Simply Sarah

Home

2012-02-07T16:00:00.001-05:00

We are home! We arrived home last Monday afternoon and havebeen grateful for the not-so-frigid temperatures. On Tuesday it was in the 50sand sunny and our sleep schedule was way off, so Daniel and I went to the zooin the afternoon.

Our trip home was very smooth. We left from Kilimanjaroairport around 10pm and Daniel went right to sleep. Surprisingly, he sleptthrough the lights on, switching passengers, announcements and safety videos atour stopover in Dar es Salaam less than an hour later. He ended up sleepingalmost all the way to Amsterdam waking up just in time for breakfast.Unfortunately, Dave and I didn’t sleep nearly as well (I was holding Daniel forhalf the night after he woke up the first time.) He got to play in theChildren’s Forest at the Amsterdam airport before boarding the flight toDetroit. He did pretty well on the flight to Detroit, except for the last houror so when he kept wanting to yell (maybe “screech” would be more fitting). Wegot a snack with ice cream around then, so I told him he needed to use a quietvoice if he wanted ice cream. Worked wonders :) He didn’t have anyonesitting in front of him, so he could put his feet up on the seat and not worryabout disturbing someone.

I think we’re finally adjusted to the time change. Danielseemed to do better than the rest of us! Daniel and I went to bed at 5:30pm onMonday, which was as late as we could make it. I went to bed with him forseveral days knowing I’d need to be up with him whenever he woke up – anywherefrom 4:45 on! It was nice to see Dave before he left for work at 5:30 and it’samazing what you can do in a morning when you’re up so early, but I think I’drather be sleeping. For several days, Daniel woke up between 4 and 5am, wakingme up too. He would go back to sleep, but I never did. Today, though, we sleptuntil 7:30!

We weren’t gone long enough to be making very many culturaladjustments back to the States. A few things I noticed, though, were greetingpeople in English rather than Swahili, not having to turn on the water heateran hour before showering, having consistent electricity, water and internet.Though those last two show you that we were living a pretty easy life in thecity – we HAD running, water, a way to heat it, electricity, internet access,etc. It’s been very quiet here, especially at night (in the winter – summer inDetroit is a whole ‘nother story!) No roosters or cows or loud diesel trucksbumping and creaking up the hill. In other ways, Detroit is so much like anAfrican city - you never know what you’re going to see and nothing is reallysurprising. We were on our way to a fruit market the other day and I noticed arandom abandoned boat on the side of the road in front of an old warehouse. Onthe way home, I realized there were actually two abandoned boats.

After all the preparation to go to Tanzania, it seemsincredible that we’ve gone, were there for two weeks and are already home andback into the swing of things here. Then again, I’ve never gone to Africa forsuch a short time before. More to come about our experiences and where we’regoing from here.

Daniel

2012-01-30T02:48:00.002-05:00

Daniel LOVES Tanzania. We’d been prepping him for weeksabout how we were going to go on an airplane to Tanzania and he was so excited.The morning we left, he woke up and asked to go to the zoo (like he does almostevery day) and I told him that we couldn’t go to the zoo, but that it was theday to go to the airport and go to Tanzania. His eyes got wide and he said, “Goon an airplane to Tanzania!!”

The weather in Tanzania this time of year is hot andsunny. Daniel loves being able to play outside and would really appreciateliving in a place where he could easily play outside all year. This is a dryseason and he found lots of dirt to play in – in the yard around the housewhere we were staying, at the market and any time we walked down the road. Wehad to enforce “walking time” when we were in a hurry to get somewhere and hereally couldn’t stop and play in the dirt every five feet. He was prettyintrigued by all the noises too – “woosters” crowing, cows mooing, lorriesbumping up and down the road, pikipikis (motorbikes), music playing, the metalcutting shop nearby.

Playing in the dirt

Exploring Outside

Helping water the garden

Daniel has adjusted so well to everything – and he’s usuallya kid who takes a while to warm up and be comfortable with new things. When wefirst arrived, I was asking God to give Daniel a real love for Tanzania too ifthis is the place for us. Several times I asked him if he likedTanzania and if he thought it would be a fun place to live and he replied witha very enthusiastic, “Yeah!!” He did really well greeting people and respondingwhen people greeted him, though he usually needed a prompt and for a while hewas using a very funny voice any time he was speaking Swahili. In Tanzania itis important to greet people and be respectful towards elders, so I reallywanted him to be friendly and polite.

We had the opportunity to take a day trip to a nearbynational park and Daniel had a wonderful time driving around and seeing lots ofanimals, especially twigas (giraffes) – his favorite. He associated the tarmacroad with going to see animals and any time we were on a tarmac road after thathe asked if we could go to “the zoo” to see the animals again.

We also met up with several other families with smallchildren so Daniel was able to play with some new friends. At one point, we hadthree boys three and under rolling around on the ground at a playground –completely covered with dirt. We found out about a lot of fun things to do withkids around Arusha as well as various school options.

Another thing I really appreciated about having a smallchild in Tanzania is that people nurse freely – there’s no shame about it andno one is offended like in the U.S. I wasn’t sure how it would be nursingan older toddler, since, I’ve mostly seen young babies nursing, but every timeI did, the women around were so supportive – “Just like an African!” they wouldsay.

First Couple Days in Tanzania

2012-01-23T13:33:00.000-05:00

We’ve been in Tanzania for a week now. We’re feeling prettycomfortable. Fortunately, we have enough experience in Africa that it isn’t allnew and overwhelming and we can focus our attention on whether Arusha and thetwo hospitals are a good fit for us more than on whether we could live inAfrica.

We finally have semi-reliable internet access, so we’restarting to catch up a little on sharing about our experiences.

Our trip here was pretty smooth, except for Daniel vomitingan hour into the trip and having a stinky car seat the rest of the way! He fellasleep shortly after, but only slept for about 30 minutes before waking upagain. After that he was wide awake until we were just about to land inAmsterdam. At least he was happy. I don’t mind wide awake as long as he’s notcranky or crying. He slept for a few hours in Amsterdam and a few hours on theflight to Tanzania. The Amsterdam airport, by the way, is fantastic, especiallyfor traveling with children. They have a baby care lounge that’s dark andquiet, and there would have been room to get him a bath if he hadn’t been soundasleep. They also have a playground where kids can run around and climb. We’rehoping to take advantage of that on the way back.

Daniel was so excited to arrive in Tanzania, and we weretoo! As soon as they opened the plane door, we could feel the warm air! We gotour visas and bags with no trouble and then met the director of the hospitalwho had come to get us. He gave us a bit of geographic orientation and told usabout the things we were passing in the dark along the way. I showed Dave whereI studied Swahili back in 2006. Daniel fell asleep right away in the car and wewere hoping that would transfer into bed when we got to the guesthouse in town,but according to his body it was just an afternoon nap. Dave stayed up with himfor a while to read and play while I went to bed. Apparently Dave fell asleepon the couch and the next thing I knew, Daniel had climbed up into bed with me.

Tuesday morning we went to the town hospital (ArushaLutheran Medical Center or ALMC) where had some orientation to the hospital andit’s history, mission and vision. Then we met with most of the surgeons (withchai and mandazi – yum!) and heard a little of their stories and how they gotto this hospital. We were really impressed with the surgeons. They all seemvery competent, kind and wise. They have a lot of experience and would be agreat team to work with. As we heard more about the hospital, it seems like weshare a lot of common vision and ideals. We’re finding out that some of thethings that drew us to the hospital on the surface are reflections of a deeperphilosophy that certainly resonates with us.

Africa Update Part 4: Next Steps

2012-01-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

This is part 4 in a series about our journey towards workinglong-term in Africa. Part 1 described our decision to go back to Africalong-term, Part 2 describes Dave’s desire to train residents. Part 3 talksabout a particular hospital in Tanzania that we are considering.

I’m writing this from the airport. We are on our way toTanzania to visit the hospitals, meet the team of people Dave would be workingwith, see around town and generally get a feel for it all. This should give usa sense of whether this would be a good fit for us. It is also their chance toget to know us. We will be in Arusha for two weeks. (And yes, there is someonestaying at our house while we’re gone.)

During the time we’re gone, we will be sharing some of ourthoughts and experiences here.

Africa Update Part 3: Tanzania

2012-01-08T22:09:00.001-05:00

Part 1: Going Back to Africa is here

Part 2: Working with Residents is here

This wasdefinitely the hardest part to write, partly because we've been so busy thelast couple months and partly because this is so much harder to describe in asuccinct way.

I've beeninterested in Tanzania for a long time. When I was in Kenya in 2002, I went ona retreat with the other students in East Africa and we traveled aroundTanzania for a week. I spent a summer in Tanzania studying Swahili and reallygrew to love so m any things about the people, places, culture and history ofTanzania.

Once we knewthat we needed to go back to Africa (see Part 1), we hoped that we would end upin Kenya or Tanzania. We have experience in East Africa. I have a lot of timeand energy invested in learning Swahili. Most of our relationships in Africaare in Kenya. At the same time, though, we were trying very hard to be open towhatever God had for us.

Once we weresure we wanted to pursue residency training through the Pan-African Academy ofChristian Surgeons or PAACS (see Part 2), the options of where to go narrowedto the places that either have a PAACS program or that are waiting for surgicalfaculty to be able to open a program. We had several conversations with PAACSadministrators about the different places they needed people and God workedwith us to get to the point that we would be willing to go to any of them, eventhe one that was the-place-I'd-always-said-I'd-NEVER-go. Still, we were mostseriously considering existing programs at two hospitals in Kenya and a programin Tanzania that is in the planning stages. Over the course of several months,we felt like the two programs in Kenya weren't the best fit for us long-term,for a number of reasons. At the same time, we felt increasingly drawn to thehospital in Tanzania.

ArushaLutheran Medical Center (ALMC) and Selian Lutheran Hospital are sisterhospitals in northern Tanzania that are preparing to open a general surgeryresidency program. Selian is located on the outskirts of Arusha and serves as areferral center for the district while ALMC is a new hospital in the center of town.Together, the two hospitals would serve as the training site for residents.

Here are justa few highlights of the journey and a smattering of things that draw us to thishospital:

- In ourfirst conversation with one of the PAACS leaders at the conference last year,he mentioned that they were considering a program at a hospital in Tanzania. Ithink he said that he wasn’t actually supposed to share about it yet, but knewwe would be interested. Dave and I both felt our hearts stir as he mentionedthat possibility and we were definitely interested.

- To make along story short, we were fasting with our church during lent last year andasking God for direction about our future work. Two days before we finished,Dave got an email from the CEO of PAACS asking if he would be interested intalking further about the possibilities for working there. We thought that thetiming was somewhat of a coincidence, but when Dave talked to him more about itall, he said that he felt like God was telling him to contact Dave about itjust then.

- Thehospital has several surgeons, three of whom are Tanzanian. This means thatDave would be working alongside Tanzanian surgeons to train residents and notjust a team of westerners teaching Tanzanians. This is HUGE for us.

- Dave’scurrent residency program operates across two sister hospitals. There areunique opportunities and challenges to administering a program like this. As achief resident this year, Dave is getting a lot of experience with the ins andouts of this type of program. This seems like good preparation for developing aresidency program in Arusha.

- Tanzania isone of the poorest countries in the world. There are currently about 150surgeons (of any kind) for 41 million people. That’s like 35 surgeons for thewhole state of Michigan or just three surgeons for the City of Detroit. Ourcalling has always been to the poor and we feel a special burden for people andplaces that have been “left behind.”

- To workeffectively in Tanzania you really must learn Swahili. Hmm, sounds great to us!

- We reallylike Tanzania and are very excited about the possibility of living there.

Next up will be Part 4: Next Steps, the highlight of which is that we're heading to Tanzania in a week to visit the hospitals, meet the team, see the town, evaluate whether this would be a good fit for us and see whether this is really where God is leading us.

Africa Update Part 2: Working with Residents

2011-10-11T12:21:00.001-04:00

Part 1: Going Back to Africa is here
Part 3: Tanzania is here

Once we realized we needed to go back to Africa, we had justenough time to make plans to attend the Global Missions Health Conference inLouisville in November 2010. We were hoping that the conference would helpconfirm that this was the direction we should be going, which it did. It wasalso a great time to visit with my family. My parents and brother helped withDaniel while we were in the sessions and he had such a great time with them -hurray for hometown conferences!!

We ended up making some key connections at the conference(in a very providential way, but that's a whole 'nother story) and found outabout an organization that runs general surgery residency programs in severalmission hospitals across Africa (the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons, or PAACS). The more we considered this, the morewe were drawn to the idea of training residents.

This was a bit of a mental shift for me, because I hadalways envisioned that we would be working in some remote area (ahem, westenKenya) where there is a significant need for doctors and not a lot of otherexpats (foreigners). I thought that would be the place we'd have the biggestimpact, plus there's something really special about living in the village(though I do recognize that I tend to romanticize village life and sometimeshave selective memory about my own experiences. That's a whole 'nother storytoo, though!) But remote rural communities are not really where you find teachinghospitals that have the capacity for advanced surgical training.

As we considered it (and as I let go of my expectationsabout where we would live and work), we realized that Dave could spend the restof his career or even his life working in a remote hospital filling an urgentneed but that the need would still be there when he's gone. By training Africansurgeons, he would be doing surgery in a way that is developmental and buildinglocal capacity.

This was huge for us. I knew that surgery could be veryuseful and good, but I had not really seen how surgery could be trulydevelopmental. When I thought of health and development, most of what I sawrelated to primary care and public health. Surgery seemed more about meeting animmediate need.

