A Day in the Life of....

...38 weeks pregnant.

written yesterday evening and then forgot to hit publish


1. Seed milk time!  Every 5 days or so I whip up some seed milk for little Chuckles.  In addition to our normal seeds and dates, the one this morning had a splash of vanilla, some unsweetened coconut and a little bit of chia.  Fun times.

2.  Green smoothie time!  One of the few pictures Charlie actually posed willingly for - with a smile - and for more than nano second.  We love our green smoothies and love starting out our days with a healthy dose of greens, fruit and seeds.

3.  Yesterday I was 38 weeks on the dot.  But we frequently forget to take my weekly pictures on the real day, and actually, due to a melt down during breakfast and Daddy rushing out the door to work, we forgot it yet again today.  So I snapped this quick, just to make sure we have something for this week, should I continue to forget to take it.  I feel so. big.  And so. ready.  And this baby is so. low. I can barely bend over anymore.  Any day now little dude.

4. I think I should get props for trying out a new hairstyle at 38 weeks.  I haven't tried a new hairstyle in months!!  What possessed me I'm not sure.  I've been wanting to try it for a while, and maybe I was secretly hoping it would be easy enough to do that, when labor threatened, I could quickly do my hair and might have shot at a better "first picture with baby after birth" picture.  You should see my first picture with Charlie.  It's awful.  But I'm glad I have it nonetheless.  It's all about memories peeps, not beauty.  But if I can get a labor friendly hairstyle in, I'm not complaining. ;-)

 5.  My sister and I are gung-ho hard lotion bars right now.  In fact we are in experimental mode.  The bar on the left is one that I've had for a while and love.  The middle is one I just received from Made On, and the one on the right is a homemade one that Carrie made.  We are trying to get the consistency just how we like it so that we can successfully make homemade bars for ourselves.  SOO much cheaper.  But if you you have really dry hands and don't have a hankering to try making yourself, I seriously recommend purchasing a bar to try - especially a Made On bar.  My hands are in love.

6.  I have discovered a love for crowder peas.  My husband has always loved them, but just this summer I've hopped on the band wagon and joined in his enthusiasm.  I managed to make it to Farmer's Market this morning and bought a 1/2 bushel of crowder peas to freeze for later use.  I actually weighed it out and finally figured out that a 1/2 bushel of peas is roughly 12 cups or 4lbs.  A far cry from a 1/2 bushel of apples which is about 20lbs.  Dinner later?  Yum!

7.  My mom, dad, sister and niece came over today to help me do some last minute cleaning before baby.  So, So, SO appreciated!  DJ actually had to finish her school while she was here and then set about creating a nice train track set up for Charlie for when he gets home from Grammy's.

8.  Some cleaning supplies hanging about.  We (and by that I mean mostly my family) managed to get most surfaces dusted, some windows vacuumed out, carpets vacuumed, my car cleaned out, some clutter picked up and floors cleaned.  My bathroom floor is so clean and slick now thanks to Cathy, and my kitchen floor is Ah-Mazing!  Thanks to mom for bringing her crazy floor scrubbing machine pictured below and taking care of all that built up grime on my kitchen floor that my regular mop wouldn't get up.

9.  If it weren't amazing enough to have family come and help you clean your house, having a friend then come and bring you dinner so you don't have to worry about feeding yourself after a long afternoon of work just tops it off tremendously.  My good friend Karoline popped over to drop off some very delicious kale and white bean soup, sweet potato and apple casserole and blueberry oat muffins.  I had to snap the picture very quickly because I was so hungry I immediately dug in.  So good.  Luckily she gave me a large pot of the soup, so I have leftovers for tomorrow. :-)

10.  Poor Lully got peed on this morning, so he finally made it into the wash this evening.   I am making a rather insane attempt at [at least] potty awareness if not an attempt at potty training.  Yes I know I'm 38 weeks.  It just sort of happened.  And he seems much less reluctant this time.  So it may fizzle out into nothingness again like our other attempts, or maybe this time we'll be blessed to have a mostly potty trained kid by the time baby brother shows up.  Either way, at least this time has been much less mentally tedious on me (in spite of being in pain and barely able to move), and shown me that potty training might not always have to be the bane of my existence.

