Unofficially

I took an unofficial break from pretty much all things blogs last week. I didn't write any. I only read a few (my Google reader had some 500 unread blogs that I sort of skimmed marked as read this past weekend). And I had a great week.

I've been getting up before 7 (most mornings) and having coffee, a good little quiet time, making something of a plan for the day, and usually doing a bit of exercise. Most mornings I can get all of this in before Lizzie wakes up. This is why I love it when my husband is on a routine that gets him up and out the door early in the morning, which also makes us ready to go to bed before midnight each night. All these things don't happen on a retail or unemployment schedule--or lack thereof.

Then during naptimes, I have been either getting in some reading or doing stuff around the house that needs to be done. Like de-cluttering. (Don't tell anyone but I actually borrowed and read through The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cleaning this week. I have 2 more weeks before I have to return it to the library, and I'm hoping I will actually implement at least some of it before taking it back.) But so far, I've just been trying to uncover the surfaces in our home. If I can find our furniture, I think I'll have a much better chance at maintaining a neat and peaceful home. At least for the next 2 months.

So, not much has been done in the realm of blogging.

However, I feel like it's a good time to give a brief update.

Lizzie is 23 months old. Almost 2. Sleeping in a big girl bed. Singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" into a microphone. Parroting what she hears. Walking around the house with her shopping cart (with her baby doll or puppy dog sitting in the front basket), putting things into it, and saying, "Buy diss." She has cut the first of four of her 2-year molars, and seems to be working on the next one. She is mastering the art of manipulation by cuteness. She "helps" me sweep the floor, water the garden, and clean up. (The garden currently still has one cherry tomato, one cucumber, and now 4 (hopefully) lettuce seedlings.) She still can't say her "k" sounds. She says "wuv you" when she gives hugs. She seems to be catching on to the idea that she will be a big sister, and that there is a "bay-ee hiding" in Mommy's tummy.

Speaking of which, I am 32 weeks pregnant. There are only 8 weeks left to go, Lord willing. I'm really hoping there aren't 9 weeks left. I'll try not to complain about it too much, but I just have to say that I am still not the biggest fan of being pregnant. I had to break out the support hose on Sunday; it helped the insane swelling I've been having in my left foot/ankle/leg, but I'm not sure if it was worth it. Part of me would rather have swelling than wear nylons. I haven't taken a picture of my pregnant self in a while, though I know I should. If for no other reason than to see how my size compares to what I looked like at this point last time. I have a feeling I'm bigger.

Every once in a while I get concerned about giving birth again, but the other night, after seeing a video of a goat being born, I was considering that I was glad we deliver little, soft, human babies, rather than anything huge or with hooves. I'm pretty sure being a mother rhinoceros would be the worst thing ever. Most other babies don't grow their horns or antlers until they're older. Not so the rhinos.

My mom's book release party/signing went really well. Here are some pictures. It was a lot of fun, and it was a huge success, due largely to a fantastic turnout of friends from church.

I am strongly considering venturing out into a business. Ambitious, I know. Especially for someone who is expecting a second child, and is somewhat lazy. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of risk, and there could be a fair amount of profit, even if I do get off to a slow start. We're praying about it, but for the most part we have peace.

Well, it's been about half an hour of nap time consumed here, and I have some more decluttering to do before I can feel like I crossed off much of significance on my To Do list today.

This may unofficially be my only post of this week. And I am OK with that.

Washing Kiddy Straws in the Dishwasher {WFMW}

I'm a lazy homemaker.  Really.  So when it comes to washing some things, like picky little straws that come with toddler cups, you can bet I am not going to break out the pipe cleaners. A good rinse is not sufficient when you have a sick little kiddo.  Or when you didn't realize there was a sippy cup half filled with milk under the piano bench for 2 days. 

 

No, no, that is no good.  I must figure out a way to put them in the dishwasher.  But they fall through the holes. And those crazy bottle/nipple/straw/ baby silverware contraptions are nice in theory, but not worth their space for 2 or 3 puny straws.  And dishwasher real estate is priceless:  I will put more effort into rearranging cups and bowls to make them all fit than it would ever take to just wash them by hand. 

So, here is my solution, and it works quite well.

Wrap a rubber band around at least 2 straws.  You have to wrap it around multiple times, and get around each straw individually at least once.  You don't want to have to fish one of them out because it fell through the silverware during the rinse cycle.

Then, drop 'em in with the silverware.

 

They come out clean and sterilized.  Can it get any easier?  I think not.  That's why it works for me! 
(I also learned that if you have only one straw to wash, you can band it to a knife.  Works just as well.)

Weekly Plan - I Finally Have One!

Confession time:
I have laundry that was washed 2 weeks ago that is still not put away.
I have not done a focused cleaning of the bathrooms since we had company over a month ago.
I cannot even remember the last time I mopped the kitchen floor.  
The house is kept to a standard of "sanitary" (after all, no one licks the kitchen floor, right?) but it is certainly not ready for company at a moment's notice.
This is, I believe, part of why "virtual coffee" is such a great idea. :)

About 2 years ago I was home, not working anymore, and pregnant.  Following Rachel Anne's Home Sanctuary blog, I decided to create a real housekeeping schedule.  I went a bit crazy with it, using Excel, and outlining pretty much everything I would ever do to run a tight ship, right down to separating the mirrors and the bathtub from the bathrooms in general.  It was quite successful.  And then, the baby came. 

There was a readjustment period, as you would expect.  But the readjustment period probably shouldn't have lasted a year and a half.  Seriously.

So here I am again: home, not working, and pregnant.  And my house is a shambles.  Part of that has had to do with having Sam at home.  I don't know exactly what that's about, but there's something that paralyzes me when he's not working.  Maybe I think it's a perpetual weekend.  Maybe I feel obligated to keep him company.  Maybe I use it as an excuse to be lazy.  I can't get anything productive done, and if I do, it's in spurts of about 4 minutes at a time.  That, and the kitchen was always a mess because there was another adult making food and not cleaning it up.  A minor complaint, but sometimes in my head it got really major.  Oh, the joys of pregnancy hormones.  But he's working again, and all is right with the kitchen. 

