Linking up with Jen again.

Here are some worth-remembering moments with my man because I love him...and as much as he drives me crazy he also keeps me sane.

- 1 -

He took issue with last Monday’s blog post where I complained about his typical lack of long distance communication.

I assured him that I was actually quite pleased with how much he’d contacted me over the past two weeks, and I really hadn’t meant for him to feel “guilty.”

“Oh, I didn’t feel guilty.” He said. “Just insulted.”

Right.

- 2 -

Once when we were watching a second toddler for a friend and I was busy getting dinner ready, Jacob called out to me for help from the bathroom.

“I just have two babies getting into things in here, and I don’t have any hands.” He paused and continued. “Because I’m flossing.”

- 3 -

Some evening before we’d left LA he got home from work late because of a happy hour. He grabbed a container of leftovers from the fridge and kicked off his shoes before coming to sit next to me on the couch.

He leaned in to kiss me, and (because I’m ever the graceful wife) I told him he smelled like whiskey, bacon, and feet.

He smiled and said: “You mean I smell like a man.”

- 4 -

I was laughing about the time he complained that in a post singing his praises I hadn't mentioned his "ass," and he said

“A tailor did tell me once that I had a ‘prominent seat,’ so it’s really not so funny as it is sad.”

- 5 -

After an unusually long silence at the dinner table:

"Did you know I shoot a bow and arrow ambidextrously?"

- 6 -

After I wouldn’t let him discard an old and broken household item because I was sure I could find a use for it:

"OK then, I'll just go put it on your pillow."

- 7 -

He wasn't scheduled to get in until this evening for his weekend visit, and the week couldn't go by fast enough. Yesterday, we chatted on the phone as I drove home in the evening from a friend's house, and I complained about how long the next 24 hours were going to feel before I finally got to see him. He said: "I'll be there before you know it."

Then I walked into my parent's house and I found him camped out on the couch with a beer and a grin.

Well played, Master Rhodes. 

Thank you for still surprising me and for being a husband and a father. Thank you for being the primary photographer. Perhaps someday I'll learn how to use our camera, but until then we can all marvel at your knee caps.

Five Favorites

Linking up with Hallie and the favoriteers today for the first time in too long!

- 1 -

On Monday, the parents and their food restrictions were out on the town, so my eyes lit up with mascarpone, and I made this Butternut Squash Bake that I first had at my friend Brynn's house.

 My brother, in the words of my son, "ate it all of it" and has since mentioned it to me three times. Make it and don't be disappointed even when you forget to add salt.

- 2 -

This Lentil Soup is only a #1 Google Hit away, but it's cheap cheap cheap and delicious.

- 3 -

I was planning on some random favs but I just decided to go full on food since it looks like that's where my fuzzy head is.

I don't remember my last cold. I've had a scratchy throat here and there over the past couple years, but I haven't been beaten down by a good dose of acute rhinitis in quite some time. So I've been juicing. Here's my green juice recipe du jour.

4 stalks kale

1 c. spinach

2 sprigs fresh parsley

1/2 lemon (rind included)

1 inch chunk ginger

1 apple

1 carrot

10 grapes

I totally just ball-parked all those. I would go easy on the parsley if you're a green juice newbie, but the lemon rind and ginger give it some nice kick.

- 4 -

While we're on juicing ground. Here's my favorite juicer: the Omega Masticating Juicer. 

It's pricey. But what do you say when you want to feel better about overspending on something you really just want? Oh. Yes. It's an "investment."

The one above is the J8006 which is a newer version of mine (the J8003) which I've had for almost four years and I've been more than happy with it. The pulp is really dry, and it's very easy to clean. I try to use the pulp in a variety of different ways. Carrot pulp does great as a substitute for shredded carrot in muffin recipes. I save celery pulp for flavoring chicken stock. It's a dream of mine to make red velvet cupcakes from beet pulp...(don't act so surprised.)

Since we got a Vitamix some months ago, we've become more of a blending family, but juicing is a great way to up your vegetable intake, and for all the conflicting information you get on the web about nutrition, I have yet to hear anyone argue against the almighty vegetable.

