an old old post

****I never did publish this last fall. I made reference to it in my next post, so I dredged it up from the past.   Feel free to skim and scan, I know you really want the bitrh story!*****

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I don't know why this post has been so very very hard for me to write.  I can't even think of a title for it!

Somehow, after my miscarriage last summer, and blogging about it, because of course I had shared our good news...well, there's something about blogging that sort of makes this "big."

I post a picture of our Christmas tree, and suddenly the whole world is free to see it.  Now, I probably have all of three readers, but the theory is there.  And I feel a little shy about sharing things that are especially near and dear to my heart.

But then, if I'm blogging, there is a certain amount of sharing that is required.

And one wants it to be shared in a way that is beautiful, if it's something special.

So if you'll bear with me, I have a little story to tell.

Last October, our neighborhood Church was especially blessed to receive the relics of St. Maria Goretti which were on tour in America for the first time ever.  Her bones are preserved in a wax figure of St. Maria and lay in a glass reliquary.  For two days they were open for veneration.

I knew what I would be praying for before I even went.  Actually, it was for two intentions.  But one of them, following my miscarriage, was simply that, if it were God's will, I might conceive another child.

I wasn't asking for a miracle.  I didn't know if God would bless us with more children, but it certainly wasn't medically impossible.  I was just asking for a special blessing, if it was His will.

I think I really wanted to take on St. Maria Goretti as a special patroness.  I haven't ever been to Rome, or really anywhere, where there are first class relics of the saints.  It was very special to me to have this opportunity to venerate such a courageous young martyr for purity.

It's funny (well, not really) I was dreaming of being pregnant over the holidays and thinking of how sweet that would be (I'm praying for a sister and a sister-in-law to conceive as well).  I imagined a warm glow and joyful hearts full of expectation.  I totally failed to factor in sickness!  The first trimester?  Holidays?!

So, I've been sick.  Super nauseated and ridiculously exhausted.  Face plastered into sofa.  Dry heaving.  Well, I'm getting there.  I'm not there yet, but hope is on the horizon.  My husband has been a super-hero.  I think he's been running the household for the past couple of months.  I'm not sure.  I haven't really been off of the couch.  Unless I'm looking for food--you know, scouring every inch of the cupboards and refrigerator in hopes of finding something that sounds like it might sit well?!  Well, I rarely find anything, so I make my husband drive me somewhere to buy things that I don't buy.  Like coke and chips.   I think I could live on coke and chips.

Sorry for that digression.

So, this is my really bad attempt to share our news in a beautiful and graceful manner.  It's that, plus the reality check that is the first trimester.  We're due right before St. Maria's feast day in July.  I'm really, really looking forward to her feast day!

Announcing...

We added the ninth member of our "fellowship" on the 4th of July!  We'll call him "Sam" (Gamgee) here on the blog.  Birth story will follow when I get two hands!!  Thank you for your prayers (there was a baby in there after all!!)

Overdue...still.

July is a nice month, right?  I mean, June babies are awesome.   But July would be a new month for our family, birthday-wise.   Actually, we'd have a birthday every month from March through August!

I am liking July! Of course, June 30th is a really lovely date too.  A nice even number.  I think I have about 6 or 7 more hours of June.  Then I'll have a July baby!

Do you know that I really love summer?

I think I'm really going to like not  being pregnant in the summer!

I took the kids to the pool and sat on the edge while Arwen was my "lifeguard" in the water for Eowyn.

She got some pictures while she was there.  I'm pretty happy with the progress my kids are making on the swim front.  I really love it when I know they can swim.  Just kind of need that if you're going to take, say, 8 or 9 children to a pool!

It's hard to keep from wishing away the summer days that should be savored when you are also waiting for a baby to arrive--every hour, every moment, every contraction!

I am thankful for this summer, for the break it has given me from the work of teaching, for the opportunity it has afforded me to put some order in the corners of my home, for the time it has given me to carefully consider (and lengthily talk about) Arwen's high school education plans.  And, soon, VERY soon I hope, for the weeks it will give me to bring a new baby into our family and grow into a new family with five sons and four daughters.

