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M, B, H & S

MAGGIE

She doesn’t always listen to us and I suppose it is true that we don’t always listen to her. Just this past week or two Maggie has picked up the phrase “I don’t like ______” and is testing it out with more frequency that we’d like. She has defintley moved past the “I love everything” phase  that was hilariously adorable. 

She is also acutely aware that I’ve got a baby in my tummy and her thoughts about it are positivley endearing. We got to go visit Thomas, Marc and Lara on Friday and when Lara greeted us at the door, Maggie hollered from our car, “Hi, Lara! You got a baby in your tummy? My mama has baby in her tummy. She has my sister in there!”

I would have melted onto the ground from laughing if Maggie hadn’t been poking my belly and making sure that Lara heard her every word. As my dad said this weekend, it’d be fasciinating to actually know what Maggie thinks about me having a baby in my tummy. 

Tonight B2 was having a party in my tummy and both Mags and Barry got to feel her kick. Before Maggie put her hands on my tummy, she double checked to make sure that the baby wasn’t going to come out of my tummy as she felt the kickin’ and dancin’! 


BARRY

This weekend my parents spent the night and Barry got up before everyone (even my mom, which is a minor miracle) and ended up getting the coffee pot out from the garage and making a pot for my parents. If we were coffee drinking folk, this wouldn’t be notable….but neither Barry or I drink the yummy-smelling stuff. We keep a coffee pot at out house for our house guests that do drink it. Anyhow, it struck me as sweet that he was caring and kind enough to go get the coffee brewing for them.  

I think that is Barry in a nutshell. I know that he didn’t think it was an out-of-the-way gesture and he probably will roll his eyes when he reads this, but he’s a man that notices the smallest of details and is attentive to those in his life. I wish that everyone had their own Barry….I’m far too selfish to share him too much. 

ME

I am definitely pregnant…there is a parent at school that I adore and she comes to greet me in the morning with a small belly rub and a “How y’all doin’?” I don’t mind when people touch my belly, but this regular greeting always makes me smile and reminds me that I’ve got another baby coming in a few months! Yee-haw! 

I’m feeling strong and really great – the other day I looked at the calendar and felt a bit sad that my second trimester is coming to an end. When I was pregnant with Maggie I got really huge in the last few months and felt like a Beluga Whale. I’m hoping that doesn’t happen this time, or at least maybe I’ll be the size of a smallish Beluga Whale. 

I’ve spent lots of time thinking about women, mothers/daughters and how many different role models I’ve got in my life. I have really, really loved working again. My class is topped out with students, but they’re smart, funny and I keep finding myself appreciating their similarities and differences.  I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but Kindergarten is a very different world….I keep telling my first grade teacher-friends that their students are practically college-ready….and I’m only half kidding. I seriously love this new challenge and being back in the classroom has been invigorating. 

SYDNEY

When we went on vacation last weekend, we were reminded how much Sydney loves to tag along on our outings. She nearly had an anxiety attack when she saw the suitcase come out and sit by the door ready to be loaded into the car. And when she saw the beach she went nuts – turboing like a maniac. She looked exactly like I felt: elated, pumped, extremely fully of joy. Obviously in my current condition doing wind-sprints up and down the beach to show my excitement isn’t the best use of my energy. 

My point? She is such a good dog. Lazy as all get-out in her day-to-day life, but Vacation Pug is equivalent to Party Pug. We’re lucky she is a member of our family. 

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Belated Birthday Trip for Da B-Man

We finally left town for a couple days this past weekend to celebrate Barry’s birthday – only a few weeks late this time, but we had important business to attend to on his actual birthday weekend! It couldn’t have come at a better time…us packing  our car and heading to our rented beach house. We got lost on the way there and Maggie begged us from the back seat to head back home so she could ‘go night-night in [her] own bed.’ 

Of course we didn’t turn around and as our cell phones announced their lack of service and our headlights hit the front steps of our house, we were already ready for some time to unwind. One of the very, very best traditions that Barry and I established early on in our relationship is replacing physical gifts with the gift of experience. Birthdays are often celebrated with a small gift and a weekend planned by the other person. Barry is a complete MASTER at this  – more than once he has ended up taking us to really fantastic places that I have no idea about until we actually arrive. On the other hand, I’ve taken us on some doozies…places I never wanted to know about and I’ll never tell anybody that I actually went there. 

So this past weekend when I woke up Saturday morning and realized that I’d actually done a good job in finding a great place for us, I had to do the Happy Dance to celebrate. In fact, I pretty much Happy Danced the whole entire weekend. The only bad part about the weekend was this: the dang weather was too beautiful. I kid you not. I had packed us for what I had thought to be typical Washington Coast weather and when the sun greeted us each morning, I cursed my wool sweaters and warm coats that I’d stuffed into our suitcase. I survived in my muumuu and flip flops, but daaaang, where were my shorts when I needed them. (Side note: I have zero pairs of shorts that fit me right now, so that complaint is not even legit.)

If I had to write myself a note about this all it’d go like this:

Dear Hannah,

Remember when you were driving home from Seabrook and you just kept looking at Barry trying to contain your smile because being away for 2 whole nights felt like a major getaway?

Remember how Maggie raced into the waves and rolled in the warm sand while collecting sticks for ‘Flag Camp?”

Remember how Sydney turboed on the beach until her little chubby legs couldn’t go anymore?

Remember how Barry forgot his running hat and Maggie yelled at him not to go running without it?

Remember how you discovered that yummy ice cream?

Remember that getting away fills your tank.

Love,  Hannah

So, really…Happy Birthday to Barry. May our tradition of getting away to celebrate birthdays be one that lives long in our family. I really love us and for once I feel pretty much like a smug person for picking a place we’ll probably go back to. 

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Are You Taking Care of Your Golf Balls?

I haven’t hidden the fact that I’m struggling with my lack of time or the feeling of unbalance in my life. I love work, but I could live there and still not be caught up. I love being a mother, but I could spend every second of every day being intentional with my mothering and still not feel adequate. I love being a wife, but I could go on 99 dates in a row and still not feel like I’ve had enough one-on-one time with him. I love being a friend, but I could call, e-mail, drink coffee, go on walks and still not have been able to see/hear those important to me.
The time in my day is no different from everybody else’s, but here I am feeling like I’m no quite doing enough. There isn’t an area that I feel like I’m kicking ass in. And I like to kick ass. My friend Charlyn, after reading a blog post a while back, forwarded me an e-mail that seemed to make a ton of sense. In fact, it made me cry. Below is the text and I hope that we can all find our golf balls and hold on dearly to them, because the sand doesn’t really matter.

The Mayonnaise Jar and Two Cups of Coffee

When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.”

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things–your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions–and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else–the small stuff. “If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first–the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked.

It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”