weekending

this weekend i got out walked quite a bit as i had hoped. it felt good. as i walked i said a mantra to myself: “my body is strong. my baby is strong.” i must have said it over 100 times to myself this weekend.

on my final walk of the weekend on sunday a deer came into my path, as deer sometimes do, and that deer told me i would be having my baby last night.

well…

that deer was a gawd-damned liar.

i kid. i did see a dear deer and stopped to watch it forage for a while but it didn’t tell me anything. i internalized it as a sign that i would be meeting this person soon though. that all was as it should be.

and i made another decision this weekend. i know i said that bump day was officially put to rest but i’ve changed my mind. in celebration of these extra days i’ve had with this little one i’m declaring everyday bump day! yay! the internet needs to see more of my fleshy mid-region!!!!  see down there.

but i’ve decided i’m going to enjoy these days. and i’m going to document them. because i will most likely never experience pregnancy again and i need to bask in the generosity of these extra days.

i’m glad the universe held out for me until i came around to see that.

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weekending

a
small
collection
of moments
from our weekend…

a weekend that i should title “Life With Recorder”

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2 things about this weekend: 1} still pregnant 2} darla graced us and our whole neighborhood with sweet, peaceful recorder sounds all day saturday. she even included it as an ingredient in her cooking. wonderful stuff!

^^^sarcasm.

my family helped me stay active both by taking walks with me and giving me time to walk by my lonesome. i spent some time out under the super moon hoping moon mama would work her magic on my belly. friday night i tried to be all spiritual and connected to her. when that didn’t work i just ate candy while basking in her light on saturday. that didn’t work either.

i do want to state that i really am feeling more patient than my presence on the internet may lead you to believe. the thing is, i like the drama and suspense of the wait so building that up is a bit enjoyable. i also really enjoy surprises so this event is a bit of a body wonderland to me. yes, my body is a wonderland.

babies come in their own time. we could endure a few more weeks of me talking about being pregnant all the time. just a warning.

weekending

galaxy girl

^^^ we are made of star stuff ^^^

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^^^ can you not? that probably has lead in it ^^^

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^^^ doo dah anti-parade parade. my favorite thing that happens annually in columbus ^^^

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^^^ we all geeked for these glasses ^^^

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^^^ obligatory ^^^

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^^^ still waiting…^^^

movies projected onto the garage under the stars, parades, hang time with family and friends, extra chill time together and alone, goofing off as a family, preparing for baby and waiting. beautiful weather, family walks. more waiting. this is the stuff our weekend was made of.  i felt recharged and even spent a little time dreaming about the future this weekend. trying to remind myself to keep my mind and heart open to all the possibilities the universe holds.

* i hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend! *

weekending

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^^^ catching “flierflies.” please, universe, let her mispronounce this word for as long as possible ^^^

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^^^ so, this is a thing in our house now ^^^

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^^^ butttttter ^^^

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^^^ remnants from cheerio math ^^^

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^^^ making up over a bowl of grapes after fighting over literally the smallest toy in the world: a lego piece. ^^^

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^^^ a short venture to comfest ^^^

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^^^ love ^^^

well, that just looks like a picturesque weekend, huh? my parents came over for a visit and were once again such a huge support and help to my little family. i am so lucky to be their daughter and to have been born into a family that shows such support and love.

i’m slowing way, way down. i was on the go until the last-minute with my pregnancy with darla and i’m surprised at how much i can’t hang with this time around. there is a big difference between pregnancy at 25 and pregnancy at 31. it has some thoughts and feels forming for me for a later post that i think will all come together once i’ve had this next birthing experience.

for now i’m trying to stay focused on what I can do and not lament what i cannot. these pics are a nice reminder of that. even if all i do in these last few days/weeks of pregnancy is sit out back and watch darla chase fireflies then that’s enough. it’s abundantly enough.

weekending

i didn’t get a weekend post written out last night, as some lower back pain sent me to bed early and drained. to be honest, i was wondering if it was going to progress to some early labor but i woke up this morning still full-bellied, if not fully rested.

for midsummer’s weekend we:

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took in a show downtown while darla played in the fountains,

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walked down the street for a family breakfast date

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and i got to gaze at my handsome husband over diner coffee.

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darla, the bump and i attended the pride festivities.

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and darla was given a rainbow hair extension, which rocked her world.

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we made balloon animals

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and picked up a local themed onesie for bebe

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and other than that we just hung around our house and darla stalked the neighbors…

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solstice comes around every year and i always tell myself i’m going to have something appropriate planned for the next one. i love summer solstice. it really does feel like there is something special in the air on the first eve of summer. but it came and went again this year without anything special going on for our crew.

maybe next year i will have more energy. maybe next year i will have more time. maybe next year i will have been able to have spent more time fostering relationships and friendships so as to have friends that might actually want to spend summer solstice with us. what do you think? do you think these are realistic goals for a woman about to have a baby?

