In Which Amelia is Chatty, Does Not Include Pictures, and Fails in the Cool Blog World

Just peeking in for a bit until Steve gets home. I feel like being sort of random and scattered and actually doing something relaxing (like typing about everything and nothing) instead of running around feeling guilty for everything I should be doing.

Tomorrow I leave for Portland with the mother.  That is all.  No other children/spouses/relatives/friends are coming.  Just the two of us.   We are going to the Art and Soul crafting event and taking two classes: creating a fabric "anthology" portfolio thingie, and a crazy quilt purse.  This event has been in the works since Silver Bella was cancelled in April.  Despite the plethora of obstacles and family crisis over the past few months, we are still flying out of Denver tomorrow evening and arriving in Portland (and seeing Joan!) for the weekend.  Our original plan was to take the HarriEd and find a babysitter, but when I calculated that she would be with a person she did not previously know for over 25 hours while I was in classes, I began to rethink our scheme.  Not only would she not know the babysitter, but she would be in a new house when a new time zone, unknown napping and bedtime routine, etc.  I would also spend a lot of money on the babysitter and all of the necessities to make H more comfortable.  It just makes sense for her to stay home with her daddy in the morning and Clara in the evening when Steve goes to work.  Then she can sleep in her own bed, eat at the normal times, nap as usual, and be with the people that she knows and loves.  She probably won't really notice that I'm gone.  Me, on the other hand?  I'm really struggling with the idea of leaving her for five days.  I know it's partially a pride thing because I have the tendency to think that I am the only one who can take care of Harriet properly, comfort her adequately, and so on.  Also, I worry that something will happen to her that could have been prevented if I were home.  I feel like it's back when I was so nervous about letting her sleep as a newborn.  I wouldn't sleep all night because I was freaked out that something would happen if I wasn't watching her.  Finally, I really had to trust God where the rubber met the road and truly acknowledge that he cares for Harriet infinitely more than I ever could.  He is enough for her and he will care for her.  Now I have to do that again.  And I know I'll have to do that countless times for the rest of her life.  Yeesh.

Today was busy but fun.  First I ran over to Kid's Kloset to deliver some of the jeans I had altered and to leave an invoice for an outstanding alteration project.  I love hemming jeans because it is so easy and relaxing, but it also provides a bit of extra cash for my other crafty projects.  The funny thing is that whenever I go to the store to deliver a pair of finished jeans, the clerk will say, "Oh I'm so glad you're here!  I have more jeans for you!"  That has happened twice this week.  It is such a blessing to have a little money-maker that uses my natural inclinations and gifts.  Thanks, God.

After coming home and cleaning the house up a bit, Clara and Jemima, and Kylie and her two kids came over for lunch and craftiness.  We had been planning to make these fabric pumpkins for a few weeks. Even though I was beginning to wonder what I was getting myself into with having people over the day before The Big Trip, it was worth the screaming children, food flying everywhere, dog running away, etc, to push things through and make the pumpkins.  They turned out to be such cute little guys!  Pictures are forthcoming.

I like having a chance to let Kylie and Clara and their respective children hang out at my house.  I really want to develop relationships with other moms that result in a supportive friendship, and not a guilt-inducing one.  I feel like I can have Kylie over and my house does not have to be clean (the kids just completely bomb it anyway, so why bother?).  My kitchen does not have to be spotless.  I don't have to have make-up on or a perfectly coordinating outfit.  I want friends to feel like they can come over and let their kids run a muck and it's okay.  Because this is a season.  Our kids won't always be screaming and stealing each others' cups...just because.  Someday they will be old enough to stay home by themselves and then we can go get pedicures.  But in the meantime, there needs to be support and acceptance.  It needs to be okay to stop being a Good Girl...just for a little while.

(I've got to order the Grace for the Good Girl book.  Just reading the first chapter was so convicting and helpful.)

Oops, Steve is home.  I'll have to detail the magic of the chiropractor at a later date.

See you after Portland!

Joy Today

It's pretty typical when I'm pregnant for me to think deeply depressing thoughts.  Maybe it's hormones (okay, maybe a lot) but I always get all caught up in One Day Steve Will Die and we won't have any more adventures together and we never had our Real Adventures anyway because we were living every day life....

And then I realize that I shouldn't watch Up when I'm pregnant.  Or ever.

So I am thinking about joy.  Real, deep joy that comes from recognizing that every good and perfect gift comes from God.  Every moment of sanctification comes from God and that's joyful, too.  So here's my snappy little Five Minute Friday post of joyful things.

Joy is:
 - when Steve gets home from work at night and no matter how rotten my evening is, we usually get a huge kick out of just Being together
 - Harriet leaving in her hair bows
 - having my spirit totally do an about face when I turned on the Newsboys' Adoration album when I really did not want to do the dishes
 - feeling the Baby #2 squirm in such a very small yet determined way
 - grinding fresh flour in my own mill
 - getting huge squeezing hugs from the one and only Harriet
 - finding myself crying again because really the joy is too much.

In which HarriEd is the main feature

If blog silence is a sign of busyness then this is definitely true for me.  Yeesh, life doesn't sit down and drink a latte very often...and neither do I.  (Although I did drink a decaf latte today made with our wonderful, glorious, hard-working espresso machine.  It was delightful and I was reminded that my days would be a lot more chill if I sat down and drank a latte when the afternoon gets edgy.)

