frumpy? me?

ha! I think I totally take advantage of being a stay at home mom. I never get dressed unless I have to. Now, normally, I'm not hanging around in actual pajamas (though, that has been known to happen) but in sweats and a t shirt. presentable enough to open the door if need be, but for sure not appropriate for leaving my house! Sometimes, if I'm feeling froggy, I'll get dressed (as in jeans and a bra!) before bobby gets home. That totally needs to end. My family deserves a mama who cares enough about herself to not look like some disheveled slob. Plus, how embarrassed would I be if someone other than the mailman came to the door?!? This is where Sarah Mae comes in (again.....i'll hop back on the 31 days to clean wagon again if I can ever get the iBook up and running again). She's hosting a Get Dressed! Challenge. Who says that all of my cute clothes are useless to me now that I stay at home? I should get some use out of them right? So as of Monday, my shoes and clothes (and perhaps even my hairbrush) will get some much needed exposure to light! Join in the fun over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee!!

Ergo giveaway!!

Make-Baby-Stuff

is hosting a giveaway for the best baby carrier ever!!! hop on over there and enter!! you won't regret it!!

also, be sure to look around...she's got some super tutorials for all kinds of stuff!

catching up!

My good intentions were sort of derailed this week! We had an impromptu visit from my mother in law this week, so instead of cleaning, I spent time shopping and enjoying her company! Oh well. Today gets to be a cleaning day anyway, since we have small group here on sunday, so I'll tackle my Martha challenges today! I need to get my Mission Statement on paper, and focus on my Mary challenges, too. I really want to keep up with this challenge, as I can really see myself in this book, and can see the challenges being super helpful to me! I think I'll spend part of my quiet time/girls' naptime catching up on my reading, and really focus on the Mary challenges!!

Day 1!

So, I'm jumping in with both feet to this 31 Days to Clean challenge hosted by Joyful Mothering. Sarah Mae's book takes small bites into learning new habits while focusing on the joy of being a homemaker, too. That's just what I need......tiny housecleaning nibbles. Ha! I love the Mary Challenge for today. To write a mission statement for what you want your home to be. That's huge for me, and I'm hoping it will be a big motivator for me to keep going. I plan to post it somewhere prominent, so that it doesn't slip from my focus!

31 Days to Clean!

Sara Mae over at Like a Warm Cup of Coffee has this new eBook out! I'm not wired to be a natural "cleaner"...it takes real effort for me to keep my house up. I'm looking forward to this challenge as a way to not only feed my spirit, but to clean my house! Bobby will be pleased, too!

I love reading her blog, so I'm sure that I'll love the book, too! Here's to a clean house, and a richer spirit!

hop on over here to get the book!!

Rescuing Baby Robins

Bobby found a robin's nest that had fallen from it's branch while he was mowing this evening. Only one of the three eggs survived the fall. The ants had already gotten to the other two. Poor baby birdies. We put the nest and eggs into a shoebox until I would wield my mighty Google powers to see what we could do to save the one remaining egg.

Google (in all of it's incredible wisdom) told me to put the nest back in the tree and hope that the mama would come back. I stuck it back in a crook of branches as securely as I could without breaking the nest, and now we're just praying that the mama comes back to take care of her last baby.


Macie and I will be checking on the baby tomorrow to see if the nest survives tonight's storms. Hopefully we'll be seeing a baby robin soon!!


We've got another nest in the backyard that I haven't identified yet, but we'll be watching that one for hatchlings, too!!

Ha! Macie looks so sweet, while Emery looks oh so miserable!

i keep saying i'm going to keep up with this silly blog, but i am so uninspired.....it should be easy, though. i have a camera, i have beautiful babies, i have pretty weather. i am blog lazy, ha! maybe i should just challenge myself to one or two posts a week for a bit. in all seriousness, I do want this to be a place for my friends and family to keep up with us. so, i guess it's just a matter of me making a real commitment to it. so here it is, folks. i'm going to do it! someone out there badger me if there isn't a new post in a few days!!

where does the time go?

I can't believe we've come to another Christmas season! This is an exciting one for us.....a new baby girl to share it with, a soon to be 4 year old that makes everything seem new again, and our first "official" Christmas at home with our little family. We always travel for the holidays, and since Macie is getting older and Emery is here now, we've decided to start some of our own family Christmas traditions. It's exciting for me to know that we'll get to see Christmas morning through Macie's eyes in her own house, under our own tree. Bobby and I are just as excited as she is! We'll start our advent calendars tonight when he's home from work, and now that she really is old enough, really enforce what Christmas is all about.

