My ugly kitchen

My family and I live in a 100ish year old house that we're renting.  It's big and for the most part offers the space that we need.  But because it's old and because it's a rental and because I always dream of someday owning our own home, I grumble.

I grumble about living on a corner lot where we don't really have a yard.  And what we do have is all weeds.  I grumble about the hardwood floors.  Because although I'm sure they were very nice at one point in their lifetime, they are now scratched, and dented and pretty darn ugly.  And I grumble because all the windows in our homes, even the ones that don't even open, are rotting and very very drafty.

And then there's my kitchen.  Oh, the kitchen.  The room of the house with mustard yellow counter tops, pressed board cabinets with unidentifiable (and non-removable) gunk on the outside and a 1960's style linoleum floor that's curling at the edges and has cigarette burns throughout.  Yes, cigarette burns.  Oh, and don't forget the blue plaid wall paper mixed with some awful country style border at the top.  It is quite possibly the ugliest kitchen I have ever seen.  I try to be thankful, but seriously, you should see it.  Ugly ugly ugly.

Grumble grumble grumble.

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Yesterday our 9 year old neighbor girl, Z, came over for an hour after school before her dad arrived home from work.  And while she was here a friend of hers stopped by and invited herself in (don't ask).  Anyway, I've never met this girl, obviously a classmate, but as she approached Z, she asked

"Are these your neighbors?  Wow.  They have a really nice house!"

(big sigh)

There are too many times that I find myself so caught up in my own grumblings and the "I wish I had's" that I forget how totally and truly blessed we are.  For as many times as I look at other people's houses and think "wow, they have a really nice house", someone can say that about MY house.

We are blessed.  And our home really is nice.  We have four walls that we don't have to share with our neighbors.  We have two bathrooms. (something I've NEVER had before in my life)  We have mostly matching furniture and a beautiful kitchen table that we all fit around during meal times.  We have curtains in our windows, which appears to be a luxury in our neighborhood.  We have beds to sleep on, toys on the shelves (probably too many) and a whole closet full of clothes.  Clean clothes, I might add, because we also have a washer and dryer in our house.

And my kitchen?  In my kitchen we have real plates that match, and a drawer full of silverware and wonderful stainless steel cookware with which I can prepare healthy meals for my family.  But most of all we have a fridge and a pantry and cabinets full of food.  And not just any food.  Good food.  Real food.  Lots of fruits and veggies and whole grains food.

So thank you Jesus for my ugly kitchen.  And forgive me for wanting what isn't mine.  We are blessed.  And we are rich.  We have more than we need.  

IF I were to register ...

Being that this is Baby #3 for us, we aren't planning on a baby shower.  And that's ok.  Really.  We have everything we need .... diapers, a few clothes, a bed and food (I've got that one covered).  Babies don't need much.  But IF I were to create a baby registry for this kiddo, of the things that I want, this is what I would include....

(And I would like to note: I don't expect anyone to buy us anything.  I really don't.  This is more just a list for my own sake, so I can start gathering these things.  But if you feel so inclined to bless our family, we would truly be grateful!)

Swaddle blankets.  This seems odd that we would need these.  Before Brooks was born we had more baby blankets than I thought we could ever use.  Ever.  But over the last four years they've been used for both boys as actual swaddle blankets, with Carter as spit-up ponchos and now as diaper changing pads .... so yeah, we could use some new ones.

Carseat cover.  In the past, we've always just thrown a blanket over the car seat to keep the wind out.  But with this being our first "winter baby" and with the wicked way the wind blows here, I figure it would be good to have something that secures to the car seat itself to keep Poppy warm and out of the wind.



Wet bag.  We cloth diaper.  And we only have one wet bag.  And while it's big enough to hold all the diapers we use, it's nice to have a second for when the first is in the wash.  I'm not picky about color or whether it's store bought or home made.  It's going to hold poopy diapers.  But it would just be nice to have one more.

(It's for this kind of thing - and the car seat cover - that I wish I knew how to sew.)

Amber Necklace.  10.5 - 11.5".  We bought an amber necklace when Carter started teething, and holy "no more screaming" batman does that thing work!  I would LOVE to have one for when this baby starts teething too!  And oooh, and let me check.  Yep!  I even have a discount code (SAVE).  Sweet.

NB & Size 1 Disposable Diapers.  Yes, I know I said we cloth diaper.  And we do.  But I usually don't start with the fluff until baby is a few months old.  I don't feel like it's a worthwhile investment to buy XS cloth diapers for the few months that they would wear them.  Plus, newborn babies poop all.the.time. and I would be doing waaaaay more laundry than I would care to do postpartum.  So we'll need disposables.

NB - 18 month clothes.  Considering we already have two kids (and boxes upon boxes of clothes in the garage), it feels odd knowing I'm going to need new clothes for this baby.  I mean, if it's a girl we'll obviously need clothes.  She may not be too keen about wearing firetruck and dinosaur jammies.  I know I won't be.  But even if it's a boy, we'll need new clothes.  My first two kids were summer babies and with this kiddo coming in January, all the clothes we have are totally opposite season.  Grrr.  So I'm sure I'll be keeping my eye out for good sales and certainly be hitting up the consignment stores after baby comes.

30 weeks. Still cooking.

Here we are, three fourths of the way through this pregnancy, and I'm gonna be honest.  I'm pretty sure I'm in denial about ever having this baby.  To me, January still seems a reeeeally longs ways away.  But with it being November now, it's a whole lot closer than I realize.  I guess it's good that I'm not too anxious and I do have a lot to keep me busy until baby comes.  You know, with Christmas and stuff.  I'm just really content with life right now.  And the fact that I currently sleep through the night.

Hmmm, what else is new ....

• Baby moves and wiggles like crazy!  Sometimes quick jabs, other times little flutters and yet other times just some nice slow stretches.  It's super duper fun.
• Baby gets hiccups.  And I'm pretty sure he doesn't like them.  At all.  I'll feel a few rhythmic hiccups, then quick flailing and kicks.  A few more hiccups.  More kicks and jabs.  Something tells me this will be the baby that cries when he gets the hiccups.
• No, we still don't know the gender and no, I don't have even a good guess.  My mother intuition kind of sucks.  But for simplicity sake, and the fact that I hate calling the baby "it", I usually just refer to the kiddo as "he".  
• Baby is sitting low and breech. (because you all wanted to know his position, didn't you?)  The sitting low part isn't so bad except for the occasional groin pains and the "constantly having to pee" thing.  And baby has been breech for a few weeks now.  I know I shouldn't be nervous.  But yet, I kind of am.  I have a chiropractor appointment tomorrow where we'll hopefully get this kiddo moving in the right direction.
• Overall, I still feel pretty good.  Some lower back aches, some groin pains when I squat too much, but otherwise I'm good.  I thought for sure I would be a sobbing wreck after teaching 12+ hours this weekend, but I feel good.  Well, at least no worse than I did before my weekend class.
• As I'm coming into the last few weeks of pregnancy, I'm realizing I don't really like shoes.  My two boys were summer babies and I could wear flip flops when I hit the "I can't reach my feet" stage.  Winter?  Not gonna work.  (although it did give me a good excuse to go shoe shopping :)  And not only do I have to worry about my shoes, I also have 4 little feet in my family that, for some reason, need shoes before we leave the house.  They're so needy.  Brooks is good about putting on his own shoes, but Carter... not so much.  And if he doesn't want to put on shoes, he makes it very very difficult for me to put shoes on him.  He's so.stubborn.  Oh well.  At least now I own tennis shoes that don't need to be tied and boots that slide on Carter's feet in about 30 seconds, so that helps.