365 Days of Praise, Week 1

What is 365 Days of Praise?  Read about it here.

Sunday:  God spoke to me during church service, inspiring me to have a heart full of thanksgiving and praise, which has led to me doing this 365 Days of Praise project.

Monday: 
After a four-month search with lots of ups and downs, God provided a substitute teacher for me just in time.  The search caused me to pray for understanding and pray words of faith in God's sovereignty, that He had someone in mind but just hadn't revealed that person to us yet.  I am very pleased with my sub, especially when I found out she attends Providence!  I was able to share with her all the people who had prayed for her, and she said she had been praying for a long-term position as well.  It's almost like He knows what He's doing, isn't it?  I'm thankful for God's sovereignty.

Tuesday:
I am thankful for a husband who cooks and cleans up the kitchen after he cooks.  Jason made chili (yum!), which should get us through the week (did I mention it's a BIG pot of chili?) without having to cook another dinner.  I was VERY thankful to have a set plan for dinner on a week where anything can happen.  I'm thankful for peace of mind.

Wednesday:
I didn't have the best day at work.  It began with parents (there for Freshman Orientation) parking in the faculty lot, which forced me to park much farther away than normal, and ended with a bunch of stuff landing on my plate, causing me to stay an hour and a half past my normal hours.  Why am I thankful?  Well, at 4:00 (end of the teacher workday), it was POURING outside!  We're talking "Where's Noah with the ark?" kind of rain.  And I remembered I was parked super far away.  So, I'm actually thankful I needed to do more work, because when I left at 5:30, it was barely sprinkling.  I'm thankful for God's timing.

Thursday:
Thursday was Open House at school.  It was great to meet parents and a few students.  There are few things as encouraging as parents smiling and nodding their heads in approval as I describe some of my teaching procedures.  The only thing more encouraging? "We heard you're one of the best teachers, so we can't wait for you to return."  I'm thankful for encouraging words.

Friday:
I really thought Lilhimself was going to come today.  He didn't.  Jason and I spent his actual birthday hanging out, ordering Papa John's, and watching taped tv.  I'm thankful for the last few hours/days as a family of two.

Saturday:
Jason and I are doing a "Read the Bible in a Year" plan, and part of my reading for Saturday was Psalm 16.

 "You make known to me the path of life;

in Your presence there is fullness of joy;

at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
--Psalm 16:11

What a great verse to end my first week of 365 Days of Praise!  I'm thankful for God's Word, how it encourages me and gives me insight in how to truly have a grateful heart.

365 Days of Praise

This past week, my church held an event called Celebration Sunday, a chance for us to celebrate all the wonderful things God has done in our church body in the past year.  Pastor Horner spoke from Psalm 145:1-4.

I will extol You, my God, O King;

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless You,

And I will praise Your name forever and ever.

God blesses us every day, and we are to praise Him rather than focus on the negative aspects of our day.  As Pastor Horner spoke about giving thanks and having a spirit of gratefulness, I decided to hold myself accountable to this.  During service, I decided to challenge myself to 365 Days of Praise.  I am going to purposefully take the time to give thanks every day for some blessing in my life.  With the hopes of spurring on you faithful readers, I'm going to share these blessings weekly for the next year.

Is it crazy to hold myself to a post-every-week blog for the first year of my baby's life?  No, I don't think so.  I'm hoping this project will help me find joy on those sleep-deprived, frustrating days and create an environment of praise and thanksgiving in my house.

So stay tuned... it's 365 Days of Praise!

Not Impressed

Jason has had a baby countdown on his work computer for most of the pregnancy.  Yesterday, he sent me this screen shot of his work computer:

Says a thousand words, doesn't it?

We'll See

Today's the day... well, maybe.

40 Weeks!

Jason and I decided to have a little fun with our LAST belly photos!

Doritos, peanut butter, and milk... yum! 