We also realized that teaching and mentoring residents wouldbe a really good fit for Dave. He’s a great teacher, able to explaincomplicated medical information in a way that a lay person can easilyunderstand. He works best relationally in one-on-one or in small groupsettings. As a senior resident, he does a lot of teaching of junior residentsand he both enjoys it and is good at it. As a chief resident this year, he’sgetting more experience with the logistics of administering a residencyprogram. He’s always had a long term interest in teaching, but now has a strongdesire to work specifically with residents.

Once again, more to come about where we’re thinking ofgoing.

Africa Update Part 1: Going Back to Africa

2011-10-04T21:12:00.004-04:00

Part 2: Working with residents is here
Part 3: Tanzania is here

Back in March, I posted that we were making plans to move to Africa after Dave finishes his residency. I’m finally making time to share more about how we got here and how our plans are shaping up.

First a little background. For those who don’t know, in college I spent 6 months living in a rural community in western Kenya, teaching in a primary school, learning about life in the village and exploring issues surrounding poverty and development. As a graduate student studying community development, I spent another 5 months in that same community studying local development efforts. I also studied Swahili, both at Michigan State and in Tanzania and Dave spent six weeks during his medical training working at a hospital in Malawi.

We always thought that we would end up in Africa eventually, probably in rural Kenya. Then we landed in Detroit and realized that this was a great place to put down some roots, build relationships, and engage in transforming our community. We had never dreamed we’d be in Detroit, but once we got connected, we were absolutely sure that God had placed us here. So we began to wonder whether we should stay here in Detroit. We knew we’d be here for a while (General Surgery residency is LONG!), but would this be the place for us long term?

We began asking God what was next. We entertained ideas of all the “fun” places we could live. We considered what life in Detroit would really look like and all the things we would miss if we were not here. We wondered about the possibilities for serving in Africa. But as Dave asked, “what’s next?” God clearly showed him: “You’re not ready yet to hear what’s next.” So we waited and wondered, prayed and pondered, all the while seeking to learn and grow.

Then one day, we both knew that we needed to go back to Africa. It was different circumstances for each of us, but on the same day, we each came home convicted that we needed to go. Our calling has never been to live in America, make a doctor salary, give away a lot of money and take short term trips overseas (the justification we used for the “live in a fun place” fantasies.) We also realized that our time in Detroit is for a season. We’ve learned so much while we’ve been here and have grown in so many ways. But this is not the place for us to stay.

More to come...

Quote of the Day

2011-10-04T10:51:00.002-04:00

Me: (After a bath) Let's dry off your back, your side, your arm
Daniel: Other side, other arm.
Me: left leg, left foot
Daniel: other left foot

A few Danielisms

2011-09-13T19:56:00.003-04:00

The other night, Dave was singing Daniel a bedtime song and Daniel said, "No. ABCDEFG" asking for him to sing the alphabet song instead.

Today Daniel and I were playing at the playground and he wanted me to go down the big slide. Then he said "Catch you!" ran down the stairs and around to catch me at the bottom of the slide. When I got to the bottom, he clapped!

On the way up for a nap today, I had Daniel say night-night to all the things downstairs since he was feeling a little reluctant to go upstairs. He got pretty into it and we said goodnight to about 20 things in the kitchen, his toy train, several things in the dining room, his toy train, things in the living room and entryway, and then to his train a couple more times on the way up the stairs. I suggested a few things to say night night to in the bathroom and then he just kept going: "Night night sink. Night-night lights. Night-night tub..." It was really fun to hear the things he noticed to say goodnight to.

Daniel has been learning to count for several months now. At first he counted "one, two, one, two, two, one, two." Then the next thing I knew, he counted, "one, two, three, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven." At first, I was excited he got three and then he rattled off all the way to eleven. Now he can count to nineteen: "One, two three, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen, nineteen" is about how it goes. Someday we'll get four and five :) To me, it shows just how much kids pick up just from listening and engaging in what's going on around them. I didn't try to teach him to count that far. He just did.

Trying on Glasses with Grandma

2011-08-22T20:23:00.003-04:00

Two years old!

2011-08-11T21:53:00.010-04:00

My baby is two years old today. We're at our annual family reunion/vacation so he's had quite a fun day! We rode bikes along Lake Michigan, watched boats in the harbor, played in the fountain, went for a wagon ride, played with cousins, touched a fish, pushed a baby in a stroller and had fifty-some people sing him happy birthday!

Daniel's favorite trick lately is to hiccup. He says "hippup!" and then makes a hiccuping sound, complete with shoulder jumps. He's talking all the time these days and repeats everything we say. It's really fun to hear him say big words in his little voice and for him to be able to communicate with us so much more easily. Except for the times when I have absolutely no idea what he's trying to say!

He's very good at jumping and gets a kick out of walking backwards. He's quite a climber and he loves to run. The other night, he went out on the deck and ran circles around the table. He'd stop and sit for a few seconds on the step and then take off running again. He ran for almost half an hour straight!

He has favorite books that he asks for by name and can finish some of the sentences. He has several favorite songs too. He can sing a lot of the ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Jesus Loves Me. Recently we were driving in the car and I heard him in the back seat singing "double, x, y, z... now know ... sing me."

He likes to share things with people and is a great little helper. He loves trains and trucks and playing in sand and water. His fine motor skills are pretty good and he enjoys building things. He's also loved cutting things lately. We had watermelon last week and he very intently cut it up into very small pieces. He might have eaten one! He's tends to be pretty focused and notices the details.

(helping daddy fix the dishwasher)

He really enjoys being around people, though it takes him a little while to warm up to someone. He's having so much fun this week with all his aunts and uncles and cousins. And he's still enough of a snuggle bug to make mama happy :) I love this little boy so much and am having a whole lotta fun being his mama. He's pretty special and we're really proud of him! Happy Birthday Daniel!

Daniel's First Haircut

2011-06-27T21:00:00.000-04:00

Daniel had his first hair cut a few weeks ago. Incidentally, he also had his first sunburn the same day. It's taken me a while to go through the pictures and post them and I think it's about time for another haircut already. I tried to keep it fairly long, mostly because I like it that way, but also partly because I wanted to leave room for someone else to fix it if I really messed it up!

Before (Notice the wings. They used to curl up and be cute):

Ready or not, here we go!

I read a suggestion online to put them in front of a video to keep them occupied and still. The spray bottle definitely kept him occupied, though not necessarily so still :)

After (not bad for my first try!):

Summer Fun

2011-06-26T21:44:00.007-04:00

We've had a really great summer so far - and it's only June! No scrambling to get in all the things I wanted to do but never got a chance to do! It certainly helps that Dave has been on a light rotation this month and has been off 3.5 out of 4 weekends. Unheard of! Plus, I don't think he's worked more than 60 hrs a week all month. It almost feels like we're a normal family.

I really wanted to enjoy this summer with Daniel. We've been hiking, biking, swimming and strawberry picking. We gone to the zoo, the library, museums and a concert. We've played at the playground, in the sandbox and with the ball in the yard. We've gone for walks in the wagon and walks by the river.

I don't have very many good pictures so far, but here are a few from our hike in the woods today:

Helicopter!

2011-06-20T21:43:00.003-04:00

Living around the corner from a major hospital has several, um, advantages, especially when you're a little boy who's almost two. We hear ambulance sirens and helicopters flying over multiple times a day. I wonder how many other toddlers can distinguish between a helicopter and an airplane just by listening. Daniel loves to watch the helicopters go by and we knew he would love to see one up close.

Having a little experience with such things, Dave informed me that unloading a helicopter takes a while. If we saw one flying in to the hospital, we should have plenty of time to walk over and see it before it took off again.We've been saying for a while that we should take Daniel over to the hospital to see one. So on Saturday, when we heard a helicopter flying over just after dinner, we decided it would be a beautiful evening for a walk.

Daniel enjoyed seeing the helicopter. I think he would have really enjoyed watching it land or take off. Maybe another day. We think the crew was probably taking a dinner break.

After we saw the helicopter, Daniel pulled the wagon all the way home, pretty much by himself.

I turned 30 and I won't be blogging for a while

2011-03-14T21:57:00.002-04:00

I turned 30 on Saturday. Funny how 30 seems pretty young these days! My parents came for the weekend to help celebrate (This makes 30 years that my mom's been a mother too!) They toopk Daniel to play on Saturday afternoon/evening and Dave and I went out for dinner and coffee.

Now that I'm 30, I can't blog anymore. Just kidding. Actually, during lent we are fasting from certain things as a church community and one of them is media and electronic devices. Therefore I will not be blogging for the next six weeks. I'm hoping to have some time to write and process and some of it may find it's way here after a while.

During this time, we are especially asking God for direction as it relates to our post-residency plans (Dave finishes his general surgery residency in June 2012). As of now, we are making plans to move to East Africa where Dave will hopefully be able to work with a residency program training African surgeons. I've been wanting to write more about this, and I will when I start blogging again, but I mention it now to ask you to pray as you think of us in the next six weeks - that we would continue to grow and press into God, that we would trust in His provisions, and that He would lead us, guide us and make the next steps clear.

Enjoying the flowers, the warmth and the light

2011-02-26T13:03:00.004-05:00

Last week we went to the conservatory at Belle Isle. It's a beautiful place any time of year, but it's an especially nice place to be when it's cold outside. The lighting also makes it a great place to take pictures. I'm glad I grabbed my camera on the way out the door!

Daniel reaching for the camera, which is what most of my pictures are lately! (I do let him have a turn too.)

Snow Day!

2011-02-22T14:46:00.005-05:00

We had the unthinkable happen yesterday. Dave had a snow day. Let me repeat - Dave had a snow day. This does NOT happen. Ever. Residents (and any health professionals, really) do NOT get snow days. But the other senior resident who's on the same service with Dave was on call yesterday so he had to be there and had to stay all night. After looking at the number of patients they had Sunday night he called Dave and told him not to worry about trying to get in to the hospital on Monday. What an amazing blessing for our family.

Dave worked a 30 hr shift Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon. We works another one today and another on Thursday. Plus he needed to prepare two lectures to give on Thursday. This was going to be a really challenging week, for all three of us. I was praying that the Lord would strengthen us and see us through. But he was so gracious and gave Dave a snow day. He was able to sleep until almost 8:00!! He got to spend some time with Daniel and with me. He shoveled almost all of the driveway and sidewalk (though Daniel and I did help). Despite all that he was able to work quite a few hours on his presentations. And I spent the day overwhelmed with gratitude for this blessing.

(You probably noticed that Daniel is not wearing his mittens. If he has on mittens, he cannot hold shovels and snow brushes and do what mom and dad are doing, so he takes them off. Any ideas for how to let him use his hands while still keeping them warm?)

Painting

2011-02-21T10:53:00.002-05:00

18 months

2011-02-16T21:02:00.011-05:00

Daniel is a year and a half old. I often think he's older than that, maybe because he's so tall. At his 18mo well visit, he was 34in and 26 lbs. Or so. Neither measurement was all that exact because Daniel was not so interested in being measured :)

Daniel's phrase of the month is: "Oh no!" Dave read him a story that said "Oh no!" several times and Daniel picked right up on it, even imitating Dave's inflection. It was so cute to hear him emphatically saying, "Oh no!" in his sweet little baby voice. We could tell at first that he didn't quite understand what it meant. We laughed when he said it randomly and so it became the-words-that-make-mom-and-dad-laugh. He knew uh-oh, so I started saying oh no in place of uh-oh and he got the meaning pretty quickly. Other new words include: broom, bubble, beh-bah (belly button), choo-choo, boom, eye and pop. He's been saying a lot of new words but I don't always remember long enough to write them down. He also makes a lot of sound effects, making me realize how many silly sounds and sound effects I make throughout the day. Since I started writing this (almost 2 weeks ago!) he's added sharp, hop, green, blue and shoe. He's also started signing light, again and more and shakes his head "no."

Daniel loves to run and to be chased around the house. He also loves climbing on the couch and then jumping off into or arms or jumping from one couch to the other. He's turning into quite the climber and I'm trying to give him enough places where he can climb.

Daniel has a pretty good memory and knows where things are. One day I went to change his diaper and the wipe solution bottle wasn't on the shelf. I asked Daniel where it was (he had been playing with one of them earlier) and he pointed behind the changing table. Sure enough, both the bottle I knew he was playing with and the one I was looking for were under the changing table. I can usually ask him where he put something and he'll run off to get it and bring it back.

Daniel has figured out how to pull the trigger on the spray bottle. At first he could only push it when he was pointing the bottle towards him. He alternately shot water over his shoulder and into his face, squealing and laughing as he did.

Daniel pulled the vacuum out of the closet the other night, unwound the cord and brought it over to me to plug in for him. I plugged it in, finished a couple things and then we vacuumed. I went to unplug the vacuum when we were done and it was plugged in to a totally different outlet than I had plugged it into! I don't think the cat switched it, so it must have been Daniel!

One of our favorite games this month has been the "run to mama" game. I sit on the floor with my arms out and say, "Run to mama!" Daniel comes running to me and gives me a big bear hug. Then he'll run giggling to the other room or to dad, stop a a minute, then run back to me again for another hug.

This and That

2011-02-05T20:57:00.003-05:00

- We've had the sickies visiting us the last 2 weeks, with a stomach bug and then a nasty cold. Fortunately, the stomach bug is long gone, the cold is on it's way out and we're able to get out of the house again - woo hoo! We were also very fortunate that Dave's mom was able to come for several days to help with all the fallout. Did I mention that we started moving furniture a few hours before Daniel and I got sick? We spent several days with the couch in the middle of the room blocking the bookshelf and random books and tables strewn about until we could get it all back under control.

