New Years Resolutions

I've never been all that into making New Years resolutions.  In fact other than being an excuse to celebrate and spend time with friends and family, the beginning of another new year has held little meaning to me until more recently.  Perhaps this is related to the fact that I have generally counted my years in Septembers as that's how the school year functions and it was only last year that I finally graduated.  But last January I had a moment where I realized that life would never be the same again on December 31st when we found out I was pregnant.  Suddenly I woke up the morning of January 1st thinking it would never just be the two of us again... there would be another life.  Now that didn't quite play out the way we initially thought, but we were blessed with a new life, Anita, a little later on.

That said, on that January first morning, a word came to mind: surrender.  Not long after that word came to mind so did a blog posting for a friend of mine: Carolyn Ward.  Every year she chooses a word to hold onto for that year.  So last January to chose to follow Carolyn's practice and chose surrender as my word for the year.  I held this word close as I endured the loss of a pregnancy, the misery of "morning-sickness," the ending of a contract to a job I loved, the changes that come with pregnancy, the experience of childbirth, the baptism into parenthood.... It has been a year rich in learning and meditating on the idea and practice of surrender.

So as I sit with a babe in my arms at the beginning of this new year - a year I'm already certain will contain countless changes as my babe grows and as we move from Hamilton and begin a new job in the fall - I find myself contemplating a word for this year.  And the word that I have chosen (or perhaps it has chosen me) is intimacy.  And so my year focusing on intimacy begins with looking up the definition, which I share with you...

in·ti·ma·cy

ˈintəməsē/

noun

noun: intimacy

1. 1.

   close familiarity or friendship; closeness.

A Birth Story

I find it incredibly hard to believe that it has already been a month since Anita was born.  As I think about this, and about how much she has changed already, I find myself thinking once again of the day she was born.

Josh had been hoping that Anita would be born on Sunday November 10th so that we'd have a really good excuse not to go to church.  No such luck, so off to church we went.  We spent much of the rest of the day baking and jokingly reading about how to get labor started.  That evening we curled up on the couch together and watched Shakespear in Love.  By the end I was having irregular contractions, and not paying any attention to them.  By 8:30 Josh started jokingly timing the contractions and they were actually quite consistently 9 minutes apart.  We decided to stick to one of our midwife's advice to deny as long as possible, so we took the dog out for a walk to try to settle the contractions down.  By the end of the walk, I was starting to accept that these were not just braxton hicks contractions cause they were getting stronger.  By 10:30 contractions were about 4 minutes apart so we called our parents to let them know we were pretty sure this was it.  We waited about another hour before paging our midwife.  She was just finishing up a c-section delivery and said she'd be there within the hour after getting something to eat.  When she arrived I was very pleased to discover that I was already in transition and everything was progressing really well.  Transition sucked, but it wasn't long before I was ready to push.  Our midwife at that point called for a second (that way once the baby is born there is one to look after the baby and another to look after mum).  After about an hour of pushing, at 3:18 am Anita May Vanderstelt was born, weighing 7 pounds, 7 ounces and measuring 50 cm long.  Josh was by my side through the whole thing, and I definitely couldn't have done it without him.  Around 4:15 Josh called all the parents again to let them know Anita arrived safely and that we all were doing really well.  The midwives hung around until around 5:30 (or maybe a little later - I don't quite remember) by which point Anita and I had settled into our beds to try to get some rest.  We all slept for about an hour and then it was time to begin a new day.

If you read closely you will notice we never mentioned going to the hospital -- because we never did.  It was such a joy to have Anita born in the comforts of our own home (not to mention it was absolutely wonderful to labor and recover in the comfort and privacy of our own home).  It was a day (or perhaps more accurately a night) I will never forget.  Getting to meet Anita for the first time... smelling her little tiny head... holding her close...

And here we are, one month later, and I can hardly believe how much I love her, and how fast time flies.  She's awake much more than she was at first, and is gaining weight really well.  She has officially grown out of her newborn sleepers and has Josh and I both wrapped around her tiny little fingers.  I am treasuring every moment I have with her, and am looking forward to the years ahead of us that we will get to share.

Happy One Month Anita!!

 Anita at 3 days

 Anita at 1 month

While Waiting

I've been meaning to write this blog for a long time now... just never got around to taking the pictures to go with it.  Today is the day I've decided to actually take the pictures, so here's my waiting post...

Before Anita arrived, I was continually asked if I was still working or had I started my mat leave yet.  This always made me feel very awkward as in truth I haven't worked since the end of May.  Some how by being asked I always found myself feeling very guilty for having been able to enjoy my summer without having to work and to have the time to really enjoy being pregnant.  I always felt well rested.  I had time to do the things I wanted to get done before Anita arrived.  I really enjoyed having time away from the routine of work.  I took the time as a gift.

That would then lead to the next questions... what am I doing with all my time if I'm not working?  Aside from general house keeping (I have never been so on top of laundry before in my life!!!) I had a few projects on the go to keep me busy.  It's these projects I want to share with you today.

