A Peek at Last Week

Places We Went: This week we went to Publix, Church, the children's museum, the dentist, the park for our baby shower, the health food store and the hospital for T's Big Brother class.

Highlights: My favorite moments this week were T's class and our baby shower (blog to follow).

Least favorite moments: On Wednesday I found out that I have gestational diabetes and on Thursday I had to go to the dentist to get a tooth extracted.  Since I am pregnant I was not able to take anything for pain and was in quite a good deal of pain for the rest of that day.

Funny moment: T likes to pretend he is a robot and will walk around the house with his best robot voice saying "Cheese, cheese, cheese, cheese."

Pregnancy Update: With the shower past, this is becoming even more real.  Having all of this baby stuff in the house again makes it SO real!  I cannot believe how fast the time has gone.  My doula and I were talking about our plan, and she mentioned that because my OB is insistent that they will induce me at 39 weeks, we are going to try natural methods of induction before that, probably around 38 weeks.  So our baby will be here in a month, which is just crazy.  I'm feeling pretty good.  I get dizzy at times which I believe is related to the diabetes.  Have been having some minor heartburn and lots of Braxton Hicks contractions.  Baby gets hiccups several times a day!  he actually has them right now:)

I am reading: The Bradley Method Student Workbook

I am praising God for: My cousin's adoption process being final.  They now are officially a family of 3!!

To do this week: Meet with nutritionist about diabetes on Tuesday and receive my blood test kit, pro-life meeting Tuesday night,

I am looking forward to: Saturday is a big day!  On Saturday afternoon I will be attending my sister-in-law's twins shower.  And that evening my brother and his wife are hosting a gender reveal party where they will find out the sex of their baby along with friends and family.  I am bummed that we cannot be there in person because of the distance, but am excited that they will record the big moment and text us the video so we can find out the big surprise and see everyone's reaction.  I am thinking pink and can't wait to find out if I am right!!

I am praying for: That these last weeks of pregnancy go smooth and that no more medical issues come up. 

A peek at Last Week

Places We Went: My best friend's house for a Bible Study, Church, the lab for my diabetes test, Publix, a children's consignment shop (I needed some more maternity clothes), the health food store, Home Depot, a Mexican Restaurant and on Friday we met up with some friends at Busch Gardens.

Highlights: I enjoyed watching my boy have a blast riding rides with his friend at Busch Gardens.

Least favorite moment of the week: On Thursday I spent the entire morning at the lab for my 3 hour glucose test.  Because you have to fast before and during the test, I was STARVING and I felt so bad because I could tell my baby was hungry too.  He is typically pretty mellow in the mornings but was extremely active that morning.  I managed to get the super sweet drink down in about 4 minutes, which I was happy about considering that my blood results showed that I would have to drink the biggest amount they had. 

Pregnancy Update: Tomorrow (Monday) I will be 33 weeks pregnant.  I have been feeling ok, just get out of breath sometimes.  I also have been having lots of practice contractions which have been coming more frequently and stronger. 

I am reading: Shepherding a Child's Heart

To do this week: Select paint color and get kids room painted, place cards on our new workbox drawers, do some gardening activities with T, find/purchase a "Big Brother" tee-shirt for T to wear to the hospital.

I am praising God for: By the grace of God we were able to qualify for a special pregnancy insurance and just received our approval.  From here on out my labs will be covered and the insurance will GREATLY help out with my hospital costs. 

I am looking forward to: This week we are taking T to a Becoming a Big Brother Class.  I am also very excited for our baby shower on Friday.

I am praying for: Guidance in important birth decisions that need to be made.

Spring Bucket List

Spring Bucket List

Here is my list of goals for spring.  Some of the items listed are things I absolutely must accomplish while others are things I would like to accomplish.  I plan to refer to this list at least once a week to help myself stay on track.

