lame blogger

Haven't been in the blogging mood this past week. I'll get back in the swing of things soon. In the mean time here's cute Miriam from last month. These were taken at Olya's house. Isn't this quilt amazing?

back to the land of the living

We are finally feeling better around here! Miriam and I are still coughing a bit but its getting MUCH better every day. And Miriam finally is back to her usual happy self. Now I'm getting caught back up with photo editing and looking forward to the warmer temps promised for later this week. I'm sick of it snowing! Spring, please come for real.

I also need to finish up The Dance of the Dissident Daughter because I'm hosting my book group Thursday night. Which also means I need to clean my house for real. Housekeeping has been on the serious back burner during all this sickness.

Oh, and have I mentioned we have cable now? Stupid Comcast has a monopoly where we live with the internet and its actually the same price to have cable and internet so we got it. I love it but also sometimes wish we just got rid of the tv altogether. What I am really loving though is On Demand. I can watch so many shows that way. And its great cause lots of the PBS shows are on there too so I can put one on for Asher and know it will be over in 20 min. He is currently very into Caillou. I love hearing him say, "I watch Caillou, Mom?"

And I must admit that I missed TLC and Food Network and the Travel Channel, so its been fun to catch up on the few shows I really like while I edit photos.

In other news, my parents sold their house in Los Alamos and are finally officially, officially moving to Santa Fe. My dad's been commuting for awhile now so I'm sure it will be nice to drive less. They are probably going to rent a condo for awhile until they find a house they want to buy. I think my dad is kind of relishing his status right now of being completely debt free. :-)

And just for kicks, here's a pic of Miriam from a couple weeks ago.

this pretty much sums up our week

Taken on Tuesday morning.

Having a sick baby is one of the saddest things ever as a parent.

We've been spending lots of time cuddling skin to skin, nursing, and cleaning eye goop and throw up.

Fortunately, today she no longer has a fever and things are definitely starting to look up.

Now if my coughing would stop, I'd be just peachy.

Also, makes me SO grateful once again that I have a husband who works mostly from home. 

He has done TONS this week taking care of us.

my mimi girl

Some cuteness for your Friday...

beyond the edge and home again

Non related, but pretty cherry blossoms from Washington, D.C. 2009

I'm reading "Dance of the Dissident Daughter" by Sue Monk Kidd (author of The Secret Life of Bees). The book is about the author's feminist awakening and search for the Divine Feminine. She grew up a very active devout Southern Baptist but as her children reached their teenage years she began to see how damaging patriarchy is to women.

I want to share this paragraph that really struck me as I was reading yesterday. Perhaps you will be able to relate. This can apply to much more than just feminism.

"Despite the growing disenchantment women experience in the early stages of [feminist] awakening, the idea of existing beyond the patriarchal institution of faith, of withdrawing our external projection of God onto the church, is almost always unfathomable. It's that old the-world-is-flat conviction, where we believe that if we sail out on the spiritual ocean beyond a certain point we will fall off the edge of the known world into a void. We think there's nothing beyond the edge. No real spirituality, no salvation, no community, no divine substance. We cannot see that the voyage will lead us to whole new continents of depth and meaning. That if we keep going, we might even come full circle, but with a whole new consciousness." (p 48)

I especially love that last sentence. It gives me great hope to think that I can go on this journey of exploration and still be able to return home, just all the better for having made the trip.

new play rug

I'd seen various versions of these around the blogs for awhile now and then discovered that Ikea has one for just $15! I'll take it! The kids, and especially Asher, have been having a lot of fun with this. Ash loves driving all his cars along the road. He calls it "my rug".

light and dark

mimi and mama

We were playing on the rug in the early evening sun and gave Jared the camera to take some pictures. I like having these moments with my baby girl captured.

after a bath

Asher was sick all last week and is still not totally back to normal but doing much better. Luckily, it seems that Miriam has escaped whatever virus he caught. Thank goodness for that! It is so hard to keep little ones healthy in the winter. I am REALLY looking forward to Spring's warmer temperatures that will allow us to get outside more without risk of so many germs. Asher has been sick more this winter than the rest of his life combined! Nothing serious, but no fun either.