How far along? 40 weeks!  We're due Tuesday!
Baby size? Full size and ready to pop
Maternity clothes?  I have about five shirts I keep in rotation when out in public.  At home, I've taken to wearing Jason's t-shirts, because they don't cling to the belly.
Sleep?  Sleep is getting a little more uncomfortable.  Flipping from one side to the other is nearly impossible.
Best Moment this Week?  Hopefully getting to meet my little fella!
Miss Anything?  Honestly, I think part of me is going to miss being pregnant.  Laugh if you want, but feeding a baby in the womb is way easier than feeding him outside in the world.  There are no diapers to change, and he doesn't cry.
Movement?  He's calming down a bit.  He doesn't have a lot of room in there any more, but he'll do the occasional fist bump or kick-foot to let me know he's still in there.
Food Cravings?  I've been way hungrier the past week or so (I guess that explains the fridge shots!).
Anything Making me Queasy/Sick?  During my first trimester, we had some plug-in air fresheners that made me very queasy, so they had to go.  This past week, Jason tried to plug them in again.  Nope... they had to be banished.
Gender? Still boy... otherwise, we're going to have a lot of returning to do!
Symptoms?  I can definitely tell it's getting close.  He's settled down, it's hard for me to get around (off the couch, in and out of cars, etc.), and my hips feel like they are made of jelly.
Wedding Rings On/Off?  Off.  I'm excited to put them back on as soon as possible.
Mood?  Anxious, but in a good way.  It's this crazy feeling where mundane things like "Will I go to work tomorrow?" or "Will I be around to cook dinner tonight?" are unknown.  Everything is a big question mark.
Looking Forward To?  Lilhimself's birth day!

It Just Got Real

Nine months of pregnancy, a little fella that won't stop dancing around in my belly, baby showers with lots of gifts to ooh and ahh over, taking a completely empty room and turning it into a nursery -- all of these things should have made me realize "Hey, there's going to be a baby here soon."  None of them did.

What has made the biggest difference?  This:

There's something about a large baby thing being in my living room that makes it all seem real.  There's going to be a baby.  At my house.  Any day now.  I'm going to be a mom.  With a baby.  Whoa.

It just got real, folks.  It just got real.

Happy "Birthday"

Jason's birthday is August 23rd.  Lilhimself is due to arrive August 20, so who knows what will be going on on Jason's actual birthday.  I could be days late (and probably miserable), actually in the hospital, or home with a newborn.  None of those situations sound like we'll be up for celebrating.  So I decided to just go ahead and celebrate Jason's birthday early... 22 days early!

I had actually planned on celebrating in a few more weeks, but Jason firmly told me last Wednesday (the last day of July) that his "birthday" was the next day (August 1, the first day of his birth month).  I decided to go with it.  When Jason got home from work, I had surprised him by making a pound cake (his birthday cake of choice), decorating with a few balloons and streamers, and wrapping up his presents.

He opened his presents (a bag of gummy bears, a shirt, and the Daft Punk cd he's been eyeing for a while now), and then we went out to eat.

Jason got to choose the restaurant, and we ended up at Sushi Thai, one of our favorite sushi restaurants.  After stuffing ourselves with more sushi than any two humans should ever consume, we came home and before I knew it, Jason was slicing us huge chunks of pound cake.  So much for singing "Happy Birthday" or putting candles in the cake!

We ate pound cake (topped with fresh peaches) while watching "2001: A Space Odyssey."  I know it sounds like an odd choice, but Jason had just finished reading the book and wanted to see how the movie compared.

A few interesting facts about 2001: A Space Odyssey:
1. The movie is 2 hours and 19 minutes
2. Of that 2 hours and 19 minutes, there is less than 40 minutes of dialogue
3. No dialogue + belly full of food + a really busy day cleaning, baking, and decorating makes a really sleepy Megan

Let's just say it wasn't my favorite film.  Doesn't matter, though, because it wasn't my birthday.  It was Jason's.  Well, sorta.  Happy "birthday," dear!

Pampered before Pampers

I haven't been able to really reach my feet for a while now, so I treated myself to a pedicure last week.  If my tally is correct, it's only my fifth pedi ever, and it was the first time I've gone by myself.  Usually, it's part of a "girls day," but my pedicure partner-in-crime was sick that day.

Blue for little baby boy!

38 Weeks

Two weeks to go!  Eek!  I'm so excited!

How far along? 38 weeks
Baby size? According to babycenter.com, he's over 19" and 6.8lbs, more or less full size!
Maternity clothes?  I'm down to about five maternity shirts that are long enough to cover the belly, so I just keep alternating them over and over and over.
Sleep?  I still try to take a nap each day (it's amazing how worn out I get these days after even the smallest tasks!).  Night sleep is still going pretty well, though I have to flip sides on occasion because "the lump" decides to ball up on one side and make me uncomfortable.
Best Moment this Week?  Lots of moments this week.  Jason has started calling my poked-out belly button "the baby button."  He'll push it and say, "And now the baby pops out!"  It hasn't worked so far...  

I've been able to feel Lilhimself's "head lump" and  "butt lump" for a while now (he likes to poke out), but on occasion, I can now feel legs or feet, more specific lumps.  There's a real person in there!  

I also got to meet the newest addition to my family this week, my second cousin Riley Rose.  I only have two first cousins, so I'm very close with them.  Riley was born on August 1 to my cousin Jason.  She's quite the looker, isn't she?  At the hospital, a nurse looked at me and said, "You look like you should be here for a different reason!"  I told her "give me two weeks, and you'll see me again."  I do have to say, I got quite a few looks walking into the Women's Center!

