On the Verge...

 Quinn is not feeling well.  We are on the verge of more Quillness in this house.  Pretty much every time we get sick here, it starts with Quinn or Abram.  Right now he has a sore-ish throat, a 100 degree temperature, and body aches.  This means that he will sleep in the guest room tonight, I will have no help with the baby (pouty face), we will wash our hands a lot, and we will see what tomorrow brings.  I am just now realizing that it might be/probably is what Abram just had.  He had a fever for about four days and refused to eat much (because of a sore throat, maybe?) and then it went away, so the doctor thought it was just a viral infection.  If it was, it is definitely possible that Quinn has it now.  But hopefully his adult immune system can fight it off better than Abram's baby one. Some day... Some day we will all be well for longer than a month... :( Today, even with Quinn feeling a little yucky, we went to a super cool new p...

I had to go to Once Upon a Child the other day to buy Abram some 12 month shorts and t shirts. He only had 2 pairs of shorts and it's warming up here fast. I think he's a little warm natured anyway, so he's been sweating a lot in the pants and dress shirts that I have been dressing him in. Once Upon a Child is a resale children's shop (if you don't have one near you). I usually limit myself to the amount I spend on any given piece. So I got 2 pairs of short for $5 each and 4 polo shirts for $2.50 each. Then I got up to the register and they asked me if I wanted to try to "make a basket" for 50% off my purchase. I looked around for a hoop and the girl pointed me to a tiny kids standing hoop on top of their display case behind the counter and she handed me a tennis ball sized ball. I've never been one of those lucky people and definitely not one of those skilled basket making people. So I asked her what happened if I knocked something off the wal...

I am awake at 4am. I have been awake since 1:30. I don't think that I will be falling asleep in the very near future. Selah is supposedly putting on about 1/2lb a week now. But I think the way that she is doing it is waiting 6 days to grow at all and then gaining that 1/2lb and that 1/2in in one day. Today was that day for week #34. She did not feel this big yesterday. I guess she had her growth spurt last night. I'm starving all of the time (because she's stealing all of my food). Like right now. But if I eat and lay down, it will probably come right back up as it has nowhere to go. Which is why I am sitting up on the couch right now. I think I may be experiencing my first bout of acid reflux. I don't know, though. I'm not sure what it feels like, but it's the only thing that would explain the uncomfortable burning sensation in the bottom of my throat. Pregnancy is so fun, man!! Also there has been a crazy thunderstorm happening since 1am. It wa...

Actually, everything here is "homemade", but maybe I feel like it's not really homemade because it's all so easy . As I've previously alluded to: I am not a cook. For real. Like, I can cook, I can follow a recipe, and I can change up a recipe to made it easier/tastier, but I don't enjoy cooking. But, I've been convicted about my use of frozen foods and our family's spending on eating out. Quinn and I are both kind of lazy about dinner... and I'm pregnant... so we end up having this conversation quite often at 6:15 when he gets home from work: Quinn: Hi. Me: Hi. I haven't thought about dinner. Quinn: Do you want me to make something (meaning a skillet meal or noodles)? Me (thinking): I could have done that . Me (saying): No, that's ok. Quinn/Me: Do you want to go somewhere? Me/Quinn: Yes. And we go to Schlotzsky's or Whataburger or Pok-e-Joes (What are we Texans or something?) All of this to say that I've been trying to cook m...

My first real Seat Sling took me 3 hours to make. I have now made 4 total. The last one took me just under an hour and a half! I'm like a factory. So I've got 3 ready to go. I want to list them on my etsy shop, but I need pictures. Because of the nature of the product, I can't take the pictures alone. I need a model or a photographer. Preferably a model, so I don't have to be the model... On an Abram note: He is still enamored with the little Bible. Quinn is really trying to teach him to be gentle with it and it bothers him quite a bit when Abram is not. Overall, I think he's being very gentle for a 15 month old handling a book with tissue paper-like pages. He's held it for a total of at least a few hours now and none of the pages are ripped - just a little crumpled. I got these pictures of him today and the combination of the button up shirt and Bible kind of make him look like a baby preacher. He was in a really good mood this afternoon and was ...

