Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 You may recall that I was an Activity Days person for  kids aged 8-11 for our congregation back in DC. Well, I may never completely escape it. Mark was asked to be the Activity Days person for boys aged 8-11 for our congregation here in Illinois, and he wanted me to help teach a First Aid lesson to them. Which I did. Okay, mostly Mark did the teaching--because he's good interacting with kids--but I prepared the lessons. Not sure the kids actually enjoyed  it (one of them asked at the end of the night "Are we doing anything fun today?"), but the parents must have thought it was useful, because we got asked to teach First Aid to the older boys [aged 12-17]. And by golly, I thought up some good activities, so we're documenting it. Heimlich Maneuver : I pinched off small pieces of bread and rolled them into balls that could fit in a bunch of straws, then lodged a bread ball into the end of each straw that I handed out to each boy to then blow into a tub. The idea is the ...

 I have officially experienced all trimesters, and I have to say the fourth trimester is the worst [although admittedly I didn't get very far into the third trimester, which I think means my fourth trimester was even longer]. At one of my follow-up visits, I told my midwife that the sleep deprivation is more miserable than labor/delivery, and she heartily agreed. I can't believe I was hoping for multiples. Anyway, the fourth trimester is over, but the sleep deprivation continues. I have discovered that I am both stronger and weaker than I imagined. I have been through a lot [read below!], and have only survived because of community--so for all my friends and acquaintances who went through the postpartum period without my emotional/physical support, I owe y'all some serious apologies.  Highlights [or really, lowlights] of the last 4 months: When Nathan was 6 weeks old Mark and I both got food poisoning. We are 99% sure it came from a soup mix that, ironically, had been sent ...