Way back before this pregnancy started, I had a nice plan for our 4th and final baby. Conceive in about August/September of 2012, have the baby in May/June 2013, take the summer off from homeschooling while we adjusted to life with new baby, resume schooling in Fall of 2013. Voila, easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Enter Life: conceive at the end of Dec. 2011, have TWO babies born at the start of the school year in Fall 2012. 18 July, 2012, realize that I'm probably going to have a nervous breakdown unless I figure out what is enough and get all things homeschool-related planned before the babies arrive.
Yeah, so that's where I'm at right now. I woke up at 4:30 and finally got out of bed at 5. Tidied up the homeschool room, then came downstairs and got some curriculum ordered for fall. Asked for suggestions on schooling with a new baby (or two) in the household on a homeschool forum and have received some good suggestions, but also a lot of "Just plan for your life to be total chaos for 6 months." So right now I'm trying to take deep breaths and not get totally derailed into a puddle of tears and anxiety. I'll let you know how effective it is.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Friday, July 13, 2012
new love
So in the probably futile attempt to avoid an excessive amount of new stretch marks forming, a couple of weeks ago I was reading online and came across something called "dry skin brushing." I'd never heard of it before, and it seemed novel and perhaps a little weird. It's the process of brushing all over your body with a natural bristle brush before showering to help slough off the dead skin, stimulate circulation, assist the skin with ridding the body of toxins, etc. (If you want to read more, this page has a good overview plus instructions.)
Anyways, after thinking about it on and off over those couple of weeks, I decided to splurge and buy myself a dry skin brush. It arrived on Wednesday and I tried it out on my arm. Ooh! So tingly and scratchily refreshing! Thursday morning I happily brushed all over before getting in the shower. It felt wonderful! My skin felt so invigorated and awakened. It was really amazing. By last night I was feeling pretty beat and bleh after a long day with too many errands, so I decided another shower was in order, so of course I brushed again. And it was still fabulous. This morning, I was even a bit more thorough and made an effort to "overlap" the brushed areas and then did some warm/cold water fluctuations in the shower (as mentioned on the website I link to above) and it really did feel amazing. That's when I decided that I needed to blog about this amazingly simple process to improve health and quality of life. Granted, I don't know for certain how much of a benefit it will have for me, but it makes sense that it does help your body cleanse itself, and on top of that, it really feels great! It's not like so many other things that are supposed to improve your health...a lot of those are unpleasant but we do them anyway hoping for some result.
If you ever scrub with a loofah or body pouf in the shower and wish it would scrub harder or be more stimulating, then you will probably really love a dry skin brush.
So, yeah. Dry skin brushing. Splurge (at <$10 it's a pretty modest splurge) and try it out! I will say that after only two days, my skin does feel amazingly soft!
Anyways, after thinking about it on and off over those couple of weeks, I decided to splurge and buy myself a dry skin brush. It arrived on Wednesday and I tried it out on my arm. Ooh! So tingly and scratchily refreshing! Thursday morning I happily brushed all over before getting in the shower. It felt wonderful! My skin felt so invigorated and awakened. It was really amazing. By last night I was feeling pretty beat and bleh after a long day with too many errands, so I decided another shower was in order, so of course I brushed again. And it was still fabulous. This morning, I was even a bit more thorough and made an effort to "overlap" the brushed areas and then did some warm/cold water fluctuations in the shower (as mentioned on the website I link to above) and it really did feel amazing. That's when I decided that I needed to blog about this amazingly simple process to improve health and quality of life. Granted, I don't know for certain how much of a benefit it will have for me, but it makes sense that it does help your body cleanse itself, and on top of that, it really feels great! It's not like so many other things that are supposed to improve your health...a lot of those are unpleasant but we do them anyway hoping for some result.
If you ever scrub with a loofah or body pouf in the shower and wish it would scrub harder or be more stimulating, then you will probably really love a dry skin brush.
