February 27, 2007

moving, driving, and in general going crazy

So, after our recent debacle with the women's center in town and the midwife in Alabama (don't ask right now) I have no idea in the world where or how I'm going to be giving birth and even what state I'm going to be in when it happens. Given that I'm over halfway there...it's quite an interesting situation all around. Anyway, we just recently got back from our visit in Alabama (4+hrs one way), and we're about to turn around again and drive right back to look at a couple more apartments. And I do mean a couple -two to be unmistakably precise. That makes me rather nervous. For all I know some well minded people are going to go calling on certain offices to sign pieces of paper that will have me scouring the internet (again) for possible places to live. NOT FUN. I spend hours and hours tracking down information, trying to find decent apartments at decent prices, and I'm left here hoping and praying that one of these two will work out. I know God will provide, but I'll still feel better knowing how. On top of all that I've got the flopsies. All I want to do is flop down on the couch and stitch or goof off on the computer. Can't say that's conducive to getting anything done around here. ERRRRRRRRRG! Fortunately Allen has been very sweet and patient about everything, but it doesn't help that I know exactly what I need to do and yet seem uniquely incapable of getting any of it done. I admit that looking at my current inadequacies there are times when I'm tempted to despair at the thought of attempting to keep up with my responsibilities and take care of another human being at the same time. Allen's pretty easy. If things get too out of hand I can always send him to fend for himself for a little while. Not so with this little one. (Who incidentally just kicked me -she's getting stronger and moving more.) God will provide; God will provide.... God! Can I handle all this? Sometimes I wonder. Hopefully things will get clearer in the next few weeks. Until then I'd better enjoy learning to live by faith since it appears that's the lesson God has set before me whether I like it or not.

February 25, 2007

Truth and Fact

That Sarah was past the age of childbearing and that Abraham was an old man are both facts. Any competent medical or childbirth authority could have looked at them and declared that if they wanted kids they'd better think about adoption -or perhaps using the services of their servant Hagar. These things are clearly laid out in the Bible. However, the plain and explicit truth is that God had declared that Sarah would bear Abraham a child in fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham.

Ishmael was the offspring of fact, but Isaac was the son of truth.

Our God is a God of truth.

February 15, 2007

I can read your face, but don't ask me about palms. Oh, and can you stick out your tongue?

This past weekend my mother-in-law came up for a seminar entitled Face, Tongue, and Nails. Yeah, I know. It sounds fascinating. I got to go with her though, and it really was fascinating. Much of the seminar materials were based off of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the ways TCM practitioners learned to read the face, tongue, and nails for signs of weaknesses and conditions in your body. For instance, we've all heard the one about a crease in your ear being a sign of potential heart trouble. But have you heard the one about darkness under your eye being a sign of underactive kidneys? Or that the condition of the tip of your nose can give information about your heart and that your lips tell a lot about your stomach and digestion? Your nails are important too. The shape of the nail and its color, any markings, the size and location of moons, all these things say something about the condition of your body. The tongue is particularly interesting because it can change rapidly and reveal acute conditions in your body. The coating on the tongue -it's thickness, color, and location- can tell a lot about what it going on in your body right now. It's amazing how much information our bodies plainly reveal about the state of our health that we aren't even aware of. It can literally be as plain as the nose on your face. Unfortunately people (and especially doctors) aren't trained to read these signs and get a picture of our overall health. We come in with a symptom and the doctor's usually want to fix the symptom. This is really like shooting the messenger because a symptom is no more than a sign that your body is out of balance. Health isn't a lack of symptoms. Health is having the body in balance working smoothly and efficiently. These balances and imbalances can be clearly seen by those who have been trained to see them. Also, all these things I've mentioned -these signs that show up on our faces and hands- can change. You can take a picture of your face today, work on your health for a year, take another picture, compare the two, and see just how much you've really improved. The same goes for your nails. You can see yourself getting better and stronger. This last weekend I realized that several of my nails that were twisted were getting straighter and stronger. That means that I'm getting stronger. It's really very interesting. I can't wait for a chance to put some of this into practice.

