Looking Forward to Baby

Writing prompt by Mama Kat

This week's prompt is:  

Share one good thing you're looking forward to.

Oh my gosh, this is so easy for me... I'm looking forward to having this baby!  Having the baby and recovering from the c-section, that is... kind of all rolled into one.

Because getting past that one period of time allows me to then be able to enjoy our new baby, play with him, learn how to juggle two small children, teach my first son how to help with the baby, hopefully I'll be able to breastfeed this time around, I want to start working on losing weight, getting rid of this really bad sciatica pain, enjoy not having to get up numerous times in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, get back behind the wheel of the van and drive (I don't fit anymore with the baby belly all up in the way,) get back on my fibro medication (well, after the breastfeeding, that is, if that part happens,) and, in general, do a lot of the things that I can't physically do right now.

Because of all the pain I'm in, I can't get down on the floor and play with my son because I can't get back up without help.  The last time I got down on the floor to look for one of his toys, I almost wasn't able to get back up... and it took me a while and it was painful to do so.  I can't bend over very well anymore because of the big ol' baby belly that's taken over my mid-section.  I can barely reach the keyboard on the laptop!  I have the laptop on my lap right now and my belly keeps me from having it too close and my arms are barely long enough to reach... and certainly not comfortably.  (which is another reason why I haven't posted much lately, it's just not that easy anymore! LOL)

I don't get out of the house much anymore either, because I just hurt too much.  When going to Wally World, I need to use one of the electric carts, because my hips and back hurt too much to walk very far.  And that's totally embarrassing.  I hate having to use one of those things.  I don't know why.  I suppose I shouldn't let my pride get the best of me like that, but honestly, I was hoping to not ever need one of those.  My mother needed one and I just never wanted to get that bad, physically.  So, I suppose I should take better care of myself, right?!  But I don't and I guess that's one of the biggest reasons for me looking forward to having the baby and recovering from the surgery... Being able to get back into shape.

Well, getting into shape and becoming independent again.  It's tough having to depend so heavily on others for help.  Especially when I have always been such an independent person all throughout my life.  And I look at other pregnant women (most of whom are a lot younger than I am, which doesn't help) and I see them taking Zumba classes or some other such crazy activity, some of them, you wouldn't even know they were pregnant except for the cute little bump of a belly because they just fly around doing everything they usually do without any problem, and I'm jealous and amazed that they can move so well.

But, no need crying over spilled milk, I suppose.  It's done, I'm pregnant, and there's no going back, so the only thing I can do now is look forward to having the baby and recovering from the surgery.  Then I can move on and work on the many other things that I'm so looking forward to doing... with my babies in tow!

National Parent's Day

Today is the fourth Sunday of July 2012 and is National Parent's Day!

I just happened across a picture shared on Facebook today in honor of Parent's Day and decided to look up the holiday.  Here's the picture:

Photo credit

And that is so true, I'm finding, as my Little Man grows like a weed and teaches me more than I ever thought possible!

As it turns out, this holiday was signed into law back in 1994, but I'd never even heard of it.  I don't recall seeing it on the calendar either, but I wasn't exactly looking for it either.

The idea seems to be to have another holiday similar to Mother's Day and Father's Day, but in regards to a two-parent family, but even more so, honoring the children rather than the parents.  The focus seems to be more on the children as our most precious resource.

To quote the website for National Parent's Day, "The National Parents' Day Council does not envision Parents' Day to be yet "another" day to honor parents, but rather a day when parents honor their children and the God-centered family ideal by rededicating themselves to manifest the highest standard of unconditional true love."  Which I think is wonderful, however, I'm wondering about the families with single parents.  Can they not take part in this particular holiday?  Is that right or wrong?  Or is it neither, and is just a holiday set for a specific set of people?

Christmas is for Christians, Hanukkah is for Jewish people, Kwanza is for those celebrating African heritage, Grandparent's Day is just for grandparents, Pet Parent's Day is for those with pets, and many more, I'm sure, that I don't know of or can't think of off the top of my head.  So, I suppose there's no harm in having a holiday set aside for a two-parent family.

