Ah Summer!!

Well, it finally got hot here in my little corner of the world! So I have been sitting inside with the air on until the sun goes down a bit and I can actually go outside without bursting into flames and filling up like a water balloon. I am usually not so wimpy during the summer. I really love the heat. But pregnancy just does something weird to me. I puff up with fluid and turn into my own little furnace as soon as the temperature inches above 80 degrees. I am so not a pretty pregnany lady. I don't glow, I radiate heat. Ugh. I am already looking forward to next summer.

I had an OB appointment yesterday and the baby is doing very well. So is mommy, aside from the obviously wildly swinging pregancy hormones (judging by the above paragraph!). LOL!! I really am doing good though. My blood pressure is good and I have been trying really hard to keep my weight gain in check. Baby's heartbeat is very strong and it has a GREAT kick. I am starting to get past the worried/suprised stage and more into the excited/nesting stage.

Our town is having it's annual "Taste of" fest, so I think that is what we are going to be doing this weekend. There will be over 30 local restaurants there. I certainly hope that one of them will be a Mexican restaurant because that is what I craved with all of my past pregnancies and this one is turning out the same way. Wow I want some nachos for lunch. And ice cream. And Jalapenos! Mmmmmm..... Just Kidding!! But I really do want some nachos. And ice cream. I guess that I just have to wait until tomorrow.

Anyway, I must finally get off this computer and start cleaning. Enjoy your weekend!

ABC meme

This is going around some of the blogs that I read, so I just couldn't resist.

A)Age- 34
B)Burger of choice- Jewel Pub Burger fresh off the grill
C)What kind of car you drive- Chevy Blazer & Dodge Neon. Talk about opposites, huh?
D)Dogs name- Cinnamon
E)Essential item you use every day- Mascara - I have blond eyelashes so my eyes look bald unless I do something about it.
F)Favorite TV show- How Clean is Your House? - My guilty pleasure. It makes me feel better about my own house.
G)Favorite game to play- Chutes and Ladders or Lego Star Wars
H)Hometown- a small suburb of Chicago
I)Instruments you play- Recorder, LOL!!! But I used to play around on the guitar and I always wanted to learn to play the piano. Does that count?
J)Favorite Juice- Lemonade. Is that a juice? Oh. Then it would have to be "Orange Juice" I guess.
K)Whose butt you would love to kick- my own back into shape after I have the baby
L)Last restaurant you ate at- A local Mexican Restaurant
M)Favorite Muppet- The Swedish Chef. Bork bork bork!
N)Number of piercings- two, one on each ear. I am boring.
O)Overnight hospital stays- 4, I think
P)People you were with today- My hubby and 2 dd's
Q)What you do in your quiet time- read, pray, relax, blog, listen to music
R)Biggest regret- way too many to mention
S)Status- very incredibly happily married to the man of my dreams. (Yep, I'm mushy)
T)Time you woke up- 6:00 am. I slept in. Usually it's 5:30 am.
U)What you consider unique- my entire life
V)Vegetables you love- anything fresh from the garden
W)Worst habit- swearing when I drive
X)X-rays you have had- Too many for me to remember
Y)Yummy food you ate today- Pepridge (sp?) Farm "Everything" Bagel with chive and onion cream cheese. Hey, I'm pregnant. What did you expect - something normal???
Z)Zodiac sign- Virgo

This and That

It was a lovely weekend here in my part of the Midwest. It was just warm enough to be happy and comfortable, and just cool enough to be happy and comfortable. (In other words, it was in the upper 70s and my poor preggy legs, ankles, and feet actually weren't swelling. That's how I judge a good day now. LOL!!)

I really didn't accomplish as much as I would have liked to this weekend, but we did relax and have fun. I got some more seeds replanted in the garden. Carrots and such. I also re-potted my hubby's plant from his office at work and finally planted some of those flowers that had just been sitting around in their original containers getting root bound instead of looking pretty on my patio.

I am hoping to have enough peas ready in the garden to be able to have them for dinner tonight. My parents are supposed to come over, so it would be nice to surprise my retired gardener Dad with some fresh produce. Although he will walk out to my garden and remind me that I need to tie up my tomatoes, I am sure. They are a bit out of control right now because I am (ok, my hubby is) building some new supports for them with PVC pipe and chicken wire. Right now my tomatoes are visiting with my broccoli and it is a bit hard to walk around in the garden, so I need to get that under control.

Other than that, it was a long relaxing weekend. So relaxing, in fact, that I must now go clean before my parents come over. I don't want them to think that I have gone sloppy!

