Musing on Monday

So it's been a while since I last blogged, and so much has happened, even though it feels like nothing much has happened at all! But I want to keep up with this as much as possible, so...

Elliot has grown so big! He is now a little over 21 inches long and weighs a bit over 11 lbs. The doctor is pleased with his growth and tells me he is a beautiful, healthy baby boy, for which I am eternally grateful. We're getting into cold and flu season and I don't know what I'd do if Elliot got sick. He makes all kinds of new noises now, most of them thankfully made out of joy or curiosity. He loves to sit up and look around and absolutely hates being on his back. He enjoys tummy time - sometimes for as long as fifteen minutes - and will exercise his neck and limbs in an effort to maneuver over the floor. At two months he can even roll over from his tummy to his back! He is also eating about 6 oz. a meal, although we are mixing his formula with a little prune juice to help with gas and poo. I breastfeed normally, but we supplement in order to provide him with more nutrients.

My husband and I are using Sundays to play Dungeons & Dragons while his parents have Grandparent Day with Elliot. It gives us a chance to have some adult time with our friends or alone together. This past Sunday I was able to do some pencil-and-ink sketches (I love to draw!) while playing D&D with the hubby and his friends. We have an awesome campaign going! I play a halfling Paladin healer:

And I totally just nailed 3rd level! 

The news has been depressing of late. There is so much anger and hatred in the world. With the Advent season and Christmas right around the corner I especially feel this year that I have been blessed with so many things while others are sorely in need. It is so easy for Christians to pray for the poor, but those that have no religion at all put us to shame with their works of charity and compassion. This year I am going to look into doing something for those in need, even here in my new home town. We are by no means wealthy, but we have an apartment, food, friends and family who love us, a baby we adore, and more. If I had to lose it all overnight, I would wish for understanding and compassion most of all...which is what the world needs more than anything.

Moving on to some happier scribbling, I want to wish my readers a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving. If you are a poor soul who has to endure a job on the holiday and then Black Friday - I SWEAR I WILL NOT JOIN THE THRONG OR HELP PROMOTE THE UNHEALTHY CRAZE OF CONSUMERISM!! I only went out on Black Friday once, two years ago, to a Barnes & Noble with my soon-to-be fiance, because the lure of new books was too tempting. Neither my husband nor I find the Black Friday craze to be a beneficial part of the holidays.

I will start playing Christmas music after Thanksgiving, though. I'm way too excited for the carols!

This year, I am combining the promotion of my tea business and the giving of gifts by making tea-infused jelly, using Steeped Tea's Christmas Chai blend. 

This black tea will infuse the spices of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, black and white pepper, cloves, and nutmeg into the jelly for a truly delicious spread for scones. At least, that is what I am hoping! I found a simple recipe on Pinterest and hope to use it soon. 

The link to my totally awesome Steeped Tea website is here:

http://www.mysteepedteaparty.com/KATHERINE/

I also have a Facebook page! Here is where I post about the things I sell, plus information about the culture of tea, including its history, health benefits, recipes, and more:

https://www.facebook.com/Steeped-Tea-With-Katie-487887691389202/

Someday my dream is to operate a real tea house here in this small midwestern town. It is my great hope to share tea with other people and get them hooked on this truly delicious beverage with which you can do so much more than just drink! I'm finding recipes for beauty products and food, too!

Anyway, the point of this post was to exercise my writing and to reach out to more people with my business. I'll try to post more down the road, especially during Advent!

   

Baby Elliot is Here!

Baby Elliot is here!

He totally arrived unexpectedly early—ironically, just three days after a baby shower in his honor. September was, therefore, an extremely busy month for me!

Thursday September 10^th: Today is the day I will travel five hours to go visit relatives in Nebraska. But first, I go in for a routine BPP and prenatal checkup. Doctors find protein in urine and my blood pressure is high. Concerns about preeclampsia skyrocket. More blood is drawn and the lab tech hands me a giant orange jug in which to do a 24-hour urine collection. Great; this will be interesting to explain to the family. 

Friday September 11^th: I feel like a walrus shuffling along on my fat flippers. The doctor calls me up and asks me to go to the nearest hospital for more blood work—now my potassium is low and they want a second screening done to be sure there’s no mistake. Getting real sick of the needles, people.

Saturday September 12^th: I freshen up to attend the baby shower. My cousin is a magical, organized, party-planning genius! Everyone regales me with stories of giving birth, and I start praying for something safe and somewhat normal. Afterward, I go back to the hospital to hand over the orange jug. I pick up a prescription for potassium pills. Nothing about this feels normal at the moment.

