friday picture puzzle

+



=

wordless wednesday

wordless wednesday

nesting

So, I think I have officially started nesting. Creditial #1: Overwhelming feeling that we only have 13 weeks left until baby arrives? Check. Creditial #2: constant cleaning and obsession with having absolutely NO dirty dishes in the sink? Check. Creditial #3: Worrying about dust mites and the invisible lives they are leading in our bedding? Check. Ok, I'm there. Now that Jason has finished all but one of his licensure tests, we are off and running on preparing the house for baby. Of course, his desire to fix up the house is not nesting (or so he says :) I'm pretty sure we are both nesting.

Project #1: Remove all books from upstairs so we have room for our bedroom. Words cannot describe how many books we own, so I took a picture. There are even more at my work!! Our dining room table is 6-foot by 6-foot square and every square inch is covered with piles of books and each pile has 15 books or more!! That's a lot of books. We know they are worth a lot of money and want to insure them but that means creating a spreadsheet of all the books, what they cost, ISBN numbers, etc. etc. It took me one hour to do 100 books last night so I'm thinking it will take about 10 hours to do all of them!! It will be worth it in the end as our new bedroom will not be laden with dust-covered books!! YEA!

As we're going through this process, we are coming across many old memories. For example, I found my wedding planner book. Pictures of bridesmaids dresses, bridal registries, photographer contracts, hotel room reservations, etc. There was also a section called "coupons" with a little envelope in which to place coupons. Apparently, I didn't know that was supposed to be for wedding-related coupons. Anyone need coupons for mac and cheese that expired in 2000? That made me laugh out loud! Of course, I recycled the pile of about 100 coupons. I'm hilarious!

Memories. I'm excited about the memories we are going to create with our new little baby. First walks, first talks, first explosive diapers that go clear up the baby's back...so many things to look forward to! :) This pregnancy has gone so fast I can't even believe it. Only 13 weeks to go until Baby W is born. I am so in love with this baby I can hardly stand it. I wonder what traits Baby will get from me and which traits Baby will get from Jason. I hope that Baby gets my sense of humor and Jason's eyes (I wanted to say "Jason's butt" instead of "Jason's eyes" but I thought that would be inappropriate---oops, I said it anyways!!). I hope that Baby gets Jason's calmness and my compassion. Honestly, I just hope we don't do anything damaging. But, when we do, because we will, I hope that we are compassionate with ourselves and reach out for help when we need it. We live in a society that tends towards high expectations. But, what I know from my friends who are parents is this: we will mess up, we will not be perfect, we will do our best, and we will still fail at times. What I know for sure is this: God is with us, God is with this baby, God has already made plans for this baby's life. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11 Thank GOD for that.

So, I started with a picture of books and I've ended with a picture of life. The life that God has set forth for each of us. Takes some of the pressure off to know that He is in control and I just need to follow His lead.

Here's to following...

state number 51

Did you know that there is a new state in the United States? It's mass covers an area twice the state of Texas, stretching from California to Japan. In some places it is 90 feet deep. Never heard of it? It's called the state of TRASH. Debris, litter, and all other kinds of trash have blown into the Pacific Ocean creating this huge mass of TRASH. Ocean life is dying, fish are eating plastic because they think it's food, beluga whales are getting breast cancer from the chemicals in the plastics they are eating (does that tell ya something???), birds are getting caught in plastic bags and suffocating, they've even found appliances like refrigerators IN THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN!!...need I say more?? Ok, I will. In some places in the Pacific there are SIX TIMES more pieces of plastic than there is plankton, the main food source for many sea animals. And it isn't just coming from the western states. Experts say that the trash and debris travel as far as Iowa. IOWA. Crazy. I thought that I was pretty informed about the need for recycling and using less stuff, but my eyes have been opened!! Did you know that this isn't the only ocean with a big mass of trash? It's just the biggest one. Most oceans and watersystems have swirls of trash like this. Crazy!