This week I was inspired to get serious about making a schedule again.  It is a very simple one.  It allows for ONE major item per day, and one or two other minor items per day.  Laundry is broken up into 3 categories and takes 3 days.  My Fridays' "major item" is "catch up" - allowing myself plenty of flexibility.  There is nothing written on the weekend days.  I want to consider those my "off" days, even though there are still the daily minimum requirements to making the house function.  This is a schedule I think I will be able to maintain after the next baby comes.

Housekeeping Schedule - 2011

Not listed are those daily things.  They are:
Dinner prepared/cleaned up
Pick Up (Minimum Maintenance - or some variation thereof)
Dishes (sink and counter clear by bedtime)
Sort mail/eliminate junk papers

These things alone will make everything less stressful.  Wanna know why?  Because I haven't even been doing them.  Granted, I was too sick to stand up for a while there, but that's over and we're done with that phase.  (Thank God!)

So I have been slowly but surely making my way to getting things picked up since Wednesday when I drew this schedule out on a piece of paper.  Yep, it's just a large page, no white board, no dates.  Simple as can be.

That's the way it's gotta be to work around here.

Now I'm off to finish watching Sid the Science Kid with Lizzie.  Sid is her latest TV crush.  Oh, she loves him.

a Monday of Misadventures

Today felt like a real-life enactment of Robert Quackenbush's children's book Henry's Awful Mistake.  I have been thinking about that book quite a bit lately, because I want to have people over to eat with us, and I have been seeing ants in the bathroom.  But that has nothing to do with today.  Today was just weird. 

Henry's Awful Mistake, Robert Quackenbush

Last night we discovered that one of our cats had gotten locked out of the bathroom where their litter box is, so when we came back from our dinner excursion at the fine dining establishment of KFC, we found cat doodie and cat tinkle on Sam's backpack in his closet. 

When we threw the backpack into the washer and went to finish the cleanup, we discovered that the floor was damp and the carpet was stained a sort of rust color.  There was a musty smell.  This closet wall is opposite of the master bathroom shower.  Dreading the worst, we put a fan on it and went to bed, deciding to tackle it in the morning.

Severe thunderstorms swept through north Georgia early this morning, so the house was cool and dark when the alarm went off at 7-something and I rolled out of bed at 8-something.  The first half hour of the morning was quite pleasant; I got up, had coffee, a bit of a quiet time, and listened while the thunder woke Lizzie. 

Shortly after breakfast, Sam and I began discussing bills needing to be paid and being past due, and it was not the most peaceful conversation.  I wondered what had happened to the quiet that had been in my heart.  I realized it was dueling with the pride in my heart, which was trying to convince me that I had hardly any fault.  I chewed on that for a while, and eventually went to apologize to Sam, who was trying to figure out what was the best way to deal with the mold in his closet. 

I had the cute, demanding, and infinitely miserable half-pint hanging on my leg, and on my neck when she managed to convince me to carry her.  All day she's been wiping her nose on her sleeve, and has been generally discontent except when outside or in the bathtub.

While Sam was extracting black molded carpet frames and carefully putting them in a bag inside a box to keep the toxicity at bay, I had been trying to at least make a list of things that need to be done this week, and had high expectations of making a grocery list and starting dinner.  Lizzie was napping, and I was going to take full advantage of the time.

I picked up the living room to vacuum so that Sam could vacuum in the closet, then we could throw away the vacuum bag.  I am outrageously out of shape, because I was winded by the time I finished.  And when I stood the vacuum upright in the master bedroom, I heard Lizzie's pathetic, snuffling cry through the monitor.  She had been down for about 30 minutes and I let her cry for another 10, just to see if she would calm down.  No good.

The rest of the day was spent in a low-grade panic.  Late in the afternoon I chased the wide awake and exploring Lizzie into the bedroom to find Sam leaning over the sink quietly washing his hands.  I asked if he was alright, and he said he had stabbed himself with a rusty nail.  He'd been wearing thin plastic gloves to protect him from the grossness, but they had been no protection against a nail.

New distress surfaced when he said that the last Tetanus shot he had received was in 1991.  So we spent 20 minutes trying to pinpoint the county Health Department, where he could get a shot without having insurance.  While searching, we found out that our county's Health Department's website is absolutely blank.  No information, no phone number, no 'click here for details.'  Just a banner letting you know you found it, and the rest is empty.  Taxpayer dollars at work.  We found the location, thanks to Google Maps, and Sam left with 20 minutes before the clinic closed, hoping for an open slot.

In the meantime, I had to figure out whether I was going to make something for dinner or just call Sam to ask him to pick up another healthy meal from a drive-thru.  I decided to give dinner a go while Lizzie was semi-mesmerized by Veggie Tales' Pistachio.  From what I heard, it sounded entertaining. 

Around 6 PM, Sam made it back home, to tell me that he has to go back tomorrow, since they didn't have time to give him a shot today.  In all honesty, the Chicken Cacciatore was the highlight of the day, which I photographed and I hope to share the recipe with you soon.  We all devoured it.  Perhaps we were starving and didn't realize it, and that's why everything seemed a little more awful than it really was.  Or maybe it really was just a crappy day.

The evening progressed, and refreshed from a delicious meal, we got up and got Lizzie in the bathtub, where she had a wonderful time as long as both parents were present.  When we got her out, she promptly tinkled on the floor.  That was laughable and I cleaned it up, diapered her, pajamaed her, read to her, nursed her, and medicined her.  The nighttime routine is very long, and I had not made a pit stop before it started, so I asked Sam to keep an eye on Lizzie while I ran to the bathroom for a minute. 

What happened, though, is that I actually ran to the bathroom.  And as I ran, I swung for the lightswitch in the bedroom, but missed.  That's OK, because I've lived here for over 3 years and can navigate my way to the bathroom in the dark.

Unless there is an upright vacuum cleaner in the pitch black room. 

C   R   A   S   H   !!!

I nailed it with my knee, my shin, and what still feels like my entire upper right leg.  And I kind of lost it, if you know what I mean.  I cried in pain and embarrassment and fatigue.  Sam and Lizzie came in to help me up and give my boo-boos kisses.  I changed into my pajamas and finally got Lizzie into bed. 

Now that I listed it all, it's pretty funny.  But I was on the verge of tears of complete weariness and frustration most of the day.  And I am thankful that nothing worse happened.  And I am so very grateful that tomorrow will come with fresh grace to help and the sunrise will come with new mercy to meet our needs. 

