I think the reason I haven't posted much lately is because I don't have any original pics to go with the posts. We'll have to improvise until I get my groove back.
All I do these days is eat, work, and sleep. There hasn't been much drive in me to be creative. My energy is tied almost completely with getting food in me constantly! And if you know me, you know I hate thinking about food. It's completely exhausting to me. I would love to just get hooked up to a machine that pumps me with the food/nutrients that I need to survive and never have to think about food again.
Okay, I'm done complaining. Now for the good parts of life. I am currently 9 weeks and 4 days along in my pregnancy, which makes my due date... AUGUST 14th! Not bad, but I'm definitely looking forward to the 14 + days (they say you're past the nausea then). I'm sure once I get there I'll be looking forward to something else, but who knows. I really can't complain though. I had 2 really bad weeks followed by 1 pretty great week followed by the current week that isn't shaping up to be so wonderful. "How did you get a pretty great week in there" you say. Well, the only thing I can come up with is that I did acupuncture that week. Yes, needles in the skin.
I think I'm a believer. After I started to feel 'not so good' again this week I quickly called and made another appointment. We'll see if it's the key to turning things around again. If so, I'm setting up weekly appointments from now until my 2nd trimester.
Some other fun news....Dan and I are going to Hawaii in less than 2 weeks! On Saturday night I wasn't feeling too awesome and was getting really down about the rain and being home bound. I told Dan that we needed to plan a trip somewhere to get away from the cold wet weather. Well, we started searching around and realized that Dan's parents and sister, husband, and baby were going to be in Maui at the end of the month and they had room for us in their condo if we could get there. With frequent flyer's we were able to get one of us there for free and found a good enough deal on the other ticket. So we rearranged our work schedules and booked the flights. Gotta love those spontaneous trips that fall right into place. It's times like these that I feel the Lord is spoiling me.
Dan and I are calling it our BABYMOON. Apparently Webster Dictionary has added that term to their repertoire this year. "Babymoon: (noun) : a short vacation for a couple before the birth of their child". We may have a few smaller babymoons fit in there before this kid comes into our world (we like to get away), but this is a pretty good start.
I expressed a few months ago my interest to read more. Well, I started a book club and now I'm ready much more than I have previously. We started it in December and read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. It was short and perfect to get every one's feet wet. January's book was my choice "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd. It was an amazing book and evoked a fantastic discussion from the feminine imagery to identifying the Queen bee in our lives. 
I'm so impressed with the group of women that come to this book club. I enjoy them so much, first of all people they are fantastic people and also because they don't seem to talk as much about people or events in life but of concepts, ideas, theories and opinions of real topics. It's a group of some very strongly opinionated women and I LOVE it! I have so much respect for women who have opinions and are passionate about their opinion. These women do not seem to be afraid to express their theories, ideas, or opposing view points. It was all done in a way in which everyone could have differing opinions and that was okay. I came away from the gathering feeling so uplifted and energized, intellectually and spiritually. 
There seems to be one woman in particular who tends to guide the conversations in interesting and thought provoking directions. How does she do that? My oldest brothers seems to have that same quality about him. Conversations are much more enjoyable when he's around. Afterwards, I got thinking about these two people and how much I would like to develop that quality. I would love to be able to be able to guide a conversation from the topics of daily life to discussions that are thought provoking and require an opinion. It seems that unless we have an opportunity to express our opinions, it's easy not to develop them. And if we aren't developing our own opinions then we're just drifting with the crowds. 
Dan and I talk often about 'Living deliberately'. We want our life to reflect 'us' and the things we feel most strongly about. We don't want to do things because it's easy or it's what everyone else is doing. Then I have to think to myself, how do I know what is important to me unless I have opportunities to develop and share those ideas. I think everyone, especially women, need to have an outlet whether it's with a book club, a spouse, or a journal to explore their thoughts and ideas about life and how they personally want to live it. It's important to have that time to think and reflect on things bigger than yourself, right here, right now. I don't think women give themselves time (or husbands allow their wives to have that time) to see the big picture and structure their life accordingly. I know I'm speaking ideally as a woman without children and a whole lot more time than the busy mom's out there. But, whether you agree or not, that's my opinion!
