Good Things

Despite the woes of the final weeks of pregnancy, the oppressive heat, and the limitations of my SI joint, there are several good things happening over here. Martha Stewart may think she owns the copyright to the term "good things", but i'm not talking about recipes and kitchen organization. I'm talking about every good and perfect gift that comes from the Lord. Here are a few of the blessings we've been enjoying recently:

1. Mother's Helper - A sweet and considerate girl from church offered to come over and play with the BabyGirl one morning so i could get some stuff done. She was a saint. She played so patiently with the BabyGirl! At ten years old, she definitely has a gentle and quiet spirit, something i long to cultivate myself but doubt i'll ever achieve.

2. The Grabber - Oh people, i love this thing! It used to be the case that whatever items landed on the floor during the course of the day simply remained there until The Professor got home. Unless i could sweet-talk the BabyGirl into picking something up for me, it wasn't going to get picked up. And since the BabyGirl was the reason that 97% of those things came to be on the floor in the first place, she wasn't often in the mood to retrieve them up. Until i received The Grabber. A nice older man at church gave it to me. I later found out the back story. His wife had broken her arm a few years ago, so for Christmas he bought her The Grabber. He thought it was clever and amusing; she was appalled. She told him, "Get that thing out of my sight!" It was never spoken of again until they were getting ready to go to church and he said, "Wait one minute; i have to get that Grabber." She was irritated to learn that it had still been dwelling under their roof because she thought he had disposed of it. But when he told her that he was passing it on to me, she was pleased to know that it was going to a home where it would be loved and appreciated. And boy is it appreciated! We've been grabbing like crazy over here. I think from now on I'm going to buy one for anyone who gets pregnant.

3. Baby Name Books - My friend Carrie-Who-Is-Not-Scary heard about our baby name dilemma. She checked out a stack of baby name books from the library and delivered them to my house! It was so thoughtful of her during the time when i couldn't get out of the house much because i couldn't walk well. One of the books she checked out was an Irish name book. While entertaining, it was not very useful. Irish names are just plain weird. Somehow we latched onto the name Sinead and joked about it for several days. (SPOILER ALERT: the baby will not be named Sinead.)

4. Baby Gifts! - We have been so greatful for all the wonderful gifts we have received for BG2! Our UPS man probably has our address memorized. If and when BG2's room ever gets presentable, i will be so excited to show you the before and after pictures. Every morning i go look to see if magic gnomes showed up in the night to put everything in order for me, and every morning it's still a big mess.

It has been so wonderful to receive such help and generosity from family and friends these past few weeks. Thank you to everyone for taking care of us!