Now, to--slowly--find myself some Advil.

Bibs

I just realized that we gave Lizzie her first bites of solid food A YEAR AGO.

It gave me a scare for a moment not unlike the moments in which you realize you can measure your life in DECADES.

We've come a long way. The first thing she ate was avocado. She loved it.

These days, Liz will eat almost anything except for avocado. The texture gets to her. I guess it reminds her of baby food. And she is such a big girl that she wants nothing to do with baby food.

Now she eats green beans. Whole. Frozen--especially when she's teething.

(Speaking of teething, we are almost done. Praise Jesus! The last incisor is through and is working its way into its position. Oh, the relief!)

Ever since teething began, along with the buckets of drool, bibs have been part of our daily routine.

Until recently, they have been wadded in one of the few drawers in the kitchen. The same drawer that holds the hot pads and towels and cloth napkins. And it's pretty small. You know how it is trying to cram too many things into one small drawer. It was frustrating, so I began not putting them away. That never helps the frustration level go down, because then they're just out where they don't belong.

Here is my solution:

This picture only shows two bibs hanging, for clarity's sake. Normally there are about a dozen. And the way this kid eats, we go through that many between laundry days.

They are now hanging on the wire shelving behind the door of the pantry. The bibs that clasp are wrapped around the wire.
The bibs that don't clasp--the kind you have to pull over the head like a t-shirt--are looped through a plastic link.

This has solved the bib problem!

Since I'm talking about bibs, and mentioned laundry, I also realized that bibs should be washed inside mesh lingerie bags. Even if you close all the Velcro tabs before you throw them in, there is no guarantee they won't catch on something you really didn't want to have frayed.

I'm giving the "Works for Me Wednesday" link up a whirl. Because I believe this will help more than just me.

So far I have linked up with 3 different sites this week. It is so much fun to meet new people through these sites. I don't know why I haven't tried to do this before!

Kitchens, Plastic and Real

This weekend we hit one of our favorite subdivision yard sale extravaganzas. If we had any particular goal in mind, it was to buy Lizzie a kitchen play set. And a baby monitor, since our video monitor took a dive off a bookshelf and didn't survive. No luck on the monitor.

However, we had success, and found a large kitchen set in great condition, with a ton of dishes, for $25!

Now a colorful plastic "Country Kitchen" is in the dining room, in view of the real kitchen.

Liz is in love. She pretends to microwave a cup, pushing the buttons, closing the door, pushing the buttons again, removing the cup, then pretending to drink out of it. Then she giggles. And we giggle. Watching her pretend play is amazing. Her imitations are exaggerated, and almost exact. That girl wants to be just like me.

Humbling thought.

At least both kitchens are clean. I know they're clean, because I used Clorox wipes on them. The real one and the plastic one. Now I have two kitchens to pick up before bed every night. Or at least more dishes to put where they belong. I may have to implement a chore for Lizzie after dinner.

Recently I did a complete ceiling-to-floor cleaning of the kitchen. The last time I did that was during my 2nd trimester, and I have a 16-month-old child. The Clorox wipes are as close as it has gotten to thoroughly clean in a long time. If I had absolutely no pride, I would have taken "before" and "after" photos, but I only took one "after" photo of what I'm the most pleased with.

You know how those odd cooking staples like oil, vinegar, and all the things that get too close to the stove somehow have a film of grease, then the countertop gets all gunky, and so does anything that touches the gunky countertop?

And you know that one huge platter you have that you only use for Thanksgiving? The one that takes up half a cupboard?

Well, I repurposed the platter, and gave all the bottles a place to live. Isn't it pretty? It makes me happy.


Back to this weekend. To make room for the new kitchen set, I cleared the dining room table and took out a leaf. This means we have a clean dining room, too. It means we can eat without pushing papers and crayons and contact lens cases and batteries and scissors and power tools to the far end in order to find a place to set our plates.

The office is taking shape. There are no more papers on the floor. We vacuumed it. Yes, that's a big deal around here. Why, yes, we don't have company over very often. Why do you ask?

L's closet has only clothes in it that she can grow into. All her smaller clothes are in the attic. Next I will go through her toys. Slowly but surely I am making my way through the house. One day it will be clean; maybe even free of excess clutter.

Not free of clutter. Free of excess clutter. And I can live with that.

What project are you working on, what result are you happy with, or what do you hope to accomplish this month?

I'm linking up with the Moms' 30 Minute Blog Challenge at Steady Mom's blog today. I love the concept, and could stand to do this more than only on Tuesdays!

Seriously, how do you do it?

I have had one of those weeks ... admittedly, for a few weeks. One of those weeks in which nothing gets done. OK, truth be told, I did a lot of playing Farmville, and playing "throw the ball to Mama," and wanting nothing more than to sit on the couch with a cup of coffee and my new Runner's World magazine. (Yeah, forget that running business--I haven't done anything that qualifies as exercise in a full 15 days.)

Now, fortunately I have managed to keep dinner on the table every day except one (plus a time or two when we have gone to get a meal), and all our bills are paid. And our clothes are clean. And mostly put away (except for the baby's, but since it's hard to put them away when she's awake, and when she's asleep I don't want to go in her room to put them away, the clean clothes live in the hamper in the living room for a few days).

But the table ... well, do you want to see what the kitchen table looks like?

Yikes. We just push everything over at dinner time to eat off of one half of it.

And the living room:

Those are gift bags (top left) from the end of February when we did our family birthday lunch. And Sam's t-shirt(s) on the couch. And the baby laundry on the chair. And the mail on the piano bench... because there isn't any more room on the kitchen table. And cedar chips to go in the dog house outside - then why are they inside still? And the toys...... Sigh. These are small pictures, so you can't see too much in detail.

But the bathrooms have gone too long. Really, there will be no picture necessary.

So, how do you do it?
How do you keep things up? Do you budget your time? Do you say "no ____ until I finish ____"? Or maybe you have children who are done with teething and no longer eat leaves when you're not looking? Perhaps you actually have people come to your house regularly, so you have motivation more than once a month, to keep things picked up.
Of course, why would I try to pretend I keep a nice clean house for company, when I just put pictures of my disaster area online for the world to see?

