It's been a year or nearly a year since I last posted anything here. I am happy seeing my daughter grow and never thought life could be this good. Finding time to juggle family, work and everything else in between is a challenge.
Thankfully I am able to stay connected with friends, family, and clients via a combination of email and Facebook. I don't mind that it's considered the new "AOL" or too trendy, I enjoy how easy it is to stay in touch.
We are still in our lovely Craftsman gingerbread home. The market is still a little rocky, but definitely improving. Can't wait to see more summer fruit this year. Loquats have been plentiful. Pluots and peaches are my favorite. Photos to come
For your viewing pleasure...
I love these literal music videos.
Another long past due entry...
It's 2:16 a.m. and Aislee is sleeping in my lap. She's growing amazingly fast and is really active these days. It's been challenging for her fighting her first real cold. She'll wake up several times frustrated with her stuffy nose.
I've been thinking how incredibly different life has changed with the baby. I wouldn't have it any other way. It's almost frightening how much I love this tiny human. The funny thing is, before she was born, my dear friend told me that it's important to not neglect the husband when the baby arrived. It's been non-stop taking care of her that there really is no time to pay attention to Naoki or really myself these past several months. Taking a shower uninterrupted is a luxury and I'm thankful when papa is able to take Aislee for a walk while I handle a few household chores. He spends most of his free time caring for the house and garden. What's interesting and a little funny, is that after you have this cute little one with small everything and inquisitive expressions, anything that was remotely cute or appealing in your partner ceases to be...well, cute. Suddenly, the baby has taken control of all that is cute. Not even Lucky, our comedic bird, can compete.
Other observations of life with baby... Buying new clothes, shoes, makeup is no longer a necessity. It has been replaced by buying food, toys (for baby), and diapers. I wear mostly what's comfortable now. Her comfort and well-being is my top priority. So far, I've been blessed with clients who are baby-friendly. She comes with me everywhere -- even to tour properties.
I never thought becoming a mother would incur so many changes. The pressure cooker Naoki purchased is a lifesaver. It makes healthy baby food in minutes! I'll try chubbing Aislee up with avocados, sweet potatos, and bananas. She loves Japanese pumpkin, kabocha, which cooks beautifully in the pressure cooker. I add a little cinnamon sometimes. She seems to enjoy it.
Finding time to eat for myself has been difficult while juggling caring for the baby and working. Making sandwiches enables me to eat and have a free hand while eating. My current addiction is Trader Joe's Garlic Cheddar Sourdough toasted and smothered with avocado on one side and thinly sliced cucumbers and cream cheese. Sometimes I'll slather raspberry jam and a savory speadable cheese on the same bread which is super good as well.
Ok, time for us to move to the Sun Room to sleep. This is where we now have our bedroom. The Star Room is our library/office, the Moon Room is also an office (that's in serious need of cleaning). I work in the Fire Room most of the time and the Sky Room (aka the dining room is used for gatherings. We'll be hosting Aislee's first birthday in July and hope to see some of you here at our gingerbread house.
As I sit under the warmth of the much appreciated kotatsu (heater table) with my daughter sleeping peacefully in my arms, I can't believe a half year has already passed since living in our home. For nearly three weeks two months ago, we dealt with uncomfortably cold weather and met with the challenges of staying warm in an older (109 yrs old) home while making an effort to keep the PG&E expenses down. With all my complaining and grouching, our last two bills came in under $100 dollars! Even while living in our tiny condo, our electricity bill usually fluctuated around $150.
I've really come to love this house with it's beautifully painted rooms. Naoki finished the Venetian plaster in the sun room and recently the star room. He did a wonderful job and they look wonderful and bring a warmer feeling to the house.
Life has been busy with family and business. We've been blessed in both areas. Naoki's mother and sister came for a brief nine day stay. They really enjoyed all the tasty fruit (navel oranges, pummelos, fuji apples, and oro blancos) that are in season from the farmers market in Campbell. I made a garlicky spinach pasta with fresh Meyer lemons from our yard one night. It came out very well, though I would have liked it to be spicier...recipe to follow.
