There's no messing with hormones.

I'm 16 weeks now and just like with Lucy and Jonah, 15 weeks seems to be a turning point. I'm still on my meds but the first few days of this week, I was barely sick at all. I was able to cook dinner twice and the kids and I even did table time and started our "Q Week." So I was feeling pretty normal...until  my nesting hormones kicked in.

Instead of doing the rational thing which would be to get caught up with the chores that had been neglected, I did all sorts of random things around the house. I dusted the mini-blinds and sorted clothes and moved a (very lightweight plastic) shelf from the basement to the breezeway and reorganized the breezeway and swept the garage and reorganize the outdoor toys so we could get rid of a desk that had been out there for 9 months or so. It was really only there because we tried to take it to goodwill but it didn't fit in either of our vehicles but it partially blocked the door and I knew my "squeezing through" days are quickly coming to a close and I just NEEDED IT GONE. That second. So I put a shelf there and made the desk completely in the way to motivate us to get rid of it.

Then I braved Target. I don't think I've been in a Target since February and all I really needed was night diapers for Jonah and new undies for Lucy. But what I wanted was a new duvet cover. My bedroom these past few months had become my prison and it just needed a pick me up to remove the lingering sense (scents?) of hg. I'd also been looking for a mirror for a while now but with my certain size and budget requirements, I kept coming up empty - until that day! And next to my dream mirror were some white shelves just like I had been wanting for the kids room - it was fate! Or nesting, you decide.

By time (poor?) Craig got home, he had to fight his way past a desk to get inside only to find there were duvets spread over the bed (so I could decide if I like them or not), a new mirror installed but white shelves partially installed, a small (practically tiny!) hole in the wall. But the wall issue was quickly resolve once he got the extra drill bits out (the one I had been using was now lost inside the wall :-) and fixed the shelf. The shelves might have been the biggest pain but they were put up just in time. Lucy had been using the top of the kid armoire for her "special things" but Jonah is tall enough to reach them. I came in from hanging the mirror to discover he had taken down her make-up box that holds chapstick and nail polish and opened the nail polish. The only thing he had gotten it on so far was his hands but it was close. Too close. Now they each have a spot for their things - a safe, mom and dad's reach only place.

Then we decided we liked the duvet and the next we took 10 minutes to carry the desk down the drive and with a "Free" sign on it, it was gone by the morning. All's well that ends well. And I feel much better now.

I wish I could say the good feeling and energy is still around but I also found out last week that my progesterone levels are low. I'm glad we know and can treat with progesterone shots but unfortunately, that shot took my a step backwards in the peppiness and happy stomach area. Hopefully that will be short lived. I'm really ready to return to the land of the living. 

2015 Reading Update

I've been feeling kinda lame when it comes to my goals and resolutions this year. Now, I know I have a pretty good excuse and growing a baby is way more important than doing lots of reading or cleaning or studying of french. But I thought it would be fun to see what I've read so far this year and inspire me to start trying again to at least read a little bit in the mornings when I'm feeling alright. I'm happy with my progress. I've read mostly harder books so far this year and I've put a few that I'm really looking forward to on my ILL request list as well so hopefully I can coast to an easy fall full of newborn nursing light reads. 

Books for 2015

Biographies
- Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature*
-The Inn of 6th Happiness*
-The Hiding Place
-Only a Novel: The Double Life of Jane Austen

Education

-Norms and Nobility

-The Living Page 

-Charlotte Mason Volumes 2 (finish), 4 and 5 - I was able finish 2 and read 4 but had to drop out of the book 5 discussion.

-Consider This

Parenting/Marriage
-Protecting the Gift - I don't want to read this one but I know I need to
-Something about intense/gifted parenting - have a suggestion?
-Something marriage related. Maybe Sacred Marriage?

Other Non-fiction

-When Athens Met Jerusalem*

-Laura Ingalls Wild, Farm Journalist: Writings from the Ozarks

-The Deadliest Monster

Classics and Harder Fiction
-Something by Dickens - I've started a Tale of Two Cities. It's not the speediest of novels but I'm chugging along.