11.  Things I wish I'd remembered to snap pics of?

A before and after of my kitchen floor - Dude!  Some in action shots of the cleaning going on - peeps were busy.  Dad snoozing in the living room chair during cleaning breaks - :-).  Charlie picking out his cucumber at Farmer's Market - love!  And Charlie Lego-ing it up at Grammy's house with Uncle David.  (Charlie's not obsessed with Legos....or Uncle David....riiiight.... )

So that was my day at 38 weeks and a day.  More varied and unusual than my normal days these days.

Good times. :)

Come any day baby bro!

Gratituesday: Little Nubbin

At least that's what Daddy calls it.  I thought given my propensity towards the legume family we'd call this one 'Bean'.  But Daddy stubbornly sticks with 'Nubbin' and so maybe the next one will be 'Bean'.  

We both agree I don't actually even show that much yet, so I must be subconsciously doing that pregnant stick out my belly thing. 

We're all super happy!  And super grateful for the little heartbeat we heard today.  :-)

1950s style

All growing up I never once attended a themed costume party....in costume that is.  We never went out and paid money for a store bought costume that was just right.  We never had the right stuff at home to fit whatever the theme was.  And I was usually too school for cool...er..cool for school to be caught dead in something that sort of made a lame attempt at fitting the theme, but didn't quite hit the mark.

As a result, I was the equally lame kid who showed up in jeans and a t-shirt who stood around too cool for costumes that weren't quite right, and yet desperate to fit in just once for a themed party.

NOT SO THIS TIME!!!

We got an invitation to William's cousin's birthday party - 1950s themed - and William's all like "let's do this baby, we're doing it!!"

There were usual groans and moans on my part as I tried not to dredge up the bad costume party memories from my childhood, but I told him I'd do my best.

Thankfully I didn't have to rely fully on my best or I still would have been in trouble.  I had two friends ready to help out who let me look through their stuff and loaned me almost the entirety of my wardrobe.  By the end, I felt ready to rock the 1950s and any party that came with it.  

And so, because this might in fact be the only time in my life that I actually attend a themed costume party, IN COSTUME, and look really fabulous doing so, I will now shamelessly post far too many pictures of us in our get up.  I admit to feeling awesomely beautiful that night. :-)  Thanks girls. :-)

Someone asked if I was Jackie O.

Someone said a brunette Marilyn.

Someone said Black Dahlia.  (I had to look that one up.)

I just felt awesome and incognito.

Pretty Lady and Nerdy Scientist.

Nerdy Scientist and his 1950s radio.  (from my Grandmother's shed)

Slide Rule anyone?

He's not overly excited.....

Makes you kind of nervous doesn't he?

Okay, perhaps Mad Scientist is better.

How did the nerd ever get the babe?

Can't forget the scarf and gloves.

Red lipstick and shades.

And the coat and bag.  :)

So there you go.  Our totally awesome 1950s birthday party get up.  Happy Birthday to Nicole and thanks for having a costume party so that I could for once in my life, go in costume and rock it out!  This crunchy mama enjoyed her night of glam!  :-)

Horrifying experience

Yesterday I experienced something horrifying.  Not nearly so horrifying as it could have been, but bad enough for me.  Enough to truly piss me off as a mother.

When Charlie and I play outside in the front yard, he loves to run and be chased.  The way our yard is set up, we have two trees that he loves to run around.  One of them is about 10 feet from the road.  So in the process of making the run around the tree, there is about 5 seconds where he always looks like he's headed straight for the road before making the turn.  I am so blessed that he's never run into the road yet.  He always turns.  Or he always stops short a couple feet from the edge of the yard, because Mama has drilled it into his head to do so.  Really, he is so good about this, I admit to letting my guard down a bit in this area.  (Not that I am not paying attention, but I generally don't have to be middle man between him and the road at all times.)

