Pregnancy Hormones

So had I spilt the beans by Friday, this is what I would have written about:

Female hormones are a funny thing (some guys might object to my use of a positive adjective, but I'm writing this from my own female perspective). Pregnancy tends to exacerbate the effects of these hormones. Case in point: Friday morning, I turned on the TV to check the temperature (I walk in the morning and I like to know how much to bundle Susanna up). They were doing a human interest segment on some children's choir in Tennessee. The state had cut their funding, the poor kids were about to loose their favourite after-school activity, they were planning to do some fundraising, etc., etc. They had some kids talk to the camera about how much they love to sing, how much it means to them. And then the TV reporter tells the kids that they have prepared a surprise for them. The president of First Tennessee Bank comes out with one of those gigantic fake cheques (I still like my Canadian spellings) and says, "To help kick-start your fundraising, we're giving you a cheque for $10,000!" Nice little news story, right? Well I tell you, I started to choke up.And then they brought out some famous country singer and announced that all the kids were going to Las Vegas for the Country Music Awards. It was all I could do to keep from sobbing. It was just so touching, so beautiful, so uplifting to see the smiles on those kids' faces! Or it was just a serious case of hormonal malfunction. And that's only at 5 weeks pregnant. Probably in a few weeks, you won't want to come near me!

An Announcement

BABY #2 IS ON THE WAY!!!!

That's right! We're expecting once again. That happens to be a good part of the reason why my recent posting has not been as frequent nor as interesting this past week, seeing as it's hard to think of things to say when your one big news item is still a secret. But now that the family knows and we had a chance to tell people at church yesterday, I no longer have to worry about someone really close to us finding out via my blog (big relational faux pas!), so I am now free to talk all I want to about it.

We're not even quite 6 weeks along yet, so it's still really early, but Susanna should have a brother or sister by the end of October!

Hooray For Sleep!

Last night I got a good, full night of sleep for the first time in a while... got to bed BEFORE midnight, slept all the way through, and wasn't awakened at 6 by Nathan getting up to go to work (no, he didn't oversleep - he works later on Saturdays). It was one of those mornings when you wake up at a decent hour and even though you could stay in bed for longer, you don't feel the need to (haven't had one of those in ages!). I feel very well rested today (which is especially great compared to yesterday when I felt like sleeping all day long). So that makes me happy. The other thing that was nice about waking up this morning, which also makes me happy, is that it was 8 o'clock and the sun was shining in through the blinds and the room was relatively light. I tell you, it is depressing to wake up at 8 in a dark room. Like it's still the middle of the night. (Okay, I know certain readers who wake up at 5 are now thinking I'm totally spoiled.) But the fact that it was bright at 8, actually at 7:30, means that spring is coming. And then summer. Nice, long, sunshiney days (unless it's raining). I LOVE waking up in the sunlight with the birds singing outside our window. As much as we Canadians may gripe and complain about how annoyingly warm it is here in February, I can't say that I really, honestly miss the cold. At all. Here's to spring!

Sick Babies

Susanna has been sick this weekend. Her nose drips constantly, she is hacking a lot, the past two evenings she's run a fever, and she is CRANKY! This explains in part why I didn't write anything yesterday - I was on constant kleenex duty. Today I have given up trying to wipe her nose everytime it runs, 'cause I would have to spend all her waking moments standing there with the tissue. Since I've been a parent, and Susanna got her first cold at 5 months, I've gained a newfound sympathy for the parents of all those snotty-nosed kids whom I disdained in my youth. The reason that they let their kids run around with that unsightly bit of mucous dripping off their nose, is not because they want their kids to look sick and uncared for, but rather because when a kid has a serious cold, there is simply no way to keep their face clean all the time and still do the other things you need to get done. And if you have ever tried to wipe a baby's nose, you know that it is really no easy task. They see that tissue coming and they turn their head. And then they twist and dodge and squirm and cry until you either manage to catch them or decide to give up. And if you have to use the aspirator (that little bulby thing with the pointed end), well, you might as well tie the kid down first. So if you happen to see my daughter at Wal-Mart, sitting in the front of the cart drooling on the cart handle with her little nose running, please don't look at me in disgust like I'm some awful, neglectful mother! I can't help it. She's sick and I can't leave her home alone while I shop. And if you're the one who gets the cart after she's been in it, don't worry. The germs will help strengthen your immune system. Yeah, actually you should thank me :)

