Lent is Coming Up!

Hi, everyone! 

Lent is here! 

Last year I was a bad Catholic and did not attend much to my spiritual life during this time. The only excuse I have is that I was pregnant and yarking all over the place and feeling pretty horrible the whole time. Still, being pregnant exempted me from the fasting and abstinence. I might have tried to make a small sacrifice in giving up sweets, but at some point I'm pretty sure I gave up giving up. 

But this year is different! I have nothing to excuse me now. I have given up sweets and bread (rolls, buns, sandwich bread, etc.) and I am focusing on my prayer and meditation more. I was hoping to read parts of the Bible to Elliot but there never seems to be a moment of peace for us when I can read to him. 

We went to Ash Wednesday Mass in the evening, since my husband was working the graveyard shift and slept during the day. We brought Elliot with us and once again we were so impressed with our little man's good behavior in church! I know it isn't destined to last, but right now I'm loving our baby's wide-eyed stares and silence during the holiest of prayers. 

 

For those of you who may be unaware, Lent is a time - much like Advent - of expectation and prayer. Catholics especially have a special connection to Lent in that it leads to the day of Christ's Resurrection - also known as Easter. We journey with Christ along His road; we experience temptations, witness His miracles, and hear His message of love that the Pharisees were unable to understand or tolerate. The Easter Triduum at the end of Lent marks the time in which we celebrate Christ's Passion, Death, and His Resurrection. We follow Christ along the Way of the Cross and pray for souls on earth while administering to our own wounded souls through prayer, Mass, the sacrament of the Eucharist, charitable works, and of course, fasting and abstinence. 

The ashes on our foreheads are given to us with the words, "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return." It is a grim reminder of our mortality. But we know that, in the celebration of Easter, we are given a firm reminder of the immortality of our souls and how they may be united with Christ if we but tend them with love and care. 

Father's homily on Ash Wednesday also reminded me of something. He spoke of Jesus' request that we pray and do our charitable acts in secret so that our Father in heaven may reward us. In this world of social media, where everyone shares everything and many seek publicity or 15 minutes of fame, Christ's words may be a hard concept to understand or accept. Especially if you refuse to believe that God is read; why bother doing anything in secret when you could enjoy the praise and admiration from flesh-and-blood people? But the phrase "doing good for good's sake" is a principle that applies well in this case. It is meaningful to help others when there's nothing in it for you. 

In other news, Valentine's Day (otherwise known as Singles' Appreciation Day) is coming up! I was looking forward to Applebee's, but since Applebee's is practically the only nice restaurant in town, it's too likely to be packed. So I told him I'd settle for home-cooked steak, chocolate, and then an evening watching Deadpool. 

Oh, yeah.

I never saw the point of flowers, although I always got jealous of my friends and coworkers who received them from their loved ones on Valentine's Day. Honestly, I never bought into the consumerism behind the holiday; it seemed to be just as good as any other day and there was little significance behind it for me. Still, it's one of those fun little holidays that brings cheer to people (or gloom, take your pick, but even while I was single I didn't care; pizza, soda, and movies were my lovers on that day). It's impossible not to get sucked into the spirit of the holidays! 

Matcha Cookies!

Hello everyone! Today I am posting about some morning baking projects!

When I went grocery shopping this past Sunday, I had some projects in mind (ideas pulled from Pinterest) for saving money and keeping delicious food in the fridge. One of those projects was the breakfast rollups:

I apologize for the terrible picture. If you can tell, breakfast rollups are basically sausages and cheese wrapped up in Pillsbury crescent rolls. The Pinterest post included egg, but I was impatient and had no time for scramblin' eggs! They were SO GOOD, though, and would go well with a side of scrambled egg and orange juice for a complete breakfast!

My other baking project was matcha cookies! Now, I am currently obsessed with making cookies out of cake mixes; the cookies come out so soft and moist and delicious that it's almost a sin to consume them! I wanted to try a recipe that used cream cheese, so I searched and picked the recipe with the most stars, which happened to be a Betty Crocker recipe. Here is the link:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cake-mix-gooey-butter-cookies/f7a9017b-870f-4b20-b37f-392f53c65fbc

Since I am a rebel and don't follow recipes to a T, I used the following ingredients:

They were having a sale on Pillsbury cake mixes at the grocery store.