In business, I feel very fortunate and again blessed to be working with so many incredible people. My listing in San Bruno thankfully sold and the seller is buying a lovely place to call home in Sacramento. Four deals have closed this year so far and with another in escrow, there is much to be appeciative for. Although the news is always painting a bleak outlook, they are usually behind in reporting how things are looking up.
Back to talking about home... We have nearly 50 fruit plants/trees in our yard now. The potatoes are sprouting in the crop circle Naoki made. The blossoms are radiant on Aislee's white peach / white nectarine tree and on the Georgia Peach tree we adopted from a home in Palo Alto. I'm looking forward to making fruit pies if the fat squirrels don't get to them first.
The old avocado tree that came with this house bears California Diablo avocados. They're smoother and creamier than Hass and have a thinner skin. They take two weeks to ripen once picked from the tree. Hopefully we'll have more growing as I love avocado sandwiches on toasted bread with Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie brand) and slices of cold cucumber! So good!! I could go off on a tangent when it comes to avocados... Actually it looks like I did.
Ok, on to the pasta recipe -
Boil your preferred pasta al dente (slightly undercooked) as you'll be adding it to another pan to mix in with the garlic lemon sauce.
1. In a large sauce pan drizzle a tablespoon of grapeseed oil (olive oil is fine too) and a pat of butter, heat on medium flame. 2. Add crushed garlic, approximately 5 - 7 cloves 3. Sprinkle a teaspoon (or more depending on your heat preference) of red pepper flakes 4. Add a few pinches of salt to meld flavors, more can be added later to adjust 5. Careful not to burn the garlic, give your mixture a few pushes around your pan. 6. Once garlic is crisp, add spinach and pasta. 7. Mix everything well til spinach is cooked, adding a touch more oil or butter as needed. 8. Finally add thinly sliced lemon wedges of one lemon or juice lemon and add it's zest.
Life in a 108 year old Gingerbread House
...is beautiful, but cold. Partially due to the original old lead glass windows still in place, it's drafty and gets quite chilly. During the summer, it was wonderfully cool most of the day and only became unbearably hot on a few days.
After our last PG&E bill reached close to $450, Naoki started keeping a log of the gas and electricity meter readings. We no longer use electric heaters. He monitors how often we use the gas heater; however, we can no longer use it all now that he purchased a kotatsu. The house is only a few degrees warmer than outside, even at night. It varies from 55 - 60 degrees farenheit. I bundle the baby up in snow gear and keep handwarmers in my pockets to stay warm.
While I'd like to decorate the home in lights for our first Christmas here and with Aislee, Naoki is against anything that might increase the electric bill...although he was kind enough to give me the option taking over payments.
If you're ever considering purchasing an older home, I would strongly suggest making sure it's well insulated, has a newer heating/cooling system, and proper ventilation. I love the beauty of this old Craftsman, but hope our next home is newer...I mean warmer.
Long time no post
My baby girl, Aislee, was born on Monday, July 21, 2008 at 8:35 a.m. It's been a rollercoaster ride adapting to life with this tiny human. She is almost 11 weeks and looks more child/infant-like than a newborn now, though she's still technically a newborn til three months.
Here's her birth story...
Our baby girl, Aislee Reika Hada, was born unexpectedly this past
Monday, July 21 at 8:35 a.m. She weighed 6 pounds 11 ounces and was 19
inches in length. (Estimated Due Date: 07/28)
...
We had originally planned early on to have a home/waterbirth, but along the way Aislee's growth and amniotic fluid levels
became a concern, so my midwife declined my request for a homebirth at
37 weeks due to possible risks. Scrambling to find an OB closer to
home, I was referred to one that determined it was necessary to
schedule an immediate inducement with a possibility of a cesarean. I
consumed large amounts of water and supplements and went to a
specialist for a second opinion
the next day. They found the baby to be in perfect health at the
appropriate size with plenty of fluid, which the inferior ultrasound
equipment did not pick up at that OB's office. (Thank God for second
opinions)
This past Friday after having issues over giving birth
at a hospital, I requested my midwife to reconsider my birth plans.
