I guess Fall is exactly a month late this year, but it seems to have finally arrived.  The sky is overcast, rain is forecast for a day or two, and after that, the temperatures are supposed to drop (highs in the 50s – yikes!). 

Last night, I realized it was completely dark at 7:30 pm.  I don’t like the extra darkness of late fall/winter.  I’m a solar-powered person.  I like the sun!

Come to think of it…doesn’t Daylight Savings start sometime soon?

One of the babies is kicking my bladder to pieces as I type this.  They really need to stop that.  It hurts.

It’s finally Wednesday.  This has felt like a very long week already.  But I always feel that way when I’m waiting for something.  And I’ve been waiting all week for tomorrow.  Hopefully, I’ll avoid squandering today in my hurry for Thursday to arrive.

The people that Eric works with gave us a baby swing from our registry on Monday.  Last night, Eric put it all together.  It’s very cute.  It swings in two directions and plays lots of sounds/songs.  One of the sounds is weird though.  It’s the sound of crickets at night.  I’m not sure why a baby would enjoy listening to that…

I decided yesterday that I needed to be better about living on purpose, living creatively.  I did better, too.  And I made a real effort to have a better attitude so Eric didn’t have to listen to me whine all evening long.  It’s amazing how easily I forget that my attitude is my choice.  And, not surprisingly, I felt better at the end of the day.  And I slept really well last night…lovely!

I have no major plans today.  Maybe a grocery trip.  Maybe clean the showers in our house.  Maybe do some other basic cleaning.  Maybe start some Christmas shopping.  We shall see…

I think that’s all I have that’s worth saying (and it’s not really worth much!).  Oh well!  Happy Wednesday!

Yesterday felt so long I find myself a little surprised this morning that today is only Tuesday.  Weird…

Eric worked until almost 9:00 pm last night.  He did get done what he needed to do, but I was all alone almost all day.  And yesterday, that was hard for me.  Sometimes it doesn’t bother me so much…I guess it was just one of those days.

Random comment:  Every morning when I type my post, I wonder why Xanga marks contractions as misspelled words, then changes its mind.  I still don’t get it.

I reconnected with a friend from high school on Facebook the other day.  It turns out she lives in the same area of the city as I do.  We’ve been virtually neighbors for years.  How strange!

I find myself struggling these days with some familiar old foes.  What’s interesting is that the bible study I’m doing at church is about seeing mountains move when we pray & praise.  So one of the mountains I’ve been praying about is my tendency to let fear control my life.  I guess, then, it shouldn’t surprise me that opportunities to choose faith over fear are popping up these days.  Still, learning to exercise my faith muscles, instead of my fear muscles, is difficult to do.  I’m used to being afraid, of hemming myself in with efforts to control or avoid anything I’m afraid of.  Living in faith feels unprotected and vulnerable.  I’d better keep on praying, huh?

This morning is bible study.  I’m glad to have a place to go and people to be with for at least part of the day.  And Eric shouldn’t be at work so long today, which is good.  I may try to get some cleaning done this afternoon, but we shall see.

I guess that’s all I have…Have a happy Tuesday!

It was a strange weekend in some ways, very good in others.

We had a very relaxing weekend at home.  No plans, no major appointments or activities, just an unusually home-based weekend.  We ran errands.  We hung out.  We vegged in front of the television. We got little projects worked on.  We talked to each other.  It was lovely.

Highlights of the weekend:

• I found a grocery store that is not packed on Saturday mornings.  I didn’t know such things existed! 
• My blood sugar has been (well) within its boundaries since Friday when I got the glucometer.  
• We watched the movie 10,000 BC.  It was actually a decent movie.  A bit predictable, but not much “bad” stuff in it.  A surprisingly worthwhile watch.
• We bought new blinds for our bedroom.  Two benefits of that: we could finally put one of the old ones in the nursery window, and our bedroom is now MUCH darker at night.  So we’ve been sleeping really well for the last couple of nights!