I'm using matcha in the recipe because I am obsessed with this stuff right now! Matcha green tea is the powdered form of the tea leaf; unlike steeped tea, which steeps the leaf in water before removing it, matcha is combined with water and consumed entirely. Matcha is high in antioxidants and is a possible preventative of cancer. It is quite possible that matcha is the healthiest drink in the universe. So adding matcha to your cooking, baking, beauty products, and skin care is actually very good for you!

So the first thing I did was to melt the cream cheese and butter until it was soft.

After that I added the egg and vanilla extract. I know, in the picture it says "imitation vanilla," but that's from a time when my husband went out grocery shopping and of course he bought cheap, which I don't have a problem with, but I'd prefer the real stuff to imitation.

After beating these ingredients together, I added the cake mix.

Elliot was in the kitchen helping mommy make matcha cookies!

I was unsure how much matcha to use in the mix and I was too lazy to look up a recipe, so I just dumped in about a Tbsp. Now, the thing about matcha is that the taste is bitter. The smell is bitter. If you don't add sugar to the drink, it is bitter. Some people prefer that; I on the other hand need sugar with my tea. But when you add the matcha to the cookie mix, you don't need any extra sugar to mask the bitterness; the dough was delicious!

You can see the faint greenish tint to the cookie dough from just that small amount of matcha!

I had to clean off my pan (I have one baking sheet, and yes, I know I need more) and do one batch at a time. The first batch came out a little brown on the sides, but this is because I was not monitoring the oven properly (the baby needed a diaper change and a bottle). The next batch will probably come out much better. Trying one of the cookies, they are delicious!

Before baking

I'm sorry I have no "after baking" pictures right now. I wanted to get this blog post in while the baby was sleeping! But the conclusion to the matcha cookie experiment is that they are quite yummy. I would highly encourage people to make their own matcha cookies, not only for the taste but for the added health benefits!

Elliot's Baptism!

Elliot was Baptized into the Catholic Church on January 9th, 2016!

Baptism is important to Catholics. For us, it is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Jesus, and an opportunity for an outpouring of grace upon our little one as he begins his life as a baptized child of God. We believe that in Baptism, the stain of Original Sin is washed away and an indelible mark of belonging to Christ is placed upon the one receiving the sacrament. We as parents have the sacred duty to nurture Elliot in the Church's teachings and to set a holy example for him to imitate. The Catholic faith will provide him with much-needed spiritual nourishment for his personal growth, in soul, mind, and body.

Arranging the Baptism had taken forever because our parish required a form to be filled out by the godparents - and I wanted my sister (who lived in Nebraska) and my brother (who lived in Louisiana) to be godparents. They had to get their parish priests to sign the form for them. And as both of them were super busy - my sister with her master's program and my brother with the Air Force - it took a while to get the forms back to me. But once they did, Jeff and I set a date with our parish, sent out invitations, and whipped up a little reception for after the Baptism. It was a lot of work, but a lot of people were able to come and witness Elliot's Catholic birthday! Jeff and I were so proud of our little boy and our first forward steps into life as Catholic parents!

In the meantime, Elliot is getting a very "rounded" education. He has a lot of toys that he loves to play with, and we play all kinds of music for him! He watches momma cook and clean in the kitchen and watches daddy play WoW and Fallout 4. I am currently reading "The House at Pooh Corner" to him, and we count to twenty and sing our ABC's. Sometimes, when momma needs a break, I let him play in his gym and relax with a cup of tea and an ASMR video. Or Pinterest. Sometimes both (I multitask). Every day is a new discovery!

Elliot fascinated by his toy truck

This past week Jeff had a close childhood friend pass away in a car accident. It made us both realize the value of life and how terrible it would be if we lost each other or Elliot. The bible tells us that our lives are like the blades of grass; here today and gone tomorrow; they wither and fade with the passing seasons. We can't know the future or how much pain we will have to endure. I dread losing people close to me and don't like to think about how much heartache I will have to suffer in losing them, as I know I inevitably will. It's no wonder that our culture indulges in "eternal youth" to take our minds off growing old and leaving this world! But as Catholics we cling to the hope that we will be united with our loved ones again in heaven, and that if we live our lives for God, to the fullest and with love and generosity, surely we have nothing to fear from death. As the saying goes, there is a time to mourn and a time to dance.

Today we have our first snow day! We here in Kansas have finally been hit by a snowstorm. I went out to buy groceries on Sunday and of course EVERYONE ELSE WAS THERE. They had practically cleaned the shelves of the Ranch Wheat Thins. I had to do with a box of regular. Incidentally, I was not there for the snowstorm; I was there because our house was totally devoid of foodstuff. Okay, not totally devoid, but it's hard to subsist on a can of kidney beans and some cocoa powder packets.