This is our busiest time of year...between Thanksgiving and Macie's birthday on January 2, we hardly stop running! I've got an enormous list of things to do.......get pictures of the girlies for Christmas cards, finish up our gifts, finalize our travel plans for after Christmas, plan Macie's birthday party, etc, etc. I'm tired just typing it all out!

Miss Emery Pearl will be 6 months old in just a couple of weeks......hard to believe! I promise (to the 2 of you that read, ha!) that I'll come back with a good update on our sweet girl!

Free Herbs and Breastfeeding eBook!

We love EarthMamaAngelBaby here in our house! Their Angel Baby Bottom Balm is the best.thing.ever! We use it as a general first aid ointment. I've also used their breastfeeding teas, the postpartum recovery tea, herbs for healing sore bottoms after birth, and their nipple creams. I have loved every single product that I've used. Definitely a thumbs up from me!

Our newest tiny acorn!

I know I'm a little late (almost 8 weeks!) but my life is very full right now! We are so blessed, and are happily settling into life as a family of four! This includes, but is not limited to, selling a car and getting a van, being nervous to leave my house with the 2 of them by myself, and a whole slew of other adventures!

My birth was such an amazing and beautiful experience. I was blessed to be able to labor and deliver at our new, local birth center, The Carolina Community Maternity Center with an amazing team of midwives! After several weeks of on again, off again "labor" I was beginning to think that I really was going to be pregnant forever!! It was hard, but I just tried to remember that God knew Emery's perfect birth date and time, and I just needed to rest in that fact! That day ended up being 5 days after my due date!

At about 4:30am on June 17, I woke up for my normal middle of the night bathroom trip. When I went back to bed, I had no problem going back to sleep, but kept waking up every few minutes. It took me several times to realize that I was having contractions! I finally got out of bed between 5:30 and 6 to try and see if this was the real thing or if I was having another false alarm! From the very beginning, these were different than the other contractions I'd been having. Not necessarily more painful, just different. The only way I could deal with them, even this early was to be on my hands and knees, kneeling in the floor, or squatting. They were concentrated below my belly button and between my hip bones, but were very intense! Bobby was hesitant to stay home from work since we'd done this all once before, just for labor to peter out and waste a day off. He decided to call in "late" and reevaluate once we got a little farther into the morning.

At around 11, I decided that it was time for Macie to go to Cookie's house so that the house would be quieter. I had an appointment scheduled with my midwife, Lisa, at 2 that day anyway, so our plan was to just keep the appointment and hopefully be staying at the birth center to have a baby! I labored at home until it was time to go, and we packed up and headed to the birth center. Lisa checked me, and I was a stretchy 2-3cm (hooray!! I'd had NO progress up until then!) so we decided to stay! We hung out and walked around the parking lot, and I did a lot of squatting and rocking back and forth to try and handle the contractions. They were still about 5-10 minutes apart at this time. We decided to eat some dinner at around 5 so that I could have some good energy for the labor, and I got some delicious plantains (I'd been craving them my entire pregnancy!), and had a good dinner while Lisa and Pam were running home to get their things for the night.

At about 7:30 Davina came out to start taking pictures! It started to get a little harder then, but my contractions were still not getting into a predictable pattern. At one point, Lisa gave me a dose of Blue and Black cohosh to see if that would get them going a little better. We walked laps around the building, and did some lunges and squats. At this point, we were all hoping that she would be born by about 10.

By about 9, Lisa started talking about getting the pool set up. I still wasn't sure about using the pool at this point, because with Macie, the water slowed my labor down almost to the point of stopping, so I was hesitant to have that happen again. Eventually, Lisa convinced me that my labor wasn't going to stop, and I got in the water. It was wonderful!! At this point, I really started vocalizing through my contractions, which I didn't do with Macie. Its amazing how freeing it was to labor with no one else around. I labored in the pool for a while, and at some point, Pam (the apprentice!) got me out of the water to eat some cantaloupe. I ate, and then I really started to struggle, and felt like I was nearing transition. I stripped down and got back into the water. My contractions were closer and harder to handle, but I still never felt like I got into a predictable pattern, and I wasn't feeling the urge to push. At around 11 or so, Lisa urged me to get out of the pool and try to have a contraction or 2 on the toilet.