Sunday September 13^th: I return home, but sleep is difficult; I'm hot, I'm fat, I'm so freaking uncomfortable. "I just want this baby out," I cry to my husband. He will later use my words to point out the ultimate irony, but I have no regrets.

Monday September 14^th: At 4:00 PM, the doctor tells me I have mild preeclampsia, and that the safest route—confirmed by another reliable doctor—is to induce labor that very evening. Well, this is great, just great. So much for having a baby in October, the most awesome month of the year. Also, um, what exactly is induction, how does it work, and will it hurt? I didn’t really get around to reading that part in What to Expect When You’re Expecting. I spend the 45-minute trip home thinking about humorous punchlines for my comedic husband. In the end, I think I said something dumb, like, “Surprise!” I mean, I like to think I can easily roll with life’s punches, but this one pretty much knocked me for a loop. Hubby informs me that he has called up his parents and mine, officially freaking both families out. “Honey, we need to stop by Wal-Mart and get some slippers and Depends,” I remind my dear husband. “All the blogs were unanimous on those items.” I totally don’t have a hospital bag packed; I throw some extra clothes in a suitcase along with toothpaste and a toothbrush and some Brian Jacques novels—like I’m going to have time to read in between contractions, but YOU NEVER KNOW, OKAY?!

We eat Subway and listen to U2 on the road to the hospital. We are quickly admitted and the kindly nurses make sure I am quite comfortable before giving me medication to soften my cervix. By midnight I am feeling contractions. EVERYTHING HURTS, ALL NIGHT LONG. Good-bye, sleep. I know not when I shall see thee again.

Tuesday September 15^th: From sunup to sundown the nurses monitor my vital signs and coach me through different exercises and positions. At some point a catheter is inserted, a process that must have been used in the Dark Ages as torture. I am also hooked up to an IV, another medieval process that involves needles. Later, when the contractions grow stronger, I get an epidural—another needle. Briefly I consider wearing a chastity belt for the next ten years, but say nothing to my husband because he is being a sweetie and holding my hand and petting my head and saying nothing that would warrant a cast-iron frying pan to the face. On the other hand, when they break my water, and he’s laughing at the weird faces I’m making as foreign liquids pour from my body, I rethink the pan and the chastity belt.

In the evening I have not dilated beyond 7 centimeters and my blood pressure is rising dangerously. I try not to panic when the doctor informs me that a C-section is necessary. This couldn’t hurt, right? I’ll be numb from the chest down, and I won’t have to look at the surgery. I am regretting watching the C-section video on the web. It was strangely akin to that chest-bursting scene from "Alien." Now I'm praying again, except I can't focus on the words because I'm trying to listen to what the doctor is telling me. She is being so sweet and kind to explain everything to me in a comforting manner.  

As they wheel me into surgery, my husband gets the bright idea to play “Sirius” by The Alan Parsons Project. I tell him to shut up. 

In the operating room, I see a lot of what I’d never in my life hoped to see, ever—doctors in face masks, bright lights, and a ton of sterile equipment. I'm so freaking scared, but I know this has to be done. Someone gives me laughing gas, and its lights out, goodnight. Next thing I know, there is tremendous pressure down south and then my husband is squeezing my hand and I hear a baby crying. When I come to, they place him in my arms, and I try to sing "Edelweiss" to him, from The Sound of Music. Through my loopy haze, I somehow remember that I want my baby boy to hear my voice, singing to him, for the first time. Whether or not I am on pitch is irrelevant.

And that’s pretty much what happened. They kept me in the hospital until Friday morning. I’d had a blood transfusion and was still recuperating from surgery when we finally packed up our newborn son and went home at last. I went back to the hospital that weekend because of a fluid overdose, and received some medication that reduced a lot of the swelling. Between the operation and breastfeeding, I am now back down to—if not less than—my original weight, albeit a wee jiggly here and there.

Elliot received a lot of attention from friends and relatives the first two weeks, and my mother came to stay with us for a week, helping me to adjust to the new addition to the family. Today, three weeks later, my husband and I have gone back to a somewhat normal routine, keeping up with our interests, jobs, and hobbies with the new addition of baby care thrown in to make us extra adult-y. Elliot is the little love of our lives; we count ourselves blessed to have him with us so beautiful and healthy. We love the funny little faces and noises he makes, and the way he sticks out his tiny tongue and blows raspberries into the air. We love his gigantic blue-gray eyes and how they look around so curiously at everything. We love his “serious” expressions, as if he wants to know why the heck he’s out here in the cold, weird world and not still snug and toasty inside mommy. We love his soft little head and tiny fingers and toes. We love him because he is a gift from God and the product of our love together as man and wife. He is a strong, growing boy, already with his own unique individuality, which we love and admire so much!

