A super fantastic birthday present and stuff around the house

Before becoming a mom, I heard stories of "mommy brain" and thought that it would never happen to me. I wasn't ever forgetful. I had common sense. How would becoming a parent change that?

Trust me. It does.

Part of it is sleep deprivation. In my case, sleep deprivation x 3. Part of it is distraction. Part of it cannot be explained.

Examples:

I know I blogged about this when it happened but I'm too lazy to go back and find the original post. Not this past summer but the summer before, I heard a blurb on the news one night about bats flying around Fenway Park. The next morning, I glanced at another commuter's newspaper on the train and read the same thing. Bats flying around Fenway Park.

For an entire week, I thought that there were bats, as in flying rodents, living in Fenway Park. I just couldn't figure out how that was possible. Yeah, so it turns out that a player had thrown a baseball bat.

And then a few weekends ago, I opened the trash can, while cleaning up the kitchen, and spotted a dishtowel. "Rich, why did you throw out this dishtowel? {pause} Did you throw out this dishtowel?"

No. Apparently, I had thrown it out a few minutes earlier.

Here and there, when I can squeeze in a few minutes, I've been trying to organize my sewing nook. I wanted to have my fabrics rolled onto something so that I could stand them upright. I know that you can buy special boards specifically for this but the ones that I came across last year were expensive. I had also seen a few sewers online talk about "comic book boards" but I had no idea what they were talking about. I thought it was a nickname for fabric boards, especially after one sewer said that she just cut cardboard because it was much cheaper than comic book boards.

Much to Rich's delight, I was hoarding cardboard and hiding it from the girls, who like to play with the boxes Anna's cath kits are delivered in. I started cutting boards for my fabric and it was TORTURE. Cutting cardboard to a specific size is not easy and was sucking up so much time. I made it this far and had basically given up:

(The top shelf is my tulle.)

Last night, I found a wrapped present with my name on it. Grammy told me that it was an early birthday present. "I don't need any birthday presents, Mom. You didn't have to get me anything." (Well, I actually do need a new pair of house slippers. I'm like an old man wearing slippers that are falling apart. Per Rich.) I thought the gift was books.

But no, I unwrapped these:

So apparently, there are people who collect comic books and buy boards and dividers in order to store their comic books and why I couldn't figure this out is beyond me. Grammy and I are on the same sewing boards online and she was able to piece it all together. I am so EXCITED and this is the best present ever.

These are not expensive at all. 100 boards, which are really thick cardstock, cost $10. The dividers are thicker and not paper - $18 for 25. Okay, so if you have a ton of fabric and you decide to use the dividers, it could add up but the boards are definitely budget friendly.

And in the spirit of reorganizing our home, we made some changes to our hallway. The first floor of our house has two closets - a single door and a double door. We converted the double door one from a coat closet into a pantry when we moved in because there aren't a ton of kitchen cabinets and I have no idea where the previous owners stored their food. That left us with the single closet, which is full. Here's a picture of our hall. As it was.

We really wanted a spot where the girls could walk in and hang up their coats and bags. We found some open wooden cubbies and not only are they expensive, but that hall is narrow and we were a bit limited it what would fit there. We decided to go the cheap route and simply hang up two rows of hooks where that table stood.

It's not pretty but it serves a purpose. I gave up on having a Pottery Barn home years ago. Right now, it is what it is.

I'm only 25 votes from #1!

;)