As far as the GD goes, it’s been a little strange to adjust to having to deal with it.  My biggest concern right now is making sure I’m getting enough food at the same time as I’m figuring out what I should eat less of to keep the blood sugar at good levels.  I think I’m doing okay.  I’m not really hungry much, so that’s good.  But it is hard.  I’ll be glad to finally meet with the dietician on Thursday.

Of course, some things that are just plain hard for me, for sure.  I could list a number of them.  In fact, I just deleted 4 bullets of my “issues” today.  It was probably good for me to write them all out, just to get them out of my head.  But I realized as I re-read them, that they all sounded whiny and selfish.  So I deleted them.  I do not need to dwell on them.  I need to turn them over to Jesus so that they don’t control my thoughts all day!  But you can just pray for my attitude and my “issues” if you want…that will help me, too!

And along those same lines, I do need to praise Jesus this morning.  He has been a mighty warrior for me this weekend.  And I was reminded again of the powerful reality of the promise in Galatians 5, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.”  When I turned my issues over to Jesus and re-tuned my heart to the Spirit’s leading, there returned joy, peace, love, and the rest of the fruit of the Spirit.  And my habits of fear, worry, anxiety (the lusts of my flesh) lost their power over me.  I love how the power of Scripture and the promises of God are truly enough for the trials that we face.  Praise him!

Happy Monday!!

That’s for gestational diabetes…which I found out yesterday that I do have…which I am NOT very happy about.

So I spent most of yesterday reacting.  The morning was mostly spent sobbing in frustration.  Then I sulked a good bit of the rest of the day.  I was pretty much bummed.  As if the next few weeks won’t be hard enough, now I have to deal with this, too.  YUCK!  (Can you sense I’m still not totally over it…)

By last night, I was trying to focus on other things and was even able to laugh a little bit about it (well, at least about my reaction).  And I had a nice time at our church’s moms’ group so that helped.

This morning, I had to meet with a nurse to get started on stuff.  I’m slightly less frustrated now.  She had me watch a video and walked me through some stuff.  Here’s the results:

• To “fail” Wednesday’s glucose test, the blood sugar had to be high in 2 of the 4 blood draws.  Mine was high in 2 of the 4 blood draws.  And both were about 10-12 milligrams (or whatever measurement they use) over the limit, which doesn’t seem that high to me.  But basically, I have this “issue” ONLY because of the second placenta.  That’s pretty much it.
• Editorial comment: I find myself very resentful of that placenta.  Not the baby, of course, I want the baby.  But I’m mad at the placenta.  I know it’s necessary for the baby.  But I’m bitter about the whole thing.  Dumb placenta.
• I now have to test my blood 4 times a day until the babies are born.  She gave me my very own monitor and a starter pack of test strips, etc, and taught me how to use it.  I have to test about 2 hours after every meal, and I have to keep a meticulous log of the readings.  
• Editorial comment: I have to prick my fingers to get the blood reading, and it does hurt a little. Also, I will now have to plan into my day how I’ll get the testing done after each meal.  I guess I’ll have to take the meter everywhere with me or never leave the house.   Boy, doesn’t the next (hopefully) 8 weeks sound like fun for me?!?
• Next week, I have to meet with a dietician.  That was one of the most frustrating things of all.  I have to start testing now, but won’t have much help on what to do about the readings until late next week.    Thankfully, today’s nurse did give me some basic food guidelines since I have no real idea of what a meal plan should look like.  But it seems I’ll be guessing for a week, so hopefully we can figure something out…

Okay, enough of my bitter, cranky spirit.  I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually.  But it’s still hard right now.  I want to spend a lot of time whining to God about “Why me?” and “Poor me”.  But seriously, it could be much, much worse.  In fact, at 29 weeks of a twin pregnancy, I should be ecstatic that this is the worst thing that’s happened so far.  Still, I know God and I need to do a lot of work on my attitude. 