See? I'm back already. I told you we left town so our house could have some work done. It did. And then we all discovered a malfunction in the sheet rock on the ceiling of our room when the texture and paint failed to adhere and the ceiling started cracking and falling to the carpet. Luckily, we hadn't moved anything back in yet, because we were waiting for the paint to dry. So our friend is back for the next few days, trying a new tactic to get the ceiling to "stay up" this time. If we were smart, we would have grabbed clothes from our closet before he arrived on Monday. We did not have that foresight. So now we can't get into our closet. We can maneuver into the bathroom if absolutely necessary, but the closet is a no go. This is what our room looks like: Our closet is behind that plastic. Trust me. There's no way to get in. I've tried it. So I was able to get to our dirty laundry in the bathroom and we had some in the laundry room already an...

Never will I be so presumptuous as to actually call myself brilliant, so I'm sure I will always just be on the verge of brilliance with a hint of lack of common sense. However, I had a eureka moment just now and thought I would share with you, get thoughts, and ask for more. You may have read one of my recent posts about The Seat Sling . Well, you've all given me some great support and encouragement and suggestions. My friend whose church going problem brought the whole thing about tried it out this Sunday. She stayed the whole time!! Praise the Lord, it seems to be the problem solver it was intended to be. I've only had a brief confirmation from her that she stayed the whole time, it was easy to get on and off, and that she used the pillow vertically (which is another good reason for it not to be attached to the sling itself). I want to debrief with her a bit more about it when I get home from visiting my parents in Colorado. Then I think I may slowly start to purs...

... or maybe, just maybe , I'm jumping the gun :) A good friend told me the other day that she and her husband have been leaving church after the worship because she can't sit for an extended time in the folding chairs. Our church did a great thing and bought inexpensive folding chairs for our sanctuary in order to 1)save money and 2)be able to use the empty room for community type events in the neighborhood during the week. This is awesome. I support their decision and so does my friend who is leaving after the worship (and watching the previous week's sermon from home). But she is pregnant. She already had back problems and now (of course!) they are worse. My back is just starting to bother me and I know that there are many pregnant women with back problems and normal people with back problems who whimper inside a little every time they enter a room and see folding chairs. Until now, I had just sort of reconciled myself to the fact that sitting in a folding chair was ...

I haven't had much time to do any sewing or knitting or crocheting for awhile. Or maybe I did, but I didn't have too much of a desire. But perhaps my "nesting" instinct is kicking in and instead of cleaning and organizing, I'm making stuff. Which is ironic, because when I make stuff, the house gets messier. Poor Quinn. I bet he wishes he had a more traditional nesting pregnant wife. But here I am: recovering car seats, knitting diaper soakers, looking up baby girl dress ideas, not showering, and making messes. The latest project is the diaper soaker. I actually bought a pattern, half made it, figured out how to do the stitches I needed to to make my own version, made one that I messed up on, and finally ended up with this little guy: I am not going to do cloth diapers (I am not that brave - or disciplined). But I know that Selah will be wearing things that may be revealing her un-cute disposable diaper hiney a lot more than Abram did. I don't know if t...

"Who cares about Selah! I'm here and I'm cute!" This poor girl. She is going to have little to nothing of anything that I hand made for her. I just don't have the time (or the energy) that I had when we were waiting for Abram to arrive. Abram got all of these things like blankets (which he doesn't have any interest in now), and name pillows and toys that I made for him. And of course all of the things we got for him were very boyish. There is a bit of a double standard when it comes to baby boy and baby girl things, you may have noticed. Like, it's totally acceptable to put a girl in blue, but you would never put a baby boy in pink... right? Sisters can wear brother hand me downs, but I know my husband would not allow out son to wear "girls clothes". What's that all about, huh? Not that I think that girls need to be girly and pink, but why isn't it socially acceptable for both genders to be put in anything, not just girls? I don...

We are going to Boise for Christmas this year. Last year we stayed here because Abram was only a few weeks old and we got ourselves a real tree. It was the first real tree I've ever had. It smelled really good. So that was nice. The mess it created was not so nice. Our cat was also a little hard to control around it and I have a feeling that a cat and a one year old would be exponentially harder to control. So, needless to say, we are not having a tree this year. Not worth it. So we only have a few Christmas things up, but it's enough to feel like Christmas really is on the verge. We hung our stockings. Abram has his own with his name now. I also made some "bunting". I didn't know that's what little flags on a string were called until pinterest . Quinn told me the other day exactly what "hallelujah" means (after hearing a John Piper sermon, of course). It basically means "Come on! Let's worship the Lord!" Pretty cool. So ...