Feeling Good and Saving Money

I am now eight weeks pregnant and the "beginning bloat" seems to be leaving. If you've had children before you know what I'm talking about. It's similar to menstrual bloating, but about 100, thousand, million times worse...okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but it's worse. It's especially worse when you've got the morning sickness crap to go along with it. (Note to self: STOP saying "crap." Anna says it when she's upset..."Oh, Crap!")

There is a lot going on in the baby making department. This week, we're growing hands and feet...so fingers and toes. How exciting is that? Just based on where I am in the pregnancy, I can guess about what's happening to the baby. Also at eight weeks, I am 20% done with this pregnancy. I like that figure better than saying I'm eight weeks or 2 months pregnant. 20% done. Yeah!!

A note to people who might be wondering about the IUPUI thing...I found out Saturday that I was accepted. We're just waiting to hear about how my credits transferred and what all I need to do to finish my degree. So, that's exciting!

We're also looking to shave off some of our expenses so that we can pay off and pay down some of our expenses. We're doing small things that will add up in the long run. One thing that we started doing this weekend, and I don't know why we weren't doing it already, was giving up wipes at home. My mother didn't use wipes for the kids in our house and it really hadn't occurred to me how much we were using and how expensive they are. I figured out that we were using about a box (8 count refill box) or more of wipes per month...which works out to about 150 dollars a year.

It may not seem like a lot, but it adds up in the end and its a lot of extra waste. I mean...how often do I just grab a handful of wipes to clean up a mess, wipe a nose or to clean off a sneaker. Honestly...these are all things that I could be doing with reusable cloths. Which is what we're switching to. I was able to buy 24 soft-ish washcloths for 5 dollars. This may just be in the experiment stage for now, but I think this is something that we could switch to. Anyway, it's a first step.

There are other things that are on the horizon for us...changes that we'll be making to make certain that we're living more frugally...not just to save ourselves money, but ultimately as an example to our children and to enable us to be more giving to others.

Any ideas that you have to pass on to cut expenses or things that have helped you to be live frugally with what God has blessed you with would be great to learn. :)

Well...

Perhaps my "worst pregnancy day ever" was not just morning sickness, but compounded by a stomach virus which, unfortunately my children picked up. Charlotte was fussy last night, but we thought that she was just being baby fussy or perhaps getting some teeth. Anyway, we were awakened early to crying and vomiting. Abby doesn't seem to be touched by it yet and is acting pretty normally, so we'll see.

Anna has the bucket with her that I was moving around with me on Wednesday. She's took a nice nap this morning and I hope to get her to take another one this afternoon.

Needless to say, our plans for tonight and this weekend will have to be cancelled, but we hope to reschedule. Pray for us that this all passes quickly and that Abby and Aaron aren't affected.

Whoa.

Yesterday was a rough one. Perhaps one of the roughest pregnancy days yet. Every smell was awful. Even morning toast. Thankfully, my dear hubby came home early and I was able to take it easy for the remainder of the day. I skipped my normal Wednesday workout, but I'm sure my workout buddies appreciated my not puking on them. :)

I'm feeling much better today. Which is good, because I need to prepare for a ladies night in at my house tomorrow. I have to go grocery shopping and at least clean the bathroom in the hall today. I'm pretty sure I know what I'll be making and I'll post some of the recipes HERE on my recipe blog.

Aaron and I are also having a night away on Saturday, thank you, Mary Jo, and I've got some things to plan for that.

Update on the family...Charlotte is becoming more expert with her crawling, which makes her the youngest full on crawler we've had yet, but certainly not as daring as her older sister Abby. We'll see. For those of you who were worried about Abby's head...the ridge does seem to be going down...which follows the doctor's diagnosis of it just being a scar/hematoma that needed more time to heal from her accident this Summer. Anna has recently fallen in love with all things "Sleeping Beauty." I think she's even more enamored with it because she has a cousin named Aurora, too. Aaron's been working hard at both work and home. He's been so helpful around the house and doing more than his fair share of chores during this morning sickness period that we're going through. He's made some progress on Molly's doghouse that we hope to have completely finished before too much longer. As for Molly, she has completely changed from the little pup she was and is now a large fluff ball. It's amazing how smart she is, already mastering the basic commands, but she, being so smart, hates the leash. We're working on it though and hopefully, she'll begin to enjoy some walks.

