what's up weekly. (busy, busy break week.)

Oh, guys.  This has been a glorious break week.  The weather has been beautiful, I have gotten some major projects accomplished, and the kids have had a blast.  No complaints here.

Third trimester, baby!  Other than wanting to peel my skin off, this week has been easier to manage.

I always worry a little about myself as we head toward a break week.  If I don't start off strong, I end up squandering the entire week and feeling lethargic and terrible at the end of it.  So I decided to jump right in on Monday and not give myself the excuse of a slow start.  So Monday morning I went right to my Bible time (always out the window when I lay around), then I deep-cleaned Ophelia's room.  I had the kids deep clean their rooms as well.  Walls, windows, doors, floors, sheets, furniture, fans - everything got a wipe down.  Then, because the kids did such a great job on their work that they had a friend come over to play for the afternoon.

On Tuesday, the project was cleaning the oven while the kids picked up the yard, and then I cleaned up the deck.

It turns out that cleaning the oven is not the kind of job tailor-made for giant pregnant ladies.  But I did it!  And I think it looks pretty good!

Wednesday's endeavor was cleaning out the garage - I wiped everything down, purged and organized, and even mopped the gross, sticky floor.  It looks (and smells) a million times better.  I still need to wash all the winter gear, and roll the Honda out and clean underneath it (not to mention, fix it so it doesn't need to be rolled anywhere), but it's 95% done.  While I worked, the kids got the chance to pull out their bikes for the first time this season, get their tires inflated, and play with the neighbor kids.

Yesterday was a little more lowkey.  We started strong, with a trip to get the van washed and vacuumed out, and then to pick up library books.  I got my menu planning started for my grocery trip today, but though I had grand designs to finish it, as well as to build a compost bin, the afternoon ended up being dedicated to baking cookies with Laurelai and laying on the couch reading a book.  Balance, right?

In the evening, Todd took me out to dinner and the kids held down the fort at home.  I still am in shock we're finally in this stage of parenting.

The Valentine's Day flowers are still beautiful and going strong.

Today I need to clean out the fridge, do my grocery shopping, and hopefully get around to that compost bin.  

It was tiring, but in a good way.  I am glad I didn't squander a whole week - I always hate the feeling of starting back to school without having spent my free time catching up on things I don't have time for during school weeks.  I'm glad I took an afternoon to rest, and that I prioritized Bible time, and that I still got a couple of workouts in.  I didn't get to every single project I had hoped to, but I'm proud of what I accomplished.

One thing I did not do this week was canning.  And I'm more than okay with that.  But I do have a photo of last week's canning, so let's take a moment to enjoy that, shall we?

 Prettier than jewelry, I think.  I think this is the most I've ever done in a single week!  The shelves downstairs are filling up.

And that was our week!  Full, productive, tiring, and satisfying.  Plus, the sun was shining and we got to walk barefoot in the grass, so life seems worth living again.  Wish me luck to finish strong!

what's up weekly. (give me a second to gripe, and then I'll be done.)

Well, I can't say I'm feeling much better than I was last week, and so I'm guessing we're beginning the descent into a constant state of "End of Pregnancy," in which everything hurts and is harder than it has to be.  So after today, I'll quit giving you gripey updates - you can just assume from this point on that, at any given moment, I can't breathe, that I have dangerously low energy, that the heartburn is constant, that my legs are so restless I can't sleep, and that I have very little mental or emotional margin for shenanigans.  Just assume I am, at any given time, laying on the couch on my left side and gasping for air.

BUT!  I will say I am not in pain.  Like, at all.  Like, it's remarkable.  My feet don't hurt, my back doesn't hurt.  I do suspect some of it is because we don't have tile floors in the kitchen anymore - it's amazing how much more gentle hardwood floors are on your body when you spend much time cooking each day.  But I also suspect a good deal of my lack of pain is due to continuing to exercise and stretch as many days a week as I can.  It's getting more difficult, but has had such dramatic effect on how I feel that I am committed to not giving it up.  I do think at some point soon I will need to find an exercise bike to replace my time on the treadmill, so I can take the weight off my lower back.  So if you have any leads on a cheap (or free!) option, let me know.

