#14 More Good

Rob and I went camping for our anniversary. I don't think I'd have been able to do it any later in the pregnancy than we did, I thought I'd never move again after the first night on the ground! We had a great time and stayed for 3 nights. We camped at Big Creek Campground near Lake Cushman. I have to say that it is a great campground. Each space is far enough from the next that you can't really see it (at least we think so, we couldn't see our stuff from other sites - we were the only one's within 5 sites of us!) Most of the sites have a little area that is set aside for the tent, one even had little steps down into the area. We picked one with less separation, not because we didn't like the idea, we did, but because it was the weekend after Memorial Day and in this particular site, there was a pile of fire wood, including kindling, and a beautifully laid out bed of moss for under the tent! We met a couple of hippie chicks from Olympia who loaned us their ax, as that was one of about 3 things we couldn't believe we'd forgotten, we went mushroom hunting, hiking through a clear cut, we tried to drive to Staircase - but the road was closed, we hiked the part of the trail in the campground that we could reach, as the two bridges were out, I tried to find the place where I broke my leg (no luck, but next time!), we got frisky in the woods 8), and I took a little sponge bath while sitting on a towel over an exposed root, with water that Rob had brought back from the creek and heated over the fire. He angled a long piece of wood and hung a towel over it to block the little bit of a view that one might have walking by and even scrubbed my back! He does things right once in a while! I have to say that it was one of the most luxurious things I've ever done while camping! We also eat GREAT while we're out camping or even traveling! We had burritos with beans that we'd cooked before leaving (breakfast burritos with eggs in the morning), cabbage, cilantro, hot sauce, cheese, onion, mmmm. We had pasta with freshly harvested oyster mushrooms, I swear they taste and smell just like chicken! Rob had wine, I had an excellent ginger brew! We used tortillas for our lunches as well, with seasoned, baked tofu, lettuce, cilantro, mayo, onion, mmmm. Rob being vegetarian, he doesn't eat marshmallows because they contain gelatin, well Gramma found out that the marshmallow fluff doesn't have gelatin, so we had our own style of s'mores!! We set a grate over the fire, placed chocolate on the graham cracker over the fire, as it melted I put some fluff on another cracker. We made the little sandwich and into the mouth it went!!! Oh so good! I know it didn't have the roasted marshmallow flavor, but Rob wasn't even sure that he'd even had a s'more before, so from that perspective, they were damn good!!

I do want to take this time to encourage everyone who is able, to volunteer with the Washington Trails Association, they do a lot of good work that we benefit from and rarely think about. It is a future goal of mine to volunteer with them, not sure how that will work with starting a family just now, but we'll see!

This last weekend the Aunties came over again, oh my, what progress has been made! I can't believe it! Estelle came over and helped too, she got here early in the morning and scrubbed the walls of the "office"(aka back bedroom), while I worked on the kitchen. She was in and out lickety split! Aunt C. arrived first and started with the carpet cleaning in the "office", a short time later Aunt S. arrived. We got the "office" cleaned, the "den" (front bedroom) tidied, the dining room cleared of clutter and vacuumed. Now, I've started painting, the "office". It's going to hold our dressers and hopefully be a sewing/craft room for me! I'm painting it a lovely shade of light yellow (Kelly-Moore Rise and Shine) with a white trim! I've decide to give the ceiling one more coat, let that dry and then tackle the walls! Then the trim in a semi-gloss! Once the painting is done (by the way, we're using a no- VOC paint with lo-VOC tint!) I'm going to "help" Rob move the dressers into the "office"! Once that is done, we'll start thinking about the "den". In between doing these things, I'm to start organizing some of the living room to make it easier for the aunties to help with it!

Wow, how the baby moves! I'm at 30 weeks now and Super Diddle wiggles and jiggles inside me, much like a giant, growing spider! I love how it feels. Sometimes it takes my breath away, not because it hurts, just because it takes me by surprise! I also have noticed over that last couple of weeks that I can quite clearly feel shifts and stretches. I can almost imagine the little limb and what it's doing inside of me! I've felt Super Diddle's little fingers wiggle when baby's head is down in by pelvis, which means it's not turned quite the right way, but we have time and SD doesn't stay down yet, too much play room still! I do love the mornings and evenings, that's still when baby is most active, I feel like we're getting to know each other during those times. Dr. P, gave us a baby book, it's beautiful. It includes a book with pictures of babies, a blank book for me to fill out about being pregnant, and of course one for when the baby comes, all in one decorative keepsake box. I'm very excited to get them filled out, of course a little apprehensive too, in that filling out the pregnancy book, I'd be leaving some things out or documenting more than I actually want to remember. This hasn't been the easiest time in my life and no, it's not just because I'm pregnant, it's the combination of things only exacerbated by the emotional magnifying glass that is pregnancy. I don't want to lie to my child, but I do think there is a time for truth and it wont be soon.

On the down side, I've recently had the unfortunate luck to be around a number of children not behaving. At least one of those experiences was quite disturbing. I just remind myself that it takes a while to get where those kids are and their parents didn't (at least the ones I know) take the same parenting path that Rob and I are planning to travel. With a little luck and a lot of effort, hopefully the outbursts that I've recently witnessed will be few and far between. There is no guaranty so I'm also wondering what action to take when these outbursts happen? I was just talking with my Aunties about it. I don't remember being hit, but I don't remember hassling my parents to buy me things at the store, or behaving the way I've seen these kids behave, "ask once, that's all", "don't make a scene". They assured me that I was smacked a bit to get me to that point, I just don't remember casual hitting, a handful of spankings, yes, but no slaps on the hand, swats to the but, shakings, or the like. I do remember being sent to the car once, it was a little scary and I came back in and said that I was ready to behave ( I can't see doing that these days, so not an option for me!). In conversation with my MIL and my husband, it's clear that they don't believe in spanking, but then with my beautiful attitude, I feel that my husband may have benefited from a few spankings! I think that there are probably a couple of instances that spanking may be called for, but I don't want to spank in anger or with anything other than my hand, so spankings, if given will be given probably by me, with my hand, after I've had time to calm down, and after a discussion as to why the child is getting one, but hopefully this will be unnecessary and I'll have learned other methods of parenting by then. We are planning on taking a Love and Logic parenting class, I figure that we have a little while to take it, so it's still in the planning phase. So, here I am, where ideology meets reality!