That's just a short update on all of us. I hope to post over the weekend with pictures and such about tomorrow night

A Beating Heart

Last week, I received a gift. I believe I received it when I did for a reason. I wasn't feeling very well and was laying down. I felt almost a jolt in my stomach and then a thump-thump where I was laying on my belly. The thump-thump continued and I just laid there marveling for a long time. I don't know if you've figured it out, but I believe that it was my babies heart beginning to beat. Needless to say, it was a remarkable feeling and one that I'll cherish, but I'm especially thankful for the timing.

I sort of lurk on a young mother's forum and last Wednesday a woman posted that her boyfriend left her. She went on to say that she caught him cheating, they already had one child together and that she was almost 7 weeks pregnant. She shared a very sad story about how she was the primary caregiver for her child and now the only one contributing financially. She ended by saying that she couldn't possibly support another child alone, but that she wasn't going to ask the man back into her life, he didn't know about the new baby, and was going to abort her child. She later posted that she had had the "procedure" and that other than feeling hollow, she was fine.

I ached over this and was probably thinking about it when I was given a new pouring of love for my own baby. I praised God for his creation of this baby and all babies. I know that everything happens for a reason. Someday, that woman's story and the conversation it started in that forum may go on to touch another life and perhaps even stop another senseless death. God is the ultimate giver and taker of life. He is still on the throne.

Blah.

Sorry I missed posting on Friday. It's not that I haven't had things to talk about...Abortion, Patrick Henry's crazy wife, over medicating our children...these are all things that have touched me since Wednesday. But, unfortunately, something else has touched me especially hard since Wednesday as well. Morning sickness and I are likethis with each other right now. I am on the verge of getting sick on you at this very moment. I am especially sensitive to eggs and beef...Aaron, bless his heart, made eggs for breakfast...and I, fool that I am, made Swiss steak for dinner.

And yet, I am starving. I feel the need to eat right now while I am holding down dinner. I am also cutting out caffeine. Yes, this does include my cokes. Argh!

So, stay with me and we'll get through this together. I'll try to keep my dry heaves to myself and keep mentions of vomit brief. You can do your part and try not to laugh at my prego brain or the fact that I've put my daughter's shoes on the wrong feet every single time I've put them on her this week.

I'm going to try to keep up my normal posting days, but there may be days when I just have to skip, because a nap seems more important. I know we'll get through this. Yes, I already said that, but I think if I say something often enough I can make myself believe it. :)

Charlotte is Crawling and Finding Trouble

Charlotte is now crawling more than she is rolling; her last reliable form of travel...her first, of course, being the mama. :) She is proving to be more capable, at her young age, of finding trouble than either of her sisters were. Yesterday alone, she discovered the basket of diapers, the wipe box and how to open it and also the DVD player and, get this, how to OPEN IT! She has been pushing the open button over and over. This is now her new favorite toy.

I think the crawling stage of the game is probably the most difficult of the baby training months. She now has to learn what is off limits and the babies most hated word. "NO!" :)

Contemplating my Joy and my Pregnancy Hormones

"Joy is the best makeup."~Anne Lamott

Hormones have been driving me, and everyone around me I'm sure, crazy for the last couple of weeks. I'm angry and then weepy at the drop of a hat. I'm tired and then pulsing with energy. I'm starving and then dying of hunger. Well, I guess that's not so very different, but you get the point.

Whether or not it seems like it, my life has never been so full of joy. I have everything I could ever possibly want or desire. My children and husband are healthy and happy.

