Announcement!

Okay, so finally, after months of planning to do, but never actually doing it, I have started an etsy shop. What is etsy? Well, go head over to:

http://www.handmaidgifts.etsy.com/

and check out my new etsy shop: HandMaid Gifts by Fair Maiden

I only have a couple things up so far, but more is on the way. I just started a pink and purple baby blanket that will go up there along with many more dishcloths (a variety of colors) and a few other ideas that I have.

NOTE: If you tried the link above and it showed up nothing, I had it wrong, sorry. I just fixed it!

Warning: Long Post

Well, I'm a little late seeing as I planned to do this post 5 days ago, but oh well, that's life. :)
I am now 31 weeks, 1 day along. KallyLyn was correct last week when she guessed that I had 9 weeks, 6 days until my due date. Of course, today it's only 8 weeks, 6 days until my due date. But who's counting, right? :)



The baby's movement has certainly stepped up! I think I talk about the baby's movement every time I do a post. :) But every time I'm updating, everything is more than it was before, and I just have to take notice! I have been able to feel arms, legs, it's back, it's bottom, (not so much it's head anymore as that seems to be staying down more, which is a good thing....) all with just the thin layer of skin between us. It is so neat! Today the baby's knee was poking right out and when I touched it, it moved over a couple inches before pulling back in. Baby's are just so neat! God's design is just incredible!!!!!!! I can't wait to meet this precious, Little One!

As you can see, I am definitely "popping out". I can not see my feet anymore, and it is getting a bit hard to pick things up off the floor. If it is just one item, and I have nothing else in my hand, then I can usually do it, but if I'm holding something else or I need to spend more than 2 seconds down near the floor, it's hard! :)

And now, for a tour of our new home. However, please keep in mind that even though we've been here for 3 1/2 weeks now, we are still in the process of figuring out where things should go and getting everything set up just how we want it. But, if I waited until we were completely done and I had enough time to do it, then I'm sure I would have no readers left because everyone would have given up on me. :)

Here is our bedroom. As you can see there are still some boxes to be unpacked. The towel over our window is because this room has 3 windows and as soon as the sun starts coming up, it is streaming into our room while we are trying to finish off our night's sleep. Here is a full view of our bed (and Teddy) and the lovely quilt that we received as a wedding gift.

Moving down the hall..... Here is our bathroom.

And a view of our hallway:

And now we enter the beloved, Baby's Room. However, as you can see it is not fully the "Baby's Room" just yet. :) Just the other day I finished the curtains in their. If you click on the picture you can see that they are Winnie the Pooh themed. You can also see here what we have left to take care of and get out of the bedroom before my shower which is in 2 1/2 weeks. We've also been "throwing" stuff on the shelves and I plan on reorganizing them (and the books on them) once we finish emptying our last boxes.

This is the one area in the baby's room that is obviously "baby" at the moment. I have diaper and wipes samples from when we set up our gift registries, along with the diaper bag (and some little girl outfits and a Winnie the Pooh "blankie" (as in, Pooh-head attached to a mini blanket) that are inside) and our first cloth diapers which came in today! I was so excited to get them!

Here is the wall right next to the door with more things to be organized. :)

Here is our Kitchen table and you can see my first curtain that I made.

A full view of our kitchen. I also made the valance curtain for this window as well.

Here is Scott in our Living Room writing on his day off! :) From what he's told me, he's gotten a lot of writing done on his third book! The purple yarn on the side of the couch is the beginning of my second baby blanket. (Come back later to find out what happened to my first baby blanket.)

And here is where I've been sitting today, working away on my computer as Scott has worked on his.

Big announcement coming soon!!!

But first, I must go finish dinner so my darling Husband and I can eat. Oh, how I love Crockpots!!!!