There are lots of things to take pictures of -  like the totally a.maz.ing paint job that my dear fambly performed on our house last Saturday. I have the Before pictures, which look appropriately awful with junk cluttering every surface, but the After pictures are still in the works.  I got the pictures back on the walls and most of the living room re-organdised before the Wretched End of Summer Cold attacked my personage.  Basically life stopped after that.  (I was glad it happened right after the first MOPS meeting of the year.  Hmm...stressed out Amelia and big fatty cold.  There couldn't be a connection there, eh?)  I'm going to take After pictures when the curtains are up, and the throw pillows are on the couch.  At least the bloggie bloggie motivates me to actually get this stuff done.  HGTV ready or not, my living room and bedroom look incredible.  And the basement was miraculously changed from Junk Dump Spot to Fun Family/Craft Room.  Heavenly!

I did upload some pictures of the HarriEd today.  That's what you get tonight, folks.

Zucchini pizza casserole is an all-time fave.  She eats more than I do. 

Harriet always uses her right hand for coloring, eating, etc.  Sorry, Grami Cami!  She also makes the sounds of letters every time she colors.

Houses are rockin' awesome and she will delight in one made out of boxes, baskets, chairs, or, in the case of this deluxe version, a blanket over a table.

Harriet will wear necklaces and scarves from the moment she gets up to the time she goes to bed.  And also hair barrettes.  She just doesn't take them off!  She also likes to fix things with screwdrivers.

What better way to spend time with your daddy than playing the drums?  (And wearing a lanyard.)

Harriet's latest venture into the land of adorableness is to really be interested in reading books.  She has a basket of her own books (along with some from the library) and will repeatedly bring them to me throughout the day.  Of course I have to sit down right then and read them to her.  Her favourite is the Tomie de Paola Nursery Rhymes.  I love it.  Harriet also finds great delight in The Wiggles DVDs that we pick out at the library.  She can do the whole Hot Potato song.  I need to get that on video.

Big thanks goes out to my mommy-dear who kindly took Harriet on an afternoon outing to the library, Dollar General, and the bakery.  Because of her efforts, I totally spanked an assignment to write an abstract on Ryrie's Dispensationalism, and I have a renewed sense of ability in my course-taking efforts.  All I need are two hours of uninterrupted time to think and suddenly I can produce papers like the good ol' days.

(Except that I wouldn't trade my current days of squeezing in online classes with the good ol' days of school for anything.  I am much happier with a hubby and a baby or two, thank you very much.)

Labor Day at the lake

It was cool and ever so windy, but our afternoon cookout at the lake with friends was fantabulous.  Even in the pre-packaged Wally World burgers were a little weird.  (The hubby did a good job cooking them, however.)

Harriet loves her some Haddie and Judah.

 They spent most of dinner prep getting on and off of the parking curb-thingie.

After eating about 5 million tomatoes and getting them all over her face and shirt, it was time for Harriet to hit the beach.

Thanks to Judah for donating the shovel.

And the bucket.

The water was still pretty warm despite the chilliness of the wind.

Clara and Jemima-bean were there, too.  And Kylie and Nathan.  I'm sure people have lots of better pictures, but hey!  I remembered the camera this time.  Sadly, the muchly-loved s'more fest back at the S home was not documented.  It was a jolly good time.

Five Minute Friday: Rest

Resting is kind of a scarce thing in our little house these days.  Harriet is pushing her naptime and bedtime routines to new heights of insanity.  She rolls and hollers and generally avoids rest for as long as possible.  Then when she is finally asleep for the brief span of time, I emerge from the bedroom to see a pile of schoolbooks and a mountain of dishes and a to-do list as long as my body.

But I was thinking today that it really isn't an issue of how much I have to do, or how little sleep I get (thanks to the H).  It's really an internal issue.  There are these constant little voices saying things like

You aren't good enough.

You aren't skinny enough.

You aren't keeping Harriet in a good routine.

You can't keep the house clean to save your life.

You are so busy that you don't have time for your husband.

You fail.

That's where the real agitation lies.  True rest for me comes not from leaving the dirty dishes and sitting on the couch eating chocolate chip cookies.   True rest for me does not come from getting 10 hours of sleep (although that sounds really fabulous right now.  True rest comes from silencing those stupid niggling voices and just doing what I'm supposed to do.  As me.

 Am I resting in who I am as the person God created me to be?  More importantly, am I resting in who I am because of what Christ has done?  

I was really blessed by the post here. And I really like Five Minute Fridays.

The Nebraska State Fair, etc

We're very glad that the Nebraska State Fair moved to a town that is only 1.5 hours away instead of 3 hours away.  Now we can actually attend and enjoy and take pictures to prove it.

(You can tease me all you want about how jacked up these photos are...but State Fair related pictures need a cheesy, vintage feel, don't you think?  It's right up there with chili cheese fries and funnel cakes.)

Margaret won a purple ribbon in the fashion show.  Woot!

Steve is loyal to the slightly sketchy Kabab House.

Harriet helped me eat my smoked turkey leg.  I hope she didn't share my indigestion, as well. :-P

What's the fair without giant livestock?

Or prize winning photos?  (Good job, Tim.)

Or a photo with the original Trigger?

Lydia's souvenir was a milk mustache.

And a ride with Eleanor on the swings.

Harriet and I went on the carousel.

And Steve, Jacob, Tim, and Margaret went on the Puke Machine.  (Yep, they are upside down on the right.)

The fair was hot and we got dirty and really super sunburned, but it was a loverly way to spend a Saturday.

In other news, I have been trying desperately to keep caught up with school, keep the kitchen clean and keep Harriet from killing herself.  Today was an exciting day as she refused to nap until after 3pm, dove off of the bed and split her lip open, and then threw Farmer Jed into the flushing toilet.  Wowsers!  She really is the best thing, though.  And now she's sleeping so I can finally. have. some. me. time.