Kidding
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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Well, maybe flunked is a harsh term, but I am definitely a drop-out homeschooling mama! When we decided to enroll our oldest in first grade at our local Catholic school a year before he actually went, I was flooded || plagued || haunted by feelings of guilt. Even as the two oldest still get to romp//play//fight out at the Lodge on weekends. Maybe you’ve struggled with this decision, too. Hopefully you’ve had the space and time to evaluate and figure out what’s best for your family without feeling judged by yourself or others. Guilt that being an educated at home mom meant I shouldn’t need to rely on other educators. Guilt that tuition is, well, it’s not free, and I’m not working (see point one). Guilt that I don’t have ample energy to provide my eager little learners with enriching educational experiences on a regular basis. Guilt that I was eeking out of some etherial duty that Catholic moms have of home-educating their children. I also went from being a virulent I can totally homeschool let’s do this forever! when I had a three year old and a one year old to okay! more workbooks and audio stories on your own while I take care of the baby with three kids in four years and then this past year I can’t leave the house much because I’m throwing up and you want to do another science experiment thank GOD you’re going to school in the fall. The kicker for us was that pregnancy is so debilitating with…
Read MoreLiving with a toddler is like living with a hurricane. Hanging out with Kelly & crew to tell you how I’m semi-surviving having a tot again. It’s my third time having a two and a half year old, and thank GOD because I know now it’s not permanent. They will, WILL, grow in their prefrontal cortexes and become semi-rational. SEMI. My favorite book for this stage (and all kids, really) is this one. It changed my expectations so I no longer freaked out about the tot not listening. Because they kinda can’t. 1// Hitting. The hitting continues. Now he’ll warn you. I HIT YOU, MAMA. or I NO LIKE YOU SO I BITE YOU! So at least there’s a head’s up. He also throws things with remarkable accuracy. Hard heavy things. At people’s heads. 2// Refusal to get dressed in that outfit. This is a first for us. MonsterTot will not wear certain clothes on certain days. He eschews long sleevers unless they’re proclaimed “hockey jerseys” or “Joe Mauer Power Batting Shirts.” He also is wise to the fact that unless there’s a number on the back, it’s not actually a jersey. I bought this sweater and told him it was a hockey jersey. It’s the only sweater he likes. I should buy a few more. 3// Food. That food is YUCKY. No, it IS YUCKY. he says about his former favorites. All the time. Ellyn Sattler has a great guide on providing options and then letting the kid decide…
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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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Emily Rumsey Photography I think every mother, womb-grown & heart-grown, has this litany somewhere in their head: those things they wish they’d heard when they were anticipating the arrival of their baby and the thereafter. Those things they wished someone had told them. My list is pretty long. Probably because I was the first in my family to have a baby, and first in my immediate friend group to be pregnant, and had just moved prior to being pregnant so even those new moms I did know now lived far away from us. A few of my cousins who lived close by had young children and that helped! A few neighbors did, too. No one I worked with that I was close enough to ask things like why is this happening to my unmentionables?? I read a lot, and found community online where I could ask questions. Mostly I just plodded through, trial & error style. Some of these may resonate, some may not. Hopefully you’re hearing (or heard) what you needed to during your first transition! It can be physically hard to be pregnant, and that doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. *** Not everyone who you think doesn’t have a baby, doesn’t have a baby. Lots of loss is invisible, from adoptive plans gone awry to miscarriage to fertility struggles. Don’t assume anything about other women’s bodies. *** It’s okay to feel emotionally out of whack, but if you’re having trouble with day-to-day functioning, tell your provider. You’re not whining. You…
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