Just wanted to share this picture I snapped of my husband son yesterday around 6:30 am. Ezra had woken around 4:15 with a leaky diaper and I got him back to sleep for a bit. At 6 am, he was ready to go for a walk, so we all went for a Sunday morning stroll. My husband saw his dad driving the truck through the field and waved him down to pick us up. It was a great start to a Sunday! We got the boy back to bed for a nap before church, and I even got a short nap, too.
I caught some neat shots lately of random things that I thought I would share. And I’m eaten up with poison oak – the worst case I’ve had in about 3 years. I honestly think my son gave it to me, but he doesn’t have a spot on him, thankfully. Anyhoo, I’ve tried everything…Benadryl gel, calamine lotion, Appalachian Secret, Dawn dish liquid (including taking the rough side of a sponge and scrubbing – painful and didn’t work), and finally jewel weed soap. I had my regular OB appointment today (37 weeks come Thursday) and she wrote me a prescription for steroid pills and cream. That should do the trick, I think. I have it on my arms, fingers, chest, stomach, legs, and even eye lids!
OB says all is well with me and baby so I go back in a week. Won’t be long before baby arrives! The heart beat was around 140, so what do you think about the gender?
There’s a gazillion things I’d love to blog about, but you (my readers) seem to be more like me and prefer pictures. So, I’ll let you create your own story about what I’ve been up to lately…
Thought you might enjoy some Easter and Earth Day photos I captured…they kind of went hand in hand this year.
I did well planning out three meals last Sunday that I could prepare this past week and I actually ended up fixing all of them! I made the veggie pasta Monday, the ratatouille Wednesday, and the black bean burritos Thursday. All of them were good, but I think the burritos were best. I ended up with left over asparagus, mushrooms, and something else that I plan to make stir fry with this evening before they go bad. I picked up some frozen shrimp (from the NC coast, to be as local as possible) and will fix those up with the veggies then serve with rice. Easy Sunday evening dinner.
This week, I found these sweet potato burritos I plan to make one night. Then, I think I’ll make plain old spaghetti one evening, too. Not sure what I will do the other nights this week, but I have no doubt I will figure it out before then. I didn’t plan too much this week because we’re not going to be home a couple nights for dinner, so we’ll eat out.
I had a blast cooking this week! My younger sister had bought us this big chopping block for Christmas, but I didn’t break it out until we moved into our new house. She brought me these pretty new knives when she visited a couple of weeks ago, so I’ve enjoyed chopping up the fresh ingredients to go in our meals. I missed cooking with a real stove and lots of room.
Speaking of more room, we DID move into our new home almost three weeks ago! I was hesitant to blog about it for a while, because of some legalities, but it’s pretty well-known now so what the heck. We are loving our new place! My son has adapted well to his new room and things have gone fairly well. I enjoy our new living room and dining room furniture and it’s been fun decorating. I still don’t have any art or photos on the wall – I’m being very strategic. I want BIG things or groups of small things to look big. We still have about 3.5 months before this second baby arrives, so I have time to rest a little here and there…but how much rest do you get when you have a two year old?!
On the topic of rest – that was our Sunday school lesson from today and it was a very good one. I have enjoyed the past 6 weeks lessons about work, money, generosity and now rest (my personal favorite). It talked about how God created the earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th and how he set an example for the rest of us to follow. A lot of times, we get so wrapped up in life and all the things we have to do that we don’t rest nearly enough, but it’s important to do so at least one day a week. Rest and reflect. So, make it a point to build that into your weekly routine, even if it’s not Sunday.
Here are some recent photos – some of the new house and some from my cooking experiences this week. Enjoy!
I told my husband the other day that I want to create a real budget since we now have a house payment (something we’ve not had in our 11 years of marriage). Sure, we’ve had other payments, but none as big as this mortgage and none that will last for such a long period of time. The past several Sunday School lessons at our church have been about work and money management, so this comes at the perfect time.
After teaching my spin class yesterday, I got into a conversation about budgeting with one of my students, who has been on a budget for quite sometime. She follows the Dave Ramsey principles which I’m somewhat familiar with (thanks to my cousin who gave me that book many years ago!). I need to pull that book back out because I only made it to the second or third step in the plan. Either way, this gal was so helpful and emailed me the neatest spreadsheet on budgeting that she uses. I plan to get into the meat of it this weekend and figure out our budget for next month and see how it goes. I don’t think our house payment will start until May which is nice so we’ll have a month to practice.
This week’s Sunday School lesson is about “Our generous giving should glorify God and reflect Christ’s giving.” My mom raised me to understand the importance of tithing (giving the first 10% back to God) and over the past several years, I’ve really practiced this. I’m a good tither, but I’m not good at “offerings”, so I plan to work that into the budget. I was proud to hear my sister say she gave a good chunk of her earnings to the church last year. I guess mom’s words DID sink in after all!
Some points from the Sunday School lesson this week (2 Corinthians 9:10-13):
So, I’m praying over our new budget and asking God to guide me in creating it and following it. I know it won’t be easy to change some of our habits (like eating out WAY too much), but I know we can do it. One reason we got a house is to stay here and enjoy it, so I plan to work on meal planning on the weekends and this gal is going to be grilling out a LOT more this spring and summer!
On another note, I got me some Starbucks Veranda Blend Blonde Roast at the grocery store the other day and it sure is tasty. I had been drinking my favorite Jamaican Me Crazy blend, but I was almost out and was ready to try something new. Plus this was half the price. Yes, I’m pregnant, but I don’t worry about one cuppa joe a day.
