A few weeks ago, on the way home from work, I heard this story about hanging laundry out to dry. I thought it was an interesting story over all, but the part that really struck me was the second half of the piece where they discuss how millions of Americans are banned from hanging their laundry out to dry by their homeowners associations because it looks “low class” and it’s “unsightly.”

Unbelievable.

I’ve written about hanging laundry out to dry before but that was before I fell totally and completely in love with it, so I think the time is right for me to write about it again.

I love hanging our laundry out to dry.

I love it.

I find it to be calming and pleasant and almost meditative.

I love being outside in the fresh air and sunshine when I’m doing a chore that should be drudgery.

I love the system I’ve worked out with the best way to hang each type of clothing. Shirts are hung upside down so that there aren’t clothes pin pinches at the shoulders. Socks are hung by the toes so the elastic doesn’t stretch out.

I love giving each damp item a sharp snap to get the wrinkles out before I hang it. And I love that when I pull the clothes off the line they don’t need to be ironed. And don’t forget that fresh, clean smell.

I love that we save money on our electricity bill. That it usually takes less time to dry a load on the line than it does in our dryer. I love that it’s green.

I love the connection it makes me feel to the past. Whenever I hang clothes it makes me think of my grandma doing the same thing 50 or 60 years ago and all the other women who have hung laundry through the years. And though I know they would likely envy my electric dryer — especially in the winters and on rainy days — I kind of think that maybe this was one chore they didn’t mind so much because I don’t mind it so much myself.

And I love how it looks. I love to see the clothes drifting up and down in the breeze. I love how our porch feels like a cozy little room when we hang up big sheets and towels that make “walls” (as Wyatt calls them).  I love hanging like items up all in a row (yeah, I know it’s compulsive — I’m like that) and how it looks neat and orderly. I love seeing my family’s clothes hanging up like little pieces of their personalities. Caring for the clothes they like is one way I show my love for them. And how can I see a robot ninja t-shirt or a fuzzy monkey suit or a geek t-shirt without thinking about the fellas who wear them and how much I love them?

That woman who said that hanging laundry out to dry is “unsightly” must be cold and hard and miserable.

I do still hate the crunchy towels though.

My maternity leave began today.

I suppose if you want to get technical, it officially began on Saturday, the first day after my last day of work. But Saturday felt like a regular Saturday and it took a weekday to make me realize I’m really and truly off work for awhile. When you add in that Wyatt is on his preschool vacation and that Zach is working his booty off trying to rack up contract hours, I got a real taste of what life would be like if I was a full-time stay-at-home mom.

So here’s how it went:

8:00 am: We all got up at the same time which was odd, because usually one of us gets up with Wyatt and the other sleeps a little longer.

8:15 am: Zach fixes Wyatt a bun and some fruit for breakfast, then makes eggs and toast for us while I drink tea, read the comics and do a sudoku.

8:55 am: I read my email and realize that on a normal day, I would be rushing out the door right now to get to work only a little bit late.

9:00 - 10:20 am: Various play and getting ready for the day activities.

10:20 - 10:30 am: Drive to the park for playgroup. Wyatt shouts at me the whole time, telling me that I’m going the wrong way and that he won’t get to play with Little Rachel because I’m going to get us lost and everyone will go home before we even get there. I’ve got the GPS and I’m pretty confident that I’m going to the right place, but the three-year-old in the back seat actually manages to shake my confidence in my typically great sense of direction. I also try to ignore him repeatedly telling me, “I am right and you are wrong.” but I fail and start to argue with him. Sigh.

10:30 am: When we arrive at the playground, we are the first ones there. Wyatt says “I told you we are at the wrong park!” several times but is soon distracted by the slide.  Soon afterward, the other parents start arriving and I am vindicated.  I chat with the other parents about sleep, leaving the house with a newborn, sleep, weight loss and more sleep while the kids play. I feel my focus shifting from my stressful web development job to parenting and greatly enjoy it.

