Time with the nephews

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to watch my nephews for a few hours. My sister and her husband were blessed with last minute tickets to the K-State v. Tennessee Tech game in Manhattan, and Mom and Dad (aka Designated Baby-sitters) had a reception. So Mike and Jim came to my house.

I love spending time with these guys, though their energy can be a little taxing when I'm 7 months pregnant and short on energy due to baby-building and lack of sleep. We had a good time, though. And thankfully, they're fairly easily entertained even without toys at Uncle Nick and Aunt Stacey's house. Mikey slept for the first few hours of his stay, allowing me some one-on-one time with Jimmy. It also allowed Jimmy to lick the bowls for the trifle dessert I was making for Andrea and Josiah's engagement party (sister-in-law and brother-in-law-to-be).
I think this picture speaks eloquently to how much Jimmy enjoyed it. And thankfully it satisified him without having to dig into the dessert for him to try it!


I had to take a picture of Jim's face when he was done. All over!


We enjoyed PB&J sandwhiches, cheetos, and lemonade for lunch. The boys "watched" TV, wandered around, wrestled, and really enjoyed a pillow-fight with Aunt Stacey. We ended the afternoon by enjoying the fall air on our deck and watching for Grammy and Papa to arrive to pick them up for Central Park's Concert in the Park. And while Aunt Stacey would really have liked a nap, I had to get ready for an evening of our own: Nick and I went to enjoy his friend's band, Sound Origin, at the Concert in the Park, and then off to celebrate with Andrea and Josiah.

(The trifle was a success, by the way. Too bad I didn't get a picture of that, as well.)

Mikey-Boy hamming it up after finishing lunch.

Projects

Currently I have a number of projects I'm working on, trying to get them finished. One is a gift I am knitting for a friend, which is almost done, if I can just make that last push to finish off those last few rows! Another is a blanket I'm about to start for little Eliza. Hopefully it will be done before she's born, but as baby blanket's take so long to make, even knitting, there's no guarantee. Thankfully, others have been very willing and generous to supply her blankets!

Another is pictured here : family Christmas stockings for Nick and Eliza. The tradition started with my grandmother, who made them for my mom and her older brother. She made another for my dad when he married mom, and then one for each of my siblings and I as we came along. Mom and I have kept the tradition alive by making stockings as my brother and sister married and had kids. Now, I get to make them for my husband and my daughter. There wasn't time last year before the wedding to make Nick's, so he finally gets his own this year. We based made patterns from the stockings Grammy had made and have used them to cut out the felt shapes and sew on the beads and sequins. My part of the stocking is to cut out the shapes and basically tack them on to the fronts with the beads/sequins. I'm really not good at sewing. I couldn't sew a straight line for my life, and definitely couldn't do any embroidery (though sometimes when I work on these I wish I could). Still, I really enjoy making these, so I do the bead work, and Mom sews everything together.

I'll post pictures again when I have finished products to show for them.


Closer shots of the beading and sequins going on the letters of Eliza's name. It's hard to get the camera to focus properly and closely enough to see the details sharply. The picture, then, below is a close-up of the body of the stocking, showing our imitation of Grammy's original design.

How Ironic, or "Oh, joy!"

Funny, but today after my earlier post about waiting for Christmas, I received an e-mail in my inbox from Better Homes and Gardens. Tomorrow starts their "100 Days of Holidays" e-mail extravaganza. I signed up last year, mostly for the Thanksgiving and Christmas ideas and recipes they e-mail out, though they begin with Halloween. But it starts tomorrow already! 100 days until Christmas!

Ah, the holidays!

For those who know me pretty well, you know that I am a Christmas freak. It's my favorite time of the year. Children's excitement over the season just doesn't compare. I love the colors, the music, the lights, the decorations, the specials and productions, the traditions, the goodies suddenly coming out of even the most dormant of kitchens. I certainly didn't complain that I had a holiday wedding last year. And most of all, I love Christmas Eve for the Christmas Eve service where our entire attention is focused on God's blessings through the birth of His Son. There is no more magical, wonderful, and reverent time for me, except perhaps Easter weekend. I LOVE Christmas Eve service and the opportunity to worship my God amidst my favorite time of year. Christmas is a total package for me of both culture and faith, but Christ is definitely the best and most important part of it all, the very center of why we even celebrate. So, while I may deplore Hobby Lobby putting up Christmas trees and ornaments in July (which they did), it certainly didn't stop me from taking a tour of the Christmas department every time I went in! And I was scandalized that "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" was used for a school-shopping commercial!

