Come On, Baby!

Two babies.  Two.  It's a little different than just one.  The first one went pretty well.  Having Burl seemed to improve our lives-make it better, richer, and somewhat easier.  It helped that he was just about the easiest baby ever.  Slept through the night at 5 weeks, hardly cried, nursed like a champ, had lots of family to help-all the good stuff.  

He just came out laid back.  Anymore laid back and I would have expected him to throw a peace sign up and asked where the incense was.  He taught me a thing or two about chillaxin'.

With baby #2 just six(ish) weeks away, I'm thinking about life with two.  

can I do it? 

will I ever have alone time again?

will I walk around like a zomby?

what will Burl do while I nurse?

how will I handle anything harder than Burl?

how fast can I get a runner's body after birth even though I didn't have one to start with?

When those questions roll around in my head, all I hear are the discouraging things people have told me-I'll never have a baby as easy as Burl, going from 1 to 2 babies was the hardest adjustment, there will never be time for napping, Burl is going to lose his mind with jealousy, and losing the baby weight after 30 is not the same.  And some of those or all of them, might be very true.

But, as I see pictures of Burl as a newborn, as I feel her move inside me, as I unfold these concerns to John, I'm reminded of the complete and utter joy that comes with the miracle of birth.  Of having another one!  I'm clinging to the truth that my friend (Juli A.) told me after I met her #2, with tears in her eyes, all she felt was ABUNDANCE.  She kept saying that word over and over.  I'm clinging to the fact that I know that having babies is just plain awesome.  Complete miracle.  Complete Gift.  And I'm ready to receive it.  

When I get overwhelmed, the Lord sends people in my life like John and Lauren and others who affirm me beyond belief.  I'll remember those times-

That pregnancy meltdown I had a few weeks ago, where John hugged me and reminded me that I had the same concerns before Burl and look how great that turned out.  All that needed was this song playing in the background.

That email exchange with Lauren where I told her all my fears and she replied back telling me that I was going to make it and I'm going to do great.  It rivaled this speech for the award for most compelling.

Then, there are those friends who remind me that God shows up big time to give us strength and grace to do it.  To make it.  Even though sometimes "the truth bats last," (words from Anne Lamott's Grace Eventually) I'm going to try and focus on that.  I'm going to cling to the reality that I can't do it, but I've got help from Someone who has the strength, the love, and the grace to get me through it.  

Come.On.Baby.

Some Good Ideas

Recently, I was scanning my favorite tumbler, Suziebeezie, and came across several cute pictures.  The pictures struck me as clever, cute, and just plain wonderful.  Here are ten little pictures that I'm calling Good Ideas:

Any good picture of indoor plants makes me swoon and reminds me that it really looks stunning to maintain house plants.  I just have to remember to water!

Then, I see the picture above of several herbs in a planter and am reminded that they don't have to be expensive or grand.  Potted herbs can have the same effect as big plants.

And how cute are those pots?  I'm not a fan of those fabrics, but I could find some that I like and make my pots super-cute.  Directions HERE.  Note to self: add mod podge to the Walmart list.

Speaking of lists, how cute is this meal plan board?  I love it!  I might not make one as cute, but I can sure as heck get a wicked excel spreadsheet going.  That would make meals easier to plan!

Then, there is something about an organized, labeled, pretty cabinet that makes me happy.  

I spend so much time opening and closing cabinets, closets and drawers.  Why not take a little extra time to make them pretty and organized to look at?  One day.

Once my ninos get a bit older, I'm sure that I'm going to need this much gear to make it on a road trip.  Cute much?  Indeed.

This last picture is my favorite.  Lots of white, plus a splash of colors is soothing.  It's just enough color to make me feel wild, but not too much to make me feel crazy.  And how easy would that be to make?  Maybe for baby #2's room...

My Perfectly Cliche Weekend

My best friend, Lauren, and I came from homes with divorced parents.  Things are a little different for children of divorced parents.  For one thing, we have no idea what our future holds.  Happy, stable husbands and marriages to go with them seem so UNlikely that we don't imagine it could happen to us.  We didn't have this growing up, so it was hard to figure out what it looked like.  We've talked about it-several times.