Home Improvement:
Rip out carpet in dining room
Redo dining room floor with hardwood
Buy new blinds for dining room
Pretty up back porch
Paint, furnish, decorate boys room
Purchase Island for Kitchen
Buy Pillows for living room couch
Get several Fiestaware pieces for Kitchen

Organization:
Make list of breakfasts, lunches, and snacks
Make list of crockpot meals for after baby comes
Wash and put away all 0-6 month clothes

Preschool:
Gardening Unit
Birds Unit
Bugs/Insects Unit
Pond Life Unit
Make Job Chart
Practice Letter Writing
Practice Phonics
Learn some sight words
Attend local homeschool book fair
Purchase Kumon Drawing and Cutting Books

Ministry:
Redo Website
Hand off all responsibilities before baby comes

Health/Nutrition
Make one new healthy thing per month
Walk one mile daily as often as possible
Schedule Annual eye exam

Memory Making/Keeping
Have maternity pictures taken
Complete first photo book
Go to Beach as a family
Go to Pool as a family
Open up/Swim in our Pool
Cookout
Go on a date with husband

Baby
Get everything ready in room
Bring in swing
Take T to Big Brother class
Take Bradley Method Class
Read Supernatural Childbirth, Childbirth without fear, and other childbirth books
Finish and submit birth plan
Submit hospital paperwork
Take tour of Maternity Ward at Hospital
Make list/upload songs for birth
Figure out childcare for T and dog care for Maggie
Pack suitcases for hospital
Have Baby!
Adjust to life as a mommy of two!
Make Birth Announcements

A Peek at Last Week:)

I haven't done a weekly wrap up blog in a long time and want to get back to writing them again.  Here is a blog from last week.  Tomorrow I will post a weekly wrap up from this past week!

Places We went: The park with my friend Rebekah, Publix, church, my ob appt, a restaurant for a pro-life meeting, and yesterday we went to a fun carnival.

Highlights: My favorite moment of the week was hearing my baby's heartbeat on the doppler.  135 Beats per minute:)   I also enjoyed watching T have so much fun on the rides at the carnival.  He loved the motorcycle ride and must have been pretending he was on a real one because he would bend forward over the bike and scrunch his face up every time he thought we couldn't see him.

Least favorite moment of the week: I had my glucose test on Friday and drank the sweet drink before my blood draw.  The drink wasn't too bad and tasted just like an orange crush, but I was sick for the rest of the day afterward.

Funniest moment: Earlier in the week T had a toy in his hand but set it down somewhere and then couldn't find it and asked me to help him look.  We searched the house for about ten minutes but still no luck.  I tried to help him jog his memory as to where all he had been in the house with it so I asked him "Where'd you go?" His eyes opened wide as if he couldn't believe I just asked him that and said "I'm right here'!

I am reading: Christ Centered Childbirth

I am praising God for: Our pro-life ministry is on its way to becoming a non-profit!  We have four board members who all share the same vision and passion for pro-life.  We had our first board meeting and are well into the process at this point.  We are just getting everything ready to submit our paperwork to the attorney helping us and then we will be set and able to start collecting donations!

I am looking forward to: Little T starts soccer on Sat

To Do this week: Write birth plan, get new domain name for ministry, make a list of lunches, etc

I am praying for: We need to design a logo for our organization.  We have some great ideas and I am praying that it all comes together soon!

Winter Bucket List

Even though we are well into the "winter" season, I thought I would post my winter bucket list and share some of the goals I would like to accomplish over the next two months.

Redo Living Room~For a while now I have been wanting to change the decor in some of our rooms, and I want to start with the living room.

-Purchase new area rug (found a GREAT one at Rooms To Go)
-Buy entertainment center or something to store the Wii and PlayStation in
-Replace curtains
-Create family picture wall

Organization

-Write out a weekly schedule and hang in hallway
-Create lists of breakfasts, lunches, and snacks (I've already done this with dinners)
-Sort through all of our baby clothes.  Hang and put away all 0-6 month clothes; categorize by size and store all the rest
-Get new dresser for kids' room (T and his brother are going to share a bedroom)
-Make homemaking binder
-Reorganize kids book shelf

Eat more organic, whole foods made from scratch~We already eat alot of organic foods, but there are several things I want to do differently

-Make my own bread and muffins
-Join a fruit/veggie/meat/dairy co-op
-Get back into routine of making homemade smoothies and fresh squeezed juice
-Research; print articles for homemaking binder