Basically, I'm just thinking outloud here and I don't want to get anyone angry or upset about anything, but I would like general opinions on how you feel about National Parent's Day.  Did you ever hear about it before?  Do you care?  Are you excited to go out and get a card for your wife/husband for Parent's Day?  Did you look at your calendar and did you find it there?  Are you a single parent and feel left out?  How about divorced/separated parents who are both still in their children's lives?  Any other thoughts/feelings on the subject?  Constructive comments only please, let's open a discussion about it, no arguing.  Thank you.

Photo credit

Find Me Friday

Ok, so last Friday, I posted a photo of a doorway.  Did you guess where this doorway was from?

It's located at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of Islands of Adventure.  It's not an actual door to anywhere, it's just for aesthetics, but it just adds a nice touch to the atmosphere of the Harry Potter world.

We had such a fun time!  It was actually our first real family vacation with all four of us.

Me and my family at Seuss Landing
From left to right:
Me, two Misc. Seuss Characters, my Hubby, Big Bubby
& Buggaboo in front

Have you ever been to Islands of Adventure?  Did you enjoy it?  What was your favorite part?

How Do You Do It?

Honestly, I would love to know how others do it... do "what" you ask?

"It"

"Everything"

How does anyone keep up with all the technology these days and still keep a house clean, go to work, raise a family, and still feed oneself while still finding time to do something fun once in a while?!

I was just surfing around and was looking at random about.me pages and I see where many people have many different places to find them, such as:

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Linkedin, Instagram, email, personal blog, Flavors.me, About.me, Pinterest, Fitocracy, Dribble, Github, a personal website, YouTube, DeviantArt, Google+, flickr, Ravelry, etc.  (There are tons more, but honestly, I don't know how anyone could possibly keep up) Not to mention all the apps that are out there that constantly distract all of us.


So how do you do it?  How do you balance it all and still have a life without falling behind on the technology and the information highway?  


At times like these, I think about my life twenty years ago, before I even owned a cell phone.  Smartphones weren't even invented yet.  I didn't own a computer and there social media meant actually physically going to a coffee house or club of some sort and actually being social.


Although I really love computers and surfing around, I really miss the simpler days.  I enjoy my smartphone and love being able to keep schedules on it, but I remember the peace and quiet I had without it.  

And let me ask another question, does anyone play board games or card games anymore?  I mean the ones that aren't digital.  I see that they're still sold in stores, but does anyone actually play them with real people, face to face?  I try to get our family to play a board game once in a while on a Family Home Evening, but it's hard with Little Man and his desire for attention, along with the rest of the family who just want to stare at the boob tube and watch a movie.  I'm all for movies, but once in a while, I'd like to exercise my brain and have some actual social interaction with a real person across the table rather than on the other side of the world through a 15 inch screen.  


Not that I mind meeting new and interesting people from around the globe, but when I'm out and about and see nothing but people with their noses stuck in their phones/iPads/etc, not even watching where they're going, I have to wonder just how good all this technology really is.  And then I'm back to my question of BALANCE.  It all comes down to that once simple word that is nearly impossible to achieve successfully on any kind of regular basis.

Photo Credit

I have seen a few sites (such as HootSuite & SproutSocial) that offer a one-stop-shopping experience, per say, in the way of managing all of your social media sites.  A place where you can go and post once and be done with it and it magically posts to numerous other sites per your instructions, etc.  But from what I've seen, you need to actually pay for that service.  (At least I haven't found one that does the work for free)  


Then there's something I just happened to come across.  You may have already heard of it, you may even be already using it... WiseStamp which automatically adds different aspects of all of your social media into your signature in your email.  Your latest Tweet, your latest eBay listing, links to your Facebook and much more.  I don't know what the free account gets you, as I couldn't find that info without downloading it and I don't think I'm ready for that just yet.  You can buy premium services too, but that's not in my budget at the moment.


So, the question comes down to exactly how important is my time versus the management of all my crap?  Well, I don't really know... I've got a lot o'crap to deal with and social media is not the highest in the order of importance.  I've got a house that needs cleaned, a family that needs food, groceries to get, laundry to do, blah blah blah.... Show me a site that can manage all of that for me and we'll talk price... I won't be able to afford it, but we can still talk about it.  


