This time last year

After one of the hottest Septembers on record, I'll admit I was pining away for Autumn. The summer was dragging on with temperatures in the mid-nineties every day until October arrived, finally bringing our first cool breezes and chilly mornings. I love the rhythm of the seasons with those first cool mornings, pulling out sweaters and warming up with hot PG Tips. You have to drink in the cold air while you can around here since by the afternoon we're back up to the high 80's and the kids are running around outside with no shirts and pink cheeks. This first hint of Autumn has been intoxicating though. Scrolling through pictures of Fall last year made me excited to enjoy this season with my family. A few days a go we went to one of our favorite spots to hike, Cloudland Canyon, where the views are amazing and the destination is waterfalls. Last year we did the hike with Naya on Josh's back. This year they all hiked the whole thing all by themselves like little champions. I couldn't help but think about how much they change from year to year. I dreamed of the little one that will be snuggled in the wrap next year when we hike it. Hope you're enjoying your first days of Fall wherever you are.



Oh, and here's a lovely song for you.

dandelion root

I must share this just in case you ever have the misfortune of experiencing puppps or if you know someone who has. At about nine weeks of pregnancy I noticed a rash that looked kind of like hives and almost like something was biting me. I will spare you the pictures but let me just say Google image is pretty accurate. It spread each day and was unbearably itchy. It was interrupting everything and making sleep very difficult. After about a week it was everywhere on my body except my neck and face. After endless research and ruling things out I am pretty convinced it was an early case of puppps, a somewhat rare and horribly itchy pregnancy related rash. I obviously didn't want to take medication if I didn't have to while pregnant, and it seemed like medicine might help with symptoms but not really get rid of it. I finally found some homeopathic remedies and I had nothing to lose. I talked to a local midwife who is very knowledgeable in the field and she verified the amounts I should take. She seemed quite confident that strongly infused dandelion tea would help with my rash. So each night I would brew a quart each of dandelion and nettle tea which is also supposed to be wonderful for pregnancy. Four bags of tea to a quart and it needs to steep at least four hours. Dandelion tea is extremely bitter. I could only drink it cold with the juice of about half a lemon and a touch of sweetener. I drank a quart of these teas a day, took one dandelion capsule, and flax seed and fish oil and within a week the itching stopped and it is totally clearing up. In the mean time I rubbed a generic zinc based diaper ointment on the worst patches which seemed to sooth it and help with itching. It is amazing to me how little health care professionals seemed to know about this condition. Once I had it, I heard of more and more people that had suffered with it. My sister had it terribly several years ago and was sent from one doctor and dermatologist to the next, never getting any relief until a few weeks after the baby was born. So spread the word that God gave us medicinal herbs for a reason and their benefits are endless! Anyway I would be lying if I said it was not a little discouraging to be tired, nauseous and also covered in a horrendous looking rash. I am just not one of those women who feels and looks amazing straight through the whole nine months. But I will say this, every single day I thank God for this new life and the gift that it is to me. No amount of temporary uncomfortableness will change that. In my weakness and lack of control I cling to God who is an ever present help in time of trouble. I have also been reading The Natural Pregnancy which is a wonderful source of information and positive language regarding all the things you face in pregnancy.
Even with certain hard things about pregnancy, each day I marvel that God is knitting someone inside me... a whole person with veins and bones, a beating heart, an entire story , a hope and a future, already so very loved.
A few weeks ago, I got a little peek of the baby, and it is indescribable seeing this little wriggling thing.
I walked out with this sweet picture and a huge smile on my itching blotchy self.

these boots

Sisters, mama's boots, a mirror and some music equals very good times.

So I've been a tad elusive in the blog world as of late but I do have a perfectly good reason.
It went like this: The kids were in bed, a record was spinning, candles and a living room dance and this little picture tucked in my waist... his surprise, a hug and tears.

