(And All My) Work Be Praise

I love to read as much as the next person. Maybe more, even—after all, I was a literature major in college. (Not because I ever expected to DO anything with that degree—or my music degree, for that matter—but because I loved to read and write and it seemed worthwhile to pay gobs of tuition money to have the opportunity to do both. Or something.) The last decade, however, has not precisely been full of good books. I read a good bit of Christian romantic drivel while nursing Levi, and I have multiple Sandra Boynton board books memorized, and we’ve ventured into some classic literature read-alouds along the way. But reading for my own pleasure? A luxury at best. When I hopped on the bullet journal train at the end of 2018, I decided that this would be the year I started reading again, mostly so I could make a cute “books to read” page. I honestly didn’t expect to stick with it. At the time, I didn’t even know I was pregnant and would have time nursing a baby before 2019 was out! But...

For the first five:  Levi's birth story ,  Owen's birth story ,  Silas's birth story ,  Toby's birth story , Calvin's birth story This sixth birth story feels almost anticlimactic compared to the other five. My water didn't break during a thunderstorm (Levi and Calvin), she wasn't posterior (Owen), there were no paramedics or ambulances involved (Silas and Toby), my labor wasn't precipitous or with worries of a breech baby (Calvin). Nevertheless, every birth has a story, and this is Tessa's: Contractions began at 8:20am, one week after her due date. I had enough of them to call my midwife around 10am, which is about the same time they slowed down to every 10-15 minutes for the next FIVE HOURS. I've never been in labor for more than eight hours, so by the time that seventh hour hit with no progression, I was pretty discouraged. We shipped the boys off to my parents' house around 3pm and went for a walk, which helped a little with intensity...

I've had so many people ask me about our "national day" celebrations that I thought I'd pop back on my now-mostly-ignored blog to tell you about it. I honestly don't remember how it started; probably the idea was put in my head by advertising e-mails from various restaurants. Back in December 2018, we decided it'd be fun to celebrate as many of these national days as possible. Towards the end of every month, I pull up the next month's list and enter anything I think we could do into my planner. Then I use my planner to plan the month's meals! It takes some of the "I don't know what to cook" pressure off, and we've tried some new things besides. (The national day item is written at the top of each day in pink.) The master list I use is here:  https://nationaldaycalendar.com/calendar-at-a-glance/  As you can see, there are several options for most days! Here are the ones we've done so far: Spaghetti Whipped Cream Apri...