Today, I am 16 (almost 17) weeks pregnant! Everyone told me that when you get into your 2nd trimester - everything gets better. I reluctantly listened because my first trimester was rather tough. I had "morning sickness" (who the heck named it that? It's not morning, it's "all day sickness") for all of weeks 6 through 13. (That was actually how we finally discovered that we were pregnant - I went home from work sick, feeling strange). It was hard to get up and get ready for work in the beginning, hard to say "I'm good, how are you?", hard to cook anything (I don't think I did cook in my 1st trimester, we just ordered out a lot ... thank you Baby!) and hard to feel rested. It was rough, but now it's over! Now, I feel like I'm back - back to my old self and it feels great!!! (And just in time for the holidays :) )
The whole food craving thing hasn't really kicked in for me. During my first trimester, I wanted anything with cheese (and I'm not normally a cheese eater) and I also craved a lot of fruit. Now, I feel like I'm just back to normal besides eating more snacks. I hope I do get a craving of some kind, so I can tell this baby (like all of our mothers tell us), "With you, I couldn't get enough of _____!" O, well - we do have 23 weeks to go, we'll see what weird things I might crave later.
On a seperate note - I love it when there is a change of season! Last night, Artie and I got out our fall decorations. We put things around the house that symbol the fall season (pumpkins, mums, things about giving thanks for "Thanksgiving") and bought pumpkins for the front porch. I love it when it feels like we're moving into the holiday season. I don't think I noticed it as much when I was single, but when I got married and nestled a home and now have a baby on the way - it's just so sweet as you sense Christmas, family together time, celebration, and cool nights ahead (even though it will be awhile before there are cool nights!). Artie and I have lots of little things we do to make the holiday season sweet and it is such a tender time in people's hearts - we always wind up speaking to people about Christ because it's a celebration of the birth of the Savior of the world ~ Jesus, and it's fun to remind each other of that.
Speaking of that - I just love my neighborhood! Christmas always seems to bring our neighborhood together more (we have parties together and bake for each other and give each other small gifts). When Artie and I went to Chicago last week for a conference, we came home and our neighbors had brought our newspapers up to the front porch - and we hadn't even asked them to. We also have neighbors call out "hello's" and "how's that baby doing so far?" over their fences. This morning, I was reading in Matthew where Jesus calls us (or commands us) to be the salt of the earth. In other words, we as children of God are to bring the flavor of God or taste of His character to the circles that we live in. That includes our neighborhoods. My heart was burdened for those I live among that need the tenderness, forgiveness, mercy and love of God. How do I do that? God lifted my burden by saying, "Salt is a common seasoning, Lela ... I'm not requiring you to be extra ordinary, just common! Common salt." I'm like everyone else ... I have messes to clean up, I have relationships to restore, I have crabby days ... but I have hope, peace, joy, love... And this holiday season, I hope to bring the flavor of God to a world that is hurt, hopeless and without peace - and thank goodness He just requires us to be common folks, just plain ol table salt ... because that's all I have to offer.
"You are the salt of the earth..."
Matthew 5:13
Here's some photos of our trip to Chicago just for fun ...