This is a pic I snapped last week after bathtime. They were being so cute sitting together on the bed. I love how much they love each other!

pinterist-- you're gonna love it!

Ok, you might hate how addicting it is too, but it is so great!

So what is Pinterest? Here's how they describe it:

Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.
People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things -- wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it.

You really just need to check it out to see for yourself. I'm loving it as a way to keep track of all inspiring images I come across on the web. Really easy to keep them in one place and share them too.

Here's the link to my boards. Come request an invite and follow me and I'll follow you!

this man i love

This man I love

Is good and kind

Brilliant and generous

Affectionate and resourceful

This man I love

Makes our life joyful

Works hard for our family

Shares his gifts with the world

This man I love

Made me his wife

Fathered my children

And cheers me on when I fly


This man I love

Loves me and always will



Happy Anniversary, Jared dear. I love you more.

playing

Every once in awhile Miriam will play by herself like this. I peaked from the kitchen and saw this the other day and had to grab my camera. She spied me too as you can see.

the view from our front porch this morning

Last night the rain turned to snow and this is what we woke up to! I knew we were going to get at least one more good snow. The sun is now shining bright and working on melting the snow away already. I think Spring can come now.

update

I feel like I have lots to blog about but no time to do it. Here's some of what we've been up to...

Last Thursday I photographed my first birth! Very exciting and totally wonderful. It went perfectly. And the timing couldn't have been better. I got to the birth about 7:15 am, the baby was born at 9 and then I stuck around until 11:30 to get pics of the baby being weighed and measured. It was also perfect timing because Jared wasn't teaching that day like he normally would have because of spring break. Miriam even survived being away from mama for nearly 5 hours quite well. Hopefully I'll be able to share some pics from the birth on my photo blog after the family sees them. I'm going to be busy this week going through them all. As to be expected, I took a lot!

Friday night we went to a party at our Hypnobabies instructor Liz's house. She invited over past students for a little reunion. We ended up staying until almost 2 in the morning! We were just talking up a storm with Liz and her husband and sister. Kindred spirits for sure. Amazingly, Asher actually stayed awake that whole time too playing. He didn't want to leave. Definitely has his dad's night owl genes.

Um, I can't remember Saturday. Hmmm... I know we slept in and I took a nap too, so maybe all we did was try to catch up on sleep? I feel like there was something else.

Sunday was busy. We went to a baby blessing of one of Jared's cousin's new babies. Afterward we had lunch at Jared's uncle's house with all the family. Then we came home and Jared made dinner, I made a cake, and my brother's came over. It was Nick's 19th birthday. Can't believe my baby brother is 19!

Yesterday Asher's eyes started getting red and goopy and he ended up sleeping in our bed cuddled up to me all night. He's definitely not feeling well although his eyes seem to be better than they were this morning. We put some breastmilk in them last night but he hasn't let me put more in today. Breastmilk really helps clear up eye infections.

The big kids are also off school today. They are currently watching Justice League.

So that's the boring update for ya'll. Miriam hasn't been going to bed quite as early the past week and I've been going to bed earlier so my two hands free computer time has been sorely limited. Hopefully I'll back into the swing of things this week.

be inspired

I saw this on facebook today and shared it there, but had to post it to my blog as well. What an inspiration this man is. He feeds the homeless, ill, old, and forgotten members of his society. He bathes them and cuts their hair. He loves them when no one else does. Sounds like someone else who lived a couple thousand years ago, doesn't it? This man is also a Brahmin, the upper caste, so he shouldn't even touch the people he's caring for.

