Mommiedaze

Little Things

What’s on your prayer request list?

I’m willing to bet there’s a few big ticket items.

My biggies?

A dream job for my husband that he loves and provides life long financial security for us.

That my son grows up to be a great man who’s successful and contributes to making the world a better place.

That I’m the perfect mother who never looses her temper and always does the right thing.

Sure those things are all possible. God could snap his fingers and grant my every wish. It’s certainly within his power to do so. And often he does perform a miracle or do the seemingly impossible.

But even more often it’s all the little things that he attends to that really seem to make the difference.

Sometimes a request seems so small and insignificant that I feel silly praying about it. I wonder if it’s even important enough to bother God with, or I don’t even think to ask in the first place.

But nothing is insignificant to God. And all our cares and concerns, no matter how inconsequential they may seem to us, do matter to him.

I can think of several little things in the last few weeks that, though they didn’t seem that important in the grand scheme of things, I prayed about. And I got an answer.

Sometimes it’s not about being Mother of the Year. It’s just about God granting me enough patience to get through that one particularly hard day.

Sometimes it’s not about life long financial security, it’s just about having enough cash in the bank to pay that huge car repair bill.

Sometimes it’s not about my kid growing up to be a Supreme Court Justice, it’s just about him learning his ABC’s.

It’s these little blessings that get me through the day-to-day. To me all the aswers to my “little things” add up to a lot. Maybe even more than all the big things.

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This Economic Downturn is Really Starting to Affect Me

In the last six months the Starbucks, Krispie Cream and Cinnabon closest to me all closed.

I used to drive out of my way to the farther Walmart just so I could go to Starbucks afterward. I needed that Mocha after and hour of grocery shopping with a whinny three year old.

And Cinnabon… Oh those ridiculously huge, sticky, warm cinnamon rolls. I could always count on Cinnabon to pack back on the calories I burned after a long day of walking around the mall.

But I’m especially sad about Krispie Cream. See, the Krispie Cream once saved our lives.

Seriously.

I’m physically unable to drive past a Krispie Cream without stopping. So on a hot August evening after shopping, my family and I were headed home when I spotted KC. I talked Dave in going through the drive through. I think we were the only people there, but they were really slow that night. We must had been stuck there for 15 minutes.

As we sat waiting, we noticed the skies to the west getting dark. We finally got our delicious, glazed, cream-filled goodness and pulled away as it started to pour buckets of rain. Sitting at the stoplight waiting to turn toward home, the wind piked up and started to blow the lights around so violently I thought they were going to fall off and land on our windshield. Lightening flashed and thunder cracked all around.

We made it to the freeway, and by the time we got to our exit the storm let up. But as we drove down the back roads that lead to our house, we came across downed power lines and trees everywhere in the road. At one point we had to stop while the fire department cleared a tree from the road so we could get through.

Were it not for those 15 minutes waiting for doughnuts at KC, were would have been driving on those roads while all that debris was falling down.

So you can understand why I’m kinda sentimental about that one.

Who says pastries aren’t good for your health?

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Christmas Tree Farm

We made our annual trip to the tree farm Saturday to cut down our Christmas tree. This is my favorite Christmas activity. I really look forward to it every year. There’s just something romantic and old fashioned about it I guess.  And I just get to stand back and watch while the men do all the work.

Here are the boys with the tree (on the left) we picked out before cutting it down. David was fascinated with the saw.

Dave trimming off a few bottom branches.

Here’s David and I riding on the wagon from the field back to the farm office. David loved the wagon ride.

It was a balmy 38 degrees that day. That’s actually pretty warm. In past years it’s been about 20 degrees with an even colder wind chill. And it’s usually snowing. It did start rain and sleet just as we were leaving.

Here’s Dave, Elizabeth and Joey, our possessed Cocker Spaniels with glowing eyes, and David after decorating the tree.

We went simple this year. Just some white lights and ornaments. Mostly because I’m tired and didn’t feel like dragging out all the other stuff. The tree is so big we don’t even have enough ornaments to fill it. We had more, but most of the glass ornaments we once owned were broken in the last four years. Notice how that’s been since David was born? Guess I need to visit the Christmas decor aisle at the store this week.

The tree didn’t look that big in the great outdoors. We got it in the house, and it takes up half the living room. Oh, well. It’s pretty and it smells great.

I started putting a little tree in David’s room on his first Christmas. Now he looks forward to it. This year, for the first time, he hung all the ornaments on it himself.

The ornaments are sort of all lumped together. But he’s very proud of it.

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Warts and All

Some of you have been asking how am I, where am I, why haven’t you heard from me?

Well I’m still here and I’m fine. Thank you all for your concern.

