This Too Shall Pass

One thing I'm learning as a mommy is that time moves on. Thank. God. It's been a struggle this week to be a patient and energized mommy.

A big struggle.

I'm still playing detective as to where Morenna picked up the new habit of night-waking (teething? hunger? new developmental milestone?) but wherever it came from, she has it. Bad.

Several nights this week she'll wake up between 2am-3am, wide awake. For the first hour or so she'll just sit quietly in her crib and stare at the wall, poor dear. Ask me how I know this? Bathroom visit, every two hours. Blah.

After the initial hour, she'll get frustrated and start whimpering for attention. I give in. I can't help it - I sympathize as I'm dealing with my own pregnancy-related insomnia. There's nothing worse than being awake and feeling like the only one in the world to be that way.

Anyhow, she's always so delighted to see me and will sit quietly on my lap and rock. And rock. And rock. Every now and then she'll count to three, or identify my eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, or ask about her favorite book. An hour later, she'll start asking for food, milk, juice, her toys. Finally around 5am Matt gets up for work, so she laughs and chatters while chasing him around the bathroom as he gets dressed. Did you catch the time? Yeah, 2-3 hours later.

I can rarely get her back to bed until around 6am. She'll sleep until about 9am and then be grumpy and out of sorts the rest of the day until naptime. From what I've read, this night-waking phase usually lasts from month 18 to month 20. We'll see about that.

Sounds like I'll get one back into the habit of nighttime sleeping just in time to welcome a new addition... with her own reasons for night-waking. Fun stuff!

One thing in which I have found comfort is the wisdom of seasoned moms, saying: "This too shall pass." Should nothing I try work, I know this won't last forever.

I hope. :-)

Bringing Nature to Suburbia

Most of you know that I grew up in the country. And loved it.

Now being a forced resident of suburbia, I find I'm lonesome for the freedom that owning land can bring. Since our backyard is fenced in, I'm all primed to attempt planting a garden in our rock-infested yard next year. But what to do in the meantime?

Enter brilliance. Not my own, unfortunately, but I shamelessly stole the idea. No rocks. No weeds. Just good nutritious soil and yummy greens in... my gutter garden.

It took only one evening for Matt and I to purchase our vinyl gutters and other materials. Easy-peasey. I back-ordered the seeds and in late July I put in a crop of baby spinach, gourmet greens and Simpson lettuce. Both have done really well and we had some of the lettuce in salads a night ago. Yum, yum! (Sorry the picture is blurry.)

I know you're probably as taken back about the brilliance in suburbia gutter gardening as I am. You're thinking: Man, this gal's got it going on. Or maybe not. Perhaps you think I'm crazy, and you might be right...

Last week our little family (read: me) decided gardening didn't quite fix our back-to-nature cravings so we pulled out all the stops and... joined a raw milk club. :Gasp: Now you really do think I'm crazy, don't you?

Best. Decision. Ever. Despite the multiple health benefits I was a little apprehensive about the switch, but I'm so happy we did it. And let me tell you, once you join the little raw milk community you find your fellow raw-milk-drinking-friends start popping out of the woodwork. Who knew?!

So anyway, we've been purchasing (yes, purchasing... even though it's against the law. As if it's the government's place to regulate what I drink... it's just MILK people, come on!) about a gallon and a half a week. From that amount I'm able to skim off quite a bit of cream and make my own butter (all-in-all about 3/4 cup) using my kitchen aid mixer. Simple and tasty.

Wow. So there's the good, bad and ugly regarding my back-to-nature cravings. Well, not totally. Would you believe in the same time period I also made the decision to switch Morenna over to cloth diapers?! I blame my pregnancy hormones. More on that later. The diapers, I mean, not the hormones. :-)

All About Roo - Part Two

Ignorance is bliss, or so they say. Frankly, I'm inclined to believe there's a whole heck of a lot of truth in the statement. When I was pregnant with Morenna it seemed that my OB implied first-time mommas were the biggest worrywarts. Oh, contrare.