In the meantime, as I look back over my post, I realize that I started this post a couple days ago and I'm just now finishing it up.  I have not posted something every single day this month like I did for June and was hoping to accomplish for this month of July as well.  I have started a new project in crocheting (pics and links coming soon.)  And I've found more social media sites that look very interesting and tempting, if I wasn't already bogged down with too many already.  

Time to do some weeding in my internet garden, I think.

Painful Pregnancy

Well, the pregnancy is getting rougher and rougher on me and my body.  Yesterday and today were miserable.  Church lasts for 3 hours, but the past couple Sundays felt like it was much longer.  Today, I was recovering and was not doing a very good job at it.  I was nauseous most of the day and my sciatica (on both sides) has been hurting a LOT lately and today was really rough.  Maybe it was the nausea that made it seem worse, or vice versa, I don't know, but I'm thankful today's almost over.  I'm hoping to wake up to a better day tomorrow.

Anyway, I'm upset that I missed posting yesterday.  I've been doing such a good job at keeping up with it, but yesterday was just too much for me.  Today's about shot as well and so am I, but I wanted to post something, so I'm posting my painful rant.

I've only got about 2 months to go before the baby comes.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with most everything and not get put on bed rest like I did when I was pregnant with Buggaboo.  But puffy feet have settled in and they don't seem to be going away anytime soon.  Putting my feet up doesn't seem to be working much either.

But it's the sciatica that's truly stopping me from doing much of anything.  It's hard to keep up with the house and meals and things of that nature when you can barely walk.  I couldn't even lift my right leg yesterday afternoon (which causes an issue when I'm trying to climb into bed and can't, or trying to step in and out of the tub and can't lift my leg high enough to do so) and today has been iffy at best with being able to get around.

Hubby's been great with giving massages when I need them and helping out more, so has Big Bubby.  He's been a great help with Buggaboo and with meals and such.  I just don't know what I'd do without them.

Anyway, I felt the need to vent my painful frustrations this evening.  I apologize for a less than happy post.  But I do have some projects coming up.  Some frugal living stuff, a few recipes, and a crochet project or two that are WIP's that I want to share as soon as I can take some photos.  Thanks for hanging in there with me. Good night, all.

My New Favorite Holiday

July 7th, 2012  Today is Chocolate Day!!  

Are you kidding me?!  Chocolate Day?!  I now have a new favorite holiday.  And I just found out something totally delightful... We now have an even better reason to eat chocolate.  Chocolate is actually a vegetable!  That's right!  Well, sort of... The Cacao tree that grows in the rainforest is where the cocoa for chocolate comes from and it is apparently a vegetable.  Which is probably why dark chocolate is said to be good for you in small quantities.  


Now, as for my Reese's cups and Snickers bars, I'm sure the sugar and all the other stuff they put in them outweighs the health factor from the rainforests.  But, it's an interesting, if not useless, fact to share with your friends the next time you are all indulging in a chocolate Wonderfall or some other heavenly chocolate treat.

I would say that these are my ultimate favorite chocolate treat of all time.
Little on the pricey side, but soooo worth it!

Now I want some chocolate in the worst way and we don't have any in the house anywhere!  UGH!

Find Me Friday

I took this photo a while back.  I thought it was a very interesting doorway and loved the feel of it... the way it was almost forgotten, hidden away, left unnoticed.

So, I thought I'd have a little fun and see if anyone can figure out where it is.  Take a guess, go on, do you know where this doorway is located?  I'll post the answer next Friday to give everyone a chance to try and guess.

Where am I?

My Little Man and His Toys

Buggaboo and his array of toys

He's a mover and a shaker, that's for sure.  I took a series of pictures of him playing with some of his toys and when I was scrolling through them, they almost seemed animated, so I thought I'd put this quick little piece together.  It's not the best, but it brings me to my subject for today.  