- Daniel was pulling baking pans out of the drawer under the oven when I noticed that it was pretty dirty. I figured I might as well wipe it out while it was already half-empty. I pulled out the drawer and I was so shocked to see everything that had accumulated under the stove that I had to write it down: 5 letter magnets, spatula, pen, battery, lid from an olive oil jar, cat medicine syringe, crayon, cheerios, popcorn, twist ties, goldfish, leaf, raisins, dust bunnies, spaghetti noodles, cat food and a peanut.

- Aside from under the oven, my house stays so much cleaner now that Daniel loves to vacuum. Seriously, when I was making a list Tuesday night of fun things we could do to keep Daniel busy while we were snowbound, I wrote down "vacuum."

Honoring a hero

2011-01-17T21:02:00.004-05:00

Today is a day set aside to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest heroes of our nation.

Daniel and I were planning to go to the Museum of African American History here in Detroit today for the special events they were holding, but some things came up and we weren't able to go. Instead we watched Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington online. I don't know how much Daniel understood, but I did tell him who he was watching and why he was so important.

We also listened to his speech from the Great March on Detroit a few months earlier on the radio. This speech had the first version of the famous "I Have a Dream" section. I didn't know that until today. That speech was particularly inspiring to me today (you can see the text here), especially hearing his challenges directly to the people of Detroit. In our city and in our country, we have come a long ways, but we still have so far left to go.

I don't have any insightful commentary to share, just my desire to see justice in our land. Please don't be complacent. So many people see a black president and think that everything is okay now. It is not. The longer I live as a white woman in this predominantly African-American community, the more I see lingering injustice, pervasive racism and realize just how deep the wounds go. And I can only see and understand a tiny bit of it. I've been confronted with my own prejudices that I didn't know were still there. But day by day, I seek to grow in truth and grace, to be transformed in my mind and heart.

Sometimes it's hard as a white person to know what to do, to know how to change yourself and this society. But I just want to encourage you today to do something. Talk to your children about the legacy of Dr. King. Help them to see where racism and injustice persist. Help them find ways to build bridges. Examine yourself, your thoughts and your interactions. What are you modeling for your children and others around you? What messages do you give them through your words and actions? What are you doing to overcome racism and injustice?

17 months

2011-01-14T20:50:00.010-05:00

The months just keep flying by and Daniel is 17 months old now. Before I know it, he'll be 17 and I'll be wondering where the years went.

His favorite word lately is "hot." If the water he's playing in or the food he's eating is too warm, he'll tell me that it's hot. He even told me that when his bowl was a little warm. He likes to help blow off his food when it's still warm.

Daniel loves to play in the water. We pull up a chair and he "helps" me wash dishes. Usually that means he plays in the water, though sometimes it means he takes dishes from the drainer to scrub them himself with the soapy sponge. We've been changing his shirt several times a day lately since he keeps getting soaked! He also loves to help me cook. His favorite things are scooping out flour and stirring anything. He gets pretty indignant when I'm stirring something and don't let him have a turn.

About a month ago, Daniel went from being terrified of the vacuum to loving it. Now he wants to help vacuum all the time. Yesterday I was working in the kitchen and heard a noise. I poked my head around the corner and saw this:

Daniel had pulled the vacuum out of the closet and was all ready to go!

He loves to do whatever we're doing, whether it's drinking tea or coffee from a mug, wiping things up or spraying off diapers. I've learned that it's better to just find a way that he can help. He's been helping carry dishes from the table to the dishwasher. He's also started opening books and "reading" them out loud.

He's been enjoying playing in the snow this week. Dave's parents gave him a little sled for Christmas and he loves being pulled up and down the sidewalk in it.

Daniel can show us his belly button, hands, feet, nose, eyes and mouth. It's amazing to see all the things he understands! It's fun to see how proud he is of all the things he can do. It's also been interesting to see how much he's developing a mind of his own. He certainly knows what he wants.

Daniel is still very sweet and cuddly. He loves to laugh and play and has such a sweet giggle. It is an amazing journey and I'm still so glad I'm his mom and that I get to spend my days with him.

What a difference a week makes

2010-12-13T20:56:00.004-05:00

A week ago, I was going crazy. Daniel was not feeling well and was having a very cranky day. We were all tired and exhausted, coming off of two 90-100 hr work weeks for Dave (and for me!). But this past week, Dave only worked 55 hours! In case you don't know, that is unbelievable for a resident. He was home before 6:00 FOUR nights out of five. Plus he had the whole weekend off. I can't believe what a difference it made to have a husband and dad for the weekend. A friend took Daniel for a couple hours and we had a date Saturday morning. We got a Christmas tree. We went to church. Daniel got to play with his Daddy. Dave and I got to interact like normal people and talk and laugh together. I started the week more refreshed and not so far behind. Is this what life is really like for normal people with normal jobs?

Today I had three goals: do laundry, play outside in the snow, and go to the produce market. And if we were really doing well, maybe clean the bathroom too. Three loads of laundry are washed, dried and put away. We spent 10 minutes getting all dressed to go play in the snow, 10 minutes playing in the snow (it was really cold!) and another 5 minutes getting out of our snow clothes. We cleaned the bathroom. We went to the produce market (had I known how bad the roads were, I probably would have skipped it!). Plus I kept all the dishes washed as we used them. Daniel helped me with most of those things, so I didn't feel like I did them at the expense of focusing on him. Then after dinner, I could just relax and play with Daniel without worrying about anything else I needed to get done. It feels so good and empowering to have had such a good day, and it's a wonderful blessing after the last few weeks of craziness.

15 months

2010-12-02T20:26:00.012-05:00

Daniel is 15 months old and he won't be for much longer, so I'd better go ahead and write about it. I'm writing instead of doing dishes, cleaning up, returning phone calls and doing several other things I should probably be doing, but if I don't, I won't have anything to remember these precious days!

He's 33 inches tall and weighs about 25 pounds. Yes, that is very tall. He is as tall as or taller than most of his friends who are several (or many!) months older than him. Sometimes I wonder why he isn't doing some of the things they're doing and then I remember that he isn't as old as they are and he's doing just fine.

Daniel jabbers a lot, with animated expressions and lots of pointing. It all sounds very interesting, but we can't understand a word of it. He has said a few words, though he doesn't use many of them consistently: mama, dada, uh-oh, bye-bye, kit (kitty) and chs (cheese). He signs "all done" regularly, "milk" sometimes (the kind from mama, not from a cow), and his new favorite is "please." He finally got that a few weeks ago and a whole new world has opened up to him now that he can tell us that he wants something. The other day, he was pointing to something on the table and signed please. I didn't have a clue what he wanted (usually I know), so I asked him what he wanted and he very emphatically signed please. Hmm. Two days ago, he signed banana (more or less) and cheese.

Daniel loves turning the lights on and off, so I've been holding him up and letting him do it as we go in and out of rooms. He also loves standing on the stool at the bathroom sink playing in the water. He likes to wet his toothbrush and suck the water off. I give him a toothbrush to chew on and I hold a second one to brush his teeth. Often he brushes my teeth while I do his. Whatever works, right? Speaking of teeth, he has 16 of them. We should have a break for at least a couple months before his 2yr molars come in.

Daniel loves to be outside. He enjoyed playing in the leaves during the fall and watching the snowflakes coming down yesterday. Hopefully mama can stay motivated to get him outside to play even when it's cold out.

Daniel is a climber. The other day I turned around and he was standing on the coffee table. He can easily go up and down the stairs and get up and down on the chairs and couch. He's getting pretty good at sliding down from our bed too. It's been really fun to watch him playing at the playground lately, now that he's getting so much better at doing things himself. He runs now too and gets such a thrill out of being chased. We can chase him around and around the loop in our house. It's pretty good exercise for me too, especially if I pick up things off the floor and put them away as we go between all the rooms. He likes music and dances decently to it, though his favorite is to dance around the room with me while I hold him.

Daniel is still a good eater. He likes his food well seasoned (no bland food around here!) and he feeds himself pretty well with a fork and spoon. He wants to hold the bowl himself, thank you very much, and wants to drink out of a real cup, although he might be content with mama's water bottle.

Speaking of water bottles, one of his favorite things to do lately is screw and unscrew caps on and off of bottles, jars or anything similar. He likes to fill them up with toys and stir with a spoon. He opens up all the drawers and pulls things out. He likes to knock down block towers. He can stack the blocks too, but knowing them down is so much more fun. I try to see how many I can get on top of each other before he knocks them down. He likes to color/write, but only with a pen. With crayons, he's more interested in putting them in the box or eating them than he is in coloring with them. He also enjoys typing at the computer and can even climb up in the chair himself.

Daniel is very busy, but very fun. It's wonderful to watch him explore the world and I'm so glad I get to be his mom and spend all my days with him.

On Snot Snatching and Suturing

2010-11-23T15:12:00.007-05:00

A while ago, our beloved hospital grade nasal aspirator (aka a snot-snatcher!) burst at the seam (literally) and we no longer had a good way to clean out Daniel's nose. I browsed online and found some but Daniel got over the bad cold he had and I never did order one. We tried gorilla gluing it and it held for a whopping 5 seconds! Dave mentioned off-hand that we could try suturing it if the glue didn't work, but it started it's second life as a chew toy instead.

Fast forward a few weeks and Daniel has another bad cold. The same one that Dave had all last week and this week too. The one that I hope doesn't mess up our Thanksgiving plans. So when Daniel pulled out a random pack of suture from the bedside table today - and no, I don't know how it got there - I decided to try my hand at that most essential surgical skill. It takes a little practice to get used to the curved needle. I could see why people accidentally poke themselves with it, at least until Dave came home and reminded me that you're supposed to hold it with another instrument and not just your fingers. I tried out the aspirator and it still leaked a little air, so Dave added a second layer of suture to fill in some of the gaps, then went over the needle holes with a layer of glue. It worked pretty well on Daniel tonight, but he still couldn't breathe when we put him to bed. :(

I was going to say that this was my first experience with suture, but then I remembered that wasn't true. I used suture last year to string up parsley stalks to dry. It worked very well and was much easier than tying them. Now when we go to Africa, I can be Dave's surgical assistant! (Totally kidding - about being his assistant, that is)

So much for that!

2010-11-03T21:42:00.005-04:00

So much for NaBloPoMo-ing it this year. I can't seem to keep up with my life, let alone write about it. This has been a very busy season for us. We had a couple weeks where Daniel was teething, sick, and/or injured. Right now, he's into everything and I just can't seem to stay far enough of him to keep him busy and get the things I don't want him into away. I am thoroughly convinced that we were not intended to live in isolation and that we were not designed to be parents alone, without the support of family and community. We're really struggling with that right now. As much as I've tried to find people who can help me, it's just not working out. Right now, I'm 0 for 4. It makes me wonder if it's time to quit asking and just do it myself. It makes a difference emotionally. When I was doing it on my own, I was mostly managing. But once I decided (realized?) that I really did need some help, I feel even more overwhelmed when I'm all on my own. It seems like it would be easier to just quit thinking that I need any help and then not be disappointed when I can't get it. Or maybe I just need to hold out a few weeks and see if I can get one step ahead. Maybe I'll get lucky and 15 months will be slightly less intense than 14 months has been :)

NaBloPoMo?

2010-11-01T22:37:00.002-04:00

Although it's hard to believe, it's November again, which means that it's National Blog Posting Month. I did it last year and (mostly) enjoyed it, though my dad kindly suggested that I "not try that again." But I have lots to say and lots of pictures to share and I don't because I haven't made it a priority. So I'm considering NaBloPoMo-ing it again this year. Am I crazy?

Fall Walk in the Woods

2010-10-17T19:52:00.000-04:00

We love to go for walks in the woods. Especially in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. The hardest part of living in the city is that we have to drive so far to be in the woods, though we're slowly finding all the places we can go. We've been to Heritage Park in Farmington Hills quite a bit recently. In addition to a playground and splash zone, the park has hiking trails and is only 20 minutes away. We hiked there the first time when we were looking for some place closer just a few days before Daniel was born.

We had peak fall colors this past week so we HAD to go out for a hike. Here are the highlights:

More firsts

2010-10-16T19:14:00.005-04:00

In the last week and a half Daniel has:

- stacked blocks on top of each other
- spun around in circles
- found lots of "toy" cans, bottles, lids and egg cartons in the recycling bin to play with
- screwed lids on and off jars
- colored his first real picture
- really started imitating EVERYthing we do
- gotten 6 new teeth
- started the "I'm not getting what I want," scrunch-up-my-face cry
- gotten pretty good at scooping up (or stabbing!) his food with a spoon and fork

Please don't throw away my socks!

2010-10-05T20:42:00.004-04:00

Daniel has taken to carrying things around the house. Last week, we almost had to leave the house with two different shoes because I couldn't find a whole pair for him! The other day, he pulled a handful of dirty silverware out of the dishwasher and took off towards the dining room. In the last few days, I found my favorite pair of socks and then a block in the newspaper recycling bin. Daniel's also been quite intrigued with the garbage can and has been able to open the lid for a little while. Today he managed to pull out several things while I was washing dishes. Fortunately it was nothing really bad, but I'm starting to worry that we're going to throw away something important because we didn't realize he'd put it in the recycling or the trash!

