It's the Blog That Suffers the Most

It seems like since I became pregnant, this blog is lucky to get some attention once a week. Though I have reduced my number of commitments and outings, I'm still doing blog-worthy things from time to time -- yet, I struggle to find make the time to blog about them. I hate to still blame the baby growing inside of me, but honestly, it's all her fault. I'm either constantly sleeping or sleepwalking, and I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do about it. Unfortunately, it's the blog that suffers the most.

To recap the last several days:

On Friday, I joined my friend Amy for two-day Sally Clarkson Whole Hearted Mother Conference. I was a little leery of the conference content considering I've never attended before, but I was pleasantly surprised to be both challenged and encouraged in my role as a mother. Really, so encouraged that I'm considering adding four or five more kids to our brood (but don't tell James).

On Saturday, when the conference ended, Amy and I met our wonderful husbands for dinner and a concert. As a Christmas gift, James gave me four tickets for the sold out Chris Tomlin Hello Love concert (with Israel Houghton and surprise guest Christy Nockels). We invited Amy and Corey long before I made the connection that the conference was the same weekend, and it all worked out smashingly. The concert, the music, unbelievable! I love Chris Tomlin, and he couldn't have chosen better tour mates. Such a great time! What was not great was the fact that I left the car lights on and returned to a dead battery. Fortunately, our friends rescued us -- late though it was -- and our crummy car battery lives on another day.

Very, very early Sunday morning, we left home for East Texas. James' grandmother died earlier in the month, and her memorial service was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. We wondered how the service would play out since James' family lives in a tiny little town and two of his family members (along with their family members) would not be able to make it to the service. We were concerned for James' dad that the memorial service would have a limited number of attendees. Instead, we were pleasantly surprised to see a full little chapel with friends and family that hadn't been seen in years. Even Gigi's students came to share kind words about her -- students she taught in pre-K who are now grown men and women. We were impacted by the life she led, and we were honored by the respect shown to Gigi and to James' dad.

We spent Sunday night in a hotel in Nacogdoches, and it was probably the one hotel in an entire chain of hotels that did not have an indoor pool. Not good when you have two kids who've been made to sit still and be quiet nearly all day long. They were upset and frustrated, but I think I was even more upset and frustrated. It was too cold and too dark to go hunting for a park, so we just made do until they wiggled themselves to sleep.

On Monday, we came home again and life returned to "normal" (a term used loosely around here), what with the schooling and cleaning and living life in general.

Yesterday, we went on a field trip to The Bureau of Printing and Engraving, one of only two facilities that prints U.S. paper currency (the other is in Washington D.C.). The tour was totally free, and was so interesting and informative. We learned about early forms of currency. We learned about the engraving and printing process. We got to see the machines at work and easily hundreds of thousands of (non-monetized) dollars just lying around. Did you know the money printed at the Fort Worth location has a tiny "FW" in the top right corner? (The money printed in Washington D.C. does not.)

Today, I'm doing a mad dash around the house finishing the laundry and cleaning frantically before my father-in-law comes for a weekend visit. He's coming to bring some things of Gigi's he thinks I may want, and staying for last basketball games and first soccer games. We're also hoping to squeeze in The Great Train Expo so Poppa John can introduce his love of miniature trains to Bub and Gracie.

So, I'm doing lots of things -- lots of blog-worthy things -- but unfortunately, they're slow in making it to the blog. I'd like to promise once again that I'll be more diligent, but reality is that this is my life right now. This sleepwalking, just-getting-by, gestating reality is mine and I couldn't be happier for it, even if the blog suffers.