I sat down, and, oh man, that was hard! I managed to pee, and then almost instantly felt her head moving down! I was crying at this point, saying that there was no way I could get back up and into the pool. Lisa and Bobby helped me up, though, and I did manage to get back in the water. After 1, maybe 2 contractions, I felt my bag of waters bulge...it felt like a water balloon filling up then bursting, then promptly followed by Emery crowning. All at once. It was crazy! Pam was behind me (I was kneeling in the water at this point), and said that she felt a cord, so she and Lisa started to get the cord from around her neck (it was wrapped twice). We learned afterward that there was a little urgency there, as she was losing color. After they freed the cord, then her shoulder got a little stuck, but with Lisa's help, and some good pushing, we got her out. Lisa pushed her forward in the water and between my legs....she floated right up to me where I lifted her out of the water and onto my chest! It was the most amazing and beautiful experience!

Afterward we rested in the pool to allow her cord to stop pulsing before we cut the cord. In about 20 minutes, the water was cooling off, so we decided that even though the cord was still pulsing a little, that Bobby should cut it, so that we could get out and stay warm. As Bobby was cutting the cord, I noticed a true knot about 15 inches down from her belly. We are so blessed that with all of the potential issues, she arrived safely and quickly! From the time that my water broke to her birth was only about 3 and a half minutes!

We moved to the bed for nursing, cleaning up, and delivering the placenta! Everything was so wonderful, and exactly what I wanted!

Davina was there with us through all of it, documenting everything! The sneak peeks are here!

Part 1 (labor)

Part 2 (delivery)

Part 3 (bonding)

Welcome to the world!

On June 17, 2010 our family was blessed with it's newest member! Emery Pearl was born into the water at 11:36pm.

treasure!

Macie and I spent some fun time outside yesterday, enjoying the weather! We hung our laundry on the line and blew bubbles, but we also found some really super treasures all over our yard!

As I was setting up Macie's bubbles, I glanced over to my left and I saw this!

Upon further inspection, we found the nest that this little eggy had been nesting in!

Macie was so excited!! She LOVES birds! Poppy lent us a bird ID book, and she loves to stand at our front window with the book open, just watching the birds eating and flying all over. Except now, they're eating Daddy's grass seed, so she fusses at them a little, too! We're loving learning the names of all of our birdies here at the house......she gets especially excited about the Cardinals....because she knows their name, we have a ton of them, and she's got a stuffed one that she plays with.

After our bird's nest discovery we went walking around the backyard to check on our strawberry plants and play with Emo for a little bit. We were happy to see that all of our plants have strawberries on them, growing and waiting to get ripe!

After we checked on the strawberries, I looked through our garden plot (that I'm not gardening in this year) to see if we had any volunteers coming up. We have a couple of green bean plants so far. As I was about to start walking back toward the house, something caught my eye, and I went to investigate. We ended up coming into the house (after a little digging) with these!!

They'll be washed up and eaten for snack today! I love that my garden keeps working even when I'm not!!

We followed up our treasure hunt with swimming lessons, where Macie found a pendant from a necklace in the parking lot and declared that it was GOLD! We went for supper at my sister in law's house to eat hot dogs and brats with Bobby's family! It was a huge day in the Jones house, for sure!!

Giveaway!

Heidi over at Bootcamp for Lousy Housekeepers is giving away a copy of her fantastic book!! Hop on over and check it out!

If anyone out there is a lousy housekeeper (like me) I highly suggest you get this book and read it!!

My first daffodil of the year!!

I look forward to these flowers all year long! They are my all time favorites. I even had them shipped in from Holland out of season so that I could have a bouquet of them at my wedding. I love them. This is the first bloom to pop open in my yard, and I couldn't resist bringing it in to enjoy it a little more closely! It's just what I need on a dreary day like today to bring some sunshine into my house!!

Spring.....

only 18 more days until my most favorite season officially starts. I'm counting down. These little guys popped up weekend before last when we has some 60ish degree days. I have no idea what they are, and they've never bloomed here before, but I'm very thankful for the birdie that planted them for me. They make me feel so happy when I walk out of my front door. A tiny peek of spring. My daffodils are still green shoots, but I'm waiting patiently for them to bloom. And! My peonies are beautiful right now! I love them.

