It's Official

I am over the pregnancy hormones.

I need my rational, sane, level-headed self back. Soon!

This crazy woman who lives here right now is not good.

School Week 20something and Pregnancy Week 29

Our school weeks are all jacked up. We are in between two different weeks depending on what subject you inquire about. Whatever. We're getting it done.

Little Bit is continuing to read Dr. Seuss books to me. It's so exciting to watch her learn to read. I help her with a lot of words still, but sometimes she'll really get going and it makes me so happy.

I'm reading In Grandma's Attic to her. This is a really neat collection of stories from the author's grandmother. The stories are from when her grandmother was a little girl. They nearly all have some sort of "lesson learned" quality to them and are very entertaining. To aid with comprehension, I had Sweetheart draw this picture for me

and then we copied it. Each day after I read the chapter to Little Bit, she illustrates that story in Grandma's thought bubble and we add the chapter title. She can flip back through this and tell you about any of the stories. We'll bind it all into a book at the end.

Sweetheart and I flipped through her remaining assignment sheets yesterday to see what we had left to do before baby comes. We'll get as far as we can. I told her when I go to the hospital, she can take her remaining reading books to grandma and grandpa's house with her and just read them. No worries about what chapter to stop at. She was very excited to hear that!

******************************************************************

Now. About this pregnancy. I continue to be hit by PIHI every now and then. I cry at random times throughout the day about the strangest things. The tears don't normally even last 2 minutes. And then my crazy brain is on to something else. Sigh.

I'm past the point of "cute pregnant". At least I'm past the point of FEELING cute. I waddle. I lose my breath. I still haven't gained much weight and for that I am VERY thankful. I need to order swimsuits for me and the girls soon but I have no idea what size to order for me. Will I continue to not gain much? Or will I spend the next 11 weeks blossoming out of control? Either is possible. Hmm. Not sure what to do.

But I have this long list of things I want to get done before baby comes. I know...I've mentioned that. #1 on the list was finishing the girls' quilts. Which I did yesterday!!!! (I started the quilts in August of 2010. Whew.)

Little Bit's quilt on her bed in her blue room...

And Sweetheart's quilt on her bed in her pink and green room.  There is a lot more green in the quilts than you can see in the picture. 

They were very excited to finally have them and get to sleep with them on their beds. I just love them and I'm happy every time I walk past their rooms. With that big project out of the way, I feel I can surely accomplish my other goals in their rooms!

1. Decorating their curtains.
2. Making fabric wreaths for above their beds.
3. Getting some art work hung.
4. Various other things that don't come to mind at the moment.

And then there's the things that will cost money like new rugs, and a new dresser. Ug. Hate spending money, but I really want to get their rooms done.

THEN...I can start on the "nursery" (otherwise known as the corner of our bedroom.)

I'm starting to think we may need to flip school to the afternoons. Mama has more energy in the mornings and when I need to get things done like get the car inspected, go grocery shopping, etc., that all would happen a lot better in the mornings when I'm fresh. School--in which I sit on the couch--could come later. We may experiment with that today. It may not be best for the girls, but it may mean I have the energy to cook supper tonight. Which would be a good thing, no?

Self-Proclaimed Rest

I decided I'm stressed. Two things made me come to this conclusion:

1. The continued PIHI--causing crying over stupid things.
2. Chest pains this morning upon breathing deep. (It's much better now.) (Probably also a bit dehydrated from the glucose test yesterday in which I fasted for 12 hours.)

Planning and preparing for this anniversary celebration has been a lot of work and I guess I underestimated just how much stress that has been. I'm excited about it, but it has been work.

Plus also too...this has just been a busy month. School, when done correctly, takes up a lot of time and everyday life stuff too. And in the back of my mind is all the things I need/want to do to get ready for baby.

And then there's always the pregnancy thing which, while a HUGE blessing, makes dealing with everyday things even harder. Right?

Today is our homeschool Valentine's party and we had a lot of things to do to get ready for that. So I proclaimed today a "no school" day. Just sitting here on the couch trying to get things done and ready for the party today. After the party, I'll worry about what we can eat for supper. Other than that--I don't care what gets done today.

I'M RESTING!!!

But here are some pictures I wanted to share!

One of the photo boards that will be on display at the reception. There are 4 total and thankfully, I finished them yesterday!

SO CLOSE to finishing these quilts for the girls!!

Our Valentine's Day is today. We had pink heart pancakes for breakfast. :)

Here's to a stress-free rest of the day!

Dear Daughters, 


Please do not fall and break anything at the skating rink. Mama is resting today, not taking children to the hospital. Thank you for your understanding. 


Love, 
Mama

Diagnosis: PIHI

That stands for Pregnancy Induced Hormonal Insanity.

I have it, apparently.