Faithfulness and Kitchen Floors

By the way, the last entry answers, at least in part, the question I asked before about how I can glorify God in scrubbing floors and changing diapers. I think in these acts, which are very much unglorious, it glorifies God when I simply do them in obedience and faithfulness to His calling on my life. He has not called all people to change diapers. But He has given us a daughter, and He has given me the work of caring for her during the day, and so when I care for her by removing a sopping wet diaper from her body, I am being faithful to what He has called me to do, and thus glorifying Him. When I scrub the kitchen floor because it is part of my God-given duty as a homemaker, out of a desire to be faithful, and not just because I can't stand walking over sticky patches anymore, there is added to that down-on-my-hands-and-knees grunt work an odd sort of joy. I am doing what I have been called to do by my Heavenly Father, even if it's not "fun" work. God is glorified in my faithfulness, and my joy increases, too. Let me tell you, when Saturday rolls around and I remember that it's Kitchen-and-Bathroom-Cleaning Day, I do not normally rejoice. But as I did my cleaning this afternoon, thinking as I did that this was part of being a faithful servant to my Master, it didn't seem so bad. (And now I don't have to walk over the sticky patches anymore :)

A Faithful Servant?

This morning I read Matthew 25, the theme of which is basically being ready for Christ's return and what it means to be faithful. I've read it lots of times, but this morning, reading the parable of the talents, I was struck, not by the end result of the servants' faithfulness/unfaithfulness, but by the fact that the master gives out unequal numbers of talents. He gives 5 to one, 2 to another and just 1 to the last guy. Each one is expected to be faithful with what he has, but the master doesn't expect the guy with 2 to end up with 10. He gives the exact same commendation to the servant who is wise with 2 and ends up with 4 as he gives to the servant who is wise with 5 and has 10 in the end, even though servant #2 ends up with less than servant #1 had in the beginning. And one can assume that had servant #3 been faithful to invest his 1 talent and ended with 2, he also would have heard "Well done, good and faithful servant." (A similar comment is made in Matthew 13:8, 23 in the parable of the sower when Jesus says that some of the good seeds produced "a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty", but all bear fruit and are "good seeds".)

Why is this important? It seems to me that many of us are far more preoccupied with how MUCH we do rather than how WELL we do. I know as a stay-at-home wife and mother, I often struggle with feeling ungodly, unfaithful and ineffective because I look at the people (often singles) around me who seem to be involved in like 43 different ministries and have seen 150 people come to Christ through their witness, and I think, "Man, all I do all day is care for my daughter and cook dinner and vacuum, and if I have time, maybe I make someone an outfit for their new baby. Compared to so-and-so, I'm hardly even a Christian! I'd better get involved in more ministry!" I think of being faithful to God in terms of being involved in lots of stuff and producing lots of visible fruit. But the real question in God's eyes is not "How much is she doing?" but "Is she being faithful to the tasks I have given her to do?" I need to be more concerned with faithfulness to the responsibilities God has already given me, not with how much He has given someone else to do.

What has God given me to do? I know without a doubt that I am called to be a wife to Nathan and a mother to Susanna. And there are a few other smaller things. The wife and mother things take a great deal of time and energy, which doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room to be responsibly involved in lots of other ministries. So the question I need to be asking first is not "What more can I do?" but "Am I being faithful to do my very best work (by God's grace) in my marriage and in parenting?" If in the end, God asks what I have done with the 2 talents he gave me, and I am shown to have been faithful with those, He will not rebuke me for not having as much as the one to whom He gave 5 talents, but will say to both of us equally, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master." (Matt. 25: 21,23). This is incredibly freeing!

