My Belly is Actually Tired

Written by andrea on April 20th, 2009

The third trimester is here!  And my belly is getting pretty huge as is the little baby who keeps doing gymnastics inside it.  Today I’m just pooped.  I even took 2 naps.  This might sound weird, but my belly is actually tired.

I can really tell the baby is putting on some size because I can see kicks and movement now externally, not just feel it.  I always wonder what body part is pushing outward, but I can’t tell that yet.  I can tell when the baby is doing total and complete somersaults though.  There is this huge flip and flop feeling inside that is rather indescribable.

So because of my belly being so tired today, my major accomplishments…I folded & put away two loads of laundry and cleaned the bathroom.

We had roast, potatoes, carrots & onions last night for dinner so there are leftovers!  Yeah, hardly any cooking for me this evening.  I’m going to mince the beef and all the veggies to make kind of a roast hash of sorts and serve that with a salad.  I like being able to turn leftovers from one meal into something that tastes and looks different from the original.

 

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Lots to Write About…Just Not Now

Written by andrea on April 16th, 2009

So I’ve got to write about a visit from my mom, our visit to IL, a tremendously awesome baby shower, and generally a bunch of other stuff that’s been going on.  But I’m busy through to Monday.  Maybe Dave will take some time this weekend to upload some of the pictures from the trip out to IL though.  In the meantime, I hope everyone is well!!

 

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Hopefully Dave is in the Clear

Written by andrea on April 7th, 2009

Dave’s doctor said that he thinks Dave is going to be okay and hopefully will not develop Lyme Disease.  He had several reasons for thinking this, but also said to be on the watch for a few specific potential symptoms for the next 30 days.

Whew!!

On a humorous note,  Dave got to be his doctor’s first tick bite patient of the season!

 

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Prayer Request

Written by andrea on April 6th, 2009

This morning I found a tick on Dave.  Not any ordinary tick either, but a deer tick…you know the kind that carry Lyme Disease.  He was in the woods Saturday so the tick has had 2 days to hang out and potentially infect him.  He already had a ring around the sight, which is one of the first signs.  He’s of course following up with his doctor first thing this morning.  The doctor will probably put him on a 30 day course of antibiotics.

So please pray that Dave not only does not get Lyme Disease, but also that he gets none of the rather annoying symptoms.

 

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My Mom is Coming!!

Written by andrea on March 25th, 2009

Well, she’s got her plane ticket so I think it is official.  My Mom is coming out March 30-April 2.  I’m very excited because this will be my first family member visit since I moved out here over 2.5 years ago!  Mind you, folks back in IL have been in bad health or dying for the last two years thus keeping my parents from visiting, but hopefully all that is past and visits can be some what more frequent.

And it is Wednesday of my spring cleaning week and where am I on the list of completion…not done, yet.  I’m making headway though and put a big dent in it today and will hopefully finish things up tomorrow.  Friday-Sunday is taken up with maple syrup business and then Mom arrives Monday.

In other visitor news, later in April, God & employers willing, my brother might even be in New England on business, but close enough to visit!  What would really make that even more awesome is if his wife and the girls could come too, but I’ll take what I can get.

And it is a really nice day today.  The sun is shining and the temp is supposed to be nearly 50.

 

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Baby News Update: 22 Weeks

Written by andrea on March 23rd, 2009

Baby seems to be doing great and moves around rather often.  The other evening I really thought I got a kick that might have been able to be felt externally, but I couldn’t get the baby to recreate the kick for Dave to feel.

My belly is getting out there.  You know how you just know how much space you take up when navigating spaces and doing things like closing a door in front of yourself?  Well, I’ve discovered that I no longer know my own size because I whacked myself in the belly with our backdoor trying to close it the other day.

I can tell the baby is moving further up inside my abdomen because I’m feeling pressure on my actual stomach.  If I eat a normal sized meal now I’m in misery because the space is becoming a premium in there.  Dave said I’ve turned into a nibbler and kind of graze all day now.  I can’t get my mind past thinking I need three normal meals though and still try to eat that quantity only to suffer misery later.   I imagine that in a couple of days my brain will figure it out and I’ll just eat 3 small meals and several snacks.  I’m still doing okay with weight since I’m only up 8 pounds since the beginning.  Now is the time that all the pregnancy guides say a woman can start gaining a pound a week through the end of the pregnancy so I’ve got to be pretty careful.

