Category: Family

Seven Quicktakes-Dec. 7

1.  I caught a nasty head cold over the weekend and it makes me feel like I am a week post-partum instead of four. It is kind of annoying, but is forcing me to take it easy when I might normally try to get lots of things done. The baby also caught the cold, poor girl, and has been fussier because of it; it is her second cold since birth. We should have a Spring or Summer baby next, because this is not nice to a newborn. I am sure we will find a few more colds over our Christmas travels.

2. Here is what we did for St. Nicholas Day:

Just chocolate. The presents we save to celebrate the birth of Christ. You know. 
St. Nick also made it into the center of our Advent wreath, until someone decides to eat him.
3. This meme made me really happy:
From CatholicMemes.com

4. Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, when Our Lady was conceived without original sin. Dom Gueranger in his The Liturgical Year on the topic:

“The intention of the Church, in this feast, is not only to celebrate the anniversary of the happy moment in which began, in the womb of the pious Anne, the life of the ever-glorious Virgin Mary; but also to honour the sublime privilege, by which Mary was preserved from the original stain, which, by a sovereign and universal decree, is contracted by all the children of Adam the very moment they are conceived in their mother’s womb. The faith of the Catholic Church on the subject of the Conception of Mary is this: that at the very instant when God united the soul of Mary, which He had created, to the body which it was to animate, this ever-blessed soul did not only contract the stain, which at that same instant defiles  every human soul, but was filled with an immeasurable grace which rendered her, from that moment, the mirror of the sanctity of God Himself, as far as this is possible to a creature.” (p. 377-378, Vol. 1)

5. My second contribution to Truth and Charity was posted yesterday. Please support that great blog!

6. After going to story hour at the library today, I realize my almost four year old needs to learn classroom etiquette. They all thought it was cute, but she probably should not yell out in the middle of stories and wait for her turn in line. Oh the misfortunes of staying at home with mom… 😉

7. We have barely made a dent in our (20ish) freezer meals thanks to visitors after the baby and meals from friends. While I love to cook it is nice to not have to while the baby’s schedule is so unpredictable. I am really wanting her to be old enough to be on a regular sleep schedule, but I need to remember patience and appreciate the newborn qualities she has.

Head over to Jen for more quicktakes.

Two Year Old Sweetie

My middle child turns two today. It is funny that I still think of her as my baby in my head from time to time and slip up and call the baby by her name, but I suppose it is the adjustment of having another little baby girl around.

My sweet little L has been an amazing big sister so far. I think she has taken the adjustment of a new baby better than all of us. I have often described her as having “extreme” emotional responses, and it seems her response to the baby has been a sweet love. She often asks, “Hold baby?” And as I assist her in holding the baby she sits so still and stares at F’s face. She does everything she can to help with the baby, which usually ends up being handing me a dropped blanket, burp cloth, or hat. Whenever F is awake and happy, L delights in her eyes and facial features: “Eyes open! Nose! Ears!” If the baby happens to move in a random way as to touch L, she gets super excited. Whenever F is awake and fussy, L goes to her and pats her belly or rocks the carseat saying, “SHHHHHH!!!” in a comforting way.

Even before the baby was born L was super into playing with baby dolls, but now she is more-so and her baby doll is always named after her baby sister. Of course G decides her baby has the same name and then we all have a baby with the same name.

Other favorite activities include cooking elaborate meals with the toy dishes and anything that fits inside them, following G around, and playing with the Little People doll house. The people in the house, “Go potty! Take bath! Go to sleep! SKYPE!” (Yes, my two year old daughter uses Skype as a verb. But it is perfect because the computer in the house has a person’s face on it and that is all L does on the computer…)

We also have the “do-it self” phase going on, but I now know that two years old is easy breezy compared to three. 😉 And soon we will discover what four is like!

One of the best things about having multiple kids is that with the second, third, etc. I have been appreciating more the age the child is at instead of waiting anxiously for the next development.

So, Happy Birthday to my little, sweet L! Maybe you can stay two a bit longer than you stayed one? It all goes by too quickly!

Seven Quick Takes-Thanksgiving Weekend

1. Thanksgiving was delicious! We have relatives that live only two hours away since we moved to St. Paul, which is something we are going to really have to get used to since we have become accustomed to living hours and hours away from relations. However, these relatives live close enough to visit for an afternoon or day, or holiday, and they are awesome enough for us to want to do so. 🙂 M’s uncle, aunt, and their three boys brought us a huge dinner yesterday (cooked and cleaned and had abundant leftovers for both families) plus pie. All we did was make sure the house was clean enough to satisfy my tastes. 🙂 It was a lot of fun and the older boys had fun entertaining G and L while playing on the iPads that were available.

