "quiet" place in the house is on my bed, which is also not very conducive to studying, but again, it's another compromise I'm willing to make occasionally.

9. I will waste my time (i.e. on Facebook and my blog) if it keeps me sane!

10. The light at the end of my tunnel? Our Alaska trip and getting to spend all my time with Nicole! (and job-hunting...haha)

So...onward!

The Art of Gift-Giving

Giving a gift is probably not as much fun as receiving one, but it ought to be.

The best gifts I have ever received are ones that are unexpected, thoughtful, and tailored to that individual's taste. Starting a couple years ago, I started buying gifts for family and friends whenever I see something that I think they'd like, rather than waiting for the annual holiday or birthday, when you're just scrambling around to find something that the person might like - lip gloss, Sudoku puzzle, poetry magnets. It can become a pretty desperate experience. If I don't do this, I sometimes find myself with "gift-giver's remorse." Somehow, saying "I saw blah at the store and thought of buying it for you, but didn't" is not very satisfying to any of the parties involved.

Of course, if I were a millionaire, gift-giving would be a cinch (money *is* the solution to everything, right?), but the reality is, I'm not. Sometimes the gift-giving grinch can get the best of me. Before I buy a gift, I will think to myself, "well, so-and-so didn't buy me a gift for (insert occasion), so why should I buy a gift for them?" This, of course, goes against the spirit of the gift-giving and is contrary to my idea of the best gift - the unexpected ones.

Recently I had the pleasure of receiving some unexpected packages in the mail from friends and relatives (btw, I count gifts for my daughter as gifts for myself!) and it spurred me to send unexpected gifts to others. Gift-giving is like karma: what goes around, comes around. If you don't share some of your gift-giving spirit, you won't experience it either!

Happy Birthday Nicole!

Our precious little girl turned 8 months old today, and I'd just like to take a moment to reflect on what remarkable baby she is (if I don't say so myself...ahem). Nicole has become quite the skilled crawler - she loves following us around the house. Lately, Nicole's been eager to pull herself up and she will grab on to nearly everything to accomplish such a task, even on some things that are not-so-steady.

Nicole also gets lots of attention when we go out - people like to marvel at what a beautiful baby she is. And Nicole loves to interact with people, especially babies and other small children. Nicole is also a very active and mischievous child, often requiring us to keep close supervision lest she ingests something she's not suppose to. Nicole seems to have a penchant for cables, shoe laces, and paper. You'd think that we aren't feeding her at the rate that she goes after paper! On the contrary, we make her baby food from scratch and her dietary repertoire includes carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, celery, brown rice cakes, egg yokes, turkey, rice, oatmeal, barley, chicken, lamb, bananas, pears, peas, avocados, zucchinis, yellow squash, applesauce, and peaches.

Nicole loves music too. If she is ever upset, all we have to do is sing to her and she will immediately stop crying. Nicole, who has slept in her own room since she was 2 months old, is also an excellent sleeper and a good napper too. She sleeps well above the recommended average of 14 hours a day - often sleeping 12 hours at night with two 1.5 hour naps during the day. All we do is put Nicole in her sleep sack, lay her down, and she will go right to sleep without much pomp and circumstance. We are truly blessed to have Nicole in our lives - she has brought joy to everyone who knows her.

The Holidays

Whenever there's a federal holiday, panic sets in. But it's not for the reason you're thinking of, it's because stores are either closed or have limited hours. So the day before a holiday, I find myself in grocery stores frantically stocking up on food we probably don't need because, God-forbid, the store might be closed for one stinkin' day! My year abroad in Germany is the most likely origin of this irrational fear. In Goettingen, where I lived and is true for most parts of Germany except maybe Berlin, most stores were closed on Sundays, including grocery stores.

This meant that my friends and I had to stock up enough food before Sunday in order to make it through the day, or else we'd have to eat out. And if you were a poor planner, or if you had just returned from a weekend getaway from another part of western Europe (which was often the case for us), we were stuck with nothing to eat or else a pastry from the one bakery that is open on Sundays (but only 'til 4pm). But I grew up in America, where stores open from 4am to midnight the day after Thanksgiving, and where you can count on places like McDonald's and Walgreens to be open on holidays. Capitalism at its finest, America is the land of 24-hour fast food chains, drive-through windows, take-out and delivery, and everything that is fast and convenient. No matter which holiday it is, someone is always working. Is this good for society and boosting family values? That's a topic for another blog, but I know I can't live without it!

Thanksgiving

Is it too soon to blog about Thanksgiving if there are still 6 hours left in the holiday? This year, we ordered a Thanksgiving meal for a party of two to-go from Salty's (see menu). In my opinion, this was the best to-go menu thus far. In previous years, we have ordered menus from Marco's Cafe, New Seasons, and dined in at Huber's. Out of all of the aforementioned places, Salty's is the best thus far!

Free Time

One of the advantages of being a student is that you have a flexible schedule (i.e. you don't have to work 9-5). One of the disadvantages, on the other hand, is that you end up working more hours than the traditional 8-hour days (and obviously the lack of a paycheck also). Law school has been a busy time for us, but I find that in every semester, there are "pockets" of free time for us to enjoy. For example, I don't have any classes before 2:30pm so that I can spend my mornings with Nicole. This semester, Thursdays has been special for us as a family because Tom only has 2 classes on Thursdays and the first one starts at 2pm. As a result, we have really taken advantage of Thursdays to "sleep in" (baby permitting), run errands, go out for breakfast or lunch, and just being a cute little family together.