My normal clothes, well, I should say the normal clothes I still could fit into are now even getting too small.  Today I put on this pink top that is one of my standard weekly apparel items only to discover it not only doesn’t cover my entire belly anymore, but the buttons are now being pulled tight.

My back is even doing decently these days.  I’ve been really being careful and pretty much not helping Dave around the sugarhouse with the maple syrup much at all.  He’s got to work really hard, but if I’m not careful then I’m in misery that evening.  Just one of the things I had to learn as a 36 yr old pregnant gal.  I ain’t 23 anymore…

As soon as we’ve put the sugarhouse and all things related to syrup production away for the season, we’ll start walking probably every other evening at the track.  I keep reading about how important walking is during that last trimester so I’m going to force myself to keep it up so maybe labor & delivery is eased somewhat for me.  I’m trying everything to avoid as many of those first baby, older mom, too many medical interventions difficulties that can easily arise.

Only 6 more weeks until my blood glucose test to see if I’ve developed gestational diabetes.  A pregnant friend just found out she failed the initial glucose test and now has to have the longer (and more needles) glucose test next week.   This one test is causing me some serious anxiety. I can’t do anything about it if gestational diabetes has developed, but my brain likes to freak out about these things anyway.

Oh, and no one REALLY explained to me just how much dreaming is affected by pregnancy.  Holy cow, I swear all I do at night is dream these weirdo, bizarre dreams now.  Considering I never use to have dreams I could recall by morning, this is a new and occasionally disturbing reality.

 

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Update on My Monday

Written by andrea on March 23rd, 2009

I posted this below about what I would be doing today.  Monday:  grocery shopping & CVS (there are special sales I’m hitting at both places today in order to stock-up on things), spring clean kitchen & pantry (and possibly finish spring clean in living room), 2 loads of laundry (start to finish), pack 7 gallons of syrup into pint containers for sale at the church on 29th.  Evening:  attend third lecture in series on life & times of St. Paul and help Dave collect sap from at least one location.

It is 12:30 now and I’ve accomplished the grocery shopping & CVS shopping.  At CVS I was able to get 3 bottles of Listerine, my face wash, lotion, & 8 Bounty brand paper towels for $19!  Considering that before my little coupons and such the bottles of Listerine were $5.49 each and the Bounty was $6.99…I think I did pretty good (saving over $15 total).  And at my grocery store I got $96 worth of stuff for $50.83.  I totally stocked up on all this random stuff that I’ve need in order to restock my pantry.   I love watching that register total get pretty high and then watch it slam to the ground after coupons and sales are tallied!

I also spoke with my mom and it looks like she’s going to deal with getting her plane ticket tomorrow!  It really is looking like she’s headed our way soon!!

And since it is getting late in the day, I need to get myself busy doing laundry, cleaning and packing syrup.

 

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A Maybe Visitor!!

Written by andrea on March 23rd, 2009

Well, my mom MIGHT be visiting us here March 30th!!!  Yeah!  She’s not been here yet and it will be wonderful to finally show her where I live now.  There are a couple things happening back in IL that might still make it so she can’t come, but we’ll see.  Dad sounded hopeful when I spoke to him Sunday afternoon.

So this week I’m going to proceed like she’s coming for sure.  Her visit should offer me some really good incentive to finish spring cleaning too!  This is kind of a busy week for me, so I’m going to have to eek out time wherever I can to accomplish my cleaning chores.

This is how this week is shaping up:

Monday:  grocery shopping & CVS (there are special sales I’m hitting at both places today in order to stock-up on things), spring clean kitchen & pantry (and possibly finish spring clean in living room), 2 loads of laundry (start to finish), pack 7 gallons of syrup into pint containers for sale at the church on 29th.  Evening:  attend third lecture in series on life & times of St. Paul and help Dave collect sap from at least one location.

Tuesday:  Deliver 10-15 gallons of syrup to a restaurant in MASS (1.5 hours drive time each way), regular cleaning in bathroom and spring clean our bedroom.

Wednesday:  Home Only Day!!  Spring clean upstairs & downstairs hallways, stairwell and organize some stuff in attic,  if time permits clean office/guest room.  And get laundry completely caught up.  (Our hallways & stairwell have killer amounts of woodwork so those projects could take me several hours…)

Thursday:  Finish any leftover cleaning projects, Bible Study at 1PM.