2. I have a lot to be thankful for this year: a new baby, a new city, M getting a job the first time on the market, a good place to live for the first year, a new van, our new parish, a good delivery of the baby, new friends, supportive parents and in-laws, growing and happy children and so much more!

3. L turns two next week!

4. The family photo and birth announcements came in the mail today which means it is time to start the Christmas cards. If you want awesome cards check out these sold by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priests. I love these cards because they are so focused on Christmas being about Jesus’ birth and they send you a list for you to fill out with all the names of those you send cards to and send back. They then include these people and their intentions in their annual Christmas novena.

5. Advent is coming! But for now we get to celebrate the Kingship of Christ! 🙂

6. So, while we can eat Turkey today, we still have to do some other penance.  What were those bishops thinking anway back in the 60s…

7. One last thing to be thankful for: F nursing almost every hour yesterday so that my Thanksgiving food consumption was appropriate to what the baby needed anyway. 🙂

Three to One

I have already said it on Facebook. Today is my first day with my three beautiful girls without any other adults at home.

I woke up at 6:50 to nurse the baby and heard G trying to get out of her room already. M was getting ready for work. Once the baby was sufficiently fed and “back to sleep” in the co-sleeper (which I borrowed from my sister and works way better than the bassinet level of the pack n play), I roused myself from my bed and got as dressed as a post-partum mom wants to be in the extremely comfortable but stylish pants that I got from a friend in Buffalo. I then took care of my toliet while approving of M’s tie and he left for work. G had been finally convinced to stay in her room a bit longer and I spent a few minutes on the internet while the three kids were safely still in their beds.

I never make coffee before the kids are up and dressed and about to eat breakfast because otherwise I will only get to drink cold coffee. If I ever do, my plans to drink it are always thwarted by children who no longer can wait to be gotten up.

So, G came out of the room again at 7:40ish and I decided to let her get up. I dressed the girls and decided to take on teaching G how to take off her own shirt this morning. While I was trying to convince her to do so the kitchen was too quiet. I discovered L standing at the counter (on one of the wooden kid chairs) with a box of Grapenuts dumped in front of her and eating dry cereal out of a spoon I had left out after dishing the girl’s cereal out and letting it soak in water so they can actually chew it. What I managed to forget was photographing the scenario. It was a pretty silly scene. I managed to not get angry and told her to chew and swallow the food and went back to convincing G to take her shirt off.

Once we were all dressed and the hair was combed and styled I served breakfast and my coffee and we were done by 9! WOOO!!!!

I realize this was only possible because the baby decided to sleep three more hours after her 6:50 nursing session.

So, to make the day more interesting we went to a playdate at a friend’s house. The kids had fun; I had fun. We had a yummy lunch and brought home with us what will be a delicious dinner. And now the kids are napping/quiet. The baby has been asleep since 11:30 AM and I woke her briefly to feed her about 15 minutes ago. Now she needs a diaper change. M is coming home in an hour and I plan to take a short walk since it is in the 60s today. I thought Minnesota was supposed to be cold by now… (yeah I know the high is 28 on Friday and I am so glad I do not care to do any Black Friday shopping… the things I would want to buy are never discounted anyway… I mean is there a sale on the new English-Latin Denzinger? Apparently there is… hmmm)

The Birth Story (I can’t be held responsible for details you did not want to know. This is your warning.)

If you follow this blog at all you may remember my complaint about pre-labor for most of a week starting on Monday, Oct. 30. Well this continued in the same fashion through the birthday on Wednesday, November 7. The only change in the pattern was that on Monday the contractions were slightly stronger and by Tuesday they were of the same intensity that I had the day before L was born. They were 10-30 minutes apart for most of the day and stopped when I went to bed around 11pm. To be honest, I expected to be woken up in labor the next morning. It just seemed like it would happen. Here is the play-by-play:

4:30 AM- I woke up to the strongest contraction yet and thought, “This could be it!” I decided to try to get some sleep after getting up to use the bathroom. I managed to doze and noticed another contraction come about 20 minutes later. This was not quite what happened with L’s birth. With her I woke up with them consistently every ten minutes. I dozed and had strange dreams about election results and being in labor while the stronger-than-I-had-been-having-in-nine-days-of-pre-labor contractions were 20-30 minutes apart until M’s alarm went off around 6.