Why I'm Not A Comedianne

A certain frequent commentator on this blog recently asked whether I had ever considered moonlighting as a comedianne. The answer is "no". The reason is as follows:

Despite the verbosity and frequency of my entries in this blog, which might create the impression that I am extremely talkative, I am actually one of those odd silent types, who can sit in the middle of a very interesting and intense group discussion and make one comment over the course of the whole thing (that is, if I even say that much). It's not that I don't have plenty of things to say, it's that I find listening to everyone else and quietly debating their comments in the privacy of my own head much more entertaining. Why this is, I do not know. Neither does Nathan, who is my opposite in this trait. It took him a long time to realize that when we were in the company of others, and I only said two things over the course of the evening, I was actually having a very good time.

However, that said, my silence is generally limited to the non-use of my vocal chords. When it comes to writing, on the other hand, I could go on for days. For whatever reason, words flow better from my fingers than from my tongue. This is, in some circumstances, rather advantageous, as writing can be edited, thought through and destroyed if necessary, whereas the spoken word, once it has exited the mouth, cannot be fully repealed. Unfortunately, face-to-face written conversations don't go so smoothly.
This is not to say that there are never times when you can't shut me up. I have been known to be excessively silly in the company of close friends and family. If you ever ask me about the role of women, you are likely to get an earful. I can talk for a while about my daughter's antics and accomplishments. But these are the exceptions to the rule.

Back to comedians: they talk. lots. in front of large crowds of people. me no do that. therefore me no be comedian. if you looking for good comedy, talk to nathan. he funny. he loud. he will entertain.

I am flattered that some people find me witty. If you are one of those people, you can continue to read my ramblings on this site. Just don't ask to hear them

Attic Squirrels

Now, as promised, my squirrel story. A few months back, I was home alone with Susanna. She was taking a nap, and I had planned to use her naptime to work on the doll I was making her for Christmas. I was sitting at the computer in our living room when I heard things falling down the hall in the bedroom. I got up to look and saw that the laundry I had folded, but not put away, was lying all over the floor (At this point I had not yet entered the bedroom, and didn't plan too). My first thought was that a mouse had done that, since we had recently had some mouse issues, but then I realized that it had to be something bigger to have made such a mess. I also thought about the scampering sounds we had been hearing in our attic, and knew that a mouse made less noise than that. Well, Nathan was not home, and I did not want to go into the bedroom, but I really wanted to get some sewing work done, and to do that, I needed the ironing board, which was against the far wall of the bedroom. I looked around and didn't see anything, so I thought I would just go in, grab the ironing board, and then shut the door and go work in the other room till Nathan got home. I tiptoed across the floor and started to pull the ironing board out. Well, our friendly attic squirrel was BEHIND the ironing board, and when I moved it, he jumped out. I tell you, I have never run so fast back into the living room! I went downstairs to get some help from our neighbours, but the husband wasn't home, so the wife, Sarah, who has apparently had a rabies shot, came upstairs with broom, closed off all the other rooms, and chased him out of the bedroom, down the stairs and out the front door. And she did it with amazing calm, saying, "Come here, honey! It's okay! Come here!" But ever since that day, everytime I hear a squirrel in the attic, I fear that he will find his way into the laundry room and then into our bedroom while we are actually in there. And if I hear him while I am in the laundry room, I fear that he will jump down on my head.


I think the theme of the day is Sarah's irrational fears.

The Death-Mobile

Okay, the squirrel story will be in the next entry, but before I tell that one, I'd just like to say that I am terrified of automobiles, particularly those of the moving variety. I don't like being in one when someone else is driving; I HATE being in one when I'm driving. Everytime I have to go somewhere in the car, I see my life flash before my eyes. And if Susanna is with me, then I see her life flash before my eyes. I'm not exactly sure why I live in mortal fear of car accidents, but this is the reason that we can go on a ten-hour trip and I will not sleep at all in the passenger seat. I am afraid that if I close my eyes, I will never open them again. Now I am not afraid of being dead. I'm quite sure I will be happier dead and in heaven than I've ever been here. But I am afraid of dying, particularly a death of the violent kind. I'd like to go quietly in my sleep, not loudly in some nasty car crash. I know, I know, you are now thinking I'm completely irrational. And maybe I am. But that does not change the fact that I do not like cars. And yet, I need to learn to drive one so that my poor husband no longer needs to chauffeur me around. This is my difficulty. Why, oh why did I not get my license when I was 16 and stupid and didn't have a husband and child?! Word to all those of you young people who live in big cities that have good public transportation systems, making cars virtually unnecessary: the day may come when you move out of the big city into a smaller city with no subway and no stores in walking distance, and you will need to be able to drive if you ever want to leave your block. So get your license when you are 16 or 17 and adventurous!