There have been times when I went through bouts of depression. Who doesn't? Someone once told me that happiness, like any emotion, is a choice. But, I don't really think that these hormonal emotion changes are things I can choose to experience or not. They are direct results of the new little life growing inside of me and there really is not much I can do about them, but apologize. So again, to all those out there that I have offended already, I'm sorry. To those I haven't seen in the last couple of weeks, I apologize in advance, because, dude, I know it's coming your way, too. :)

Winter Days

This was in yesterday's paper and it reminded me that too soon we would once again be homebound and STUCK INSIDE because of the weather. We'll have to find activities to keep the kiddos entertained or they will drive the mama crazy!

We'll paint, make cookies, play with blocks and playdough. Which reminds me, I need to get a good recipe for making our own playdough again. Thankfully, Abby and Anna are playing more together and keeping each other entertained and this in turn keeps Charlotte entertained. She loves to watch her sisters. I can hardly wait until next summer when they'll all three be running around with each other. :)

C.S. Lewis and Bibliophilia

I am slowly working my way through "Surprised by Joy" by C.S. Lewis. It's not that I'm not finding it interesting or well-written, but it requires so much "real" attention that I cannot just casually read it. So ,eventually, I'll finish it and move on to another book in my stack. Next is "James and the Giant Peach." :)

A short side note, when I read C.S. Lewis...I just discovered this...the narrator in my head is Anthony Hopkins. Which could be another reason that it's taking so long...Anthony Hopkins is a slow reader. :) Why would Anthony Hopkins be the narrator? Well, quite simply because he played C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands...great movie by the way if you haven't seen it.

The last chapter I just completed in "Surprised by Joy," Lewis speaks about a couple of things that he learned from a friend he had as a boy. One of these things is a respect for the body of a book.

"One other thing that Arthur taught me was to love the bodies of books. I had always respected them. My brother and I might cut stepladders without scruple; to have thumb-marked or dog's-eared a book would have filled us with shame. But Arthur did not merely respect, he was enamored; and soon, I too. The set up of the page, the feel and smell of the paper, the differing sounds that different papers make as you turn the leaves, became sensuous delights. This revealed to me a flaw in Kirk (a headmaster, aka Knock). How often have I shuddered when he took a new classical text of mine in his gardener's hands, bent back the boards till they creaked, and left his sign on every page.

"Yes, I remember," said my father. "That was old Knock's one fault."

"A bad one," said I.

"An all but unforgivable one," said my father. "

I have always had a respect for books themselves...Unless you are truly a book lover you do not know the pleasure that can be given when one touches a book and hears that first crack of the binding and that clean paper smell. A bibliophile...A lover of books.

This person is often a collector of books; regardless of their topic. I have several beautiful old books that I purchased at book sales simply because of the cover of the book or the texture of the paper. It's almost as though it were an addiction, an illness at the very least. My personal book collection was well over a thousand volumes right before I married Aaron. Sadly, there was simply no way to keep them all and many were sold or donated. But, over the course of our marriage I know our collection will grow. Hopefully, our children will respect and cherish them as much as we do and they will be passed on.

A little quote to share that kind of summed up my attitude about books in college. "If I have a little money I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes." Erasmus.

What's in a Name?

Here are some name ideas, and the meanings, that we're throwing around for the new baby. Any input would be appreciated.

We've pretty much had the boy name picked out for a while, so there are fewer choices there:

Aaron-mountain of strength
Thomas-twin
Timothy-God's honor

We wouldn't call the baby Aaron, but he would go by his middle name.

Girls names, we've narrowed down to two, but there are a few names that we also like very much by themselves:

Rebecca-to bind
Lynne-pretty

Emily-industrious, striving
Louise-renowned fighter (go figure)

Juliet-youthful, God's child
Isabel-God's promise
Ada, Adele-noble

Our Oldest Girl Turns Three

Anna Katherine Greenwood was born 3 years ago today; at 5:26am to be precise. With 28 hours of labor, after my water broke, she was stubborn even then. Her stubbornness may be one of her defining characteristics and the one that most closely ties her to her father. She is the child that made us parents in every stretch of the word.