We are not much closer to choosing a name for the baby.  With this being our first time not knowing the gender in advance, it seems much harder to narrow in on final choices.  I don't know anything about this baby yet - what gender it will be, what it will look like, anything.  So I can't even lock in on a boy name and a girl name.  I have a few of each that I like okay, but no set first/middle combinations, and no clear winners.  I feel like I want to see the baby before I decide anything... but I also am not good at making "in the moment" decisions, so that might not be the best choice, either.  I just don't know!

My pathological canning efforts are still going strong, even though the fatigue has been indescribable this week.  Standing to prep the jars has been difficult, but the beautiful thing about canning is that, once things are in the jars, the work is done - you just have to set a timer and wait for the canner to finish.  So I did some chicken, pulled pork, and a bunch of beans this week.  By the end of the day today, I'm hoping to have over thirty more quarts completed and ready to send to the shelves downstairs.  I will have done over 100 quarts just since the beginning of the year.  See?  Pathological.  But practical.  And I'm okay with that balance.

This isn't this week's work; it's last week's, but you get the idea.

Well, for as much griping as I've logged these days, there has also been a lot of celebration.  First, family came down to celebrate the Chinese New Year, which is just a cultured way of saying I have been craving the Chinese food of my childhood and wanted an excuse to make a bunch of wontons.

My mom and stepdad brought all the stuff to make wontons and eggrolls, as well as stir fry and fried rice, and my sister and her family came down to participate in the prep and eating of all of it.  First we tackled the wontons, which are really the star of the show.

Three generations formed the assembly line.

Aren't they adorable?  My mom's recipe calls for deep frying them, as opposed to boiling them, and I argue that is the CLEAR way to go.  Who wants to eat a boiled bag of meat if you could instead DEEP FRY IT? No one, that's who.  And that's why my mom's recipe is superior.

Looking remarkably like a wonton myself.

A close runner-up to the wonton is the eggroll.

All the littler cousins joined in on this one, and did an amazing job.  We got those eggrolls egg-rolled in no time.

We set the tables for Sabbath dinner and everyone got to gorge themselves on AMAZING food and the kids got to try their hands at using chopsticks.  It was so much fun.  Pregnancy cravings or not, we should do this every year.

Later in the week, we celebrated Valentine's Day.  Todd and I never really made much of Valentine's Day before a few years ago.  It is SO much more fun to celebrate this day with a whole gaggle of people who love each other than just two people.  First, I make waffles (including some heart shaped ones) for breakfast, which of course are served with sprinkles and whipped cream.  The kids open small gifts after they eat - just little things that communicate that we love and appreciate them.

The boys got "tickets" to participate in an airsoft war in a couple of weeks.

Then for lunch we had heart shaped pasta, and after lunch Todd and the boys gave all of us girls flowers.  

For dinner, we had a cheeseboard, then had popcorn and pink M&Ms for dessert while we watched Princess Bride.  Laurelai had made chocolate covered strawberries, but we were all so full of sweets from the day that we decided to save them for the next day instead, so Valentine's Day just kept going.

It was a good, full week, full of good weather, good work, and good celebrating.  We will be on break next week, which I'm looking forward to.  I'm hoping the weather is good and that I have enough energy to tackle a few projects I have on the list, but even if all I get "done" is resting, it will be welcome.  I hope you have a great weekend!

what's up weekly. (in which I receive a debatable compliment.)

Oh, you guys.  I'm going to be so quick tonight because I am just beat.  I am really starting to feel pregnant, and I have so little energy at the end of the day.  I'm eating well (enough), sleeping well, and exercising regularly, but I still can't muster any oomph.  I am going to start taking an iron supplement, and my midwife thinks I'm not eating enough through the day (ha! I doubt it, but if someone is telling me to eat more, I'll take one for the team).  Hopefully I can rally, or this is going to be a long THREE AND A HALF MONTHS before the baby comes, as my energy levels continue to drop.  

