No more room

Brighton's kicking me in the ribs mercilessly. I can't find any position to save my ribs from this beratement. He's also got the hiccups, which usually last for 5-10 minutes and are so strong my whole belly jumps. At this moment, I'm annoyed and tired of it. And right now, that makes me I think I'll be a bad mom for some silly hormonal reason. I feel like there's no room left in my tiny belly for this full-grown baby...and I think he feels that way too. As his "being-awake-times" have turned into, what feels like, an violent attempted escape every couple of hours, with all his thrashing around. Come this Friday, when our midwife returns, I hope one of his escape plans is a success.


(Note: no, that's not my belly, just a funny picture I found online...we don't think it's real though)

Want a challenge on your discernment skills?

Matthew and I have become big fans of the "Ransom Fellowship"group. They're the best collection of teachers on Christian discerment we've come across yet. Their insights are fresh and challenging that stray from the typical forumlatic way most Christians attempt to dip their pinky toes in culture. This website has amazing resources for being immersed in our world and culture, but not in a fake, wanna-be Christian way. They challenge Christians to get totally immersed...even in the frightening parts - movies that are uncomfortable, talks with friends feel disturbing and rub you the wrong way. If you have any time to breeze through the site, I'd highly recommend it.

Or better yet, sign up to start getting the "Critque"mailing. Check out the Archives and you'll be hooked. One of my favorite articles is from Issue #8 - 2000 called "Reacting: When We Aren't Discerning". A GREAT insight into how quick we are to react and not use the minds God gave us to authentically marry discernment with love.

But my all-time favorite from this group would be "Notes From Toad Hall", writings by Denis Haak's wife, Margie. She has an amazing talent to unearth the dredges of her own heart that almost ALWAYS act as a mirror to reveal my own issues. She writes with an honesty that is so rare among Christian women today, who seem to try so hard to be envied rather than loved. She has no shiny badges of honor to display - perfect life, perfect husband, perfect body, perfect children. She just dances in her daughtership to Christ through the struggles of life.

Take a few seconds and request these two publications. You'll pour over them, I promise...and if nothing else, it's better than getting bills in the mail :0)

Keep that cradle empty a LITTLE longer, please!

I just got back from my 36 1/2 week midwife appointment and had my first "internal exam", which is basically to determine if my body has been up to anything lately...since we're drawing nearer to the due date. And it seemed like my body had been up to A LOT. His head is already engaged down in my pelvis, I'm dilated 1 cm, and my cervix is already about 20% effaced. Wow. I had been having mild cramps & back pain, but just thought it was my body getting pumped up...not actually producing changes this early on. So that's exciting, BUT the bad news is that my midwife will be going out of town this Friday through the next Friday and she's instructed me to do WHATEVER I can NOT to go into labor...since she wants to be there for our birth :0) And we want HER there!! If I did go into labor during that week, I wouldn't be able to have the baby at the birth center like we'd been planning. I'd have to have him at the hospital with a midwife I didn't know and who wouldn't know me. Which is not what we'd hoped for. So PRAY that this little boy with be happy to stay inside me at least for another two weeks! He's free to come after August 6th, in my opinion, but PLEASE NO SOONER! We suddenly got the jitters when we realized this thing was really happening. My body is really preparing to bring this baby into the world. We will have a son in a month or sooner. How wild.

So I'm going to try to take it easy - not go to the gym this week, stop taking my "prep" vitamins she had me on to get labor rolling, stop drinking my prego tea. All these things she was urging me to do a few weeks ago, she told me to halt for now since my body obviously isn't having any problems getting ready or being sluggish at all. Pray for us as we wait these next few weeks and hope for labor to be delayed until Barbara returns...and for our hearts if that's NOT in God's plan, to be flexible to go with what He does provide over these next few weeks. I'll keep you all posted :0)

Summer Dinner Ideas?

Well, I can't complain...it seems like we're all melting in this wretched heat across the country. The humidity has been especially bad lately. The air is so thick it makes us feel like fish swimming around an aquarium in our house at night. Thankfully, Mom & Dad bought us an a/c unit back in June which we have cranked up in our bedroom, so we spend our evenings in there.