In other Daniel news, he's now able to squat down, pick something up and then stand back up again without holding onto anything. He's also getting pretty good at going up and down the stairs by himself. Whenever the gate isn't at the bottom of the stairs, his favorite game is to scramble as fast as he can up the stairs so mama will come and get him, with lots of squeals ensuing!

Daniel is walking like crazy - practically running. It's really fun to watch him explore and interact with the world around him. He loves being chased and loves chasing the cat. Unfortunately Daniel doesn't understand yet that Marshall swatting at him means that he doesn't want to play at the moment.

He's found the button that opens the microwave door. It's hard to warm up lunch or defrost something in the microwave when the door is being opened every five seconds! The thing I try to remember, though, is that Daniel is curious and learning about the world and he's fascinated by how all these things work. The times that I get frustrated that he's trying to get into the trash or into the toilet or whatever it is are the times that I forget he's a curious little boy. I get more focused on what I want him to do - "Will you please just quit doing that!?" and lose sight of the fact that he's a little person who's thinks these things are fascinating.

You know you live in Detroit when...

2010-08-25T21:35:00.002-04:00

...you're out for a walk and somebody you don't know gives your baby a dollar for the ice cream truck!

Daniel held on tight to that dollar all the way home, even after he fell asleep :)

We didn't buy him anything off the ice cream truck (we don't really do that and Daniel doesn't know any better yet) but we've been speculating how long it would take $1 to grow into enough to buy an ice cream truck (he did say, "for the ice cream truck.") Then again, I don't think we could, in good conscience, profit from selling ice cream to kids around the neighborhood.

Look who's walking!!

2010-08-24T21:29:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Daniel!

2010-08-11T21:10:00.003-04:00

Daniel is one today! What a year it's been! I'm working on a post, but all the photo sorting I did in the last few weeks got lost, so I'm starting over again. In the meantime, here's a picture of Daniel's first horsey ride:

Daniel is Nine Months Old

2010-05-11T20:37:00.015-04:00

Wow. My baby is nine months old today! He's grown and changed so much in the last few months and even in the last few weeks and days.

He's army crawling and finding new things every day to explore. Today it was the cat food dish and recycling bin in the kitchen. Yesterday was the drawers and diaper sprayer in the bathroom. And you should see him move when he's after a cord or anything electronic! While we have our work cut out for us, this is a nice stage because he can actually get where he wants to go and is a little less frustrated. Plus it's fun to see him move and to see the intensity on his face!

He'd almost always rather be walking or standing, though. He can do either hanging on to furniture, but his preferred method is holding on to mom's fingers. He can move pretty fast across the room that way. His balance is getting better every day and he's learned to grab on tighter when he starts to tip instead of just falling over. The other day, he was leaning against the tub and kept pulling his hands back - I could tell he was getting quite a thrill out of it!

He's eaten lots of foods, even though we've been a little slow about it. So far, he's had apples, bananas, pears, blueberries, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, peas, green beans, broccoli, avocado, mango and black beans. I'm working harder now to keep introducing more things every few days. I'm not totally sure how to make the transition from pureed foods plain to more solid foods and things we're eating. I've been giving him small pieces of soft foods like bananas and avocados and he does pretty well with them. It kind of makes me wish that we'd waited a little longer and just started with more table foods. Maybe he'd like green beans better if they were in a Thai curry like ours!

He loves his daddy and gets very excited when he sees him. That's really fun for all of us! He likes to play "the shy game" where he looks at you and smiles, then hides his face, looks at you and smiles then hides his face again.

He likes to clap. He loves splashing in the bath tub. He's getting pretty good at turning the pages in our board books.

He adores his kitty (who has been very patient with him!) though he shrieks sometimes and kitty goes tearing away.

He loves playing outside and is captivated by all all he can hear, see and feel.

It's really fun to listen to him jabber. He's not quite saying words, but he definitely has sounds he makes for dad and kitty. And I'm pretty sure he was trying to say banana and dandelion. He has 6 teeth now and a couple more on the way. This is his "my teeth hurt" face.

The past nine months have been a blast and I am so glad to be Daniel's mom.

Daniel is mobile

2010-05-05T13:39:00.002-04:00

After weeks of trying, Daniel is mobile! He's not very fast yet, but he can get where he wants to go.

Laundry Baskets are Fun!

2010-04-05T21:06:00.005-04:00

Daniel enjoys playing with and in the laundry basket while I'm sorting and folding laundry. This morning I set him in the empty basket to play while I was putting laundry away. I was about to leave the room for just a minute to take a pile of clothes into my room when he pulled himself right up to standing using the sides of the basket! If I hadn't been right there to steady him, he would have toppled over and banged his head on something. Whew, that was close.

(These pictures were taken about a month ago)

Swimming!

2010-03-15T21:29:00.003-04:00

We went swimming today for the first time and Daniel loved it! After he got over being startled by all the new sights and sounds, that is. That's all for now.

Daniel loves Marshall

2010-03-11T19:42:00.002-05:00

Oh, there's my kitty!

Wait, let me feel the chair.

I love my kitty - he's so soft.

I think I've had enough of this kid! [cat runs away]

Thwarted

2010-03-10T19:49:00.003-05:00

I was thinking about how I managed to post every day for a month, but now it's been a month and a half and I haven't posted at all. Then I remembered that November was that crazy month when Dave went almost a whole week without seeing Daniel awake. That's how I blogged every day. I put Daniel to bed then had a little while most days before Dave got home. With a husband actually home, it just isn't a priority.

But tonight Dave has a journal club so he won't be home until late. I was all set to post some pictures of my adorable little guy - a quick and easy post so I can still get to the other exciting events of the evening (cleaning up the kitchen and balancing the checkbook!) - and blogger won't upload my pictures! So you'll all have to wait in eager anticipation...

My life in 15 minutes a day

2010-01-20T19:34:00.003-05:00

I made myself a sticker chart. I know it sounds crazy, but it works wonders for me. I like putting a sticker on when I finish something (yes, I'm also one of those people who adds things to the list just to be able to cross them off.) Knowing that I will have an empty space if I don't do it is very motivating to me. Plus, I decided that if I got 75% of the sticker spots filled, I could get a new fancy diaper I've been wanting to try (way on sale, of course)! I put big things and little things, things that would be a stretch and things I knew I would do. The one item that was blank all last week and so far this week is blogging.

I liked the discipline of writing every day in November, but I also found many days when I didn't have the time or energy to craft a real post. When I write, I enjoy it, but after a while of not writing inertia sets in and I just don't get back to it. It really is a discipline. So I decided that I would try writing 15 minutes a day. Whatever I write in that time is enough. If I'm not done, I can come back to it the next day and write more. I still have lots of ideas bouncing around in my head that just never make it out. I thought for sure if I put it on my sticker chart, I would be motivated to write. Nope. I did everything else, but no blog. The inertia is too much. But here I am. Ready to go again. 15 minutes at a time. A sticker for me today!

This one made my day!

2009-12-28T20:29:00.002-05:00

And then the house was gone!

2009-12-15T21:16:00.005-05:00

Daniel and I were taking a nap this afternoon when I heard a big truck on the street outside. I didn't think much about it (except hoping it wasn't a package coming to our house and so I wouldn't have to get up to answer the door!) I still heard it when we got up - sounded like they were digging up the street or something.

We looked out the window and saw that the house on the corner was gone and a pile of rubble was in it's place. It was a sad house - falling apart, missing windows and the front door wide open - but it's been part of our landscape and I was a little disappointed to know that it's gone (is that crazy!?). If I'd known they were tearing it down, I would have at least taken a picture of it first.

It's sad to me because it's something familiar that's gone, but I think it's more that in it I could see hope for restoration - even though realistically it would probably never happen. I could see its former beauty and now that it's demolished, restoration of the house as it was can never be. Maybe something better will grown in its place, but it can never again be as it was intended. I guess that's how life is too, sometimes.

Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:18-19

So be it.

4 months

2009-12-11T20:54:00.006-05:00

My baby is four months old today. In some ways it's flown by and in other ways, it feels like he's always been here.

In the last month, it seems like there's something new every day. He's making lots of different noises; today it was a trilling noise. He likes interacting with people and smiles when you talk to him, sing to him or make faces at him. He likes music. He likes being snuggled close but also likes to get down and wiggle around.

He watches everything pretty intently and reaches for things he sees. This week he's been reaching for just about anything I'm holding. He's getting pretty good at grasping things with one or both hands. For a while, he's been pulling his burp cloth or bib up over his face, but today was the first time I saw him grab it and pull it back down himself.

We have a lot of fun laughing together. He'll laugh, which makes me laugh, then he laughs some more and I laugh some more and then we're both cracking up! Sometimes, it looks like he's being shy. He'll look at you and giggle, then turn his face away.

He does tongue tricks too. The other day he started twisting his tongue around sideways. He definitely got that one from his dad - he can already do more with his tongue than I can - and we're guessing he'll have the ability to wiggle his ears too.

He's not rolling over yet. Dave said he rolled onto his side, but I haven't seen it. He can sit up assisted, but not quite on his own. He has great head control and can stand well on his legs with some support for balance.

I absolutely adore him and we definitely have a good, strong attachment. Heck, I miss him when he goes to bed! He's as cute as can be and he gets lots of kisses every day on his chubby little cheeks.

These last four months haven't always been easy, but they've sure been wonderful!

Daniel and Marshall

2009-12-10T21:04:00.007-05:00

I guess with me, it's all or nothing. (Is it all or nothing with you? It can't be in between. It can't be now and then... Extra points if you can name that musical!) I either write regularly or not at all. Hmm.

Marshall (the cat) has taken to jumping up in my lap while I'm nursing Daniel and curling up in what space is left on my knees. I've always wished I could get Dave to take a picture, but he really only does it in the middle of the night or when no one else is home, since that's when he doesn't have any other options. A couple times, I've ended up with Daniel on one shoulder and Marshall on the other and I did manage to get a picture of that yesterday.

Now that Daniel is becoming very aware of what's around him, he watches Marshall a lot more. Since Daniel moves around more and has more interesting toys (things that hang, swing and play music), Marshall pays a lot more attention to him too. Daniel has been reaching for things, and now he reaches out to touch Marshall whenever he's in range. He mostly just pats him softly, and as he does, I've been saying, "gentle." I'm hoping this will reinforce what gentle means and we'll be able to use that association later when he tries to grab Marshall's fur/tail/leg/etc. or pet him a little too enthusiastically.

It has been fun watching them interact and get to know each other. I'm guessing they'll be buddies later, though I'm sure there will be plenty of times when Marshall has to go hide!

I did it!

2009-12-01T19:16:00.002-05:00

30 posts in 30 days. My friend Heidi asked this morning if I felt a sense of accomplishment, and I told her not really. I felt like I did great for the first 2/3 but not so great the last 1/3. What the heck was I thinking!? I posted every day. It wasn't always easy, but I posted every day. A few posts were just a picture, but I posted every day. I set out to do something and I finished it (and I am NOT a compulsive finisher who has to finish something just because I started.) Just because every post wasn't stellar doesn't negate the accomplishment. Perfectionist? Check. Too hard on myself? Check. When you do something day in and day out, not every day will be perfect. A writer writes continually, not because what they write is always just right, but because in the discipline of writing you find just what you want to say. A photographer takes tons of pictures to get a few truly amazing ones.

So yes, Heidi, I am proud of myself. My goal when I started was to get back in the habit of blogging and I have. I'm glad not to have the pressure to post every day, to take more time to craft some posts instead of just posting something, but I'm glad to be moving again.

Fun with Daniel

2009-11-30T19:19:00.007-05:00

My family had a blast with Daniel this week. My parents hadn't seen him in two months. (I thought I had a cute picture of my dad cooking with Daniel, but it must have been on their camera.)

This was also the first time my brother Scott got to meet him. It was so. much. fun. watching Scott with Daniel. Here they are in their matching outfits.

Windshield Wiper Adventures

2009-11-29T21:56:00.004-05:00

Today we were driving home from Louisville when it started to rain. I turned on the windshield wipers and, much to my dismay, one was missing! Where exactly a windshield wiper goes I have no idea, but it was definitely not on my car! We got off at the next exit and stopped at a gas station. They didn’t have windshield wipers but they directed us to an auto parts store around the corner. Closed. We tried another gas station and they sent us to another auto parts store around the corner the other way, but they were also closed. We tried to think where else we could find a windshield wiper in a small town on Sunday afternoon and decided to call Google(1) to find out if there was a Sears or Walmart nearby. Of course there was nothing right there.

We switched the right windshield wiper to the left side so the driver could at least see straight ahead and pulled the right wiper arm so it was sticking out away from the windshield. That was pretty funny looking and we could certainly laugh at the idea of driving down the highway like that, but decided it was probably not the best option. Dave asked if we had any tape in the car to cover up the end of the wiper arm so it could go without scratching the windshield. I fished around in the glove compartment and didn’t find any tape but did find a first aid kit with one regular band-aid and one square band-aid. That should do it! I wrapped the square band-aid around the end of the wiper arm, but it didn’t quite go all the way around. I used the regular band-aid on the end to help hold the first one in place and to add a little extra cushion. Perfect! It looked like an amputated limb going back and forth, but it got us another 15 miles down the highway until we could stop.

1. I love that service and have used it WAY more than I ever thought I would. When I first heard about it, people were talking about it as a way to save money when calling for directory assistance. I thought that was silly because I never spend money calling information. Besides, I thought, I always look up what I need online before I leave. Until I realized that I can call when I’m out and about and need to find something nearby. Now I use it all the time. Just call 1-800-GOOG-411.

