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Categories B3RD

Planning for a healthy pregnancy (Part 1)

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By the time I see a pregnant woman, there’s only a very limited amount we can do.

We can manage nausea and try to have appropriate weight gain. We can make sure she doesn’t get listeriosis. We can treat her anemia. We can try to get her blood sugars back under control. But generally, we’re too far behind to make a significant difference.

If we really wanted as healthy a pregnancy as possible, we’d have needed to start before she got pregnant–not at 20 weeks along.

So, say you’re thinking about having a baby…what are the first steps you should take to plan for a healthy pregnancy?

1. Quit bad habits

If you smoke, you’re currently starving your body’s organs of oxygen. If you get pregnant while you’re smoking, you’ll be starving baby of oxygen. Womb-asphyxiated babies don’t grow as well–they are more likely to be born prematurely and more likely to be born small, both of which increase the risk for a whole slew of problems in infancy and beyond. Stop smoking before you start trying.

If you use illegal drugs, cut it out. Cocaine, meth, and narcotics all increase the risk of low birthweight and preterm birth. Think that’s not so bad? Low birthweight and preterm birth are the single leading cause of infant death. Furthermore, your baby can get addicted to those drugs in utero–and when they start going through withdrawal in the delivery room? You’re going to get your baby taken away.

Think marijuana’s okay? It’s legal in two states, so it’s fine, right? Think again. Marijuana use increases risk of at least two different types of congenital heart disease–and there’s plenty we don’t know about how marijuana affects pregnancy. It’s not worth the risk.

What about alcohol? If you’re drinking under the recommended amount for women (no more than once a day with no more than one drink on any given occasion), you don’t need to worry too much about this one in the preconception period. But if you’re dependent on alcohol or are used to consuming more than one drink at a time, now’s the time to rein this in to within the recommended amount for women. Since you’re going to be quitting drinking entirely once you start trying, it wouldn’t hurt if you were to cut back beyond the recommendations at this point.

I know that a lot of you are breathing a sigh of relief at this point. You’re good to start trying, you might be thinking.

But there’s more.

2. Attain a healthy weight

There are plenty of people who have their personal tiffs with BMI (myself included), but it does have some value. When we look at BMI as a predictor of pregnancy outcome, we do see an increased risk with both high and low BMIs. The risk of miscarriage is more than doubled in women with BMIs over 30, while women who have BMIs between 25 and 30 are at only slightly increased risk of having a miscarriage. Obesity (defined as a BMI above 30) also increases risk of having an infant born with a neural tube defect. Furthermore, obesity is frequently associated with a host of metabolic and cardiovascular abberations that can cause complications during pregnancy (predisposition to diabetes and hypertension among them). On the other hand, having too low a BMI has problems of its own. Women whose prepregnancy BMIs were below 20 have an increased risk of delivering a baby prematurely (which I’ve already mentioned leads to a whole host of other complications).

The good news is that you can do something about these risks. By attaining a healthy weight prior to pregnancy, you can improve your chances of having a healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery.

So, check out your BMI. If you’re under 20, start working on gaining weight. If you’re over 30, start working on losing weight.

I know, that last bit isn’t as easy as it sounds. If readers are interested, I’m willing to go into a bit more depth on the best approaches for losing or gaining weight prepregnancy–but this information isn’t dramatically different than normal healthy weight gain/weight loss strategies, so I was thinking to focus more specifically on the items that are more specific to pregnancy in this particular series.

And I’m now up to over 600 words with a bazilliondy things left to mention, so we’ve got ourselves a series :-)

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (March 2014)

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Thanks to getting my final two wisdom teeth out last Thursday, I’ve had opportunity to get caught up on some reading this past weekend. I have not had much time to blog about said reading. So this is all I’ve got for the month!