Have a blessed day!
A pretty sunset one evening this week
Thought you  might enjoy a 30 second video clip of the birds singing from my back porch one morning last week. To God be the glory!
My father-in-law is out of town and he normally feeds the cows, so my husband got to fill in. It was such a pretty morning that I thought my son and I would join him. We had fun “farmin” – all I did was take pictures and open a gate. My son loves to be outside and especially loves being around tractors, so it was a big adventure. I thought I would share some pictures I took and some from the past week as well.
On another note, my husband and I had a wonderful date evening as our son is staying with a relative tonight. We got a bite to eat, watched “Winter’s Tale” (I give it 3 stars), and ended up buying our dining set! I had my eye on a set from IKEA, but when I saw this “Jesus” table at a furniture store we stopped at on a whim, I knew it was the one. It cost just a little more, but it’s fully assembled and they will deliver for free! Seems to be good quality and very heavy.
Days like today leave me elated and feeling so blessed. I truly wonder why God takes such good care of me and my family and gives us all that we have. But, when I stop and think about being a child of God, it’s a little easier for me to understand as a mother. I would do almost anything for my son and I will give him all that I can in this life (but not spoil him, you know).
Anyhoo, enough typing, time for pictures!
The past two days have been wonderful! I hope the week continues at this pace, cuz I’m a very happy gal.
Yesterday morning, we took our son for his 2 year old check up and all was well. He was 80th percentile for his height and 60th percentile for his weight. He did really well while the doc listened to his ticker and all. The only thing that upset him was leaving the fish tank in the waiting room. After that, he cried on and off the entire time we were in the exam room. He wanted to go back and see those fish! The doctor said a lot of talking at this point is a good indication of intelligence, so we’re on the right path with our jabber mouth. And, she thinks he’ll be left handed. The only left handed person in either family is my husband’s great aunt, so she’s thrilled.
Our happy two year old cheesing it up today
After the appointment, I bought myself a treat. A new piece of art for our new home! I saw it last week and loved it, but talked myself out of buying it. After thinking about it for days, I broke down and spent the 20 bucks. I think it was a good buy.
My neato piece of artwork for the new house
The coolest part of yesterday, though, was when they DELIVERED OUR NEW HOUSE!!! It seems we have waited forever for it to arrive and now it’s finally here. Right now, it’s just parked in our yard, but hopefully it will get set up very soon. The day ended with a great yoga session that left me a bit sore today.
The back of our house!
Today started with my one hour glucose test to check for gestational diabetes and I actually passed! It was an early test (I’m 18 weeks along) so they’ll do it again at 28 weeks, but for now I’m in the green. Baby’s heart beat is in the 150s and it’s moving around a lot, even though I’m not feeling it much yet. We go back in two weeks for the ultrasound to determine the gender, but we’ve already determined we’re going to be surprised again this time. It’s so much fun not knowing and waiting till Baby arrives.
I ended up taking the entire day off work and running a million errands, then spending quality time with my son. We played outside for over an hour in the cold sun. Tomorrow, the snow is supposed to move in and cover us with anywhere from one to twelve inches. Let’s hope it’s one. I’m thinking in the 4-6″ range will be more like it. I hope it melts fast so they can continue with our house set up.
The huge oak in our temporary yard. My favorite tree around.
One random note…if you have never tried San Pellegrino, you need to do so TODAY! My friend Nancy turned me onto this (she’s part Italian) a while back. She drinks the orange ones and I tried the blood orange one not too long ago. It was good, but I thought I would try the lemon this time. I gave up soda back in November, but this is different. It has real sugar and actual lemon juice. It’s heavenly. My husband thinks I’m crazy, but this is my guilty pleasure. 🙂
My description? Summer in a can!
Overall, I feel extremely blessed. I always feel blessed, but more so this week. This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it!
What wonderful, exciting blessing(s) have you experienced this week?
I hear ol’ Phil saw his shadow today, but what the heck does he know? My dad says it will be an early spring and that’s what I choose to believe.
I celebrated Groundhog Day with my pal Tonya. She came to church with me and then we went to a local winery for tastings (her, not me) and lunch. Very good food! I had a take on shrimp and grits, but the grits were smoked Gouda grit cakes. My beverage was a very nice cup of decaf coffee. The dessert menu wasn’t tickling my fancy, so I came home and had a leftover piece of my son’s birthday cake from his party yesterday. Yummy.
My son’s party went well yesterday. It was a small family gathering of about 10 people. I fed them slow cooker chicken and dumplings (big hit), green beans, and real mashed potatoes. My mom made the prettiest cake and it was very tasty. She used to make a lot of our birthday cakes when we were little. Tonight, my little toddler decided to eat a lady bug! I had left him watching it crawl on the couch. When I came back, I asked him where it was and he drooled all over everything. I smelled that squished lady bug smell and he confessed to eating it. So gross.
The most exciting part of the weekend? The excavators came and dug the hole for our new house!!! I was so discouraged going to work yesterday morning because they were supposed to come Friday and never showed. They didn’t even call. When I left at 9:30, they still weren’t here and I was all messed up because everything has seemed so slow and delayed. I should have known God was taking care of things. My mother in law called at 10 am to report we had equipment at our house site. That made my day! Hopefully, the weather will cooperate so we can get the footers and foundation in soon. I still have my fingers crossed that we’ll be moving in our new home the first week of March.
The big game half time show is over and I didn’t hear of any weddings. So glad.
Just think folks, only 6 more weeks of winter, either way. Enjoy this little photo recap of the past week or so.
Because Nice Matters 