The exciting thing is that we CAN do something about this. Even small steps can make for change. Try one of these changes:

~use reusable bags at the grocery store rather than plastic. They are inexpensive (99 cents each for a reusable Dillons bag) and stores like Dillons give you 5 cents for each bag you use. Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh, and (I hear) Oregon have begun charging consumers for each plastic bag they use. In Oregon, I believe some grocery stores charge 33 cents per bag. So, use reusable bags and you'll save money AND you'll save the planet. Nice.

~recycle what you can. In Wichita, a local trash company (Waste Connections) has partnered with www.recyclebank.com. Along with your trash service, you can order recycling service. You get a container and dump recyclable materials in---no need to sort, they'll do that for you. Then they weigh your recycling and turn pounds into points that you can then turn into certificates for free items. Cash for "Trash". Nice.

~take your lunch to work waste-free. Use reusable containers for your lunches rather than plastic baggies. Just takes a small investment in containers but you'll save money in the long run. One company makes cool looking containers: www.to-goware.com Saving money in the long run as well as saving the planet in the long run. Nice. I kind of feel like a broken record :)

So, what can you do? God gave us this beautiful and precious Earth and I believe it is our responsibility to take care of it. I certainly don't do everything I can and throw away things that could be recycled, but each day I'm making an intentional effort to reduce my carbon footprint. I hope to hear responses to this post of small ways you are making a difference---I always love to learn new things!

free-flow journal

Something I often request of my clients is to begin writing free-flow journals. Just sit down with a pen and paper or at a computer and start writing. It's amazing what you'll learn about yourself and what's going on with you that you wouldn't have realized if you hadn't taken time to allow yourself to just write. So, I thought it would be interesting to make a free-flow journal into a blog. We'll see how this goes.

Now that I'm meandering my way into the new territory of motherhood, my thought processes have changed. I am much more aware of babies as I pass them in the stores. I watch parents as they play with, scold, love, protect, laugh...with their babies. Yes, I've always loved children and yes no baby has ever passed my way without mention of an "Oh, look how cute" or "Bless his little heart" :) But now that there is an actual-real-life-there's-no-turning-back-now-one-pound-11-inch-baby in my belly, life is changing (quite literally, actually!). I can feel him or her more and more each day. Yesterday was the most I had felt little Baby W and it felt like a roller coaster in my belly. For the past several weeks, okay all of the past several weeks, I have been pretty freaked out about the idea of a baby being "in there". I've explained the feeling like swallowing a bug and knowing it was still alive and moving around "in there". Sad, but true. Something changed yesterday. I was on a conference call and felt some actual kicking. Baby W is getting quite accustomed to having a full-access pass to all of my major organs. The favorite: my bladder. OH, what fun. I've had to pee so often that I'm even dreaming about bathrooms. One bathroom I dreamt about was all gold, another was normal except for the enormous toilet...it's truly amazing that I haven't wet the bed...yet.

Ahem.

There are so many things going on in the Worley household. Mostly questions that have yet to be answered: where should the baby sleep, do we need a crib and a bassinet, how about a high chair, a swing, a bouncy seat, what's the difference between breast pumps (eww), are we really ready for this, will we ever be ready, how will we afford daycare, how will we afford everything, is cloth-diapering really the way to go, should we move, will I be a good mom, what will the baby's personality be like, will the baby have Jason's lips, will the baby have my sense of humor, will the baby have 10 fingers and 10 toes, will the baby be healthy, should we find out the sex of the baby ...along with the many questions comes many emotions...excitement, wonder, fear, worry, happiness, joy, anxiousness, etc etc etc

deep breath

Through all the questions and emotions, there are 3 things I know for sure:
1. I serve an incredible, perfect, wonderful God that already knows the plan for my life (Jeremiah 29:11) and I live in wonderment of Him daily.
2. I can't wait to meet this little God-created wonder that is growing inside me.
3. I am truly blessed.