Soon I will blog about some of my projects that I'm doing! I am making a denim skirt, a mantilla, and matcha lip balm. I'm so excited! I have so many things I'm getting up to. I'll post again as soon as I have pictures (and results)!


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Tea Jelly!

Well, I lied. I am going to do one more post before bed. The baby is down in his crib, but I'll make one more post before I hit the pillows.

This time I want to post about the jelly that I made in December. I wrote last year about how I was excited to make this jelly as a gift for family and friends. The tea I used was one of Steeped Tea's blends: Christmas Chai! Ooooh, it smelled DIVINE. Rich and warm and deep, like sliding into a hot tub or relaxing by the fire in fuzzy PJ's. Oh, it was most heavenly. 

Anyhoo, I used a recipe I had found on Pinterest. I had never canned anything or made any kind of jelly before in my life, so this was a completely new experience.

My ingredients: tea, lemon juice, powdered pectin, and sugar. H2O not pictured. Simple, right?

Now, a problem I have is not really following recipes to an absolute T. After making several observations about the fact that this recipe was NOT in fact going to give me as big a batch as I'd hoped, and seeing that 1.5 cups of water was going to pretty much dissolve into steam as I boiled it, I added an extra .5 cup. Plus, I had to steep 12 BAGS OF TEA and dissolve 3 CUPS OF SUGAR in 1.5 CUPS OF WATER. It just didn't seem right, but I was nervous about deviating any further from the recipe.

After steeping my tea in the boiling water, I added the other ingredients and then stirred, boiled, and added where necessary according to the recipe. The recipe itself was kind of vague and did not tell me about whether or not I needed to prep the jars in any way or if I needed to put the lids on right away after pouring the jelly. In short, I was doing a lot of experimentation. Where was Elliot, you ask? Oh, it was Sunday. The grandparents had hold of him. 

The pre-canned jelly looked and smelled a lot like syrup, and was a rich, golden brown color that of course smelled divine. My stove top was sticky and gross and the burners were stained with residue from where the stuff had accidentally boiled over, but I was pleased with the result.

Canning the jelly was more difficult than I had anticipated. For one thing, I didn't read until later that there is a process to prepping jars for any kind of canning, and of course I had been dumb enough not to realize that. I poured the hot jelly into the jars and then put the lids on and stuck them in the refrigerator. The recipe was very unclear about this part, so I put a few in and left a few out to observe the "setting." According to the recipe, the jelly would set within 2 hours. But still after 2 hours, the jelly (both refrigerated and not) had not set even a little. Bewildered and flustered, I gave up the attempts and told myself I would fix things at my parents' place when I visited them for the holidays. 

That did not happen. 

Neither did the cute cloth can-topper I had envisioned and bough special cloth for (at a bargain price, too). I consider myself crafty, but I had not planned the thing out very well, and so only a few cans got "topped."

I even added gold ribbon and my business card! Ignore the diaper bag in the background.

When I got home, my focus was getting that jelly to set right. I added more pectin to each batch and re-filled the jars. This time, the jelly set right, and I was able to give them out as promised to friends and family in time for Christmas (and after that, too). 

I took several lessons from this. 

1. Don't wait until 2 weeks before Christmas to start DIY Christmas gifts.

2. Plan everything out step by step.

3. Do a practice run, especially if it's something you've never done before.

I'm the kind of person who has to jump in the water in order to learn how to swim. Silly analogy, but there you go. I learn by plunging in head-first, experimenting, and making mistakes. On the other hand, doing that sort of thing for crafty Christmas gifts probably isn't the best idea! But I had a lot of people compliment the taste, and certainly I had a few inquiries as to its construction and flavor. It's definitely a project I would do again!

First Blog of the New Year 2016!

Hi everyone! I know it's been a while since I posted. But it's a new year, and with the new year comes resolutions, including keeping up with the blog!

So where to even begin? September 2015 was officially classified as "hectic," as my family saw the arrival of baby Elliot and suddenly we were dealing with the care and nurturing of a tiny human. That puts more stress on the human body than you can imagine! I spent a lot of sleepless nights caring for the little tyke who did not want to fall asleep and wished instead to be held constantly. But Elliot is now 4 months old and is pretty much sleeping right through the night, waking only once for a meal. During the day he is so active and cognitive, babbling baby talk and laughing more and more. That means more food, more naps, and, fortunately, more time for me (mostly to get chores done!). We are steadily falling into a steady routine that will hopefully become even more beautiful with every change Elliot makes! 