The hard part has been figuring out what to have for dinner, since turning on the gas oven or even stovetop ups the temp in our house in a matter of seconds...it's just not an option. Last night we did tossed some split chicken breasts & zucchini/squash/onions/garlic doused in balsamic vinegar & olive oil in the oven. Then dashed into our room with the timer and waited an hour before taking out the meal. It worked, but there have GOT to be some better dinner ideas for the summer. That's where you all come in. I know there are tons of lurkers out there who read this blog on a regular basis but won't add comments or admit to their "minismith blog fetish"...he, he. Now is the time to come clean and POST something yourselves!! Think of it as a gift to a sweltering pregnant gal who needs some dinner help :0)

So don't be shy, dig out those recipes from your head or your favorite cookbook and put your suggestions in the comment section below. OR if you don't like the publicity, you can email me instead like most of you all do anyhow ;0) I really would appreciate any simple, cool meal ideas you have!!

Enjoy your brain-storming session and the upcoming weekend. We're off to our favorite spot, "Frenchtown", again this evening if I can muster up the energy.

5 weeks left...

Here's the latest growth of "Belly Boy" at 35 weeks and 3 days. More shots are on the "Growing Belly Shots" page. Today my ribs are aching from his constant knee and foot action. I try to protect them sometimes and put my hand in between my ribs and his feet...but usually to no avail. He'll knock them out of the way with a powerful boot. He's going to be one strong kiddo! Besides the typical crampiness and constant braxton-hicks...I'm holding up fairly well...especially considering our no a/c and this wretched heat with insufferable humidity :0) Just a little over a month to go now...

my favorite place

With one of my best friends in Ireland over this summer, it's made me reminisce about my favorite place I've found (thus far) here on earth (not to be TOTALLY dramatic or anything ;0). When I was in Ireland for the summer of 2000, two of my friends and I went exploring around Castlerock, the No. Ireland town we were staying it. We stumbled across this hidden "park" right before dusk hit after taking a wrong turn. I won't be able to describe it adequately...you'll just have to go someday ;0)

After walking up a somewhat sketchy, overgrown path, you come upon a huge pasture...with, of course, sheep wandering around. What else would you expect in Ireland? The funniest part was a sheep that seemed to have the "wobbly" part of his vocal chords gone. You know how sheep normally do a sort of rhythmic "Bah-aAaAa"? Well this one had no wobble in his Baa at all. He sounded like a human trying to MAKE a Baa noise. It was just a flat baaaaa-baaaaa. I don't know if that makes sense, but it was hilarious and he wouldn't stop.

Anyhow, the pasture lead to...of course, the ruins of a castle. Also another typical scene in Ireland. But the real find of the night was a fully intact building, literally teetering on the edge of a cliff overlooking the north Antrim coast. It was stunning as the sun set over the water behind it, making us all stand in silence for a few moments before we approached.

I'd never experienced such a magical moment. As my friends kept exploring, I just sat on that stone wall and took in all the beauty. The setting sun over the water and the amazing colors it cast everywhere. The odd mixture of scents in the air, salty coast and sheepy pasture. The cooling dusk air. I think about that place and think that may be as close to heaven as I come before I actually get there. I don't think I'd ever want to go back though because it wouldn't be the same. It may not have been just the beauty that struck me, but the way Christ met me there and we just sat and enjoyed his creation together. If I went back, it may just be another pretty place...but that evening, it was a place where my heart was captured in something much bigger than me and this life. I was able to be still in the purest sense of the word and just rest in beauty.

I think Christ wants us to take time to do that more often. It's hard to "find" those moments though. I actually don't think we ever do FIND those moments, but rather He just surprises us with them every now and then. But I was thankful for that moment and the memory of it. It reminds me that there are more of those moments to come interspersed in the daily grind of life...moments to be still and rest in beauty. Like curling up next to my warm Matthew on a Saturday morning. Or really enjoying the flavors in a thought-over and meticulously prepared meal. Or soon spending hours hours exploring all the little baby parts of Brighton that God knit together in MY body over these past 10 months!? We all want grand, magical moments, but I think they're in ALL of our days...just harder to recoginze when we're rushing around focused on people-pleasing, self-gratifying, approval-sucking. At least that's a typical day in the life of Amy :0) Thank goodness Jesus is up to the task of rescuing us from ourselves and silly pursuits again and again.

Franicis Thompson describes this futile flight from God well in his poem "Hound of Heaven" written in 1893 after dealing with a pretty rough life himself of living on the streets of London, being addicted to opium, and never really "getting his act together" before he died in 1907. If we were honest with ourselves...that's all of us. Our addictions and destitution all look different than each others, but our "act" will never be "gotten together" before we get out of these tainted earthly bodies. I love knowing I'm being pursued daily by the Hound of Heaven. There's no deeper rest than that.