She replied on Sunday that she was leaning towards granting my request
if I would make additional preparations for postpartum care. Later
that evening after eating a bag of oatmeal cookies and a half loaf of
lasagna, I went into labor...which I thought to be just a digestive problem
from overindulgence. I called the midwife at 3 a.m. Her assistant
arrived at 4 a.m. when active labor kicked in. The midwife came around
6 a.m. and Naoki finished filling the birthing tub at 7 a.m. (too late,
I wasn't about to climb into a tub at that point - thankfully the task
had kept him busy though). The baby was born on land naturally, not in
water as planned, at 8:35 a.m. She's healthy, alert, and very feisty.
When we first saw the sour cherry tree at God's Little Acre Nursery (located on Almaden Road in San Jose), I thought the fruit was for birds only. It was the prettiest dwarf tree laden with branches of tiny bright red cherries -- perfect for eating off of the tree or baking in pies. The owners of the nursery, Phil and his beautiful wife, Dolores, became our friends and we've enjoyed several trips to their gorgeous place to purchase fruit trees and a Silver Dollar Eucalyptus. If you purchase six or more trees, Phil will give a 10% discount...of course, Naoki could not resist such a deal!
The ones you see in this cup were a few of the last cherries, before our guests and bird, Lucky, finished them. We'll have to wait until next Spring for the new harvest. I wonder how the cherry blossoms will look.
At Home in the Gingerbread House
After weeks of loading and unloading, we're finally finished (for the most part) with our move into this gorgeous old gingerbread/Craftsman/Victorian home on the Northside. It's been challenging this far along in the pregnancy to deal with relocating even at this short distance. I'm due in 11 days, which feels unreal.
The house is definitely far from organized, but Naoki did an excellent job of refinishing the old pinewood floors and is in the process of applying Venetian plaster to one of the rooms. When we first viewed this property, I thought it was beautiful (still do), but not for us. I pictured us moving to some place...newer and more modern, possibly even a townhouse. Naoki fell in love with the yard and has since planted 19 fruit trees, or was it 20? I've lost count. All I know is that those damn squirrels that I thought were the cutest when we moved in, have eaten the white nectarines on my daughter's tree! Her papa purchased her a grafted white peach with two different white nectarines tree. I want to plant it as soon as she's born.
The gorgeous floral arrangement you see in this post is from our newlywed friends, Carla and Andre. They made our dining room smell amazing! This was our first of many flowers that have entered this home, but the only one that I managed to photograph.
For lunch today: Mom's Vegetarian Lasagna and White Peach Cobbler
One of the biggest perks of living close to my mom is having access to her wonderful home cooking! During my first trimester, I experienced a loss in appetite and could barely eat anything that wouldn't make me nauseous. The only dishes I could truly indulge in were prepared by my mother. Garlic and onions would turn me green, which is strange since my mom used both of those ingredients to make her lasagna.
My baby is probably made of 80% lasagna / 5% oatmeal cookies / 10% white peach cobbler / 5% pickles. Of course, I've made it a habit to take my vitamins, extra calcium (w/magnesium and D), folic acid, plus a consistent amount of omegas for her development. I falter a few times a week when it comes to eating low-glycemic, and really try to monitor my sugar intake. At nearly eight months, I've gained 18 pounds and will continue to watch the scale and what I eat to insure this little girl is getting proper nutrition and gaining weight in a healthy way.
In other news...we finally closed escrow on our home last Friday. It was a challenging experience purchasing a bank owned fixer upper, but the lovely little gingerbread craftsman was well worth the wait and huge pile of paperwork! I've dealt with many REO (real estate owned) properties this past year and am always amazed at what they previously sold for and how much attention or lack of was spent on maintaining the home.
Autism and the Vaccine link?
As a parent-to-be, I'm both concerned and torn over when and what to vaccinate. I understand that we need to protect our children from illnesses and disease, but don't feel comfortable taking everything a doctor says as truth (perhaps, it is as they know it, they've been known to be wrong before), it seems negligent to leave the safety and well-being of my baby without doing more research.