This time of year gets hard for me. I can see the Holidays coming down the pike and I start getting antsy. How long will September last? Will I be able to enjoy October as much as I hope when I know Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the bend? It becomes a time of extreme self-denial (or perhaps, self-preservation) at this time of year to avoid any reference of Christmas because I will immediately go into the holiday spirit.

Enter yesterday's trip to Kansas City. I was in KC to get measured for a bridesmaid's gown for my friend Kala's wedding and to get some advice on how to order it (seeing as the wedding takes place just 6 short weeks after Elizabeth's due-date. Not arrival, due-date). Said errand didn't take hardly any time at all once we'd arrived in town, so Mom and I took a jaunt over to Kohl's. And as we were both sprinting for the bathroom at the back fo the store, I saw my doom. Next to the customer service and restroom area, Kohl's always manages to set up their seasonal items. And instead of featuring Halloween chotchkies, as Halloween is the "season" coming up, instead it was filled with Christmas trees and Christmas music. Groan.

On coming out of the restrooms, I remarked to my mother (who knows my craze for the Holiday season) about the display and we made a pointed effort to walk away from the area (not without me craning my neck after it to see the glowing, beautiful Christmas trees). Yet somehow we ended up circling back through the store and I found myself milling among the ornaments and listening to a random mix of Christmas music. I fingered glass ornaments shaped as frogs in prince and princess costumes (what do these have to do with Christmas, by the way?) and shook my head over a Santa Claus in a cowboy outfit. I goggled the green, red, and gold traditional ornaments and picture frames decorated in Christmas-colored buttons. And did my darnedest not to hum along to "Silent Night," one of my favorite Christmas carols. Oh, the excitment! It was hard to keep it down.

It is now ten weeks from Thanksgiving and that time when my sister will allow me to celebrate the Christmas Season and enjoy its Spirit unhindered. (She is quite particular about giving every holiday it's due and insisting Thanksgiving not be overshadowed, though let's all admit it, it is.) I have enough to anticipate, I think, just with Eliza's arrival. And let's hope she's not too overly late, as I have just a little over 8 weeks left until her due-date and it would be so awfully hard to add another in anticipation of her late arrival. I hope that waiting for her to come will help put off feeling overly anxious for that [real] "Most Wonderful Time of the Year".

Preparing for Baby

We're due to have our birthing class the first part of next month. After a little discussion and chagrin at the time it will take, we decided to give up an entire Saturday rather than absorb entire Wednesday evenings for three weeks. Then again, it's better than having to go for six weeks like I'd anticipated! Still, it's a tangible step towards being better prepared for what's to come. The thought of labor is still incredibly daunting...

That we're going to be taking our childbirthing class is hitting home the fact that our lives are about to change drastically. I haven't really had an opportunity to do any of those "nesting" things as much of our baby stuff (okay, all of it) is at my parents' house in an effort to keep the condo decluttered. We have not set up a room or crib or anything. I haven't washed any of her clothes. My sister-in-law has a tub of hand-me-downs from Eliza's cousin ready for me, and I'm tempted to ask for it sooner rather than later just so I can go through it. There's a long list of things I'd like to do for her, but no place in which to do it. All of these first-time-expectant-mother feelings are crowding up and feeling very little outlet. Thankfully, they're not to the critical point. That will likely come next month. After the showers.

9 weeks and counting...