Oh!  And on a totally random side note, a spider attacked me this morning!  Okay, maybe not attacked, but while driving home this morning, a huge, fuzzy black spider started crawling up my belly!  And I couldn’t get it off me!  I had a small panic attack, trying to get it off me while keeping my car on the road.  I’m sure anyone who saw me thought I was having a seizure or something.  Still, I did finally manage to flick it onto the floor and it’s probably hiding under my seat, plotting its revenge for the next time we use my car.  Maybe I’ll make Eric drive it next…

The new sidebar of “advertised” xanga blogs included one today called “How to Bed your Woman: a blog for lovers.”  Um…really?

It’s raining here.  The weather report called for 100% chance of rain.  For once, they were right!

I’m doing surprisingly well so far this morning (though I haven’t passed my normal breakfast time yet).  I actually slept pretty well, except for trips to the bathroom, of course.  But I can feel the hunger starting.  At least in just a few hours, this whole thing will be done.

Eric sometimes eats breakfast here and sometimes just takes something with him to eat in the car.  Today, the day I can’t have breakfast myself, he ate here.  He can be so mean sometimes.

I paid less than $30 for a tank of gas yesterday.  Yippee!

I did get to WalMart yesterday to buy mostly some personal care products.  It took a while.  Man do I walk slowly these days!  But, as my mom said, at least I’m still walking (at 29 weeks!).  Yep…good point.  Very good point.

Tonight I’m making dinner for some friends who just had a baby.  I have a huge roast (that I got free at the farm) that I’ll cook this afternoon and take over to them (and probably keep some for us!).  Hopefully, they’ll enjoy that!

I should go take a shower now so I can be ready to leave for my doctor’s appointment, which is at 8:30.  But I suspect, with the rain, traffic won’t be so great this morning.  So I think I’ll try to leave extra time.  I also need to gather some entertainment to take with me.  I should definitely get going…

Happy Wednesday!

I rested a lot yesterday (no nap), but I think it was just what I needed.  Actually, I simply sat on the couch and worked on some things that required the television (i.e., watching a dvd from an old Christmas program and noting the script changes in the script for this year).  And I read a lot yesterday, too.  Very nice!

Today is bible study.  And maybe a trip to WalMart.  And probably more sitting.

So a quick prayer request if you don’t mind…tomorrow I have to go to the doctor’s office for the second-level glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes.  I’m not really worried that I have it, but the test itself is evil, and I’m struggling not to dread it.  So if you think of it:
1. Pray that I won’t have gestational diabetes.  These next few weeks will be hard enough without that, too!
2. Pray for strength to get through the test well (it requires almost 18 hours of fasting, 4 blood draws, and sitting in the doctors office (hungry) all morning).  I tend to get cranky and to get headaches when I don’t have enough blood sugar in me.  But I don’t want to ruin my witness there just because I’m hungry!
3. Pray I won’t worry about it all day today.

Okay…gotta go do my hair before bible study.  Happy Tuesday to you all!!

That’s what we had!

We left on Friday night for the farm about as soon as Eric got home from work.  It was likely the last trip we will be able to make until after the babies come, so we really wanted to go.  Of course, traffic out of the city was already bad (it was just after 4:00 when we left), but we made it out without too much delay.  Then we hit a backup just before Zanesville.  There was a horrible accident on the other side of the road (a semi sent one car down the embankment, then hit another SUV and car head on), so our side was slowing to gawk.  They’d even brought in a life-flight helicopter and landed on the highway!  Of course, the other side was shut down for miles, so it could have been worse.  And thankfully, no one was killed!

Anyway, we made our way to the farm and had some downtime there before my MIL got home from work.  We had dinner and chatted for a while before bed.  Saturday was a day of relaxing, chatting, knitting, and just hanging out.  Eric and his mom did some computer stuff, and I just sat on the couch.  Lovely!  We didn’t get home as early as we’d wanted to, but it was a good time.

Sunday after church, we headed to C-ville for a b-day party for Debbie.  There wasn’t a lot of excitement there either, as we were all pretty tired, for various reasons.  But we had a nice time chatting and having dinner.  And we got to see the nieces and Jason, as well.  They are so cute!!