As an aside, I was saddened to hear that George Carlin has passed away. He was 1 year younger than my father is. Yes, I know that he was controversial and used some pretty foul language. I may not have always agreed with him, but sometimes I did. And sometimes he just made me laugh, like with his baseball and football comparison. (*I tried to make sure that this video is clean!* I didn't hear any dirty words on this clip, but beware of any other Carlin videos if you have the kiddos around or if you don't want to hear any objectionable language! Oh, and watch the comment section. But other than that, you should be ok.) But when you stripped away the cuss words, he really said things that made you *think*. I like people who make me think. Thinking is good. Sometimes you learn something new and sometimes you just learn to see something from a different point of view. But a person who is solid in their Faith should never be afraid of a different point of view. I have always found that it makes me a better person to understand something from someone else's perspective.

Anyway, hope that everyone has a great week! :)

A Beautiful Gift

For those who may not know, I entered the Catholic Church this year during Easter Vigil. It was a wonderful experience and I had the opportunity to meet many people who were able to enrich my knowledge and help me grow in my faith. Throughout the experience, I was given many gifts from the church and from individual people. Rosaries, scrap books, medals, books, plants, scapulars, etc. etc. etc. were some of the many gifts that I received during this time. I am so grateful to everyone for their generosity. But my favorite gift of all is my subscription to "Magnificat" magazine.

Although I am sure that many of my fellow Catholics are familiar with it, I had never heard of it until I was given a copy by one of the wonderful women who were helping to teach RCIA. I LOVE this little magazine. For those who are not familiar with it, it is so small that it can easily slip inside your purse but it contains SO MUCH information to help you grow in your prayer and faith life. There are entries for each day the contain a morning prayer, hymn, psalm readings, OT and NT readings, Gospel Readings, Intercessions, Mass section, Meditation of the Day (kinda like a Homily)and Evening Prayer and Saints of Today and Yesterday section. WOW!!! It is a powerful tool.

I know that one of the criticisms of Catholics by some of our Protestant brothers and sisters is that we do not spend enough time studying Scripture. I have to be honest. I do not spend as much time reading my Bible as I would like to. I have a million excuses - children, husband, home, yard, cats, dogs, work, cooking, shopping, illness, etc. That is why I love and value the Liturgical Calendar. (IMHO, I think that those Christians who don't follow a true liturgical calendar are missing out on alot. But again, that is only my opinion.) As long as I follow the Liturgical Calendar, I can make sure that I meet my basic spiritual needs. The Magnificat Magazine makes following the Liturgical Calendar so incredibly easy for me as a busy wife and mother. If I don't get to read everything for the day and I have a doctor's appt. or something like that, I can easily slip it into my purse. It's like having a copy of the Bible, "Chicken Soup for the Soul", and a prayer book all rolled into one portable little book. I strongly encourage you to try the Magnificat if you haven't already. A one-year subscription is a bit pricey (apx $40.00 I believe) but it is really worth it and I will be continuing my subscription after my gift runs out.

Have a wonderful Day!! :)

Preggy Update, etc.

Well, according to my Baby Center emails, I am officially 17 weeks pregnant. I don't really feel like I am. But I am DEFINITELY not complaining about that. I am more in shock because when I do the math I realise that I only have about 23 weeks (in a perfect world) to get everything done that I have dreamed I would do before the baby gets here. I want to clean out every closet. They really need it! We have a "Don't open the closets when company is over" rule. Kinda like our "Don't open the kitchen cabinets when company is over" rule. Oh, and don't forget the "Don't open the door to the play room when company is over" rule. You get the picture, right? If I don't do everything now, things will only get worse after the baby comes. So I plan to be as busy as my body will let me be. I feel pretty good so far, and believe me when I say that I thank the good Lord every day for that! :)

My strawberries are coming in - slowly. I was able to harvest 18 whole strawberries yesterday. Who hoo!! I brought them in, washed them off, and set them in a bowl on the kitchen counter. Then I went upstairs to shower and contemplate exactly what I was going to do with only 18 strawberries. Should I freeze them until the rest of the crop is ready? Should I make a nice jello mold or jello pie or something? Maybe some strawberry quick bread? I just didn't really have a clue about what to do with only a few strawberries. When I came down the stairs after my shower I noticed that my bowl of strawberries was missing from the counter. Hmmmmmmmm..... I looked down in the family room and saw that my two DDs had discovered the perfect use (in their opinion) for the strawberries: a nice mid morning snack for two growing girls. Oh well! At least they went to a good cause!!

Ok - One more post today

I couldn't resist linking to this article that I read today during my lunch break from cleaning. Wouldn't it be great if the government would listen to the voice of the people and actually allow FREEDOM OF EDUCATIONAL CHOICE for our children?

