Dear Baby Girl: 36 Weeks

beauty for ashes

For my ashes, You give me beauty

For my mourning, You give me joy

For my tears, Lord, You give me kisses

...that's how good You are

- Waterdeep

Thankful, for...

- beauty for ashes, joy for mourning
- friends and family who encourage rest; making dinners, playing with Levi, helping in many other ways
- a St. Patrick's day celebration with our old small group, catching up and seeing families grow
- cute new patterns
- lots of fun lessons with paints, paper mache and clay
- productive days, feeling more ready for baby girl
-for a recovering little sick boy, and how he kept falling asleep in our arms all weekend

Dear Baby Girl: 35 Weeks

Dear Baby Girl: 34 Weeks (veeeery late!)

these days

these days, I'm...

- working on the last couple of projects in my art classes before maternity leave and finishing sub plans 
- keeping my hands busy with tiny knit and crochet projects
- slowly working on potty training 
- going through storage, dusting off Levi's gender neutral baby stuff; going through lots of laundry detergent and clorox wipes
- finding places to put baby sister's stuff
- working through plans for a Yemen girl reunion this summer
- listening to new songs being written, enjoying a new love song
- watching my entire belly move and quake
- resting after a busy but wonderful ArtSpeak weekend at church
- often smiling my way through even hard days, because my boys can always cheer me up
- grateful for a $20 used double stroller find, and just the one we wanted 
- sending off ink drawings of mama and baby animals for a new baby's nursery in Fiji and painting lupines for a nearby baby girl's nursery
- looking forward to our traditional St. Pattys Day feast with our old small group 
- hoping the end of April comes quickly...my body is not enjoying this part of pregnancy very much. 
- reading through THIS Lent devotional, "homemade" by the pastors and artists in our church; walking slowly and intentionally toward the cross and resurrection
- desperate for spring
- thankful for my family, for health, for work and play, for each new day.

Easter Garden 2014

This year's Easter garden was especially fun to make.  At the beginning of Lent, spring usually hasn't quite sprung so it feels good to buy some plants and get our hands in the dirt. Also, it was the first time that Levi could really help in a meaningful way. He did a good amount of the plant choosing and planting and he's just starting to understand what Lent/Easter is all about(in whatever ways a two-year old can!).  

It's been a cooooold March so far, so it was incredibly nice to spend some time in the warm and sunny greenhouses and choosing a couple of small plants for our garden.  Levi also enjoyed finding hidden watering cans, filling them in fountains and then watering all of the plants.  

When we got home, Levi was overjoyed to have some dirt to play in and he filled our pot happily and carefully. As we planted our plants, we talked about Easter...the cross and the tomb.  As I try to explain in 2 year old language, he looked a little confused (death? cross? they put him in a rock?!).. nevertheless, he gets the basics. Jesus loves me and even though he died, he came back to life and that's good news! 

Dear Baby Girl: 33 Weeks