I kind of got out of the habit of blogging when I wasn’t feeling well with morning sickness. And I got way behind with housework, then the holidays arrived. After doing endless loads of laundry and finally forcing myself to scrub the shower — I hate, hate, hate cleaning the bathtub/shower. There just is no easy way to do that. Give me a toilet to clean any day. At least I can clean the toilet with out climbing into it, and soaking myself with water and skin eating chemicals.

OK, big digression.

I once had a wart on my finger that wouldn’t go away. I tried over-the-counter remedy’s, and even had it removed by a doctor. But it kept coming back. Then one day I purchased some heavy duty bathroom cleaner to remove that ring of stubborn soap scum that always forms around the bottom of the tub. Well, it said use with gloves. I didn’t have any rubber gloves, so I just used bare hands. Not only did it remove the soap scrum, but a week later I noticed that the wart was completely gone. That was 10 years ago. I’ve never had another since.

Not that I recommend running out and buying soap scum remover to soak your warts in.

At least not with out a doctor’s direction.

Anyway, I think I’m all caught up on all the housework and errands that went undone while I was trying to keep my lunch down.

The baby’s doing fine. I’m 14 weeks now. At my last doctor’s appointment he did  a spur of the moment ultrasound to take some measurements just to make sure the due was correct. Being spur of the moment, I had to chug down all that water in just a few minutes. But it’s better than doing it an hour or two before, then sitting there praying that you can hold it until the technician lets you get up to use the restroom. That by far is the cruelest thing they do pregnant women. Well, that and the orange stuff they make you drink when they test your blood sugar.

The images were fuzzy, but we were able to make out some little hands and a head. And we could see the heart beating. We got to hear the heartbeat too. Little David was with us, and all he wanted to know was if it is a boy or a girl. Of course it’s too early to tell, but if you ask him, he is convinced that it’s going to be a boy. He wants a brother, and absolutely nothing to do with little girls.

Oh, the doctor said the measurements matched the due date of June 10th.

So that’s what I’ve been up to.

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A List Because I Have a Bunch of Random Things to Say that Don’t Merit Their Own Posts

1. We were all sick with a cold this weekend. First little David, then my husband and finally me.

2. I was so tired that I let little David eat Doritos and Popcorn for dinner last night. I am sure this will prevent him from getting into Yale someday. Which is OK, because we can’t afford Yale.

3. Little David and I are feeling better. My husband is still deathly ill.

4. My sister-in-law is here visiting all the way from Australia. I really hope she doesn’t catch this junk from us. I’ll feel terrible is she’s sick during her trip.

5. We have two Cocker Spaniels. The male, Joey, has suddenly become attached to me at the hip. He follows me everywhere, and if I sit, he sits on me. He even sleeps with me. He never used to get in bed with us. And he snores. One of the reasons I’m so tired. Anyway, he did this to me the last time I was pregnant too. It’s weird. It’s like he just knows. Do pregnant women smell different or something? I’ve heard that dogs have been able to diagnose cancer in people simply by sniffing them. I guess I could have saved the 15 bucks I spent on a pregnancy test.

6. We have snow on the ground for the first time this year. And the first Lake Effect Snow Advisory of the season was issued today. Three to five inches by 7 tonight they say. I don’t know why they bother to issue an advisory for that around here. Five inches of snow is just a normal winter day in West Michigan. People don’t even slow down on the freeway for five inches of snow.

7. There are only 38 days left until Christmas.

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Three’s Company, Four’s A Crowd?

So the new baby is on the way, and all I keep thinking is that it won’t be just the three of us anymore.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m excited about welcoming this new little one next spring.

But at the same time I feel nostalgic over the change this will bring to our family.

It won’t just be our little family of three anymore. We’re so small and cozy right now. This is the way it’s always been for the last four years. All our time, all our attention is focused completely on David. And it’s been such a sweet time watching him grow and learn. Getting to know him.

Now everything will be different.

I know we can manage two kids, and I know our family has plenty of love to share with one more. But it seems like a certain amount of intimacy will be lost when there’s four instead of three.

Last week was had several unusually warm November days, and I made sure David and I were outside taking advantage of it. My mind kept looking ahead to next year when it would be warm again. And I thought to myself, “This is one of the last times it will be just you and I playing together on a warm day.”

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the hormones, the morning sickness and the fatigue that’s making me so sentimental.

Maybe it’s because I’m an only child, and I don’t have any personal point of reference for this.

So am I crazy or did any of you feel this way when child number two was on the way?

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Oh, Baby!

Mommie is about to get even more Dazed, because baby number two is on the way!

That’s right.

I’m pregnant!

I had my first doctor’s appointment today. Everything is going well so far.

The Little One is due to arrive June 10th.

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