This month, I read:

  • Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography by William Anderson
    A very nice biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, written at a reading level similar to that of the Little House books. See my full review here.
  • Laura Ingalls Wilder Country by William Anderson
    A nice little book with photographs of the actual places where Laura lived and some of the actual items described in the Little House books.
  • June by Lori Copeland
    Completing a series I began long ago–this one struck me as not very well written at all. Still, I like Christian romances sometimes-especially when I’m recovering from oral surgery :-)
  • Discover your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen
    A nice look at the economics of everyday life. This is less sensational and more informative than the well-known Freakanomics, which belongs to the same genre. If you’re interested in economics and human behavior, this is an excellent book on the topic.
  • The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
    I read this for the first time with this month’s Reading to Know Classics Book Club–and enjoyed it a good deal. It required serious suspension of disbelief and was certainly an off-the-cuff fantasy as opposed to a well-reasoned one, but it was fun and I liked it. I’ll review it in more depth later.
  • The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
    I expected this one to be a Regency, but it turned out to be set a century or so before. Nevertheless, it was a highly enjoyable romp that involved an affair of honor, a highwayman, a kidnapping, a love triangle, and a long-lost heir. It took me a while to get interested in the characters, since I met at least a half dozen before I could figure out which direction the tale was taking–but I’m glad I stuck it out.
  • Program Your Baby’s Health by Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein
    Not a terrible prenatal program, but not a great one either. It was written to 2004 and the research on healthy pregnancy has advanced quite a bit since that time. The biggest flaw with this particular program was the advice to restrict physical activity during pregnancy–advice that showed up in nearly every chapter. This one was the most readable of the several books I’ve looked at on prenatal programming, but I can’t really recommend it due to its out-of-date recommendations.
  • Empires of Mesopotamia by Don Nardo
    A very nice little book detailing the various empires of Mesopotamia from Sumer to the Second Babylonian Empire. I was impressed by how well-written and laid out this was, but a little surprised that it had been filed in the adult non-fiction section of the library. I’d say it’s perfect for a late-elementary or early-Middle School introduction to Mesopotamia.
  • Ancient Persia by Don Nardo
    A look at the empire immediately following the Second Babylonian Empire, by the same author as Empires of Mesopotamia. Certain parts echoed the previous book heavily–although this was written at an even lower reading level (early-elementary, I’d say) and filed in the children’s section at my local library
  • The 1920s edited by John F. Wukovits
    I grabbed this title to give me a bit more context on Calvin Coolidge (my husband’s favorite president) and found this to be a perfect introduction to the ’20s. The book is a series of chapter-long excerpts from other biographies and histories of the era–which meant it was easy to read in segments, and gave tastes of a number of authors’ styles (making me kinda want to read some of the books from which the excerpts were drawn.)
  • Williamsburg: a picture book to remember her by
    A book of photographs of Colonial Williamsburg. I wanted to get a taste of what to expect when we travel to Williamsburg this fall with Daniel’s family–and I’m getting really excited to see all those historic buildings and the craftsmen and craftswomen within!

Still in Progress:

  • One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
  • To-Do List by Sasha Cagen

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Little Things

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There are plenty of big things that I could thank God for, but sometimes it’s the little things that stick out the most.

This week I’m thankful…

…for compliments
I wore a springy green tiered skirt and a teal shirt today, topped off with a blue and green beaded belt and some blue dangly earrings. I worried a bit that my outfit would be a bit too informal for work–but lost my worries when several of my coworkers complimented my outfit. How nice!

…for humbling moments
At lunch, I shed my white ballet flats and curled up on the couch to write my grocery list. When I was done, I slipped my shoes back on and got in the car for work. As I was walking in the door, I looked down and realized that I hadn’t slipped the white ballet flats on–I’d slipped just ONE white ballet flat on. The other was a hot pink ballet flat from yesterday. Of course, there was too little time to return home–and since Thursday is grocery shopping day, I got plenty of weird looks as I went to my three different grocery stores to fill my list.

Two Different Shoes

…for bloody butchers
I started some tomato and pepper seeds several weeks ago and have been faithfully watering and lighting them since–but hadn’t seen anything until a few days ago, when three little hybrid tomato seedlings sprouted. A little was better than nothing, but I’d hoped for more (I planted 6 seeds each of four different types). Then today, I looked at lunch to find two little seedlings popping out. The heirloom “Bloody Butcher” tomatoes had sprouted. This evening, I looked again and saw another two sprouts. Yay!