Missing my Hubby (and a challenge)

Well, it has been over a month now since my dear, sweet, wonderful, loving, kind, amazing, incredible, serving, caring, giving, hardworking husband went back to work at the factory. Oh, how spoiled I am!!!! I knew before that I was spoiled but didn't realize just how spoiled I was until the past month. I mean, I figured that since we only needed one cell phone because we were practically ALWAYS together and because we only needed one car because we were always together then I was no doubt getting to spend a whole lot more time with him than other wives get with their husbands. I knew I had much to be grateful for, but still, I didn't realize just how much! Having him gone for 9 hours a day definitely brought that realization full circle! (Please note, I'm not complaining, just sharing from my heart....) I mean, I have been greatly enjoying my time at home, at OUR home, but it's not so much because I'm by myself as it is because it's "our home". Oh, I am cherishing and treasuring my time with him more than ever these days! (Hence my lack of posts and pictures.) I love my husband so much and my heart just thrills at the sound of closing doors as he heads for the front door when he gets home from work. I know it seems so silly because he was working at the same factory the first 3 months of our marriage. But remember, we've been married for 12 1/2 months now and that means that for the past 9 1/2 months I've had my Hubby all to myself. I mean, when he's home he's always working on something book related, but when he's home I can get a kiss in much more frequently throughout the day than when he's gone for most of the day. :) Besides, just his presence in the house makes me so happy. I love knowing he's working on the couch while I'm doing dishes, cooking, cleaning, organizing, going through boxes (the baby's room is still 1/3 full of boxes). It's nice just to see him as I pass through the room. '

Over the past few weeks in our own place, especially since Scott is working 2 jobs (writing/being an author is always a full-time job) God has been reminding me of all the sweet aspects of being a housewife. I mean, I was still a wife for the 7 months before now but we didn't have a place of our own. It was challenging because I had to work hard and be creative to make wherever we were feel relaxing and restful but nothing beats having a home of our own that I can make a "haven of rest" for my Man (and soon to be, family). It is nice to have pictures up (even if they are mostly of *us*) and to have my candles and all the familiar things that were in our first place of residence as "husband and wife". I know Scott would say (and I agree), "it's nice to have our books out again!" :)

I love being married. I love having my own place to cook and clean in. I love learning all that God is continuously teaching me. I love planning snacks to surprise my Hubby with when he gets home. I love being pregnant and thinking that one day very soon I will have a little baby keeping me very occupied while "Daddy" is at work. :)

I don't know if any of this mumble-jumble has made much sense. But to change the subject I now have a challenge for all of my blog-readers:

I know I have not posted in almost 2 weeks and am planing a post with lots of pictures within the next week. But how about a little trivia in the meantime?

Can anyone guess how far along I am in my pregnancy and how many weeks and days are left till my due date? Rate how far along I am (weeks+days if not exact) as of today, June 23rd. If you can guess that correctly, than you'll have no problem figuring out how many weeks and days it is until my due date (that is of course, if you remember how many weeks a full-term pregnancy is). Sometime in the next few days (as long as someone has guessed correctly) I will do a Pregnancy update post as well as a "new home" post with lots of pictures.

I have been reading The Mom Walk by Sally Clarkson and I would like to share a couple quotes with you.

"I realized that one of the roles God wants me to play in my children's lives is a conductor of joy, happiness, and celebration. After all, God designed our need for these things into our hearts. We were made to enjoy life and our Creator, and we were meant to choose to live in His beauty and provision.
"This doesn't mean I won't have difficulties or times of depression. But I do have choices I can make as a mom that will determine the environment in my home." (Sally Clarkson)

This does not only apply to the role of mother, but also of wife. When I am joyful and cheerful, looking for opportunities to praise God, the whole atmosphere in my house changes. We don't have children in the house just yet (although Little One is frequently reminding me that it is on it's way :) ) and I can only imagine how much my attitude will effect the environment of our home, because I know that it does now, and once the children are coming along it will only be even more important and vital that I am not always downcast, focused on all my "duties and responsibilities" instead of focusing on the gift of my children and all that the Lord is doing. Now is the time to be practicing this because it is just as important and vital that we look at our responsibilities with delight, especially for the sake of our Husbands (or families if you aren't married yet).

