Baby Jenny's Going to be a Big Sister!

...someday.

No, I'm not pregnant. However, I'm starting to think about becoming so. A couple of months ago Brent brought to my awareness that if we wanted to have our kids two years apart (as we originally planned) then I would have to get pregnant in a few months time.

When he told me this, I was absolutely shocked. I'm still in baby mode! How could I possibly have another baby! I'm still nursing for goodness sake! !@!!!

Having another baby was nowhere on my radar screen. Not even close. Now that the subject has been brought to my consciousness I have been thinking about it more and more. I have also polled almost every mother of my acquaintance for their opinion on the subject. Let me tell you, it is one hotly debated issue in motherdome.

Only this can I tell you: I definitely want more children. I've no idea when, but I figure I'll know when the time is right.

Book Review: The Bronze Bow

Catherine asked what I think about this book, so I thought I'd share.

For those of you who haven't read it "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare (author of "The Witch of Blackbird Pond") won the Newbery Award in 1962, or thereabouts. It is a work of historical fiction, set in Galilee at the time of Christ. The main character is a sullen and misunderstood young Jewish man who is a member of a group of bandits whose eventual aim is to lead a resistance against the Roman rule that oppresses them. This man, Daniel, is introduced to Christ's teachings and believes that Christ will lead the resistance and deliver the Jews from bondage. He learns that the way in which Christ will deliver them is not what he originally had in mind. He learns to give up the hatred that has fueled him for so long and become content with a personal spiritual deliverance rather than a political one.

The author tries to illustrate what it might have been like to be a follower at Jesus' feet. She describes the miracle of feeding the five thousand, the raising of Jairus' daughter from the dead, the healing of the sick and crippled. It puts things in a more personal perspective than what we receive from the account of these events in holy writ.

It is a nice book that teaches a nice moral and has a nice ending. That being said, keep in mind that this is a book for youth. To the young and unsophisticated I believe this book has the ability to teach and entertain. It's got adventure, intrigue, action, romance, and a good moral; in short, everything a fourteen-year-old Christian kid could want.

The story is predictable and a bit contrived. It's not terribly compelling for the seasoned reader, but if you are trying to teach the concept of foreshadowing to a seventh grader, then this book will serve you well. Many details, descriptions, and much of the dialogue seem Western and modern, and certainly don't fit the setting; it is very obviously written in the 20th century by a non-Jew.

I would recommend this book if you want a pleasant read that only takes a few hours. I would not recommend this book if you are looking for a thought-provoking stimulus. I would recommend it to my Beehive daughter, if I had one. I would just hope that she doesn't bear her testimony about it later in conjunction with her testimony regarding the Steed family of fictional church history.

36 Hours and Counting

Approximately 36 hours and Brent will be home for about 41 hours before heading back to NY. I'm trying to not think about the second half of that sentence and focus on the first half.

Although I miss him terribly and am anxiously looking forward to seeing him tomorrow night, I have to admit that there are a few perks to his being gone.

First of all, I have the whole bed to myself. Pre-baby I used to cuddle with Brent at night and when he was traveling there was a great void at nighttime. Then I got big pregnant and wanted only my pillows and a bigger bed. I still feel that way. Brent has a tendency to elbow me in the head during the night, and I certainly haven't missed that.

Secondly, the house has miraculously stayed clean. I cleaned it when he left and haven't really had to do it again since. I'm one of those pick-up-after-yourself and put-it-away-when-you're-done-using-it kind of people, and Brent most certainly is not. He's not quite as organizationally challenged as my dear and loveable sister Emma, but pretty darn close. So laundry and cooking dinner and other household tasks have certainly been easier with him gone. Nice perks to help me endure his absence, but I'd never take the trade. He's too good a husband.

Vacation Spots

So only two of you want to vacation this year? Or do only two people read my blog? Or were my possible vacation spots unsatisfactory?

Well, those are the spots that Brent and I have been contemplating for this year. We will definitely go camping in the Uintah mountains with both his family and mine. But we wanted to go on another trip, just us.