A very cheesy Valentines (or why cliched /= bad idea)

So I sort of forgot that it was Valentine's Day until lo and behold it was Valentine's Day. I thought it was next week. Didn't have so much as a card for Allen. We weren't planning on doing anything big -just going to play In The Groove at the mall and then to Famous Dave's afterwards. I still felt kind of bad though. Such were the thoughts that ran through my head as I was cleaned up the bedroom from it's previous state of inane clutter. Cleaning the bedroom...duh! So I went and surreptitiously gathered most of the candles from the living room and stashed them on my side of the bed. Then I went and took a shower and shaved my legs before we headed out the door. I admit I felt more than a little cheesy and cliched while I was lighting those candles, but... Let's just say that just because something is cliched doesn't mean it can't be a darn good idea ; ) Mmm, candlelight...maybe after Baby is born I can add a bottle of wine to the recipe.

February 8, 2007

Well I thought it was funny...

Midwife: "Do you faint when you have blood drawn?"

Me: "I don't know."

Midwife: pokes sharp thing into my arm

Me: makes face at Allen but otherwise shows no signs of retreating from the present reality.

I guess that answers that question : D

February 7, 2007

One small snip for me...

I know this is so not a huge deal for most people, but yesterday I actually went into a haircutting place and got my hair cut. That's it. She took off between and inch and a half and two inches total and did some long, well blended layers. The serious observer might notice that my hair is a tad different, but overall I walked out of there looking much like I did before I walked in. However, I've heard so many horror stories of people with long hair (mine is just a few inches shy of my waist) walking into a hair salon and walking out with tears and chopped off hair. I'm not obsessive about my hair, but I do try to take care of it, and I didn't want some "believe me I know what you want" hair stylist making a salad of it. Before I'd always had my hair cut by either my mom or a friend from church. Never someone I didn't know. Have I mentioned that I have some trust issues? I want to know that I'm doing the exact right thing and making the exact right decision and that everything is going to come out exactly right. That's the big deal. I was going to walk in a sit down and relinquish control over my hair to a stranger. Actually, that's kind of what I'm going to do tomorrow. I'm going to walk into the women's center, and a nurse is going to poke and nod and draw blood work and proceed to tell me things about my body and my baby. I'm going to come face up against the reality that I'm not in control of everything. Most of the time we can pretend or ignore our own helplessness, but it's times like these that I blanch at my own precarious position. However, the alternative is to not get help -to let my hair get ratty and unattractive and to neglect to let people guide my pregnancy and prepare me for birth. Of course, I might be coming up against my own helplessness, but that doesn't mean that I'm hopeless. I know that God is good and that He works all things for good. If I'm trusting Him then I don't have to be afraid of what other people around me are doing. I don't have to fear my helplessness.

Didn't know there was so much to getting a simple hair cut did you?

February 3, 2007

tired but happy

I really don't have time for a real post since I need to get to bed so I'm not just dragging myself up in the morning. I just wanted to say that I'm so glad I finally got some organizational things done today. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and got a set of drawers. It's just a metal frame with canvas drawers, but it will fit in the tiny space between the closets. I also bought one of those shelf organizers that hangs from your closet rod. I feel like I finally have room to put things away instead of constantly shuffling around piles. I don't have everything up, but I've made progress. I also cleared out a big bag of clothes that I'm not wearing/won't wear to take to the thrift store.

I bought a big red canvas bin to hold all those crafting/sewing things that I want to be able to get to but don't want cluttering up the living area. While I was out I also bought a few more crafting things to go in my bin -some more flannel and some cotton batting to make nursing pads, more flannel to make burp clothes and a swaddling blanket, and a couple of cross stitch kits. One kit is for a birth announcement/sampler, and the other is an apple tree full of birds. I'm going to stitch a Bible verse under it and hang it up in our new place after we move.