Seeds Sprouting

…for Facebook conversations
I posted my excitement regarding my bloody butchers on Facebook, and got responses from my sister-in-law, a cousin, my mother, and an aunt. The ensuing conversation was a delight. I’m so thankful I have opportunity to connect with family this way.

…for an expected package arriving unexpectedly
The UPS man arrived during my lunch, dropping off two packages for Daniel Garcia. I didn’t know Daniel had bought anything recently, so I texted him to ask him about the two packages that appeared to be books. (I didn’t open the packages like I normally would because it IS my birthday tomorrow, and I wouldn’t want to ruin a planned surprise). Daniel figured he knew what one of them would be, but not the other. When we got home this evening, we opened them both to find that one was…the copy of Megan McCardle’s The Up Side of Down that I’d won from Carrie’s giveaway. The publisher apparently doesn’t go for the formal and dropped the “Mrs.” before the “Daniel Garcia” in my address :-P

The Up Side of Down

…for repurposed curry
Once upon a time, I had a chicken curry recipe that had much more “sauce” than we could use with the meat. I got the brilliant idea of turning the sauce into a soup and my newest recipe-creation-craze began. This Tuesday, I made coconut crusted chicken (a kinda Indian curry) for Happy Food – and, for ease of preparation, used boneless skinless chicken breasts instead of the whole chicken parts I’d used the last time I made it. The boneless skinless breasts had apparently been injected with significantly more saline than the whole chicken had, because I ended up with flavorful crusty meat on top–and six or seven cups worth of sauce (it’s supposed to be a dry fried-chicken type recipe!) I decided I’d repurpose this one–and did so by simply adding fresh basil and zucchini and pouring it over rice. Voila – from Indian curry to Thai fusion in twenty minutes.

…for this man
Daniel
It’s hard to believe that we’ve now been married a year. A year out and we’re still newlyweds. I asked him if he’d be up for a walk tonight – he said he was. We walked to the liquor store down the street (can’t buy alcohol in grocery stores in Wichita) to get a wine for the stew recipe I’ve been wanting to try. Then we walked to the Braums a little further ’round the block to get milk and buttermilk. We held hands and talked and enjoyed the lovely weather. I am a most blessed woman.

Looking at what I’ve written so far, I realize I’ve only mentioned today’s thankfulnesses-actually only a segment of today’s thankfulness. I haven’t mentioned a conversation about midwifery, reading a devotional before bed, getting a good deal on vitamins. I haven’t mentioned the good evaluation at work or the prospect of Pizza Hut pizza and my favorite wine for my birthday tomorrow. I haven’t mentioned time to read and fascinating conversations sparked by books. I haven’t rejoiced in the research I’ve been able to complete or the breakthroughs some clients have had.

Yet I have so much to be thankful for. Maybe I should start writing a thousand gifts list, like Ann Voskamp (still working on reading it, will give opinions when done.) Maybe I should start recording ten thousand.

“The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul, worship His holy name
Sing like never before, O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

You’re rich in love, and You’re slow to anger
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness I will keep on singing
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, O my soul
O my soul, worship His holy name
Sing like never before, O my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
Ten thousand years and then forevermore”

~Matt Redman “Ten Thousand Reasons”

Categories Book Notes

The Prairie, Revisited

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Someday, I’m going to be a pioneer. I’ll travel in a covered wagon, settle on an empty prairie, build a log cabin with timber cut from the creek bed. I’ll cut notches in the logs and carefully set notch upon notch, climbing the corners of the cabin to build it higher and higher.

It’s been a dream of mine since my earliest days, those days when I first read Little House on the Prairie.

But while I’ve been able to accomplish some of the childhood dreams elicited by books, I have not accomplished this particular one-and likely never will.

The closest I’ll get will be building Lincoln log houses with children.

And that’s okay.

I was struck, rereading Little House on the Prairie for the first time in several years, with how much of the book is focused on the mechanics of building a home from scratch–but also much I missed of the rest of the book.

I never caught, on my early readings, just how tenuous the Ingalls’ resettlement was. Pa heard a rumor that Indian territory would be opening for settlement, so he uprooted his family and moved in. Despite there being plenty of non-Indian land around, Pa settled within an Indian reservation–knowing that it was an Indian reservation. He considered it to be just a matter of time before the Indians would be resettled. That’s what happens when white men move forward, he assumed; the Indians move on to make place for them. And of course the US government would back up the white settlers who were squatting on Indian land. Of course.