Do you have secrets to keeping your sanity? Or do you have weeks like this, too?

The past week, however, has had some milestones:
On Saturday Sam, Lizzie and I went with Jessa to the vet's office, and only Sam, Lizzie, and I came back. After 14 years, Jessa had her 3rd strike, and we had to put her to sleep. It was sad, but it was the right time, and I had a peace about it. It has actually been a huge relief to us to not have to take care of her anymore. Though of course I miss seeing her around the house, sleeping like a log, and I keep thinking I can throw the odd table scrap to her, but then she's not there. Lizzie kept looking for her for about a day - Jessa used to always follow me into the room whenever I went to pick Lizzie up from a nap or go for a diaper change. So every time Liz looked down, there was the old yellow dog. She's stopped looking now.

On the brighter side, Lizzie popped 2 teeth in one day, so now she has 5! Two on the bottom, and three on the top. The top ones are slowly coming down more. I wish I could get a picture of them, but that would require her to hold still while I hold the camera, which is not a skill set we have mastered yet. Now that she can bite down into things, she loves to take her Cheerios and put them in her mouth just to hear them crunch between her front teeth. She also spent several days testing the sound her teeth made when she crunched or ground them together. I am glad that's stopped for the most part. Terrible noise.

Lizzie now throws the ball. She's actually pretty good at it!


She also dances to music or a beat. Here is a short video:



Please excuse the misspelling of the word helicopter. I don't know where the spelling brain cell went.

Isn't she fun? I do love having her around! The fun of watching her learn, play and understand is probably a fair trade for the chaos that sometimes surrounds us. Though I do hope that before long we'll have less chaos and just as much fun.

Snow Really is Coming!

At 1:45 PM - You can see the deck a little bit wet



At 2:00 PM - You can see a little bit of snow dusting the back deck





At 2:15 PM - I took the dogs out in the front yard to wander, and took a few shots out there




At 2:30 PM



At 3:00 PM (after the dog had run around out there)


Finally a panoramic at 3:40 - and it's still coming!

The plan for the day

Good morning!

I just put Elizabeth down for a nap about 25 minutes ago, and I am going to try to get a few things accomplished before she wakes up. Hopefully I'll get another hour out of her.

First, I want to get some chicken started in the oven. Going to try to just lay it out on a pan and roast it - it's a whole chicken cut up (totally worth the extra $1 in my mind). Normally I have a solid plan for every meal for the week, but this week has kind of been a mess in that regard. I don't know quite what happened. I guess we will eat baked chicken tonight (with veggies and rice or something), and tomorrow I can start some chicken soup. I think that's what I'll do. We'll see.

Then, it has been my goal for the past week to clean the bathtub. It has been way too long since it was cleaned last, and it's embarrassing to think about it. Fortunately, I've put it off long enough that today if I do it, I'll get points (ha! maybe that was my subconscious excuse for not doing it - aside from the fact that it is my least favorite chore in all the world).

Off topic - what is the chore that you most detest doing?

If I still have time afterwards (not likely), I will drag the glider/rocker out of the garage and clean it up. We picked it up from somebody's curb, and threw it in the back of the Suburban a couple of months ago - apparently they were cleaning their garage. It still will need a new cushion for the back and seat, but I'll be that much closer to having something I can sit in to rock Elizabeth.

On another note, Elizabeth is now 5 months old on the 8th. I can't believe how quickly it has gone by! For some reason I kept just anticipating when she would reach 3 months old - I'm not sure why - and so that made me relieved, and now every month and every milestone after that I have been so thrilled!

She sits up, kind of wobbly, but for longer periods of time each day. She also scoots herself with a pretty good "Army crawl", where she drags herself along by her elbows and pushes with her feet if she gets some traction. Every once in a while she puts her knee down and pushes off, like a real crawl "step," but she hasn't learned to anticipate the forward motion to catch herself with her hands, so she throws her face into the floor. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to mind the nose dives.

Last night Elizabeth ate a whole container (2.5 oz) of Prunes, and she ate more at one sitting than she ever has (of solid food, that is). The reason I bought prunes was because she had been having some issues getting the solids to come out.... well, those prunes work wonders! I'll have to remember, though, that even though she loves them, she should not eat a whole container in one night. Or maybe they should be mixed with something else. Like bananas.

Twice this week I have gone for a walk around the block, which is a 1.1 mile loop, about half of it involves some uphill climbs. The weather has been perfect, and Elizabeth loves to sit and look at everything. It helps to wear her out, too. The great thing is that I am finally getting some exercise. It's something I need to work into my routine. I think that if I schedule it, I should be able to make myself exercise at least two times a week - three would be ideal.

We have finally gotten a sort of routine down for the day. Elizabeth goes to bed around 8 PM (more or less), and she still wakes up twice during the night. I could definitely live without the middle of the night feedings, but this too shall pass. She wakes up for the day around 8 AM. Then she goes down for a nap between 10 and 11 AM, sleeps for about 90 minutes (on average), then goes down for another nap around 1 PM. When she wakes up around 3 or 4, she is up for the rest of the afternoon, unless it gets to be a really long day, so she'll take a short nap later. During that afternoon nap, I try to work on dinner, and then I feed her some kind of solid food, and out of necessity I give her a bath, let her play while Sam and I eat dinner, then nurse her and put her to bed again. This has worked pretty well for the past week, with some deviation once in a while. I could definitely get used to having a solid routine!

I just made waffles, because my dear friend Stephanie just gave us the waffle maker that they were given for their wedding and never used. We are thrilled. There are 4 or 5 waffles sitting out that need to be packaged and put in the fridge or freezer (as if they'll make it to the freezer), so we can throw them in the toaster for breakfasts for the weekend.

Well, I hear Elizabeth crying, but she needs to go back to sleep. I will go turn on the white noise and see if that calms her down.
Maybe I will get my plans accomplished. Maybe not.

Off I go! Have a good weekend!

Company and Coffee and a Confession

Welcome.

I am taking a break from imagining that I am going to clean the house while Elizabeth sleeps, and posting a blog entry. Instead.

Tonight a friend from San Antonio, TX, is flying in to visit, join us for the weekend, and help us with the annual Harvest Festival that our church hosts in downtown Lawrenceville. It will be fun to have company with us again (for the second time this month), but at the moment, I'm rather consumed by the responsibility of finishing my list of tasks before going to pick her up at the airport tonight.