EDIT: Jared put this in the comments, but I wanted to add it here too so you all see it. You can donate to this man's organization here: http://www.akshayatrust.org/

Not sure why its cropped the way it is but you won't really miss anything.

Jared on Mormon Stories

 

Several months ago we discovered the wonderful Mormon Stories Podcast. Started by John Dehlin, this podcast series seeks to "interview interesting people about Mormon-related current events, issues, media  and culture." There are lots of fascinating interviews from which we have learned TONS. And now Jared is among them! Jared's interview is titled "An Academic Introduction to the New Testament".  It is basically a crash course in the New Testament from an academic viewpoint. I'm really excited to listen to it and learn more myself! If you missed the hyperlink above, check it out here.

A small disclaimer: The ideas presented are going to be quite different from what you get in LDS Sunday School or Seminary. The purpose of this podcast is to share how scholars evaluate the evidence and what conclusions they come to after dedicating their lives to studying this material. It is not Jared's intent to destroy faith, and it includes his account of how he reconciles his faith and studies. He freely acknowledges there are other approaches that also work. Finally, he welcomes any discussion on the interview page. 

I'm so proud of you, babe!

8 months old

Better late than never, here are M's 8th month portraits. 

(They are only so-so. We took them in a hurry.)

I'm still rather shocked that she is really 8 months old already, but this is a really fun stage.

She sits and plays by herself...well next to me usually. She doesn't tolerate me not being near for too long. 

She is liking her daddy more and more, which is adorable.

She loves peekaboo and will even hold the blanket over her face herself.

Her laughs are infectious. 

As are her smiles.

She has a superior gag reflex which means she's not eating solids yet, 

even though she likes to taste things.

She really loves her big brothers and sisters.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel like the luckiest mom ever 

to have such a sweet and beautiful baby girl.

Yeah, I'm not really liking the post-processing I did on these either, but am too lazy to redo them. Oh well. She's still cute!

ack!

I just realized that today is the 24th and that means Miriam turned 8 months old YESTERDAY. I can't believe I totally missed it! Today someone actually asked me how old she is and I said 7 months. Why does time have to go SO freaking fast?! I don't like it. Guess I'll be taking her 8 month portraits tomorrow... two days late.

amazing hypnobabies home waterbirth--unassisted!

My wonderful Hypnobabies instructor, Liz Phalp, gave birth to her 6th baby back in October. She recently posted the birth story and video to her website, and I just have to share it. I totally teared up watching her quick, easy, peaceful birth. It brought back how I felt when Miriam was born. The awe and peace and ease with which it all happened. Although the specifics are different, our births were very similar--quick labor, kneeling in water, water breaking late, only pushing a few times, catching the baby ourselves, the utter joy felt while lifting a new baby out of the water.

This was not a planned unassisted birth; the midwife (same as mine) just didn't make it in time!

Here is an excerpt from the birth story and the video follows:

I remember feeling excited when I realized that no one else was going to make it. Though I’ve never wanted a planned, unassisted birth, I knew the ones that happen by accident, always seem to happen without incident, and I was really feeling good about things. So with this pressure wave I pushed once and the water broke, I pushed again and his head came out. When I said “there’s his head” Tyson said “are you serious?!” and finally put his phone down, then as I took another breath Tyson said “is he out?” (I’m not sure why he couldn’t see at this point, I guess I was blocking him, I was in a part kneel, part squat), and I said “not yet” then pushed the rest of him out. It was so incredible, feeling his head after the water broke, then seeing his head when I pushed it out, then holding his whole body as it came out. What an incredible way to be totally and completely connected to my baby and my body, and doing it all completely by myself was so incredible! I just really can’t describe how it felt other than completely natural and right! From the minute I stepped in the tub not a single fear or doubt even entered my mind, I was so assured and confident. It was like someone else stepped into my body, someone who had done this hundreds of times. It was so perfect, so amazing, truly such a miracle!

She also named her baby Asher. :-)

just because

Sometimes it's ok to be a girly girl.