Small Things

From my Inbox: An Armed Forces Tribute

My husband recently forwarded me a link to a really touching photo tribute to the armed forces. I have seen some of these before, but not this one. It is set to a Ricky Skaggs song, includes complete credits, and is a really well done website. Check it out (but grab some kleenex if you are the teary-eyed type): http://home.insightbb.com/~armedforcestribute/

One week left!

So far no baby! I am a week from my due date now, slowing down considerably, and feeling this baby lower and lower, it seems like. But no way to tell when anything will happen. I have a history of late, long labors, so I really don't expect anything to happen before my due date. Which is good if I can manage to continue getting stuff done.

Things are moving along with the business planning, though my husband is more motivated right now than I am. Well, ok, not RIGHT now. Right now he is lying on the sofa watching Nascar, or baseball, or golf, or whatever sport is on today. He's not picky. We should be washing the cars or taking care of landscaping stuff. But something about weekend afternoons just drains all motivation out of us. So we lay around, him watching sports, me browsing the internet, and both of us pretending to eat Jimmy's play-doh creations while making sure they don't end up ground into the carpet or upholstery. Usually we get disgusted with our own laziness by about 3 in the afternoon, and finally get up and do sometthing. We have 17 minutes left.

But one great load off my mind is that my house is pretty much clean. A little clutter for me to take care of, but the deep stuff, like the layer of dust and hair on the bathroom base boards, and the spots on the carpet in front of the kitchen, is done! Thanks to my terrific girlfriends Jamie and Jill. They came over yesterday with their respective kiddos, and we spent the better part of the day cleaning house and changing diapers and scrubbing and filling sippy cups and dusting and preventing major head injuries.

The house feels great now, and the kids had no emergencies, so it was great success. Though one kid (mine) dumped buckets of water over my friend's two-year-old. We were relieved to see the water was from the tub, we feared for a moment it was from the toilet. But alas, a couple hours later, both kids from the tub incident were found in yet another bathroom collaborating on scooping water from the toilet to fill a plastic basket of tub toys. Which was not in the tub. And being a basket, did not hold water. But still, overall, a manageable mess for three moms putting their collective housecleaning energies together.

So for dinner we hit the town. Well, we went to eat, ladies only, at a great restaurant on the bay. One with no playland, no kids meals, no small children to be seen. It was so nice to talk with these friends of mine without being interupted every other sentence to feed, clean, bandage, or discipline a child. We stayed out very late.

So now we just have a church picnic to help run tomorrow, my hospital bag to back, and my mom to pick up at the airport on Monday. And then the baby can come if she's ready.

Due date or deadline?

Today my head is spinning. Not like spinning-in-circles-vomiting-green-stuff-from-Satan. I mean spinning from turning from project to project, phone calls, emails, and my almost 3-year-old.

I am three weeks from my due date, and I have so much to get done before then! Does every pregnant mom go through this? That time when you feel like your due date is a deadline and you need to clear your plate before baby arrives so you will be dedicated to just mommihood once labor starts. (God forbid it starts early.)

In addition to the cleaning and organizing and general nesting, we have also stopped procrastinating and hired a lanscape contractor. Which means we have to make decisions on materials and contruction, though my husband and I can't even peacefully negotiate how to draw out the patio with a can of landscapers marking paint. All our neighbors now know how stubborn we both are. (We need to learn to "negotiate" more quietly.)

We have also finally taken action in hiring an ecommerce host/designer to help us build our cloth diapering and baby apparel business. This entails decision making, phone consultations, and hours of data entry and site bulding on my part. On top of keeping my son engaged, fed, fairly clean, and preferably non-injured. How do other WAHMs do it?

Oh, yeah, I also have an editing project to finish, and my Jeep is in the shop. Have I mentioned that I am not the kind of person who multitasks well? I don't like to have too much on my plate. But for the next three weeks, my plate overfloweth. I am praying for energy. And focus. And for my baby to hang in there til my due date.

Susan Torres gives birth to baby girl

On Tuesday, August 2, a woman named Susan Torres gave birth to her baby daughter, now named Susan after her mother. Susan Torres had been brain dead for months, while her husband, Jason Torres, and family kept her on life support in order to give their unborn child a chance at life.

I first heard about Susan Torres months ago, through another blogger (Amy Welborn at Open Book), and the story just overwhelmed me. You can read about her and her family at their website, the Susan M. Torres Fund:

On May 7th, 2005, the day before Mothers' Day, Susan M. (Rollin) Torres -- a 26-year-old vaccine researcher at NIH; mother of a two-year-old son, Peter; graduate of the University of Dallas; and parishioner at St. Rita's Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia collapsed. She was rushed to the Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, where she has been diagnosed with stage four melanoma and is brain dead with no hope of recovery.

She was only 17 weeks pregnant at the time. I can’t imagine the loss and grief and anxiety her husband has faced. And the rest of her family. So I am so happy to hear about the birth of her baby, and I pray she brings them much joy and solace. Especially now, as they must say goodbye to Susan. God bless you, Jason and Susan, you are in my prayers.

The costs of keeping Susan on life support has been enormous, so friends of the Torres family started the Susan M. Torres Fund to help pay for medical bills. You can donate on the site, and there is also an email address listed, should you want to write to the family.