Tomorrow (Halloween) will be the Harvest Festival's 11th year, our 3rd year being involved, and our 2nd year having the bulk of the event be our church's responsibility. It is a God-sized task, that a small-sized church is crazy to get into, except that every time it has been an amazing success. Common sense says that 120 (more or less) volunteers and a church with only about 100 people can't host an event for 3,000-4,000 people to attend free of charge. But we have to remember to factor in miracles.

This is somewhat along the lines of what my heart has been (slowly - very slowly) learning over the last week or so.

The blog entry here posted on the Home Sanctuary site hit me after I was able to consider it for a day, as it applies to our family situation. The gist of it is that I have not been looking at the future in faith, and have not been counting on the provision of God, the King of kings, the One who has all things at His disposal, and all government, economy, and nature at His disposal. Yeah, I was sort of doubting His ability to meet all our needs. Sure, I was able to foresee Him fulfilling all our needs, but only in the way that I think they should be met. Not in any other way.

Sam is a month and a half from graduating with a degree in Construction Project Management. It is not a good decade to be getting into construction. But God has been faithful to provide for us while Sam has been in school these three years, and it seems to be the way we have been led. But over the past year or two, Sam has been playing with the idea of going into a totally different career path, which is not a career path that I would have chosen. I have told him, every time he brings it up, that I have not had peace about it, and just flat out don't like the idea.

Over the past few weeks, I have begun to see my own stubbornness in regard to listening to what Sam has been saying. I have refused to budge, and really refused to pray about the possibility. As Sam has talked to me, and I have turned around and listened to him, it isn't sounding quite as bad as it had originally been in my mind. The likelihood of his actually being hired is slim, so if he were to apply and be hired, it would be essentially miraculous, and an obvious indication from God that Sam was supposed to work in this field.

While Sam was out of town last week, he talked with a couple whose insights and perspective we value, and they were positive toward the whole concept. Hearing their feedback helped me, as well.

This morning I also picked up our copy of Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest. The entry today was about Faith. Here is just one part of it:

Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails.

So my heart today is humbled, and I am actually more joyful having come to the realization that I have an opportunity to live my day in faith, rather than in a failing attempt to control my life and that of my family. And with that said, I am more energized to go about my business.

Anybody want to help me with cleaning the bathroom?

The Update

This was the text of an email I sent to friends earlier this week:

I thought I'd send you an email while the baby is being quiet ... since she's still inside. :) She's due on Sunday, but of course, that doesn't mean much of anything. We are getting ready for her to come, which is really exciting and fun, and a little crazy sometimes. We'll name her Elizabeth, and the middle name we haven't told anybody yet, but I believe God gave me that name when I was at camp last summer.

So life is pretty busy these days. Sam just started work (last Monday) at the same HVAC company he'd worked with in the fall semester. This time instead of being in the office, he is working outdoors with a crew, starting at 7 AM, hammering air ducts together, measuring out drawings, and going up and down countless flights of stairs. He comes home dog tired every day. The project he's working on now (and will be until they move on to a different project, or till his summer work program finishes in August) is near GA Tech, which lately has been an ugly place to be, because of a whole lot of violent crime, and fun stuff like stolen vehicles (even one of the guys he's working with had his car stolen recently while at that project). So that is kind of exciting, and it is causing us to depend on God to keep us and our property safe. It has been kind of weird for me to be at home on my own while he's been at work this last week, after so many months of his being home most of the time, too. He had been in school and working, of course, but he had fewer hours in the week that he was gone. With him out of the house so much, and me feeling more and more large and tired as the days go by, I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I'm not motivated to do much of anything, though I guess in the last couple of weeks of pregnancy there's not always a lot of motivation to do much, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

We've gotten the baby's room (i.e., the guest room/nursery) set up, and have a little bed set up in our room for the first little while when we're trying to adjust to life with an infant. This week I'm going to hit the store and make sure we have all that we need, and we'll install the car seat in the Suburban (yes, we're buying my parents' Suburban - it seems to make sense for us right now). Anyways, at home group a week or two ago, a couple of the guys were looking at Sam and saying, "Poor guy, so innocent and excited. He has no idea what he's in for; he won't know what hit him."

At this point I'm kind of tired of being pregnant. I've been fortunate to have had a good pregnancy (though it started out pretty rough in the first couple of months), and I've really only just gotten to the point that I'm ready for it to be over in the past week. I am grateful that I have been fairly comfortable until recently - and I am still able to sleep pretty well, I'm not getting tons of contractions that aren't meaning anything, and I can still get around pretty well. But my back hurts if I sit, and my feet and up almost to my knees swell if I stand; I am pretty exhausted most of the time, and sometimes the thought of doing something as simple as hanging up clothes makes me want to cry. From an outside perspective, it's actually pretty funny, but in the moment, it's just pathetic. It may have a lot to do with our waking/sleeping schedule changing now that Sam is getting up early, and I'm getting up to pack his lunch, etc., and once I'm up, the dogs are up, and if I'm up, I may as well stay up..... Just being exhausted could have a lot to do with my lack of enthusiasm for this last brief period of just the 2 of us. Speaking of the 2 of us, we have now been married for 4 years, if you can believe it! It's funny how simultaneously it seems that we couldn't have been married that long, but also that we've just always been married, haven't we?

Because of the recent influx of young couples with (or expecting) young children, we had the privilege of having Keith & Patricia Currie come up and do a marriage and parenting seminar a weekend or two ago. It was great to see them and to receive from them. They have such a wealth of wisdom and of common sense. I think I took about 10 pages of notes - literally. Now the tricky part is going to be remembering and applying the things that are timely for whatever season we're in.