Store Wars

Those of you who know us, know that ever since I went to my naturopathic doctor in Colorado and got off sugar and caffeine, we've unfortunately had our eyes opened to a whole new world of "food righteousness". It can get UGLY! "Real" Health Food store shoppers vs. Whole Foods clones. Strict label-readers vs. health-food wannabes. It tires us out sometimes to walk the thin line of being in this new food world and not becoming obessive like so many people we run into at our local co-op or health food store. We've made decisions for our family about products we no longer purchase and types of food that we eat, but the last thing we want to is look down on others because they "don't do it OUR way". Yuck. Those people annoy me. So we buy our organic dairy stuff, our free-range meats, and hydrogenated-oil-free snacks...but we're not one to turn down food from anyone so we don't talk about our beliefs about our food thoughts all that much. It is fun to find fellow food-geeks to delve into this stuff with every now and then though :0)

ANYHOW, long story to introduce this hilarious video...Grocery Store Wars. You'll have to watch it to understand how it relates to my musing above, but I came across it on a fellow-food geeks blog. It's basically a mock Star Wars, but it's the organic produce vs. the "Dark Side" (aka: typical grocery store products). Great commentary on this "food righteousness" world we've waded into over the past year :0) Let me know what you think!

Nap Time

This is what I wish I was doing right now. It's almost 2pm which is right about the time everyday I just want to crawl under my desk and fall asleep. The energy level is definately lagging here starting my 35th week. But the good news is that it looks like I'll have about 3 more weeks of "full-day" work, then one week of morning hours and being on-call at home in the afternoons, then a full week off before my due date. So I guess I can catch up on all those afternoon naps I'm longing for then.

I thought the eye mask was humorous because, yes, I've actually started using one. Matthew has been hard at work on his artiswork.org website the past couple weeks, which usually extends into the evening hours. Especially since I'm ready to fall asleep at 9:30 or 10pm. We like to at least be in close proximity to each other when I go to sleep, so he works on his computer in bed next to me and I wear my hilarious eye mask. It's like being back in my freshman year of college with my party-hearty roomate who stayed out til 2pm or watched late night t.v. until about that time. Of course, I MUCH more prefer having my hubby next to me and not some random roomate, so the eye mask is worth it. Plus, it'll most likely come in handy when I'm trying to take those mid-day naps with the baby in a few months!

So back to work, just needed to share my nap needs to get it off my chest. Maybe I'll do some jumping jacks or something when no one's looking. Or get a half a cup of coffee or some tea. Hmm...

Fortunately for this web nerd, my wife loves me. If you have recently seen the changes to famdamily news you will realize that we are on a kick making changes, but it seemed appropriate, especially given that we now know young Brighton is a boy, we wanted colors that suited him more (although I hope my boy loves a good pink shirt like mine someday too). Goodnight to all. We need our sleep. In about two months we won't get any - or so the story goes.

Cheers,
Matthew

Brighton's Room Up & Running

Today we spent a few hours sorting through shower gifts, organzing all the gear, hanging up some fun photos and overall getting Brighton's room ready to go. It's mind boggling to us that there are only 6 weeks to his due date...so he could literally be here in a few weeks...or come September (let's hope it's not THAT long :0) You'll see some of the pictures we took below. Check out the hip bedding some ladies from my church in Charlottesville got us. It's from Land of Nod...a very cool, but pricey baby stop. The 3 panel divider was a teamwork effort by Matthew and I. Something to separate the kiddo-side from the study-space-side. All in all, we thought it came together nicely. We didn't grab a picture of the glider/rocker thing by the window, but it'll be a nice spot to sit and feed the youngun'. Although he probably won't spend too much time in there the first few months. We have an Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper which we'll attach onto the side of the bed to make night feedings a bit easier. Rolling over sounds MUCH nicer than dragging out of bed, trudging over to a bassinet or a whole different room, plopping back down, feeding the babe, then getting back up and putting him away. Not that either way is flawless and yes, I know I will be exhausted for the most part the first few weeks, but word on the street among those who've gone before us is KEEP THAT BABY CLOSE AS POSSIBLE! The less moving around, the more sleep :0) That's enough incentive to make us at least try it out.