Reunion

2009-11-28T23:38:00.005-05:00

We just got back from my 10 year high school reunion. It was better than I expected. We're far enough out of school that nobody felt the need to make small talk with people that they weren't really friends with and there were enough people that I did want to have a conversation with. I wasn't sure how it would be. In high school I was friends with a lot of different people, but not really part of any one tight group. There were still a lot of those same groups of people hanging out together, and I still floated between them. They also had our class picture out and I was surprised to see how white our class was. As a magnet school, we had a lot of diversity, (geographic, economic, ethnicity), but I guess not as much as I thought. I'm much aware of things like that now.

This was the first time I left Daniel for more than an hour and a half. We put him to bed before we left and he slept the whole time. I did pretty well too! But now I'm wishing I were in bed a little sooner, since I'm gonna need to be up again within a few hours. I might not have taken time to post tonight, but I haven't posted for 27 days straight to miss a post with 3 days left!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T20:17:00.002-05:00

Count Your Blessings

2009-11-26T19:23:00.007-05:00

We were at my parents' church this morning for the annual Thanksgiving service. Someone mentioned in a prayer about counting our blessings and God knowing that we are truly grateful as we do so. As she prayed that, my mind recounted the words of the old hymn sung so often in western Kenya: "Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessing, see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord has done."

For me right now, I need to count my blessings not so much for God to hear my gratitude but to cultivate an attitude of thankfulness. To see what God has done. I am so blessed. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful, healthy baby boy and a fabulous family. We have a safe, warm place to live and plenty of food to eat. We have clothes to wear and cars that still run. Dave has a good, secure job. There's so much more, but that's certainly enough to be thankful for.

Our pastor often says, "Even if God doesn't do another thing, he's already done enough for me to praise him." I need to be reminded of that sometimes, but it's so true!

My son is now a manly man

2009-11-25T22:00:00.003-05:00

Daniel and I were going to take a walk with my brother Scott this morning, and I got out his light blue hooded fleece jacket that has little ears (what is it with everything with hoods having ears!?). Scott took one look at it and said, "Uh-uh!" Scott went shopping and came home with a hat and hoodie that he got for Daniel. They're really cute! Here we are about to go out:

Ack!

2009-11-24T22:07:00.004-05:00

I've started 5 posts so far, trying to come up with something to say! I don't have anything striking me that I want to write about. I knew that blogging every day for a month must get tough, because otherwise there wouldn't be a challenge to do it. At first, I just enjoyed getting into the habit of posting every day. I got halfway through and still felt great about it. By 2/3 of the way through I was starting to run out of steam. Now I'm getting to the point where almost every day I'm tired and ready for bed but everything I'd like to write about is long or it would take more time and effort than I have to craft a good post. This month has been good for getting back into the habit of blogging, but I'm looking forward to having a little more freedom in blogging once the month is done - no need to post every day just because. Tonight I was hoping to get to bed early, but by the time I made a couple phone calls and kept sitting here writing and deleting, it's late again (well, late by my mom-of-a-little-baby standards!) So this is all you get and I'm going to bed. Good night!

Cutie Pie

2009-11-23T21:33:00.000-05:00

Knitting

2009-11-22T22:00:00.001-05:00

Check out the sweater and hat my friend Carol made for Daniel! There are matching booties too. This is enough to make me want to learn to knit, except that I don't really want it enough to practice as much as it takes to get this good.

Forgetful

2009-11-21T20:27:00.002-05:00

I've been forgetting a lot of things lately. Yesterday I forgot to go to my friend's birthday party. I forgot the pot of milk boiling away on the stove. Today I forgot clothes that needed to go into the laundry. I forgot to finish hanging up the clothes to dry. I even forget what else I forgot! Dave's been forgetting a lot of things too. I chalk it up to lack of sleep, but at least we haven't forgotten the baby!

Considering it Joy

2009-11-20T20:09:00.002-05:00

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that they testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

Um, yeah. This month has been very trying and I have not considered it even a smidge of joy. This testing has shown me to be woefully short. I've been complaining, grumbling and feeling sorry for myself and I've been letting myself get irritated easily.

So this morning, I read several of the "trials" passages and was encouraged to turn my attitude around. When I was tempted to complain, I quoted this verse again to myself. It doesn't help at all to have a bad attitude and it only helps to keep a positive outlook. Here's to a new start!

Not quite the Nikon

2009-11-19T19:39:00.006-05:00

It's been harder than I thought to get good pictures of Daniel. The lighting in our house isn't great. The camera isn't always where you want it. But a big problem is that it's often just me and Daniel. He's very responsive to me - laughing, smiling, talking, etc. but it's really hard to interact with him and catch it on camera at the same time. Plus I'm not very creative about how to take pictures of a 3 month old. This evening as we were getting ready for a bath, we were making faces in the mirror, and I pulled out my phone. These aren't the best pictures ever, but they give you a little glimpse of my precious and fun little guy.

Today

2009-11-18T16:36:00.002-05:00

Today is a new day. Same challenges, but new grace and a new attitude. This morning as I prayed for more sleep, I told God that I needed sleep, but what I needed even more what His strength. And that's what I got. Somehow, I'm doing better today with even LESS sleep than I'd already been struggling on. Daniel took two naps in the co-sleeper instead of my arms! Woohoo!! We're heading to a friend's house for a little bit. Then back home and I'm going to bed as soon as I can after Daniel does. The Lord is faithful and He is good. Always.

Too tired and busy

2009-11-17T20:41:00.003-05:00

I'm too tired and busy to have any thing to say today. Just keeping it real. If I weren't intentionally posting every day this month, I would not even be thinking about this blog tonight. This has been a challenging month with Dave's schedule and not getting enough sleep. Today, I feel like I'm not gonna make it, but I know I will. Got to stick to the basics - if we're all fed, happy and have clean clothes to wear, it's all good, right?

Apple Picking

2009-11-16T19:35:00.008-05:00

So we forgot to take the camera out of the car when we were actually picking apples, but we took pictures when we were done, enjoying a beautiful October afternoon!

I come in peace

2009-11-15T19:27:00.000-05:00

Was it a race thing?

2009-11-14T19:32:00.004-05:00

I stopped in at one of our neighborhood grocery stores this afternoon to pick up a few things and tried to use three coupons that I printed online. The cashier told me they didn't take those and I responded with something like, "Oh, you don't take those anymore?" since I had used them there before. She called over the supervisor and he said to "take them from her." She did take them, but commented to me that he'd told her earlier that day not to take them.

I suspect that he told her to take the coupons because I was white and perhaps looked like a middle class shopper. My brain was going several directions at once. My first instinct was to thank him for taking the coupons, because I'm used to having to convince cashiers to take printed coupons. Then I realized it was probably because I was white, and I felt like I should say something, but I wasn't sure what to say or who to say it to. My mind didn't think fast enough and I just took my groceries and left. Now I'm looking back wondering what I should have done. I know that racism persists as long as those who benefit from it keep quiet, but I'm not sure what would have been the best thing to do.

Part of me says that maybe it wasn't because I was white; maybe it was just because I was polite and looked confused about the policy. I wouldn't want to accuse someone of racial profiling/preferencing if they were just trying to help a customer. But even if he was just trying to help me out, the fact that I'm white most likely played into his decision, consciously or not. And my reaction bothers me because white people so often brush racial issues under the rug, not wanting to upset anything or raise any trouble. It was too easy for me to just walk away, and I can do that because I'm white. In the end, this wasn't a huge issue or a gross example of racism - it may have been nothing - but my gut said something and I didn't do anything about it. It isn't just the large injustices that perpetuate racism. It's all the little things that slip by unchecked. It's the thoughts and perceptions, the looks and the judgments, and the slight differences in how people respond that systematically favor one group over another.

(I would appreciate some feedback here, so don't be shy - please tell me what you think.)

Marathon

2009-11-13T20:34:00.002-05:00

Our marathon week is officially over. This one was tough. Dave was working Monday night and Wednesday night (all night). He got home about 8:30pm on Tuesday, 7:30 on Thursday and nearly 8:00 tonight. Since Daniel's in bed at 7:00, Dave did not see him awake AT ALL on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Today he was at a conference nearby, so he was able to come home for lunch, which was great. I really thought he was gonna end up having seen Daniel on Sunday and then not again until Saturday! Holy cow.

This kind of schedule is tough for Dave as a dad - being at the hospital all the time and not being able to see your baby. It's tough for me too as a mom because it means that it's pretty much all me all the time. It's been a tough sleep week too and this mama is TIRED. I know I'm not the only one in this kind of situation, which helps, but it's still hard. But now it's Friday and Dave is off all weekend. Time to catch up a bit and hopefully rest.

My child is not a condiment!

2009-11-12T21:06:00.002-05:00

I have to remind myself to call Daniel by his name. I often call him buddy or buster or kiddo. This week, it's been my-favorite-baby-in-the-whole-wide-world! "Hey my favorite baby in the whole wide world" has a nice rhythm to it. But sometimes the names get mixed up before they come out of my mouth. I've called Daniel "kitty" and Marshall "kiddo" more times than I'd like to admit! I've mixed up buddy and buster and gotten "butter." And this morning I got buster and Marshall mixed up and I called him "mustard!"

Daily Discipline

2009-11-11T19:51:00.006-05:00

I really like the discipline of writing every day. I am a procrastinator by nature, so I often have something in mind I want to write about but don't get to it before the end of the day. I think, oh, I'll write it tomorrow instead. Then another day comes and goes. Then I have something else I want to write about, but I feel like I can't write about it until I've written about the first thing. So then I go weeks without writing at all.

I have the same problem with other things too. That's why it's no good for me to do something 3 days a week, or 5 days a week, or need to make a phone call "sometime this week" because it always gets pushed off because "I still have 5 more days" to get it done. Then all of a sudden it's the end of the week and either I'm scrambling or it just doesn't happen.

In addition to not getting things done, trying to do something irregularly makes me more anxious. I get worked about what I should be doing first, or about not getting to something that's been on my list. It starts becoming an emotional burden. But having a daily discipline takes all that away. I don't have to decide whether to do it today or wait until tomorrow (which so often becomes next week, next month or never!) I know that before the end of the day, I will sit down and write something. Despite the fact that I'm writing more than I have in a long time - or rather, because of it - my list of things I want to write about just keeps getting longer.

The Word Speaks

2009-11-10T19:45:00.000-05:00

For a long time, I've been reading the Bible in the morning while I'm eating breakfast and/or drinking a cup of coffee. So lately, since Daniel's right there with me, I've been reading it out loud. One, it's including him in what I'm doing and two, I'm speaking the Word over him and into him, with a little commentary along the way. But the unexpected blessing is how much more deeply the Word speaks to me and how much more I understand when I see it, speak it and hear it.

Sleep

2009-11-09T19:49:00.004-05:00

It's been a long day of Daniel not sleeping. Following a night of me not sleeping much. I tried and tried and he just never slept more than 15 minutes or so at a time. Tonight he was so exhausted it took twice as long for him to get to sleep than normal. Poor thing. Every little thing seemed to disturb him.

We were away for a bit in the evening yesterday and Daniel was in bed at 8:00 instead of 7:00. I can't believe how much of a difference it makes. It reminds me why we're normally so vigilant about his bedtime and bedtime routine and why we're trying so hard to get into a good daytime nap routine. I'm finding that I can get Daniel to sleep, but he doesn't stay asleep when I try to lay him down.

Do any other parents out there have ideas about how to get him to nap lying down in his bed? I'm okay with him fussing a little, which is what he does when we're rocking him to sleep during the day and he's fighting it, but I'm not willing to put him in his bed and let him cry himself to sleep. Our routine right now is putting on a lullaby CD, walking/rocking him to sleep and then either holding him or swaddling him and laying him down. I haven't been trying the swaddle/lay down for very long, though, and I'm hoping if we keep trying, eventually he'll start staying asleep. Does that sound like it will work? At night, I rock him to sleep, swaddle him and put him in bed and he does great. But during the day he wakes back up within 5-10 minutes.

Milestones

2009-11-08T20:54:00.012-05:00

Dave and I were putting clothes away last night after Daniel went to bed and we started swapping out 3-6 month clothes for 6-9 month clothes. It made me a little sad to realize that my baby boy is growing so fast. We're still counting his age in weeks, so I know this is nothing compared to how fast it will go when we're counting by months or years, but I still feel it.
Today I left Daniel with Dave for an hour and a half while I went to the grocery store. It was the first time I'd been away from him and I did surprisingly well. I was in a hurry to get there, get what I needed and get back in time to go to a friend's house for dinner, so I didn't have much time to worry about them. They did okay, but Daniel was kinda fussy.
We gave Daniel a bottle for the first time last Saturday. I sat downstairs and cried while Dave gave it to him upstairs. He ate it right up and I didn't know whether to be glad that he took it so well or disappointed that he didn't reject it because it wasn't me. We've given him a bottle twice more since then and he did fine. I'm doing better too. After talking about it with some friends, I'm finally convinced that it will be helpful for him to be able to take a bottle and I did feel better leaving him today knowing that Dave could give him some milk while I was gone. I'm trying to make sure I pump at least a little bit every day or two and it's easier than I thought it would be. All that said, though, I still like feeding him myself the best.
Daniel has been smiling and laughing a lot. Sometimes he just cracks up, which of course cracks us up! He's started reaching for things and grasping them. He's enjoyed laying on his play mat and looking at the items hanging down and he likes to hit the one that plays music. He's been sucking on his fist or his fingers for a while, but today he managed to suck just his thumb for the first time. At this stage, he's growing and changing so much and it seems like he does something new every day. It's really fun to watch and we're trying hard to soak it all up and cherish these days.