*Sorry if this title disturbs anyone. But this is how I think of cars.

An Unpleasant Day

I'm feeling better now, but yesterday was a BAD day! It started off with an argument between Nathan and I, and then we went for a "driving lesson" in the afternoon, which from the get-go did not go well - not just much my driving, but our interaction (note to any couples who are considering having one teach the other some risky skill: pray lots before you do it, and if possible, find a different teacher - it is hard on both spouses!). And then on our way home, we stopped at the grocery store to get a few things, and when we got back to our car, realized that we had both left our keys in the car. So it was 6:30 and we were tired and frustrated and Susanna was getting hungry (although she was, thankfully, a pretty good sport) and we had to wait around for AAA to come get our car open. Fortunately we only had to wait about 40 minutes, and the rest of the evening went without incident (unless you count the part where I was moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer and heard the squirrel who visits our attic scampering about right over my head, which caused me to wait a while before I finished - for those of you who don't know about our squirrel incident a few months ago, I'll have to post another entry later today and tell that story so that you will understand why the squirrel upstairs makes me so nervous).

Anyway, that was my day, and I'm hoping today will be better.

Devotions With Kids Around

"From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none..."

I think I have resigned myself to the fact that morning devotions will never be easy with a small child around the house. Especially not when her room is too small to leave her in there with the gate up for any length of time. If she is awake (and since Nathan works late, it's really hard to get up early enough in the morning to do my devotions before she wakes up), then she is either making lots of noise in her crib, or crawling around the living room getting in to everything and I have to keep one eye open while I pray. It's REALLY distracting. And therefore REALLY frustrating, because I have always found it difficult to concentrate on God's Word without my mind starting to wander into what I need to do that day or other random thoughts, and then if I have to supervise a kid at the same time, well my mind is just in a million different places. And I know that having good devotions each day is not the height of spirituality, nor is it commanded anywhere in the Bible (at least not in the sense of the modern Evangelical idea of sitting down for a specified period each day and following a routine of the reading of a passage, meditation and prayer), but I still want my time in God's Word to be meaningful and life-changing.

I guess what I am struggling to grasp in the midst of the busyness of homemaking and motherhood, neither of which have any immediate, tangible effects on the Kingdom like say, successful street evangelism, is how to live through the day with God's Word dwelling in me richly, and doing all things to God's glory. How exactly do you go about glorifying God by sewing a dress for your daughter or making dinner or scrubbing the kitchen floor or changing a poopy diaper? And how do you meditate continually on the Bible in the midst of doing these things?

How do you live as if you had no husband, no child, as if you had no dealings with the world (I Corinthians 7:29-35), and yet at the same time, care for that husband and child and deal with the world in a way that benefits the Kingdom? How do you stay single-minded and yet at the same time, tend to all your earthly, God-given responsibilities.

This is when it would be nice to have an godly, older woman around, who has been there, done that, and could offer some hard-earned wisdom. No one at our church has kids older than age 5 (except for one family who's away a lot) and for the most part these women are struggling with the same things. 

I........AM.........TIRED.
Tonight was my night to take care of Rebecca so our neighbours could have their date. She and Susanna actually behaved themselves for the most part, but I tell you, it's exhausting looking after two 1-year-olds (give or take a month and a half) at the same time! I'm not sure how mothers of twins pull it off. I guess you get used to it if it's your everday life. Otherwise you'd go insane. Of course, being roughly the same age and size, at least Rebecca and Susanna can defend themselves against the other (both of them have a love of hitting the other over the head and/or grabbing each other's faces). As much as I want to have more kids, I have a vague fear of having a toddler and infant at the same time, because most toddlers want to touch babies and play with them but don't yet grasp the concept of "gentle", and most newborns haven't learned the art of self-defense yet. That would be when you REALLY couldn't ever leave two kids alone in the same room.