It’s astonishing to think. How can someone (who isn’t desperate) know that the land they’re living on belongs to someone else but yet still choose to build upon it in hopes that they’ll come out on top in the end?

In some ways, Pa seems so advanced in his views of Indians. He didn’t hate them or fear them, he tended towards the “noble savage” viewpoint (which I definitely had as a child, at least in part obtained from the Little House books). Yet his attitude in settlement was almost like many would treat wild animals. Yes, suburban sprawl will impact the native animal population, but people are more important than animals and the animals will move to other places and adapt.

It’s challenging, revisiting the prairie through these new eyes.

My view of Little House on the Prairie has also changed now that I am married and have moved from being near my family to be with my husband. In the months leading up to our marriage, Daniel and I talked of various directions our life could take-of different educational and professional routes Daniel could take, of different places we might end up living. I blithely told Daniel that I would follow him anywhere.

And it’s true. I will follow him anywhere.

But, having moved once to follow him, my determination to follow him anywhere has much more fear attached.

The move to Wichita has not been easy for me. I battled a depression over this past year that was more severe than any I have battled before. I am now finally, one year out, starting to find my balance. The thought of uprooting again terrifies me.

I can’t help but think of Caroline Ingalls as I read Little House on the Prairie. I imagine how hard it must have been for her, leaving her family and “civilization”, spending months without anyone to talk to but her husband and their children, just starting to establish a home when news comes that you must move again.

I wonder if she felt more sorrow or more relief when it became clear that they must not stay, that they would need to backtrack, that they would return to Wisconsin. Was she sorrowful because of the year lost, the work done and left for others to enjoy? Or was she elated to be returning back to her family, to the little house they once loved? And what was she thinking when Pa’s wanderlust struck again later (when they left for the banks of Plum Creek)?

It’s interesting, revisiting old places and seeing them through older, more mature eyes.

I wondered at the beginning of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge if I wouldn’t try to make something from Little House on the Prairie, like I did with Little House in the Big Woods a couple years ago. I didn’t. The closest I got was creating some log cabin quilt blocks for a quilt for a soon expected nephew and building log cabins with Lincoln logs with the kids of some friends from church.

I don’t regret that I didn’t do more–this year’s challenge was thought provoking enough that I didn’t need the extra activities.

I read this title as a part of Barbara H’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge and the Reading to Know Classics Book Club. You can check out what other people have been reading at Barbara’s challenge wrap up post and the RTK wrap-up post.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson

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I’ve read my fair share of Laura Ingalls Wilder biographies for children–most (if not all) of them fitting into the glossy paged photograph-laden category. Each biography has a tendency to veer one of two directions: either it focuses almost entirely on the information Laura shared in her Little House books (thereby adding nothing for the avid reader) or it focuses almost entirely on the ways reality deviated from the Little House books (thereby destroying a young reader’s trust in the essential historicity of Wilder’s novels.)

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A biography by William Anderson is as different from those biographies as a book can be. It is not a glossy picture book with minimal text. It is not simply a retelling of Laura’s Little House books. Neither is it a critical look at how Laura changed her story.

Instead, it’s an honest to goodness biography written at a reading level (and in a style) similar to Laura’s “Little House” books. Anderson explicitly mentions some things that are different from the books (for instance, that Laura was actually much younger than described in Little House on the Prairie when her family settled in Indian territory); but he mostly writes Laura’s story as it occurred, letting the Wilder fan take notes of where stories were slightly altered or moved to a different context in the Little House books.

I loved it.

I think this book would have been very accessible to me in the throughs of my first Little House obsession (age 6-8), and would have added to my understanding of pioneer life (and Laura’s life in particular) without dissuading me from love for the Little House series.

It is a book of substance not of fluff, written simply but not condescendingly. I recommend it highly.

