The Simple Woman's Daybook {Entry 2}

{Linked to The Simple Woman's Daybook} 

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...is cold gray, ushering in the coming winter.

I am thinking...about my little star and still wondering when she will come.

I am thankful...I spent some special time with my boys yesterday and today.  Soon our lives will be in quite the upheaval and I would regret not spending this precious time with them.

From the learning rooms...we visited the library for the first time in a few months.  Reading, puzzle-making, educational computer games, and puppets felt so fulfilling to do.  The wonder in their eyes told me so.

In the kitchen...leftover desserts like strawberry layer cake, apple pie, and four tubs of ice cream with one serving left.

I am wearing...a cream shirt with dark green embroidery...one of the few maternity blouses in which I still feel like a princess.

I am creating...ideas and plans for our new home.  Things like how we will make our home more holy {scriptures in the rooms, pictures of Christ and the temples in every room, habits of gratitude, etc.}

I am going...to the doctor at 4:15.  I hope that she comes as a result of this visit. :)

I am wondering...how my emotions can surge from one end of the spectrum to the other in only a matter of seconds.  One minute I will feel all butterflies inside thinking of how magical it will be to hold my little girl and the next minute my stomach is plummeting rock bottom like a dip in a roller coaster contemplating how long it may be before she comes.

I am reading...well, re-reading my handwritten notes on creating a quiet place where I can breathe and meditate and ponder and relax.

I am hoping...to implement the strategies I have recorded to aid in this whimsical whirlwind of childbirth, Thanksgiving, moving, and Christmas.

I am looking forward to...the pain that will come with labor.  Every hard contraction I anticipate knowing that I will finally be on my way to receiving an angel.

I am hearing...a beautiful song in my head that reminds me of my little star.

Around the house...I walk and pace, trying to urge contractions.

I am pondering...on Proverbs 3:5-7 today and for this whole week..."Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

One of my favorite things...counting the graces, the gifts, the mercies from heaven as I await a miracle.

A few plans for the rest of the week:  Wait patiently for our little one.  Spend time with my sons.  Spend time with my husband.  Trust in the Lord.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

Grow.

"On Fridays around these parts we stop, drop, and write.
For fun, for love of the sound of words, for play, for delight, for joy and celebration at the art of communication.
For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
Won’t you join us?
Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking."
~The Gypsy Mama



Grow.

It's a hope.  It's a longing.  It's a yearning desire for me right now.  I want a few things in my life to grow: 
*my contractions--could you maybe come five minutes apart and just a titch stronger?
*my little baby--oh sweet, glittering star, grow so you'll be ready to enter this world.
*my heart--will you open even wider than you already are to encompass this new little one in the blanket of love?
*my time--will you crescendo to allow all of the extra new baby to-do's fit in our schedule?
*my boys--might you wake up tomorrow with new wisdom shining from your eyes--wisdom to understand that Mommy has to share her time and her heart with another now.
*my faith--may you keep growing and growing and growing, never stopping, always increasing in strength with each new faith-challenging-building experience.

The Simple Woman's Daybook {Entry 1}

{Linked to The Simple Woman's Daybook}

FOR TODAY

Outside my window...I cannot see, for I am living in a basement.  But I hear the cars go driving past...sounds much like the ocean waves.

I am thinking...about my little girl.  She is coming so soon and my heart yearns for her.

I am thankful...for quiet mornings and a routine that works.  It is a blessed thing to begin a day right by spending time with the Lord, writing praise, recording a journal entry, organizing and planning my day, and blogging.

From the learning rooms...we are focusing on the letter K, the number 11, and all things Fall.  We are also striving to develop kindness and peacemaking skills.  Last night we learned of obedience and all repeated in loud voices, "I will be obedient!"

In the kitchen...awaits apple cinnamon cheerios and minty-marshmallow hot chocolate.

I am wearing...old jeans and a striped green, blue, yellow, and white shirt that has lived with me through three pregnancies.  Topped with a soft white sweater.

