The New New Normal

When people have babies, lose a loved one, or make major life changes, they describe their altered existence as their "new normal". I feel like our family has had to embrace so many "new normals" in the past couple of years that I can't actually remember what life was like before I started counting normals! I suspect it wasn't very normal then, either.

Adjusting to life with a second baby boy was one new normal. 

 I can get behind this normal one hundred percent, even when he's sick all the time, or crying, or sleeping only in his car seat, or you know, just acting like a friggin' baby. He's so darn cute. Cloth diapering is becoming yet another normal, too, but that's maybe an entirely different post.

One year into life as the senior pastor's family, and me a working mom with two kids, well, that's becoming more normal too.

The newest normal we have had to come to grips with is another health hiccup where my husband is concerned. After a few months of a barrage of tests and a lot of uncertainty, he was finally diagnosed with cardiac sarcoidosis. We were so thankful it wasn't cancer again, but what the heck is sarcoid? Basically an auto-immune condition attacking his heart, leaving scar tissue which in turn affects the proper beating of his heart, which, as you can imagine, can be the cause of all sorts of problems.

Coming to grips with that meant also accepting the treatment, which is a large dose of steroids and then a long step-down process after that. We are talking years. And with that, we recently decided that Chris would attempt the Auto-Immune Protocol diet, to see if that could positively affect his health, too. Check out the list of foods to avoid:

 Yep, all grains, all dairy, all nuts (including COFFEE?!?), all beans, legumes and seeds are verboten, no eggs, and also nothing from the nightshade family, which includes  potatoes and tomatoes. Wow. So basically meat, poultry, fish and produce. Nothing pre-packaged, no food additives, emulsifiers, and (GULP) no alcohol.

We are trying this for a month. We went to Whole Foods last night and spent over $200 on food for the first half of the week. (BRB, fainting...) There is another grocery trip in a couple of days. 

I'll say that I am SO grateful we found a book of recipes that include meal plans and shopping lists. I don't think I would have had the energy to attempt this protocol without them!!

Anyone else attempting or have attempted this protocol? Any tips and tricks out there? We are just starting out and have little idea what we are in for. We honestly barely have money left over for the rest of the family to have planned meals...believe it or not, that $200 was for food for one person. There were some startup costs for pantry items that we don't usually have lying around, like coconut aminos, coconut cream, coconut flour...basically all kinds of coconut.

So that's that. I could spend time looking back and being overwhelmed by the whirlwind of our lives, or I can choose to be grateful we are all still here together, put my head down and keep going in grace. (Sometimes I choose both!)

An Imperfect 10

My little buddy is 10 days old today!

His onesie describes the kind of night he gave us/me last night...eating every hour or two and grunting and kvetching in between:

Gobble gobble gobble - need it to chub you up, baby!

Gobble, gobble, gobble, indeed! Mommy is rather exhausted, but that's par for the course with a newborn. Then the big boy had a bad dream in there somewhere and you can now imagine the coffee fantasies that I will be fulfilling for myself today!

Life with two kiddos is so far fairly chill, since one of them sleeps most of the day. I'm trying to enjoy the relative downtime because I know, as one friend eloquently put it, "it's about to get loud!"

So I'm spending my time cleaning the house (which was in dire need!), doing laundry, playing games with my big boy, trying to remember where I was in my knitting chart, staring at the sleeping newborn, and generally NOT following the wisdom of sleeping when he sleeps. I'd be sleeping like 20 hours a day! 

I don't know why I can't turn off and wind down in order to nap like I did when I was pregnant. I only do it when the whole family takes a nap together in our bed (well, Little A is in the co-sleeper, but close enough!), which are glorious times of joy and relaxation. I get all grateful and teary laying there amongst my guys.

I was crazy enough to think to myself yesterday, "Gee, I feel like I could almost just go back to work! Bring the baby in my office since he never cries anyway and get some work done!" Don't think the lovely gal temporarily taking over for me would appreciate having her job for barely a week or two, for one. And for two...I'm obviously crazy, and the baby reminded me last night what having a newborn is all about: HIM. 

Getting to know him, getting to know all about him...and feeding and feeding and feeding him! Introducing him to music worth listening to (Elton John's Honky Chateau, Ray LaMontagne...real autumnal stuff for the season!), exposing him to sunlight to help him figure out the difference between day and night, snuggling him so he knows he's loved and who his mama is. =)

So it has been an imperfect 10 days since that fateful morning of delivery. But imperfect in the best way...the messy, beautiful, agony and ecstasy kind of way that defines any life worth living. I have been grateful for the reminder.

My Funny Valentine

This is your dad and I when we were newly dating. 8/18/07

Fortuitously, the prompt about how I fell in love or how I knew my spouse was "the one" has fallen on Valentine's Day. Dad and I don't really celebrate because we aren't the "romantical" types with the flowers and the chocolates and whatnot, and yes, we think it is a consumer-driven holiday and all that. However, don't give up on your old parents and think we're just living together in comfort. We definitely still love each other and smack each others' booties and wink at one another and all those crazy things that you will understand more as you get older. =)

The story of your dad asking me out is a great one, but the story of when I knew he was "the one" (even though I don't believe in that concept) is nice and mundane...just like much of our romantic history. 

One day, a few months into our dating, he was really late picking me up from a designated meeting place so that we could go out together. I was sitting in a dark parking lot and starting to get worried. I didn't want to be annoying but was calling and texting him and trying to figure out where he was. It was about twenty minutes or so after the time we said we'd meet and he texted me to say he was just leaving his office...which meant it would be another 20 or so minutes until he arrived!!

When he got there finally he said he had just gotten carried away playing Wii at the office and he didn't have a good excuse and he seemed so low about it and kept apologizing. He seemed very distressed. I asked him if there was something bigger that was bothering him. 

He basically said he was worried that he'd upset me and that he "didn't want to mess things up." I remember being offended at this thought, and nearly shouting, "You can't mess things up, I love you, you dope!" But I stopped myself, because I hadn't even realized that this was how I felt, so I certainly wasn't ready to tell him quite yet!!

I finally got up the courage after acting very ridiculous one night to tell your dad that I was in love with him. We both already knew it and he said he loved me back. When he left my house that night, I cried and cried with joy because I knew I had truly found the man I was going to marry and spend my life with and start a family with and the whole thing. 

A few months later, we got married. 

And look, here we are! A few years later we've got you, and we're thinking about adding a sibling to the brood and we're just livin' the dream. A blessed life!! 

MamaDada

Day three of the 30 day challenge asks me to describe my relationship with your dad.

This is interesting, and fairly personal, but I will give it a go. I guess the best word I could use for our relationship at the moment is "comfortable". 

There are good and bad sides to this assessment. Dad and I are pretty comfy together after marriage, moving across country, being "poor" together, having a kid, surviving cancer...and all in just five short years of marriage! We love each other and we enjoy our life together, being homebodies and hanging out with you.

I guess the flip side of this is that we don't get to do many fun and exciting new things together, and maybe there is such thing as "too comfortable", sometimes. It can get to the point where you just start to assume the other person knows that you love them and there's no reason to remind them! This is untrue, and I think can work on being more intentional in how we love each other in the day to day adventures of life.

I love your Dad for being a godly man who loves and provides for his family and loves Jesus and the church. He loves me in spite of my spitfire ways and because I'm a gorgeous redhead (ha! But true.) You can rest assured that we are committed to each other and to you for the very, very long haul!