Speaking of my midwife, I had my second appointment yesterday and heard the baby's heartbeat again.  She said the baby is definitely head down - she said she's not sure that in her 42 years of practice she's ever seen a baby go head down this early, and that tells her that I must have a "tremendous pelvis."  I was too afraid to ask if that's a compliment or just a nice way of saying "monstrous."  (This is where I would normally insert a "yikes" emoji, because I've gotten used to the social media regression into heiroglyphics, but I'm limited to the King's English here on blogger, so you'll just have to imagine the "yikes" eyes and teeth.)  Todd said he's going to have that engraved on my tombstone: "Here lies Paige 'Tremendous Pelvis' Van Voorst."  I'd rest in peace, but I'm sure my pelvis would get in the way, so eternity might feel a little long.

Anyway.  That's the pregnancy update.  I have been continuing to try to get quite a bit of canning done this week.  It may be bordering on compulsive at this point? I'm not sure.  I just vividly recall how much pain I was in at the end of my pregnancy with Ophelia, and how difficult even simple daily cooking became, much less preparing extras for postpartum.  I think I feel better knowing I can get things on the shelves and into the freezer on the early side, just in case I really do burn out completely at some point.  So this week I canned some ground beef, taco soup, sloppy joes, pot roast, and black beans.  Later today, I'm going to throw together a shepherd's pie for the freezer.  We're definitely making progress in postpartum food prep.

One area in which we're not making progress is the leak in the basement.  The City came out yesterday to take a look, to make sure the water we're getting isn't from a leaking meter, but it doesn't seem to be.  But we're definitely still getting water, so... I don't know.  Luckily the drywall isn't wet, it's just kind of seeping between the floor and the trim.  So as long as we keep towels down and keep the carpet pulled back, nothing seems to be getting damaged.  But good gravy, I'm starting to just get sick of not knowing what's happening or how to fix it. But we'll get it figured out.

Okay, enough griping; let's talk about a win.  Atticus took his permit test on Friday and PASSED!  This was his third try, and even all the green haired surly girlies at the DMV entered the celebration when he passed this time (with flying colors) and called out "congratulations, Atticus!" from behind their desks when they were notified he successfully completed his test.  He had been so nervous going into it - he had studied hard, but was just nervous.  He kept reciting Psalms to himself as he waited to be called for his test, and then when he passed, his joy was so genuine and total - it was a sweet moment to share with him.  He kept thanking God, and praying, and saying he knows it wasn't by his own effort.  It is a such a joy to see my children embracing their own relationships with the Lord, and learning to depend on him for their needs.

This is, weirdly, his temporary permit.  It is literally just a receipt with his face on it.  We're told his regular card will come in the mail soon.

We haven't gone out driving yet, but that's next on the list.

Okay, what else?  The weather has been so beautiful, and since I cancelled school yesterday for my midwife appointment, the kids basically spent the entire day outside.  This false spring is tempting me to put a lot of hope into it.  I have to keep telling myself it will get cold again, but that's okay... that's okay... it's going to be okay...  But I am ready for spring!  I want to finish planting a boxwood hedge around the front and getting rid of the landscaping rock in favor of mulch.  I also am wanting to plant something low maintenance in my veggie garden beds, and maybe plant a few flowers in the back.  Obviously I'll be preoccupied this summer and won't be in a season where extended plant care is a possibility, but I keep thinking that if spring starts early enough, maybe I'll at least be able to get some low maintenance things in the ground before the baby comes.

And I think that basically covers our week!  Tonight we have a Psalm Sing with our church, and my family is coming into town for the day tomorrow, so it should be a full, fun weekend!

The kids' new favorite after-dinner thing is pretending to be a rock band.  My new favorite after-dinner thing is watching Oey get really into it, too.

what's up weekly. (Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. Unless we want to drink out of the dehumidifier.)

Hey folks!  Let me start by giving you an update after last week's cliffhanger:  I survived my grocery shopping trip.  It was intense, and if you find that any of your local stores are experiencing shortages, it's probably because I already bought everything.  Sorry about that.  But the good news is that we should be stocked for a couple of weeks.  