Having said all that, I think it is important that I clarify. This book is written for an elementary to middle school audience, so it doesn’t go into great detail about certain things. Those who are interested in a more in-depth discussion of Pa’s squatting on an Indian reservation or of other harsh components of pioneer life will be disappointed. Don’t expect an adult biography. But, for what it is, a children’s biography of a beloved author, this is a very good book.

I read this title as a part of Barbara H’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge. You can check out what other people have been reading at her wrap up post.

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Children’s biography
Synopsis: A biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder from birth to death; written for an elementary to middle grade audience.
Recommendation: Definitely recommended for the target audience (although older folks can enjoy it too).

Categories Work

I make my own

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Occasionally, I get really curious about my clients. Not a professional curiosity, a personal curiosity.

Like when one of my clients told me she makes her own herbal tea.

I knew that I should be asking her about what herbs they contain for professional reasons, so I can ensure that what she’s drinking is safe for her and baby. But what I really wanted to know was what herbs she uses…for personal reasons.

I’m a huge fan of herbal tea (actually tisanes and not tea at all). I’d love to make my own blends. But I just haven’t gotten around to it.

So when she said “I make my own herbal tea”, I said “Really? Tell me what you use.”

“The tea bag from the natural foods store and water.”

*Facepalm*

I really will make my own one of these days. I will not be using the tea bag from the natural foods store.

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (February 2014)

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What with all my project doing, I haven’t been reading quite as much this month. Even more, I haven’t been finishing books this month. I still have at least a half dozen in progress.

This month, I read:

  • Wonder by R.J. Palacio
    The story of a 5th Grade boy with craniofacial abnormalities due to a rare genetic disorder. August goes to school for the first time and learns that middle schoolers can be cruel and kind and awful and awesome. Or something like that. I wasn’t a huge fan. Read my full review here
  • Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein
    First, she witnesses a plane going down. A fellow air transport auxillary pilot made a heroic attempt and failed. Then she makes her own heroic attempt, and she goes down–escorted into Germany where she ends up in Ravensbruck, a witness to horrific events. This is undoubtedly the best book I’ve read so far this year–and likely one of the best I’ll read all year. If I haven’t already convinced you to read it, check out my full review.
  • Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
    I re-read this for Barbara’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge and in conjunction with the Reading to Know Classic Book Club–and found my experience reading it very different this time. I’ve become much more sensitive to the interactions between Ma and Pa–and to the reality that the family was illegally squatting on land that wasn’t their own in hopes that it would soon be available for settlement.
  • Four children’s picture books, author BO

Books In Progress

Books In Progress, Part 1

Left over from last month’s list:

  • Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography by William Anderson
    I’m still hoping to get this one done and reviewed this month for Barbara’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge.
  • One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
  • The 1920s edited by John F. Wukovits
  • Discover your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen
  • No More Sleepless Nights by Peter Hauri and Shirley Linde
  • To-Do List by Sasha Cagen
  • Sumer and the Sumerians by Harriet Crawford

Books In Progress

Books In Progress, Part 2

New Additions to Works in Progress:

  • Betty Crocker’s Bread Machine Cookbook
    I’ve never had good success with bread prepared and baked in the bread machine (I don’t have a problem with the dough cycle), but I wanted to try again. The buttermilk white bread turned out perfectly–so I’m eager to try a few more recipes (maybe I can get a good whole wheat loaf?)
  • The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch
    I started my peppers and tomatoes last night, and am eager to have a successful garden this year (crossing fingers.)
  • The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer
    I just barely started this, thinking I wanted some more fiction–but the projects and nonfiction have kept me busy, so I’ve stalled.
  • Program Your Baby’s Health by Barbara Luke and Tamara Eberlein
    Because I’m interested in seeing how the prenatal program prepared by Luke and Eberlein (of Harvard School of Public Health) stacks up to my own.

I’ve also picked up The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, which I’ll be reading along with the Reading to Know Classic Book Club.

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

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August Pullman has only ever been homeschooled, with only a few friends outside of his family. So when his parents decide it’s a good idea to send him to a local private middle school for fifth grade (go figure), he’s understandably nervous.

Except August isn’t just nervous because he’s a sheltered homeschooler. He’s worried because…well, his face…

August was born with a rare genetic anomaly (never given the name Treacher-Collins in the book, but that’s what it is) that resulted in a slew of “craniofacial abnormalities”. That’s the nice way to say it.