My first project: 
I decided to try out quilting about 2 years ago and found a free online block of the month class through Craftsy.com.  Each month we would make two quilt square and in the process learn about the basics of quilting.  When I started I'd got about 6 squares finished... it was time to finish the quilt.  It's still not quite done, I've only partially quilted the top to the backing, but I'm quite happy with how it's turned out.  Not 100% sure what I'll use it for -- so far my best idea is using it as a summer quilt on our bed as our duvet is really too warm for the summer, but we will see.

This leads me to my second project:
Part of my quest to finish my first quilt was so that I could make a quilt for our baby.  This one came together much faster, but again isn't quite finished.  I still need to put the backing on, but I want to try out my new walking presser foot on my first quilt before going at my baby quilt.  Not sure when I'll find the time, but I imagine as we work out our new rhythms and schedules, I'll eventually get to it.  If it hadn't been for my third project I would likely have gotten to finishing both quilts, but I'm super happy that the third project got finished!!

So the third project:
Our kitchen!!!  Ever since we moved in I've been thinking about how to better use our kitchen space.  Last December I finally figured it out and convinced Josh to go ahead with the plan when my parents moved in temporarily and could help out.  The project started in January by pulling out a useless door frame type wall, only to discover we really needed to re-shingle the kitchen roof before doing anything else... so with a wall torn out we waited for the warm weather.  Then it was re-shingling the kitchen roof, followed by pulling down half the kitchen ceiling so we could level it with the other half, then it was a whole bunch of wall repair and patching, fixing the floor where the wall had been, moved a heat vent, install our dishwasher, build new cabinets for the far end of the kitchen and new doors for under the sink (many many many thanks to my Uncle Ron and Dad for all the work they did with that - the cabinets match so well!!!), pull of the old back splash and counter top and install the new ones, repair and repaint the walls and trim, then finally we moved the fridge into our kitchen!!!  Our fridge had resided in our dinning room since we moved in.  What a dumb kitchen arrangement when the fridge doesn't even fit into the kitchen!  I am please to announce that the kitchen is done!!!  Almost all of this was accomplished before Anita arrived on November 11th!

Before:

After:

So for those who have wondered how I kept busy while not working through my pregnancy, that's how!

Southampton for the Long Weekend

For the Civic long weekend, our friends Amy and Dave rented a cottage in Southampton, and we decided to accept their invitation to tag along for the weekend.  We went for a number of walks, we watched a couple low quality movies we found at the cottage, we played in the yard, we had a campfire and made smores... it was a pretty low key, yet enjoyable weekend spent with friends (and getting a glimps into what our future will hold in terms of parenthood and keeping a 1-year old happy).  

During one of the movies, Amy and I took our cameras down to the beach to catch the sunset... Here's some of what I captured

 

Getting ready for our walk down to the beach.... not that we planned to swim or anything, more just to give this little guy the chance to play in the sand at the water's edge.

Just before we started packing up for the weekend three small deer made an appearance in the backyard.  This little one enjoyed a small meal while we watched.

Fair Havens: Family Portraits

As part of the crazy pack up and head out rush, we snapped some family portraits...

 The three Siblings: Debi, Doug, & Dana

The Rittenhouses: Howard, Dana, Noah, Will & Elijah

The Rosefields: David and Judy (Peter's parents)

 Poppy and June

 The Other Rosefields: Rae-Lynn, Peter & Jaden

 Josh and I

The whole Hawkins crowd!

Missing: I never did get a chance to get a picture of the Hawkins crew (Doug, Caroline, Nathan, Sophie, Ariella & Joel) and since Shannon wasn't around we didn't bother with the Vanderstelt clan's picture.

Fair Havens 2013: Fun in the Sun

After lawn bowling in the morning, we spent most afternoons down on the beach... mostly talking and reading, but there was some swimming too. 

 Howard and Dana.

 Rae-Lynn visiting with the most recent addition to the Hawkins family, Ariella Jane Hawkins.

 Debi reading in the sun.

 Noah playing Frisbee with the boys.

 Josh enjoying the ice cream poppy bought for all of us.

 Doug with his first granddaughter.

 Jaden warming up in the sand.

 James and Nathan.

 Joel getting ready for the throw.

 Elijah playing in the volley ball court

 Nathan napping with his little girl.

 Will enjoying our last supper together.  

 Elijah playing with the fire.

 James and Elijah "helping with the clean up"

Daddy and Ariella.  So precious!

Fair Havens 2013: Lawn Bowling

I had the privilege this summer of joining in on a long tradition of the Hawkins family gathering at Fair Havens.  Although it had been some time since the whole Hawkins family had gathered at Fair Havens (there was some debate on how long exactly, ranging from 9-14 years) but never the less, this summer everyone (except Shannon of course who's still in Australia becoming a doctor) returned for a week of fun.  

As part of the week, most of us participated in the lawn bowling tournament.  We had representation on all six teams by the end of the week and Bill and James' team won the tournament and free ice cream.  Having never played lawn bowling before, it was a fun experience, and I'm very thankful to our skip who really was a good teacher.

 Bill Skipping for his team.

 Doug and Poppy watching and waiting for their turn.

 Rae and Howard watching... Rae's team had finished and Howard had come by to watch.

 Poppy showing us how it's done.

 Debi waiting her turn.

 James contemplating the curve on this shot.

 Will getting ready to let it roll.

 Dana lining the shot up.