[I'm returning at the end of the day for my fifth fav. The internet went out after #4, and after not getting a hold of my mom and frantically texting my tech-savy sister who's away at school to "PLEASE help a pregnant mom during nap time!!!" she told me to go read a book. Oh my, college kids can be SO snooty.]

- 5 -

And cinco goes to Jacob's favorite meal in our less than gourmet casa:

Mashed Potatoes with Veggie Gravy [Working Title]

I call this Mashed Potato Soup.

Jacob: Don't call it that. That sounds awful.

Me: I don't see why "Mashed Potatoes with Veggie Gravy" is any better.

Jacob: Calling it "Mashed Potato Soup" is like calling Helen of Troy, "Bertha"

Me: Wow, babe. I'm kinda flattered that you like my soup so much.

Jacob: It's NOT SOUP.

Me: Right.

So here's the "recipe":

I make a "Veggie Gravy" by sauteeing onions, carrots, garlic, and whatever other vegetables you think might work (peppers? cauliflower? tomatoes? CSA riffraff?) and then adding some chickpeas or lentils, a little chicken stock, and salt salt salt, and then blending it up nice and smooth. Basically just a pureed soup that I serve over mashed potatoes. 

And it's kind of awesome. It's kind of like Bertha meets Helen of Troy.

Check out everyone else's favorite things at Hallie's. 

Incidentally "A Few of My Favorite Things" is my toddler's favorite song. Only his favorite part of the song is "When the dog bites" and "When the bee stings" which he belts with the best of the utterly tuneless.

He's also pretty sure the next line is: "When the bee is sad."

And I will never ever correct him. We empathize with the bees in these parts.

38 Weeks!

Here you go as promised! I will be honest and say that this cold has more than got me down: slight fever, sinus pressure, nose hydrant, sore throat, feeling pretty good when I hunt down a tissue instead of using my shirt, tempting labor by chasing down the toddler to do a number on his crusty face. So this photo was the SOLE reason I got dressed today. I even considered putting make up on, but that felt a little over the top.

Here's a photo from roughly the same moment in my last pregnancy, if you're interested.

Have a lovely evening! Three days till Jacob comes. Huzzah!

Marriage and Mothering Advice, A Blog Recommendation, & Brilliant Photography (You Know...The Usual)

I just got back from an OB appointment. Last week's ultrasound went totally fine. Everything looks good. Little girl is measuring fine. She's just nice and low. This would seem hopeful for a soonish delivery, but it is apparently doing nothing except turning up the heat on the good ole BH contractions.

In an uncomplicated pregnancy like mine, I don't think internal exams really do anything except confuse at this point, but I wanted any info I could get since Jacob is still working four hours away, so I had my OB check me.

You'll all be happy to know that I'm dilated 1/2 cm LESS than last week.

I also have caught a cold from the delightful two year old who sometimes gets mentioned on this blog when I can stop talking about my pregnancy for half a sec. So I'm a little bit miserable, but grateful that I don't have to rally for anything except a daily nap.

But let's cut short the doom and gloom and see how long we can ramble on about unrelated things.

>><<

I've been reading Jen's recommendations for books on writing, because someday I will write a novel, and my nesting energy sent me to my bucket list after I cleaned my parents' fridge. I'm enjoying them a lot. I conned my mother into buying the recommended reads "for her house" because she's writing a book and she loves me and I'm spoiled.

>><<

I've often thought about doing a post on the parenting advice I've received from my mother over the years. She doesn't offer a lot of advice unless she thinks you're fishing for it. I actually learned from my friend's mother in high school that this is actually one of my mother's parenting rules. My friend's mother was saying how she takes every opportunity to guide and direct her children while they're still at home. She asked my mother her thoughts, and my mother said: "I answer their questions."

And she usually answers you sort of cryptically, so hmm...

Some gems that I've remembered from her over the years.

I once asked for some advice because I was worried about screwing up my kids, and she responded:

"Oh, honey, you don't have to worry about that. You will."

Another time a brother of mine asked why my mom hadn't communicated some basic rule of etiquette to him and she said.

"I guess I figured someone else's mother would do that."

