Media I'm thankful for

I am immensely grateful that I have been able to nurse Sofia so far. I really anticipated facing worse challenges than I have and I know I'm blessed to have this time and capacity to bond with her in this unique way - I highly recommend it to any mothers on the fence. That said, it severely limits the span of activities I can indulge in these days. With so many hours alone and with my arms and body occupied, preventing me from moving around, doing crafts, even typing, I have become increasingly grateful for several media formats that have kept me occupied and more sane than I would be otherwise. Here are a few of my favorites:

1) books. I have always loved books. Granted I can usually only read a couple pages at a time, so I'm not exactly tearing through my library these days, I am comforted by the stacks of books cluttering up most rooms of our apartment, reminding me to never fear - there are more pages to keep me busy. I just recently finished 2 books [Poisonwood Bible - thank you Elisabeth Stover! and A World Without Time - thank you husband who challenges me to think outside of my academic comfort areas, namely, the humanities] and promptly received 4 more as gifts within a matter of days.

2) Public Radio. Oh Terry Gross. Oh Kai Ryssdal.  

Little do you know, your shows keep my brain from turning to mush and make me feel intellectually connected to the world outside my baby girl's nursery. You also give me interesting things to talk about with my husband other than the uniqueness of Sofia's poop or snot that day. Bless you NPR. Bless you American Public Media. When I have money, I swear I will start contributing financially to show my gratitude!



3) blogs. Ok, I know, blogs are out, tweets are in, blah blah blah. But I need plenty of words to keep me busy and thanks to my dear sweet Google Reader I stay regularly entertained with funny and thought provoking long and short entries with very little use of my otherwise occupied hands.  A few blogs I've especially been enjoying lately:

Anything Once The first blog I ever got into remains one of my top 5 favorites. A formerly conservative young woman commits to trying new things - at least once. Her incredible writing style is always witty and makes me laugh out loud with nearly every entry. This woman needs to write a book someday soon!!

While You Were Napping adventures of a fellow new mom who makes me feel not-so-alone in the challenges I face from day to day [though significantly less fashionable when she shows off both her sons and her own cute outfits each Wednesday - I still look forward to Wednesdays though cause it always promises to be super cute!]

Fotomattic Graphic designer, Matt, captures amazing shots of Chicago as he goes about his day. Love his work - only wish he would post more frequently, I can't get enough! His captions also need to win an  award for being so clever.

and I recently got into . . .

Stuff Christians Like The book, Stuff White People Like cracked me up. These blog entries aren't quite as hilarious, but they both warm my heart with nostalgia for my youth at the same time as assuaging some of my guilt for being overly steeped in tribal christian culture by parodying the big experiences others with similar trespasses can identify with.


So here's my question to anyone who might be reading this - what suggestions do you have for keeping myself busy [maybe even productive?] while my body/hands are otherwise occupied with baby?