I’m one of those people who is always working on something. I have a whole notebook which I call my creative therapy where I store all of the projects I want to start, inspiration for decoration or design. I call it my creative therapy because the right side and the left side of my brain are constantly fighting and this organizational technique eases that tension. Structure and creativity. Organized chaos.

Well on top of actually getting my etsy shop rolling (quilts take a while to make and I need a few done to launch the shop), I started another long-term project. I decided I needed a project to work on while Clint is away. An 8 month project. So, I’m undertaking a knitted patchwork blanket. A queen sized blanket. The nice thing about this project is that it will take a long time but it comprised of 100 small knitted sections that I will sew together when they are all done. Crazy, I know. But so exciting. It is just the type of thing you can pick up and put down and travel with. I can’t travel with my sewing machine so I will have to take a long break this summer from sewing.

I started knitting back at Capernwray my freshman year of college and there aren’t many things to do at Capernwray (especially our year, thank you hoof in mouth) except drink beer or knit. I learned to knit. I haven’t knitted much since I got married and then I picked this project up last week because I decided that our next round of bedding needs a large knitted blanket.

So yes, I have a project obsession. I also value handmade things. Thankfully I am the type of person who tends to complete projects. Usually at the expense of sleep but I’d rather loose sleep than have 20 half finished projects lying around.

-Megan

Here’s a little background. I went to The Master’s College. TMC had a really great business department based on sound biblical principals. That is the ONLY reason I went to TMC. I went in very cynical about the number of people who seemed to only be at TMC to find a spouse. I frequently was found criticizing the seemingly very expensive dating service. I ate my words when I met Clint and ended up getting married the fall after I graduated.

Along with this expensive dating service that I mocked ceaselessly was the Home Economics Department and the women who were paying upwards of $24k a year to obtain the degree. I have no problem with the subject matter taught in the department. But speaking from experience, most, if not all of the subject matter taught you can learn from other sources for a lot less than $24K a year. I did appreciate the girls who admitted that the whole reason they were home ec majors was to get husbands.

So here is my struggle. I never wanted to be what the home ec majors strived to become. I didn’t want to be a house keeping, sewing, decorating, cooking woman who stayed home all day. Low and behold, I seemed to have turned into that very woman. Not only that, but I am wishing that I had taken several of those classes because they are skills I wish I had.

I am a creative person who feels the need to do something creative often if not daily. I would prefer to paint but painting is not something you can just drop at a moments notice. Being able to drop things at a moments notice is key when you have 2 kinds under 2. So I picked up sewing about 2 years ago and once again it has been fun to create stuff. Unfortunately I am not trained at all so I am trying to learn as I go. In the past month, I have sewn several rag dolls for Bella, a baby quilt for Liam, curtains for the whole house, and a diaper bag for myself. It’s been fun to make stuff again.

-megan

Well hello again from the Presbyterian Hospital of Plano.18 months ago we were here with Isabella. Now we’re here with another little one. Megan made the comment to me, “its amazing how God increases your capacity to love.” Its so true. It blows my mind that I don’t feel any less love for my wife or Bella (if anything, I love them more than ever!), yet I have so much love for my new son. Hopefully, I can answer a couple of likely questions from our readership.

1. And probably most importantly, Megan and Liam are doing good. Megan is healing well, and Liam is eating, sleeping, and, well…doing everything a newborn should do.

2. Bella is oblivious to her new brother. She has actually had a little bit of a cold this week, so she hasn’t seen her brother much. I don’t think the full realization of just how much her world has changed until we all get back home.

3. Sleep? Sleep?? We’re getting a little. One of the nice things about the hospital is that you can send your newborn to the nursery during the night so that you can get some sleep in between feedings (but remember, he eats every three hours or so).

4. If you think of anything else to ask, leave a comment and we’ll answer it.

5. Oh before I forget, here are some more pictures

Here’s the quick update….I had a second child today. William Manuel (aka Liam) was born at 12:19pm via c-section. He is a very healthy 9lbs 3oz and 19″ long. He’s a good eater and fairly quiet…at least thus far. And by popular demand, here are some photos…

This morning, I feel like blogging. Liam is coming on Thursday at 5pm. It is nice to be so close. Lord willing, the time will fly by. My mom gets into town next Wednesday afternoon for 2.5 weeks. So, between now and then there are several things that I would like to get done.