So we're pretty much set on gear and just hunkering down now for the last home stretch. The guys at work threw me a "shower" which was pretty funny considering they're all between the ages of 25-43...and there's JUST men. They bought a cake that said "Happy Labor Day" (ha, ha) and a bag full of baby stuff...as well as a $200 gift card to Babies R Us! We were BLOWN away!! What an incredible gift! Maybe these guys aren't that bad after all...if only they'd let me work from home more than once a week :0)

It's been a restful weekend thus far, besides the DMV saga this morning. I won't share that story...it's too aggrevating for me to deal with still. Then we hit the gym for an hour and came home to clean things up. Tonight we're off to the pool with some friends and then to Chestnut Hill for a cuppa decaf at Labrador, a cute outdoor cafe. Hope you all are getting a blast of this cool springtime weather wherever you are and enjoying your weekend! Here are the Brighton bedroom pics:

For my shower, my friends put together a quilt (still being finished) with quotes from family & friends. As a surprise for Matthew as well, they made his quote into a matching pillow!


The crib area (window & glider to the right)


Our changing area with the panels we made and a linen shirt from Matthew's mom


A close-up of the cool bedding


A old family picture handed down from my Mom's side...and Matthew's first shoes sitting on top of those books

Perfect Weekend

I think Matthew and I had the most fun this weekend than we've had yet during our time here in Philly. We've had moments or days that were great, but never three full days of relaxation. You can check out our pictures on the FamDamilyNews blog (the link is over there on the right if you scroll down for a bit--> )

We drove out of the city Saturday morning and up to the lush and peaceful Bucks County of PA near the Delaware River. We began the day by blueberry picking, YUM!! My favorite fruit of all times. We bought two pints and I've already managed to eat most of them...and make some blueberry/wheat scones. We puttered around the farm for awhile, sampling raspberries from the bush and sour cherries from the tree, then grabbed a fresh homemade cider donut and headed up the river towards Frenchtown.

The drive along the river and through that wooded setion was so beautiful and stayed a cool 70-80 degrees most of the day. Unusually cool for our recent Hot n' Humid streak! Frenchtown was a quaint little haven for hikers and bicyclists who were doing the 30 mile trek around the Delaware river. It was seriously a "Little France" with outdoor cafes, cute book stores, and old B&B's. We sat outside our favorite cafe and shared our HUGE $2 iced coffee. Matthew had gotten out his "official" camera so we wandered around the river taking silly pictures and enjoying the cool water.

Then we headed down to Pt. Pleasant and met a guy at an old antique shop who is a fellow fly-fisherman AND plays in an Old-Timey band...and is a fellow Old Crow Medicine Show lover! We got a few names of bands to check out and found out their band plays outside his antique store every Sunday at 5pm. Yet another reason to make it up to these parts! We grabbed sandwiches at a local deli and headed to the river again to have a "picnic". The rest of the day we just explored more of Bucks County, listened to great music with the windows down, laughed a lot and talked about life and our future. It was so refreshing for us both - physically, mentally and emotionally. We actually started to head home around dinner...got about 15 minutes away...then decided to turn back and spend the evening up there :0) We had a great meal outdoors at that cafe on the river and tried to catch fireflys (a new phenomena for Matthew since they aren't out in Colorado!)

Monday we couldn't resist and ended up heading back up to Frenchtown after getting the baby's room cleaned up and organized. Then we headed into Philly to party city-style with our friends for the 4th. It was MADNESS! With the free Elton John concert & Philly fireworks show, we had to park blocks away from our friend's party. But it was well worth it to spend the evening with these folks we love so much.

The week has quickly stolen our sense of rest...as it always does and always will this side of Heaven :) But we're learning to rest even when chaos is going on around us. Last night we spent the evening being refreshed with more good friends. What would we do with out each other?? I know I would shrivel up into a self-obsessed, miserable prune...without friends to encourage me, walk with me and allow me to walk with them.

As for a Brighton update, the due date is quickly approaching! August 20th is just a little over a month away! We're so ready to see this kid's face and play with his little fingers and toes. We've started to get more serious about preparing for our Birth Center birth...Matthew helped me practice relaxation/contractions (something we did in birth class with ice-packs) by holding a pound of frozen bamburger meat on my back :) That was pretty humorous, but it worked! I'm trying to learn more how to relax during pain and let my body do what it knows how to do. That's NOT my initial reaction to pain! My intial reaction is to scrunch up my face and hold my breath! Not relax my body and breath deeply. But man, when you practice it when you ARE feeling pain (like freaking cold hamburger meat on your back!!) it starts to make a lot of sense. When you let your body relax and think about a really vivid memory or idea...you kind of forget for a bit that there's something taking over your body. Not that labor will be as easy as a frozen lb. of meat...but at least it helps get the idea across :)

We'll get some pictures of the baby room one of these days and post them. Although it's more of a baby/study room at this point. That's how it goes with us young couples though!

Enjoy the coming weekend,
Amy