No blogging time today

I swore that I was going start doing the everyday posting thing. I had really good intentions. Then life kinda crept in and said otherwise. I really don't have oodles of time to blog today because I have to clean my house. I was going to that yesterday, but our cat threw up on the family room floor (with the new light beige carpet) not just once but THREE separate times. I spent yesterday steam cleaning my carpet. Several times. Because you can't just clean a spot on light beige carpet. So I had to do the whole room (the biggest room in the house) the first time, and then spot clean every other time. At least my carpet is so clean now that it is a sight to behold. :) Did I mention that I LOVE my Bissel Pro-Heat carpet cleaner? With 2 kids, 2 cats, and 1 big dirty Husky, I just can't live without it.

But I must clean today because the tile guy is coming over to give us an estimate on finally putting the shower in our downstairs bathroom. It has been 10 years in the making, but it appears that the time has finally arrived. With the baby on the way, my hubby is a bit worried that he may never shower again unless we finally add that shower. And I don't want the tile guy to turn me in to Kim and Aggie and have my home appear on "How Clean is Your House?". So I am off to scrub now.

Have a happy day!

Forgotten Lyrics

Hubby and I were outside working on the pool and preparing for our pre-Father's Day cook out on Saturday. He popped some disks into the CD player. (Yeah, we still use CDs. Pathetic, I know. We do also have MP3s and VZ Music on our phones. But old habits die hard. Especially when it would cost bundles of cash to upgrade our stereo and music format. We just have better uses for our money.) He put on an old Queensryche CD and this song came on. I remember hearing it back in the day and thinking: "Wow! This song is so true it's scary!!" It is even more true today, over ten years later. So much for progress.

"Sign of the Times" - Queensryche

Heading for the classroom yesterday
The kids file through the metal machine
It finds what they may hide
No it just ain't right...
A sign of the times

Another church is burning to the ground...
Looking for the vandals and
they're nowhere to be found
But the hate's alive
A sign of the times, Sign of the times...
A sign of the times, Sign of the times...

Would someone please let me know
how we have spun out of control?
Has the captain let go of the wheel?
Or could we please try to find a way to be a bit more kind?
I see the road to tomorrow in the haze!

On the Senate floor they congregate
Many pockets lined with green,
From those behind the scenes,
yeah they take the bribe ( it's on the side )
A sign of the times, Sign of the times...
A sign of the times, Sign of the times...


From the album: Hear In The Now Frontier (1997)
Hear it here. Not the best version. Sorry. :(
---------------------------

And yes, I am a pathetic MetalHead. :)

In the Grrrrrden

All that I have to say about this year's growing season here in the corn belt is:
GRRRRRRRRR!!

Have you been reading those stories about higher corn prices? The last that I read, a bushel of corn was going for $7.58 (That's really high folks!!!!) and was projected to be much higher later in the summer because of the harsh spring and SERIOUS FLOODING in Iowa. (Let's take a moment to say a prayer for all of those folks who are suffering right now.) Here in my neck of the farm fields, farmers started out the year almost 3 weeks behind in planting because of the cold and wet spring that we had. Now many fields have some standing water in them. Most vegetables don't grow in standing water, especially corn and soybeans. And those two crops have a great deal of control over food prices as a whole.

The points of this little post are as follows:

1. My garden is hurting, just like the farmer's crops. So my usual buffer against the rising cost of food isn't going to be what it usually is. GRRRRRRRRR!

And, most importantly, number
2. Food prices will be going up up up in your grocery store. I know, they already have gone up. But it is going to get worse. So, if you can, try to stock up a little bit now. My area of farmdom, besides growing some of the finest sweet corn that you have ever had the intense privilege of eating, grows a large portion of feed corn. And we have lost a lot of crops. Lots of farmers and just chucking the corn that got damaged and planting soy beans. (Sigh. I have my own opinion of soy, and it is not good.) And Iowa, the #1 corn producer in the nation, is under water. So expect your beef, pork, chicken, eggs, and dairy to go up because the price of feed is going to suffer a big price jump. Stock up and freeze if you can.

On the bright side, my peas and strawberries are coming in and I should have some lettuce and spinach shortly. We are going to expand our garden AWAY from the flood zone of our property, so that might save me next year.

Now, I have to go out and de-bug, weed, pull cilantro, and plant some carrots. It is also time for me to start my fall seeds so that they will be ready to plant in August. The fun part of gardening is that I always have to think a few months in advance.

Well, I am off to go cry in my garden. Have a wonderful day!!!

On Christian Unity

This is a comment that I left over at Candy's blog at www.keepingthehome.com:

"I am pretty certain that this comment won't be published, but I am going to give it a try anyway. I am also pretty sure that I am going to get some not-so-nice responses from some of this blog readers, but I am going to say this anyway.

Yes, this IS Candy's blog. She CAN say whatever she wants. It doesn't mean that she *should*. There are plenty of other homemaking blogs out there with content that is just as good or superior to the content on this blog that are maintained by Christian women. They, just like Candy, share their faith on a daily basis. But they DON'T target a specific denomination as being wrong or "cult-like".