I like sunny fall days

2009-11-07T19:13:00.004-05:00

Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny November day. Perfect for raking leaves. I helped, but with Daniel wrapped up asleep on my chest, Dave did most of the work.

Fall Leaves

2009-11-06T13:34:00.006-05:00

This morning we were watching the leaves come down off the tree in our backyard. As in yesterday the tree was full of leaves, this morning it was half full but raining leaves, and now it's almost empty. We have a beautiful blanket of leaves on the ground.

Last week, Daniel and I went for an afternoon walk and the yellow maples on one side of Pallister were in full glory - vibrant and glowing in the sun. The red maples on the other side were almost completely green, with just a hint of color. Two days later we drove by and the yellow leaves were gone but the red maples were in their prime.

I'm thankful for these small blessings, and for the time to slow down and take them in. I'm especially enjoying doing these things with Daniel as he's becoming more and more aware of the world around him.

Tired

2009-11-05T20:25:00.002-05:00

That's what I am. Dave and I have been getting to bed later and Daniel and I have been waking up earlier. We've been a little whacked out since the time changed. The result is that I've been getting 2-3 hours less sleep a night than I was a few weeks ago. Hmm. No wonder I'm tired. Plus it's been a busy week and I'm feeling the weight of a lot of little things. I'm having a cup of peppermint tea and then we're going to bed early.

Look for us in room #3

2009-11-04T20:38:00.004-05:00

I saw my midwife today and she asked if they could put this picture up on the wall in one of the exam rooms. She likes how it shows the whole support team - husband, mom and doula. I was thrilled! She took a picture of Daniel and me in front of the picture hanging on the wall, but I don't have it yet.

Through new eyes

2009-11-03T17:53:00.005-05:00

It's been really fun watching Dave be a dad. I think the world of him anyway - he's a wonderful husband, my best friend and an overall quality guy - but even more so now as I watch him in the new role of dad. I have to be intentional, though, about giving him the chance. I get so used to being with Daniel on my own that I forget to share when Dave gets home.

On Sunday evening, I cleaned up the dinner dishes and let them play. It was so much fun to hear Dave making up songs and to watch them playing peekaboo, reading books and laughing together. It's also good to see how Dave interacts differently with Daniel than I do. I've heard that moms tend to hold their kids close and dads tend to push them and play rougher with them, but I had no idea the hanging upside down would come so soon!

Detroit Elections Tomorrow

2009-11-02T20:10:00.004-05:00

This is an "off year" for elections, in that there are no presidential, congressional or gubernatorial races, but Detroit has a lot of important issues on the ballot. All of the city council seats are up for grabs, and given the perennial drama surrounding Detroit's city council, we need some good people there. We're electing a charter commission that will rewrite Detroit's city charter. Very important. There's a proposal to change the city council from 9 at-large members to 7 district representatives and 2 at-large members. From what I understand, there were good reasons for the current composition method, but as times have changed, council by districts makes a lot of sense now. There's a $500 million bond proposal to upgrade and modernize a number of school buildings and 4 school board members need to be chosen. Detroit Public Schools is currently in receivership with an emergency financial manager. Again, important issues to be addressed. Oh yeah, the mayor is up for re-election too, but he's only been in a few months and he's expected to stay.

I heard on the radio today that voter turn out is expected to be low, maybe 20-25%. I don't know how that compares to other elections, but it seems like more people should care with so many important decisions at stake. Is it apathy - a sense of hopelessness that things can change? Are people too busy just trying to survive to care about voting? I wonder how many people are overwhelmed by all the issues and all the choices. I know I am.

I didn't vote in the primary because figuring out which of the 167 city council candidates to vote for was just too much. Yes, 167. I feel a bit that way now too, needing to pick 9 out of 18 candidates for both city council and the charter commission. Our local public radio station has been interviewing all of the candidates over the last few weeks and I had good intentions of listening to them online, but 15 minutes x 36 candidates + life with a 12 week old baby + election day snuck up on me = I still have no idea who to vote for. I'm at least going to read the document that came from the DPS financial manager before tomorrow and do my best to make good choices for the rest.

I'm not exactly sure what my point is, or if I have one. Detroit needs some good leadership and this election is an important opportunity to pick some new leaders with vision and ability, but I wonder if it will really happen. I know I haven't done my part and wonder how many other people are in the same position as me.

NaBloPoMo

2009-11-01T17:00:00.003-05:00

Yeah, the first time I saw that I thought, "What in the world?" I gathered that it had something to do with posting every day in November, but I couldn't figure out how the Na Blo Po and Mo made any sense with that. So when I saw it again this week, I turned to Google and found out about National Blog Posting Month. The idea is to get yourself into the habit of blogging regularly by blogging every day for a month. I figured it would be a good way to get back into the routine.

For a while after Daniel was born, I found it easier to post a quick couple-sentence status update on facebook instead of blogging. Blogging required more thought and more time. In the last few weeks, I've found that I have lots more things I want to say, but I don't actually sit down and write. I like to think that I have something worth sharing. If nothing else, friends and family can get a glimpse into my life and see my cutie pie kiddo! It also helps me to process what's happening in our little world and helps me keep some perspective on what we're doing and why.

So, I'm going to give it a shot and see if I can post every day this month. Hopefully we'll build a new routine and I'll begin to find my voice and my vision again.

Funny Faces

2009-10-27T21:40:00.004-04:00

2009-10-13T21:02:00.001-04:00

It’s been a while, huh? Lately, I’ve either felt like I didn’t have anything to say or haven’t had any time to say it. That’s not such a good thing, since it means I’m probably not processing enough. But right now Daniel is in bed and Dave’s at work, so here I sit with a mug of hot apple cider (in one of my mugs from Malawi, of course, since they’re the best for apple cider.) I still don’t have any collected thoughts, but here are a few snippets that might give you a snapshot of our life right now.

- People often ask how we’re doing and I’m not always sure how to answer. I think we’re getting into a groove. I’m more comfortable in my role as a mom (although it still feels funny to see it in writing!) and we’re getting into some better routines.

- Daniel’s sleeping longer at night, which means I’m sleeping more too. Hurray!

- He’s more content to sit in the bouncy seat while I do other things – mainly eat or work in the kitchen. I’m cooking more often. I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins this week that are really good. I’m cooking much more often than I am pulling things out of the freezer.

- I am absolutely loving the cloth diapers and I can’t imagine doing anything else. Daniel’s worn 3 paper diapers and they were all in the first 2 weeks. I’m really proud of that. It’s been fun trying out different types of diapers and finding out what we like best and what works best for different times of day. If you get me talking about diapers, I have to be careful not to go on and on!

- The house is not so neat and clean, which actually isn’t that unusual (unfortunately, I’m not known for being a neat freak), but it’s even more so with a baby. My top priority is taking care of Daniel and making sure that we have clean clothes to wear and food to eat.

- Everybody said that life would change when we had a baby, but I really had no idea how much. I had no idea how much time I would spend nursing, holding, walking, rocking. It’s been challenging for Dave and me to find time to spend together, though it’s getting a little better now that Daniel’s in bed earlier. For a while, we’d get Daniel to bed and all we could do was get ready for bed and crash. Even now, though, we tend to do a lot of tag teaming – one of us has Daniel while the other cooks dinner, washes dishes, does laundry, etc. We know that it’s important to focus on each other and our marriage, but it’s hard to know how to turn that knowledge into action. We’re not really sure what to do differently. Any tips from other parents?

- I started pumping a little bit of milk yesterday and we’re going to try giving Daniel a bottle. I’m still a little on the fence about it, though. Theoretically, I know it’s probably the best thing for him to be able to take a bottle sometimes, but part of me kind of hopes he won’t. I’m still not thrilled with the idea of him getting milk from a bottle and not just from me. But being able to take a bottle means that I could occasionally do some things in the evening and let Dave put Daniel to bed. Or it means that we’d be able to leave Daniel with someone while we go out for a couple hours. Besides, I don’t have any more good reasons to put it off.

- My dad keeps asking if Daniel does any tricks yet. He waves his arms and legs. He smiles at us when we talk to him. He’ll sometimes stick his tongue out if I do. He makes cute faces when he stretches. I don’t know if those count as “tricks,” but they’re fun to watch.

I guess that’s all for now. It’s 9:00, which means it’s time for me to go to bed. I’m hoping to post some pictures more pictures before too long, but not tonight.

I think my son is really cute!

2009-09-20T20:08:00.002-04:00

5 weeks

2009-09-15T20:56:00.002-04:00

My baby is 5 weeks old today and he's getting so big. I'm already realizing how quickly the time goes by and how fast he's changing. I miss looking down at his little shoulders. Now he has chunky shoulders and I wish I had a picture of what I used to see when I would looked at him as he was nursing. I really think he smiled at me today - in response to me talking to him and smiling at him. Is that possible at 5 weeks? That's all for now. Daniel's in bed and I'd better go join him!

The state of things

2009-09-01T19:25:00.006-04:00

Challenging but good

Tired but making it

Enjoying a cute, sweet baby

Sometimes overwhelmed, sometimes doing great

Working together with Dave to make it all happen

Thankful for help from friends with meals, dishes and laundry

Grateful for even the shortest of naps

Ready for the go ahead to start walking outside but enjoying the porch swing in the meantime

3 weeks old today:

Napping with Grandpa Halter:

Warm and cozy after a bath:

Mama Sarah reporting for duty

2009-08-24T12:33:00.003-04:00

Today is my first day all on my own. Dave’s at work and Grammy and Grandma have both come and gone. So far, we’ve nursed, changed diapers, nursed, eaten breakfast, pet the cat with my foot while nursing, gotten Daniel dressed, nursed, changed more diapers, nursed, taken an hour nap (woohoo!!!), nursed, gotten Mommy dressed, and nursed some more! Now Daniel is asleep in the moby wrap while I’m eating lunch. We’re doing okay so far. Right now we’re on the nurse every hour in the morning schedule, which I don’t mind too much since we’re only up twice during the night. I am kind of hoping, though, that this is part of the two week growth spurt the pediatrician was talking about and not necessarily the new routine! ☺ We are getting good at remembering to get up right away when he's done to do something quick (like get dressed or eat dinner) before he's ready to eat again.

Last night, Dave and I were talking and it sunk it for me that this is our new normal. This isn’t a temporary routine change. There’s no going to bed and sleeping all night after a tiring day anymore. This is challenging. Not bad, though - just different.

Here’s a picture I took on Thursday (9 days old). It was the first night that Dave wasn’t home at all so I put Daniel in his I Love Daddy t-shirt to make up for it. That was a tough evening for me. But he worked all day and night again on Saturday and I did much better. Like I said, this is our new normal and we’re slowly getting the hang of it.

Daniel's Birth

2009-08-21T15:47:00.003-04:00

Note: This is long. The short version is that we had a long labor with several unexpected twists and turns, but in the end, Daniel was born vaginally and without any drugs, thanks to lots of work by my amazing birth team. He was born Tuesday, August 11, weighed 8 lbs 12oz and was 22 inches long.

I'd been having a lot of prodromal labor for a couple weeks with regular mild contractions for several hours at a time, but nothing progressing into stronger labor. On Sunday (Aug 9), labor did get going for real. By late afternoon Dave and I were working harder and our doula Alicia came in the evening. By 2am or so labor had pretty much subsided and contractions weren't very regular anymore. I was still feeling it in my lower back so we concluded that he needed to get into a better position before labor picked up again. Even though I know it happens all the time and that my body was doing good work during that time, it was pretty discouraging not to keep going. Alicia went home and we went to bed about 3am.

Monday morning we went in for an ultrasound to check fluid levels and then went for a walk in the woods at Kensington Metropark before our appointment with my midwife Mary in the afternoon. At the ultrasound, he looked great and was in a good position - not posterior like we'd assumed. We'd also made good progress during the night before - more effaced, baby had moved down a bit and dilated to 3cm. On Mary's recommendation, we got castor oil to take Monday night and then went home and took a nap. I woke up to stronger contractions that had pretty much just picked up from the night before at 3-4 min apart. Dave labored with me in the shower and Alicia was on her way over when we felt like things were moving along well and it was time to go in. We knew we needed to be there early enough to get in two doses of antibiotics since I had positive cultures for Group B Strep (Ha - in the end I got four doses and almost got a fifth!). Mary and Alicia both heard me laboring on the phone and thought it sounded like time to go.

We got to the ABC around 7pm and labored walking around, on the birth ball, on hands in knees in bed, etc. I was dilating pretty slowly but the baby moved down a lot more in the next few hours. Slow progress, but at least making progress. It was at this point that I knew I needed to let go and let labor get more intense, but I had a lot of fear and had a really hard time turning my mind off. I was afraid of how it would be and how I would handle labor kicking up a notch, since it was hard enough as it was. I think that had a lot to do with keeping the labor slow. Looking back now, I didn't have anything to be afraid of, and the more intense labor after I let go was actually easier in a lot of ways since I was really entering into it instead of holding myself back. Good lessons learned for the next time!

Anyway, I was laboring really well by morning and we thought I was making a lot of progress (the nurse called Mary to come), but we got stuck somewhere around 8 cm for quite a while. My water was still intact and Mary thought that breaking it at that point would help bring the baby down onto my cervix and open it up the rest of the way. There was light meconium staining, but not enough to change anything. My contractions did get stronger and Mary checked again since I was beginning to feel the urge to push. I wasn't any more open and his head had turned a bit, which seemed to be keeping things from progressing. We needed to get the contractions stronger to get him turned and out. With the water broken, meconium present and birth no longer seeming imminent, she said we needed to start thinking about what to do next. We might need to move down to labor and delivery and start a pitocin drip to bump the contractions up while getting me into some different positions to get him turned.