As you can see, he has quite a few toys... too many if you ask me (can you believe TWO toy boxes?!)  I've been so overwhelmed by all of them (and I think he is too) that I just haven't had a clue where to start.  However, I recently came across a post from another blog (via Pinterest) called Modern Parents Messy Kids... Well, that's us... at least the messy kids part... so I read on.  This post has an ingenious idea, at least in theory, about how to organize your child's toys.  So this Momma is going to try it out.  This weekend is my goal to at least start it.  


It's perfect timing too, because lately, Buggaboo has really been showing favoritism toward a handful of toys and books that he keeps going to on a regular basis, which is one of the requirements for the Loved & Lasting category.  


And I love the idea of the Shiny & Passing category, particularly the part about having a stash of these toys to keep for special occasions such as going out to dinner or a long day out-and-about in the car.  


So, I'm going to work on this project idea and hopefully be able to document it as I go along.  Wish me luck!

Independence Day 2012

Happy Fourth of July 2012!

A Great Loss Today

Andy Griffith, you will be missed.  

A devout Christian, he was prepared to meet his Father in Heaven, which he did today, at age 86.  A wonderful actor, well known for his role as the Sheriff of Mayberry as well as the attorney, Matlock, he was also a stand up comedian as well as a musician and he also did some dramatic work in movies.  One particular movie he did an amazing job in is A Face in the Crowd.

A Face in the Crowd

Farewell, Andy, God be with you 'til we meet again.

Creative Crochet Jewelry Giveaway

AllFreeCrochet.com is giving away a copy of Creative Crochet Jewelry. The deadline to enter is July 11, 2012 at midnight EST.  They’ll send an email to the winner.  Just click here to enter.

"Creative Crochet JewelryGifted By: Sixth&Spring BooksReviewed By: Jeanette Benoit, Editor for AllFreeCrochet.com  Creative Crochet Jewelry by Esther Zadock is an amazing book that will help you make gorgeous crocheted jewelry. These stunning pieces will add the perfect finishing touch to any outfit."

Check it out and good luck!  Be sure to let me know if you won because of signing up from seeing the info about the contest here on my blog.

Traditions

Happy First of July!  

No, I'm not getting confused with our Independence Day.  I'm just wishing everyone a Happy First of the Month.  It's something that my Mom and I used to do on the morning of the first day of each month.

Mom:  "Good morning, Peanut."  (Peanut and Rosebud were my Mom's nicknames for me.)
Me:  "Good morning, Mom."
Mom:  "Happy First of the month!"
I'd smile at her and wish her the same.  I'm not sure when or why it all started, but we did that tradition for years.  Probably until I moved out and started college.  I still think of it, though, every now and then and wish I could call her and wish her a happy first of the month.

It's strange, the little quirky things our family did growing up.  Going on a family "outing" to the garden, armed with a couple pairing knives and a salt shaker.  We'd pick kohirabi and eat it fresh right there in the garden.  Honestly, I don't know what else to do with kohirabi, because even though we'd grow a lot of it, none of them ever made it past the edge of the garden, having been consumed right then and there, freshly picked!

I miss those days.  I miss the garden too.  It was HUGE!  Dad would rototill the earth, we would all plant together and then tend it until we had tons of yummy veggies!  We'd have so many tomatoes that Mom would spend a good portion of the summer canning.  We had shelves upon shelves of canned tomatoes for years after Mom finally stopped canning.  I don't know how she did it.  Having a small child in her mid-forties and working so hard around the house, all the work she did as a stay-at-home-mom... I get nothing done around here and I even have the help of our teenager!

I used to have such a green thumb when I was younger... even into my twenties.

But then, I started working more and trying to fit in having a life.  My plants suffered and my green thumb turned black.  Now, I dare say I can kill fake plants!  I'm working on it, the blackness is fading a bit, but I still don't see any signs of green on my thumb yet.  I used to talk to my plants, misting them, watering them, etc.  They flourished!  Now, I'm lucky to remember to water them once every week or so.  Usually, by the time I remember to water them, they're on death's door.  

But, then again, Florida isn't exactly the best climate for many plants.  Between the heat and the sand instead of soil, it's a wonder that anything grows down here!

Anywho, I've gotten completely off track of my original thoughts.  But that's ok.  It was a nice jaunt down memory lane again.  Do you have any quirky traditions you and your family did growing up or that you do now?