I will end this post with one more quote:

"To neglect enjoying God and His own wonderful ways in my life is to not really know Him or grow in Him. For at the very basis of His character are love, life, beauty, and joy. To know Him is to know goodness. To walk with Him is to walk in lovingkindness, pleasure, and delight." (Sally Clarkson)

Home

We celebrated the end of our first year of marriage on Saturday by moving into our new place. No, I don't have pictures yet because there are still boxes everywhere, and I haven't taken any pictures yet. :) But soon, I promise to post some soon. :) Thanks to the help of family and friends we not only moved everything to our new place, but we also got our clothes put away, the kitchen completely unpacked and our Living Room well on its way all within about 6 hours! God is so good! It was so nice to be able to celebrate our 1-year anniversary, the beginning of our second year of marriage yesterday by relaxing and enjoying puttering around, organizing books, cooking in my kitchen and just enjoying the quietness of being together alone. It has been amost 7 1/2 months since we left our apartment and since then we've been living with different couples and families for different lengths of time as the Lord led us halfway across the country in a big circle, bringing us back to CT. It is so nice to have "our home" again and the timing was so perfect as our anniversary made it extra special. We still have much settling down to do but not only are we enjoying our new home but so is Scott's dog (who, I have to be honest, I like to bring in the house more often then leave her outside).

Contrary to the above, I did some searching and found a few pictures for you all.

Last night we enjoyed some of our Wedding Cake. It was very good and the rest of it is sitting in the fridge, just waiting for us to finish it. :)

And here is our dog. Not a very good picture, but you can also see that I do have cupboards in our new place. :)

I snapped this picture last night as well. It was the first (and is still the only) section in my Living Room that isn't furniture and is all set up. :)

And here is *us* at the wedding that Scott was in a couple weeks ago. We managed to take these pictures before the wedding started, and just before a thick fog rolled in.

Here is a close-up of my Beloved and I. I love him so much!!!

I am adjusting to having my own place again. One thing I love about our house is that it has a real-size Fridge! We've done a lot of grocery shopping already and I still have empty shelves! YAY! Our apartment had a full Freezer/Refrigerator, but the whole thing came up to my nose and there was one rack in the fridge, and no shelves on the drawer. I'm also working on keeping on top of my dishes! I used to let them pile up and wash them once a day, but I don't think I could stand for that much time in one spot now, so I just wash as I dirty. :)

I bought some adorable Winnie The Pooh themed material to make curtains for the baby's room and I can't wait to get them made and hang them. However, first I must empty the baby's room of all the boxes that are in there for me to "go through". It's piled pretty high right now, but thankfully it's a small room, so there can't be too much stuff in there. :)

Well, that's about all for now. Have a blessed week and I'll do my best to update frequently whenever I get internet access.

Update - 27 Weeks

I am sure all of my readers have been wondering where I have gone. The worst thing is that in another week, I won't even have daily internet access. But, for now I thought I'd give you all an update.

The past four days have been filled with lots of painting (only a little done by me) and cleaning as we prepare to move into a place of our own once again. To say we are excited would be an understatement considering the fact that we have not been in our own place in over 7 months! The best part about God's timing for everything is that we should be in our new place for our 1-year Anniversary which is this Sunday! We are renting a lovely old trailer (that we are painting inside to look nice and new, to the best of it's ability) that has a nice yard, a deck, and my favorite, a spot for a garden!!!! I plan on planting some Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Yellow Squash next week once we're in there! I also bought seeds for Basil, Parsley and Scallions! We're even going to be able to bring Scott's dog over which will be nice for me as she will need exercising and seeing as I'm supposed to be walking every day, we can go for a walk together. :)

The pregnancy is going very well. I am 27 weeks today which means that the baby weighs 2 lbs. and is at least 15 inches long. This Little One has been moving around a LOT lately. I just love feeling it move!

Well, that's about all for now. I am getting hungry. :)