Last night was the worst ever. I woke wide up at 3:00am (not unusual) and by 4:00 I was crying about everything in sight. What was I crying about, you might ask?

Nothing!

I have nothing to cry about! I was just....crying. Please say you understand. I know it makes no sense and I kept saying, "Brenda...get a grip!" But then I would cry some more.

I finally settled down about 5:30 or 5:45 and was ALMOST asleep when Little Bit stumbled into the room from a bad dream. So she climbed into bed with us and I looked at the clock.

5:50

A few minutes later, the alarm started going off.

A few minutes later, I decided to go ahead and make lunch and coffee for S before I fell almost back to sleep and then it was time to get up again.

So at 6:40 I got back into bed. And then we woke up at 9:00am. I actually got up at 10:00am.

It's going to be a rip-roaring day, folks!

And at least the insanity part seems to have passed for now.

Please say you understand.

The Pregnant Brain and Some Other Things

#1
So....I've lived here my whole life. I mean, technically we lived in another city for 7 years but that city is only 15 minutes away so...it's not like I really moved far.  I currently live on the same block I grew up on. I attended the same church for nearly 40 years of my life. That's the church where we are having my parent's 50th anniversary celebration.

And yet, inexplicably, I managed to put the wrong zip code on the invitations.

And then last night we had breakfast for supper. I put the ricotta cheese on the table instead of margarine.

Help me. Can I really chalk all this up to pregnancy brain? Please???

We went to the beach Sunday after church...

#2
Our church is reading through the Bible this year. They have provided each of us with a chronological Bible. Very handy and already dated for you. On Wednesday evenings, our study will revolve around what we have read that week so there is extra motivation for keeping up. Last year I made it through April before I fell off the wagon. This year Sweetheart is also doing the reading. She's doing great right now but I dread when we get to say...Leviticus. We may have to do the reading together at some point. Genesis is all enjoyable right now. Our extra incentive is at the end of every month, if we are on target, we will all go out for frozen yogurt. Little Bit will be involved also but I am using the Egermeier's Bible Story book* for her. It's what she already uses for Bible in school. I told her if she listened to her story every day, she could have frozen yogurt at the end of the month. The point is to get us reading every day. I think I need to make a sticker chart for her. And maybe one for me too!

*I'll have more to say about this book in tomorrow's post!

 I'm thinking the water was kind of cold! 

#3
Getting every subject done in school is very hard. I just read a friend's blog where she listed as one of her goals for the year was to only have school 3 hours a day. Her old pattern is to try to hit everything, have school last 6 hours or more, then burn out and take several weeks off. I quite agree that smaller doses, but regular doses, is healthier. I expected school to start taking longer the older Sweetheart got. I knew the glorious days of 1 elementary-aged student and 1 pre-schooler would not last forever. You know, where we were done by lunch no matter what? I just find it hard to get back at it after lunch. By then, we've been sitting and doing for quite a while and we all want a break. The dishes and laundry are calling to me. The backyard is calling to the girls. Then I find it hard to call us back to order. I guess I'm admitting a personal weakness. I know, wah wah, right? Public school kids go to school for 8 hours. It's just hard and next year I will be making some changes to help fix this issue.

Which was really funny!

#4
Tomorrow I will be 5 months pregnant and will have exactly 4 months until my due date. FOUR MONTHS!!! Do you realize what all has to happen in those 4 months? (breathe in. breath out) OK. A lot, is the correct answer.

• finish the school year
• paint our bedroom
• purchase some baby things
• plan and have my parent's anniversary party
• organize several areas of the house
• hopefully go on some type of little vacation
• get some meals in the freezer
• make some menu plans that the girls' can make or help make the first few weeks
• clean the carpet
• finish the girls' quilts (my sewing machine is in the shop for a week right now!)
• get the girls' pictures made

I'm sure the list will get more ludicrous and detailed and crazy (see point #1) in the next few weeks. I think I need to start a new spiral notebook so I can cross things off and keep track of all my crazy. 

That's all that's going on in my brain today. How about you? And do you have any freezer meal ideas for me? That don't involve death-inducing pasta for my diabetic husband? (I really miss pasta.)

The Pregnant Brain--Part 2

There she was, feeling good. School was finished for the afternoon and she was sitting and clicking around on her computer. Just relaxing.

Then suddenly a picture of a giant pizza and bag of potato chips showed up on the screen.

And she nearly threw up. Right then and there.

What on earth? She had pizza for lunch!

The pregnant brain.

Who can explain it?

The Pregnant Brain--Part1

Suddenly, having iced tea was more important than nearly anything.

So important, she heaved her tired self off the couch to make some.

And yes, the house needed picking up, and the laundry needed to be put away.

But...but...

ICED TEA.

MUST HAVE.

Who can explain it?