Here are some changes were are implementing as a family for 2016:

1. For me, dressing modestly. Modesty is not supposed to compromise human dignity - it is supposed to glorify it. I am not against shorts, jeans, or even the occasional "sexy" outfit, especially when I'm with my husband! But my goal is to make cute outfits with skirts and thrift-store tops, and to attend church wearing a veil, as ladies used to do. This is a personal decision, not forced upon me by my husband, peers, or my religion. I want to do this because I feel this is a Good Thing. Besides, I'm pretty sure that by dressing appropriately, I can teach my son the value of respecting women!

2. Finances. Our medical bills were so ridiculous it wasn't even funny. During my pregnancy I had visited four different hospitals, so I was getting billed from several different places all at once, and living paycheck to paycheck simply wasn't enough to cover costs. Regardless of bills, however, Jeff and I are taking care of our budget in small ways each month. It really makes a difference in paying attention to the food you buy, the gas you spend, and how much air or heat you pump through your house! Sticking to a budget plan each month is also helping us put away money in our savings, which we hope to use by next year for a down payment on a house.

3. Investing More Time With Family. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but I am such a reclusive homebody, which could be detrimental to Elliot's development. It being winter doesn't help, nor that Elliot is still to young to really "play with," but just getting him outside to see the wonders of creation would be beneficial for my son, who needs to learn vocabulary beyond what he hears in stories, and see things beyond the walls of his home. It will be good for Jeff and I, too, to spend more time with the in-laws and our friends, when we can!

4. Organizing Life. This one sounds nearly impossible, but in the few months that I've been a mom, I have discovered a lot about myself that once before I thought impossible. I'm paying bills, making doctor's appointments (and keeping them), moving furniture, cooking healthy meals, keeping the budget, and, most importantly, keeping up with the laundry and the dishes. I'm also functioning on less than 7 hours of sleep, roughly. If I can do all that by myself, then I can do even more! 

5. Trying New Things. Jeff wants to start a comedy club. I want to publish short fiction. Jeff wants to continue our weekly D&D campaigns. I want to continue my Steeped Tea business and keep current with my blog and Facebook page. And, of course, we want to spend more time with our son, together! 

Those are just a few of our New Year resolutions. As you may notice, there's nothing in there about eating healthy or getting "fit." We keep fruits and veggies on our table, and our budget limits our eating-out. Otherwise, we're not into the protein shakes or kale salads. Some people adore them, and such things fit their needs and lifestyle, but Jeff and I are very laid-back people who enjoy pizza on a Friday night and our carrots with ranch dip (or our apples with caramel sauce, no regrets). As for getting fit, both Jeff and I are aware that we could afford to hit the gym at least once a week, but working out daily is not our thing. We are not overweight or unhealthy - we simply don't do weekend marathons or pull-ups. 

Another family goal is to be more world-matter-conscious. Last year hit me hard in the emotions as I read with horror about Planned Parenthood. Both my husband and I are pro-life, but before Elliot came along I felt detached from the issues, though they do bother me immensely. Being pro-life is more than rallying for unborn children; it is the call to recognize dignity in every human being, and the rally to celebrate life rather than its demise simply for convenience. As I read about the atrocities being committed, I thought about the baby inside me, and I considered his development - I thought about how he was not just a "bunch of cells"; those cells grew and changed every single second regardless of my will. Jeff and I were poor at the time; we had a crappy apartment, no insurance, a meager income, and only a few hundred dollars when we married and conceived. Anyone would have encouraged us to have an abortion because of our situation. But women everywhere must be reminded that their situation is not without hope. If women are surrounded by love and propped up by hope instead of fat dollar signs and disappointments, they would not feel the need to kill their precious, precious children. We are living in an age where science has deemed a fetus human from the moment of conception. Any excuse otherwise is pathetic and a sad attempt to justify murder. Therefore, I am making it a personal goal to be more involved with the pro-life movement, and to raise my son in a household that prays for both enemy and victim - and to educate him in the value and dignity of human life, which is also both sacred and precious. The world can be a vicious place - but it doesn't have to be!

I will write more in the upcoming weeks. There is a lot to blog about, and I would write more tonight, but I'll probably hit the pillow when I put the baby down tonight. Mommy's exhausted!

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!