Welcome, Elliot! May God continue to bless our little family on the path to heaven!

Bruschetta, Baby, and Balancing

Tonight I made bruschetta with bacon for dinner because I have been craving this simple Italian snack for a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time.

Seriously, a long time.

I have pictures to prove it!

I made a loaf of bread last night to eat with our stew, but I cut up a few pieces this evening to make the bruschetta. I had bought grape tomatoes and fresh basil from the grocery store, and all I needed was a little seasoning, some olive oil, bacon, and the mozzarella cheese. I decided to make a small batch this time because the last time I made it the tomato topping did not refrigerate well, so I concluded that the dish is best served fresh, without storage of any kind.

So to begin, I chopped up a few strands of bacon and threw them into a small pan and let them cook. 

While the bacon was cooking, I added a small bit of olive oil to a bowl, followed by a sprinkling of garlic powder and black pepper. I chopped up the grape tomatoes and added them to the bowl. 

When I was sure that the tomatoes had a nice thin coating of the oil mixture, I drained the bacon...

...and set both the tomatoes and bacon aside in separate bowls. I chopped up the basil...

...and then proceeded to lightly toast my bread slices. I did this by drizzling one side with olive oil and setting it in the pan I used to cook the bacon in.

When the bread came out nicely toasted, I added the tomato mixture, bacon, basil, and mozzarella cheese. Oh, heaven. 

Om-nom-nom-nom. 

I have no specific recipe that I used aside from living in Italy for a month and knowing that this and that put together make bruschetta. I can hardly wait to eat this again with some wine and more cheese!

BABY UPDATES: Elliot is doing quite well! The doctor told me that now I must come in for weekly BPPs, which is a safety precaution at this stage. I have five weeks left, if Elliot intends to enter the world punctually. Jeff can't stop feeling the baby bump for kicks and wriggles, of which there are many these days...more pronounced now, that the amniotic fluid is lessening and there's not much cushion to block my little ninja's blows. 

I did set up a crib yesterday in our humble dwelling--it was a vintage crib that had housed my husband when he was a baby and his father before him. Unfortunately, one of my Facebook friends pointed out that the crib has a slide-railing, a feature that has caused infant deaths and the ban of such cribs in the market. So...hubby and I have to go a-hunting for a crib. 

I also made the decision to actually have a Baby Shower, though I originally did not want one. In registering for items, I got easily overwhelmed and frustrated by all the intricate, unnecessary products out there. It took me two weeks to decide on a baby swing. 

Other than that, the pregnancy is going very well. Elliot has moved to a head-down position, cradling comfortably against my cervix, bladder, and everything else. Getting in and out of the car is uncomfortable, and until just recently, when hubby and I traded our full bed for a queen-sized, I was having serious problems sleeping. I wake up every 2 hours to use the restroom and I keep a water bottle by my bed to hydrate myself. 

The balancing act these days is knowing just what to do with myself. Obviously I have laundry and dishes on a daily basis, but now I also have my Steeped Tea business that I attend to daily, and I write a few thoughts down for novelization later. I don't get out much because I dislike the heat and my ankles swell to walrus-like proportions if I am on them too much. YouTube is my best friend right now; I love listening to music and snuggling up to a good spine-tingling ASMR video...or I just find old movies that aren't on Netflix. 

I will try to update again soon. I'm so horrible at this. :P 

Catching Up

8/9/2015

Whew! It has been a long time since I posted! You can call me lazy; when I have numerous projects looming in front of me, I totally go hide. But this week I have made a promise not to be so lazy. I REALLY have to get the apartment cleaned and tidied because on Saturday, August 15th, I shall be hosting my very first Steeped Tea party!

I joined Steeped Tea in July, but it took almost two weeks for my kit to arrive and another two weeks or so to decide when and how I wanted to launch my business. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I have no degree in business, management, accounting, or anything remotely similar to running your own business. Being lazy is also a problem. But this time I'm really, really, really SUPER-EXCITED to have my tea party and launch my business as an independent consultant.

The other thing I have to do is get ready for Elliot.

So, I went to the specialists in Wichita to get a further diagnosis on Elliot's little heart focus, and since then I've been in twice to my doctor in Plainville for more blood tests and shots (nobody told me that getting pregnant would involve so many freaking needles). So far everything is totally normal and nothing is out of whack, so Elliot is a healthy baby, which makes Jeff and I very happy parents! The only hard part now is getting things set up for my beautiful baby boy. Creating a registry is harder than I thought, and deciding on a nursery theme is frustrating. THERE ARE TOO MANY CHOICES!!!!!!! All I want to do is to hold my baby and sniff his head.