Miss Anything?  Being able to go, go, go for hours on end without needing to stop and take a break.
Movement?  Still nonstop.  He's quite the energetic fellow!
Food Cravings?  Does ice cream count?  Yeah, I didn't think so, since I've always been an ice cream fanatic.
Anything Making me Queasy/Sick?  I felt under the weather last Wednesday (and could only stomach things like watermelon and PB and crackers), but the doctor said with the little one squishing down on my organs, that's pretty normal. 
Gender? Still boy
Symptoms?  I've mentioned a couple of times being more tired than normal.  Other than that, I haven't noticed anything too different this week.
Wedding Rings On/Off?  Off.  I never realized how much I played with my rings until they were gone.  I miss them.
Mood?  In overdrive.  I'm trying to knock things off of my to-do list.  In the past two weeks, I've gone to weekly doctor's appointments, the dentist, got my hair cut, and to the eye doctor tomorrow.  Jason and I have three pediatrician tours this week.  I've been helping out at work, handing out schedules to students.  We're also trying to get things around the house ready for the baby.
Looking Forward To?  Lilhimself's arrival!  But not too soon, baby, Mama still wants her teacher workdays if possible!

Painting

One of the perks of pregnancy is not being able to paint.  "Oh no, the VOCs will get me... I guess I'll sit on the couch watching tv instead..."  Honestly, I cleaned while Jason painted (though I did take some breaks on the couch).  Jason was a trooper, though, single-handedly changing our tan bedroom into a silver backdrop for our robot-themed nursery.

I did cheat a few times and sneak peeks long enough to take some pictures.

Before:

Prepping the Walls:

Painting:

Bedding

When Jason and I were narrowing down a nursery theme, we fell in love with robots because of this bedding:

Super cute, right?  We saw it online at several different stores, but wanted to see it in person before purchasing it.  We went to Babies R Us, but it wasn't there.  So we went to Buy Buy Baby... but it wasn't there.  Well, we knew we loved it, so maybe we'd just order it online... and pay $20 shipping!  What?!?

As we were walking around the baby stores, we noticed a trend in the bedding section -- hanging the blanket over the crib.  We also saw signs that basically said "Make sure you don't put blankets in the crib with the baby."  Um, so what do we do with the blanket?  I called an expert, my friend Kristen, and asked her.  Her answers?  "Well, some people hang it on the wall as artwork, or some people drape it on the rocker, but no, you can't put it in the crib."

Hold the phone.  We're going to buy a 4-piece bedding set for $200 (yes, you read that correctly, $200, significantly more than our queen-sized bed set) and not be able to use two of the four pieces (the blanket and the quilt)?  So we'd be paying $200 for a sheet and bed skirt (neither of which actually had robots on them), and two "art pieces."

I made an executive decision.  I went to JoAnn's Fabrics in search of robot fabric.  I'm no master seamstress (I can sort of hem pants and sew buttons back on), but I can make felt tie-blankets.

Step 1: Buy felt fabric.  You need two pieces of fabric.  I usually buy two different fabrics (a print and a solid) to add some fun to it.  For baby blankets, they suggest 1.5 yards each.  Lie one piece on the other and trim so they line up.

Step 2: Cut strips.  I use the width of a ruler as a guide, and I cut strips 3-4" strips.  They ended up a little long (I trimmed them afterwards), so you may want to go a little shorter than that.  At the corners, cut out squares where the two sides of strips intersect.

Step 3: Begin tying strips together, attaching the top layer to the bottom.  Use a simple "left over right, right over left" knot.  Make each knot the same to keep everything looking uniform.

Aaaaaand, done!

Is it as adorable as the original bedding?  No, and I'm not going to pretend it is.  However, it was made specially for our little boy, and I saved a ton of money at the same time.  I consider that a success!

Robots!

Many of you already know that Jason and I chose a robot theme for our nursery.  Well, I'm finally ready to share pictures.  We're still waiting on our glider (which will go between the crib and nightstand), but I couldn't resist posting any longer.

Walking in the Door:

The robot decals are from Dali Decals... we were quite impressed by them

Dressers/Changing Table:

Crib Wall: 

I made the blanket (nursery bedding is crazy expensive!) and painted the canvases.  I know several people are shocked I didn't paint Lilhimself letters (for those who don't know, I paint letters for nurseries... see more here and here), but I went with canvases instead a) to make a bigger impact and b) we didn't know what his name was going to be.

So that's going to be Lilhimself's room!  I like how it turned out, and I'm excited for him to see it!