I had been keeping a wonderful secret. We have a new little one in the making and we are absolutely thrilled and so very thankful for this new life inside me. Having my other three kids in three years was wonderful but a bit of a baby making whirlwind. I have had enough of a break that I am excited to drink in every minute of this crazy, miraculous process, even if the last several weeks have been spent in a fog of exhaustion and nausea. The kids are ecstatic about it and Juden immediately said it was just what he was praying for and he had been. He's hoping for a brother. We've seen the ultrasound and heard the heartbeat and can't wait to meet this one who is due in April right in time for Spring and at the same time our very first was due. Amazing.

about to hatch

I said,"Nora, can you give your baby some love and she was up on her tip toes all smiles ready to accommodate." The morning light was perfect and soft and you can feel the tenderness of this time... all her little toddler energy and her mama waiting right at the very end of pregnancy. One of the things I love about taking pictures is getting the chance to share in these really precious times with people who mean so much to me. This is one of my dearest friends Laura, who I've known all my life and I can't wait to meet her new one.

(baby brother or sister makes such a lovely pillow)






I love this wrinkled-nose face.

henna bellies

I know it seems there are some themes around here lately; babies and bellies and new life. What an incredible season it is to be surrounded by people that I love that are swelling with new little people. Over the summer, three of the five pregnant ones in my girls' group have met their babies, and it won't be long for the last two. I really wanted to have some henna parties to celebrate and adorn all these beautiful bellies so we had one in the beginning of the summer and one last week. It really is a lovely way to celebrate. It isn't always easy to watch your body transform and stretch within nine months, but it is so freeing to be among women who choose to embrace every stretch mark and and every change with a respect for what God has made our bodies be able to do: nurture life.
Kelly, one of the girls in our group is an artist whose work I adore, so she was our henna artist. I got the Proud Body Pregnancy Henna Kit to ensure that it was 100% all natural. It creates such a relaxing mood watching the designs take shape and watching baby limbs press against their increasingly crowded womb-abode. It left me feeling a little like I'd been marked with some tribal marking, all of us baring some pretty burnt-sienna colored stain in vines or flowers on our hands or ankles. It smelled pleasant of lavender oil and I thought of all the times I've shared with these women over the years in my living room or anothers...so many stories, so much laughter. I remembered so many prayers, showers and some hard times too. We listened and cried and knit a prayer shawl together when one of us miscarried, some of us knew the heartache first hand but we all understood the depth of loving something out of our control. We've been there for each other in those times, but we've had many more joys and blessings as represented by a growing group of the next generation.
Here's a few shots of a night I want to remember. I'm thinking this will be our new shower tradition. Who doesn't need a little body art now and then?




(this one is due to hatch in less than 2 weeks! amazing)

moments

(Mara Joy)

(Evangeline Linda)

She was the girl who at thirteen, I thought nothing in the world could separate me from. We were joined at the hip in that strange codependent-adolescent-girl sort of way. We went through every phase of growing up together, summer camp, beach trips, first jobs, first boyfriends, heartbreak , failures. God knew what he was doing when he brought us together because we felt stronger and bolder somehow in each other's presence. We did the same ministries and cheered each other on in every endeavor either of us tried. We both got married young and our lives looked like they were traveling a joint path just like I always thought they would... until everything changed and she told me they were moving back to Philadelphia while we had settled in Tennessee. It was so hard to say good-bye to this deep sisterhood I had known since we were eight years old.
It's about ten years later and I miss her deeply in my day to day life.
Just in time to end our summer Vanessa,her husband and her six children, the youngest of whom I had never met, came and stayed with us. It had been almost two years since I'd seen her. I cuddled her sweet kids and we played and got together with more of our college friends and their children reaching a grand total of sixteen children running around our houses at any given time. We cooked huge meals and swam and stole every opportunity to catch up in the way you can't on the phone or the computer. We are extremely different personality-wise which is part of why we enjoy each other so much and can make each-other laugh till we cry. One night it struck me though...the bitter-sweetness of it. All the kids had finally surrendered their weary selves to sleep and all of us moms stayed up for hours, laying around, drinking piña coladas and sharing our souls into the night. I loved listening the hearts of these amazing women I am privileged enough to have as life long friends. The night was filled with honesty, encouragement, inspiration and good thoughts to ponder. It's amazing how much ground a bunch of women can cover when times to just be are few. For several days I didn't want to go to bed, enjoying being able to have my far away friend in my living room, savoring holding her two month old in my lap. The time was deep and rich and I was so thankful to be able to reconnect. But it was hard to get a glimpse of what I am missing. I am so thankful to have a bond that covers the miles between us.
Here are some of the faces from our time together.


(Jonas)


(us)

( Nora giving her new baby a kiss)

(sisters and Jael)




(What a treasure being with little Eva, who at a glance, looks just like my childhood best friend)