6:00 AM- I told M what had been happening. We decided that I should get up and take a shower and see if things intensified or seemed like my typical pre-labor days.

7:00 AM- The contractions had been just as strong and were happening every five minutes at this point. M decided to cancel his classes for the day so that I could have some help with the kids.

7:30 AM- They were still five-ish minutes apart. I could still walk through them and talk through them. I decided to call my parents and tell them to get ready to come to town. They had a nine hour drive ahead of them and I figured the sooner they left the better it would be for the kids.

8:30 AM-Things were still going as they had before with fairly regular strong contractions, but I could still walk and talk. I decided to do some of my weekly house chores that had not yet been done. I got ready to mop the floors. When the mopping was finished and I was still having the contractions we decided to look into getting the kids set up with the friends who were planning on watching them while I was in labor. M got together things for them and started making phone calls. We also started timing the contractions.

9:30 AM-The timing of the contractions was not going well. For some reason timing contractions with precision stresses me out, and stress makes my labors slow down and even putter out. I started getting really anxious that this was not labor and that M had canceled class for no reason and that my parents were going to come and stay for a week and there would be no baby. I just felt a lot of (probably unreasonable) pressure to know I was in labor and stay in labor. Further I was anxious about the kids’ childcare since we had not yet been able to line up someone who could watch them all day.

10:00 AM- The kids things were packed, my suitcase was mostly packed. The contractions were more like 10 minutes apart and not very strong anymore. M got a hold of one of our friends who had offered to watch the kids and being a stay-at-home home schooling mom she was able to have them over all day until dinner time. Another family was going to have the girls for dinner and then if I was still in labor the mother would put the girls to bed at our house and wait the arrival of my parents. As soon as things lined up I had a massive contraction. My stress about the kids had been making it harder for me to relax and allow labor to happen.

10:30 AM- M took the girls to our friends house and of course I started to miss them. My parents called to tell me that they were leaving St. Louis. I started feeling anxious again since my contractions were now 10-20 minutes apart and still not as strong as they had been. I had the occasional super strong one, but still nothing super regular.

11:30 AM- M and I took a walk (maybe .5 miles?) and I started having stronger, more regular contractions on the walk. When we got back home and I sat down, they still were not super regular. I started worrying if it was labor at all still. I did some reading and sitting around and trying not to focus on if it was labor.

1:00 PM- We were hungry for lunch and my contractions were picking up again, so M went out and got us some Jimmy John’s subs. I had a roast beef sandwhich. It was delicious and took me until 2:00 PM to eat. During that time we ordered L’s birthday presents and the Christmas presents for the kids online.

2:00 PM-More active contractions were setting in, and I decided to take a bath and see how things went. The bath was nice, but not nice enough to mask the pain of stronger, regular contractions. They seemed about 5 minutes apart and sometimes only 3 minutes apart.

3:30 PM- With the contractions 3-5 minutes apart and intensifying, I decided to call the “maternity care center” at St. Joseph’s hospital and see if they thought I should come in. My reason for getting to the hospital sooner was so that I could have a round of antibiotics to take care of my positive beta-strep results. I also wanted to be settled in the hospital before transition. I had arrived during transition with L and things were rushed, crazy and not exactly relaxing at all. The nurse thought it would be good to come in given that it was my third delivery.

4:00 PM- We were in the car heading for the hospital. I sent out texts to family to let them know, and called the grandparents to give more details. M said that he could tell by my voice when I was having contractions, so things were definitely progressing.

4:10 PM- We parked and went in the main hospital entrance and then were given directions for a pretty long trek to the maternity care center. I guess they want to make it hard for random people to walk in on that part of the hospital (and run off with the babies?). I had to stop a couple of times because of contractions.

4:20 PM- We made it to the maternity care and were brought to a room. I gave them the sample they needed and threw on the hospital gown to make monitoring easier. Then we started talking with our nurse Julie. She was in her first year at maternity care and had a more experienced nurse, Maggie, helping her and giving advice. The nurses were both super friendly and we chatted about my other two births and how things went then and how things were progressing with this labor. She hooked me up to the monitor to check on contractions and the baby’s heartrate, and then put the IV line in my arm (yuck!).