Yesterday I was standing at our porch steps while Charlie was making his usual dash towards and around the tree near the road.  I had looked down for a moment at my shoe and looked up to catch this picture.

My son "heading for the road" in his usual manner while running around the tree and a woman in some big SUV type car, driving the entire length of our yard, WITH HER HEAD DOWN STARING AT HER PHONE.  I watched horrified, as there was that moment where, had Charlie deviated from his normal routine and continued to head into the road, this woman would have in fact run over him.  I was absolutely terrified for that moment in time before seeing Charlie make his usual left hand turn and seeing the woman leave the perimeter of our yard.

Then my horror turned to absolute RAGE.  How DARE this woman be so engrossed in her phone that she was driving while not looking where she was going?  How DARE a text be so important that it requires a reply while driving?  How DARE she look down to find a contact to call in her phone, while taking her eyes off the road on a neighborhood street where there are children?

How DARE I judge because I know I have done the same thing.

I don't text, but I have been guilty of glancing downward to quickly find a contact to call.  I try not to do it often, but I know I've done it.  Have I had any narrow misses like this woman had yesterday?  I dare say with the large number of people talking and texting while driving, it's not a matter of "if" you had a narrow miss, it's a matter of "how many" narrow misses you may have had.  And. Never. Even. Known. It.

I don't judge this woman, because I am guilty of the same thing she is.  I have no doubt her remorse would have been severe had anything happened.  HOWEVER, I don't excuse this woman's actions.  And I genuinely hope that my moment of sheer terror as a mother, spurs me on to be safer about my phone habits while driving.

Be smart.  Be safe while driving.  You never know when there is an invisible little kid somewhere and a terrified mother standing just a bit too far out of reach.

Taken Christmas Day.

I love you little man.  I'm eternally grateful every day you are alive and in my life.

Digging back out

How long does it take to dig oneself out after 10 days of being sick?  Too long.  Even longer if your son was sick too.  I can't even remember a time in my life (and neither can my mother) when I was sick for more than a couple of days.  Generally my immune system lets me get sick once a year, for a couple days, and then we're done, over and moved on.

Not.  So.  This.  Time.

Where was my immune system this time?  Clearly taking a vacay in Maui with my son's immune system as well.  Sigh.  It could have been so much worse.  We only ONLY had bad head colds.  We know people recently who came down with the stomach bug.  If that doesn't make you grateful for your head cold, I don't know what will.


So many things to talk about, but before I leave the topic of being sick, let me just give credit where credit is due to all the moms who have gone before me, and say that being a sick mom, of a sick kid is one of the hardest things I've had to do.  We'll forget the 24 hours of labor and the 7 months of nursing, pumping, bottle feeding, therapy, and exercises that all accompanied Charlie's newborn months.  Although I guess for short term difficulty, 24 hours of unmedicated labor still takes the cake.


I couldn't believe how much harder it was to take care of both of us simultaneously, and there WASN'T EVEN VOMIT ANYWHERE!  I would just forget things....ahem...like feeding my child....   My hat is off to all the moms out there who have taken care of a sick kid while being sick and especially multiple sick kiddos.  I never knew just how hard it was.  And it makes me so much more grateful for how well my own mother took care of us when we were sick, whether she was well or sick.  My hat's off to you, Mom.  You're amazing.

By the grace of God, we made it through and I live to blog another tale.  Oh, tacky I know.

On to other things.

I have a yummy Sunflower-Lentil Pie and Sesame Mustard Tahini dressing that I want to share with you all!  It's not my own recipe, but I'm going to share it with you all anyways because it's amazing and yummy and you all should try it!