>><<

Jacob is coming to visit this weekend! He's been working A TON for the past month and hasn't had a single day off since mid-September. I'm very proud of him and grateful for the work, but guy needs a break and I need someone to apply constant pressure to my lower back.

(Kidding.)

(Half-Kidding?)

Jacob does a lot of things very well, but he's not the best at communication in these "long distance" situations. In August when I left him in Houston to visit my family for eight days, I realized after the first four that he hadn't initiated communication between us once. So I did a little test and stopped contacting him completely and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And four days later he finally called. I missed the call, but I was so excited I was giggling. I had done it! I didn't cave! I then proceeded to listen to his message in which I was dosed with absolutely no sweet-nothings, and he asked me one completely and utterly practical question and signed off.

I am happy to report that I was a little less petty this time around and admitted in a heart to heart one night before I left, that I needed him to contact me at least ONCE a day. It's been eight days, and he's 7 for 8.

THAT, my friends, is what I call progress. 

>><<

My sister-in-law just outed her blog to me today, and I will take this opportunity to shout it from the blogger-tops.  HEAD ON OVER and love on her recipes and my goddaughter!

>><<

Signing off with some photos of general loveliness from our recent days.

An evening walk with my 93 year old grandmother. I can almost keep up with her.



Gnarly oak trees.



Jakeboy and his Opie.



Jakeboy and his best friend.



My beloved Texan Hill Country. My heart doesn't beat anywhere the way it beats here (...perhaps encouraged by the biweekly scorpion sightings.)












 Check back tomorrow, and I'll hook you up with some 38 week belly shots. Pinky swear I will.

Waiting for the Girl

Jake and I have deposited ourselves in Fredericksburg and have begun the wait for the newest logger.  If she follows in Jake's footsteps she'll be arriving exactly three weeks from today.

We spent the morning bumbling around town. I dropped Jake off with a friend and continued to an OB appointment where I found that I'm measuring a little bit too small, which probably only means that baby's just nestled in nice and low, but I will be getting an Ultrasound on Wednesday just to make sure that is indeed the case and that my fluid levels are good and baby is beefy. I really don't want to be induced...so hopefully it will only show good things. We then accompanied my friend to toddler time at the library where Jake was about .01% engaged with the designated activities.

We went to toddler time at our library in LA once. Jake threw a fit when I made him leave the basketball court for the event. We both sat through the whole thing shell-shocked because we'd never seen so many toddlers in one place. The craft was edible, and my granola-heart almost stopped beating. I try to be cool in situations like that - and I usually am. I've resigned myself to the fact that my kids will eat whatever they want at their friends' houses, and I'm totally fine with that. I know their friends will find our eating habits absurd. I can roll with this. It doesn't bother me that my kid will be the one with homemade fruit leather in his school lunch and not have near the bargaining power of little Sophie with her gushers and soda. But seriously, library people, you're supposed to be some sort of beacon of hope for the next generation, not just another place where they get pretzels and chocolate teddy grahams and marshmallow paste. Thankfully Jake didn't realize any of it was food, and I wasn't enlightening him, so we made it out unscathed. I couldn't pull that stuff today. He's too worldly. But the Fredericksburg Library didn't try to feed my child anything so this library time got a pass.

While we're talking crunchy. My mom mentioned to me that she wanted us to start a ginger bug while I was here, and I almost knocked her over to get the grater. Because. Seriously. My mother wants to harvest wild yeasts with me! Voluntarily! I just about skipped around the kitchen (but then I didn't because women who are two hours shy of full term are not the ones who get to do that with a younger brother in the room and live it down.)

Full term. Full term. I'm welcoming its advent accordingly.

The chocolate didn't make it into the pic. But it should've. In this mama's book full term marks the end of weight gain, because as far as I'm concerned the rest of the weight I gain in this pregnancy doesn't count. Here's to not looking at the scale for the next 3ish weeks! Or the 6ish weeks after that!

Though this little lady has me pushing numbers on the scale I've never seen the likes of, I'm pretty impressed that the skin on my belly seems relatively unimpressed by the whole affair. Last pregnancy my skin felt SO stretched the whole time. I remember looking down at my 5-months-pregnant stomach and thinking "ain't no way!": I was stretched to capacity. But the body does what it do and kept right on making room for little person.