We both had already made it through the worst of college studies with sleepless nights, but it was Anna who first showed us what real sleeplessness was like. We didn't know babies could cry so much or require so much. The first night she slept through, I remember waking up with a start and thinking, surely something has happened to her. We celebrated by making biscuits and gravy. :) Never have I been so concerned about someones sleep or breathing. We'd tip-toe in just to check to make certain she was still breathing. She was such a precious gift, so other-worldly, so fragile. I knew there was nothing I had done to deserve her and sometimes I felt that she was a dream that could just disappear.

I remember the times that I would hold her long after she had fallen asleep and I myself should have been in bed. Her little lashes against her cheek, the lace-y network of veins across her eyelids. The small birthmark just outside the corner of her left eye. Her cheeks, so full that they almost folded in on her lips. The little ears with the dent in the lobes. The wisps of red-tinted hair that would eventually grow into her long blond curls.

Our first-born is three and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. She has grown into a child that loves books and learning. She is ever watchful and likes to mimic her mama in many things; from talking on the phone to laundry and cooking...she even has her own notebook to "write" in with lines of scribble. Her tender spirit shows her to be caring of others outside of herself. Her laugh is full and makes me laugh. She has brought a fullness to our lives and is the perfect big sister. She is the one that God had planned for our family since before we were a family. I thank Him for her and can't imagine life without her.

Happy third birthday, Anna!

Some New Fangled Hamburgers

We tried a new burger recipe last night to use up some Feta cheese that was beyond good. I made a post about it on my recipe blog for those of you who'd appreciate the recipe.

Pregnant and Sneaking Chocolate Cake

Well, if you didn't already figure it out from Friday's picture...we're pregnant. The official due date would be June 8th. Another baby. Boy or Girl, either would be a blessing. We're very excited and already planning ahead for next summer. There is, of course, the possibility that we would still be here when the baby is born, so we'll have to figure out the logistics of that. I know we could do it, but hopefully we won't have to.

I've started having more pregnancy symptoms. Nausea and cravings. Yesterday, Aaron made breakfast, eggs with some sausage. Argh! I don't think anything ever smelled so bad. I'm sure it was lovely, but it sent my stomach turning.

With the nausea also comes the cravings. The sibs and Kelly went out last night for some dessert; Robert's back in town. My angel of a husband brought home some chocolate cake...that sounds so small compared to what it was. You can't just call it "chocolate cake." For this was the mother of all chocolate cakes with fudge icing and chocolate chips and chunks. My goodness. Mmmm. Anyway, I couldn't eat it last night because it was so late when Aaron came back with it. I shoot, you know I could have inhaled that thing, but I knew I'd regret it later, so I used my will power to wait until today.

Well, all morning it was calling to me, "Saaarrrraaahhhh. Saaarraahh. Come to the fridge. Oh, yes. Open the take out box. Mmmm. Don't I look nummy?" I couldn't eat it this morning, because like all children, my children have super sonic hearing when it comes to Mommy eating anything wonderful and gooey that they aren't sharing in. There was no sneaking bites, but I still feel slightly sinful, because I ate it while I sat in the dark, in the dining room while Anna was napping on the couch 10 feet away. Mmmm. Somehow it tasted better. :)

News!

Starting a Recipe Blog

My friend, Lori, has a recipe blog that she co-writes with her sister and mother. They all submit recipes to it from time to time. I think this might be a colorful way to blog with pictures even of some of our favorite, time-tested family recipes. So, family...if this is something you'd be interested in...let me know and I'll add you in as a writer.

The url is: whatsonyourtable.blogspot.com

I've been playing around with it for a little bit and think I've got it set up, so feel free to check it out. :)