I have a hummus soup recipe that I dismantled and rebuilt enough that I'm calling it my own!  It's amazing.

I have tons of pictures of Charlie to share.

And I have a smoked tofu marinade that I'm working on that will hopefully end up amazing.  (Flavored tofu in the store is ex-PEN-sive!)

And various and sundry other things that I hope to post about.  So, maybe I can stick to the plan and share all of that soon, now that we are almost done digging ourselves out of our little sickie hole.

And until then....  3 pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Doing fun pumpkin decorating outside and Grammy's neighborhood  Block  Party.  It did NOT want to be done with the pumpkin when it was time to go.

"Daddy built me this Lego hat, Mom!  Look Look!"

4 Generation picture taken at Thanksgiving.  :-)  This makes me happy.

Happy weekend to you all! :-)

"Do NOT eat the pistachio ice cream! It has turned."

I cannot tell you how many times in the past week I have heard that line.

Or oh, wait wait, "Tow mater, average intelligence."

Or I know, "Two of them sweets for me, too."


We are not Cars 2 addicts at all.  It has gone way beyond that.

It started a week ago with a nasty black eye for poor Charlie.  He was in pain and pretty droopy.  So we started snuggling on the couch and watching some movies.  2 days later and he was well underway with a nasty cold.  He got even droopier and I can only assume in even more pain since he would wail every time I wiped his nose, and, oh yea, wake up every hour at night because he couldn't sleep due to the head cold.  So there was more couch movie watching.  And then Mommy caught Mr. Sniffles' cold.  Bummer.

So we have been house bound for the last 3 days, and watching a movie storm.  Although it's pretty much been confined to the likes of Cars 2, Tangled, Happy Feet, Wall-E, and Cars 1, and repeat.  And repeat.  Not exactly my viewing choices, but it distracts Mr. Sniffles from his running nose and cough, and it lets me sit down and rest a bit.

Cars 2 is by far the viewing favorite for at least one member of our sick party.  I think he gets such a kick out of Mater.  I don't mind too much.  I sit here, subconsciously memorizing parts of Cars, while perusing the internet.  I'm just under the weather enough to need to get off my feet and rest, but not sick enough to be knocked out flat on the couch.  Just sick enough to have food taste weird, but not sick enough to lose these crazy food cravings that are raging.  Just sick enough to not feel up for cooking, but not sick enough to squelch this insane desire to try some really yummy looking, new vegan recipes right now - sickness and all.


How about these...

Vegan Mac n Cheese?  I'm always skeptical, and usually rightly so, but I'm always curious anyways since Mac n Cheese is such a comfort food.  Too much margarine in this though. :(

Pumpkin yumminess!  Looks incredible.  And we do eat tofu.  But not that much.

How about this vegan taco recipe.  Now that looks supremely yummy.

Asian salad, heavier on the veggies (once Farmer's Market time hits), and whole wheat noodles of course.

These look AMAZING.  Not for everyday that's for sure, but special treats, yum-ME!

These are plain chocolate chip cookie dough balls without the addition of coconut like the above recipe.

This chickpea cookie is actually based off of a recipe I've already tried, which I'll try and blog about soon.  Chickpeas are amazing, btw, if you didn't know.  Clever little buggers can be used in so many ways.

Chickpea falafel - Mmmmmm.

Blueberry Coconut Pancakes.  Again, not for everyday, but a treat every now and then sure would be awesome.

Okay, I'm reciped out.  Not to mention I'm tired.  And sniffly.

Missed that one...

My poor son has a black eye.

He's had one all day.  Since yesterday evening in fact. I didn't want to take him out this morning for errands, but we did anyway.  In spite of my reassuring all of my friends when they have had to take their bumped and bruised children out in public, that everyone knows that little kids fall down and get hurt all the time and therefore are not automatically going to assume abuse, I was in fact, hesitant to do it myself.  Maybe it was just the black eye thing.  I think that looks worse than a bruised leg, but maybe that's just me.


