There are lots of things that surprise me about this town. And they surprise me over and over.
For example, my mom and I share similar methods of house keeping: she in rural Vermont and I in New York City. Neither of us have garbage disposals in our sinks. Her "leech field" can't handle it, the city's septic systems can't either. I think it has to do with old buildings and old plumbing on the city side of things. Both of us also hang out clothes after washing. She because, why not? She lives on a mountain with fresh air and breezes and wants her sheets and my dad's shirt to smell like fresh air and breezes. Me, out of necessity. Forever it was washer, no dryer and now it's washer and the dryer is not hooked up yet. It just surprises me that I can live out (and sort of need to live out) this Laura Ingles Wilder life, here in Brooklyn.
Lately I have been thinking of my lifestyle. My, this is almost everything I have ever wanted, lifestyle. Staying home with my son. Working from home (I'm a sucker for adult stimulation and recognition). Sleeping until 7:45, sometimes 8. Most days I don't leave the house until after Andrew's naptime. I spend the mornings working, while he spends the morning playing, then nap and then we're out. Perfect. I am a home-body through and through.
Well, I was noticing that part of the perfect goodness of this is my work. That I have some academic thinking in my day. I have something to go to when the legos are getting stale. And it is not something that I have to be so involved in that it should be saved for naptime or bedtime, when Andrew is not unloading the pots and pans from the shelves. I can work and work well, while listening for his playtime chatter. My work is something that reminds me of my professional days. It reminds me of the 'other' things I can do. And sometimes, that is really nice. And, I get paid. I don't think it would be possible for me to get such a gig out of this city. The connections and need and variety of work is not like the idilic places where I dream of living. If we had never left New England this would not be my life's balance. I would have some difference life's balance. But not this one. And this one is working out so well for me.
So, if it were not for New York, things would be much different in my stay-at-home-mom-ness.
It is this modern, fast, competitive city that facilitates my homemaking, baking, quiet, hang-the-laundry lifestyle.
Go figure.
3 comments:
are you saying that you might like your life here in the city?! what?!
Hey now, I wouldn't go that far! I was just noticing some benefits!
How'd the baking go? I made muffins with black currants yesterday. I got them through our fruit share and they were disgusting to eat, but yummy in the muffins. I also attempted some kind of black currant syrup to take me back to my days in France when we would have "cassis" flavored drinks. It kind of worked.
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