Friday:  Spend morning with Dave helping with maple syrup production (this could be our last weekend because some trees are starting to bud.)  Spend afternoon with sister-in-law between picking up niece & nephew from school then taking nephew to choir.  Home by 5PM.

Saturday:  Maple syrup production.

Sunday: Mass, sell maple syrup for church fundraiser at pancake breakfast between masses.  (Dave tapped all the giant maples on the church property making 7 gallons of syrup to use as a fundraiser for a missions trip some folks at church at taking to Jamaica.  We’ll be selling “church syrup” in pint containers so hopefully lots of parishioners will take advantage of buying syrup. )  And then finish maple syrup production potentially for the season.

Kind of roughly, that is the plan for the week.  I’ll have finished spring cleaning the house on top of having the house “mom ready” if she’s able to come out.

Over the weekend, I made four dinner’s worth of meatballs and froze them in individual dinner packets.  I need to update my 21 Freezer Meals post because I’m further along with that project than I previously thought.

 

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, Lent, Maple Syrup, News | No Responses »

Another Great Bible Study

Written by andrea on March 19th, 2009

When 1PM rolls around every Thursday, I frequently dread having a commitment of my time.  But every single time I make the decision to go to bible study it is ALWAYS a blessing.  The woman that teaches is so wonderful. Everything about her exudes God’s graces.  I am not sure if I will continue to be able to attend after the baby arrives since the baby might be too distracting.  Until I have to sop going though, I hope I remember every Thursday afternoon how blessed I feel after attending.

Comically, we’ve been working our way through Romans every since I started attending.  We get maybe 2 chapters in per session and get sidetracked with additional conversation.  But it’s all good stuff.

 

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Good Ideas from My Auntie & My Sister-in-Law

Written by andrea on March 18th, 2009

One of my aunts posted a comment with good ideas for a couple more excellent freezer meal ideas, but now I must ask for the recipe.  Especially, the beef tips recipe.  I’ve had them in restaurants before, but never made them.  Stuffed green peppers are one of Dave’s favorites, but I have to admit that I only like the stuffing part.  Large pieces of cooked green peppers is one of those textural things I can’t make myself eat.  I LOVE uncooked green peppers though…yes, weird, I know.  And the beef stew idea is excellent and one I’ll be making tomorrow.

As for my sister-in-law’s idea to bring preemie outfits as well as the newborn outfits to the hospital, that’s a good one.  I’ve been looking at these two newborn outfits I’ve purchased and they just look big.  The tag says they are for babies 8-12 pounds.  Dave and I were both 8+ pounders at birth so I’m expecting a baby in the 7-8 pound range (hopefully 7 and not 9!!!).

So I’ve not been blogging much because there really hasn’t been any happenings around here lately.  Dave’s been working like a crazy person on maple syrup making (I’ve mostly watched from a lawn chair).  So our weekends have been entirely taken up with syrup.  And my couple days at home, I’ve been slowly working on spring cleaning.  My dining room will be finished today, except for the floor.  And if I get myself busy here pretty soon, I’ll also be able to say the living room is done.  You never really intellectualize the quantity of woodwork in a 100 year old house until you decide to wash it all.  DEAR HOLY HEAVENS does this house have some woodwork.  Every doorway has a door with trim (seriously…there are 2 doors in the dining room, 4 doors in the kitchen etc).  Every window is wooden with trim.  Every floor is bordered with trim.  And the window casings were at one time painted white, but are now peeling.  And I can’t even imagine the last time all that woodwork was washed.  The doors all have decorative panels, which were housing more dust and old nastiness in the cervices than is imaginable.  So it was a long slow process to wash everything down thoroughly in just that one room.  Oh, did I mention all the floors except the living room & kitchen are wooden as well.

The temperature is about 53 today so I’m opening windows and going to get busy.
PS:  Ya know, when you are a homemaker, it is interesting to see the stuff the goes on during the day in your neighborhood. While sitting here composing this post, I’ve just watched 3 grown men rifling through a dumpster that belongs to the apartment house next door.  None of the men even live there.  It is funny to see how much stuff people do when they think a neighborhood is deserted because everyone is out working.  (Obviously, if they do something illegal I’ll do something, but for now they seem to be mostly interested in being trash crawlers.)

 

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