12:30 pm: Leave the park and head to Costco. On Zach’s advice, I buy Wyatt a slice of pizza and a lemonade when we first arrive and he happily sits in the cart eating his lunch and trying various samples as we do our shopping. I buy an insane amount of stuff in preparation for the impending arrival of a newborn, including diapers and wipes for the new baby. One more thing to cross off my pre-baby to-do list.

2:00 pm: Back at home, Zach laughs out loud at the amount of stuff I bought, but I assure him that you really need a 60-pack of taquitos when you have a tiny baby in the house (easy to eat one-handed and we can send them in Wyatt’s lunch).

2:30 pm: Zach and Wyatt build a blanket fort while I sit on the couch with my feet up and give advice on how best to ensure the structural integrity of their house.

3:00 - 4:00 pm: Wyatt and I participate in various relaxational activities while Zach does more programming.

4:00 pm: Wyatt and I decide we want to have a nap and lay down on the bed with a pile of books to read. Despite several attempts by Wyatt to steal my pillow (”Mama! You have to share!”), I manage to hang on to it, but neither of us fall asleep. Still, we enjoy reading about Frances and her adventures.

5:00 pm: Wyatt and I make banana bread, then do puzzles and have a blueberry snack at the kitchen table.

6:00 pm: I clean off the top of my dresser, my nesting activity of the day. Because you really need to have a clean dresser when you have a new baby in the house.

6:30 - 8:00 pm: Zach and Wyatt go to the gym. I finish cleaning off my dresser, start this blog post and make dinner.

8:00 pm: We all eat dinner. Wyatt is super good at the table, but we’re running late for bed time.

8:30 - 9:30 pm: Clean the kitchen and start the dishwasher. Bath, jammies, tooth brushing, “hot tea” and stories.

10:00 pm: Wyatt is finally asleep. Time for Generation Kill and a foot rub from my dearest.

All in all a good day. I think I could use a few more of these before the baby comes, though.

This was a short week at preschool because their summer vacation starts on Friday.

Monday night, I finally made some home made blueberry muffins. I subbed in whole wheat flour for a quarter of the flour called for in the recipe and they came out sooooooo good. So of course Wyatt got a mini-muffin in his lunch on Tuesday. I also sent a rice ball, turkey roll-ups and a bunch of grapes.

Wednesday I sent crackers (hidden under the salami), salami, strawberries and another muffin.

Thursday’s lunch was super fruity. I sent some fresh peach chunks, a bunch of strawberries and a strawberry jam sandwich cut into a little man shape. I was going to send PB&J, but when I pulled out the peanut butter jar, Wyatt announced that he doesn’t eat peanut butter any more. Great.

I’m probably not going to be posting any bento photos for the next couple of weeks because Wyatt won’t be going to preschool, but I do have a couple of bento related posts I’m hoping to pull together during that time that illustrate some answers to questions I get asked a lot. Stay tuned!

I am starting to feel like I’m getting in a rut with the lunches I’ve been sending off to preschool. I feel like I do OK with the different fruits, veggies and starches, but I seem to send the same proteins over and over and over. How many times have you all had to look at salami, a sausage or tofu chunks? I was sending PB&J too, but now Wyatt has decided that he doesn’t like sandwiches, so I’ve mostly pulled them from my repetoire. Anyone have any good ideas for proteins to try him out on? I’m all ears.

I made all of Tuesday’s bento the night before because I had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning. I sent: pineapple chunks, zucchini-date bread (from Trader Joe’s), leftover rice and peas from dinner molded into teddy bear and heart shapes and salami roll-ups. He ate everything but the rice which is a little strange because he had three servings at dinner on Monday night. Maybe he doesn’t like the texture of the cold rice though. Or maybe all the other stuff filled him up.

Wednesday I sent more pineapple and zucchini bread, tomatoes with a little strawberry balsamic vinegar on them and baked teriyaki tofu strips.