My family's doing well. When Dad was working on a painting project several weeks ago, the ladder he was on collapsed and he broke his left wrist. He should be able to get the brace off of it in the next couple of weeks. It's hard for him to be idle, so he's already been working on stuff, which of course he shouldn't be doing, and we hope that nothing he's been doing will interfere with his wrist healing properly. Fortunately it was his left, and he's right handed, so at least he can still write, eat, drive, etc., without too much trouble.
Mom is still writing, and just sent a great story to her great agent, who is presenting it to several editors.... We're praying one of them - or two of them - will bite.
Older Brother's got one last semester of school (i think it's just the one), and he's starting a small advertising or marketing business - helping local businesses advertise to new residents. We hope that will be profitable for him, too.
Younger Brother is about to graduate high school, and then do .... what? I don't know. But I didn't know then, either. Anyways, they're doing really well. He is at the beach with his best friend's clan this week, and he's so excited about the baby coming that he is willing to drive back whenever I go into labor if it happens before Saturday when they're scheduled to come back, just so he won't miss it. I had no idea he would do that, but I think that's so sweet.
They are all excited about the new addition to the family, my dad especially. He stops in the stores when he sees little Asian babies, girls especially, all enraptured by the thought of his little granddaughter. He will be a total pushover of a grandparent. It's really cute.

These days I think we're doing fairly well. The Spirit is stirring up many in our church in the past little while, and my heart is also being drawn along. But I'm kind of in my, "what do I need to do, to do the works that God requires?" phase, forgetting that the answer to that question is, "believe in the One he has sent," not something that I have to "do." That is such a relief for someone exhausted most of the time, anticipating more of the unknown immenently to come in the next few weeks. But at the same time, I know that involved in there are some basics, like - open the word, take the few minutes of concentrated attention to pray, and be willing to do what I'm prompted to do because of what I can believe of Him....

And it's actually been quite a blessing to have Sam get up and out the door early again, so that I am awake and have opportunity to get up and have a quiet time. I know I should take advantage of it when I can. So my spirit has been hungry and provoked and encouraged - but in that place of causing me to be discontent with my heart's condition, so on top of the raging hormones and the stress of impending major life changes, I've been a little bit of a challenge to live with these last couple of weeks. But Sam is doing quite well with my little episodes of crying fits. He also knows to offer me food when that happens. He has been a fast learner.

That is what life looks like from my perspective lately. I can't believe it's been so long since I've written, so I am glad to have gotten this out to you finally.

I may not post another update for a while - but when I do, it'll be a heck of an update!

Nesting

It's hit.

Prior to the last few weeks, I had no idea the amount of work a prego can get done when the inspiration strikes. I have a feeling the house is going to be cleaner than it has ever been within three months. And my guess is that it will probably never be as clean again.

Within the month of February, other than the general maintenance of the house and laundry, etc., I have accomplished the following projects:

* Cleaning and organizing the wet bar, which had been a catch-all (sort of a very large scale junk drawer) since the day we got a key to the place. Now it has potential to be used as storage (in the cupboards below) and a wet bar - or at least as an attractive part of the house, instead of pretending it's not there. I have visions of some shelves on the back wall, on which artwork or photos can be displayed.

* Cleaning the walls of what we have affectionately dubbed "earshot". Our orange cat had an ear infection which lasted for months, and part of the fun of said infection was that when he would shake his head, often there would be stuff flung in every direction. It landed on walls, furniture, doors, you name it. It was pretty nasty, but a losing battle until the infection was cleared up.

* Setting up and beginning to fill a "Costco overstock shelf" in the garage. We go to Costco and buy large amounts of things which somehow must find a home. Finally they have a shelf on which they should belong. Of course, to make room for the shelf, I had to find homes for other things that were haphazardly put there.

* Cleaning the washer and dryer. Well, they were running while I wiped them down with cleaner, but they have been cleansed of 2 years of dust and dripped laundry soap. I also moved some of the random things that landed there into places that make more sense. Not much more, but a little more.

* Reorganizing the small bookshelf between the kitchen/dining and living rooms. It has contained 2 baskets that serve 2 purposes: one is to help hold up the books from flopping over, and the other is to hold the things that land on the table and don't have a more permanent place to live. So years later, the baskets are the permanent places (think junk drawer again). I finally went through them to make sense of the junk. One now holds scratch paper and pens and tape, the other holds ... well, junk. But at least I know what the junk in it is.

* Rearranged the living room furniture to make it easier to watch TV (really important, right?), as well as making some space for another chair and/or a bookshelf.

There are other things, little things that I can't remember right now, that have been huge in the moment that I've completed them, and that have given me those little feelings of accomplishment. One of the most significant things that has helped me be able to move on to these little projects is the creation of my chore list. It's changed the way I view the routine necessities; when I know the things "to do" I can focus on them and check them off. If I miss it one day, or one week, I know I can pick it up again the next time it rolls around on the schedule. Because I can see when I crossed it out, I know how long it's been since I have, say, swept the floor or cleaned the bathroom. And I'm such a geek, I made out whole month-long lists, through the end of the year. Needless to say, in a few months I will need to revamp the schedule, but for now, it is working for me.

Now it's time to get back to reality and get the sheets out of the dryer, and find something to eat.

Girl's Night In

Tonight I should be figuring out what to do for food, since I'm hungry already and have no plan, and picking up a little bit. But I'm not at the moment, obviously.
Fortunately, the housekeeping schedule that I made up a couple of weeks ago has pretty much transformed my domestic life! I have a printed out Excel sheet with a list of everything to be done in a given day, broken down over the whole month. So far the house is cleaner than it has ever been, I believe! There are some things that are consistently skipped over, like sweeping, and putting away clothes, but even those will one day be crossed off.
The greatest comfort of this list is that if I skip something one day, I can either go back and tackle it the next, or just wait for the next time it comes around on the rotation and not sweat it.

Because the house has been in better shape than usual, it's been easy for me to invite a friend to come over and watch a girl movie while Sam will be out this evening. Yay!

The Beginnings of the Nursery

Since we have finally gotten the crib situation straightened out, I now feel free to share what we're doing with the baby room.

The room had until recently been "the farthest room," also known as "the guest room," in which were stored many, many boxes and odds and ends that had no home. Last weekend I went on a cleaning streak and found places for most of the homeless items, to clear out a corner in which we could assemble a crib if we managed to find and buy one.

Through the amazing community of craigslist.org, we found a crib and dresser set that is quite lovely, in very good shape, and really sturdy. Another bonus is that from all the research I did before buying any furniture, this crib hasn't been involved in any recalls. They're not technically a set, but close enough that we're happy with them. The drama associated with them was that we thought the couple was selling both pieces for a certain price, but they thought they were clear in saying they were each being sold for that certain price. It was truly a simple misunderstanding, and with some negotiation, we split the difference. Anyways, thanks be to God, we were able to get both these pieces, plus a barely-used mattress for $195!