So far, since I plan to work from home and will not have our daughter in daycare, we will have her immunizations start at age 2. We'll request vaccines to be free of Thimerosal and order them ahead of time and have her shots spaced apart. This is thinking way ahead. Hopefully by the time she's due for her vaccinations, most of this mess will have been sorted through.
"If a dirty bomb exposed a large segment of US citizens simultaneously to Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, Pertussis, Tetanus, Diptheria, Haemophilous Influenza B, 3 strains of Polio viruses, 3 strains of Influenza viruses, Measles, Mumps and Rubella viruses, the Chickenpox Virus, and 7 strains of Streptococcus Bacteria, we would declare a national emergency. We would call it an " Extreme Act of BIO-TERRORISM" . The public outcry would be immense and our government would act accordingly. And yet, those are the very organisms that we inject through vaccines into our babies and our small children, with immature, undeveloped immune systems. Many are given all at the same time. But, instead of BIO-TERRORISM we call it protection. Reflect a Moment on that Irony."
-Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
For breakfast: Organic white peach from Kashiwase Farms!
After an excellent appointment with my midwife's assistant/doula in Menlo Park, my friend and I headed to downtown Los Altos to indulge in something light and sweet at Satura Bakery. If you've not yet been, I highly suggest taking a trip there on a Thursday afternoon. After eating one of the best choux creams in my life, we walked over to the farmers market. This is one of the rare markets that stays open later in the day.
We sampled different types of flavorful cherries that were sweet and not the least bit sour, hearty Jersey Brand milk cheeses, super sweet sweet peas, and dark juicy red strawberries. I left with five small, but crisp and sweet, organic white peaches from Kashiwase Farms, organic Spring Hill Farms garlic curds (made from fresh mozzarella), and also one of their pesto jack blocks, melt-in-your-mouth roasted rosemary fingerling potatoes (we ate those there), and a small basket of unusually pointy, but remarkably sweet strawberries!! Oh, and I also purchased five of Satura's choux creams for Naoki -- three vanilla and two green tea flavored.
Forgive all of these foodcentric posts. Occupying my mind most of the time is food, house hunting for friends/clients and ourselves, and this baby.
Summer, please hurry...I need white peaches.
White nectarines are fine too. Well, maybe they're preferable since they don't have that fuzzy skin which I could do without.
Current fruit obsession - muscat grapes (available for a limited time at Nijiya Markets, Bristol Farms, and Whole Foods), oranges from Twin Girl Farms (available at our local farmers markets), and strawberries.
I'm sorry, nothing really new to report other than my food cravings. I won't look for and include photos as that would just cause me to go out unwrap my truck, which takes 20 minutes to get the buckles, lock, and cover taken off, and drive through the Cinco de Mayo traffic on my street to battle rush hour traffic to buy fruit.
There really are Angels out there - Helping to Feed Families
I came across this wonderful organization that supplies discounted groceries to families and seniors. They do not require meeting any particular criteria; however, they are still working on nationwide deliveries. According to the organization, the food provided is of restaurant and high grade quality.
The cost of groceries has risen significantly since last year due to the economy. Below is a short news clip on how you can reduce how much you spend at the stores (though I believe most people know these tips already...).
Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing grocery relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States.
Blessings by the box
Angel Food's groceries are sold in a quantity that can fit into a medium-sized box at $30 per unit. Each month's menu is different than the previous month and consists of both fresh and frozen items with an average retail value of approximately $50. Comparison shopping has been done across the country in various communities using a wide range of retail grocery stores and has resulted in the same food items costing from between $42 and $78.
Generally, one unit of food assists in feeding a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month. The food is all the same high quality one would purchase at a grocery store. There are no second-hand items, no damaged or out-dated goods, no dented cans without labels, no day-old breads and no produce that is almost too ripe. Also offered are specialty boxes such as steaks, chicken and pork. Many participants in this bonus program appreciate the expanded choices. Additionally, there is no limit to the number of units or bonus foods an individual can purchase, and there are no applications to complete or qualifications to which participants must adhere. Angel Food Ministries, like most all other retail grocery stores, also participates in the U.S. Food Stamp program, using the Off-Line Food Stamp Voucher system.