She went to go get the monitor from L&D to put me on it and therefore buy us some more time at the ABC. That's when I pretty much lost it and all I wanted to do was go down the hall and get an epidural so I could rest. I knew that it wouldn't do a thing to change the situation, it would not help him turn and that I would really regret it later but I didn't think I could go on anymore if we weren't almost done. My nurse Dee and Alicia reminded me that the only thing that had changed was the information. I was doing great before and I still had reserves of power that I didn't know I had.

Mary called Dee on her way to L&D and told her to get my chest down, bottom in the air and hips moving to try and get this baby turned. I just did what they told me to do, which got me over the hump of giving in. We had 4 people up with me on the bed (Dee, Alicia, Dave and my mom) with one person jiggling my bum, one feeding me homeopathics, another on my pressure points and Dave on my nipples. It worked to get my contractions stronger and I felt his head turn. We kept laboring like this (you should see the picture!) and I had to work really hard not to push. Mary checked again and there was just a little bit of cervix left in the way. With the next contraction, she had me bear down and she was able to get it up and over his head. What a relief.

I got in a couple different positions to push and he would have been out pretty quickly, except I had a really tight band across my perineum. I ended up in a semi-reclining position with Dee and my mom holding my legs and me pulling back on their arms as I pushed. As much as I didn't want to push that way, I felt really powerful in that position. I pushed and pushed (really well - I was really proud of how I pushed!) but even with Mary stretching it and applying oil and warm compresses, he was not coming past that band. Mary suggested that we needed to cut it a little to get him out. The beautiful thing about working with someone that I know and trust so much is that I didn't have to question all of the things she suggested, I know Mary and her birthing philosophy and know she wouldn't suggest pitocin or an episiotomy unless she really felt like they were necessary. I didn't have to judge whether we really needed it or if it was just the doctor's way of doing things. She made a small cut and he came out in a few pushes after that, then up and onto my chest! He had his hand up by his head, which might be another thing that kept labor moving slowly, and which might have resulted in tearing anyway as he came out.

It was such a wonderful feeling to have him out and on my chest, to be able to look and see that he was a he and to get him nursing right away. It was such a relief to be done and it felt so good knowing that we stuck with it and he was born vaginally with no drugs. I know that I worked hard, but I also know that I couldn't have done it without my amazing birth team!

In the end, Daniel was born on Tuesday, August 11 at 3:40 pm. He weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 22 inches long.

Pictures of Daniel

2009-08-14T15:36:00.009-04:00

Here's a sampling of our photos of Daniel. There's an album with a few more on Picasa including pictures with his grandparents.

New Halter in the family.

2009-08-11T16:49:00.004-04:00

Daniel Robert Imani was born (with much effort!) on August 11 at 3:40 PM. He is 8 lb 12 oz and 22 inches long.

About his name:

Daniel Robert Imani Halter –He is named after Daniel in the Bible, who was faithful to God regardless of the circumstances or the consequences. He honored the Lord in everything he did and was filled with wisdom. Robert is for his two grandfathers, who are both fun, hardworking men with strong character and integrity. Imani is a Swahili name which means faith, honesty, conviction and kindness. We pray that Daniel will grow to be a wise, strong and faithful man, who honors God with his life.

More to follow (of course!)

His loving parents: Dave and Sarah.

Boy or Girl? Now Accepting Guesses

2009-08-02T21:24:00.002-04:00

Seriously – I’d love to hear any guesses you might have. In case you need some help, we’ve consulted the popular wisdom of the old wives and a few new wives as well.

1) Chinese Lunar Calendar: girl

2) Carrying low (I think – it’s hard to tell since I’m so tall): most say that means a boy; some say that means a girl

3) Level of morning sickness: low – boy

4) Baby’s heart rate: 150-160 – girl

5) Carrying mostly in the front: boy

6) Whether my pastor’s daughter comes readily to me (according to his wife): girl

7) Hair on legs growing slower (or maybe I just don’t shave much?): girl

8) Craving sweet or salty foods: I haven’t really “craved” anything, but I more often think something salty sounds good than something sweet - boy

9) Hanging a ring over your belly: twice it went back and forth (boy) and once it went around in a circle (girl). Gender identity disorder – oh no!

10) Color of urine: light (um, I drink a lot of water – of course it’s light) - girl

11) Whether your husband wears boxers or briefs (a friend’s theory): girl

12) Mom’s face round and full during pregnancy: I think so, but some people don’t see it – girl

13) Acne during pregnancy: not so much – boy

14) Basketball or watermelon shaped belly: basketball – boy

Drum roll please for the grand tally…..

Seven of the old wives tales say girl and seven say boy. Hmmm. Just as I suspected since I don’t think any of them have any basis in reality.

From what I’ve read, the only thing that is statistically significant is the mother having a strong feeling one way or the other – that’s reported to be about 70% accurate.

What’s that? You want to know what I suspect?

I have no strong feeling one way or the other. In fact, when I had a dream about it, it was totally inconclusive.

So I guess we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way and wait and see. ☺

But I’d still love to hear what you think.

Financial Goals – July/August Update

2009-07-31T17:00:00.000-04:00

Our main financial goal for the first half of the year was to save $5250 ($750 a month) in a temporary extra emergency fund between January and July. The idea was to have money set aside just in case anything happened and once the baby comes and all is well, we will send that full amount to Dave’s student loans. We reached $5250 in June. Woohoo!

At the same time, we’ve been saving for a replacement car. That wasn’t one of our goals at the beginning of the year, but we realized in February that we would need to replace both of our cars within the next 1-2 years rather than one at a time like we’d been planning. What that really means is that Dave’s car has lasted a lot longer than we thought it would, which is great! We were joking recently that his 18 year old car is legally an adult and that my 15 year old car is almost old enough to get a driver’s license! We already had about $4500 set aside to replace one car so we just needed to save for a second car. I’d love to be a one car family, but given Dave’s hours and where we live, it’s not very realistic for us. I wanted at least $2500 in the car fund as soon as possible, since that would get us something decent, but ideally I wanted $4000. With that, we can get something that should last at least until the loans are all paid off (5-6 years from now). We saved the $2500 and then focused on the emergency/student loan fund. Once we hit $5250, we came back to the car and we now have just over $4000 in our second car fund. Hurray! Now we can back to throwing money at the loans.

We’ve done more buying than selling on ebay and Craig’s List, but we got several things we needed (a wardrobe, new freezer, printer ink) and we did sell some things at a yard sale with our FPU group in June.

We’ve done a good job of sticking with our budget. The week before last, I used most of the grocery money stocking up on some things I knew we’d need with the baby coming any time, but that meant I didn’t have much left to spend this past week. There were several things that I felt like I “needed,” but I had less than a dollar left, so I didn’t get them. We also put $4.14 worth of gas in my car on Monday because that’s how much gas money we had left. In the past, I think I would have justified it with the baby coming and spent a little more on both, saying we’d make it up with the next paycheck. But I knew that the rest of our dollars had another name on them and that we’d make it. I was really proud of myself for that self-discipline. Dave gets paid today, so now I can go fill up my gas tank and buy my kidney beans and cilantro! It’s not that we don’t have any money – that’s not what I’m trying to say – it’s just that we didn’t quite plan right and it was a good challenge to just make do. And maybe the baby’s waiting for a full tank of gas to decide it’s time to come!

39.5 Weeks

2009-07-30T15:24:00.015-04:00

Wow, it’s hard to believe that all this time has gone by and that we’re really almost at the end. We’re excited, of course! I’m really looking forward to meeting this kid, seeing what he or she looks like, getting to know him or her, and knowing if it is a him or a her. I’m ready to hold little hands and feet, to rub a back and tickle a little tummy, to look into baby eyes, to snuggle and cuddle, to sing, and play, to read books and splash in the bath tub. I’m excited to teach this little one and help him or her grow into a strong and beautiful person who loves God and cares for others. I’m looking forward to watching my dear husband be a dad – to love on, teach and play with his son or daughter. What an exciting journey to be on.

Here are a few pictures from 37 weeks. These may be the last good belly pics we get before this baby is born.

Six Years!

2009-07-06T18:31:00.003-04:00

Yesterday marks six years married to the best husband in the world. The last 6 years have been great, but I think this last year has been the best yet.

I am so grateful to have such a wonderful, Godly husband. As much as I loved and appreciated Dave when I married him, there’s no question that I love him and appreciate him even more now. I don’t know what I would do or where I would be without him.

In honor of six great years, here are six things I love about my husband:

1) He has such a servant’s heart. There is no question that Dave is a servant: in the church, in our family, in his work. He is the one who will do whatever it takes behind the scenes to make things happen and he shows his love so well through acts of service.

2) He is cool, calm, strong, and consistent. Not much fazes him and he is amazingly steady. He is my anchor.

3) He is always willing to entertain my crazy ideas and then to really make them happen.

4) He’s cute and his blue eyes sparkle when he smiles. I’m so glad he’s mine to have and to hold.

5) He has a fun sense of humor. Sometimes I can only roll my eyes, but he makes me laugh often and he loves to hear me laugh.

6) He loves me unconditionally, as I am, not despite the way I am. He helps me to be the woman God made me to be and he shows me Jesus every day through his unconditional love.

I love you sweetie. I appreciate you very much and I’m so proud of you!

My House!

2009-07-02T21:08:00.006-04:00

I found my house in Kenya on google maps! Dave was looking at Kenya and Tanzania on google maps and realized that they had more detailed images with new roads and towns labeled. So he zoomed in to the area where I lived and we looked closely and found my school, church, house and lots of local landmarks. This is a very rural area and they had satellite images in great detail! I could hardly believe how much I could see - what fun!

My house is the one that's almost T shaped in the middle of the image:

View Larger Map

Summer Nights in the City

2009-06-26T09:01:00.002-04:00

I’d forgotten how interesting summer nights in the city could be. I remember last summer hearing firecrackers going off, cars zooming down the street and people out making noise, but it’s a little hazy in retrospect. It’s all back again – and this week in force!

On Tuesday night, we woke up at 4:30 hearing a pretty loud and intense screaming match up and down the street. Some sort of domestic dispute, if you can call it that when it’s a physically intimate but short term and casual relationship as evidenced by the content of the screaming. Part of me really wanted to shout out the window, “People are sleeping! And do you really want the whole neighborhood to hear your business?” (And all of *those* details that you’re screaming at the top of your lungs?)

Wednesday was the fireworks downtown (and I still don’t understand why they do them in June, but that’s another story), so at 12:30 we wake up to major firecrackers going off on our street. The kind that shoot up and make lots of light and noise. As we were startled awake by the noise and the lights, Dave and I were sure that someone was setting them off in front of our house and that the sparks were going to catch our whole block on fire! It turned out to be quite a ways down the street and eventually we went back to sleep. This was after waking up at midnight to more people screaming at each other because someone had left a car in the middle of the street while they ran inside and somebody else wanted to get by.

Last night was the revelry down at the Motown Museum in remembrance of Michael Jackson (who I realized had died through facebook of all places, from everybody’s comments and status updates). Around 10:00 or 10:30, we heard crazy firecrackers or something and then horns honking and people yelling. We finally figured out that it was down at the museum (at the end of our street). A ton of people had gathered and when people would drive by and honk – and I mean h-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-n-k! – the crowd would explode again in yelling. Our neighbor said we should expect it all weekend.

Our neighborhood is usually pretty calm and quiet, albeit with a little more street noise at night. Most of the time, it’s not a big deal and if it gets too loud, we close our window. But this week it was so hot and we so desperately needed the cool air that we left the windows open and just tried to laugh at it all! Definitely easier to do in the morning, though, when we’re fully awake! ☺ Nobody said life in Detroit would be boring.

Hot!

2009-06-24T13:23:00.002-04:00

I think it is officially hot. It's around 90 outside and 80 inside. Not so bad with a fan, but there are only so many fans in the house to go around :) At least I've learned not to leave the windows open during the day!

The cat's pretty much been sleeping most of the last few days. Last night I found him sleeping in the windowsill in front of the open window in the bathroom! I don't think I'm extra hot from being pregnant, just hot because it's hot. Dave suggested going to the DIA or the library where there's air conditioning, but I think I might be more inclined to go down to the basement, chill on the couch and finish a movie I started recently. Maybe with some ice cream. I'm feeling a little tired to be on my feet around the museum. And the exhibit I want to see will still be there another 3 weeks.

Dave said it's okay to take a siesta in the afternoon on hot days like this, as long as I don't check out for the rest of the summer! He reminded me that last year we had hot weeks and then it would cool down again. It's supposed to be more in the low 80's later in the week with nights in the mid 60's to help cool the house back down a bit.

I think mostly my system's just a little surprised that the heat really did come. It's been so cool through most of June that I'd started to wonder if it summer was really on its way!

Yum!

2009-06-15T12:33:00.002-04:00

Dave and I love Indian food (well, just about any good food), but we haven't had much lately because we hadn't found an Indian place we liked and I hadn't made time to cook anything at home. We've found great Thai, Ethiopian and Mexican nearby, but Indian has been hit and miss. On a friend's recommendation (thanks Nishba!) we tried another place yesterday and had a fabulous dinner. The dishes we had were really good (I just had leftovers for lunch!) and Dave and I had such a sweet time together. I don't remember what all we talked about, but it wasn't all baby stuff, and we had a really great relaxed time just sharing and laughing together. Good times for sure.

