Currently

Sweating to a wide variety of prenatal workout videos on youtube.   I have this very real sense that I'm going to have to hit the ground running after this baby is born because I'll have a busy toddler to keep up with in addition to a baby to take care of.  After Nicole was born I did so much sitting.  I sat and rocked her, I sat and nursed her, I sat and held her.  For months.  But this time around I know that I won't be parking myself on the couch for the unforeseeable future and I need to be able-bodied enough to meet the needs of both of my children.  Prenatal workout videos are not designed to be rigorous so I'm not over here doing anything crazy - just enough to keep my body strong and my stamina high.

Planning freezer meals galore.  I am not exaggerating when I admit to you that I think about life after this baby is born every single day.  My brain is full of scenarios and action points on a daily basis and I'm constantly trying to set my soon-to-be family of 4 up for success.  There are a couple of things that I remember very well from Nicole's newborn days, and a drastic change in our meal times is one of those things.  All of the sudden I couldn't cook dinner when I usually did and I certainly couldn't always finish cooking dinner without a wailing baby lobbying for my attention.   Everything surrounding meal times felt hard.  I distinctly remember our most successful meals being ones that I had prepped ahead and could put in the oven sometime mid-afternoon.  Anything that utilized my oven or my crockpot was an instant winner.  Anything that involved me needing to stand over a hot stove was incredibly stressful.  Armed with that information, I am testing one to two freezer meals each week in hopes of having a large enough collection of recipes to fill our freezer with in the new year.

Reflecting on all that I learned during my Shepherding a Child's Heart Bible study.  I've been thinking through the best way to fill you in all of the things that study stirred up in me but I haven't mentally edited it to be less than the longest post in the history of this blog so I'm not quite there yet!

Loving this season, in every sense of the word.  I love that we're right in the middle of the holidays, which has always been one of my favorite times of the year.  I love it that the weather here is nice and I can easily spend time outside with Nicole each day.  I love it that Nicole is big enough to do things that she couldn't previously do like spend the whole morning out and about or climb to new heights on the playground.  I especially love this unique and special season we're in where it's still just the 3 of us but we're all excitedly anticipating adding a fourth member to our little tribe very soon.

Balancing all of the stress, obligations and traditions of the season.  It's really important to me to keep life simple in all of the areas I possibly can because doing so helps me thrive instead of survive.  However, I am by nature an achiever and I absolutely need to get stuff done to feel like a productive member of society.  It's really easy for me to over commit but almost always, my overcommitment is self-imposed.  When I start mentally making my to-do lists, my mind just goes and goes and goes.  Ultimately, the majority of my ideas stem from a desire to connect with others and invest in our relationships, both new and old.  But there is a limit to how many dozens of cookies can come out of my oven and how many Christmas cards I can write.   In order to make these seasonal connection points meaningful, I cannot be overrun by stress.   This year, that has meant deciding not to do an advent calendar, abandoning the idea of making homemade dog treats for the dogs in my life (sorry Gunner & Cabella!) and only purchasing one small Christmas gift for Nicole.

Appreciating the roots we've grown here in Texas and the relationships we've been able to maintain back home.  I have dear friends (and family members!) who I haven't seen since we've moved and logistically, I still don't know when we'll be able to reconnect again.  I knew I needed to make friends here but I was also very guarded about it emotionally because I didn't know how I could possibly have the capacity to maintain all of my friendships back home and build new ones.  I have had to trust God with all of the people in my life, locally and far away, and believe that He loves them far more than I ever could and always has their best interest in mind.  There are seasons when I can be more or less involved in someones life and I'm learning how to celebrate each season for what it is.

Delivering Christmas cookies! Thanks to a very special apron sent by Nicole's Great Aunt Mary, she was properly outfitted and ready to help me bake up the rest the cookies for our neighbors and community helpers.  We finished baking everything this weekend and had a blast delivering bags of goodies to the people we rub shoulders with on a regular basis.  It was a lot of work but the outcome was worth the effort because Nicole got very excited about giving away our sweet treats and it was a great platform to foster a spirit of giving for all of us. 

Nicole in her special holiday apron from her Great Aunt Mary

What's currently going on it your life?  I'd love to know!
Love,
Erica