4:45 PM- While we were waiting for the monitoring we got on facebook to ask for prayers for the labor. The contractions which had slowed down slightly when we got to the room were picking up again.

5:00 PM- After successful monitoring the nurses decided to check the dilation and station of the baby. They measured me at 4 cm. I do not remember the station. Things were continuing to progress like normal labor. I decided to put my own shirt back on since it seemed like it would be a few hours before I was ready to deliver.

5:15 PM- They got the antibiotics started.

5:45 PM- It was time to monitor the baby again, which we did in the rocking chair in the room. Julie suggested we order dinner before the cafeteria closed in case labor went long.

6:00-7:00 PM- They were having trouble getting clear readings and had me move to the bed to get better access to my abdomen.

Sometime in here they decided the baby’s heartrate was dropping too low during contractions and they had me use and oxygen mask. This also happened with G’s delivery. My strong long contractions are strong and long I guess.

Dinner came sometime before 7:00 PM and I had a few sips of milk and then lost my appetite.

I was taken off oxygen when they were able to see what was going on with the baby better.

7:00 PM-They checked me again, and I was measuring at 6-7cm with an intact bulging bag of waters. Maggie mentioned that as soon as my water broke I would probably at 10 cm and ready to push. They called Dr. K to come to the hospital. The baby warmer was brought into the room.

I was in the midst of the most intense transition of all three of my totally natural births (besides the antibiotics). Every contraction was long and crazy intense. I had thoughts about never wanting to do this again and mentioned to M that I was not sure if I could manage the pushing after the transition. The pressure of the baby descending plus the bag of waters was always present. I just laid on my side and let those contractions do their thing. Which is all one can do with labor.

7:25 PM- Dr. K arrived in the room and checked on things. Transition was still in high gear. I think I asked her about the Bible study at our parish between contractions. I was supposed to be there that night.

7:35 PM- My water broke. Gush went the bag. SLAM went the head. I informed the room as it happened. I had a couple more contractions before the urge to push was imminent.

7:40ish PM- Pushing contractions were at hand. I was planning on easing into them so as to avoid a tear this time. I turned from my side to inclined on my back and breathed through the first pushing contractions. The seconds between the pushing contractions were blissfully relaxing compared to the intensity of transition.

The baby’s head was starting to crown even with the lack of pushing, so I decided to push a little with the next contraction. With that push the head came halfway out. M described this to me. They urged me to continue to push to get the head out the rest of the way and then the shoulders. It felt like one long continuous pushing contraction until the whole body was out.

7:49 PM-Dr. K announced that we had a daughter and she was placed on my stomach. When the cord stopped pulsing it was clamped and then cut. F stayed on my belly and I was propped up a bit to try nursing her. She was not really interested so I just held her while we waiting for the placenta to come out.

The placenta seemed to be taking longer than Dr. K thought it should, so she did a little uterine massaging. We decided to have M hold F so I could focus on pushing out the placenta. It came out all in one piece. This might be TMI, but I had a very small tear which only needed a few stitches. It is a huge difference in recovering than even my small one with L, not to mention the 4th degree with G. Anyway…

They noticed some heavy bleeding. One of the things they do at St. Joseph’s in St. Paul is weigh the pads to see the exact amount of blood the mother is losing after delivery. 500 ml is considered to be a hemorrhage. I bled 1.5 L in two hours after delivery. So, they were fairly concerned.  Pitocen and some other pill which caused cramping were administered. The bleeding slowed to normal eventually. My favorite story about the bleeding was when I called my brother to talk to him about his goddaughter and mentioned the bleeding, asking for prayers. He asked me to let him know when the bleeding stops. So, in a couple of weeks he will be getting a random text message. To resolve the bleeding issue, they found my hemoglobin levels to be way above that of an average pregnant woman at 13.8 a few hours after delivery. They were holding strong at 12.5 the next morning. Apparently I bleed a lot after delivery and my body can handle it. Because of the bleeding I was not allowed to get off the bed until 5 hours after delivery. I managed just fine without any faintness.

While I was waiting to get up, Julie was clearing some equipment out of the room. She invited M to touch the placenta. He, being the way he is, was totally willing and they did a thorough examination of the placenta and the chorion and amnion. I think that is the most intimate experience he wants to have with that organ, but if you ask him he will tell you how much fun he had checking it out. Julie decided that he was cool enough to be her friend. Before she went off duty she told us how she had found the birth beautiful. She was a great nurse to have for birthing. 🙂

1:00 AM- After being allowed to get out of bed the night nurse came in and gave F her first bath, weighed and measured her. At some point we got to go to sleep.