Speaking of being stocked, I am still going strong on my canning endeavors.  I don't have any fresh photos to show you, because I like to take a photo of the week's work at the end of the week, and today isn't over yet.  Price Chopper is having a great sale on ground beef, so I'm hoping to pick some up today and get it canned this evening.  But even without that added to the tally, I'll have put up around twenty quarts of broth and meat this week.  Next week I'm hoping to tackle dry beans and potatoes.  Yes, I know these things store just fine on their own without canning, but it is SO convenient to have them already prepped and ready for immediate use.  I think late-term nesting is kicking in early or something, because I just can't kick this drive to squirrel away food.  Here's a current look at my canning shelves (not including this week's additions yet):

I have a casual goal for myself to see just how much of this shelf unit I can fill (or how many of my empty jars I can fill, whichever comes first) by the end of the year.  Last year was my first full year of canning, and I put up about 150 quarts and 30 pints of food, and I'd love to see if I can double that this year.  So far I've done over 50 quarts just in January, so I think it's a reasonable work goal, especially if I do most of it before the baby comes and do the rest next fall/winter; I'm just not sure if I have enough storage space or empty jars to accomplish it.  But I also need to remember that we'll be emptying jars and shelf space regularly as we actually everything through the year, too, and therefore making more space as we go, so maybe it isn't unrealistic.

Anyway.  Enough about canning.  Let me share why I even had a photo of my canning shelves on the camera in the first place: we were taking photos of basement activity, as we seem to have a continuing leak in the book room and everything needed to be moved out of there.  So we emptied the book room of almost everything, and moved the bookshelves to the storage room.  

Since this photo was taken, the bookshelf was moved out, the books were all restored to their proper shelves, and the carpet on the far end of the room was pulled back.  It's kind of spartan and also somehow also chaos in there right now.

The books are now all on those shelves.  The cubbies on the left hand set of shelves contain all my homeschool books, organized by year. The storage room is getting cozy and working hard as a jack-of-all-trades room.

There are random piles around my food room and the back of the storage room as I'm still trying to find homes for everything until we can figure out the water issue, but it actually hasn't been too bad, and I'm really loving having the books all in one place (we already had a few bookshelves in the storage room, so there were books in a bunch of different places).

In addition to plumbing issues in the basement, we had a leaky outdoor faucet that was starting to get out of control.  (Remember all the ice it formed during those two weeks of frigid cold?)

Normally we would just use the leaked water that we caught in the bucket to water the chickens each day.  But as the cold snap continued, it kept freezing before we could use it... and then as it leaked more, it froze more... until we had this monstrosity.  I had the boys chip the ice away from the house and throw it into the yard before things thawed, just to keep it from seeping once the weather warmed up.  The bucket got dumped into the garden bed and melted in there. So it didn't end up damaging anything, but wow - that's a crazy amount of ice.

Last weekend, Todd and a friend got that faucet replaced and it is literally as good as new because it is, well, new.  The photo isn't super exciting, but behind this photo is the satisfaction of a job well done (and a water bill that hopefully reflects that).

What else have we been up to?  Well, the weather has been beautiful so we've spent plenty of time playing outside (and cleaning up the yard - how does it get so trashed in the cold weather?).  The kids have spent ample time playing with Legos, now that they're currently stored in the boys' room instead of tucked away in the book room.

Atticus has been studying for his upcoming driver's permit test, so hopefully he masters the material and passes with flying colors!

Laurelai still seems to be fighting something.  She was sick a week and a half ago, recovered, and then earlier this week her fever and headache returned.  She's had some painful inflammation in her ears and throat as well.  Hopefully she can finally kick it.

And I'm chugging away in pregnancy - I'm currently 24 weeks and getting tired.  I still try to exercise most days, but by the time I'm done, I can barely muster the energy to shower.  I tried to sitting on our little shower bench the other day, so I didn't have to stay standing, but I'm getting so unwieldy that I kept sliding off the seat.  It was a real shining moment for me.  

And here we are - it's February.  We made it through January, which felt long this year but isn't usually my hardest stretch.  February is the hardest stretch, even though it's so short.  So I'm going to spend some time this month dreaming about what I'm going to plant in my garden (and then subsequently neglect once it's planted, like always), and gazing at my February Flowers, which Todd has been so sweet to get me each year for the past couple of years to kick off the month with some beauty and cheerfulness.

And that, friends, was our week!  Happy February!