Other random things from the weekend:

• I think little boy might have flipped back around because my bladder has not been beaten around for a couple of days.  And I’m feeling a lot more activity higher up on his side again.  If he did…whoopee!!!
• Karen brought me over a tub of her maternity clothes to try on.  She’s so great!  I don’t want to stretch her stuff out so she can’t use them again, but even the chance to look through them is fantastic!
• I am not sleeping well these days at all, so my plans for today are going to include a lot of sitting, regular eating (hard to do at others’ houses) and maybe a nap.  I don’t see too many chores on my agenda! 

Happy Monday!!

…It’s Friday!

Of course, my days are sort of  backwards from everyone else.  I do my chores/relaxing during the week and then run like a mad person all weekend.  Or at least that what it seems like.

This weekend, we’ll be heading out to the farm for a couple of days and then to a family gathering in C-ville on Sunday to finish off the busyness.  I’m already tired, though, so I’ll be really beat by the end of the weekend.

I had my week-28 doctor’s appointment yesterday.  I will now be going every two weeks, which I guess means I’m moving right along.  Everything still looks good (strong heartbeats, a bit more weight gain, measuring 36 weeks). Of course, I don’t have much to report to her (which is very, very good!), so the appointments don’t take much time at all.  Though yesterday I had to drink the orange stuff for the glucose test, get blood drawn in my right arm and a flu shot in my left.  I felt like a lab rat by the time I left!

I have some errands to run today, and I need to finish the laundry.  And I don’t think I have much else that’s very exciting to report today. 

Happy Friday!!

Nixie was noting in her latest post how hot it was supposed to be in Australia for a couple of days.  Apparently, the southern hemisphere has sucked all the heat from the northern hemisphere because it’s cold today here!  The news guy was even talking about a wind chill.  A wind chill?!?  Two days into October?!? 

Of course, this means I’ll need to start finding some longer sleeved shirts, of which I don’t have many.  And except for the one zip-front hoodie (navy) and one sweater jacket (brown) – which I have no shirts/tanks to layer under, I have no real outerwear at all.  Hmmm…this could pose a problem if “wind chills” continue to occur so soon this fall!

But enough about my clothes…

I got my meal plan and grocery lists done yesterday.  And Eric did go with me to the grocery store last night, even though he didn’t get home until almost 7.  I like when he goes with me and not just because he can reach high-up shelves and carry all the bags and push the cart!   Then he figured out how to delete a questionable file off my computer when we got home.  He’s an incredibly handy guy to have around!

Sadly I don’t have much else to say today. 

Happy Thursday!

In the last week or so, they’ve been happening more and more.  Not so many (yet) that I feel like I need to call the doctor.  But I will definitely be mentioning it at my next appointment (very soon!).   I’m guessing, though, that such realities are here to stay now, and they are what will, if anything, require bed rest.  And if that’s what’s necessary to keep these babies in there longer, I guess I can deal.  But I hope it’s not necessary…

For some reason, today sort of feels like Friday to me.  I have no idea why.  Weird.

Yesterday was bible study and a short trip to Target.  I also spent a good bit of time on the couch.  For dinner, I made au gratin potatoes.  They took most of 2 hours…no wonder people don’t make those very often!  I called my parents’ house in the evening and eventually got to chat with both of them.  Lovely!

Today I have no major plans.  In fact, when we prayed before Eric left, he asked God to help me not to get too much done.  He’s a funny guy.   But I do have some little chores to accomplish.  I need to create a meal plan for October, which leads to a grocery list, which then necessitates a trip to the grocery.  Ok…the last one’s not so little, I guess…but maybe I’ll wait until Eric gets home and let him come along to help me.  

I can’t believe it’s October 1st today.   That means there are only 3 months left in 2008.  Crazy!

Anyway, I’m rambling now, so I should stop here.  Happy Wednesday!!