My sister got married on July 18th! She looked stunning in a lace gown and our grandmother's bridal veil. She had asked me to be the soloist, which I was more than happy to do. Her theme was simple, woodsy, and fun. The caterers were two hours late, but the food was fantastic and the music was superb! Aside from my swollen ankles, which bloated fatter than a pair of walruses, I felt fine and danced the night away. Also, the cupcakes were delicious.

So, I recently discovered two new things on YouTube: ASMR videos and competitive cooking shows. I don't know why, but these things are so addictive, and the ASMR videos help me sleep at night. My sleeping patterns vary night after night with only one recurring theme: getting up every two hours to go to the bathroom. So in trying to actually fall asleep, the ASMR videos are immensely useful! As for the competitive cooking shows, I just like seeing the creativity that people can have with food. Because food.

I re-read The Green Mile last week. I re-read it about five times, that's how entertaining that book is. I seriously think it's one of Stephen King's better novels, on par with Carrie and Pet Sematary. The voices are so simple and familiar, the characters so well-written. I love the way Mr. King can take ordinary people and situations and suddenly throw a monkey wrench into the gears of their small-town lives. Even if the results are expected, watching the scenes unfold is both breathtaking and horrifying. I just LOVE a good, scary story!

Anyway, the other thing keeping me from blogging has been the emotional turmoil I have experienced since the release of the Planned Parenthood videos. As a pregnant woman and a pro-life advocate with a deep love of the unborn, abortion appalls me, and this new information about the sale of fetus organs hits the disgusted nerve from head to toe. In recent days I have finally been able to scroll through Facebook without having a crying fit; my husband helps to soothe me as does the power of prayer. Friends, NEVER underestimate the power of prayer; whether you believe in God or another spiritual deity, appealing to something outside of yourself is a way of releasing negative emotions and grabbing hold of hope, patience, and happiness. It is a way of bringing your mind and body back on a stable plane, you might say.

So, there you have it. In a nutshell, I've been emotional, lazy, distracted, and tired. It'll probably get worse as the due date nears.

But I promise to do better at keeping up with the blogs. I feel so motivated this week, so maybe I'll actually get around to doing dishes, folding laundry, and cooking healthy meals.

TTFN!  

Library Cards and Skin Ca

7/10/2015

TODAY I GOT A LIBRARY CARD!!!!

I can’t even begin to explain how IMPORTANT this is. Library cards are essential for anyone and everyone for access to free materials—books, movies, music, audiobooks, magazines, and sometimes even video games. Some libraries check out cake pans to their patrons, and others will check out toys and instruments. The WEALTH of information at someone’s disposal with a library card is immeasurable. I got books on tea, soup recipes, and Irish cooking. I COULD just search the internet, true, but browsing a computer screen does not afford a person the same luxury as browsing the pages of a book. The internet offers all kinds of distractions, while a book allows gentle perusing and the actual effort of reading and committing to memory the wording on the page. Reading a book is about education, and a library card is cheaper than going into a bookstore and making a purchase! (Though I will be the last person to deny that I’d rather spend money in a bookstore than a clothing department).

And YESTERDAY I started a new “skin care” routine.

This requires some background information. See, until this past Sunday, I was never one for “skin care” or makeup. I’m a simple person. For me, “skin care” was limited to showers, baths, shaving, and Special Occasions. I have no special diet and I don’t exactly have an exercise routine, either. By some miracle I’ve never had acne and as I pat my face now, my skin is neither oily nor dry and flaky. I do have freckles, which become more pronounced in the summer sun, but I don’t see them as an impediment to my natural beauty (although I have wished for porcelain-doll skin from time to time, it’s true). My husband adores me as I am; he finds my freckles cute and my low-maintenance habits a relief. My family tells me I have been blessed with lovely skin. Even as I take pleasure in the compliments, a long time ago I neither cared nor wondered why I received them. To me, skin care and makeup simply wasn’t something that fascinated me as it did other young ladies my age.

But this past weekend I suddenly felt the need to begin a regimen for my skin. I’m not sure why. It could be all these pregnancy hormones making me feel fat and unattractive. It could be those YouTube videos I can’t stop watching about how to achieve this or that cute look. It might also have to do with the idea that I take the worst selfies in the world and I wish to remedy that. Anyway, I went and bought myself some things with gift cards.

And thusly I began the daily process.

A shower is followed by the application of cocoa butter lotion—which, I have to say, is particularly nice. I hear that the benefits of cocoa butter are pleasing, particularly for pregnant women who are prone to stretch marks. Also, the scent is heavenly.

