Waffle Bookends: A little bit of summertime

It all started with waffles. 
My toddler is really, really into waffles, and I am, too. I bounced out of bed after prayer time one morning last week and danced into the kitchen. As I listened to recent episodes of The Catholic Hipster Podcast, I stirred together a quick batch of waffle batter. My son toddled out and I served him up a plate of waffles as I continued pouring batter, putting away the ingredients, and laughing at the banter on the podcast. I was having so much fun that I lost track of time. Suddenly, glancing at the clock, I dashed over to where my husband was on the other end of the house. Hurriedly, I explained that I have to go, don't let the waffles burn! and I grabbed a plate of waffles with peanut butter, my purse, and my notes for counseling. 

Dropping everything into the seat next to me, I drove off. Within about five minutes, everything was going fairly well. The traffic was sparse, I had managed to cram a few bites of waffles into my mouth, and I was making good time. Suddenly, as I braked for a red light, it happened: My notebook, which I had precariously leaned against the back of the seat (not smart, I know) belly-flopped onto my waffles. I pulled up the notebook to see that-yes-nearly all of the peanut butter had transferred to my notes.  



I looked at the paper, now covered in peanut oil and smears of peanut spread, and shook my head. When I began therapy for my mental health in the spring, I didn't really know what I was doing. How do I know how long to continue seeing a counselor? What in the world am I even doing and how does this all work??? I reached the point where I was conflicted, unsure if I should schedule another session or just continue working through the strategies and techniques she had helped me begin using. Out of the blue, I scheduled this session that I was driving to, and as I looked at my now-unusable notes, wondered if this was some kind of indication that perhaps I was reaching a decisive point. 

The session that day was shorter than the others, and fell quite naturally into some good closure. There was some deeply profound wisdom that my counselor dropped, which I've been mulling over ever since. I know that I was supposed to begin seeing a counselor, and I think it's really beautiful how God worked-both through her and through my waffles-to show me that this stretch of my life has reached a different turn. I'll probably head back into counseling at some point in the future (since, God-willing, I have more years to live and will probably continue to need help navigating everything!), but it's refreshing to have the peace of knowing that I have learned things, come to a much better place, and can continue working on my life. 

My toddler calls this "frozen cherry treat", and it's been a staple for me in the
hot summer days-Greek yogurt, frozen cherries and bananas, and a little bit of milk. 

The rest of the day was lovely as my son and I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing soccer in our living room, reading books, and enjoying each other's company. That evening was full of Braxton-Hicks contractions, fun family time, and of course, more waffles before an in-home date night viewing of A Quiet Place.  

The next morning, I discovered that I had completely forgotten about Chik-Fil-A's Cow Appreciation Day for another year, and I initially was really sad. I'm all about costumes, and I'm all about free food, so this day seems like the perfect fit for me. Yet, every single year, I forget about it until the day after, when I see people's cow pictures on social media. But after a brief lament, I realized that when other people were dressing as cows and lining up at CFA the day before, I was having a fabulous time. My day had been bookended with waffles, I had a great session, spent awesome time with my son, and had a lovely date night. So why be sad about missing out on free food?

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I was so excited to get our birth supplies in the mail! 

I still have several weeks to go in this pregnancy, but we're slowly starting our preparations for this child's birth, which is exciting! On Saturday, I finished putting together my birth kit, and I've begun bookmarking recipes for different freezer meals that I can assemble in the next month. It's getting so hard to move around, and even though I slowly jogged a total of 2 miles last week (split up into segments of 1/2 mile spread over 2 days), I've only jogged about 1/2 a mile so far this week. My midwife's "home visit" is marked on my calendar, and we recently made a "Before Baby Gets Here" list of things we need to complete. This pregnancy, I actually am able to detect Braxton-Hicks contractions (I had no idea what they felt like in my first pregnancy), so getting to recognize how my body is preparing for birth has been pretty cool. The weeks of this pregnancy have been flying by, and it's hard to believe that in just a couple months or so, God-willing, we'll be holding our tiny son in our arms. 

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Every single day, when my toddler tells my husband about his day, he starts talking about the zoo and all the animals he saw there. We went to the zoo about three or so weeks ago, but hadn't been since (it's been too hot for me to want to take him to the zoo lately!), yet the zoo is always on his mind. Finally, last Friday, we stopped by the zoo. I had planned on making it a very brief visit (it was the hottest part of the day), but we wound up having so much fun that we stayed there for nearly two hours. And we saw a flamingo who was less than a day old! It was adorable. 

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It's been a beautiful summer over here, and it's been quite peaceful. We've been doing little odds and ends here and there (we finally got a storm shelter put in, so when the zombie apocalypse-or, you know, tornadoes-come, we'll be at least a tiny bit ready), and I've really been enjoying it. I think Baby needs more food now (I've been so hungry lately!), so I'll end here. I hope that you all have a wonderful day!