Keep praying for me!!

Summer Continues

Outside my window: it's darker this morning.  It has been so beautiful, but humid, and I'm hoping the cooler weather will be better for my swelling.

My window box is starting to grow again--pictures soon!  Eowyn is my watering "helper" this summer--the flowers are doing wonderfully!  Eowyn can't get enough of the hose!

I am listening to: footsteps on the stairs as people trickle down from upstairs.  Quiet voices.  Bilbo making me coffee...you know I'm wearing thin if I'm not making my own coffee in the morning!  So, yes: no baby last night.



Thankful: My sweet, generous mom took three of my sisters' kids swimming at the local pool yesterday and Bilbo rode his bike over to join them.  Then she picked up two of my kids from baseball/softball so I wouldn't have to load up the little kids after bedtime to get the players.  As a result, I was able to get my little ones down by 7!  (That is record-breaking these days.)  AND she drove to the train station at 9:40pm to get Arwen and her urbane "Uncle Father" (my ordained brother) who had gone to Chicago for the day and taken a delighted 14-year-old in tow.

Education at its best: My brother has contacts for the work he does in Chicago and he always makes a trip to the windy city when he comes home.  This year, after joining her uncle for a "business lunch", Arwen was able to visit the art museum and go on an architectural boat tour of the downtown.

My brother is taking Arwen's education and rounding it out in a way that I absolutely never ever could (at this point in my life, with her 7 siblings in tow).  This summer they also have gone to the symphony and to a baroque chamber performance in an old church.  These types of cultural events are so much harder for me to give my children.  So, as I said: thankful!

Counting Blessings:  For a final summer with my dear sister and her 4 children before they move back out of state.  For afternoons chatting on porch couches watching the kids have splash contests in the big blow-up pool in the front yard.

For encouraging e-mails from friends near and far, letting me know they are praying for me.

For a sweet sister who dropped off several rounds of baby clothes (and lunch), dinner, and special "extras" for an overdue Mama.

For another sister (yes, I have three!) who texted me that she offered her Mass for me on my due date.

For another day of math work before the baby comes (which I am convinced will sabotage all such efforts).

For Galadriel's upcoming camping over-night with her cousin and their girls' club.

Prayer intentions: of course, for a safe (and hopefully SOON!) delivery

For Galadriel's ear.  We're on a new antibiotic.  She should be clear to swim by next Saturday.  Last year's surgery is crimping her style this summer too.  I'm hoping that this most recent infection/loss of ear tube/antibiotics will render her ear pain free from here on out!  With good plugs, she should be able to swim again on Saturday.

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Let's see if this will be my last post until the baby comes! (Don't hold your breath--just say a prayer!:))

Summer Reading Recommendation

It seems like there are a lot of
"Summer Reading Recommendations"
going around on blogs right now,
so, since I'm clearly not going to have
this baby, I thought I'd distract
myself  join in the fun and throw a
recommendation out there!

Arwen and I binge-

read this book in about two days

each.  It's a bit of a modern-day Jane

Austen knock-off novel.  The heroine

is Elizabeth Benning (not Bennet)

who has a sister Jane and a best

friend Emily (not Charlotte) Lucas.

There are Collinses who give woo.

But it's far from a simple modern-

day retelling of "Pride and Prejudice".

Susie Andres does a charming job of developing the character of her heroine "Liz", "Lizzy", or "Elizabeth".  Elizabeth is not a young heroine, she is 32-33, has just lost the job she loved to work since her graduation from college, and has moved back home with her parents now that her best friend is getting married.  Elizabeth isn't depressed about her state in life (which I appreciate--nothing worse than a washed up old maid waiting for a man to make her life right!) Elizabeth is a lady with many resources, and the book is based upon a rivalry she has with her brother-in-law.  Their relationship is also well developed and surprisingly complex.  This book is mostly about Elizabeth fighting really hard to prove herself and learning (from Mr. Right) that that is what is making her unhappy.  The key to finding "paradise" begins with not caring how another might be judging her.  