Ladies, we are all Christians. We all love the Lord. But there are widely different interpretations of the Bible even among Protestants. Honestly, ask yourselves why you enjoy Candy's anti-Catholicism posts (if you even do). Closely examine why you feel that they are beneficial to a Protestant Christian or to a Roman Catholic. Do you really think that a practicing Roman Catholic woman who truly knows her faith would read what is written and become "saved"? Or do you think that it would hurt her heart because if she has any real knowledge of her Catholic faith she would find it offensive and inaccurate? Do you really need to hurt or anger someone in order to make them believe? Do you think that a Protestant woman would find these anti-Catholic articles relevant to her daily life? If she comes from certain branches of Protestant Christianity, she probably already has an unfavorable opinion of Catholicism. So in essence these articles are "preaching to the choir", if you will, and hurting other Sisters in Christ in the process.

I am sure that there are many of you who will be angry with me or tell me to go to another web site and go away. And that is fine, you are entitled to feel that way. But a Roman Catholic woman is also entitled to feel very hurt when her faith is presented in a way that she she knows to be untrue by a website that she otherwise enjoys. The Internet is a wonderful and strange place. You can say anything that you want and back it up with the "Freedom of Speech" line. But Freedom of Speech comes with a great responsibility. Are we meeting that responsibility when we tear each other down in such a manner? Or are we just guilty of the same thing that non-believers have accused Christians of for many years - that we can't even peacefully co-exist without tearing each other apart??

Have a blessed day and a wonderful weekend."

This comment was sent exactly as I have it shown here, with the exception that I ran spell check on this version. I have lots of stuff to do today and I wa typing quickly over at Candy's site. I am sure that my spelling errors will be brought to my attention by other readers of her blog. But I am curious to see if she posts it at all or if she will cut and paste the parts that she wants to use. We'll see...

*UPDATED TO ADD* Well, it looks like I didn't make the cut.

Catching up with myself

I am so glad that May is over. Can I just say that one more time? I am SO GLAD that May is over!!!! What a busy month! School, work, birthdays, etc. took up all of my time. Now here it is almost the middle of June (GASP!!!) and I still don't feel like I have recovered from that crazy month. I have so much that I want to do and absolutely need to get done before summer is over and the kids are back in school, but I really haven't even started yet. So much for progress....

My garden is suffering along. It has been a crazy spring. We went from too cold to too hot and then WAY too much rain. I still have some planting to do, which I will hopefully get done tonight after dinner. I can't seem to find already growing jalapeno pepper plants, and mine bit the dust somewhere in between too cold and too hot. So I am going to throw some seeds in the ground and pray. It probably won't work, but you can't blame a girl for trying.

Here is what I have planted so far:
Tomatoes:
Roma
Cherry
Tiny Tim
Super Sweet 100
Big Tom
Green Peppers
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Carrots
Onions
Cos Lettuce
Spinach
Mesculin Mix (I'm not really happy with this so far)
Peas
Cucumbers
Zucchini (There's a first time for everything!)
*Need to get my Pumpkins in!
*Need to plant MORE Carrots and Broccoli!
Cilantro
Basil
Marjoram
Chives
Parsley
Mint

It sounds impressive, right? Ah, not so much. Mother Nature is a fickle lady, and she has decided not to smile upon our spring growing season this year. I am hoping for a better summer and fall so that I can work extra hard and catch up. We'll just see how it goes. It is especially important for me to catch up because our cruddy spring has ruined a lot of corn crops in our area. Yep, brace yourselves for higher food prices all around since I live in the corn belt and we have suffered this year. My little garden does help me provide a buffer against rising food prices, but this year is a bit rough going. Now don't get me wrong. A garden is ALWAYS worth it. You just have to work a bit harder some years and this is one of those years.

Well, I am off to *try* to enjoy my night. Hubby is at an IRON MAIDEN (!!) concert tonight and it looks like he is going to be one of the lucky few who get to go onstage with Maiden and sing "Heaven Can Wait" with fan club members. Yes, we are geeky Metal Heads who belong to a fan club. Membership has it's privileges. ;) I was supposed to go, but our tickets were for the main floor and it was standing room only. No seats. Because of the crowd push and my swelling ankles we figured that it would be best for me to skip this concert. (We had ordered the tickets way before we knew that I was pregnant, otherwise hubby would have skipped it with me or we would have ordered box seats so that I could sit and enjoy the concert.) Although I miss him (and the concert) I am going to try to get some things done tonight while he is out. Wish me luck!!

Hello?

Yes, I am still here. Just recovering from some very busy weeks in May. Hopefully I'll be able to put up a more substantial post tomorrow. But I am here and things are still growing - both the plants in my garden and my belly. ;)