Preschool~When I got sick with this pregnancy T and I stopped doing many of the things we were doing in preschool

-Resume preschool packs
-Work on letter writing
-Teach T how to draw
-Get back to weekly trips to the library to learn and check out books

Memory Making/Keeping

-Finish first photo book
-Go on a date with my husband
-Blog at least once per week
-Complete photo collage for wall

Ministry

Take first steps to becoming a non-profit
Move forward on "180" Outreach
Bring onto team Adoptions Volunteer
Update website

Baby
Decide on a name!
Create birth plan

Those are my goals for the rest of Feb and March.  I'll try to update the blog and share my progress on them!!

Last Week in Review

Places we went: We drove to West Palm Beach on Monday so that my husband could become a certified scuba diver.  He made it through his 3 days of training and is officially a Junior Bubbler:)  I, of course, was sick most of the time that we were there, but I did feel decent on Tuesday so my husband's sister and I took T out to lunch, to a children's play area, and out for ice cream.  We arrived back home from our trip on Friday.  On Saturday we went to Target, the history fair, T-ball practice, Chick-Fil-A, and church.  It was a fun-filled day..perhaps a little too fun.... I celebrated our arrival home Sat night by throwing up in the front yard!

Highlights from the week: Although I felt pretty terrible most of the time, it ended up being a really great week!  Here are some of my favorite moments:

Visiting with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law

Bringing home a beautiful dining room table, area rug, and white curtains that my sister-in-law kindly gave to us

Arriving home to find a gorgeous bouquet of fall flowers laid on my doorstep by a new friend who knows how sick I've been and just wanted to do something nice.

Hosting our life group at our house on Friday night.  We made a firepit, had snacks, made smores, and talked about the antichrist (last weekend's message at church).

Walking around the history fair, which was sponsored by the local homeschool association. 

My favorite few hours last week were spent watching my little boy participate in his first T-ball practice.  He did so great!

I am reading: Why Pro-Life? by Randy Alcorn

I am praising God for: Helping me to endure the 3 hour car trip to West Palm Beach and back without getting sick.  The day before we left I couldn't even get out of bed, so I was truly thankful to make it there and back without getting sick during the ride.

A Goal this week: Make it through my Tuesday night meeting without getting sick

I am looking forward to: a fun-filled, busy weekend which will include T-ball practice, our neice's book signing party, a friend's son's birthday party, and the big pumpkin festival.

I am praying for: My nausea to ease up and that I start feeling better soon.

Little T is a T-baller!

Our little boy had his first T-ball practice on Saturday.  Tim and I weren't quite sure what to expect.  We knew T was excited, but we wondered how he would handle the hour and a half practice without his mommy and daddy out on the field with him.

After the head coach rounded up all of the families, he spoke to us about the season and led us in prayer.  Then it was time to begin!  They called the t-ballers first ( there were many different age groups there).  Most of the t-ballers were between 4 and 6, but because T turns 4 during the season, he was allowed to play this year.  All of the kids lined up to go out on the field, and I immediately could tell that T and one other boy were the smallest and youngest ones.  A hundred thoughts immediately flooded my mind.  What if he doesn't want to go out there?  What if he can't do the skills and gets embarassed or starts crying?  What if he doesn't even try and just stands there?  Will the coaches be patient with him?  Will the kids be nice to him?  What did we get ourselves into?

To my relief, T went happily running out onto the field with the rest of the group.  For the next hour and a half, Tim and I proudly watched our little boy truly experience his first ever team sport practice.  He practiced throwing and catching with his partner, practiced catching ground balls rolled to him by one of the coaches (he caught a few), and practiced running bases.  He even hit two balls pitched to him by the coach during batting practice.

We were so proud of our little T and were absolutely tickled to watch him practice.  He did what the coaches asked.  He waited his turn.  He tried each and every skill and never once cried, needed a break, or wanted to quit.  The coaches were exceptionally kind and patient with him and all of the other children.  The kids were all nice too, and several of them helped T out.

Saturday was a day I will truly never forget.  I am praying that T will continue to look forward to each practice and game, and will continue to play his little heart out!