Month: June 2010

Categories
Kids

Third Trimester Ponderings

This past Wednesday I hit the magic 28-week mark in this pregnancy, which signals the official entry into the third trimester. This being my third time around, I can’t help reflecting on differences between how I am feeling now versus when I was expecting our first or second child. Maybe some of you can relate!

I no longer own a copy of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” I read this book cover-to-cover with my first pregnancy, including the scary chapters on “complications.” I now purposely try to avoid reading about pregnancy complications! I don’t want to know what can go wrong!

I wrote down each week’s passage on my calendar so I can tell at a glance how far along I am. I always knew off the top of my head how many weeks along I was with my first child, but not so this time!

I’m gaining more weight with this baby. blah.

I never had morning sickness with any of my pregnancies, but I did throw up a couple of times with both the first and second. I have not thrown up at all this time, which may be one reason I was so inclined to give this baby the middle name “Joy.” (just kidding!)

However, starting about a month ago, I get what I think is acid indigestion almost every morning…

I am still not sure about when to go to the hospital when I’m in labor! I’ve never actually timed any contractions. My water broke with my first, and I was induced with my second. So, I will be right there with all the first-time moms, wondering if it’s real labor or braxton hicks.

I am inspired and intrigued by those moms who deliver at home…but am not ready to head down that path!

My birth plan: 1. Avoid being induced (I hated being strapped to monitors and IV poles). 2. Avoid a C-section. 3. Get to the hospital early enough to get an epidural!

I am looking forward to nursing this baby more than ever. With my first, I expected nursing to be difficult and exhausting (it was).  I looked at it more as something very beneficial for my baby that I was willing to sacrifice my body and energy to provide for her.  I have found, though, that nursing was a special time with my babies that I miss. It was a sacrifice, but honestly, after those first early weeks, I think nursing mothers have a much easier time because we don’t have to deal with mixing formula or washing bottles.

Any other moms out there…feel free to share your own reflections on your pregnancies! You know how we love to bond over those stories!

Categories
Spirituality

Life is short, don’t waste it on yourself.

My husband spends lots of time listening to preachers and speakers, sermons, videos, etc. I don’t. I am not inclined to sit in front of the computer and watch a sermon that is over an hour long…that is his thing, not mine. (On the other hand, he doesn’t read and I happily spend hours with a book.) But, Tim has shown me a few messages he felt were especially enlightening, and one that has stuck with me for months is one that Francis Chan shared. You can find the link here, if you also want to spend an hour in front of your computer watching a sermon.

Basically, the message begins with a rope illustration. The rope is white and long enough to circle the (very large) room many times over. A small portion, probably just a foot long, is colored red. The red part represents the part of our life that is spent on earth; the rope is a rough estimate of eternity. You probably already understand the illustration–our life on earth is just a tiny, tiny part of our entire existence.  I know I had heard the same message many times before, but in one of the mysterious ways the Holy Spirit works, it was through this illustration that the Spirit spoke into my heart and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since.

Life is short. What am I working for? I don’t have a career, so I can’t say I’m trying to get a promotion or a raise. (Ha!) However, certainly I am working for other goals. I am working so my kids can have a good childhood, the kind of childhood I feel is appropriate. You know, with birthday parties, ballet classes, play dates, matching dresses, hairbows, trips to museums and zoos, family vacations to Disney World while they are still young enough to believe fairies are real. I sure hope nothing is wrong with those goals, because I’m not throwing them out the window. But in light of eternity, maybe I need to add some more goals. Like reaching beyond my own family to a world that does not know Jesus. As a stay-at-home mom, I’m more isolated than most from the secular world. I’m not forced to interact with the secular world on a daily basis, like maybe I would be if I had a job or was going to school.

I’m realizing that I am going to have to be intentional about not just living my life for the “red part” of the rope. I think American Christians do not think much about eternity, probably because most of us are doing OK in the red part. But the years are passing quickly–any mom can tell you that–and eternity is waiting. Our time here in the red part doesn’t really belong to us, but to Jesus, to allow Him to use us to do His work. What does that mean for me? Where will he take me? What will my life look like if I give up my own goals and let Him decide what the goals will be?

Categories
Kids

My House is Clean Enough…

I don’t write much poetry, but this came to me while sweeping the floor…

A Mother’s Home

My house is clean enough; I don’t think you’ll get sick
If your cookie falls to the floor and you pick it up real quick.

But don’t open any closet doors! Don’t look in any dresser drawers!
Don’t judge me by the laundry that is piled upon the floors.
Don’t check for dishes in the sink, don’t look under any beds!
Ignore the dust on the piano, and all the clutter–instead–

See the toys upon the floor, the library books dropped by the door;
the crayon drawings on the wall, the crooked pictures in the hall;
Hear the children as they play with sidewalk chalk on a summer’s day;
and see the glitter and the glue on cut-out hearts that say, “I love you.”

My house may only be clean enough…but it is bursting out with love!

Categories
Spirituality

Give Us This Day…

…Everything we need for the next year, Lord. (Or 10 years, or 20…)

If you grew up in a church, you probably learned to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” But I find that most of my prayers, when I am asking God for help in a material way, are not about today. They are about what’s coming up. What’s down the road. “Lord, help us find a way to pay the hospital co-pay when the baby is born.” “Lord, help us find a way to send all these kids to college in 15 years.” “Lord, help us find a way to…” When I am worried about not having enough…it is not having enough in the future that I am worried about.  I’ve never gone without food or without a roof over my head. Yet I worry about what tomorrow will bring, or next week, or next year? What does that say about my trust in the Lord, who has always provided for me thus far?

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” Matthew 6:34. Now there’s a verse I need someone to repeat to me every day!