Loving Life

I don't have one concise subject to talk about today, so I'll just randomly share what's on my mind.  Aren't you excited? I had another baby check-up yesterday.  Everything is looking good.  However, I had to take my 1 hour glucose test while there.  They wanted me to take it early since I have very large babies, to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes or any other issues.  I never have with my previous three pregnancies.  I did have to take the three hour test with two of them, but I always passed.  I just apparently am a very good large baby maker.  My smallest child was 9lbs 5oz.  I'd be delighted with a baby under 9 lbs. My nausea is slowly decreasing.  I still don't feel great most of the time, but it's feeling like it's less.  I still have random food aversions and loves.  I've eaten about four salads in the past two weeks.  That makes me happy.  Usually, salads happened everyday in my life at this time...

First flowers in my yard First daffodil in the yard The beginning promise of greenness all around me. Beautiful bouquets of flowers leftover from a wedding reception at our church. Almond Butter A blanket I am making out of old neckties These four people Goofy girl What's been making you smile today?

I was reminded last night by some friends that I have not posted anything new on the ol' blog for a few weeks.  Hmm... I guess it's time to post something.  I have posted many things in my mind over the last few weeks, but obviously none of those posts have made it from my mind to the internet.  So here we go in a random, no particular order, with bullet points, post about what's been rolling around my mind. I survived my 21 day vegan diet  with my mom.  It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be (though I did cheat once with ice cream).  My mom lost about 11 pounds.  I lost about 3 1/2.  We took about three weeks off and ate a little more normal (i.e. lots more ice cream).  I'm going back on it for another three weeks or so again with her again.  I might not be ultra strict, but when I have the choice, I'll choose vegan again.  But I'm positive this won't be a permanent lifestyle change for me. Life skills week in schoo...

Life can sometimes get a little busy at times.  I just went through a longer spell of too much busyness (hence the lack of posting most recently).  It wasn't that I had any huge projects going on, but just a number of little things all piled up into one time period.  I could have forced the blogging in the midst of it, but I decided my own sanity was more important.  I won't give you the rundown of all I've done (and I didn't take many pictures at all these past two weeks, of course).  So here are a few things I have taken pictures of because they give me pleasure.  Picture #1 - Pear Butter.  Aaron's mom owns a lovely pear tree and every year I get pears from her tree.  One of the things I did with them this year was to make pear butter.  It pleased me greatly and we very much enjoy digging into it on freshly made bread.  Yum! Picture #2 - Fish!  We finally were all out of our summer tadpoles.  Many of them made it into froghoo...

I found this miniature soft marshmallows the other day (half the size of regular mini-marshmallows).  I'm a sucker for cute, small food so I got them!  The kids love them in their weekly art day treat of hot chocolate. I planted one seed packet of carrots in my garden.  I dug them up this past week and was surprised at how many I got!  I have frozen some of them and given some away and have used some fresh.  I still have a pile left in my fridge to attend to at some point soon. In Ana's Friday class, they are reading the American Girl book series and talking about them and doing crafts from each time period.  Ana is here modeling her hat she made.  She also learned how to properly make, serve, and drink tea.  She came home and dried some of our mint and then constructed her own reusable tea bag and happily brewed herself a cup of tea.  I love her enthusiasm for projects!

Here's a recap of my Christmas week by the numbers: 10 - mini loaves of bread that I made for Christmas dinner 3 - kinds of pies for Christmas dinner (apple, french silk chocolate, peanut butter) 9 - packages of cinnamon rolls (of various sizes) to give out as gifts to the neighbors 78 - grins and giggles from Abby over receiving more princess junk 10 - number of girl cousins David has 3 - friends we invited over to share Christmas dinner with us. 86,158 - grams of sugar I consumed over the last 5 days - give or take a few 26 - hours I spent in the kitchen on Friday (or so it felt) 215 - dishes I've washed 128 - more dishes to go 6-8 - inches of snow we got 10 - minutes the kids lasted during sledding (they gave up too soon during the course preparations) 45 - minutes Aaron and I had alone together sledding once the kids copped out.  It felt like a mini-date! 3 - cookies left out for the Christmas mouse on Christmas Eve 0 - cookies left from the Christmas mouse the next morni...

I went to log onto my facebook account this morning only to find out my account has been "disabled".  What?  I looked for answers as to why this suddenly happened and the only generic reasons given for an account being disabled are:  "All accounts must abide by the following policies: ■Continued prohibited behavior after receiving a warning or multiple warnings from Facebook ■Unsolicited contact with others for the purpose of harassment, advertising, promoting, dating, or other inappropriate conduct ■Use of a fake name ■Impersonation of a person or entity, or other misrepresentation of identity ■Posted content that violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (this includes any obscene, pornographic, or sexually explicit photos, as well as any photos that depict graphic violence. We also remove content, photo or written, that threatens, intimidates, harasses, or brings unwanted attention or embarrassment to an individual or group of people) Depend...

Q. How many days does it take our family to eat a half bushel of peaches A. 13 - only a few were lost to being rotten - all were eaten fresh, in their unaltered, unsugared state. Q. How many miles have I run or walked since January? A. 612 Q. How old does Abby hope to be when she dies? A. A billion. Q. How many times does Abby use the word "billion" in a day? A. A billion. Q. What is my favorite fruit? A. Pears... or strawberries... or muskmelon... Q. What do I wish I made more time for? A. Playing piano or scrapbooking or scrapbooking while playing piano Q. What is my favorite candy? A. Skittles... or reese pb cups... or anything chocolate Q. What are my least favorite household chores? A. Cleaning the bathroom and putting away laundry. Q. What is my favorite sport to watch on TV? A. Football! Q. Excluding fish, how many different pets have I had in my lifetime? A. 19 - I think. There are others in my life, but I don't claim them as mine. Q. How many c...