Goals for home time!

We are one week into a month and a half at home, and I'm digging it. This is stating the obvious, maybe, but it's wonderful to nest, especially when it's the most gorgeous time of year in this often-smelly city. We've had a beautiful string of weather (how Canadian of me to be writing about the weather!), and it's now cool enough to close the windows in the house so that I'm not grinding my teeth each time a truck backs down our lane to dump a load of bricks for yet another construction project. I could write a few blogs about the noise in my neighbourhood this summer, let me tell you.

Plus, being home means I don't have to unpack and repack a suitcase full of baby crap each day. Everything is where it should be. Toys in each room, Annie in her own bed, her clothes in the closet, diapers in the drawer. And there's a high chair if I need to keep Annabelle in one place. It's awesome.

Bathroom playtime

Many people have been asking me what I'm doing during my time at home. There's an assumption that home = vacation. Not so for the self-employed...I've got some real personal and professional goals for my time in Toronto. I thought that if I shared them, I would be more accountable! My friend Kerri Ough wrote a great blog about what she planned to do with her sabbatical last year (read it here). I was inspired by that entry, and thought I'd share my goals too.

Here we go:

Daily Journal Writing
My journal scrawling has all but come to a halt since Annie was born a year ago. I used to journal regularly - especially on the road on long drives, or with a glass of wine late at night when Colin went to bed. Now, I just want to go to bed early too, and if I'm on the road with the baby, I'm either driving, entertaining her, or trying to nap. The last thing on my mind is putting thoughts to paper. So, at least four entries per week, even if it's just a recap of the day. I need to get the words flowing again.

Vocal Coaching
I have started to work with the fabulous Amanda Mabro to find ways to help improve my vocal health. There's a blog about my voice in the works where I'll explain my situation more deeply. In short, I'm learning that some bad technique and shitty amounts of sleep are the likely causes of 3 months of vocal trouble. Amanda's helping me work through this, and I'm so grateful. We're going to meet once a week, and I'm excited (and nervous) to see what kind of progress we can make.

Guitar Lessons
 I need some fresh eyes when I look at my guitars. Each time I pick up my guit-boxes these days, it feels like I'm playing the same things over and over. And while performing a hundred shows a year has certainly helped to improve my playing, I need to shake things up.
So, I'm going to take a few lessons, one on electric with the incomparable Christine Bougie to give me some new telecaster tricks, and one on acoustic with boy wonder Tom Power of CBC Radio 2 and The Dardanelles. It's been an embarrassing amount of time since my last lesson. These are well overdue.

Write/Complete Four songs
This fall break from touring was originally set aside for Good Lovelies to work on the new record, and that's what I'm going to do. I've got dozens of partially-written songs that need attention, and I'm hoping that some spark of creativity will get my songwriting going again.
I will admit that songwriting is not coming easily at the moment. I'm finding it hard to find inspiration (despite all the love in my life!).
I feel like my lyrics are trite and cheesy and completely without depth (not a new feeling, really). Also, combined with the vocal issues I've been having, I've been shying away from writing - well, unless I'm trying to entertain the baby. Today, while I was playing the guitar for Annabelle, I free-styled this little ditty:
Your name is Annie
You are cute and funny
But sometimes, oh sometimes
your diaper smells funky."

Can you say JUNO!?

Attend (at least) Five Live Shows
This is another part of my life that has been lacking since baby was born. I rarely go out to see live music, which is strange because I make my living depending on people doing just that.
There's no shortage of good music coming through Toronto in the next 5 weeks. Last night, I started working on this goal by seeing DIANA in concert at the Great Hall. The Good Lovelies sometimes-bassist Paul Mathew plays guitar/bass/synth in this band, and it was so fun to go see him in a different setting (DIANA's show is very different from the Lovelies!).

I was won over by the opening band last night, Empress Of.
She was mesmerizing...I think I'm in love. Again, 

Also, I drank a few beers last night, closed my eyes, swaying to the music. In that moment I was revelling in sound moving through me, trying to capture the subtleties of the music. It felt great to experience that again (and to hang out with some buds). This morning, not so awesome. Turns out I'm now a lightweight. First hangover since October 2011. Ugh.

momontheroad.ca
Over the next month I'll be working with musician and design wizkid Janine Stoll. She's helping me build a more comprehensive website for my Mom on the Road blogs. I'm excited to get this new webspace up and running!
In the meantime I have built a very basic website at www.carolinebrooks.ca. It's not much, but it's a place to point people in the direction of some of my projects. I'm feeling pretty energized about all of this, particularly because I just dropped an insane amount of dough on a new macbook pro.

Sleep Training Annie-B
Oh, this is my least favourite project for my time at home. This is the first significant amount of time at home we've had all year, and it gives us enough time to teach Annie to sleep (and to fall asleep) on her own. I'll get into this a bit more fully in an upcoming blog, but we need our little munchkin to learn how to fall asleep without our help. It's for our good, and hers too. We have made some really positive steps in the last week, but we have a long way to go.

My little taste-tester.

One New Recipe per week
Pretty self-explanatory. I do love cooking, even though my kitchen is the size of a postage stamp. It feels especially small when I have a one year old ambling around, getting her fingers into outlets, standing right in front of the stove, and pulling open the fridge.
So, I'm going to make one new dish per week. I have a feeling this month's recipes will involve many beautiful harvest vegetables. My favourite time of year for cooking (can you say Pumpkin pie!?).

And finally...

Throw a 1st birthday party!
Annabelle turns one tomorrow. And on that note, I must go bake some cupcakes, from a new recipe given to me by my buddy Sue Passmore (she has a great design/food/music blog...check it out here). We're having a gathering a the park tomorrow, taking advantage of the beautiful late summer weather.

Lots going on here, and I'm feeling energized (despite the hangover).

Til next time,

Caroline