expect the unexpected

We're just seven weeks into our new adventure - the one in parenting. :)  And if we've learned anything at this point, it's that we should get rid of our expectations.  (Especially the ones about sleep! In truth, though things are improving in that department.  Thank goodness.)

Among the expectations we tried not to have going into this were expectations about when we would be getting back to work in the studio.  We thought maybe January would be a reasonable guess, as we couldn't know what kind of baby Z would be, how we'd be feeling, and just how exactly our lives would be with our first baby.

What we did know was that having our studio here at home - situated nearby in the field between our farmhouse and the wood-kiln - would give us the best chance at continuing to be potters.  (I suppose that was a lot of the impetus behind our marathon studio building last winter + spring!  We're loving our new building.)

And so when I found myself wedging clay four weeks after giving birth, I took it in stride.  I was pleasantly surprised, to be sure, but also I knew there would be no saying if I'd be able to get back to those balls of clay tomorrow, or next week, or . . . ?

As it turns out, we've worked up a little routine where we each have time alone with Z while the other goes off around the farm/studio/kiln to get some work done.  Family togetherness resumes at meals and in the evenings when it turns cold and dark (all too early these days!).

It feels like a win win at this point.  We both LOVE our time with her, and we also still really enjoy keeping up with our work and business.  And we have fun taking a morning off the four of us (let's not forget Lego the canine here) for a hike or outing of some sort once a week.

And so it goes.  For now.  With no expectations of things remaining this way going forward . . . it's one day at a time here in new-parent-land.  ('Cause I think we realize that a toddler crawling around a pottery studio is going to be, well, interesting.) :)

~Becca