Anyway, tonight was worth the energy because we had a good time on Friday. It was great to be able to relax and hang out and talk about whatever and just be husband and wife for a few hours, rather than husband+father and wife+mother. But now I need to put myself to bed.

ZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZZzzzZZ

Date Night

Tonight Nathan and I are going out on an (early) Valentine's date. We haven't really paid a whole lot of attention to Valentine's Day since we've been married (wedding anniversary is more important), but after almost a year of very little dating due to the difficulty of finding **FREE** reliable babysitting for the little munchkin, we could not pass up the offer from our downstairs neighbours to swap kiddos so we could each have a Valentine's date. So tonight we're using Nathan's Red Lobster gift certificate that he earned at work and heading out for a night on the town. Sans Susanna! I love her lots, but I'm sure she'll have fun playing with 13-month-old Rebecca from downstairs, and in the meantime, we'll enjoy some time as just-the-two-of-us!

Home Ec for Adults

I do this thing on Thursday nights where I get together with two (used to be three, but one moved) women from our church and I teach them sewing basics. Word got out last night at church that I teach sewing, and some Boyce students came over and asked when I do it because they'd like to learn. Well, I happen to be of the opinion that sewing is something best learned in very small groups because it is of necessity a very hands-on operation, so I'm not sure that adding five new people to the current group would work so well. And we'd have to move somewhere other than someone's home, seeing as no seminary student I know has a dining room table big enough to host upwards of 10 sewing machines (and we'd be breaking circuits left and right). But I like the in-home, cozy, just-sewing-along-with-my-friends kind of atmosphere. So all that to say that if they really want to learn, I need to start Sewing Night (or Day) #2. Which got me to thinking that if I could find a way to do it with a small child, I'd love to teach lots of women how to sew. And cook, for that matter. Which got me to thinking about the sad state of our generation who grew up to a large extent (I'm really generalizing here - my mother taught me homemaking skills from the time I was small) with mothers who either didn't see the need to pass on these kinds of things to their daughters, or didn't have the skills to pass on in the first place. My guess is that the idea of the everday, normal woman being able to sew her own clothes (curtains, throw pillows, slipcovers, children's clothes, etc.) and make a good, not-out-of-a-can/freezer dinner for her family each night lost all appeal in the feminism of the 60s and 70s (and 80s and 90s). Hence the demand for ready-made everything (even if she wanted to, the full-time working woman, especially one with kids, doesn't have time to be a gourmet chef and expert seamstress on any regular basis). And ready-made everything made self-made anything look like a waste of time and energy (though usually not a waste of money, but then the working woman doesn't always need to worry about the money, since she has a paying job). So no one learned how to sew, and cooking was limited to the basics (incase you ever just wanted to brown some ground beef by yourself - although you can buy already browned beef in a package too these days - yuk!). And then these women start having kids, and even if they wanted to, they can't teach their daughters the arts of homemaking because they themselves don't know how. So their kids NEED ready-made everything. Return to vicious cycle. Generations from now you can't even buy a sewing machine or scratch ingredients (it's already a little difficult to find internet cake recipes that don't call for a box mix). And yet at the same time, you have lots of women who really want to learn the lost art of homemaking (as the interest in my sewing evening would attest), but they don't know who to ask.

Enter Must-Save-The-World Sarah! I start a Home Ec class for adults and women learn how to cook and sew and then they teach their kids who pass the info on to their friends, and the cycle starts to reverse... I think I've discovered my calling!

