WayfaringStrangers

It finally snowed, on my birthday: It was so pretty! Graham enjoyed it at first, but didn't get the point of sledding. We'll try again next time. So, it was cold and snowy, and then less than a week later we were in short sleeves/no coats: I don't mind a warm day in January, not one bit. I like the snow and I like the warm, too. House shopping is going well. We are down to about 2 that we like and are doing a 2nd walk through of one of them tomorrow. In the meantime, I am passing the days going to the library and to playgroups with the kids. We both enjoy the interaction. I am starting to feel a little bit of familiarity and community here. Nights have been awful lately. Both of them are up way too much, ever since we all had a cold last week. I feel like I can't catch a break. And I definitely had planned on a nap today and the boys completely sabotaged that. It's just one of those hard days, I guess. Good thing they are so cute and (mostly) swee...

All week I've been thinking about this post. Today is the March for Life in Washington D.C. It's been 40 years since Roe v. Wade was signed and abortion made legal. Approximately 40-50 million children have been destroyed in that time. It's no secret that I'm pro-life. My whole family and Behn's whole family are pro-life. We believe that at conception, humans are made in God's image. We believe in the value of life at the earliest stage. This is my brother, Stephen (and my brother Tim, in the background): Stephen came to our family at 3 months old and was adopted at 5 months old. He is the youngest of my siblings- I'm 16 years older than him- so I've really gotten to watch him grow up. He's 12 now. So, 12 years ago there was a woman in an urban U.S. city who decided to choose LIFE for her baby. It might have been a really hard decision, especially in a culture where aborting unwanted children is common. The statistics speak for themselve...

A year ago today it was my 28th birthday. I hadn't been feeling great, my appetite was off, and I kept joking I was pregnant. But c'mon, I definitely wasn't pregnant. The weekend before we had gone to Greensboro to visit Emily and Seth, and Emily said she didn't feel good either so we almost took pregnancy tests together as a fun sister bonding thing. (What, you don't think it's fun to pee on sticks together with your sister?) But we didn't end up doing that because those things are expensive and, after all, I definitely wasn't  pregnant.  Why waste money? Anyway, back to my birthday. My friend Mary stopped by to wish me happy birthday and bring me some carrot cake. I so enjoyed her visit (we had some awesome friends in Lexington), but for some reason I did NOT want the cake.   Oh uh. Megan always wants cake. I knew something was really going on. That evening I went out and got a pregnancy test, but decided not to take it until the next morning. I wa...

*Edited to add: It didn't snow. I didn't see a flake. What a letdown. I don't know how the forecast can go from 4-8 inches to NO snow. Oh well. * Finally we're going to get a little snowfall here in Southern Maryland. In approximately 3 hours. Yes, I'm obviously very excited for this! The snow does postpone some plans, namely house hunting. I've been looking forward to house hunting so  much that I was briefly a little bitter about the forecast, but I'm over it. We'll go on Saturday, Lord willing. I am a little bummed that our realtor told us that several of the houses we wanted to look at are under contract. It's ok though. God will open the right door (haha, get it?) for us. Some thoughts on this house process: I pray that when Behn and I walk into the right house, we'll just know. That we won't hesitate, that it will feel ordained for us. I hope we find a house that we can grow into a little bit, but not too much. I don't want a hu...

Well, this is how it worked for us at least: 1. Have Husband research the best deals.  Behn's a great researcher...almost to the point of indecisiveness. He spent a lot of time wisely reading reviews, checking stats, etc. He had 2 cars in mind and I helped him make a final decision (as well as gave him that last nudge to pleeeeease just make a decision and go with it!). 2. Go on a rainy Tuesday when the dealer hasn't made any sales. 3. Pick the cheapest car on the lot (happened to be the car we wanted). They wanted to get that ol' thing away from all the Mercedes and Lexus and BMW's. 4. Don't shower and wear grubby clothes. This was me, not Behn. He'd been at work and looked spiffy. I looked homeless, and as if we were really poor and didn't have hardly any money to spend (true). 5. Bring the baby. Since he's a nursling, Patrick usually goes where I go. We left Toddler with my Dad. The baby attracted lots of attention and gave us the appeal of ...

Time for a more positive post, right? So..... ....We're pre-approved for a little 'ol mortgage- we can buy a house! We have a realtor and have looked through dozens of online listings; so many, in fact, that I'm having dreams about them while I sleep, and the house are all starting to run together. On Thursday we're going house shopping. Behn and I are really excited, a little nervous, and very grateful. What else is new? Patrick's rolling over all the time- my little caterpillar (wait, do caterpillars roll?).  He's the jolliest baby. Also loves cuddling: Graham is in a major growth spurt and asks to "eat, eat!" all the time. This is great since he's such a picky eater. He's been doing better with that, but he's still picky (no veggies, no fruit with skins, no meat). This morning Graham climbed into our bed at 5:50 and asked for waffles, pancakes and eggs. He knows what he wants! That being said, homeboy can take a bite of, say, pe...

  : Some self-preservation. After an unfortunate melt down yesterday (probably the 1st time I've been honest with my feelings about the move and all the stress of life lately), I decided I'm sick of being home alone all day. Mom let me borrow her car, so I drove the boys to the library for Story Time, scoped out the crowd, saw a nice girl with 2 kids my age, and introduced myself. Got her number and a potential hangout tomorrow. Take that, Lonely Sad Megan!

It's 10:00 a.m. Patrick's already had a morning nap. Graham and I have had breakfast, played with play dough, done puzzles, had a snack, and he's now gathering up all his balls and moving them around the room. I'm tired, because lately I've gotten into a bad cycle with Patrick during the night.  I'm so tired I fall asleep while nursing him, then I wake up an hour later stiff and sore from being in the same non baby-crushing position and I try to put him back in his bed. Then he fusses because, obviously, he'd rather sleep next to mama. I usually get him back to sleep in his bed, but the same thing happens again in a few hours. Must stay  awake to feed him and get him back to sleep in his own bed. I get woken up by one of the kids around 7, stay in bed as long as possible, and then groggily head downstairs to get some caffeine into my system. I consider myself a 'morning person' but this is rough! And there's no slow wake up period...it's lik...

I'm back! I definitely took a respite from blogging in December. I just didn't feel up to it, and I don't want the blog to become a chore. To be honest, I sort of trudged through December in general. There were some wonderful moments and highlights, but so often I felt tired and overwhelmed. I sort of didn't feel like doing the Christmas hoopla this year. I missed our decorations packed away in storage, and many days I found myself too much in a tired fog to think about advent devotionals or gifts. I still haven't sent the Christmas cards out (this is happening TOMORROW.) There were good memories though. Cousins in Christmas pj's. Family meals. Christmas music. My mom making the house beautiful. Undeserved gifts from those who love me. My cute boys in matching red pj's at the Christmas Eve service, where I stood with the choir and lip-synced because I had pretty much lost my voice during a cold. It was fun to have my brother Tim home and visitors coming ...