This time around I'm sitting at 37 weeks and my skin's like "Bring it. I SO got this!"

Alright. My diaper laundry is done, so I'm going to bed and trying not to stress about what news Wednesday's ultrasound will bring...this shouldn't be too hard because good ole Doctor Dad took one look at my stomach this evening and with 3000+ prenatals under his belt said: "No way that baby is too small."

...Thanks, Dad.

You're welcome for all the profound thoughts here compiled. Good night.

7 Quick Takes: Mostly Pregnancy Ramblings

- 1 -

I am 35 weeks along as of Tuesday. And feeling very pregnant. I've started making all the weird grunting sounds whenever I stand up or swing my legs into the car or...move...and Jake has started imitating me. He's much cuter when he does it. I'm having boatloads of Braxton Hicks contractions which don't really bother me, but they weird me out a little because in my first pregnancy I only remember getting them while working out. The thermostat gets cranked further down every week that I'm more pregnant, even though other bloggers are talking about something called fall.

- 2 -

So far, our plan is still the same. Jakeboy and I will move in with my parents at the beginning of October and begin the long wait for the newest Rhodes from the comfort of my childhood home. My folks live about four hours away, so we won't be seeing too much of Jacob in that time. And we haven't figured out how we'll do the whole make-sure-hubby-makes-it-to-the-birth thing. When I went into labor with Jake, I knew immediately. There was no doubt in my mind that this was labor. It took about twelve hours for that labor to get intense, but I was positive it was the real thing. But I hear that sometimes it's harder to tell the second time around, and the stakes are higher this time since I'd like baby's father to be there...Thoughts from my multiparous readers?

- 3 -

Nesting is a very strange phenomenon. When Jake was born we were in the process of moving, so my nesting instincts were all channeled toward finding a nest, any nest, before baby came. This time we're pretty settled in a little two bedroom apartment that promises to be home only until we can get our ducks in enough rows to buy a house (by the summer? knock on wood) so I'm not at all inspired to make the apartment beautiful. This sends my nesting traffic into weird and seemingly unproductive places, like organizing my craft supplies. Much needed grocery-runs take every ounce of motivation but color-coding my embroidery floss? Please mcpretty please.

- 4 -

All I think about are donuts. I'm also about five pounds heavier now than I was when I delivered Jake even though baby girl is measuring a little small...so...yeah...restraint be mine.

Last pregnancy all I thought about were oranges.

- 5 -

I can't bring myself to crack any of my pregnancy books this go round. Last time I was pretty gungho about having an unmedicated birth. I read all about natural labor and delivery and topped every night off with a couple zen birth stories from the land of Ina May. I know this is my second time, so it's not too surprising that I haven't been as obsessed with childbirth, but I was definitely "in the zone" last time and this time I'm like...what's transition again?

- 6 -

Also, my friend Anne has updated her blog with more details on her situation. I got to see her a few days ago and she looks extremely well and baby is staying put which is awesome. She's in the hospital till she's at least 24 weeks along which is TOMORROW. Every day is a huge victory for that family, and so if your feeling clickish, go offer your prayers and encouragement and

invite her to your blog.

- 7 -

And the rambling ends here. Back to eating my weight in watermelon and caprese salads (because as far as I can tell it's still summer) and trying to forget about the Shipley's Donut Shop camped at the end of my street.

And a family photo courtesy of Picasa and our Apple Devices.

 

More takes at Jenn's

Prayer Request for a Dear Friend and her Baby

I'm writing today to ask that you stop and pray for my dear friend Anne.

Anne is 22 weeks along in a long awaited pregnancy, and found out yesterday that she's begun to show some signs of preterm labor. She's in the hospital now about to undergo a procedure that will hopefully keep her from going into labor prematurely.

I ask for your thoughts and your prayers for this growing family today and in the coming days. The pregnancy has been a bumpy ride for the Bazins, and I encourage you to head over to her blog and offer some encouragement.

  

(Anne, I know I didn't ask if I could post your pic, but I wanted everyone to see what a bright person you are. And that sometimes you drink white wine from modified water bottles and that makes you pretty much the awesomest ever.)