I loved that at this hospital we got to hold our baby for 5 hours after delivery before they even bothered to record a birth weight. She did not leave our room until she was 24 hours old to go for a hearing screening, heart screening, and blood draw. M went with her to do that. While I can’t really stand being in a hospital for very long, this was by far the best hospital experience. The nurses were totally cool with our natural birth plan and very supportive of everything being as we wished. Dr. K was also awesome. We were able to check out 25 hours after her birth and get home after the other kids were in bed. I was really glad I was able to say good morning to them at home right after they woke up the next morning.

We feel so blessed by the arrival of our third daughter and once I lose the memories of the-most-intense-transition-ever I could consider having another birth at that hospital.

However, M says that he would be willing to deliver the next baby at home now that he has witnessed three deliveries…

Seven Quicktakes: Newborn Edition

1. Every newborn “honeymoon” has gotten better than the last. Maybe it is because I know what to expect. I suspect it is because my parents and mother-in-law have continued to come and help with household chores and taking care of the other children after every birth, each of them taking a week. I have help until next Tuesday morning, and then M has Thanksgiving break. This means I get to sleep until 9am with the baby (if this is what she does) everyday for 2.5 weeks!

2. I am feeling pretty good for having given birth (completely naturally I must add) nine days ago. I actually feel kind of awake this morning. 🙂

3. The baby caught the cold her sisters brought home from somewhere. If you never have used nasal saline drops to help clean out a baby’s nose, you totally should. They work wonders!

Since all I have been doing is sleeping, nursing, sitting while others do the work, and being with the baby I will leave the rest of the quicktakes to cute details one forgets about newborns:

4.  The newborn smell. It is like no other. You have to smell it to know it.

5. The nursing callous on the upper lip and how it peels off every couple of days.

6. The silly half awake expressions of rolling eyes, sideways grins, random quick breathing, puckering of lips, etc.

7. The snuggling sleeping cuddly times when you know you should go take a nap, shower, use the bathroom, eat something but just can’t pry yourself away.

7 quick takes sm1 Your 7 Quick Takes Toolkit!

On Mom Friendships and Mom Blogs

I like to read blogs. I started reading a blog by a mom with two young children about a year ago, and recently realized that her blog was about a three yer old and a six year old. I was relating to her because she had a nursing child and a non-nursing child; suddenly her kids were older and her life did not seem so similar to mine. And then she started sharing from other parent blogs on her blog and the secular view of children and parenting started to really bother me. There is something really, truly negative in a lot of the secular/non-Christian parenting blogs that I can’t quiet pinpoint and describe. It is also present in the parenting magazines, which I peruse in doctors’ waiting rooms. I found that when I read these things, I am more selfish mother, annoyed at my children, and wishing things were different. Which is not what I am called to as a mother or a wife.

On a side note: I know a lot of my feelings about being a mother lately are coming from being very pregnant, living in a new city where I have not had enough time to develop solid friendships (though I have hopes for many great friends since I have met so many wonderful women so far!), and missing the great friends I have in Buffalo.

However, as I have been reading mom blogs of home schooling (or normal schooling) Catholic moms who have more children than I have, I have found a sort of support system, that will not replace the real life one I am developing here in St. Paul, but will encourage me to press on in my call to motherhood and wife hood.

I realize that my days of cultural normalcy are limited, and that I have been enjoying them perhaps a bit too much, when someone asks G if she is going to be going to pre-school and she tells them very openly that she is home schooled. I know once baby number four starts to make an appearance (be it God’s will that our family continues to grow) in a couple of years, I may not get as many friendly comments from strangers. Even now, three is not as normal as two. Also, my kids are “really close together.” Ha! I am looking forward to the days that G and L are the teenage older sisters with the baby brother or sister on their lap and I take care of the baby for feeding and changing (like a family we met this past weekend at M’s cousin’s Confirmation party). I am finding I love talking to the moms of 8+ who have been where I am and are fully aware that since I am 26 and having my third child will be where they are in about 10 years or so. To them my life makes sense and they know what it is like, but they are realistic, seasoned mothers who know that it is all for good and really love their children. They inspire me and have great advice to give. And a young mother needs that support from older mothers. A young mother also needs support from other like-minded young mothers.