Perhaps it's the been-there-done-that factor that makes second pregnancies much more worrisome, at least for me. I compare every twitch, every movement, every ache and pain to what I experienced with Morenna. And when they aren't the same, I wonder what might be wrong. Sheesh.

On a non-hormonal note, everything in Baby Roo's world is in tip-top shape. :-) I'm cherishing these last two weeks of my second trimester (already nearly to my third! where did the time go?) and am attempting to harness my energy wisely. Sadly, I'm already noticing my stamina patterning that of our booming economy. (Yeah, about that...)

Thus far, Baby Roo has been MUCH more active than I ever remember Morenna being. Matt and I are quite entertained most nights watching her acrobatic skills shift my belly this way and that. In that regard, I'll be glad when her growth starts limiting movement a bit. Many. Sleepless. Nights.

Thankfully, I returned to the pregnancy chiropractor I used with Morenna and it's made a huge difference with the aches and pains of physical changes. The special table my doctor uses is designed for pregnant tummies, so it's definitely an added benefit to lay around on my stomach for at least five minutes each week. If the office isn't too busy, I shamelessly ask to lay around "for just five more minutes?".

On another note, Big Sister Morenna most likely doesn't understand why my lap has disappeared, but she has picked up on the fact that I rub my belly a lot. She'll prance around with hers stuck out like a little Budda, rubbing it and jabbering on about Baby GiGi, as she calls her.

(Oh my word, did I just drop a hint as to what baby's name might be? But definitely don't be thinking in the French Poodle department...).

Life Happens

Ah, how time slips away! I've had so many blog posts in the works in my mind, but finding time to actually write them, well, it hasn't happened. :-)

This summer has just flown by to me. Already it's the end of August and the kids are going back to school. Matt recently announced it was time to start studying for the bar, something I knew was coming but was valiantly trying to ignore. It's funny how the things you ignore still end up appearing right in front of you.

Pregnancy has been wearing me out the past week or two (more on that later), so coping with my mile-high to-do list and the lack of time has been a bit discouraging. Couple that with a teething toddler (her molars, poor thing) and a busy schedule and you get... no blog posts. :-)

As a start on updates: we recently went to visit my family for a long weekend and had a really good time. For once none of us were sick (as has been the case for the last several visits)! Matt had to work while we were there, but I did happen to snag him for a night out at the Ohio Theater, a posh historic landmark that shows old movies in the summertime. I have a lot of memories of going there while I was growing up, so it was fun to share that with him.

And of course, Morenna had a blast with all the extra attention. Here's a few shots while we were there. And stay tuned for more posts to come in the next couple of days...

Wrestling with Daddy is her favorite thing to do.

Sometimes funny things happen when you
keep her up past her bedtime. :-)

And Grandmas never help things.

Morenna has really been enjoying the pool this year.
Thankfully my aunt has a pool we can enjoy when we're home.

Camera Love

Last November we splurged and bought a new Nikon D60 camera. It was love at first, um, click. Throughout the year I've had a blast playing around with it, and I adore the great features - like a speedy flash and continuous shutter release - which has revolutionized my photos. Trying to capture shots of a busy little lady has become a breeze, and I never feel like I miss any special moment.

This past weekend we packed up and headed to Ohio for a brief visit with my family. My dad is a big-time model train enthusiast and while we were there he asked me to take a few shots of his model train. It was a bit of a challenge as the layout is still a work-in-progress, but I had a lot of fun capturing what shots I could. After a little editing, you'd never know it was unfinished.

Messes

We've entered a new phase here at our house. I never really pushed Morenna to use a baby fork or spoon. Occasionally I'd offer her one, but being the busy little bee that she is, her hands were the speedy and efficient preference.