But run errands we did.  The cleaners, Walmart and the grocery store.

We made it back alive with no question of abuse and no one running up to me and grabbing my child to turn them over to social services.  Whew!  


Then began our whiny day.  It escalated after nap time when Charlie was repeating over and over again "heiny owie, heiny owie" with an occasional "eye owie" thrown in there, which I admit I was ignoring due to the fact this his heiny was actually in pretty pristine condition, with no sign of rash or owie anywhere.

Then daddy came home, saw the poor little shiner on Sonny, heard about the whiny day and said "do you have any baby tylenol?  Have you given him anything?  His eye probably really hurts."

Oh.

Duh.

I grew up taking very little medication, and really getting hurt very little.  I guess we'll chock that one up to being a girl.  So why would I ever possibly consider the fact that my son's black eye was actually causing him pain?  Smacks forehead.  I was even at the grocery store and walmart where I could have easily picked something up.  Smacks forehead.


It took Daddy.  Now I'm sitting here feeling terribly guilty as a mother (especially after the ear nicking incident during last weekend's hair cuts), and the only reason I even have time to blog is because Daddy took his little boy out to Kroger to get some baby tylenol.  :-(

Oh yea, how did he get the black eye?  Apparently diving under the piano bench is only fun as long as you manage to actually dive under it, instead of diving into it.  Ouch!

It looks lighter in the pictures than it actually is in person.  Poor little Bubby.  There will be snuggles tonight.  Though whether it will be more for the comfort of my child, or to assuage my mommy guilt, who knows....

Do you Bean?

Ah-HAH!  Motivation to blog AND time to blog actually coincide!!  Truthfully I don't know where to even start.  I have about a million posts rattling around in my head, and while a lot of the time the posts at least make it to draft form (even if they never make it to being published), this time they are just rattling in my head.

I've been focusing on getting my house cleaned up and a good system set up for keeping my house clean and decluttered.  I know one should have a clean house and a decluttered house, but I never really learned a good system for doing that.  I have been trying out FlyLady and her methods, and while I don't follow them 100% nor buy into everything she says, it's been a tremendous help in just trying out a system and learning that sometimes 15 minute bites can work wonders.  But has also been one of the reasons there has been no blogging.

But yah yah yah....  let's work backwards.  We'll start with the bean clock since I promised to post pictures of this anyways.

My friends, let me preface this by saying that my husband and I have a running joke in the house about all my "beaning" around.  What is beaning around?  Hah, everything I do according to my husband.

Bean  /bēn/

Verb, beaning.

1. Doing anything around the house associated with beans.

Infinitive, to bean.
1. To cook, soak, sort, rinse, play, eat, count, or do any number of other bean related activities.

My husband seems to think that I'm always doing something surrounding beans.  Soaking dried ones.  Cooking soaked ones.  Making bean soups.  Making bean dips.  Eating bean dips.  Eating plain beans.  Talking about new bean dips.  Playing dried beans with my son.  And really the one that happens the most - heaving a huge sigh in bed late at night, which is a dead giveaway to my husband that I've forgotten to soak the beans for tomorrow's something or other.  And then I shuffle out of bed, downstairs, and put my beans a soaking.

Ahh, I love my beans.  I really do.  Even at 10:47pm when I'm fumbling for my slippers in the cold, trudging downstairs.

So, when I found out that my fabulous brother in-law Sam, creative mind that he is, (aka the Bofa on the Sofa) gave me a one-of-a-kind-handmade bean clock for Christmas, I. FREAKED. OUT.

And because I am not IN THE LEAST BIT IN LOVE WITH THIS CLOCK, you will now see way too many pictures of me and my new time keeping device.

I can model it, right?

Love.

Twenty-three past a Painted Pony Bean?

I am not obsessed.

Nope.

