Little reasons for joy

I am feeling abundantly blessed lately, but not particularly deep. Is this Baby Brain?

Here are just a handful of blessings and little reasons for joy I have been experiencing lately:

A new niece, healthy, sweet and beautiful. Keep your eyes peeled for my sister to blog about her birth soon. I know you'll want to see photos of this gorgeous child!

Grapefruits. Really, I can't think of a better bedtime snack.

A little boy developing a new love for baking.
"Mama? Hep?" (= "Mommy? Can I help?" Sigh. Of course, my dear!)

The fact that the theme song from Civilization IV (which my husband is now campaigning to go get! Ha! I married a closet Gamer!) won a Grammy. That alone is odd and yet fun. And the words, my friends, are the Our Father in Swahili!
ItalicBut in all seriousness, play this song, and dance. Or at least, feel dance-y.

The lengthening days. Oh, eating supper in daylight! A beautiful little sign of hope!

Making tasty whole wheat pretzels

Hearing a priest denounce the Winnipeg Statement from the pulpit. Today. In the Archdiocese of Halifax. (I know, I know, I don't believe it either.) In fact, he said, "It's not even worth using as toilet paper.")

The flurry of activity happening in my womb now, and knowing it's not far off for me to actually meet this Baby face to face!

Having Noah request "Angel in the Waters" at bedtime for his story. Oh, and his cute reaction when the baby in the womb turns into the head-down position. "Oh nooooo!" he cries.

My very, very patient husband

The arrival of our order of heirloom seeds, and dreaming of our first garden

The messes that are somehow beautiful -- toys to pick up, diapers to fold, beds to make, tea cups to wash. All signs of a happy household and more blessings than I can count.

Feeling pretty. (Is that weird to say?) Yes, I feel so lovely and feminine and happy when I am 20 - 29 weeks pregnant. My hair is shinier and thicker, my skin is clearer and I actually like my maternity clothes more than my non-pregnant clothes. It's lovely to be full of life.

These are my little reasons for joy today. Feel free to share yours!

Comments

  1. ElenaFebruary 23, 2011 at 9:29 PM

    Feeling pretty is wonderful and that point in a pregnancy is my favourite point - not too big but big enough to love your maternity clothes and still have them fit.
    Also, who was the priest who denounced the toilet paper?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Julie CulshawFebruary 24, 2011 at 2:14 PM

    Yes, Jenna you are glowing with this pregnancy. Beautiful to see. And I too am dying to know who is this priest? Fr. T?

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownFebruary 24, 2011 at 4:22 PM

    The beauty and peacefulness of this post makes me think of Wendell Berry (I'm reading his book- Hannah Coulter... read it if you ever get the chance!). Thank you for sharing Jenna :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jenna CraineFebruary 26, 2011 at 9:31 PM

    Julie and Elena, I would be happy to tell you the name of this priest over email or in person. I would rather not post it on my blog, though. Despite him being willing to speak publicly about this, the Winnipeg statement has never been rescinded by the bishops, and if I were to talk about this priest by name, he *might* face problems from his own bishop and/or other Canadian bishops. (It's not Fr. T, since you asked.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. SarahFebruary 28, 2011 at 11:43 AM

    I love the Civ IV themesong!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 QT: Homeschooling with a sick baby & fangirl Pinterest moments

Image
~1~ I'm rather behind the eight ball on the first day of school blog post, seeing as though we've been at it for over a week, but oh my, what a week it was. On the night of Labour Day, my husband and I stayed up much later than we normally do getting our little homeschool nook in order. I wanted very much to have it look appealing to the boys because this is our first year formally homeschooling and I want to have them excited about it all. Anyway, we managed to create this little space: and I was quite pleased with it.  The boys each have their own IKEA-hack shelf with their daily read-alouds picked our for them, as well as a little calendar to learn more about the seasons and weather (mostly for Isaiah) and laminated prayer cards of the Morning Offering, the Act of Contrition and the Anima Christi. Oh, and the lunar cycle there for good measure. We love the moon a lot around here. Anyway, I went to bed that night thinking I'd sleep the sleep of ...
Read more

And the millstone award goes to...

Image
On Monday I needed to do some errands -- the weekly groceries, a trip to the bank, and I was in need of a gift for my mother-in-law who's birthday was coming up. She is an avid bibliophile, and I thought she might like One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, something I haven't read (yet!) but based on my exposure to Ann Voskamp's writing, it really seemed up my mother-in-law's alley. Rather than wasting the gas by going into the city another day during the week, I decided to bundle the kids up and do all the errands in one packed morning. We had a grand ol' time. We always do, really, when we head out (especially when we are lucky enough to have  this song  play on the radio while we cruise around). When we arrived at Chapters, I quickly found the Voskamp book, found a nice day-planner for myself at 75% off (yipee!) and then told the boys we could play around in the kids' section for a while. They have a Thomas train table set up there, as well as other vario...
Read more

7 Quick Takes on things that are bringing me JOY

Image
I don't even know if anyone still does 7 Quick Takes anymore, but I was in the mood for an old-school blog post, so here goes. 1. The Nester on Instagram . Her stories taking her followers shopping are DELIGHTFUL. She goes to antique malls or home goods stores and explains why you want feather throw pillows, not poly. Or why you want accent items that are at least as big as pineapple (any smaller, these items will begin to feel like clutter). It's really tremendously helpful and she's just so sweet and uplifting! {Do you not use this app? Never fear. Even without an Instagram account, you can open the website on your computer browser, and because her profile is set to public, you can access her photos and stories.} The Nester is just really calming, wise and has such great home decor advice. While we have quite different style, I devour her insights to apply to our own home. 2. Nature journalling with the kids .  Oh my, I always thought this was like, some lofty thing that ...
Read more