Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

It's my favorite time of year! At least the most fun bloggy time of year when I can just post a photo every day and not feel bad about it. Yep, it's time for the December Photo Project . As I'm working this week I may post a few photos from our very fun Christmas tree decorating evening on Thursday. I had a feeling that Judah was going to enjoy it, but I had no idea how much fun it was going to be for him. He loved every part of it - the lights, hanging ornaments on the tree, and of course, the homemade cookies and hot cocoa I made.

1. Someone asked me today how much longer I had until the due date. The answer was 3.5 weeks. Yikes! 2. I'm officially anemic. My hemoglobin was checked about 2 months ago and was normal then, but has trickled down a little lower. I will say that I had my suspicions since my ice crunching compulsion had gotten a little out of control recently. (A common phenomenon during anemia called Pica.) My other weird pica-like symptom is that I'm obsessed with the scent of my laundry detergent, Gain. I don't want to eat the laundry detergent (though it does make my mouth water a little) - I just want to smell it all the time. I may have purchased Gain-scented Mr. Clean to use to mop my floors so that my entire house could smell like it. Maybe. Hopefully with an iron supplement and an increase in red meat intake it will improve before baby comes. 3. We just got back from 4 wonderful days spent on Seabrook Island with my family for Thanksgiving. It was awesome. I was wishing that I ...

A few fun Judah photos.  From his class Thanksgiving party: He took his first plane flight in my Dad's plane. Apparently he enjoyed it. And he sure does look cute wearing the headphones.

It has been a long week. Being 35 (!) weeks pregnant and working 12 hour days is sort of catching up with me. Between the 3:30 am delivery and the funeral of one of our ruling elders this week I am ready for this week to be over. God was gracious, though. Our list has been fairly short this week - I only had to round on 9 patients this morning. (It's not uncommon for me to round on twice that many.) And all morning long I thought I was on day call today taking new admissions. But just after lunch my partner informed me that HE was on call. Not me. So suddenly my afternoon opened up. We had already planned on my parents keeping Judah this weekend so Jeff could get his work done, so my free afternoon was really free. I went to the gym, took the dog on a long walk, and did a little cleaning. Jeff and I had a date. I made cookies. It was the best surprise I've gotten in a while - because since I'm not on call today, I'm also not on call on Sunday. Which means just one ...

I had lots of fun sewing for Sam and Caleb's birthdays this year. Melanie let me know a few months ago that Sam asked if he could be a Jedi knight for Christmas. I used McCall's 595 2 for the robe, and Mcall's 6184 for the tunic and pants. I just winged the little strips that go over the shoulders and the belts. And I cannot take any credit for the adorable Ewok costume. That was all my sister-in-law's doing. I was really pleased with how they came out. It will be fun to make one for Judah in a few years.

1. I realized I hadn't cleaned the bathtub upstairs in a while the other night. I started to give Judah a bath and he was very upset because there was dirt or leaves or what have you floating in the tub. He refused to continue with his bath until I had drained the water and cleaned the tub. Apparently someone is rather picky about the cleanliness of his bathtub. 2. Whenever he drops something or trips, he always says he "almost dropped it" or he "almost fell down." If something is too big for him to pick up it is "almost too big." I guess the actual meaning of the word "almost" has escaped him. 3. And in what is hopefully the last time this happens... Judah was holding a marble on Friday and asking if we could go and play at Nana's house. (Nana has a very cool marble run that Judah loves.) I was making dinner and explaining that hopefully one day soon we can go and see Nana. A few minutes later, he comes back around the corner and is ...

I haven't been working this week, except at home. A little glimpse of what I've been doing... I finally got Judah's room painted and ready for him to move in!  Overall he's done very well with the adjustment. He and I had a very serious heart to heart about how he was not allowed to get out of his bed until I came and got him and for the most part he has been very obedient. The biggest reason I'm so paranoid is that the bedroom is right at the top of our very steep wooden steps and I don't want to wake up to the sound of him tumbling down in the middle of the night. As a reminder, here is a fairly recent photo of what the sewing room used to look like. And now... I was totally going to buy a curtain. I looked around and even found one that would have been ok at Lowe's. Then I checked out my fabric stash and realized I had enough to make something. So I quickly sewed up this one, which took about 1 Judah nap and didn't cost anything. Score. ...

This impromptu photo shoot/outside play time turned out to give me some very good photos. And Judah had a great time throwing the leaves around.

There have been a few pro-life blog posts lately that I have thought were excellent. This one talks about the tough questions that pro-choice candidates are not asked by the media that likes to pose tough questions to pro-life candidates. Here's another one about answering a common statement you hear from people who are "personally against abortion" but still pro-choice.