A Daughter!

Yesterday I had my 20 week ultrasound.  We were on pins and needles waiting to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl.  I am one of three girls, I have two girls, and my sister has four girls, so I was not surprised when the technician introduced us to our new daughter.  Oh my goodness, I am already in love with her.  It's so nice to know it is she and to call her by name!  I'm hesitant to outright tell you, but here are some hints about the name:

Hee hee.  We told Stella and Rosie we'd pick them up from school with either a pink or blue balloon in the car.  They were so excited, each wearing a pink and blue barrette in their hair. It was all smiles when we pulled up and they saw the pink balloon.  Even the teachers knew what it meant and were delighted.  It was such a lovely family moment.

I feel so blessed, so in love with my gang.  It is a true joy to be a mother, and I can't wait to hold and hug and kiss and nurse my third daughter. 

Purging and Painting

Ding Ding...I am finished Round One of purging.  Let me tell you (Come on, let me tell you.  Pretty please?): I am enjoying my quiet days!  School started on Monday, along with the kind of personal time and solitude I haven't experienced since college summers.  I admit that I have to fend off feelings of guilt and self-judgment for "not doing anything" during this season.  But seriously, I am growing a human!  So I am resting.  And I am checking off To Do lists, planning and preparing delicious foods, organizing and purging.  I took a minivan full of toys to Goodwill this morning.  What a load off!  The girls moved in together, leaving a spare bedroom for the baby and about a million toys that do not fit in this house.  I just realized that this is the longest Joel and I have lived in one house.  In just over four years we have collected a lot more stuff.  Me no likey.  So me takey to Goodwilly.  

I am also taking this seasonal opportunity to go through The Artist's Way again.  Gotta rediscover and unblock my creativity.  I went on my first weekly Artist Date this morning to an antique market.  I enjoyed looking at all the pretty old things.  There was an artist there painting a rooster.  (A picture of a rooster, not an actual bird.)  We chatted.  He's from South Africa and has been painting roosters for 20 years (again: pictures, not live animals.)  I asked him if he always paints there in the market.  He said mostly.  He used to be shy, but he likes interacting with people.  An artist is a recluse, he told me.  They start out that way, wanting solitude.  But he had a son, and that's life, and there are people.  True enough, rooster man.

Time

Howdy, rowdies.  Not much writing going on in these parts, and I'm not entirely okay with that.  But there are other things, like bunk beds and book club and back-to-back Big Love episodes.  Oh, and back-to-school shopping!  You know how I love those school supplies.  They're not even for me, but I still get a thrill seeing all those pencils and crayons. 

My lil' Rosie is starting kindergarten.  How the H did that happen?  The girls are very excited for school, and so am I.  Summer break is awesome, but I also love the return to routine.  I lost/ditched all my healthy habits when the school year ended in May.  Granted I had morning sickness to survive, but I stopped my healthy eating, daily yoga, daily journaling, nightly baths, vitamin regimen, running, and meal planning.  Oy.  But that's the beauty of the new school year.  It's a fresh start.

I'm not returning to work next week.  I had to say goodbye to the Lunch Lady gig, what with my growing belly and all.  I'll have time to rest and nest here in a quiet house.  Time to prepare for birth and baby.  Time to...write? 

A Lot of Love

I'm back home in my easy chair after almost a month away.  We got to see every one of our northeast relatives, plus an uncle we never even met!  Highlights include hoagies & cheese steaks galore, Stella jumping off a high dive with no fear, Rosie's SpongeBob birthday bash, ocean & sand, late night chats, Wegman's grocery store, fireworks, and Yahtzee tournaments.  Lowlights include a power outage, the dog eating our dinner, and first trimester woes. 

Since returning I have finished watching Joss Whedon's series Dollhouse, pulled a multitude of weeds out of my garden, heard my baby's heartbeat again, watched Misery for the first time, celebrated a couple of birthdays, played piano along with four music professionals on strings (fun!), eaten Mexican food three times, taken down a wasp nest (beware anglo-saxon protestants setting up house in your bird feeder!), and officially grown out of all my regular clothes. 

Tomorrow I'm off again.  Heading to Asheville to celebrate my anniversary.  Thirteen years!  That's a lot of love. 

Vacation

Greetings from sunny Pennsylvania!  My right arm is twitching, has been for the past hour.  I don't know why that kind of stuff happens.  Like, why, two months ago, did I wake up to find two of my toes stuck together?  They've been touching ever since, where they previously did not.  But this is not the information I sat down to blog about.

We are up in PA hanging out with Grandpa, taking it easy.  We spent a few days down the Jersey shore soaking up sunshine, shaking out sand, wading in waves.  Days on the beach with Wawa hoagies, nights on the boardwalk with funnel cake and fries.  I am not eating with any kind of health-consciousness lately, by the way.  It's about fun-consciousness and/or nausea survival.  There are days I feel I cannot move and nights when I cry myself to sleep.  Pregnancy is tough on this mama.  My growing baby is about the size of a lime right now--totally adorable--and my belly is popping out like a coconut.  But this is not the information I sat down to blog about.

We saw a fox at the beach again.  This time he was walking down the road carrying a fish in his mouth!  We watched the sunset over the bay--the perfect way to celebrate the solstice.  I've got a tan, some extra freckles, and new memories to take me through the season.  I've got lots more family time to look forward to before we head home.  Hopefully my arm will stop twitching sometime soon.  Then I think we'll head over to Trexler Park today for some fresh air and frisbee.  Cool, yeah?