Most kids just call him “freak”.

My church’s book club selected this book for their February discussion, so Daniel and I listened to an audio version on our way up to and back down from Lincoln this last weekend.

Let me tell you first that the women in the bookclub were almost unanimous in loving this book. I felt a bit like a sore thumb, as the newest member of the group (it was my first discussion with them) and as one who just wasn’t crazy about Wonder.

It was a nice story. It was cute. It was the first book I’ve read in which the main character had craniofacial abnormalities. But it wasn’t great.

The story was told from the perspective of a half dozen kids, alternating narrators every few chapters (with a bit of overlap on key scenes). I liked seeing from multiple limited viewpoints. But the kids all sounded alike (that is, there wasn’t anything in the writing to make them different–the voice actors were VERY different.) A couple of high schoolers who gave their perspectives added elements I didn’t like, that I thought were too mature for a novel about a fifth grader.

Furthermore, I felt like both the story and the characters were there to serve a moral. The author was trying to make a point first and the story was just there to make that point.

I feel bad, writing such a negative sounding review. So many others loved this book–and I concede that it’s not a bad book.

But my perspective is likely clouded by my experience reading Tony Abbott’s Firegirl (link to my review). Like Wonder, Firegirl is a middle grade novel about a child with a “deformed” face. Both are told from a child’s perspective. Both have a moral of sorts. But Firegirl outperforms Wonder in every way (assuming my memory of Firegirl is accurate.)

Firegirl is very suitable for a middle grade audience, with little besides necessary discomfort with the topic to give any pause. Firegirl has dynamic, well-formed characters. And Firegirl doesn’t make obsessive mention of popular culture, making it suitable for more than just the next two years (I got so frustrated with the “product placement” in Wonder. Just off the top of my head, we’ve got mention of an iMac, an X-box 360, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Star Wars, some brand name jacket/hoodie, and a cartoon I didn’t recognize. And that’s with me not being a detail person–especially not when listening versus actually reading.)

So, yeah. Um.

Read Firegirl.

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Middle Grade Fiction
Synopsis: Fifth Grade August Pullman, whose face is disfigured by a rare congenital condition, goes to school with other kids for the first time.
Recommendation: Clearly not my favorite book. It wasn’t awful, but Tony Abbott’s Firegirl did a much better job with a similar story.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Project Edition

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Thankful Thursday banner

Some weeks the theme for Thankful Thursday just flows perfectly. Sometimes I leave out dozens of items in order to keep my post within a theme. And sometimes I have a really tenuous theme, like today. I’ve gotten a lot done in the past week and I’m really thankful that I’ve had opportunity to get so much done. It has been relaxing, energizing, life-enhancing.

I do NOT relax by being unproductive. Lack of productivity makes me crabby.

And I complain in abundance (unfortunately) when I am unproductive.

Which is all the more reason that I should give thanks to God when I have weeks like the last one–weeks full of activity and accomplishment.

This week I’m thankful…

…for a reading road trip
It took me a while to figure out how to get ahold of someone who knew what book the book club at church would be reading for February–and once I’d found out, I had to request said book at the (public) library. Turns out, I didn’t request it soon enough to get a paper copy–so I ended up with an audio version last week (that had to be listened to before our meeting tonight.) But we just so happened to be taking a road trip into Lincoln this past weekend, so Daniel and I listened to R.J. Palacio’s Wonder along the way. Since I was having intermittent nausea (gotta love going off the pseudoephedrine), I very much appreciated something to listen to as Daniel drove.

…for quilting companions
My sister-in-law mentioned quilting at the beginning of the year, and we planned this weekend to get some done. Joanna sat on the couch with her hoop, hand quilting a quilt top she’d picked up at a garage sale. I sat at the table on the opposite end of the room, piecing log cabin blocks at my machine and then taking them into Mom’s office to iron. When I went into the office, I shared the iron back and forth with Mom, who was piecing blocks for Anna’s faux-double-wedding-ring quilt. We didn’t have a crazy lot of conversation, but we did have what is nicest when quilting: companionship. God has blessed me greatly by giving me a family I so enjoy and hobbies that we can enjoy together.

