plain ol’ bread

plain ol’ bread

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

I bake a lot: all of our bread-stuffs are made in our own kitchen: tortillas/chapatis, biscuits, cookies, cakes, muffins, popovers, cornbread and plain ol’ bread.

Unfortunately, I don’t have proper bread pans because of a cultural disconnect (they seem to be unavailable in my area), so I’ve put Lisa on it and she’ll be scouring the thrift stores in Cleveland for me.

Yesterday was a rainy day, filled with long phone conversations (my mother in the early afternoon and Amparo in the evening), bread baking, soup making, a walk in the rain and machine quilting. About a third of the way done with the quilting.

I’m finding I’m not bored at all being at home, just lonely. The phone and email help a lot with that, and I think I’ll be able to make it through this wait without going crazy.

All day

Basting quilt

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

Oh, boy.

I can’t make it to work anymore. . . walking has become a slow and exhausting process FOR REAL, and my hour-long commute each way is just too much.

So I’m down to just waiting, all day, every day, alone except for the evenings.

I have finished more projects in the last few weeks than I probably have in my whole life. My mother always complains that I never finish anything- that accusation won’t cut so deep now because I am all about finishing.

This quilt, for example: I hand pieced the top more than a year ago and then it just sat around, sometimes spread out on the bed so I could just look at it, but mostly folded up in the closet.

I got it out two days ago, finished piecing a backing and spent all day today basting the layers together. On the floor, legs spread wide to make room for the baby.

That’s another project I’m busy finishing, too. Feels like I must be done, but I guess there are finishing touches still to go. . .

Sunday

hand stitches

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

Popovers for breakfast.
Hand-sewing all morning, accompanied by NPR.
A nap (of course).
Brownies in the afternoon.
Family on the phone (Hallman’s birthday! Three years old.)
More hand-sewing.
A painting exhibit this evening in Inzago.
Ilario’s pizza.

Not bad, eh?

Hope

Verdze e spinaci

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

While the world falls apart around me in all the various ways, I find a lot of comfort in small-ish things that seem proof that life is inherently beautiful and good:

-Local foods produced by small farmers (spinach and cabbage above).

-A field trip with my buying co-op to learn about natural soaps, detergents and cosmetics.

-A “time bank” with my friend Patrizia- we’ll be exchanging English lessons with help around the house and with the baby.

-The midwives who came to my home on Thursday and supported every decision I have made, leaving me feeling strong and confident.

-The new person inside me, almost ready to come into the world, all new and curious and trusting.

I think having a child, consciously having a child, is one of the greatest leaps of faith and hope that I can make in my life. I have to truly BELIEVE in the future, in our ability to make better decisions and change in order to do this. And I do.

Diapers (nappies, pannolini) and stuff

diaper stuff

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

Ilario keeps working late, burritos are all prepared for dinner except for the tortillas, the baby is calm in my belly, and I am done putzing around the apartment…

Mostly I have been knitting, A LOT of knitting, but also some sewing during our evening ball games (which have taken an unexpected turn to American football- the NFL? I thought I married an Italian?).

I have a bunch of completed and lanolized diaper covers (all a sort of conservative gray yarn that I had originally intended to be a sweater, some many months ago), some sewn diaper covers made from felted sweaters, and a couple that are just cut sweaters that are theoretically very-easy-to-use-diaper-wraps. We’ll see about that.

And I sewed a cover for a basket I picked out of the trash this summer here in Terno- it’s now my diaper basket, holding all my expensive and fluffy Kissaluvs diapers.

Yesterday we bought yet another kind of drying rack, one that fits in the tub, so I am guaranteed a place to dry the endless wet diapers I know are in my near future.

Can I just say that one of the best things about Italy is the variety and affordability of all the contraptions for drying clothes? It is totally NORMAL to dry clothes here- I am so used to being a freak about everything, and yet here, this most radical and important (and easy) energy-saving behavior is absolutely MUNDANE. I have a tall, folding rack that can hold an enormous amount and be moved indoors or out, a balcony railing rack, and now my tub rack.

Just thrilling, I know. This is my life. Diapers and drying racks and WAITING.

busy

Nancy’s baby quilt, back

Originally uploaded by nonsonoitaliana

It may not seem like it from my silly blog, but I have been busy… so busy that it became too busy and yesterday just about killed me.

Today is a couch day, and probably tomorrow will be, too. We’ve got to hang on about another week, or no home birth. So we’ve been talking, or rather, I’ve been talking and explaining that I will rest if it will wait. A compromise. Since I’m pretty persuasive, probably things will stretch out ’till the middle of November and I’ll be reduced to begging…

But in the meantime I’m making busy with sewing and knitting and organizing and other general nesting bits and bobs. And pre-season NBA games every evening and a lovely husband who takes it in stride when he comes home from work and his very pregnant wife is stuck in the tub trying to relax and make the contractions stop and declares they have to order pizza. Not only does he take it in stride, but in fact suggests quite calmly that he MAKE the pizza rather than ordering out. They broke the mold after making this one, let me tell you.