Fish and Chips Story — The Story of Us

Heather and I have been committing ourselves to simpler living in a few ways that have been very helpful.  Why?  Because we believe that life have become to complicated and we want to focus on things that are more important.  We are trying to make our lives easier to deal with, here is what we have done and maybe they will inspire you to do the same.

•  De-clutter — We have worked through our office/junk room twice now in an effort to get rid of things we don’t need.  We have sold a book shelf full of books to a local used book store and moved that book to where it will be more useful.
•  Budget — We have set ourselves on a budget and although it still needs some work it is below our means which means we are able to pay off debt (almost done) and invest some money.  By doing this we should be able to pay off our house in 14 more years.  And that assumes we never make another dollar more a year.
• The Garden — We are working on growing some of our own vegetables this year, organically so we know there are no chemicals in them.  This may seem hard in the beginning but I am sure as we get used to it it, and Alora gets bigger, it will be well worth it.  Not only will we be able to eat with peace of mind but we will expand our diet and eat more cheaply.
• The board game closet — We have decided that we love to play board games, of all kinds and we put them all in our hall closet for easier access.  We try to play instead of watching TV so that we can spend more quality time with one another.  Or we play with friends when they come over so no one has to spend money for an evening.

Well I officially have 6 weeks to go, although I wish it was more like 6 days. There’s not too much room left in my body for me and Abbie any more. Last week we found out that Abbie is Big (6 1/2 lbs. 17 inches already) and she was breech. Now we’ve been praying and i’ve been doing everything I know to do to get her to flip back around, so hopefully when we go back this Thursday they’ll say she’s fine. Although part of me is ok with a c-section only because in my fantasy world that means that she could come out before the 6 weeks are up.

To add insult to injury I broke my pinky toe on Saturday! All I wanted to say was SERIOUSLY. I’ve made it 28 years in my life without a broken bone and now this! All I did was run into Jason’s house slippers (granted while he still had them on) and you could hear a very loud audible POP! Then boom pain. A couple hours later swollen and purple. Again just one more thing to go, can I please have this baby and get on to the next step. I would say back to normal, but I know as soon as number 2 is born there will be no normal for quite sometime.

On the flip side this weekend was GREATLY productive. The office got reorganized and ready to move a bed in, the laundry room was moved around to clear up some space for the Baby Abbie birage of products and we planted our first seedlings of tomatoes, peppers and herbs. (Alora helping daddy plant seeds)  (Daddy being a ham) I was greatly concerned/condemned over the fact that I was not going home to my parents, so in turn I was not going to a formal church and having a proper Easter ham dinner. I eventually gave that idea up and once I’d relenquished myself to the fact that Easter doesn’t require those things, our next door neighbor called and had us over for Easter lunch. (Alora dressed for Easter) To tell the truth it was the best thing ever. We brought Jesus with us into there home and enjoyed great fellowship and time together. All the time without the burden of having to drive to WV 8 1/2 months pregnant or having to cook and clean myself. Later that evening Jason and I watched Mars Hill’s Good Friday service. It really hit home. Realizing the sin in our lives and what Jesus went through to take that from us. In the end It was a great Easter. Time with friends, family and a deeper respect for the Cross.

Heather was trying to nap on Sunday and it was becoming painfully obvious that Alora wasn’t going to sleep so I decided to put down the Wii and take my daughter outside.  It was a little chilly but I decided to take out some of the gardening tools out and get some work done.  I was a little shocked to realize that the weeds are already beginning to grow up through my mulch out back.  I showed Alora how to stomp on the ‘bad’ plants and we turned the compost pile over.  Me with my shovel and Alora with her little hand spade, she was throwing compost up in the air and helping daddy.

There was even a moment where I was leaning on my shovel and she tried to lean on her little spade; my heart melted.  We dug a ‘bed’ for the ‘baby’ plants, we had some bulbs that should be fine there even though it is cold.  I guess I realized that although I will remember my Wii game I will remember my time with my daughter even more.

The time has come and we have new VIDEO and PICS ! Just click on the word and see what the Ohio Blizzard of ’08 looked like!

So yesterday after shoveling ourselves out of the big Ohio Blizzard of ’08 (see video section for footage) we managed to have a day full of firsts. Alora officially asked to go poopoo on the potty. Not that that is huge, she’s done that before. But she started off downstairs on her little potty and realized she needed to go upstairs instead, in which she quickly hopped up buck naked, streaked up the steps and burst open on her daddy in the bathroom and demanded him to get off the pot because she needed to go. Now much to Jason’s reluctance he got up. Now thankfully he did because a minute later we had poopoo on the potty! All on her own accord. It was wonderful!

But the big day doesn’t stop there, after we went and shoveled Nini’s Mustang out of the snow and had dinner we had just enough daylight to run home before bed and build My First Snowman (Alora Size) . It’s adorable! But it was cold, late and the snow wasn’t quite perfect so it’s soo tiny and petite. I think that just made Alora all the prouder.

And last but not least on our string of firsts, Alora slept in her big girl bed last night! First Night in My Big Girl Bed After we came in from the snowman building Alora insisted we build “her house”. Her big girl bed has windows and a roof so it’s her new house! It took allot of reconfiguring of the nursery (since baby Abbie will be in the same room) and the rocker still doesn’t fit in, but were working on that.

Now I think the whole moving into a big girl bed was allot more traumatic on me than anyone, all I could think about was the first night she slept in her crib. She had just turned 3 months old. She didn’t know the difference that she wasn’t beside mom’s bed anymore, but I knew. And cried outside the bedroom door for a half hour. Just like last night. Alora had a difficult first half hour, she was up and down and fussed for a bit, but after that she gave in and curled up with Annie and blankie and off to dream land she went. Hopefully all nights from here on out will be that smooth.

Last but not least I realized a pregnancy faux pas this morning about 6:30 am. I had been awake since about 5 due to kicking baby, being too hot and not being able to breathe through my nose. So I realized that it was soon time for Jason to get up and I removed my massive pillow fort that I live with and backed up into him to snuggle. It had never felt better. Could it be the back relief it provided? Yes. Could it have been exhaustion? Yes. But most of all I know that it was removing my silly pillow fort supports and being close to my husband (which has become a rarity in the last couple months of pregnancy) and feeling him breathe. I have to admit between me being sick and miserable and life in general, not to mention a 10 lb. watermelon in front of me, any intimate time with Jason has been way too few and too far between. Now any pregnant woman or mom would say “honey don’t worry about it,we all go through it”, now that may or may not be true, but it doesn’t make it any more fair on me or my husband. So my goal is to remove my pillow fort just a little more often, even if it is only for the last 8 weeks of this pregnancy i have (thank GOD!)