a nice bug, a baby bug

My cute, sweet, precocious 4 year old daughter was helping (yes, helping!!) me clean the bathroom over the weekend.  As we were cleaning the floor, we saw what look to be wings from a bug, like a ladybug.  She looked at them and said, “Oh  mommy, I bet it was a nice bug, a baby bug.  But he died and his wings came off.  But he was a nice bug and a baby bug.”

It was sooo cute and sweet and a moment that I want to remember when she gets older.  I love being a mom, no matter how exhausted I get.

Here is a picture of my cutie…

Here is a pic of my other cutie, for good measure…

As far as my third cutie, we are 27 weeks along in this pregnancy.  I know I have awhile to go, but I wonder where he is going to fit.  I already feel like I am running out of room.  On the other hand, I have been so healthy in this pregnancy.  I have kept to my pretty strict Paleo-ish/Traditional Foods diet.  I cannot eat dairy, gluten, or soy (mostly) along with a slew of other foods.  Try being allergic to garlic!!  That coupled with Crossfit and yoga, and I feel great.  I feel good this way.  I feel like the Lyme is under control.  I take a wide variety of supplements and just am really happy with how things are turning out so far.  I recently switched from an OB to a midwife group (at 24 weeks pregnant) and can’t say how much better I feel about this.  I couldn’t sleep at night with thoughts of being induced again and not having any of my birthing wishes granted.

I have been teaching more yoga lately and it is getting more difficult to show people how to do the poses with the belly in the way.  Thankfully, my kids yoga class doesn’t much care  I have also been turning more and more to herbal remedies for our healing and well being.  I love herbs and used it to recover from the worst of the Lyme and believe in it for *our* family.

So, that is an update into our lives lately.  Hopefully it won’t be as long between blog posts next time, but it probably will

Oatmeal

Where I live, it won’t be “fall” for a couple months.  It stays pretty hot through October.  However, growing up in the Midwest always makes me nostalgic this time of year.  I yearn for the cooler days of fall, with the leaves changing colors.  I long for the pumpkin festivals, where you actually have to wear a coat!  So, since I can’t live there, I make up for it by cooking like I am.  One thing that always brings me back is apples and cinnamon.  The  smell of apples cooking with cinnamon brings back memories of Halloween parties and Harvest fests of my youth.  Hay rack rides, corn mazes, apple bobbing contests, bonfires, caramel apples…do you see a theme here?!?  I love fall!

So, when I saw the contest for the spiralizer over at www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com and how I could increase my odds of winning by making and blogging about a recipe she had featured, I jumped all over the Creamy, Cozy Harvest Oatmeal.

This recipe is delicious!  I followed it to a “T” (almond milk and gluten free oats for me), except I added a bit of stevia.  I like things sweet, don’t ya know?  I made sure to use lots of cinnamon, cause it is sooo yummy and fall-ish and healthy, too!  After blending it a bit, I couldn’t believe how much it reminded me of instant oatmeal (which I LOVE), but better!  I love, love, love instant oatmeal.  However, it is not healthy and it is loaded with sugar and gluten and I know it.  So, using this recipe I was able to fulfill a childhood memory for apples, cinnamon, oats, and fall, in a healthy way.  All in one bite or maybe several bites!

Yum!

Over halfway through

This pregnancy has gone by slowly at times.  However, overall it has gone by quickly.  Kind of like raising kids.  The days are long, but the years are short.  I can’t wait to meet our little one!  18 weeks to go…

Spiralizer Contest

I have always wanted a spiralizer!  I found this contest online over at www.chocolatecoveredkatie.com

Well, you know I had to enter.  So, hurry!  Today is the last day to enter.  Go, go!!

Jamie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

It’s not even half over yet and this has not been my day. It hasn’t been the best week, but today takes the cake. For real. No elaboration, a little too personal. Besides, no one wants to know my bizness!

Love this girl…

Check out this amazingly talented artist (not that being on *my* blog would gain notoriety for anyone, but hey!)

12 weeks…

Well, today marks the 12 week mark.  Or thereabout.  I am officially out of the 1st trimester and have entered less scary waters.  The first trimester and part of the 2nd are so full of sickness for me.  It is just not fun for me.  It does help me know that I am, for sure, pregnant, but it is not fun.  I don’t like it, not one little bit.  Anyways, the 2nd trimester helps me rest a little easier in regards to miscarriage.  I know there are no guarantees that there will be  no problems with this pregnancy.  God knows how long this child’s life will be.

After the trials I have been through over the past few years, being pregnant at all is amazing to me.  I felt like Hannah.  It may seem a bit dramatic to say that.  I had two healthy, happy children.  They really are the best kids ever!  However, I couldn’t shake wanting more babies.  I wanted to do it again (and maybe 1 more time after this).  I just didn’t see how it would be possible, though, with the illness I was suffering through.  He has blessed me.  Not for any other reason than because He is good.  I didn’t do ANYTHING to deserve anything good in this life.  Not a thing.

I surely do not understand the depths of God’s ways.  I am sure I never will.  There are just some mysteries we are not meant to know.  I do have faith, though.  I do believe in what the bible says in Matthew 7:11.  Not in a name it and claim it kind of way.  That stuff is just weird.  However, in a God is good and loves us kind of way.  He just is good.  For me, right now, that means another child.  For that, I am ever so grateful.

Now here is your theology lesson of the day on God’s goodness:

From Calvin’s Institues (3.3.15), a quote from Bernard of Clairvaux:

Sorrow for sins is necessary if it be not unremitting. I beg you to turn your steps back sometimes from troubled and anxious remembering of your ways, and to go forth to the tableland of serene remembrance of God’s benefits. Let us mingle honey with wormwood that its wholesome bitterness may bring health when it is drunk tempered with sweetness. If you take though upon yourselves in your humility, take thought likewise upon the Lord in his goodness.

And an excerpt from Psalm 25:

Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

For your name’s sake, O LORD,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Who is the man who fears the LORD?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

Oh yuck!

This is just yuck, yuck, yuck!!  What has the church become when we resort to things such as that to try and “lure” people into the fold.  Seriously, this is NOT what we are called to be.  I have no problem being relevant.  Jesus was the epitome of relevance.  Really, though…is this necessary?

Kids say the darndest things…

When we were getting my 3 year old daughter ready this morning, she was chattering on about her {naked} doll she had just found.  She wanted her doll’s hair to be styled just like hers and to have lipstick on – lip gloss – just like her.  Fast forward a few minutes.  We are done with my daughters beautiful (ponytail) hairdo, and we were ready to style the doll’s hair.  I finish the doll’s ponytail…which is no small feat.  Do you realize how matted plastic hair can get?!  Then we set off to find the doll’s dress in my daughter’s tornado toybox.  I find it and present it to my little one.  She immediately exclaims, “Oh!  Her is gonna be so pretty!  Her is gonna be a pwincess, just like me!”

I love this age.  She has gotten more agreeable over the past few months.  Much better than the 2’s and early 3’s were.  Of course, just as I am typing that, she comes over screaming at me to find some mints.  I have no idea what mints she is talking about.  Apparently, we had them before we went to “Gwamma’s house”…sheesh!  It is good to know my kids have high self esteem and feel comfortable expressing their opinions around me.

ummmm…..

so, i am pregnant. baby number 3 is on the way!!!