So, yeah. Dry skin brushing. Splurge (at <$10 it's a pretty modest splurge) and try it out! I will say that after only two days, my skin does feel amazingly soft!
Saturday, July 07, 2012
800!!
 |
| 29 weeks - twins |
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
summertime
Pregnancy update: 28 and a half weeks along. As I probably won't go past 38 weeks, there are less than 10 weeks to go. In terms of feeling prepared to welcome two babies into our family and care for them, these feels like a very short amount of time. But in terms of being uncomfortable and oh-so-very-pregnant, the same time span feels very very long indeed. I've often thought, though, that the discomfort at the end of pregnancy is one of the final motivators to actually have the baby on the outside, where it requires a lot more effort to care for. You just feel so glad to NOT be pregnant anymore that doing all that is required still seems like a better deal that hauling around an extra 25-40 (or more) pounds!
The kids and I have been making it to the water park every week, except last week and maybe this week (we might make it over before the week has ended). Even though I can't go on any of the slides, I have enjoyed just sitting in the kiddie areas with Sprout or, especially, floating along the Lazy River with him. It feels so nice to be suspended in the water. If only it were practical to live in the water most of the pregnancy! Noodle and Spud are independent enough to be able to do their own things while we are there, and we've been fortunate enough to get to go with friends on occasion, too, which is great fun.
My biggest challenge this week seems to be not having the physical energy to accomplish very much. On most days, I lay down with Sprout in the early afternoon for our naps. After about 1-1.5 hours, my mind feels very rested and then restless and wants to be doing something, but my body prefers to just stay in bed (if I'm comfortable) or just relocate my resting to a different location. On Monday I was feeling pretty discouraged about this and broke down in tears while talking to David. He hugged me and kindly reminded me that I am being productive, I'm being REproductive, and that this is a good time to practice mindfulness and just focus on breathing in and breathing out. This time will pass quickly and there are plenty of good things I can do during this time that are better than organizing or keeping the house tidy. I really appreciate his perspective, and am trying to keep those things in mind. I did decide to start a sewing project, as I can work on it a bit most days. I like to make the kids some sort of mom-made toy for Christmas, and am pretty sure that after the twins arrive, I won't find time to sew FIVE of anything. So I'm starting now and hope to have five cute little "monsters" finished over the next few weeks.
This is my 799th blog post. I feel like there is some pressure to have something noteworthy for #800. Any ideas?
The kids and I have been making it to the water park every week, except last week and maybe this week (we might make it over before the week has ended). Even though I can't go on any of the slides, I have enjoyed just sitting in the kiddie areas with Sprout or, especially, floating along the Lazy River with him. It feels so nice to be suspended in the water. If only it were practical to live in the water most of the pregnancy! Noodle and Spud are independent enough to be able to do their own things while we are there, and we've been fortunate enough to get to go with friends on occasion, too, which is great fun.
My biggest challenge this week seems to be not having the physical energy to accomplish very much. On most days, I lay down with Sprout in the early afternoon for our naps. After about 1-1.5 hours, my mind feels very rested and then restless and wants to be doing something, but my body prefers to just stay in bed (if I'm comfortable) or just relocate my resting to a different location. On Monday I was feeling pretty discouraged about this and broke down in tears while talking to David. He hugged me and kindly reminded me that I am being productive, I'm being REproductive, and that this is a good time to practice mindfulness and just focus on breathing in and breathing out. This time will pass quickly and there are plenty of good things I can do during this time that are better than organizing or keeping the house tidy. I really appreciate his perspective, and am trying to keep those things in mind. I did decide to start a sewing project, as I can work on it a bit most days. I like to make the kids some sort of mom-made toy for Christmas, and am pretty sure that after the twins arrive, I won't find time to sew FIVE of anything. So I'm starting now and hope to have five cute little "monsters" finished over the next few weeks.
This is my 799th blog post. I feel like there is some pressure to have something noteworthy for #800. Any ideas?
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