-Middlemarch - 

-Plutarch - 1-2 lives. I loved the first one I read but got stuck on the second more because of the format I was having to read it in than the work itself. Will try again!

-Kristin Lavransdatter*

-1984

Medium Weight Fiction

-Gilead*  Dropped this when I got sick. I wasn't really feeling the Gilead love so I'm not sure if I'll check it out again or not.

-The Housekeeper and the Professor*

-China Court: Hours of a Country House*

Fluffy Fiction
-Three Men in a Boat
-Hillsboro People
-More Lord Peter Books* - whatever I can get my hands on for cheap/free
-Lady Audley's Secret
-Rest of the Thursday Next series - only 3 to go?
-Hannah Fowler*
-Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good

Pre-Reading (Ambleside)
-Understood Betsy
-Daughter of Time (With AO Forum)
-Watership Down (With AO Forum) 
-Idylls of the King (With AO Forum) Dropped this but am replacing it with MacBeth now that I'm feeling better. That's fair I think :-)
-Start Pre-reading AO Year 1 as I buy them

To Finish
-Once and Future King - I was enjoying it but it got put aside and lost. I need to find it, then finish it
-The Princess and the Goblin

2nd Trimester here I come...

I'm finally at 13 weeks. "Finally", not just because hyperemesis causes the first trimester to move along at a snail's pace but also because at my last midwife appointment we move my due date back a few days.  We made the decision together and I'm happy with it but it meant I've was stuck at 12 weeks along for 12 days! It was the first trimester that wouldn't end.

I'm slowly starting to feel better. Not great yet, but better. Weeks 7-9 my goal was to stay out of the ER, weeks 10-11 it was to take a shower and make it to the couch each day. Now I feel pretty normal until about noonish so I give myself one very reasonable housekeeping goal to accomplish as well as something to do with the kids. Yesterday it was to unpack our suitcase from our Easter trip and to put the clean clothes away and then watch Jonah color (he's not allowed any writing device unless an adult is in the room) and help Lucy finish up the letter O (which we started the first week of February :-)  by drawing her letter O page. Today it was to have the kids pick up so I could sweep the floor and then read a few picture books and listen to Lucy read from her pathway reader. Not exactly spring cleaning but progress. I'd love to get off the meds within a few weeks but for now, I'm trying to be happy with where I am and not push it.

I think I need to add a mental activity for myself goal each day too. I'm getting a little stir-crazy here. I'm well enough that I am so sick and tired of spending my afternoons lying in bed watching netflix, but not well enough to actually stop doing that. If I try to force myself to do more, I normally pay for it later. But sometimes for my mental/emotional health, I have to get out of the house. Which is why I choose to do things like go to our neighborhood bible study even if I know I'll end up lying on their floor while everyone talks around me. So if I spend my time with you, especially in the evenings, consider it a compliment!

I think I'm ready to start doing some more reading. At naptime today, I got out Norms and Nobility and finally finished of Part 1. I only had four pages to go back in February but I just couldn't do it - until today! Part 2 is much more practical so I think it will go much faster giving me a chance of actually finishing it this month. And I'm about to pick out my next classic challenge book. Slowly but surely, I'm returning to the real world.

Classics Challenge - Understood Betsy

Add this to my "Childhood Classics I'm Sad I Didn't Read as a Child" List. It was wonderful and I certainly got a lot out of it as an adult but I know the lessons I learned and parts that resonated with me were not the ones I would have back then. But no use crying over spilt milk. I'll just be glad to know it will be in my children's curriculum in a few years. In fact, I think my mom even passed down an audio book version of this from when she taught my younger brother.

As a child, I think I was a lot like Betsy, not necessarily shy but unsure and timid in certain situations. I liked knowing what to expect and didn't like situations where I had to venture into the unknown, socially speaking. Know as a parent, I'm watching as my own little girl learns to navigate that same world. I loved seeing how Betsy grew more confident and how the adults around her subtle encouraged that growth.

Understood Betsy is my Classic Children's Book selection for the Back to the Classics Challenge. Visit Books and Chocolate to learn more about the challenge.