Creating
Thanksgiving before I ate a bunch of pie. And why is that shovel out? Clearly we’ve had very little snow in Minnesota so far! In fact, everything feels scattered these days. My mind, my hair, my ability to function. Hyperemesis is hanging on strong through week 37 and even despite my many and best efforts to reframe it in my mind and reaccept being sick and laying down, it gets the better of me some days. I feel frustration for my husband, for my children, for my sainted family that’s so helpful. I feel guilty that I can’t function as I’d like. End of pregnancy is hard for everyone, I know! It’s just a wrapping up of nine month of growing and thinking and preparing. How special for me it comes parallel to the birth of Christ! I wish I could say this has been the pregnancy where I’ve experienced real, true patience and made time for lots of prayer, and offered up my suffering, and also stayed in yoga-ready-to-birth shape. Every pregnancy I have such high hopes! And then am laid low by the realities of how my body experiences pregnancy. This is the first time for sciatic nerve pain, though, and I must say, yowzer for my friends who suffer it regularly. These prayers I’m offering for you! I’m ready for baby girl to come anytime, but also don’t feel anxious. If she isn’t here by 41 weeks, my superb midwife and I will talk induction options (not…
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It’s gift season! I love giving and receiving gifts so very very much so the delights of the season are not lost on me. I asked around to all my creative hand making friends for a little coupon code for you from their shoppes. They were so generous to oblige!! So I’ve broken it down by genre to make it a little easier for you to scan through and make your selection. Supporting small businesses means that they really truly benefit from your purchase. Like, it can actually help them with their own holiday budget for their family & friends! So thank you for shopping small. Household Clean and Simple: I received the laundry soap & dish soap and absolutely love both of them. She does such a beautiful job on clean ingredients and recipes–a total mystery to me how one figures these things out. My dry itchy skinned children said their clothing felt “really good” after the washings and the dishwasher dishes smelled clean without that awful chemical smell! A big fan over here! WHOLEHOLIDAY for 25% off. Call Her Happy: embroidered wearable art, watercolors, and liturgical living guide. Jenna offers how to practice liturgical living with your small children in a VERY doable way. Talk about a happier household! I’m really looking forward to implementing her suggestions throughout Advent. (I love her hoop art, too, by the way, and her Anxiety book, so you can’t go wrong with anything from her shoppe!) Code: WHOLEPARENTLL for $3 off! Faberie: I love their washcloths…
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I’m a sister kind of person. I love my three sisters. I love my friends like sisters. I love the sisterhood I’ve found in my community, both in person and online. And I was so thrilled when we found out we were having another girl. SweetPea will be best friends with her sister (I hope!!) and she already talks about all the “girl” things they will do together, like, not play with their brothers and dig in the dirt. When my friend Britt posted about these little girl dresses earlier this summer, I swooned. In large part because I have two nieces whom I was about to visit with my daughter (just her–total girl time!) and one had a birthday coming up, and in larger part because I was determined to buy complementary dresses for my own girls! Even though the baby won’t fit hers for a while. Ele Story is a mama-run company (Hi, Judy!) that makes their beautiful dresses right here in the United States–that’s a big plus to me as a buyer–and their designs are timeless. I bought this one and this one for my nieces. (Both on sale Sunday only.) This isn’t a sponsored post in that I’m not being compensated for sharing it–just wanted to pass along a coupon code for you if you want to support an artisan mama run shop! My own little SweetPea got this cornflower blue one, and the baby girl who will arrive at Christmas got this color one. The…
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Hi! Linking with Kelly & crew for almost 7-ish quick takes. We had an unnaturally unscheduled weekend. It was full of lovely little surprises and lots of rest time for everyone. I didn’t realize how much we needed to just recoup after the Marathon last weekend. Which, by the way, went spectacularly for AA. He ran like the wind! His time was 2:41 and he placed 45th overall. Out of . . . 11,000 people. WOW! Seriously, I have so much respect for him. He trained seven days a week for over six months–all early early morning runs so he’d be back in time to help with any early risers. This year I didn’t have a meltdown except for right before (unlike last year when my continuous marathon-related meltdown was a real downer for everyone), and we got to watch him cross the finish line, sprinting down Summit Avenue like a boss. *** I also realized that Halloween is soon and I’m the least crafty mom ever with the kids so we bought a bunch of felt and plastic eyeballs and went to town making “pumpkins”–not sure you can call them that, but I’ll pretend along with the kids that mine looks remotely like one, just as theirs do. *** My friend Susana runs this amazing creative company where she will produce stock photos for your creative endeavors, teach you how to take decent photos of your life//products, and overall be your creative guru. It’s called Little Flower Studio and I…
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Sometimes all I can see when I look around me are the piles of books, broken coloring crayons, outgrown clothing, everything that needs to be put away. The story of our lives, the real story, the messy parts, weigh on me extra when I’m pregnant. I struggle so hard to get the energy to JUST PUT IT AWAY instead of bemoan the existence of the pile. As I’m recovering from a nasty infection, I found if I didn’t look for the snug spots I love in our house, the ones that maybe aren’t dusted or super tidy, but are so joy filled, I would go insane. I’m finding that arranging little corners makes me happy. Shopping from my friend’s instagram vintage curated account makes me happy, too. Little things, people. Let’s start little. And Mercy, the 20 year old Siamese mix, loves this chair. I stole it from my mom because it’s kinda a glider and will make for easy night rocking with our soon-to-be cosleeper. The ottoman was my grandfather’s and rolls (aka becomes a train for my hooligan children). The lamp was my deceased aunt’s whom I never met (she died when my mom was only 18). The books in the corner are almost ones by my friends! Laura, Ginny, Hallie, Kelly, Colleen, and a few others. It’s a special corner for lots of reasons. I stalked our house to find the little nooks and crannies I love. In the spirit of being more positive and less negative,…
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Yes, I really do! I really do. And it’s on my mind often. What can I do to improve our marriage? Okay, that’s a lie. Somedays all that’s on my mind is the long list of things he can do to improve our marriage. But I married a great guy to begin with, and I bring at least half the problems to the relationship so I really can take credit for needing to improve it and being able to. 1) recognize where we are. Like, without the hormonal influence of pregnancy. Really, truly, I sat down and took stock in where our marriage is. I wrote down what our habits are. How much time we actually spend in actual conversation. How often we bicker or fight. How frequently I’m slaying him with death-emojis in my mind’s emoticon board. I also wrote down what I appreciate about him. I wrote this out before the list of things that are hard for me because it’s easy to get swept up in the negative, at least for me. It’s not social media’s fault. It’s not my iPhone’s fault. It’s my fault for spiraling down a negativity black hole when a simple acknowledgement of an annoyance would do. Let go, bite the inside of your mouth, find ice cream. All better things to do. 2) talk openly about our children and future children. Laura & Nancy & I wrote another Scripture study (Waiting in the Word: A Couple’s Journey) that I know I told you about a few…
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