Friday, October 31, 2008

Question

I was just looking through some of the Toys R Us Big Book & I have a couple of questions:
Since when does a toolbox (Home Depot) need to talk?
And why do need TinkerToys need to be pink? What's wrong with the primary colors? And they're plastic instead of wood. Why is that better?

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Pregnancy Now & Then

Throughout this pregnancy I have been wondering how women did it in the "old" days. I'm talking about women as far back as Jesus' day & beyond. I realize that many times these women had multiple generations of family living with them who probably helped a great deal. But you know there were women alone, with other children to care for, while their husbands were gone for long hours every day or even gone for days, weeks, or months at a time trying to make a living for their family. These women HAD to cook from scratch or they didn't get to each. I'm sure many of them had to slaughter their own meat, milk their own cows, & grind their own flour. My first trimester I was so tired & sick that I didn't know what I wanted to eat. During my second trimester my back hurt so much that if I did one thing wrong it would hurt for the rest of the day; this includes standing on my feet for too long trying to cook a meal. Now, in my third trimester my belly is in the way of me bending over or getting to close to the counter.
During this pregnancy I have let my house go & we have been eating more convenience foods. I don't know how many times Geoff came home from work & I would announce that I had no idea what was for dinner. He's pretty good at whipping something up when I need him to, even if it's as simple as breakfast for dinner (thanks, honey). I'm sure it's going to be a while before we find our new "normal" but I'm ready for the next phase of our life to begin.

Update on "Blessings"

As it turned out the $10 wasn't lost. I had completely forgotten that I'd given it to Geoff to pay for David to get into the play area at the pumpkin patch. Then we didn't even need it because our friend Sandy paid for him to get in (Thanks, Sandy). Geoff just forgot to give the money back to me. Talk about pregnancy brain. It's still a blessing because since I didn't have it to spend on goodies I ended up using the money for groceries like I needed to.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Full of Blessings

Last night, about 9:30, Jim Becker called to invite us to go to Walden Farm with them this morning. I really wasn't sure about going given that we had all had a long week, I'm almost 38 weeks pregnant, & the list of reasons for not going could go on & on. I knew Geoff wanted to go to Barcamp today & I didn't think I could keep up with David on my own. I felt that Geoff needed to go to Barcamp since it was a free conference & he's transitioning to the IT world. However, after looking at the schedule for the conference & finding out that Walden Farm opened at 9, Geoff suggested that we drive both vehicles, he'd be able to stay for about an hour & a half, & at that point I could decide for myself if David & I would stay longer or just head home.

And this is where the first blessing of the day comes in. I'm very blessed to have such a thoughtful husband. I had given up on being able to take David to a pumpkin patch this year because our budget is so tight & because we're running out of time with Halloween being just 2 weeks away.

I think since my due date is so near I've become somewhat of a homebody & haven't gone out of my way to make time to hang out with friends. This is blessing #2. We saw many friends there. Not that we had a lot of time to chat since we were chasing after kids, but it was so nice to see everyone. We, of course, saw the Beckers, but we also saw the Cherry's. There were several other families from church there too: Shive's, Betterton's, Hollis', Alexander's, &I'm sure I'm forgetting someone.

Even the worst part of the morning I'm seeing as a blessing. I lost a $10 bill there. Normally this would have pretty much ruined my morning. I would have fretted over that $10 for the rest of the day, if not the rest of the weekend. Instead I think God has opened my eyes to see the loss in several other ways.

1. The lost $10 was well spent in the time I had with my family & friends. David had such a good time, which we all needed after such a long week.

2. I think, in a way, I was hoarding the money. Geoff had asked me for a few bucks in case he needed to pay for parking downtown. I had 4 $1's & the $10. Which did I give him? The 4 $1's. Why did I just give him the 4 $1's? Normally I would have said something about using the rest for groceries this week, but what I really wanted was a nice baked treat or two that they were selling at the farm.

3. I think God was telling me I didn't need to use my pregnancy to get yet another treat.

4. I pray that whoever found that $10 needed worse than we did.
Another blessing is that we had already bought a pumpkin. Given our tight budget that was something else I didn't see buying this year.

I guess because I've been reading so many other blogs lately, I've been wishing I would take the time to blog more. I definitely have things on my mind to put down. I don't fancy myself as a writer at all & I think that's one of the things that's been holding me back. I think this may be the longest post I've ever made. So, if some of it doesn't make much sense or if it feels like I'm rambling, I'm sorry. I'll still probably mostly post pictures of my family, but I hope to try to fill this space with more of my thoughts, too.