Cleaning is the main thing. Accomplishing this is easier said than done. Although I am feeling fairly good at this stage I am still awkwardly huge and having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions…this makes pretty much everything really difficult.

I have been sewing a bunch. I got one of two wedding presents completed. I finished Liam’s baby quilt. I made myself a new diaper bag without a pattern (yay!). I made cloth wipes for the small children. Make fun of me if you will, but since I am already using a cloth diaper system I might as well go the distance. I would also like to finish some curtains and get them put up but that is last priority.

I am learning all about what it means to be a parent of a kid with food allergies. Bella is officially allergic to avocado and eggs. Although her reactions are not classified as severe, her allergist would prefer that we cut out anything with egg for the next six months in the hopes that she grows out of it. So now I read every food label, rethink what I cook, and carry an epipen with me at all times. Not my favorite past time….but since an egg allergy can grow into something life threatening I am taking it seriously.

Hopefully this time next week there will be lots of pictures of baby Ochoa. Our hospital has free wireless so Clint should be able to post.

-Megan

So here we are, 20 days from our scheduled c-section to bring little Liam into the world. I am very eager and on the border of impatient waiting these last few weeks. There is a constant To-Do list running through my head and I can’t seem to accomplish anything on this list. There are 3 main reasons this list is not getting accomplished:

1. I am getting VERY large, I look and feel like I am smuggling a bowling ball around under my shirt. This makes getting things done very awkward and often times painful. For all of you whom have never been pregnant, try strapping a 12lb bowling ball to your stomach and do things like laundry and the dishes.

2. Bella has become a very clingy child. It is driving me insane! She insists on spending her whole day sitting on my rapidly disappearing lap. Somehow she knows that her world is about to be turned upside down and this is how she is protesting. She cries all day and pulls at my legs making it difficult to accomplish anything.

3. I am trying desperately not to go into natural labor. It seems counter-intuitive but if I do go into labor they will do an emergency c-section immediately. I don’t particularly want to have a c-section while in labor because it can make for a longer more painful recovery. I also don’t want him to come before the 6th because Clint has a business trip to St. Louis next weekend and he’d like to be here when Liam arrives.

So we wait, and pray, and wait some more. Hopefully I won’t go insane that I am home all day but can’t seem to accomplish anything. Maybe the time is truly best spent reading the same books repeatedly to Isabella.

Here are some recent pictures of the 17 month old Isabella…

Isabella sleeping for the first time in her “Big Girl” bed

…notice that she found a pair of jeans to snuggle with

This is Bella’s attempt at helping me cook dinner

So a dear friend of mine Shay recently wrote a post on his blog entitled So You Think You Can Blog where he drags not so consistent bloggers across the coals. Saying ultimately that blogging is a discipline of writing and that a lack of consistency, for whatever reason, are just excuses. So here are my excuses for not writing in the last month. We went to Seattle to visit my family which was marvelous. We arrived home early on the 20th and then moved into our new town home on the same day. I unpacked the entire house over the following week while chasing a 16 month old around from hazard to hazard. Then I landed on strict bed rest for 2 week because I stressed my body into potential pre-term labor. I was put on restricted activity for the rest of my pregnancy last Friday and so resumed (with much less fervor) the organization of our new home. We finally got internet and cable installed this Tuesday. So those are my excuses for not blogging. It hasn’t been a priority.

So I am writing this post because I am currently overwhelmed and this seemed like a good distraction. I am overwhelmed because tomorrow we are leaving for Seattle for a week to spend time with my family. I couldn’t be more stoked about this but getting to tomorrow is daunting. Normally I am a pro at packing for trips. The reason I am overwhelmed is that the very day we return from Seattle we are moving into our new (new to us) townhouse. I tend to schedule travel around moving. It is never really intentional, but out of our 3 moves together as a married couple 2 of them have been amidst major traveling, the third occurred days after I landed on bed-rest with Bella and a few days before Christmas.