Well, I need to go brush some butter over the communion bread and hop into bed. We have to get there early to set up for communion this Sunday, and I don't really like getting up early for church anyway. Goodnight everyone.

February 2, 2007

Just as good as Sam's...

Today for supper I pulled out some frozen chicken pieces I had stashed in the freezer. I had been intending to fry them up, but since I didn't have any coconut oil (we don't use canola oil) I ended up breading them and baking them on a cookie sheet. I took a bite and my tongue captured the nostalgic flavor of Sam's chicken tenders served to a table full of hungry kids. My husband agreed with me. Somehow I had cooked up some childhood memories. Ok, so maybe it's just Sam's chicken made from scratch. Whatever. I like Sam's chicken tenders. Also, I know what's going into these, and I bet you my frying pan that my ingredients are a whole lot better for you. Just in case anyone's listening here's what I put in my breading. Unfortunately I can't really tell you how much since I never measure : )

fine ground WW flour (about 2-3 cups)
one package (column/stack) wheat crackers well crushed
Salt (a good palm full)
Pepper (just a dash)
Onion and Garlic powder (around a tablespoon each)
Paprika (until the mix starts looking a little pink)
Cayenne Pepper (it's good without, but I like to add at least a teaspoon)

If you just wet your finger and get a dab of the mixture to taste you can get a pretty good idea of the flavor and whether or not you need to add anything. Other than that you can just use your instincts. I dip our chicken in an egg and milk mixture first and either fry in coconut oil or bake on a cookie sheet coated liberally with olive oil turning once in 15 min.

Tonight I served our chicken with spicy green beans that I'd cooked up with some onion and garlic powder, a little Braggs, a little tobasco and cumin, and a some thyme. So maybe next time I need to go a little easier on the tobasco =) They were still good.

praying for the happy ending

I've got a friend, and she's got a friend. And that friend just happens to be a guy who looks like he just might actually possibly could be THE guy. No she hasn't said as much too me. She's a nice girl who doesn't want to run ahead of the relationship. So if said possibly perfect for my friend guy comes across this sight and recognizes himself by the description I'm NOT giving of him them he can blame all the wedding planning on me. And of course I'm not going to for one instant suggest to her that she start planning her wedding. But there's a chance. There's at least a chance that she's going to call me one day and say, "Natalie, he asked me!" And I am so incredibly excited about that chance. I want him to be the one. I want her to fall head over heals in love with this guy and get married and have babies and be happier than she ever though possible in her entire life. Maybe this isn't the one or the time. Maybe God has other plans for my friend. But maybe this is the one. Dear friend I hope this is the one.

A stitch in time...

Can save you from spending too much at Walmart. I'll have to post pictures when I'm finished just to show the cute prints, but I bought some flannel on sale yesterday to sew up into burp cloths. I got a tan print with a brown flower and butterfly design on it, a pink and green calico looking print with a white background, an indigo and dark rose flower print scattered over a creamy white background, and a pink piece with purple, white, yellow, blue, and green polka dots. I love the feel of the third piece -it feels just like an old shirt that's been worn around a dozen campfires. All I'm going to do is cut out two rectangles, lay them wrong sides together, and run a zig zag stitch around the edges. I doubt the flannel will fray too terribly badly, and I can't see taking a lot of time to finish the edges on a piece of cloth that's just going to be spit up on. I can make them for about 5o cents a piece instead of paying $7.50 for a pack of 4 at Walmart. Not bad, eh?

I also bought a piece of fleece on sale that I'm going to blanket stitch around to make a baby blanket. It's a pink plaid with teddy bear faces on it. Too cute! They also had some chenille on sale, but I didn't bother to buy any. I am tempted though. I think it'd be kind of clever to make a patchwork with the chenille stripes going in all different directions. It'd also be a really simple intro to patchwork....Hmm, I might be making another trip to Hancock's.