You May Have Failed If . . .

I have lots of thoughts running around in my head, trying to get prepared for a lengthy blog post I am planning about birth choices, but I haven't gotten everything untangled yet. I decided though that I shouldn't use that as a reason to not blog. Surely I can find something else to blog about!

Today as I was enjoying leftovers for lunch, I started mentally compiling a list of "You may have failed as a housewife/young mother if . . . " So, without further ado, here is what I have so far.

1. The chili you made for dinner a few nights ago actually tasted like bean dip.
2. Your husband says "Do you think you could find time to do laundry anytime soon? I'm almost out of underwear" and you know for a fact that he owns enough to get him by for over two weeks, so it's been a while since you did "find time" to do laundry.
3. People ask you where your children got their bumps and bruises, and you honestly can't tell them.
4. You substitute condensed chicken noodle soup for condensed cream of chicken soup and actually think it might work in the casserole recipe.
5. You can't remember the last time you bathed your children.
6. You have seven drawers in various locations of your house where you stash miscellany that has no other home.
7. You think burnt meat tastes good, and you're losing your ability to taste when meat is burned.
8. You can't remember the last time you were able to bathe, or the last time you took an uninterrupted shower.
9. You dress your son in clothes that your older daughter used to wear, rationalizing that he's too young to remember it anyway.
10. You have decided that your children eating food off the floor because you haven't swept in a while is actually a good sign that they are learning important self-reliance skills.

Okay, some of those are exaggerated, humorized, or not very common, but I thought you might enjoy them. If you have any to add (whether as the housewife/young mother list) or just a personal "you might have failed at X" list, please feel free to share.

In other news, I have officially crossed the half-way threshold of twenty weeks. Here is the photo I'm sure you've all been waiting to see.

I am feeling great so far this pregnancy. (Well, if I pretend that the first trimester never happened, but still I have been luckier than many pregnant women.)

I am tired more often, but I'm keeping up with exercising and actually doing even more than I did when I was pregnant with Danny. I keep wondering at what point I will no longer be able to participate in the ab workouts. I have had to modify one particular piece of torture. I think they were called . . . I can't remember. You jump up into the air and then down onto the ground out into plank position and then back up into the air again. Anyway, that one made me see stars, which the instructor said was bad. Apparently I should avoid (due to the reduced blood flow to the brain during pregnancy) having my head quickly go from higher and lower than my heart. Duly noted. I'm doing leapfrogs instead and feeling like a five year old, but no more cartoon stars!

I am in my first childbirthing class and really enjoying it. I'll write more about that when I finally write my long blog post about birth choices.

My mom was in town for a weekend, and we accomplished this:

Beautiful, don't you think? My mother honestly did most of it, but I can claim doing most of the work on the apple butter and helping cut some of the vegetables for the vegetable soup (which tastes delicious!). With my mom canning me meals and my mother-in-law freezing me meals, I feel like a very pampered pregnant woman.

My dad was able to join us for one weekend, and we made it to East Fork State Park. It was beautiful. The weather was pretty perfect. I really enjoyed the educational activities offered by the rangers. I think they were supposed to be for the children, and indeed I was often the only adult paying attention or even present, but I found it fascinating. Luckily, I was there with three other adults who were willing to watch my children while I played the role of kid.

Danny going down the slide at the campground playground.

Jill at the beach of East Fork Lake

(apparently it was renamed William H. Harsha Lake a while back, but no one actually calls it that)

My parents drove their trailer down, so it was a pretty spoiled camping experience, but it was fun to have campfires at night and make s'mores with the kids. Jeff and my dad made breakfast both mornings, and my mom made the other meals, so really I was a spoiled brat. (I suppose there are a few perks to being pregnant—other than the whole getting a baby at the end.)

A few weekends ago, I spent my first night away from Danny and only my third (fourth?) night away from Jill. If my mother-in-law's report is correct, this was much harder on me than it was on my children. Two of Jeff and my friends were endowed Friday night in the Columbus Temple and then sealed at the temple Saturday morning, and it just seemed to make sense to get a hotel room and stay up there over night. It was very weird to be childless, but nice to have uninterrupted conversations. (Well, Jeff may not agree—I do have an interrupting problem, but you know what I mean.)

Jeff and I at the wedding reception back in Cincinnati

I'm trying to think of anything else that has gone on or anything other deep thoughts I have pondered that I would like to share. I'm coming up blank right now. So I guess I'll end. Good night!