I am creating...a sweet baby.  She is growing and I am growing too.  Not just physically, but in other ways too.  My heartstrings are lengthening.  My patience is increasing.  My love for her and my sweet boys is flourishing.  My life is widening to welcome her in.

I am going...shopping today.  To buy cans of food storage.  Christmas gifts for extended family.  Thank you cards for a lovely baby shower.  Gifts for the hostesses.  Christmas decor.  Washcloths and towels for our new home.

I am wondering...if I will have time to complete everything I want to do before my little grace comes.  She's coming soon and there's still oh so much to do on my to-do list.

I am reading...the Book of Mormon.  Issued a challenge in August to begin and complete the reading by the end of the year, I have been soaring through the pages, and the messages have been surging inside of me...changing me.  Making me more.  And full of grace.

I am hoping...that the labor and delivery goes smoothly and though I wonder, I know it will.  Because of a sweet blessing from a loving husband promising that it would be so.

I am looking forward to...holding my little girl for the first time.  Looking into her eyes and seeing heaven shining through.  Feeling her newborn fingers and kissing her cherubic cheek on that blessed day when she comes.

I am hearing...Tate's little voice talking to himself.  How I wish I could bottle up his tone and inflection and pronunciation.  His voice is angelic.

Around the house...remnants of things to move to our Farmhouse Cottage along with a scattering of pink baby things folded and ready for Sweet Pea.

I am pondering...on the grace of God.  His mercy, His kindness and long-suffering.  His deliverance of me from so many things.  How He is leading my life through green grass and springs of cool water.  How He is so good.  And so merciful.  My very best friend.  My Father.

One of my favorite things...is waking up in the morning these days.  I lie still in the lightening darkness and ponder on the excitement and plans of the day.  I run through my head the happiness awaiting me and picture the faces of my two sweet boys, while imagining the face of my sweet little girl.

A few plans for the rest of the week:

Packing the hospital and diaper bags

Typing more recipes and weekly shopping lists

Organizing everything into an album

Blogging

Imagining my baby

Journaling

Planning a romantic date night for my sweetheart

Scrawling the mercies the Lord is bestowing daily

Preschool

Reading to little ones

Walking and dancing and shopping

Here is picture for thought I am sharing...

{This is how I feel.  In a heavenly mist, on a path of red and orange strewn leaves.  Almost to a bench where I can rest and take in my surroundings.  Waiting in this lovely Autumn for my little girl to be in my arms.}

Countdown to our Shooting Star

Very soon a little angel, a shooting star from heaven, will enter our lives...and our hearts.  Our precious baby girl is due on December 5, 2011, and I can't even wait.  I have entered into the impatient stage of wondering when she will come and if I'm prepared and mourning every day that passes without her.

Praying to know what to do, I had the glimmer of an idea...a baby countdown.  I listed the days out in my composition book and then began filling in activities centered on my sweet pea.  Perhaps by completing this list I will be able to more patiently wait her arrival and prepare more thoroughly so I enjoy the day of her birth as much as utterly possible.  And here is the run-down on the countdown:

11/13  Make a list of hymns and scriptures to read during labor.
11/14  Prepare the hospital bag and diaper bag
11/15  Print Wish Lists.
11/16  Make a list of photos to capture on her birth day and hospital to-do's.
11/17  Write a letter to my Shooting Star with all of my excitement spilling from the words.
11/18  Write out her personality profile.
11/19  Write about the meaning of her name.
11/20  Write out a plan for your relationship with her as a baby and throughout her life.
11/21  Write about your first few days and weeks together (projecting them in the future).
11/22  Review and write about her first "schedule."  Make a plan.
11/23  Go to a mountain to ponder where you are, where you have been, and where you're going.
11/24  List reasons you've loved being pregnant with your sweet pea.
11/25  Read through all posts to and about her.
11/26  Pray for her on the hour--every hours.
11/27  Pamper yourself.  Paint your nails...etc.
11/28  Write out your "motherhood commitment."
11/29  Ponder about your Shooting Star for 30 minutes and imagine her with love and joy.