32 weeks

2009-06-12T13:59:00.002-04:00

- The baby has been hiccupping. It’s interesting to feel the difference between hard core kicks and punches and the light, rhythmic bouncing of hiccups. At my appointment this week, we could hear the hiccups along with the heartbeat on the Doppler. That was pretty sweet.

- I’m definitely more tired than I was in the middle of pregnancy. Even though I knew that energy levels tend to go down in the third trimester, I don’t think I believed it would really happen! It took me a bit by surprise and I was a bit bummed that I was getting tired so easily. I appreciate more that I’m done working and can take things slow and rest when I need to.

- Even though it doesn’t always seem bigger to me, my belly is definitely growing. Lots of people at church have been commenting and I have lovely purple lines all over my belly to show me it’s true! ☺ It’s also getting a little less comfortable to bend over or lean forward.

- We have some cloth diapers in the house!! We’re borrowing some newborn size Kissaluvs from a friend. I’d still like a few of several other types, but I was thrilled to have some diapers and I called my mom the day I picked them up just to tell her we have diapers in the house! Honestly, there have been some days when I was looking at cloth diapers that I was just as excited about them as I was about the baby, though I’m definitely more excited about the baby now that we’re getting closer.

- On that note (getting closer and more excited), I’m feeling very comfortable and confident about the birth. At our last Bradley class (a week and a half ago), I was still feeling like we’re so not ready, but after having a number of random conversations in various contexts about birth this week, I realized that we do know our stuff and we are very well prepared. There are still more things we’d like to do and practice, but overall I’m very comfortable with the choices we’ve made, my birth team and our ability to do this well. We picked a doula this week too, which definitely helps me feel more prepared. We have some specific things we’ll be working on with her.

- We have a stroller! I took the cat for a ride around the house the day we unpacked it and he lasted about 3 rooms before he jumped out. I went walking with a friend this morning and pushed her (almost) 3 year old in it. It was great and he loved how far the sunshade came down.

- I’m done working and can really focus on getting ready for the baby and getting the house in order. I’m also hopeful that I’ll be able to squeeze some more exercise and sleep into my schedule. Dave moved his desk and computer and I’ve been making some small progress on going through papers, piles and the like.

- I slipped and fell on the stairs a couple weeks ago. Definitely the crying because I’m scared way more than because it hurts thing, just like kids do. Dave heard me fall and came running, comforted me and helped me breath again. Aside from a few days of sore neck, back, hips and head from hitting the stairs, everything was fine. I’m grateful for lots of good cushioning around the baby.

- I hula-hooped recently. My cousin had an adult sized and weighted hula hoop and once I got over the worry of putting too much pressure on my belly, I did pretty well and it was a lot of fun. She said they make ones designed for pregnant women too, but I don’t think I’ll pursue it ☺

- That’s all (ha!) I can think of for now. I don’t have any recent pictures, but we’ll see if we can take one tomorrow.

Last Day

2009-06-02T16:01:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was my last day at work. It’s a little bittersweet since I’ve enjoyed what I’ve been doing, but I’m also really excited about this new season that’s coming. We went out for a farewell lunch yesterday with the core staff at CDC (We went to an Indian place with a lunch buffet, which some people enjoyed and some tolerated ☺)

I started out writing a series of posts in the fall about what I’m doing in Detroit. I wrote about the tutoring program and about hanging out with kids from my neighborhood, but I never got to the main parts of my actual job. I should probably use this post to reflect more on the transition and what I’ve learned in this season, but I want to tell you about what I’ve been doing.

The biggest component of my work in the last year has been helping start a fruit and vegetable market in the neighborhood. There are not very many grocery options in the neighborhood and since half the residents don’t have access to a car, they end up buying a lot of food at convenience stores, gas stations, and liquor stores. We also have lots of lifestyle related health issues in the neighborhood. In response to request from people living in the neighborhood and our own experience trying to access fresh and healthy food living in the neighborhood, CDC (Central Detroit Christian Community Development Corporation) decided to start a produce market. You can read more about all of that here.

The idea was to open the store first and then add a produce truck that would go around the neighborhood selling fruits and vegetables. But construction always takes longer than you think and city inspections, permits, etc. take forever, even when you’re in a better functioning city than Detroit ☺. We had a small grant to get started, so we bought and fixed up a truck to start selling around the neighborhood last summer.

In the meantime, I’ve work a variety of hats as it relates to Peaches and Greens. I’ve done the produce purchasing, served as manager, put operating procedures in place, worked in the store, led cooking demos with teens and adults from the neighborhood, been the go-to person when things goes wrong, been the liaison with a group from MSU working with food desert issues, etc. It’s been an interesting process: usually crazy, but almost always fun. It’s really good to see people’s enthusiasm about having fresh produce in the neighborhood and it’s good to see how far this has come. It’s also good to know that we’ve seen some problems and are doing something about them.

The other big part of what I’ve been doing is coordinating our community garden efforts. We have a children’s garden that’s in its fourth year and a new garden that is just starting this year. Some of the produce is going home with the people working in the gardens and the rest will be sold to Peaches and Greens as a way both for people to earn income and to get more locally grown produce in the store. I worked with kids in the children’s garden all last summer and fall. I’ve worked with them to get everything planted this year, but have now (mostly) passed it on. You can read more about the gardens here.

Ways to pray for these endeavors:
- Committed people from the neighborhood to continue working in the gardens
- Several people who are able to make a longer term commitment to the children’s garden
- That these initiatives would make a difference in people’s health and wellbeing
- That the kids working in the garden would see God’s hand in creation and in providing for their needs
- That the gardens would be a safe haven and peaceful space in the midst of a somewhat chaotic neighborhood
- For each of the employees at Peaches and Greens - they all deal with a variety of issues in their own lives, but are working so hard to grow and are committed to the store.
- For an increase in customers at Peaches and Greens that will make the store viable and profitable in the long run
- For favor in partnerships with various organizations that want to help the store grow and increase access to fresh and healthy foods around the city.

Check out my rocking chair!

2009-05-18T09:18:00.004-04:00

Check out the rocking chair we got off Craig’s List yesterday for $5!!

I really wanted an old-fashioned rocking chair and had put it on my baby registry/wish list, but I happened to be on Craig’s List yesterday and did a quick search for a rocking chair and found this one just a few minutes away for only $5. I’m SO excited about it.

In other news, we had a fabulously productive weekend. Dave was off all weekend, so we worked hard to get some bigger projects done.

We’re having a yard sale with our Financial Peace group in a couple weeks, so we made major headway on gathering things up to sell. A lot of these things were sitting in the basement waiting for me to finish my thesis so I could go through them to sell or give away. But then I started working, then was pregnant and tired and it never really happened. There’s still a LOT of cleaning and organizing to do in the basement (and we’ve only been here 2 years – holy cow!) but getting all these items gathered up was a huge first step.

We also cleaned out both of our cars yesterday afternoon – got rid of the trash and vacuumed. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I was up close with the vacuum cleaner. And we don’t even have kids yet. If my car wasn’t so old, I’d probably take it to get detailed, but I don’t know if it’s worth the money for just the next year or two. I think I can make enough progress without spending money if I get out there with some soap, a rag and some good old fashioned elbow grease.

We finally decided where the baby will go once he or she outgrows the co-sleeper next to our bed. We thought we’d put a crib in the blue room (where the rocking chair is pictured), but we measured again yesterday and it just won’t fit with the bunk beds that are in the room now and I really don’t want to take them down. It would have been a little close to the window and blinds anyway for me to really be comfortable with a toddler in there. So we decided (we’d been debating for a while) to go ahead and decorate the room that’s been our office with some of our Africa stuff and put the baby there. We’re going to put up this batik that we bought in Tanzania and decorate around it.

That will also force us to go through the office and pare down books, papers, etc. and really get it cleaned and organized. It’s been the last room on my priority list for keeping neat since we don’t use it as much anymore and we just keep the door shut. I’m hoping that if I can spend 15 minutes every day in there, I’ll make some good progress. The first step is to get my desk cleaned up and cleaned out so we can put it on Craig’s List. It’s a wonderful oak desk and I’m sad to see it go, but we don’t need it and we don’t have room for it anymore. If anyone local might be interested, let me know.

28 weeks

2009-05-14T21:41:00.003-04:00

I can’t believe we’re into the third trimester, even though I feel like I’ve been pregnant for a long time. I’ve been so blessed to have such an easy pregnancy. I’ve been feeling great and having a lot of fun. I’ve been a little more tired this week, but I think that has as much to do with not getting enough exercise as anything else. Maybe fighting a cold too. I’m just now starting to have moments here and there where I feel a little uncomfortable – reaching for things, putting on my shoes, etc. but nothing too bad yet. I went to my first La Leche League meeting last week, which was a lot of fun and will be a fabulous resource.

I’m obviously pregnant now and I get random comments everywhere I go, though I have yet to have a stranger touch my belly. Even people I know haven’t been overly touchy. Maybe as it gets bigger? The baby is moving around like crazy and it’s really funny to watch my belly move.

It’s hard to comprehend sometimes that a whole new person will be entering our world in a couple months. I can’t really even imagine what life will be like with a baby – radically different but amazing, from what I hear. I’m trying hard to soak in these last couple months as a family of two and to fully enjoy the time I have with my husband (who’s wonderful, by the way!) I think I’m ready to be a mom but we’re totally not ready in a practical sense to have this baby. I’m working through the end of May and then I’ll have a little more time to prepare.

So there’s your update filled with many scattered thoughts. Here are the pictures. They’re not the best quality but they showed my belly the best.

I thought I’d heard it all

2009-04-03T14:28:00.002-04:00

I thought I’d heard all the reasons for not being able to come to work: illnesses, funerals, car problems, problems with the kids or other family members, even being too angry to come to work. Yesterday morning I had a message from an employee saying something had come up and that she wasn’t sure she would be able to make it. I called her back, wondering what it was this time. “Sarah, some man came up on my porch and died.” WHAT!?!? Never, ever, ever expected that one. Apparently some man had stopped to sit down on her porch or her steps (there’s a lot of night activity near her house) and just fell over and died. So everyone at her house was stuck there until the police finished their report and told them they could leave. I know it’s not funny, but all I can do is laugh at the craziness of the situation. After living in Africa and now living in the city, I’ve learned that you’ve NEVER heard or seen it all. There are too many crazy possibilities out there. At least it keeps life interesting.

22 Weeks

2009-03-30T11:11:00.006-04:00

Wow, the time is flying by and we’re more than halfway there. I’m more obviously pregnant now, which was confirmed by the comments at church yesterday. Heartburn is kicking in, but I really can’t complain. It still blows my mind sometimes to think that I’m growing a child – a new and whole person. We start our Bradley class tomorrow evening and I’ve started making a brainstorming list of things to do before August. That way, when I do have a little time and energy I can actually think of something that needs doing.

Here's the belly pic:

Of course the cat had to get in on it too!

My baby has cute legs!

2009-03-27T12:28:00.004-04:00

We had an ultrasound last week. It was really fun to see our baby, and see how perfectly formed that tiny person is. Everything looks wonderful and healthy. I waffled for a minute, but I’m glad that we decided not to find out if it’s a boy or girl. I'm glad that we’ll find that out, along with so much else about who our child is, when he or she is born. It seems so much more natural and whole to me. In the meantime, I thought you all might enjoy a few pictures:

March Financial Update

2009-03-19T09:07:00.001-04:00

Our main goal is to save $750 a month towards our student loans from January through July. I was hoping for a minimum of $750 and than as much as we could scrape together beyond that. Well, after we got stuck overnight out of town when the brakes went out on my car, we realized that we’re going to need to replace 2 cars within the next two years, not just one at a time like we were planning. So, we decided we’d stick with the $750 towards the student loans and whatever else we could manage past that would go into our car replacement fund. We saved some from paychecks and moved some other money around, which gives us $1400 in our new car fund. We’re expecting around $900 in a tax refund soon, which we’ll also put towards it! I’m thrilled with that progress, especially since we were starting with nothing at the beginning of February and this wasn’t part of our original plan.

My other challenge for February was to spend as little as I could on groceries and use more from my freezer and pantry. I did pretty well at first, but started buying more fresh fruit towards the end of the month to add to the applesauce and other frozen fruit we already had. If I weren’t pregnant, I would have made do with what we had on hand, but I’m trying to make sure I’m getting lots of fruits and vegetables and I wasn’t doing so well on the fruit side with just what we had already. I ended up spending $40 on groceries for the month, but I also had the opportunity to buy beef from someone I work with that came from her brother’s farm. She bought half a cow and shared what wouldn’t fit in her freezer with the rest of us. I paid $50 for 20 pounds of ground beef and 11 pounds of various other cuts. I don’t usually buy much meat, for a number of reasons, but this was a great deal and we’ll definitely make use of it, albeit slowly. It’s a good way for me to get in some more protein and iron right now. Not necessary, but helpful. Between the regular groceries and the meat, I ended up spending $90 on groceries, instead of $180 like normal, resulting in $90 towards the loans in addition to the regular $750.

Our FPU class has been fun and it has been a good recharge for us. We’ve refined out budget a little more and are excited about making progress towards paying off our student loans.

I haven’t sold anything yet on Craig’s list or ebay. Time to get moving on that one! We are also thinking of having an FPU group yard sale in May.

Summary/Breakdown:
$840 towards student loans ($2256.93 so far for the year)
$1464.18 towards a replacement car