Spring feels so different for me this year. The baby is the big reason of course, but how appropriate that I end my favorite season with the best example of new growth? I'm starting to have bits of being frantic about her upcoming arrival. I think mostly because I have more to plan around this time. Macie has never spent a night away from me, and while I know that she'll do fine, the thought of being away from her over night makes me a little panicy. Also, this time, knowing that we're having a girl is putting more pressure on me for a name for some reason. She'll have a name eventually.

I'm going to try and keep up better with my blog.....I know I've said that a million times, but the season is changing, and my mood is picking up, so maybe I'll have some better inspiration. Those (2) of you who read here, try and hold me accountable!!

oh, life.....

this year has been such a whirlwind.......but, i suppose we all have those seasons of life. The past few months have been difficult for us. On October 11, we lost Bobby's Mamaw Shirley to ovarian cancer. She is sorely missed, but we are comforted by the fact that she knew the Lord, and is now fully healed! She was diagnosed with Scleroderma in her twenties and only given 3 years to live, then. She was a fighter, and you would have never known by her attitude and spirit that she was in pain for most of her life....even at the end. She was a beautiful woman, and I feel blessed to have known her for the 9 years that I did. I hope that Macie will be able to hold on to a few memories of her.

You must not know 'bout me...

So, I guess I have to start being more careful about what radio station I have it on. Macie NEVER pays attention to the radio, or rather, to what song is playing. She's normally in her own little world, so if I have the radio on, it usually just on one of the generic "listen at work" stations, because I figure they'll have less risk of cursing and questionable songs. Yesterday, while I was putting away laundry, I turned the radio on for background noise, and that Beyonce' song came on. I don't even know the name, but the lyrics say "you must not know 'bout me." Macie immediately started singing it......I guess it made an impression on her, lol! She's been a singing fool lately......now I just have to make sure she's hearing good music! Beyonce' is not really the type of music that normally gets played in our house, and while it's funny, I'm not sure I want my 2 year old singing her songs!

socks, sunshine, and sweet tea

Naptime is a wonderful thing at the Jones house. I know that a lot of moms take that time to catch up from the day, but more often than not, I try to take that time to refresh and relax. Tuesday, I did just that. Macie was sleeping, and I turned my bluegrass way up, gathered my supplies and headed outside.


I worked on the mate to my long finished first sock, and got some sun on my ghostly white legs. It was a beautiful thing! It's so much easier for me to make it through my afternoons when I've had that little bit of time to wind down and not have to tend to the needs of anyone other than myself for an hour or so. I think Macie and mommy are both happier for me not wearing myself out cleaning during naptime. I'm refreshed and ready for an afternoon of play when she wakes up, and I have more patience for teaching her how to unload the dishwasher or sweep the floor when she wants to help me with a "job"!

Yes, naptime, it's a wonderful thing!

sunday afternoons

We had a wonderful, relaxing Sunday afternoon at home today.....which never happens! Macie and Bobby laid down for a nap, and I took that opportunity to spend some time outside and relax. I gathered my supplies, coffee, knitting, Bible, and antique rocking chair. Could life get any better?
I sat on my porch, and enjoyed a beautiful, grey afternoon. God's creation is so amazing.......as I sat, coffee in hand, I had a wonderful time listening to my yard. The soft whisper of the leaves in the breeze, cicadas in the trees, birds singing, and squirrels fussing......I am so blessed!
We love our little house.....once you step into our yard, it's easy to forget that we're right on main street in our busy little town. Hidden back from the road and surrounded by trees, we get a taste of our mountain home, that makes this feel even more like our home here in the city.
I had a great time of reflection and special prayer time for dear friends, and just totally enjoyed some quiet time, and got lots of inspiration from sitting on my little porch. It's days like this that totally renew me.......the Lord knew I needed this day. Once Macie and Bobby woke up, we all went for a bike ride, and had a great time........God is so good to me!

outside voice

Any mom of toddlers has surely had the "inside voice/outside voice" discussion many, many times. At least, I sure do! Macie is very talkative, and just generally likes to exercise her vocal cords. The only time she's completely quiet is when she's asleep. But anyway, she decided the other day to give her outside voice a good wearing out. She really just yelled like this for a long time......just running around the yard......yelling......to no one.....except, maybe, Dan....the cat.