Okay, we're using some hyberbole here. I don't really think that the situation is as dire as I have made it out to be here, nor do I have any realistic aspirations of changing anything on even a city-of-Louisville scale. And I know that there are a number of working women (particularly those who are single or married without kids) who do take time to cook and/or sew on occasion. But I do think that this kind of teaching is something I would like to do - I'd probably enjoy teaching Home Ec to kids at some later empty-nest stage of life. So I've been thinking about it today. Hence the blog entry. Thoughts on married women, particularly those with kids, working full-time outside the home I shall reserve for a blog entry on another day when my daughter is not clinging to my leg begging for food.

The Art of Teaching Big Adult Terms to Children

Very simple. Generally speaking, you just use the word from time to time in virtual isolation (that is, not within a long, convoluted sentence), and the child will begin to mimic. I used to babysit a two-year-old on a regular basis, and inadvertently taught him the word "decapitated", when he pulled the head off one of his toys, and the first words out of my mouth were "You decapitated him!" Don't ask me why I thought to say it that way. It just came out. And he copied me. And then everytime I babysat him, he would pull the heads off toys and say "It's decapitated!" with a gleeful smile. I wonder sometimes if his parents ever questioned why their son knew such a gruesome term... and then I wonder what horrible things my own daughter will copy from me and reproduce in awkward social situations. Having a kid makes you feel the need to reexamine all your daily habits and sayings (and I'm not just talking about sinful ones, which we should reexamine, kids or no, because they are an affront to the Cross - I mean things like eating straight out of the ice cream container or double-dipping your finger in the peanut butter jar or sitting with your legs in various contorted positions at the dinner table, none of which, of course, I ever do).

Temper Tantrums

Susanna threw a temper-tantrum this afternoon. She must have read what I wrote yesterday about discipline, because she was not going to let me off the hook today! I was eating an apple, and she LOVES apples, especially eating them big-people style (ya know, not all cut up and stuff). Well she wanted my apple. And she said please (well actually, she signed it), so I gave her a few bites, but then she decided that I was taking too long to take my bites and wasn't responding to her frantic please-signing fast enough, so she started fussing and then got downright mad and started doing the angry shake (when your body gets so tensed up that your muscles involuntarily spasm - is that a verb? well I just made it one then) and mad-crying. How am I supposed to respond to a 10-1/2-month-old tantrum? I can't exactly send her to her room to calm down. And she got a spanking, which may have informed her that what she was doing was bad, but didn't stop her from continuing. She is definitely starting to flaunt her sinful nature. No more vain hoping that MY child will be the one who happens to have avoided contracting one. And two is still a year away! Well, hopefully being our parenting guinea pig won't mess her up too bad... Anyone with a one year old have any suggestions? I ended up finishing my apple in the other room so she couldn't see it and in the absence of the object of her obsession, she went back to being the sweet little Susanna of yesteryear... I guess that ends it at a draw. Next time I need to be a clearer winner. Or at least a clearer authority. This is a hard occupation, only to be properly carried out by the grace and wisdom of our Heavenly Father, who has millions of sinful, whiny, temper-tantrum-throwing children to discipline. That makes me VERY thankful that I am not God (in addition to other reasons such as having control of the whole world in your hands - I'd be liable to inadvertantly destroy it after the first nanosecond).

Happier, but not less sinful, Susanna has just awoken and is talking about dada in her crib. I need to get her some dinner, so that ends this blog segment.

Thoughts I've Been Thinking

1. Consistancy in disciplining a child is very difficult. Mostly because I'm just plain lazy. If I've told Susanna not to do something 5 times, I don't want to make the effort to open my mouth and say "no" one more time, much less to actually get up and spank her and/or take her away from whatever she is doing. Case in point: Nathan plays the bass and Susanna is fascinated by all his equipment, especially by the amplifier which she can easily get to. She is not allowed to play with the knobs on top. She has been told this umpteen times each day. She has been spanked for doing it. And still she persists. So tonight she is continually going over to the amp and banging on it and touching the knobs (and then turning around and smiling ever-so-sweetly and innocently at me). And I keep saying "no touch!" and smacking her hand and putting her in a different part of the room with different toys and as soon as I do, she is crawling back over to the amp. And after a while, I just want to read my magazine and ignore her. It's not as if she is going to do any major damage to the amplifier that is twice her size. It's not as if previous discipline has done any visible good. And I am tired and wanting to spend my evening doing something enjoyable, not chasing after a naughty little girl. Sometimes I wonder what God feels like when we consistently disobey. Does he ever wish he could just ignore us, pretend we weren't over there turning the knobs and pushing the buttons and looking back with an innocent smile--"I didn't know what you meant by that command!", "I'm not really hurting anything!", "I can't hear you!"? Of course, I know he doesn't ignore us, and if he did, it would only be delayed judgment before sending us straight to hell, seeing as he wouldn't see any need to save us if he didn't care about our disobedience. Which means that if I don't care about Susanna's disobedience, I won't see any need for her salvation either. Scary thought. Need to be more committed to disciplining her, even if it is time- and energy-consuming!

