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.