weekending

Posted in weekending by ElaineMarie

a
small
collection
of moments
from our weekend…

a weekend that i should title “Life With Recorder”

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.

7Jul2014

weekending

Posted in love and happiness, weekending by ElaineMarie

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

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

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

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

^^^ obligatory ^^^

^^^ 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! *

30Jun2014

weekending

Posted in weekending by ElaineMarie

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

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

^^^ butttttter ^^^

^^^ remnants from cheerio math ^^^

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

^^^ a short venture to comfest ^^^

^^^ 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.

23Jun2014

weekending

Posted in familyness, weekending by ElaineMarie

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:

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

walked down the street for a family breakfast date

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

darla, the bump and i attended the pride festivities.

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

we made balloon animals

and picked up a local themed onesie for bebe

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

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*

16Jun2014

weekending

Posted in familyness, weekending by ElaineMarie

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.

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 *

3Jun2014

weekending

Posted in weekending by ElaineMarie

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*

5May2014

weekending

Posted in doula work, familyness, love and happiness by ElaineMarie

all the frustration from last weekend over arrested productivity melted away this weekend. it’s hard not to feel enthused about a weekend that begins with donuts. and it’s hard not to feel productive during a weekend that you’re hosting such helpful visitors. my parents are such a support and a help to my growing family. i was very thankful and happy to have them visit us this weekend. months ago, when we had just moved into a new house and i subsequently found out i was growing a person, i felt a little at loss at how i was going to pull everything together.

and to be truthful, it’s not all together but it’s getting there. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. and i’m feeling like we MIGHT just have a good deal of life progress completed before we settle down to meet this new human. i’m not quite ready but i’m feeling confident that i will be soon. which is more than i can say for when i was expecting darla.

i remember mike and i having a conversation on the way to the hospital for my birthing time with d and discussing how we hoped it was a false alarm. we were not ready. there are days that i’m still not ready for the force that is Darla in my life but this moment in time feels…bear with me for this analogy… like the effects of a shot of warm liquor*. it spreads through you reaching to the tips of your toes and fingers slowly until you’re warm all over and you have this calmness that says “this is right and this is good.” that’s what the conclusion of this weekend feels like. i’m feeling right and i’m feeling good.

and i wouldn’t be in this mentality if it weren’t for all the helpers and support i have in my life. my parents, my husbeau, neighbors and friends and even my little helper that helped {somewhat, sometimes} getting projects accomplished this weekend. my weekend even consisted of helpers i’d never met before since i attended the birth without fear meet-up on saturday. it was an inspiring day and it helped me put a finger on some of the things i’m working through with this pregnancy.

oh gawd. you know you’re in your 3os when you are looking back at your weekend and are excited about the gardening and painting instead of the parties and the concerts.

but it was fulfilling and it was progress and i am thankful. and i am in my 30s. so this is right and this is good.

*ok, so disclaimer: i haven’t had a shot of warm liquor in YEARS. a more accurate description of this would be what it used to feel like when my body could tolerate that lifestyle more. a shot of warm liquor would probably feel A LOT different now, not nearly as poetic. in case i forgot to mention this…i’m in my 30s now.

momjeanz

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