2. If we ever have another kid, I'm not sure I'm going to be getting to church before the sermon most weeks. For some reason, even if I get up on time and have time to spare 30 minutes before I'm supposed to leave for church, something always takes a little longer than planned and we are rushing out the door, getting there at the end of the announcements - end of the first hymn by the time I've got Susanna in the nursery - and it's sermon time before I'm mentally in the service (on a good week!). It makes it extra hard to focus in church when you arrive late, hot, flustered and trying to remember what it was that you think you forgot at home. I'd like to know how mothers with 2 or more kids make it out the door at all.

3. Edy's Samoas Cookie ice cream is REALLY good. They should have it all year round, instead of just during Girl Scout Cookie sale time.

4. Nathan gets home in 20 minutes. I'm looking forward to that.

5. I think I'm done now.

Currently Reading: Don't Make Me Count To Three

News of the Day

I'd like to announce that our daughter, age 10 1/2 months, has officially taken her first step! Only one in a single standing session, but she managed to pull off 3 or 4 steps over the course of 10 minutes. She is growing up so fast *sniffs and sheds a tear*. She'll probably have her driver's license before I do... (unless I make the current goal, which is the end of May, or April if you ask my husband)

Currently Reading: The Joy of Cooking

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Okay, so Daddy comes home and wants to see Susanna take a step, and she takes FOUR before finally loosing her balance. Maybe if he stayed home with her while I worked, she'd be riding a bike by now... Of course, I'd far rather be at home than working (not that I don't work). Maybe someday soon, she'll say "mama". She already says "dada" (and duck "duh").

By the way, I'm only "reading" the cookbook looking for potluck ideas (tomorrow is the first Sunday of the month and our church always has a potluck then). I don't usually make a habit of really READING the cookbook... although I have to admit that I've been known to read parts of it while nursing... at least that's more educational than the Supremely Satisfying Bathroom Reader, which I have read cover-to-cover *sheepish smile* ... hmm, that doesn't sound too good. Just to clarify, I read that while nursing too, NOT while in the bathroom My husband isn't sure that sounds any better. Oh well, that's what I do.

And the Procrastinator of the Year Award Goes To...

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that two years, one month, seven days and one completed baby album later, I have officially finished putting together our wedding album!!!!! Hmmm, so this is why people pay an extra $1000 to have the photographer put one together for them! It took me seven months just to get the photos developed, and I only did it that soon because we were moving and my parents gave me an ultimatum

Of course, I've scrapbooked ours, so it's more personal and special than something some photographer who doesn't know you made, but still, TWO years? Well, at any rate, it is done and available for viewing. Now I can sleep at night...

Here We Go

Well, I've been encouraged to start a blog, and since I need one more thing to think about, I decided to do it. Probably a better thing to do after Susanna goes to bed than playing endless rounds of FreeCell (very addictive game)... I'll probably post plenty of random musings and other useless information, but I think my main themes are likely to be marriage- and parenting-related, along with journaling the trials and triumphs of learning to put aside all my distractions and focus on Christ, since these are the things I think about most. You're not necessarily going to get anything profound here (at least not on a daily basis), but seeing as I think most clearly when I make the effort to express my thoughts outloud, this should be good for me and perhaps interesting for you... so here goes... I have officially joined the blogging bandwagon.