I thought that Thursday’s bento was very pretty. I sent some peach slices, peas, a mini-blueberry muffin that I pulled out of the freezer and the perpetual favorite, salami. I hope I’m not clogging this kid’s arteries before he even hits age four…

Friday’s lunch has a blueberry cereal bar (behind the divider), leftover cooked carrots from last night’s dinner and some ranch dip (in the pink container), a chicken apple sausage, some cheese stars for decoration and some sliced havarti cheese that I put in to stabilize everything else.

A couple of people have noticed that I’ve been using some new bento boxes for the last month or so, so I thought I’d show what they look like with the lid on.  I got two new boxes with lids that lock on at the Ichiban Kan store by my house. I like these maybe a bit more than the other boxes I have because they hold a bit more and it’s also easier to rearrange things in the boxes when I need to.

I also wanted to show a picture of the drink boxes that we use. These are called Litterless Juice Boxes and they’re made by Rubbermaid. They’re the same size as a disposable juice box and you can just pour juice, milk or water into them. I really like them because it’s much cheaper to buy a big carton of juice than to buy a bunch of little boxes every week. I also can dillute the juice with water a bit so it’s not so sugary. And finally, it significantly cuts back on the amount of waste that’s generated by Wyatt’s daily lunches (though I do put a fresh straw in the juice box every day because I’m afraid of bacteria building up in the “permanent” straw that comes with the boxes).

One of the most common comments I get when people find out that I make Wyatt bento boxes for preschool is, “Wow! You have too much time on your hands.” (Or sometimes I get the more polite, “I don’t know where you find the time.”)

The fact is, I actually don’t have too much time on my hands. I work more than 40 hours at my job most weeks. I have a family and a house to care for. The dishwasher always needs to be emptied and there is always laundry to be folded, hung out to dry, or both. I also try to shower and brush my hair on a regular basis.

My kid needs to eat lunch every day though and I’ve chosen to make it a priority to fix him a nutritious meal and present it in an attractive way. I think it’s fun and it really doesn’t take me very much longer to make him a bento box vs. putting everything in ziplocks and a brown bag, but even so, I look for ways to cut lunch prep time in the morning. (Remember that part about showering?) One of my main strategies for cutting preparation time is to partially assemble his lunch the night before.

Tuesday, I sent this lunch to preschool: chicken apple sausage, catsup, blueberry mini-muffin, white peaches and a half a banana.

Pre-assembly: Wyatt had a sausage for dinner the night before, so while I was putting his dinner together, I threw a second sausage in his lunch box. I also filled the catsup container, stuck the muffin in and got his juice container ready to go. I waited to add the fruit until morning because I needed to cut it up and I didn’t want it to brown.

Wednesday’s lunch was very simple: grapes, half a hot dog bun and some ham roll-ups.

Pre-assembly: I put the grapes in the silicon cup the night before. I also cut and rolled up the ham. All I added in the morning was the hot dog bun. Easy peasy!

There’s no picture for Thursday because we were in such a rush in the morning that I completely forgot to take one. I sent: turkey salami, another hot dog bun and some sliced plums from our neighbor’s tree.

Pre-assembly: I folded the salami up the night before (trust me — it was really quite lovely), then added the bun and the plum in the morning.

Here’s today’s (Friday’s) lunch:apple chunks, chicken apple sausage, corn muffin, catsup and a s’mores brownie.  I wrapped the brownie up in lots of saran wrap in hopes that he’ll need the teacher’s help to open it. If he does, I’m pretty sure she’ll make him eat some of the other stuff before she’ll give it to him.

Pre-assembly: None. Wyatt was a total hand-full last night and it took both of us to get him into bed.

We walked over to the store with the wagon to get a few groceries, but Wyatt started acting a little bored almost even before we left our front yard.

To distract him, I handed him my point and shoot and asked him if he could take pictures of things as we walked along. His first assignment? Take a picture of something blue:

Take a picture of something red:

Take a picture of something purple:

Take a picture of some garbage:

I did not instruct him to take a picture of my booty, but that’s one of the hazards of handing your child a camera when you’re pulling him in the wagon. Of course, a normal person wouldn’t have posted this picture on the internet….