Now at long last she's decided that any food placed before her should be retrieved with a utensil of some type. I'm definitely happy to see her moving more towards eating like a grown-up, but it's brought along a fair share of mess. :-)


Her utensils aren't all to blame, though. Eight teeth later... she finally has taken interest in attempting to eat just about anything. On Sunday she grabbed an entire ear of corn, husk and all, while I was in the process of shucking the others. She wasn't very impressed. Half an hour later we introduced her to the "proper" way of eating corn... and it was like a What About Bob? experience: "Mmmmm. MMMmmmm. MMMMMMMMMmm!"

Lastly, Morenna has been creating messes by helping me in the kitchen. I love how great an interest she is showing in baking, and even cleaning-up. The other night she demonstrated to Daddy how she helps makes brownies. I think he got a good idea...

Isn't she the cutest thing? I'm totally loving this phase, despite the extra work. Hopefully it will be double the fun when Baby Roo joins the scene... :-)

Who Can Find a Woman of Strength - Part Two

This week I was able to move on to verses 13 and 14 of Proverbs 31. As you may recall, I felt the need to stay awhile in verses 10-12... and I'm glad I did. This past week I had the opportunity to put my meditations into practice regarding vs. 12.

I'm sure most of you can relate to a stressful morning when your spouse is all but preoccupied with issues of the day and his treatment of his wife and/or offspring leaves a lot to be desired. That was our Wednesday morning. And, like normal, I began to react with a cold, harsh, punitive attitude.

Immediately the Lord tugged at my heart and verse 12 ran through my head. With substantial effort, I attempted to switch gears: Warmth instead of cold; gentleness instead of harshness; grace, kindness and helpfulness in place of my punitive, judgmental attitude.

And what do you know? It blessed my husband! What victory! Less than 30 minutes later he returned to me with a soft, repentant heart. Though my purpose in blessing him was not to receive a grand apology, my blessing him ended up blessing me in the process. How kind of God!

My new study:

Proverbs 31: 13-14
She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

Here we shift to this woman's more practical nature. At first glace, I didn't really feel like there was a lot here. It seemed a bit culturally out-of-date... but like all of the Bible, there was something to learn.

Verse 13

Perhaps I don't feel the Lord leading me to shear my sheep, (if I owned any) spin my wool, and shed some creative juices on my dust-laden sewing machine. (Yes, I have one. Does the simple possession factor count?). But at the very least, I am called to clothe my family.

Reluctantly, I think I could stand some growth in this area. My family is hardly running around naked, but my husband certainly doesn't look his best when he leaves for work in the morning. Why? Well, mostly for my self-created aversion to ironing. I own one. I try not to use it. End of story. Maybe I could actually turn it on sometime...

And once my husband's pants are ironed, what about hemming some of them? He's not the tallest tree in the forest and I'm stumped (no pun intended :-))to think of a pair of dress pants he owns that actually aren't baggy. It doesn't take a sewing expert to hem some pants... just a sewing machine and an iron. Ahem.

Verse 13b

I'm sure the Lord calls each of us to certain areas of growth concerning the above, but something that is relevant for all of us is the adverb: "eager". This Hebrew word actually insinuates doing a task with delight and pleasure. I hardly think I have to elaborate on this one. Yet beware: it holds the greatest punch of all.

Verse 14

1 Timothy 6:8 seems to reflect that food and clothing are the two most important things and it's not surprising that they are lumped together.

The ships in reference were likely the ships of Tarshish (Ez 27:25 and Is 2:16 and 1 Kg 10:12), which were known for their elaborate goods. The literal translation of the verse is that she is like these ships.

To try to reach some sort of clarification, I attempted to employ my college latin to translate the Vulgate passage. After shedding some blood, sweat, and translation toil... it didn't help. :-) Rats.

I think I'll spend some more time thinking through this verse this week. In the meantime, what basic facts I've been able to draw from the verse is this: she provides good things (and a good variety) for her family to eat. What do you think?

With that... I'm off to menu plan and visit the grocery. :-)