I would go on...but I'm hoping she either arrives a little early or I can convince our good doctor to induce me (for size reasons).  I  am still wondering when she will grace our home.  I wish I knew the exact day and time of her arrival.  It would give me a day to push towards and look forward to.  But for now, this countdown will have to do and I know I will so enjoy every minute of every activity...

And maybe just one more goal to add to the countdown.  A daily one...

*Think of her and imagine the day of her delivery at least five minutes every day...

Unexpected.

It's Five Minute Friday.

Linked up to The Gypsy Mama, we write for 5 small minutes on whatever thoughts come spilling through our fingertips.

It's unedited, unplanned, and unscripted.

Today's topic is Unexpected.

I begin.

When my inner moments grow calm and I settle those rushed feelings of everyday hecticness that accompany life with little ones, I write and write and ponder and write some more.  About life.  About grace.  About all the expected and unexpected.

Life is so different than what I thought it would be.  Planning as a young woman all that I would be and how the title "super mom" would just naturally fall upon my shoulders with little effort.  Children are sometimes unexpected.  So are personalities.  And money (or lack thereof).  So are jobs and careers.  And the loss of the tightly controlled world I once had.  It's all unexpected.
Maybe that's why it's so adventurous.
And I know I wouldn't have it any other way.

I wouldn't change in the least one aspect of the sweet little ones I've been given.  I am their steward and the task is so much harder and more real and more rewarding than I ever imagined it would be.

I wouldn't change even one thing about my husband.  He is my all and though I dreamed of the Knight and Shining Armor who would grace my doorstep one day, I never could have imagined him to be so perfect....even with all of my lofty ideals.  It's all so unexpected...

...and utterly oh so lovely.

Thoughtful Thursday....Skittle Rainbow

Color me a Rainbow.  My thoughts are whimsical, light, sweetly colorful, and fantastical today.

I'm thinking about:
*color
*candy
*frosty Frosted Mini Wheats
*Little hair bows and flowers

Today I want to:
*making our leaf preschool lesson fun today
*let laughter spill out of nowhere and for no reason
*enjoy the moments

What are your thoughts on this Thoughtful Thursday??

Relevant...the View from There.

Today is 5 minute Friday.  I am linking up with the Gypsy Mama, and in her own words this is what she describes to be 5 minutes Friday:

"On Fridays around these parts we stop, drop, and write.

"For fun, for love of the sound of words, for play, for delight, for joy and celebration at the art of communication.

"For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not."







And so I begin...

Relevant

If my life were an hourglass and all the sands of time just kept trickling down, how would I feel the quality of my sand to be?

Everything always appears to be relevant, but when looked at from a higher plane, all is not.  Where can I go to have this higher viewpoint?

In Portugal I climbed to the top of Cruz Alta and when I got to the top, I saw the tall cross and thought of Him.  How He had trekked to the top of the hill carrying His cross and then died for us all.  But then how He was resurrected again and became a new creature, a celestial being.  And I thought how my journey in Portugal had so closely resembled His.  There was the carrying and the burdens and the weight.  Then there was the lifting and the crucifying of my natural man and the rebirth of a new creature, a new Jamie Greene.

And I looked out over the beautiful panarama from atop the mountain and could see the higher way.  I could see where I had been and I could see where I was going.  I had a game plan.  I was ready to conquer my next mountain of coming home.

Mountains are always placed in front of us to climb.  And when we get to the top, perhaps we need to look at the bigger picture, see where we've been and where we're going next...where our next mission is leading us.

This I will do.  I need to climb a mountain and see how far I've come and where I'm going now.  I need another Cruz Alta.  I need to see the view from up there...

Essas fotos de Luso é cortesia do TripAdvisor

Musing on diaper bags.

These are the options in the running:

 

Pink Flowers

 

Pink Chenille

Pink and Brown Damask

Pink on Ivory Floral

 

Pink and Brown Damask #2

 

Brown and Pink Quilted Damask

Conference Questions

Tomorrow begins the weekend I have been looking forward to for 6 months--General Conference weekend!  I am thrilled and at peace knowing the Lord will have some special instruction for me through the mouths of His chosen servants.