We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and enjoyed it very much. I, of course, am in love with Disneyland and can't imagine NOT wanting to go there. However, we have decided on Hawaii. Neither of us have ever been and we want to go somewhere tropical. I'm not much of a swimming-in-the-ocean kind of gal and don't really have the confidence to wear a bathing suit in public, but Hawaii has much more than that to offer.

I've got a couple of Hawaii travel books from the library to whet my appetite and help me decide which islands I want to visit. If any of you have been there, what are your recommendations?

I Miss My Husband

Brent has been working 12 hour days lately. He gets up, drags himself to the office, works straight through all the daylight hours, then comes home, grabs a quick dinner, reads me the scriptures, and goes to bed. He's also had to work a few hours on weekends as well.

Last night he came home at 6:45! That is the earliest I've seen him in a long time. Of course, the only reason he was home that early is because he had to teach a merit badge to the scouts at 7:00. Drat those scouts! I think I'm finally rid of them plaguing my life and stinking up my house, and they're back. Plus they steal my husband from me the one night he manages to get home at a reasonable hour.

He will leave on Sunday afternoon for NYC where he will be for three weeks, coming home late Friday nights and leaving again Sunday afternoons. At least I'll see him then. My poor, overworked husband.

I am caught between two emotions: self-pity and sympathy. I feel lonely in the evenings and wait anxiously for his return. I am so exhausted by the end of the day that I just want him to walk in the door and take charge of the baby and clean the kitchen for me. Of course I realize that he's been hard at work all day and would probably like nothing better than to walk in the door to a yummy dinner, a clean house, a loving wife and a happy baby. I try to give that to him, but I don't always succeed.

While I could wallow in the melancholia that this situation often produces in me, I am trying to have a different outlook. I should be grateful that I have a husband that I want to be with. I'm grateful that we love each other enough and have such a good relationship that we miss each other. I'm grateful that he has such a well paying job so that I can stay home with the baby. I'm grateful that he's hardworking and willing to do what's necessary for me to stay home, rather than being an unemployed or underemployed sloth who plays Halo all day long. I am richly blessed, and with that focus I'll get through the next few weeks and potentially months that this will continue.

In the meantime, drop me an email or come visit me so I'm not so lonely, okay?

Book Review: Peter Pan & Wendy

We all know the play or the movie, right? There have been lots of productions of it, and it is a familiar tale. However familiar it is, I had never read the book. The author, J.M. Barrie, wrote the play first and later turned it into a novel. I read it for fun, and it was.

Peter Pan is not my favourite of stories, but it is Brent's. Gee, can you think why he would like a story about a little boy who didn't want to grow up? Any guesses? Hmm, I wonder . . . .

Anyway, it was charming and a quick read. I surprised myself by weeping at the ending. We know that Wendy went back to her parents, and though they offered to adopt Peter, he refused. They settled on an agreement that Wendy would visit Peter once a year to do his Spring cleaning. The next year he came for her. Then he missed a year, and when he did come back to pick her up he had no idea that he had missed the previous time. Then many years went by and the next time Peter showed up at her window, expecting to fly away with her, Wendy was all grown up. Or, as she puts it, was "ever so much more than twenty" and had a daughter of her own.

Peter, as we know is enthralled with this new young girl, Jane, and teaches her to fly and she leaves to do his Spring cleaning. The final paragraph reads thus:

"As you look at Wendy you may see her hair becoming white, and her figure little again, for all this happened long ago. Jane is now a common grown-up, with a daughter called Margaret; and every spring-cleaning time, except when he forgets, Peter comes for Margaret and takes her to the Neverland, where she tells him stories about himself, to which he listens eagerly. When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter's mother in turn; and thus it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless."

I suppose it hit me so hard because I am now all grown up with a daughter of my own. I remember having an imagination so vivid it was almost real. Eventually, alas, the illusions of youth faded, and now I look forward to seeing them be reborn in Jenny. I hope that she too will have a vivid imagination, and that her childhood will be joyous and magical and that she'll believe in fairies.

Favourite Hero

Darcy is inscrutable. Cullen is dangerous. Blythe is the sweetest ever. But Knightly is perfection itself. He's rich, kind, generous, wise, friendly, good, and oh so handsome. I guess that's why he won the poll.

Hey, he reminds me of my own husband! (Especially the oh so handsome part.)