We've had this conversation about how we could never dream this up, because we feel like we've both won the lottery when it comes to our lives.  She married Ryan, I married John.  Our last names rhyme now.  We joke so often about this-how these two girls from divorced homes married these amazing men.  Now, we both have babies, we both stay-at-home with them, and we feel like magic dust has been sprinkled on our lives.  Being married, with babies, at home is not everyone's ideal.  However, it's our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Thank you, Lord, for this.  It's weekends like the one we just had that has me wondering if this is real?  Do I really get to live this life?  Is someone filming this because it's straight out of the movies?  I'm living in the "happily ever after."

Friday night, we left Burl with my mom {we heart free babysitting} and went downtown.  Our city is pretty incredible.  We are both born and raised Chattanoogans and couldn't imagine living anywhere else as cool.  We went for dinner, ran into several friends, then did the famous grab-Clumpies-and-walk-the-walking-bridge routine.  We crossed our cool park, several people, and enjoyed the breeze off the river.  Awesomeness.

Saturday was family project day.  Burl is president of Daddy Mows The Lawn Club.  He runs from window to window, watching him cross the yard.  Drool has been left on some windows.  

Things got even better when the lawn mower broke and Burl got to watch John fix it.
Major drool.  

Then, I got going on some things.  I finished up a sewing project for a friend. Dad on machine outside + Mom on machine inside = complete Burl heaven.  

Oh how he wants to be a part of operating machines!  One day, buddy, One.Day.  {For those of you concerned, no sewing machines were harmed in the making of this picture.  I quickly swooped in and stopped that nonsense.}

One thing that I've noticed is that Burl is great at playing and staying entertained while I work on something.  Mainly, when I sew.  He just loves to be near, doing his thing while I do mine.  

{Sidenote: see those flowers?  Gorgeous, right?  They're from Jenny's wedding.  That's the bonus of being part of the cleanup crew.}

Once Burl spotted John throwing the axe-thingy, he started imitating John.  As John was digging up crabgrass, Burl was scrapping the floor with his hammer.  That's when I decided enough was enough-let's get Burl in on this action.  

Burl was there-digging alongside John.  John does great with this.  He thinks like I do, "oh my gosh, this little person wants to be involved in the same thing that I'm doing.  By-gollie, bring it on in for some fun!"  

The next day, John and Broseph went climbing, so my mom treated Burl and I to lunch.  Lunch happened to be right by Clumpies, and I happen to have a pregnancy craving for their Butterfinger ice cream.  Just like a good grandmother, my mom gave up all rights to her own cone.  She taught Burl how to eat his first cone.  It was kinda a big deal.  

Then, we were off to do stuff as a family.  We ended our weekend with a last-minute dinner with some friends.  Fun all around.

Nothing special happened this weekend; no huge events.  No one big, special thing.  Just a whole lot of little nothings that have me thinking, "wow!  This is one big dose of greatness."  Because, for me, this life is a new kind of thing for me.  This is just amazing.

A weekend like that did wonders for me.  It sprung me into Monday with a zeal.  The chores that laid before me looked like individual prizes.  Housework and toddler-what a perfectly wonderful combination!  It had me thinking, "yes!  Today is laundry day and I get to stay at home and do laundry with a toddler running around pulling things out of the cabinet."  Instead of thinking how things are going to change drastically, I marveled at Burl as he selected the biggest mixing bowl as a step stool in order to reach a magnet on the fridge.

And I hope this wonder and awe at how my life has unfolded in the past decade stays with me.  It might leave for a bit every now and then.  Then, little Meg will step in, tap me on the shoulder, and whisper, "I bet you never imagined it would be this great."

This Week's Menu

This week I'm doing something that I haven't done in a long time-I'm cooking without  ground chuck.  I've decided that I cook with too much of it.  Every week, it seems that I buy a pound of it and I'm not sure I like that.  To me, it's the biggest mystery meat out there.  I've heard that ground chuck can have hundreds of different cows in it and that doesn't sound good.  So, with a new plan, I went in search for new recipes.  Real Simple had a lot of good ones, and that is where I found some inspiration:

{source}

Lentil Soup with Sausage
Slow-Cooker Asian Pork with Veggies and Noodles
Colombian Chicken and Potato Soup
Beef Stroganoff