After dressing myself and brushing my teeth, I used a facial cleanser pad to exfoliate my face. After patting dry, I applied a primer, which also had sunscreen in the mix (because summer). That was followed by foundation followed by a powder to “set” everything. I also tried blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara, but the mascara made my eyes water and itch, so I don’t think that will be a thing on a regular basis. I applied some chapstick and lip gloss, twirled in the mirror, and felt much better about life.

Conclusions:

1. Mascara is a no-no.
2. Cocoa butter lotion is a must.
3. The process with the facial cleanser and foundation is nice, but I think I would like to experiment with different colors of eyeshadow and a lighter shade of eyeliner for different results. *heads off to Pinterest*

Today’s simple meditation: There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.

 –Ralph Waldo Emerson

My First Blog

7/7/2015

Yay! My first blog ever!

I’m totally not with the times; almost everyone else my age by this time is actually making money from their blogs, and I’m just sliding in with my little Spoonful of Simple. I decided to start a blog because (1) I like to write and (2) currently I am a pregnant, bored housewife. I used to actually work hard for a paycheck until this nerdy guy swept me off my feet and married me in January. Then he got me pregnant and all the barfing really wasn’t conducive to a work environment. Then in April he found a new job in a new town and we had to move. Then I started showing a bump and no one wanted to hire me. Well, I can’t prove that’s the reason, but I couldn’t blame them if it was. Ergo, hubby works and I stay home and cook and clean.

Typical housewife stuff.

I enjoy cooking, baking, writing, and all kinds of crafts. I’m a crafty sort of person and I like to think outside the box for solutions to problems. Hence the blog!

I have no idea what kind of blog this will be. I honestly don't even know much about the finer points of blogging. I just want to post about things like crafts and cooking and daily goings-on, and of course I want to blog about my baby. I’m at 25 weeks so far, just a little over the halfway mark, so I guess I’ll start there!

Jeff and I found out we were having a boy two weeks ago during my first ultrasound. We were going to name him Virgil Robert after our grandfathers (may they rest in peace) but then, sitting in for a celebratory lunch at Dairy Queen, Jeff suddenly told me he didn’t like that name anymore.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because if I have to ever scold him, it’ll feel like I’m scolding my grandpa. And that just feels weird.”

Seemed legit.

As I scurried to rake in some other names we had talked about, Jeff stubbornly insisted on Elliot, after the famous author T.S. Eliot. 

“We can call him Elliot if his middle name can be Francis, after the saint,” I replied.

The ultrasound picked up nothing out of the ordinary except an echogenetic foci—which, the doctor assured me, was quite common and nothing to be worried about, although she did set me up for some extra testing just to be on the safe side. After doing some research and doing a lot of self-comfort by reading pregnancy forums, I learned that EIFs are very soft markers for Down Syndrome, although for the majority of babies, the EIF disappears on its own. More testing has shown that I really don’t have any other abnormalities to be concerned about, and neither does Jeff, so I think we’ll be fine. Our boy is developing just fine! 

My first trimester was really rough, with a lot of vomiting, nausea, and lack of appetite. We lived in an apartment complex that constantly smelled like alcohol, cigarettes, and God knows what else. When Jeff went off to work in the morning, it was my job to take care of our two corgis, the laundry and a meal plan. Going up and down the stairs was miserable for me, and fixing anything in that wee little kitchen was unthinkable. There were times when I was hungry but I couldn’t force anything down but Ginger Ale (all hail the magic drink) and crackers. One time I made the mistake of gorging on two cups of frozen lemonade, and another time I had chips and salsa right before my parents came to visit. Tomato juice made me yark all over the trash cans (I could never get to the bathroom fast enough) and just walking from the bedroom to the kitchen made me gag.

We are now living in Hays, KS, a much better place, and surrounded by friends and family. Our two corgis, Willow and Jaxer, are being looked after by the in-laws, and Jeff has a steady, better-paying job with benefits. I have a clean apartment with a bigger kitchen and Jeff likes his new reclining chair so much that sometimes I have the bed all to myself! Our son is healthy and I just spent money on a new pair of very comfortable shoes to ride out the uncomfortable heat of summer. I am eating as healthy as I can and my husband spoils me with attention. God has been very kind to us, and has given us many blessings in life.

I suppose that’s the biggest focus point of this blog—that the simplest things in life can be our greatest blessings. A clean home. Good food. A steady income. Friends and family. Books, tea, and cuddles. I hope to post more, and with a little patience, perhaps this blog will become just one of many cures for this bored housewife.