Please Don't Tell Me This Is the Easiest Part

Actually, tell me straight.  Is pregnancy the easiest part of motherhood?  If so, I need to prepare myself for the next 60 years.

I'm just being dramatic.  It's not that bad really.
I've completed "Phase 1", which includes feeling sick, tired, not wanting to cook anything and being grossed out by just about every smell.

I've now entered "Phase 2", the heartburn and leg cramps phase.  I am learning how to manage, however.  Seems if you decide not to drink a swig of pickle juice, your heartburn isn't quite so bad.  Funny how that works.

I hear pregnancy makes you forget things and act ditsy.  They call it "baby brain".  I'm not sure if I have baby brain or not.  What I DO have is an excellent excuse for why I tend to forget things and act ditsy.  Take this weekend, for example.  Mr. T was very entertained when I managed to super glue several of my fingers together.  I have yet to clean the glue off my wedding ring.

Later in the weekend, we were taking a nice walk around the neighborhood, talking and enjoying life.  We were almost home when I heard a dog bark, so naturally I turned my head to the right to see where the bark was coming from and walked straight into a low hanging tree branch.  Ouch!  I was certain I had knocked my eyeball out of it's socket.  In the midst of the agony, I was trying to figure out if Mr. T would ever be attracted to me again if he ended up being the one who had to pop my eye back into place.  He quickly put my mind at ease when he confirmed that it wasn't even bleeding.  I do have a nice little scratch that starts above my eyebrow and goes midway down my eyelid, but no medical assistance was required.

Did I tell you that Mr. T bought and set up a kiddie pool that we purchased for $9.  I talked him into it because I get so stinkin' hot sometimes and going to the public pool is out of the question.  So on Memorial Day, I put on my bikini (which I've never worn before), went into the backyard, sat Indian style in the pool, ate a Snicker's Ice Cream bar and felt a lot better.  All that's to say, pregnancy has a lot of upsides to it as well.  

Missing May

I'm not sure how it happened, but I came across this book online the other day:


Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

Rylant won the Newberry Honor Award for Missing May in 1993, and it was a well-deserved honor.

Missing May is a short and sweet read that will quickly bond you with lovable characters and keep you hoping for the best throughout the entire story.

It's a book for children, although I'm not sure what child would appreciate the book for what it's worth.  It wouldn't be the first time a child surprised me, though.

I, however, was captivated for the entire 1.485 hours it took me to read it and upon completion I let out a sigh and said, "Beautiful."  Because that's what it is.  Simply beautiful.

Cynthia Rylant also wrote one of my favorite picture books, called "The Relatives Came".  Also a complete delight.  I look forward to reading more from this lovely author.


  

You May Be Wondering...

...why my blog posts have been a little on the light side lately. 
There's a reason for that. 
And the reason is that I haven't been feeling very good.
Why, you ask.
There's a reason for that too.
I'll give you a hint.

It has something to do with the fact that I used to love the smell of this:

 

But now I think it smells like a stinky pet store.

And going to Wal-Mart - forget about it! 

That place stinks to high heaven. 

Between the food, and the stinky people and the stink people leave behind that I somehow manage to walk into - I DREAD going there!

It also has something to do with the fact that I feel like I can't function without a solid two hour nap each day, which isn't always possible, meaning there's lots of times I just can't function.  At least not well.

And I have to eat something...

...like every 10 minutes.

And I need lots of hugs from Mr. T.

And despite not feeling well, our hearts are full and we are thankful each day.

Have you guessed it yet?

I'll give you one more hint:

Ta - da!

We're expecting a Tiny Tidyman sometime at the end of November.

I'm entering my 2nd trimester at 13 weeks and starting to perk up a bit.

We couldn't be happier!

X-Men

This week, I've had two dreams that I've been calling "X-Men Dreams". 

I really like X-Men and I really like dreams where I get to BE an X-Men.  I never want to wake up.

So far in both dreams, my special X-Man power is that my hands can turn into just about anything.
Like anything!  Guns, hammers, shields, fireballs, cotton candy, writing utensils - you name it!

It's proven very "handy" (pun intended) in fighting off bad guys.  The sky's the limit with this power.

The bad part is, if something happens to my hands while they are transformed...say they are transformed into glass and the glass breaks, then my hands break...so I have to be careful.

So far the only two X-Men who are able to beat me are ones who can control my mind.  This is really dangerous because they could control my mind to change my hands to glass and then break the glass. 

Also, X-Men who "neutralize" all X-Men powers with their presence can beat me.  All X-Men powers present are gone, but if someone is physically stronger than me without their powers, then I'm toast.

Make sense?

I'm guessing there is about a 4.67% of the population that will appreciate this random post. 
And to you, 4.67% - you have a special place in my heart.

Note: Mr. T edited the picture above to include yours truly.  He's so stinkin' romantic!

I Like...

This verse:
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you,
     because he trusts in you.
                                    Isaiah 26:3

This man:



This book:

This fact of life:

What do you like?

Wicked

Last weekend, Mr. T and I hoped in a van full of 9 Delightful Scollards and we traveled to Denver to see the Broadway production of Wicked!
Brett, Michelle, and their 7 lovely children were great company on the way there and back.  A trip to Denver never went so fast!  After running here and there, dropping off children at relatives homes, a little of this and a little of that, we finally made it to the show. 

 
I couldn't recommend it more highly.  It's fantastic!  "Wicked-ly Awesome!"  Amazing!  If you've never been to a Broadway production, you should go.  I always walk out thinking, "How can they produce that kind of sound EVERY night." They're all so stinkin' talented, the sets are wonderful, everything is magical and you should stop reading this and order tickets NOW!

In case you're not familiar, Wicked is based on the story of The Wizard of Oz and is told from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West.  It starts back in her college days when she happens to be roommates with Glinda, the Good Witch.  As the story unfolds, you see who is actually "wicked" and who is not - and it's not always based on appearances. 

I loved it! 
We all loved it!

Can't wait until the next Broadway adventure...

Special thanks to Brett and Michelle for dreaming, planning, driving, and enjoying this weekend with us.  We're so thankful for you!

Marriage

"Marriage is mainly about displaying the covenant keeping love between
Christ and his church."

To read more about Ian and Larissa's story, visit

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-story-of-ian-larissa.

Lasagna Garden

A couple weekends ago we planted our Lasagna Garden, based in this book.

For the garden part, we layered lawn clippings, compost, shredded paper from the Dr.'s office, peat moss, shredded leaves, and stuff like that.  We let it sit for a couple of weeks and by the time we were ready to plant, everything had broken down into nice, rich soil.  It was a breeze to plant!

There are tomatoes along the edge, marigolds to keep the bugs away, Swiss chard, peppers, mint, zinnias, onions, cucumbers, and some other miscellaneous plants. 

We have some herbs in pots here.  The bugs kind of got to them last year, so let me know if you have ideas on how to keep that from happening.  Oh, and there's Annie of course.  It's her favorite spot in the yard because she can bark at the neighbor dog through the fence. 

We also planted a raspberry bush.  Something funky already happened to it and it's not looking so good.  Perhaps we over watered?  Again, if you have any helpful hints, we're all ears!

Seems like gardening can either be a ton of fun and very "fruitful" or it can be a huge waste of time and money.  We're hoping for fruitful!