1. On account of my pregnancy induced lack of energy or motivation of anything other than food or good books, winter in Iowa, and J trying to finish his grad school work up this spring, we haven’t been doing a ton of stuff lately. All that being said, a few weekends ago we did venture out to a local snowshoe and ice fishing day, and the big kids got to go ice fishing on another separate day where they caught 12 fish! The kids love fishing, and of course it’s a ton more fun when you actually catch something.
Snow shoeing, however, was not their bag and we didn’t last too long on that particular day. Ruth voiced her opinion loud and clear that she was not a fan of ANYTHING involving snow. Note taken….
We are going to try our hand at maple syrup making at a local environmental center tomorrow from start to finish, so we’ll see how sticky everyone can get in a few short hours. I’ll let ya know.
2.Books, books…where do I start? I’m on book 5 of my 30 goal (YES!) and I left the library with 4 more today…I’m such a sucker. And I apparently don’t want to get anything else done this weekend. O well.
Not what I was expecting and honestly, this was a struggle to finish, but I was so far in I figured I might as well bite the bullet. Talks a lot about his career in acting as well as his political stance on stem cell research and work with the Michael J Fox Foundation. There is a small section about his faith and family and living with Parkinson’s, which I found the most enticing out of the entire book.
OOOOO where do I start, this one was good. Jeremiah actually told me he thought I would enjoy this book and boy was he was right! The Rwandan holocaust happened in 1994 which was mind blowing to me to begin with, as it was not long ago. I would have been 9 years old when this was happening. This story takes place from then till now, following Immaculee’s journey into hiding in a 3×7 foot bathroom with 7 other women in complete silence for (brace yourself) 3 MONTHS without being found or killed by the Interahamwe killers, all the while she taught herself English and prayed nonstop, until present day where she works for the UN. What a story she has to tell! Fascinating, terrifying and I could not put it down.
The cover of this drew me in for a closer look, honestly. The star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding tells her story of 13 failed IVF treatments, to repeated failed adoptions, to finally adopting a 2 year old daughter out of foster care. This one pulled at my mom heartstrings and was funny and real. I plowed through this one in 3 days and found it to be an uplifting read.
3.Ah, Amazon Prime, how do I love thee? Along with Prime and Walmart grocery pickup, I haven’t had to physically go in a store more than 1 or 2 times per month. This is awesome for me, as I have spent much less money and really only order what we need. (novel idea, I know!) Also less impulse buys, time and gas money saved, and my sanity kept a little closer in check. Amelia has figured out the regular routes of the UPS and FedEx drivers, arriving in the morning or afternoon, respectively, and she will spot them in our neighborhood and expect them to stop and drop off a package. She often meets them at the door, and it’s quite comical. My latest orders have included anything from a new maternity dress (awesome find, by the way) to ceiling fan light bulbs to vitamins to ‘ginormous’ packs of diapers. Here Ruth is with today’s delivery, she’s thrilled: 
4. I am incredibly ready for winter to be over. I long to sit on my front porch and listen to the birds, go on a walk without the deathly fear that I will slip and add my fall count to 3 for this winter, plant our garden and go camping. But what I especially look forward to? The putting away of all of the winter gear. Oh my heavens it is everywhere. We’ve tried many ways to corral the coats, hats, snow pants, gloves, mittens, headbands, boots….. you get the point. I drug in a big black 4×6 foot rug and put it in the corner of the kitchen for all the wet things. I like having a spot for everything, but when everything is constantly soaking wet or muddy, there ain’t no place for that. Hence the rug. And now the rug is just covered with it all and you can’t walk through that way. Ayayay. There’s also the barrage 5 days/week of making sure everyone has everything for outdoor play as well as appropriate inside clothes and shoes that match. Lucy has started wearing mismatched gloves and I couldn’t care less. Spring can’t come soon enough.
5.Pregnancy 5….I have been neglecting any kind of pregnancy update, so I’ll just tack that on right here. My belly is big. At my 16 week visit this week, my favorite baby catcher declared that I’m an ‘easy case’, the baby’s heart rate was 158ish and scheduled my anatomy scan {already!? Time is flying!}. People always ask me heart rates, but my kids have all been all over the board, so I have no inclination as to what that means. I do however have the feeling this is a boy. I did also have the same feeling in 2013 when I gave birth to a girl, sooooo we’ll see how this pans out. We’re good either way, and no we have not agreed on anything more than 1 girl name that Gabriel declares he does not like. I am feeling a lot better nausea wise, have fully switched to stretchy pants and shirred shirts, sleep alot and wake up still tired, eat all the time, find my work days to be a bit too long, and find it important that I research new diapers bags. You know, having 2 in diapers again after a 5 year hiatus of just 1 at a time totally accounts for a new bag, right!? Speaking of, I’m considering starting to stockpile #5’s diapers as I am not going to even attempt cloth diapers this time around. That ship has sailed, sadly. G was full time cloth, L was 99% cloth, Amelia was 50% cloth (when she didn’t have a rash, which was all the time), and R got 3 days of cloth I believe. *ahem* I just don’t have the time anymore to add another 2 or 3 loads of diapers a week to the already constant stream of laundry we have. I sold all our cloth diapers about a year ago, except for 2 that I kept, for some odd reason. Like I’m really going to use just 2 cloth diapers….. Time to pass the torch to a mommy who has less than 10 loads of laundry per week. Any takers?? 😉
Have a great weekend!
House of Costellos 