The trick in decorating this room is that it is still going to be a guest room, so it can't be overrun with girly, pink baby colors and decor. I've found the bedding that I believe I want, called Cherry Blossom, and it's not ridiculously babyish. I like that it is red, pink, and white, with chocolate, rather than pink, pink, and more pink.

The room is now coming together with some order, and will be rearranged a bit more pretty soon. The white desk that is in the corner is covered with craft materials (not that I do anything with them, but I have plenty in case I ever want to), and soda and water bottles, because they have had a tendency to burst if we keep them in the garage lately. Eventually we will move the desk into the office where it belongs, freeing up a little more space.

I had one organizational epiphany last week, and after making a long and arduous trip to Ikea on Saturday, was able to execute it. Because a friend's daughter gave us a huge bag of baby girl clothes that had either never been worn or grown out of already, I realized that I needed to come up with a way to keep some semblance of order to this baby's paraphernalia, even before she comes on the scene, or I might just lose what remains of my mind.

The solution was to buy boxes to store clothes based on size, and have them easy to access and label. Ikea had these media (CD/DVD) cubes with zipper closures and pockets for labels for only $8 each so I picked up 5 of them. These are about a square foot in size, so they'll hold a fair amount of baby clothing. I like how sturdy they seem to be, and the zippers work well. They're labeled "0-3 months", "3-6 months" and so on. One box is not labeled and has blankets, bibs, etc., in it.

I figure that whatever size she's wearing at the time will go into the dresser/changing table drawers, until she outgrows it. Once we move on to the next size, the clothes that are too small get put into a bin with the right label (and/or gets passed on to Goodwill or the next baby in line), and the next one goes into the drawers. I figure this may be the way to organize kid clothes as time goes on.

This weekend we will have a friend's 14-year-old daughter staying with us, and she will stay in the room, so we have to make it guest-friendly this week. But with all the progress we've been making, it's not too far off!

Unpacked!

I just unpacked our last box! It's about time, since we've been in this house since April '07!

In the below post, I mentioned that I'd found the missing china settings; it is only appropriate that I get them out of their boxes and display them as they ought to be. Oddly enough, there are a couple of pieces missing, and they have to be somewhere in our house.... or maybe they were mixed up with Christina's when we combined them for a shower a few years ago. Who knows; it's not like I've used them and need to have all the pieces any time soon.

This was my grand accomplishment for the day; setting up that last shelf with our pretty dishes. There is also a tea/coffee set on the bottom of the picture given to me by my grandmother. It's almost worth getting out the windex and cleaning the glass. .... It's a nice thought. Maybe after 9 PM tonight. :)

I do have to confess that there are 4 more boxes still, but they are full of photos, and that is where they live; they're not going to come out any time soon, so they totally don't count.

Once the crib saga has been resolved, if we do get to keep the furniture, I'll post a picture of it in the room. If not, then I'll wait until I get the furniture that we'll keep.

Who is this woman, and what is she doing in my house?

Apparently I get bursts of energy after 9:30 PM. That's usually when I decide to start in on a project that I had no interest in earlier in the day, or when I decide "I need to make cookies!" (though I haven't given in to that one ... yet).

Last night at about a quarter to 10, I decided it was time to clean the bathroom. So I went at it, and cleaned our little master bath (not the tub, though).

I felt pretty proud of myself. But I still had a little left in me, so then I tackled the room at the end of the hallway. Up till this week it has been the guest room, which has actually functioned as the room where all things that don't have a home find a temporary home. It was also where we'd been keeping the office materials for BWAB, which were just dropped off in TX last month. We'd been working on much of it bit by bit for a few days, but there was still quite a bit of sorting, weeding out, and redistributing the junk to be done.

All of this cleaning was really in preparation for the crib and dresser/changing table that a couple was scheduled to deliver this morning. It had to be acceptable for them to come in and use the restroom if necessary, plus there needed to be room for the new furniture to go, and ideally be set up. This explains my compulsion to get it done "right now."

I proceeded to clear all but my "craft stuff" which is a conglomeration of my sewing machine, yarn, fabric that has yet to become curtains, leftover wedding decorations, and a few bags of odds and ends. And they are contained in one small area on and under a desk that will be moved into the office after the larger desk that I don't use gets picked up or sold or burned or whatever needs to happen to it.

While I was at it, the closet in the guest room/nursery has been straightened up: old clothes that we haven't worn in over a year have been bagged up for donating or thrown into the backs of our own closet, and my missing 4 sets of good china have been rediscovered!

This morning the crib and dresser/changer were dropped off, but due to a misunderstanding, we are not sure we will keep them. We believed we got both for one price, but they believed they were clear in saying that they were selling them for that price each. So we're willing to split the difference, but we have yet to find out whether they will accept our barter. We might have to start over again in the baby furniture department.

Regardless of what happens, we do have a nice, clean guest room/nursery now. And you are more than welcome to use the bathroom.

Home Again, II

Sam is in the back yard with my dad, who is having fun playing with his chainsaw, cutting down crooked trees into firewood. And they just downed a pretty substantial pine tree; that was impressive. The yard has been so full of trees that the grass back there has had no real no chance to grow, so this will hopefully allow us to have more of a back yard and less of a wooded dirty area. We have plans of trying to make up a landscaping plan for back there, but we haven't really made any progress in that regard yet. Last year we focused on the inside of the house; this year maybe we'll get somewhere on the outside. Of course with a baby coming.... We'll see.

So, while we were gone....

My dog stayed with my parents for the 13 days (wow!) that we were out of town; a family from the church, who also live in our neighborhood, came by and played with the cats and made sure they had what they needed. All the animals were thrilled beyond their capacity when we came home. The cats barely allowed us to sleep the first night we were home; they spent hours purring and kneading and kissing us while we tried to get to sleep.

We took off the day after Christmas and went to Hattiesburg, MS, - a 7-hour drive - where we stayed the night with a family we knew from Texas. We don't get to see them very often, so any time with them is always fun. Their girls are skilled in basketball, and they hope - quite reasonably - to be given scholarships for college. Maybe we'll see them make names for themselves in a few years.