*anyway, i hope you spent your solstice out under the stars. good luck with your first full week of summer*

weekending

you know there was a time in my life when i went full steam ahead from one activity to the next. i thought life was to be measured by the number of places i could visit, or concerts i attended. i thought i had to be “doing” something to make my life notable.

becoming a mother slowed me down and made me take time to focus on things other than what new restaurant i went to or what band i saw. although those things are still a part of my world, they no longer have the emphasis they once did. i’ve sharpened the skill of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. this skill has given me the gift of being happy in the moment and i believe another name for that feeling is contentment.

these are my extraordinary ordinary moments. these are my moments of simplicity that i hope to look back on when i’m older and be reminded that my life was bursting with wonderful experiences and i was at my best when i could see the magic in the everyday.

like….

the enthusiasm and excitement on darla’s face when she saw her new bed. she said “i have a whole new view on the world from up here!” and she told me she might not even need her dreamcatcher anymore since “bad dreams probably can’t reach all the way up here.” she seems to really love spending time in her own space now and that was what we were hoping for her. with all the new changes about to come, it’s nice to know she’ll have a special space of her own to retreat to and *fingers-crossed* cultivate some more independence.

like…

watching her show off her new hula hoop and practice her hooping skills.

like…

pulling up some of the first of the harvest from our own garden and slicing up a bowl of crunchy radishes for darla as a snack at her request.

like…

preparing a special corner. i spent time gazing into this corner wondering just what my future holds in these next few weeks.

like…

celebrating husbeau’s radness and dadness.

like…

laughing at the absurd number of pillows required to provide a good night’s rest at this point in pregnancy.

darla new bed
fort hangoutforts and recordshoop skillz
garden radish
radish eater birth cornerbirth cornermike bike father's day gift pregnancy pillow fort

i also want to remember the wonderful simplicity of baby shower brunch with friends and the generosity of yet another visit from my parents. i want to remember that i couldn’t stop talking about the weather all weekend because it was simply gorgeous. i want to remember how good it tastes to make muffins with cream instead of milk.

these are good, ordinary days.

* i hope you enjoyed some good, good days of your own this weekend *

 

best of the fest: nelsonville music festival

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dear family,

one of the things i love about us is that we’re willing to give things a try. we don’t put ourselves in a box more than we have to and for the most part, we make things work. we have a lot of fun and adventure in our lives because of those things. we’re great. let’s keep it up and add another to this crew!

love, me.

i know 9 mos pregnant me would not have been able to hang in for the entirety of nelsonville music festival last weekend but dammit if i wasn’t sad to miss out on the all the fun. i was really and truly grateful to head down on sunday as a family of three and just enjoy the day and atmosphere. i can’t say we were as invested in the acts as much as we’ve been in years past. it was more about taking in the atmosphere. maybe it was a little bit about making a promise to ourselves that we’d be back in full force, bigger and better than ever next year.

darla definitely knew the ropes this time and made it very known that she did not need us. that is until she wanted us to buy her something. i desperately wanted to just let her experience this last time down there as a trio in the way she see fit but damn if that girl isn’t having a hard time making good decisions right now. i know she’s a kid. but i’m just a bit flabbergasted at how she comes to the conclusion that things are a good idea sometimes…

anyway, i just want to say i’m thankful to the universe for making it possible for us to attend this past weekend, thankful for my husband and his energy levels, thankful for the weather, and thankful for the beautiful ohio people who make the weekend so magical. unless this next kid is born with that extreme allergy to sunshine or something of the like { please do not do this to spite me, universe. this is only a blog } our tix for next year are as good as bought. boughten? buyed? i buy?

pssst. read our full weekend of attendance from last year here.

weekending

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i can only hope that darla’s last few weeks of life as an only child will be much like this past weekend which was pretty close to perfection. we packed it in with that beautiful weather going on.  and for me, i hope these last few weeks will contain more donuts like the salty caramel one i picked up at the farmer’s market.

i want to put down here for darla, in the event that she ever read this blog {good luck friend}, that she is an incredibly lucky girl to have a father like mike. he’s been putting in long hours and days at work but is never short on energy or attention for d when he returns home. i keep waiting for the bottom to drop out but he consistently pulls more energy out of thin air to take darla out to the park, or errands, or to a social gathering after coming home thusly giving me a much-needed break or to high-five while i head off to work or commitments with clients. i’m so grateful for that and i hope that one day, darla will be too.  and i also hope that energy holds out when we have a second child taking up residence in our lives.

we’re all making it through somehow, huh?

and also, there was nelsonville music festival…which is deserving of its own post. so that’s coming sometime. you can look forward to seeing pics of me dressed as a watermelon!

* i hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend and that your week is off to a great start*

weekending

memorial parade

candy stash darla toss

yay for long weekends! you would think this would be an extra long weekend post since we had an extra long weekend but, no. i tried to keep off my phone as much as possible and be in the moment. our weekend was packed and good and sunny and warm and all the things a good memorial day weekend should be.

thank you blessed universe.

*i hope you had a good one, too.*

 

weekending

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before i jump in to talking about myself, let’s talk about you. how was your weekend? was it a good one? i hope so.

we experienced a nice midwestern weekend here. our time was spent soaking in things like farmer’s market visits, mother + daughter coffee dates, yard work, snuggle fests on our one morning together as a fam and rain. we soaked in lots of rain. and a visit from grandparents. isn’t it grand when ordinary life moments come together so nicely? my parents and my husband helped me catch up on rest. this bump is really wearing me out these days. i’m crossing my fingers for nicer weather this week so we can get outside and run off excess energy {for darla, not me. the only thing i have an excess of is a need for sitting down}.

and hair! i have an excess of hair. which brings me to the next development of this blog…

lustrous pregnancy hair

the next few months are going to be a celebration of voluminous hair. i’m going to enjoy this until this baby is born and my hormones shift back and all this hair falls out. i’m living in a hair dream right now and i’m gonna talk about it, dammit.

*my hair and i are sending you our best for a superb week. we hope you see some sunshine*