And it really is love that it all comes down to. Loving God. Loving myself as God sees and knows me. Loving my husband. Loving my children. Loving my other family and friends. May God help me to always love, and to trust Him in all things. Then I know I will be truly happy and have a happy family.

Quicktakes, Saturday Oct. 13 Naptime Edition

1. Today we went to IKEA for the first time:
2. It was a pretty interesting place. We got some drawers for baby clothes that fit perfectly under the changing table, which will soon have shelves stocked with two sizes of cloth diapers and drawers full of tiny newborn size clothes.
3. They also have some pretty sweet bunk beds. We are planning on one for the girls once they are older. What is a safe age for a kid on the top bunk? This one is about 5 feet off the ground and has a railing. It seems fairly safe. The lower bunk is not that much higher than a toddler bed. I would be cool with it for L’s first non-crib if I thought G would be okay on top. We shall see…
4. The St. Louis Cardinals are at it again. Bernie Miklasz is still my favorite St. Louis sports writer. 
5. We are pondering the possibility of a Tigers vs. Cardinals World Series in this house. I am not sure if I could handle it this year. Probably I would go into labor during game 7 and not get to do any of my Bradley relaxing during contractions because I would be caught up in wanting to follow the game. And then my husband from MI and I would be on opposing sides.
6. G has already decided that she wants the Tigers to beat the Cardinals if this happens. I asked her, “If the Cardinals and the Tigers play against each other, who would you want to win?” Immediatley M intervened, “If the Tigers, GRRRRRR!!! and the Cardinals play each other, who would you want to win.” Her response was “TIGERS!!! GRRRRR!!!!” Then they went on to discuss how tigers can eat cardinals. I admit, tigers are cooler animals than cardinals from the perspective of a three year old.
7. Well, the kids are up from nap. Time to cook dinner…

Friday Quicktakes for Sept. 21 & 28

I could not come up with enough last week so here are a few ones I wrote last week and some new:

1. A few weeks ago I was really excited about a water-birth for the current child in utero. Then I learned that the hospital has a policy of breaking the water before allowing the water-birth and that led to a train of thought that made me realize that I would rather do a land birth. There were too many factors that could prevent the water-birth from being allowed and I decided I do not need the stress of not knowing what I was going to do. The hospital otherwise has great natural birth policies and a really low rate of c-section. My favorite part of my last two deliveries was that my water did not break until pushing time. 3 weeks until full term, 6 weeks until due date, ? weeks until the baby is here.

2. I am no longer dreading the newborn phase. It helps that about a billion of my 550 facebook friends have been having newborns in August and September and posting pictures of them. I am getting eager to meet this little one, and am running out of clothes that fit. 

3. We successfully canned 12 jars of applesauce from a bushel of the apples we got on our picking excursion. Win.

4. How to make vanilla extract: Put vanilla beans in vodka for several months. It smells amazing. I am not in the habit of taking swigs of vanilla and I am pregnant so I am not sure how the raw flavor compares to that of store bought or Mexican vanilla.

5. A big stresser taken care of this week is the purchase of our “new” used minivan. Thoughts on driving it: I can see around corners better, over other cars better. Today was warm enough to use the moon roof and it was fun to do that. And I could roll down the driver side window! Our poor Chevy Lumina has been without that feature for about four years now. Three words: power sliding doors. I feel like I am driving in luxury. My parents never bought a car with “bells and whistles,” so it is all so new to me. Also, whoever owned it before us took great care to keep it looking nice. I hope we do as well.

6. Our Lumina is still in our possession. We are contemplating, when we buy a house, living further out of the city (as opposed to walking distance of campus) with at least a 1/2 acre of yard. That might fit better with the home school lifestyle of a large family. I might discuss that another time, but I also want to talk with friends who live further out of whatever town they live near and how they like the lifestyle. (Also, M has decided he wants to live on a lake and own a boat. This idea makes me fear for my children’s safety and if this happens we will get a very secure fence…)

7. Meet Blue Hubbard squash:

My husband fears it is actually an alien life form biding its time to capture us and do who knows what. This also involves it growing tentacles. My plans for it involve making pie. It is supposed to be delicious and according to the farmer at the market it is the main ingredient in the store bought canned pumpkin. I will definitely update on what happens to this squash.