Just nine weeks until our due-date. The realization of becoming a parent is still attempting to sink in. I think the closer we get, the more astounded I am. Nine weeks feels like a long time at this point, and I realize it's very likely that we will be "overdue". Eliza moves more and more all the time. I try more and more to figure out exactly what I can feel there beneath skin, body fat, and uterine wall, and she likes it less and less. But I have noticed a few times when I rub my hands over my tummy, looking for her, that sometimes, every great once in awhile, she'll move up and bunch up under my hand. I hope it means she will have the physical-touch love language like her daddy and I. Nick continues to smile a certain, crinkly-eyed smile when he feels her move. I very much look forward to father and daughter meeting face to face. I wonder if I might be able to hand a camera to a nurse to capture that moment.

Communion Thought

Yesterday, before communion, one of our elders got up to give a "communion thought" to help us in the congregation focus and reflect on our Lord's sacrifice for us. I think this is the shortest communion thought this particular elder has ever given (really, I think he missed his calling as a preacher or speaker). But then, his text more than easily speaks for itself; it needed no embellishment or explanation from him. Here is what he shared with us:

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived in the passions of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the givt of god, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:1-10 (ESV)

I don't really think it needs much from me, either. I can only say it impressed on me the immeasurable gift I have been given through His grace and mercy. I have not earned my relationship with God; I can do nothing to save myself. But He, in His wisdom, chose to love me enough to give it to me freely, the only, heavy cost being to His Son. What a wonderful God I have!

Update on budget-mindedness

Yesterday was my first foray into serious coupon/sales grocery shopping. I spent a good half-hour or so pouring over the online ads and trying to make up an interesting menu plan that didn't involve too much chicken. Then I picked up the coupons I thought I could use and headed to Dillons, which ironically was the only store that really had the sales the provided what I needed. I was up for the multi-store shop, but found it wasn't needed.

I started at one end of the store and began to methodically make my way through. I didn't realized how stressed I felt until my sister-in-law unexpectedly found in me in one aisle and I began to cry. I do in fact blame some of the emotionalism on pregnancy. Hormones are messing up my life every day, they might as well take some of the blame. But I was also working on an even more restricted budget than normal due to various and asundry reasons and I was beginning to feel it. Thank you, Winter, for the pep-talk and the help!

In short, I did come away spending just a few more dollars than I had hoped, but that was because the coupons didn't double as much as I'd hoped, either. Still, I did fairly well, and spent far less on food for 1.5 weeks than I normally do. I suppose, in short, it could be considered a success. We shall see. It's definitely a learning process.

My next foray is scheduled for next week when the new sales come out, my menu plan runs out, and hopefully I'll have new coupons to help me through. So here's to saving money, and spending your time wisely to do it.

Sigh and Happiness

Currently I am enjoying the luxury of sitting in my pajamas with a cup of decaffeinated coffee, my Bible open, and the Microsoft Word blinking a cursor at me to finish my d-group studies. The only thing amiss with the morning is the coffee is decaff and I actually wouldn't mind if a breeze from the outside world would cool off the office another three degrees (though, I can't believer I'm saying that!).

Budget-minded

Recently, my sister-in-law has gotten into the coupon-clipping game. Not only coupon-clipping, but finding coupons online, shopping around for the best deals, and planning budget menus. It's definitely been an inspiration! Watching the coming arrival of our daughter creep closer and closer, I feel more and more pressure to be budget-minded and frugal. The idea of how much diapers cost almost gave me apoplexy in the story the other day! So, today, I've been schlepping through the websites, finding coupon site after coupon site, plenty of blogs about cheap and easy meals... and I'm feeling both inspired and overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed, perhaps, because I'm new to this. And I'm finding I'm coming to the craze a few years late, as the blogs are full of updates and their "philosophy" and "get-started" pages are no longer found, out-of-date, or vague. I wish someone had a manual! Something that's step-by-step, here's how you start, this is the first thing you do... As our family prepares to expand and the bills to go along with the expansion start coming, I find myself more and more determined to be prepared and to know where every dollar is going. And I really want to learn how to be as savvy as the women writing these blogs and yet feel like I'm miles behind.

Tomorrow (I hope) with the new sales ads out, I hope will mark my first foray into serious bargain grocery shopping. I've often kept an eye on the sales, looked through coupons, but this will be my first time trying to plan my menu around what I can get cheap and see how it works. I'll try to keep you posted.