…for an evening off
Daniel had class Monday evening and I’d been dreaming up household projects to do, so I took the opportunity of him being gone to get started. I figured out how to get our plane working and planed down the door to the office/someday-nursery so it actually fits into the door frame. I do so love being productive, and the chance to get something done was a huge morale booster.

…for a taste of spring
The snow from a couple of weeks ago was lovely, but so was this last week’s springy temperatures. I took full advantage of the weather by setting up my sawhorses on the driveway and going to town scraping and sanding the closet door for the office/someday-nursery.

…for the promise of projects to come
Tomorrow night, some girls from church are coming over to craft. I’m hoping to get some embroidery done–and am very much looking forward to visiting with my new friends. Then, on Saturday, Daniel and I are planning on getting some more scraping and painting done (hopefully, we can complete the bathroom door too.) Progress on projects is great, and it’s even greater when I have the promise of completing projects.

…for the promise of a final active rest
I love Jesus’ response to His critics in John 5:16-17. He had just finished healing a man and telling that same man to pick up his mat and walk–and the Pharisees went nuts with criticism for both healing and telling a man to “work” on the Sabbath.

“And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.'”
~John 5:16-17

The implication is that God is at work, even now, on His Sabbath rest from all His work of creating. And Hebrews promises that we, the redeemed, shall one day enter into that same Sabbath rest.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”
~Hebrew 4:9-10 (ESV)

Praise God that a Sabbath rest remains, not one of hardship imposed by laws against healing and picking up mats, but an active rest. Praise God that the Sabbath rest He invites His people into isn’t idleness, but instead is life-enriching active rest.

Thank You, Lord, that I can rest in all my labors this week, and that You have prepared a way, through Your works alone (no work of mine) that I can enter into Your rest at last.

Categories Homemaking

Plans, Projects, and Pregnancy

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When we got married almost a year ago, we knew we wanted to make paying off student loans a top priority. We want to have children, and when we have them, we want for me to be able to stay at home with them.

Getting our student loans paid off before we start having children would go a long way toward making that wish a reality.

Which means that we carefully planned our budget such that most of my income goes towards principle on student loans (while Daniel’s still provides the minimum payments-so that we’d have an easily flexible arrangement if a surprise came along.)

It also means that we have a specific date for when we expect to have our loans paid off–and a specific date for when we think we can start “trying” for a baby.

And, since I’m a planner, it means I have a whole list of tasks to be completed before, around, or after those magic dates.

Before we start trying, I need to get my last two wisdom teeth pulled (don’t want to go under OR risk damaging any of my amalgam fillings if there’s a possibility I might be pregnant). I need to evaluate my current medication use and see if I can find effective alternatives to the ones that aren’t safe for pregnancy (like pseudoephedrine.) And I need to get in all the lead exposure I intend to get until the baby’d be at least one.

Does that last one surprise you a bit?

I don’t imagine it’s something many people think of when they start planning a pregnancy.

But lead exposure during pregnancy or breastfeeding can be dangerous to a baby’s health. And my old house likely contains plenty of lead.

Which means that if I need to do any home improvements before baby turns one (the earliest I would consider stopping breastfeeding), I need to do them before we get pregnant.

And, since I’m a project person, of course I have some home improvement projects that I want to get completed.

I want to get the interior doors all sanded down and repainted (we started this last summer but haven’t finished yet!) I want to scrape all the flaking paint from our hall cabinets and trim and get the hall repainted (especially important because I don’t want a toddler coming into contact with potentially-lead-containing pain flakes). And I want to finish vacuuming down the peeling paint in my craft room downstairs so I can hang pegboard on the wall frame my sister-in-law so graciously finished for me last September.

Which means I’m deep in the throughs of project-happiness: removing and soaking door hardware to remove a half dozen layers of paint. Scraping and sanding the doors. Trying to guesstimate when I can have the doors finished, how I’m going to do the hallway (it’ll be more difficult, since not all the parts that contain peeling paint can be taken off and taken outside for scraping like the doors can.)

What am I doing?

Projects. Getting ready for pregnancy. Planning ahead.