After that, it was on to Houston - 7 more hours - to visit Sam's parents and brother. We had a good time, and stayed there from Saturday night through Thursday morning, which is about the limit that either of us can graciously visit with his family. They love us, and they care deeply for us, and they are some of the kindest people I know. But they do tend to kill us with that kindness.

We ate very well while we were with them (more kindness), yet while we ate, Sam was constantly reminded not to eat too much, because he is "too fat!" and has a "moon-face". Sigh... he can't win. But they do keep us laughing.

Sam kept busy for a day painting some of the trim at their house and fixing odds and ends that they don't know how to take care of themselves. We were also commissioned to take as much of Sam's stuff out of his old room as possible, since Sam's brother needs more room. He's engaged, and his fiance' is due to come over from Taiwan this summer and they'll be married once all her paperwork goes through; odds are they will start out living with Sam's parents. Hopefully they won't stay there long and will be able to get a place of their own quickly.

We made it to San Antonio (a 3 hour drive), the home of the Alamo, the Riverwalk (there we are on the Riverwalk, the night before they drained the river for its annual cleaning to remove the chairs, debris, and lost tourists), and the best Mexican food in the world. Even better than the food in Mexico.

The best part of being in San Antonio was being involved with the Next conference, which was so much fun, and so rich in fellowship, depth of relationships (both relationships we have with others, and the relationships that you know are there between other people involved there), and the Word. We believe we needed to be there because it is important to stay connected with so many of the people who also attend, who have been involved in our lives, and who are a tangible part of the Body of Christ from all over the country - some from all parts of the world.

Sunday afternoon we spent a few hours visiting with Beth and Thomas, who live in San Antonio, catching up and soaking in the encouragement that they are to us. Then we headed back out to Houston for one last night with Sam's parents, packed as much stuff from his old room into the car as we could cram in (believe me, it was an engineering feat), then headed to Mobile, AL, (about 8 hours in the car) after a noon breakfast at Denny's.

In Mobile, we stayed with probably the most brilliant couple that we know, both lawyers, with teenage kids who are just as bright as their parents, just younger. They used to be youth leaders for about a year when I was in youth group, and are strong and bold believers. Again, it was an encouragement to be able to spend time with them, too.

That is the outline of the trip; we put a little over 2000 miles on Sam's car, dropped off the office furniture and files for Boy With a Ball in San Antonio, brought back nearly as much as we took to Texas, ate very well, got food poisoning and got over it, and reconnected with some really wonderful friends. There are more things that can be said, but for now this is plenty long; and I need to find some lunch.

Behind the scenes...

I'm feeling like we will likely not even pull the decorations down out of the attic this year. It's not that I don't want to decorate, but we will be leaving town the day after Christmas, and who wants to come home 10 days after Christmas to have to clean it all up? Not I, said the little pregnant girl.

The most decorating I have done so far is to put the growing card collection on top of the piano. The main wall in our living-dining room is painted red, though, so it looks almost like a holiday. I have some holiday-ish candles that I could light, and we could light a fire in the fireplace if we wanted to make the room feel more cozy.Lately my time has been consumed by gathering addresses, both for our church's directory and for our personal address database. Then I've been addressing cards and signing them, and trying to print out a little photo of us and the ultrasound shot to send to relatives and the folks that should get one.

The only Christmasy thing I've done this year has been to have Kristi, Lauren, Christina (also prego), Carol, and Lesley over to bake cookies together. It was a riot, and probably the most fun I'd had in weeks. I should have taken a picture of the table when all the cookies were spread out on it for us to collect to take home! I also should have taken a picture of all of us as a group. Anyways, it was such a great time. And so delicious!


Now Sam is painting the second closet in our master bedroom. The first was done many moons ago, (as referenced in one of the very first blog posts) but since we have been able to live with the way it was, we haven't gotten around to painting and setting up Sam's closet. Once that is completed, we will be able to move Sam's clothes out of my closet, then weed out my clothes, and move the seasonally appropriate clothing into the closets. At that point, we should get rid of the clothes that have been in the other two bedroom closets that we have not touched in about a year. When the extra bedroom closets are emptied, we can use the space to start organizing and preparing for having a little one move in.

Closet: Before and After

With a great feeling of accomplishment...

When we moved in to our house in April '07, our house had been occupied by chain smokers, for several years, so every inch of the house smelled of stale cigarette smoke.

We painted every wall and put new floors on every inch that was not able to be cleaned with bleach.

Then when we got the carpet down (in November) we decided we were going to take it easy, since that was the last of the major things necessary to make our home comfortable and attractive.

The thing we put off doing was painting and re-doing the master closets. Yes, thank the Lord, we have 2 closets in the master, and both are walk-in! It was a lovely perk. We even went to Home Depot and spent a good hour in the home organization aisle trying to figure out exactly what we needed to buy. And then the shelving pieces stood in the garage for months.

This is what Sam's closet looks like currently, and also what mine looked like. Just a board across the top, and a bar along one side. We ended up using the board as hanging space, too, but hangers don't slide so well.

Over Memorial Day weekend I pulled all of my clothes out of my closet, and put "what I'd need for about 5 days" into Sam's. (What I needed for a few days turned out not to be enough, so I kept pulling out clothes from the other areas where I had stashed them, and adding to my minimal collection in Sam's closet.)

Last weekend we bit the bullet and started the project for real. We took out the fixtures, wiped down the walls, patched the holes, dings and dents, primed the whole thing (and the ceiling, which was almost brown), and painted.

While we were at it, we also painted the master bathroom. It had been plain primer white ever since we moved in. I had peeled the butterfly wallpaper border off, which was disguising a terrible patch job, and then it remained untouched for a year.


Finally last night, Sam and I put the shelving all up, and were incredibly pleased with the result!



When we put a few items on the racks, we laughed about how model homes and closet manufacturers and fancy-pants catalogues show closets with only about 7 items in them to show how amazingly spacious the closet is. Funny, I tend to need more than 7 items to wear from one week to another, because I don't do laundry that often!

Here is what my closet looks like now, and I love it! Sam did such a great job putting it up and figuring it out. I have yet to put everything back, but it is also a good opportunity to give some unnecessary clothes away.


Maybe next week, we'll clean up Sam's closet!