this week i:

considered making limeade ice cubes to prevent watering down any of my (twice or thrice-) daily limeade indulgence and made a somewhat shameless somewhat guilty trip to target for limeade and only limeade. plus dumb & dumber from blockbuster. yes!

found joseph here (in mama & dada's bed) what felt like hourly. daily. as in if it's quiet for a moment, i can pretty safely bet he's in our bed. pretending to be sleeping. or saying "tunnel.. tunnel," which usually results in a tunnel until mama gets tired of being the tunnel support beams.



took a car-load of we-don't-need-this-we-need-room-in-our-home-who-wants-it items to once upon a child and will take what remains (after selling and giving away to a woman i met in the store) to goodwill tomorrow. sigh. feels realllllly freeing to get rid of things we don't want/need.

managed to keep my $3 chaco sandals living strong (and saved the $60 i was thinking/denying would have to go toward a fitting pair) with a strap adjustment to fit pregnant summer feet. and walked multiple times in skirts that i refused to wear with tennis shoes in wonderful chaco-walking summer's finally cooling off a bit wonderfulness. plus i get to put that money in the double-stroller fund which we are going to order this week!

got to do a family photo shoot courtesy of our friend, megan, as an anniversary present! here's a sneak peek.. i can't wait to see the rest of them! and she's giving us (giving us!) new babe family photos after our little one is born! all of these sentences (appropriately) end in exclamation points!



took full advantage of nesting instincts by cleaning out my refrigerator, sweeping under furniture, cleaning out the disaster closet, and crocheting this hat, which, as is fitting, is an owl. get it? nesting? do owls even live in nests? hmm... also, i crocheted a sweet little pink hat for a potential girl-babe linneman which, after falling in love with this little blue guy, i plan to transform into a sweet little pink owl hat as sooooon as i'm done here.



on that note, i think i'm done here. i'd write more, but it's just that crocheting/nesting is so wonderful these days. and by that i mean i'm addicted.

i hope that you're enjoying this late summer early autumn. isn't it funny how welcome seasonal changes are? and yet i tend to resist the rest of life's change.. there's gotta be a life lesson in there somewhere. :)

bright spots in my week as a mama:

joseph composing the "righteous song" on the piano -- "(playing softly) righteous, righteous.. (banging LOUDLY) righteous! righteous!" -- and following it with the "bulldozer truck song," "dada song," and "mama song."

giving this sweet boy a bath tonight and marveling at the fact that he's a real whole person who i get to know (and bathe for now) -- i'm finding myself largely unable to fully describe the wonder of this. and the bath from two nights ago that resulted in this smooth-studious boy.

the sweetest extended night-night hug for mama followed by, "in the bed" from joseph.. sorry, mama must have forgotten she had to put you down while she was wrapped up in her mama-moment.

major nesting instinct resulting in what feels like miles of tiny fabric birthday banners for the babe's birth announcements and two crocheted hat projects in starting stages.

hope your weeks were wonderful.

elliott's here!

my sweet boy fell asleep before noon today. i know how he feels; we've had a big couple of days. baby elliott made his arrival last night at 5:46 pm. i keep finding myself staring blankly ahead of me while reliving moments from the day, realizing that i'm still somewhat surprised by a baby joining the world at the end of it all, and then suddenly i get this huge urge to bake a big batch of raspberry-lemon scones to take over to the daugherty's, followed by the thought that i may be obsessed with them. i could probably use a pre-noon nap as well. :)

i read psalm 84 yesterday morning before joseph and ian (pre-baby-brother's-birth sleepover!) woke up. beautifully significant:

"blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to zion.
as they go through the valley of baca they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
they go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in zion." (psalm 84:5-7)

i smiled as i read verse 7 in particular, which was described in the footnote as, "they keep on finding new levels of strength for the journey," thinking of each stage of labor that luke and ann would be experiencing that day, praying strength for them throughout it all.

i can't do word-justice to yesterday's events, but my heart and mind are filled with visions of luke and ann working & moving & being together through each contraction, of the easy smiles and laughter shared between each one nearly up until the moment ellliott was born. at many points in the afternoon it felt so very normal for them to be, quite simply, having a baby together. it was such an amazing picture of beautiful God-glorifying very real life with each other. and then elliott was born, and this tiny baby boy began his life in his mama's arms with faces close and their voices welcoming him, telling him they're so glad he's here, that he was a little bit stubborn at the end there, that he's grumpy just like his brother was. he was so purple and fresh and new.

i am so thankful that i was able to be a part of this birth. thank you, Lord. you are beautiful and your creation is so lovely.


sigh. maybe i will make those scones. :)

p.s. there are lots of pictures that are much better than this one, but they're all on luke & ann's camera.. this was the only picture i managed to snag on my camera. i know, i know, what kind of doula gets a water bottle in the shot, right?

our last minute trip to play in the wahdie this evening was the perfect way to spend the pre-dinner hour.

here's my son in one of his favorite places in the world:

unwinding from a wonderful weekend with family and excited for the call letting us know baby elliott's on his way. also known as ripping out pages of inspiration from the pottery barn kids catalog with no intention of purchasing anything and eating chocolate birthday cake with black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream.

yep. :)

we got no photos; we got no crafts; our pets heads are falling off!