For those that can't tell what's going on here, every hour of the day is a different type of bean, AND the correct number of beans for the hour.  And for those who are really curious it starts at 12 noon and runs, Peas, Lima, Painted Pony, Grean Bean, Chickpea, Kidney, Green Chickpea, Black, Pinto, Cranberry, Yellow Split Pea, and Lentils.

So if in the course of your day you find us chatting away and ask me the time, please don't be alarmed if you hear "quarter past a kidney" or "chickpea thirty".  This will be normal.

The whirlwind trip part 2

Part 2 of Seattle Adventure

The next morning we were back at Jamba Juice so I could start out my day with another healthy smoothie, and this time, I went ahead and got a full shot of wheat grass juice.

This was Christeen, the sweet lady who gave us the wheat grass juice.  They grow it hydroponically, right there in the store, and juice it fresh.  Mmm.

Bottoms up!  (again!)

I couldn't resist. :)

This was lunch for day 2.5.  It was very good, but by far the most unhealthy vegan dishes we had.

It was a cute little corner vegan deli, and while it tasted great, I know that was largely due to the grease I could feel dripping down my hand.  I probably should have stopped eating it, cause my tummy felt a little sloshy afterwards, but I admit to not being perfect.  I generally don't eat greasy foods now - almost never.  But I do admit that this one tasted great, in spite of or because of, the grease.  So I ate it, enjoyed it, and realized I wouldn't eat there again.

That pretty much sums up the food pictures for the trip.  There was one very memorable meal we didn't get pictures of, that took place at a lodge, in the mountains, on an icy night, with a chef who went above and beyond and made a special 5 course vegan meal, just for me.  I totally should have asked the waitress if I could snap a few non-flash pictures anyways, even though cells and cameras were frowned upon.  I've never had such fancy and well crafted food in my life!  It was truly gorgeous to look at and gorgeous to eat (does that even make sense??).

So I realized this trip that my nutritarian sensibilities were somewhat clashing with my vegan sensibilities.  It was all amazing, vegan food.  But I wouldn't say it was all nutritarian food (high nutrient density food) by a long shot.  The last sandwich picture, case in point.  It was vegan, but it was not what I'd call healthy.  It just goes to show you that even vegans can eat unhealthily.  What, you didn't realize that white flour, white pasta and white sugar are all vegan but still really unhealthy whether you consider yourself a carnivore, omnivore or herbivore?

So here are some last pictures of us on the ferry boat ride - the last thing we did before our icy lodge dinner and heading back to the airport.  It was cold by the way.  Freezin' cold.  Thank goodness for my sister's coat and scarf!!

"I have a thing for ferry boats."

I love this man.

 Oh oh, and here is a picture of the gorgeous Snoqualmie Falls, where we had our fancy dinner at Salish Lodge.  We got to the falls right before dusk and I quickly snapped this picture.  You can see the icy bushes in the foreground.  There were signs up everywhere telling us to watch out for the slippery ice.

So the weekend was great and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I know you are wondering, "what about Seattle and Microsoft?!?!?!" - the really important question.

Seattle and Microsoft were amazing.  Seattle was gorgeous and we could totally see ourselves settling down there (at least for a little while).  Microsoft looked like an incredible company to work for, with lots of amazing people I was already wishing to get to know better at the end of 4 days.    They treated us well and we liked what we saw.


So are we moving?


No.  In the end, what we value most in life is right here in Raleigh.  There were so many reasons we could have moved, and yet equally as many and more for staying right here.  So after what felt like a really long, agonizing decision, with lots of questioning and prayer and "what ifs" and "are you sures", we now know that we are staying here and that it's not just the easy/lazy decision, it's the wise decision.  And peace is knowing that you prayerfully considered and made a wise choice.  Even when part of you wishes for the opposite decision, peace is knowing that God will take care of you and provide for you, wherever you are.  Seattle.  Raleigh.  Or any where in between.

So, look out Raleigh!!!    .......    We're staying here!!!!!  :-D