Of course, there are very funny side plots, characters, and a wonderful running theme of Elizabeth's aversion to peanut butter.  I'd recommend this for mothers and their tween-and up-aged daughters to read and enjoy together as fun summer "chick flick" style reading.  

Many references to stomach troubles with peanut butter aversions, a black eye won in a softball game victory, and a hilarious scene or two in an elevator with a would-be suitor, (and I've got to include the entire chapter in which Elizabeth is dressed up as an Ewok, for trick-or-treating with her Star Wars themed nephews, might be enough to entice a husband or son to pick the book up themselves!

Thoroughly enjoyable!  A super summer read!   

And now I'm "due"

The baby wasn't born on my mother-in-law's predicted date.

 My kids are starting to be disappointed every morning they wake up and I'm still here, still pregnant.   They aren't the only ones.

My to-do list is less appealing to me now than it was a couple of weeks ago.  A chocolate shake from Chick-Fil-A was appealing, though!  Sitting on my back patio watching our new grass grow was also very appealing.  Yes, I'm watching grass grow.

This morning two of our ball players had make up games, so I spent some time cheering Aragorn on to a loss.  He did great.  His team isn't super.  Gatorade and some seats in the shade were very welcome.  I waddled over to a park to try to play with my three youngest.  My bladder keeps these types of efforts short lived.  Not that you want to hear about anyone's bladder.

Thunderstorms are predicted for tonight.  Tonight.  That's my guess!  I can wait one more day.  I've waited for this baby for 9 months.  I'm so ready.  We are all so ready to meet him!  Keep me in your prayers--I'd love the next picture I post to be of a beautiful newborn boy!

Photo credits: Arwen
playing with "white balance" for her photography class in the last three shots

Summer Thinkings

You know my due date is tomorrow.  Arwen was born on the birthday of my husband's grandmother.  Arwen was named for her.  (She had died before I was able to meet her, right before my husband began college).  Today is not only the Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist, it is also the anniversary of her death.  My mother-in-law told me back in November that I would have the baby today.  She said she "knew" it as soon as she heard when my due date was.  Let's see if she's right--I wouldn't doubt it; combining mother and daughter's intercessory prayers--I wouldn't doubt it at all!  (And I wouldn't be at all unhappy with a delivery today!)

From the garden:

Arwen took these pictures of our flowers.  I keep asking her to get pictures of our mulch/grass project out back.  I guess it's not as fun to photograph.  Of course, I do know how to snap a picture with a camera myself...but that would entail getting off of the couch, walking, and carrying a camera.  I'm thinking that's too much effort at this point.

Nesting: I re-packed my suitcase yesterday.  I realized I'm missing a LONG LIST of essentials for our new baby!  Socks, mittened onesies (my kids always scratch their faces with their baby nails), baby shampoo, lotion, diaper cream.  What have I been doing for 9 months?!!!  

Truth:  I pretend that I don't leave the couch.  That's just wishful thinking.  Yesterday was full of appointments and swimming lessons.  We have spent $500.00 at the dermatologist this summer (ouch!) Poor Galadriel is fighting a nasty contagious skin virus.  Luckily it's not *that* contagious.  I think we're mostly escaping contagium.  Between her ear and skin issues, she's been a little trooper this summer.

I keep failing to get dinner ready in time for the baseball players to eat before their games!  Part of the problem is that my husband coaches and has to get there well before game time.  I am always caught off guard with dinner ready at 5:15--just as they are heading out the door.  #latedinners, #microwavedinners.

Gimli's team is undefeated so far this season.  They were undefeated last year.  They had a winning record the first year my husband coached too.  But tournament week?  Out first round, both years.  There's some serious game-planning going on around here.  My men folk are determined to win at least ONE of the tournament games.

And my in-laws are threatening to come for tournament week.  This is fine by me (I'm happy to show off a new baby!) but it adds pressure to my husband to have his dad watching.  Isn't that cute?:)  

I'm out of time.  Here are some pictures of my current "baby" to finish up the post...you might not see so much of her for a while. :)  

The best part of summer is keeping ALL messes outdoors!

(Still loving the bangs her brother gave her--rrrrr.)