anyone? dumb and dumber? i actually really love that movie. guess how many times jeremy and i have considered renting it only to remember that we used to own it but sold it for $1 in a garage sale and for some reason then we just can't bring ourselves rent it.. a few. :)

but anyway, this week has no pictures and no crafts to show for it. and i don't have a pet, unless you count our downstairs neighbors' weimaraner (also known as the kind of dog on sesame street that got to wear clown hats?), and i certainly wouldn't given that our relationship is limited to the moments i try to get him into his crate and he tries to tackle me.

but annnyway, regardless of non-photo/craft evidence, this week was really good. i think we were social or something. yep, a good week. lots of time spent with friends old and new. there was a severe daugherty withdrawal from our two weeks of sickness, so we made up with it multiple joseph-ian mama-miss ann hangouts. and a two-families-in-the-minivan-for-ice-cream date to boot. we also did dinners and walks with a bunch of new friends from our recently new church location, which was really fun. oh, getting to know new people. :)

in other news, reading this post this morning was really encouraging as we're two months (give or take) from our little one joining our family. i'm pondering her thoughts on the beautiful work that motherhood is, not denying that it's hard work. lately i've found that i've been able to embrace and (sometimes more than others) enjoy the everyday tasks around my home (ie. folding laundry, spritzing down the bathroom in wonderful tea tree oil/vinegar cleaning goodness, actually cleaning up after breakfast after breakfast, etc.) with an awareness that yes, it is work, and it is good work. does that make sense? man, and what's more nonstop than mothering in my life right now? we're talking nonstop (yet good!) work. it's been so good for me to think through and come to these realizations.

additionally, from the same website, i've made this meal twice in the past few weeks. it's delicious. and pretty easy. and it uses cabbage. i think it's the first meal i've ever made with cabbage. there, i said it. it's the kind of meal where jeremy says "mmm...this is really good" more than halfway through, which tells me that he's not simply answering the "do you like it??" look i give him after the first bite is done. a good sign.

so, yeah, that's been my week. how was yours? happy tuesday, friends!

unique predicament

we're experiencing a challenging combination of heat advisory and boil water advisory here in louisville. it's 100 degrees right now with a (feels like) heat index of 112. oi. and there was a major water main break yesterday that is now resulting in surrounding residents being advised to boil water prior to using it for drinking or cooking. the combination is unbearably hot mixed with kitchens throughout the city with pots of boiling water on the stove. oi, again.

annnd, we were fortunate enough to have our maintenance guy reseal our yucky bathtub after months of chipping scary white stuff in the shower. the only problem is that this repair occurred yesterday, preventing use of the bathtub for 48 hours. i hope we don't become known as the stinky family around these parts. the bright side: we're stocked on limeade and bomb pops, our air conditioning is working beautifully, i just purchased two pregnancy-friendly tank tops, and joseph's hair is amazing wacky curls all over the place. so we're good. :)



in other news, hooray! joseph is two! we celebrated sweet boy's birthday on friday with a small gathering of friends. joseph spent the day saying "hooooray! jophes ihtooo!" and singing happy birthday to himself. i made some cupcakes, jeremy grilled, and buddy boy and friends played in hogan's fountain at cherokee park. when it came time for singing to the birthday boy, joseph smiled excitedly in anticipation of the part of the song when everybody says "to joseph," and loved it. we've been singing happy birthday as a part of night-night for months now and singing it to everybody including kobe the bear and helicopter jones, so i know he was ready for it to be really his birthday and really the time when the song was just for him.



another exciting bit of news, my good friend, ann, is gearing up for the arrival of their second son, elliott. i'm so honored to get to be there for his birth as their doula. i've been reading up on labor stages and birth and supporting the mama throughout, and it's been so fun to enter back into birth-thinking. i guess it happened a lot more when i was pregnant with joseph, probably because i didn't have a two-year-old joseph to distract me from thinking about it. and because it all was so unknown at that point. joseph's birth was such a life-changing event for jeremy and me in so many ways. it's amazing to still be uncovering bits of thoughts and emotions from this experience two years later, and i know i'll have very vivid memories of his birth for the rest of my life. i saw so much of God in such a unique and new way when i had joseph. i'm very very excited for luke and ann to experience all of this again with baby elliott. and eventually in far away (but not that far) september to experience the birth of our little boy or girl. fun fact: did you know the uterus is the strongest muscle in the human body? yep. pretty amazing.

alright, this laptop is getting hot. the last thing i need is another heat source. :) i hope you have a wonderful tuesday, friends!

summmmertiiiiime

we take staycations seriously around here. as in, i am totally typing this post before folding two, three, okay -- realistically, four baskets of laundry. it's true.

jeremy is off work this whole week, although it's sort of felt like vacation since last wednesday. grammie came to town that night, followed by papa, aunt sarah, and uncle drew on friday. we spent a few days together filled with date nights of grandparent-provided freedom, very brave big-tall-fast-jumps into the hotel pool in thomas shorts, delicious family meals, and the occasional bomb pop/ice cream cone/ummm cheesecake factory 3 rich birthday dessert selections that are still being finished. and now we get to have more time off to enjoy more of louisville in the summer! sigh. staycation. :)

here are some photos from the last few days. surprise! they're all of joseph.. hope you don't mind. :)


[best buds]


[eyes on the prize]


[icecreamcone -- sorry, strawberryicecreamcone]

hope you're having a great wednesday!