Part of the reason we scheduled this move for when we did was because I would much rather have as many transitions as I can overlap. So in the case of this move we will be moving out of our temporary housing with my in-laws, vacationing at my parents home, and then moving into a new home. The other big reason we decided to move on that specific date is because they wouldn’t hold the townhome for us any longer. So the 20th it is.

So now I am packing for vacation, and packing to move and trying to organize everything associated with travelling and moving. This whole scheme wouldn’t have worked if I actually had to pack a whole household. We have two rooms to ourselves at Clint’s parent’s house full of necessities and some kitchen and bathroom items. Thankfully all of that can be boxed rather quickly without much pain. The rest of our belongings occupy a storage unit down the street.

I am kind of at a stalemate of packing. Everything that isn’t currently packed is either too big for me to pack in my very pregnant state, or something we will need this evening and will pack just before bed. It’s that stalemate that leaves me a bit overwhelmed by the whole process.

More to come I’m sure…

Well this Wednesday was anything but typical. Bella slept in, I had a long meeting this morning and left Bella with Grandma. I came home to a vomiting child which pretty much dominated the rest of my day. Oh the joys of parenting. My day did end well with a trip to a student ministries get together hosted by one of our upcoming seniors. It was awesome to see all of our students choosing to be together in fellowship even though the ministry itself is taking a month off of formal meetings. I love being able to serve with such amazing teenagers.

If I had to label my typical Monday it would be errnads day. My Tuesdays would be labled my cleaning days. My Tuesdays are typically not all that exciting. Bella spends the majority of her day playing by herself in her own little world. I don’t drive anywhere on Tuesdays more out of a need to save on gas than anything. So we are home and accomplish lots of things within the home.
Tuesday mornings start with Bella waking me up (via baby monitor). I get a shower Bella chills in her crib till I am ready for the day. I make breakfast, we eat breakfast, I clean up breakfast and then Bella heads to her room to destroy all of the efforts made in cleaning her room the night before.
I then reference my favorite organizational systems (moleskine, computer and FlyLady). FlyLady is a home organization/cleaning tool that I discovered soon after Clint and I got married. She sends daily e-mails (which I don’t read daily) giving some guidence on keeping your home consistently clean and organized. The two things that I try and stick to rigidly are the weekly home blessing hour and the zone of the week. The weekly home blessing hour is where you tackle things like vaccuuming, dusting, and bigger cleaning jobs. Not deep cleaning but bigger up-keep jobs. The zone of the week is where they break the house into five zones and you tackle deep cleaning projects in that zone. You are supposed to do them daily but they don’t take all that long so I just do an entire weeks worth on Thrusdays. Flylady also encourages daily up-keep and cleaning of counters, bathrooms (toilet, mirror, and sink), and laundry.
At 10:00am I started my laundry, folded the load from yesterday and started a load of whites. In my laundry system there are whites (which are washed in hot with bleach) and everything else (that gets washed in cold). It is more economical and I never have to wait for a load.
By 10:30 I started my weekly home blessing hour which I have simplified to a science since I started making my own cleaners. I have two bottles I use. The first is an all purpose disinfecting cleaner which is made of a spray bottle 3/4 filled with warm water, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 3 tablespoons of Borax, a couple of drops of dish washing liquid, and a couple of drops of tea tree oil. The second is a glass cleaner that is made of just strong black tea. The tannic acid in the tea cuts through grease and leaves a streak free shine. It also works great on floors.
At noon I made lunch, we ate lunch, I put Bella down for a nap and then I cleaned up lunch.
I then did some dinking around the internet doing my usual rounds and then spent some time reading some blog posts about personal finances and organization. We are just now coming out of a six month struggle with finances and we are at a point where our heads our finally above water. This is the best time to establish new habits, take another look at biblical stewardship and make new plans. I have recently fallen in love with Crown Ministries book keeping software called Mvelopes. The old program I used iBank made it a bit difficult to budget and stick to a budget which is already really difficult when you rely on commission as your main source of income. Mvelopes helps me visualize and think through our budget which makes it much easier to stick to.
After Bella woke up we played with the little girl that lives behind us in the kiddie pool.
I preped for dinner and waited for that elusive daily call from Clint to start dinner.
We ate, we cleaned up dinner, I ironed (my least favorite chore), listened to Piper’s sermon on William Tyndale, and then headed to bed.