What are my questions I wish to be answered during these sessions?

1.  How can I endure through the 7 months in which we will be living with family?
2.  What can I do to ease my stress about packing and moving in a few weeks?
3.  How can I develop a more loving and friendly, charitable nature?
4.  When will she come and how will we know all the specifics of making everything turn out right?

I have complete and total trust that the Lord will answer my questions during these 4 sessions of General Conference.

Until Sunday or Monday when I report...

A New Member

I am wanting to invite a new member into our family...a DSLR camera to call my very own.

I have loved my little point-and-shoot since it's arrival, but it is time to take the next step.  I've been feeling it for about a year.  I have researched and dreamed for days and months.  I feel like the time to bring her home is coming soon.

She will be a part of our family because of the contribution she will make.  She will be the memory-preserver, and I will be the historian.  Partners in creation, we will strive to capture the small and the mundane, the large and illustrious.  Together, we can weave the tapestry of our family's history, for generations to enjoy...

Soon you will be mine, and I will name you and handle you with care, and take you wherever our family treads, for you will be the dear device that will preserve the memories that I will look upon in the many years to come.

Today I'm feeling purple.

Royal purple.  Life is glorious and full of beauty.  I feel like I am part of something grander than myself...motherhood and the growing and nurturing of my soul, and theirs.

And this duty is Divine.  I have been commissioned from on High for the grandest, holiest, most sacred calling a daughter of God can ever have, that of mother.  How can I ever be enough to give my sweet little ones all that they need, deserve in this life?

But the realization then drapes over me like a velvet cloak of purple assuring me of the royalty that runs through my veins, and thoughts of I can do this and He will be with me rest on my careworn shoulders, bolstering them up to the stature of a princess.  Once again, I am reminded that God is my Father and I am His daughter, which makes me the daughter of the Creator of the whole wide universe, the Divine King of all heaven and earth.  And I am His daughter?  I smile knowing, feeling the reality of this truth.

And I can do this mothering journey because He is my Father, which means He will be there to show me the way.  He will be a lamp unto my feet, a lighthouse glowing to steer me aright.  And I will be the mother He intended because Eucharisteo is always enough.  His grace is always sufficient, and if our grace is coupled with His, it will always be enough.

And this is why I am feeling purple. Deep, majestic, royal, and ready to conquer the world...or just my home, where I am the queen.

My Secret.

Each night for the past month and a half (and many times inbetween), I have communed with God and pleaded with Him for a baby.

...a baby girl.

And heaven has answered too many times to count, in the affirmative.

But my self-doubting, human mind has questioned me--not Him of course, with thoughts of how this could be possible and how can I trust my feelings since they must be blurred by desire.

And yet deep within, I feel the burning. And the peace. And the hope alive and burning, glowing with truth.  I have felt close to her, so close. My heart aches for her as if I've lost her and yet it must be the ache of reuniting with someone I've missed for ever so long.

I await His timing knowing that last month must not have been right, but this month I think will be.  

We wondered if this month could be right when the due date would be only a few days after Thanksgiving.  And we will be moving only a few weeks later.  I doubted and felt nothing.  But my sweetheart received the heaven-sent revelation this time.  I cannot forget the way he smiled at me, telling me how wonderful it would be to hold our baby girl on Thanksgiving...in thanksgiving.  And my heart gasped for he didn't know that I had felt the very exact same thing only the night before.

And so we tried this month.

And if my intuition is indeed gleaming, we succeeded.

For when my sweetheart and I were peacefully watching a lovely movie, I felt the impression, the vision almost, that He was telling her it was almost time.  And tears stung my eyes and I stared at the pink blooming tulips on the vanity and willed her to being with all of my heart.  

And since that late night of visions and tulip-gazing my body is showing early signs and my heart is knowing yes this is the month.

So now I wait. We wait. Not in agony as last month, but in hopeful, knowing anticipation of the dawn that is just about to break.