Pregnancy journal: week 18

I’m seeing… Family

I’m feeling… Overwhelmed, stressed, worried, tired, sick… And unable to separate myself from the stress, worry and anxiety of those around me.

I’m thinking… I really need some space to process, decompress and relax. I know I haven’t been doing a good job taking care of myself or this new baby lately and I know I need to, but I’m struggling with how to do that with a demanding toddler and amidst some of the other things that are going on around me right now.

I’m creating… Nothing.

I’m reading… Nothing.

I’m thankful… To be back in the states. Thankful for my midwife and chiropractor, thankful to be able to be with my family in the midst of a lot of different things going on. My dad has been in the hospital for most of the past two weeks and I’m thankful to be here with them all instead of in Prague wondering what’s going on.

I’m looking forward to… Finding out the sex of this baby in a little over a week. Ultrasounds make me nervous, but I’m really glad we are going to find out. I’ve had a really hard time connecting with this baby and it feels like it will help to replace the ambiguity with a gender and a name.

I’m curious about… I’m going to try acupuncture for the first time this week and I’m really curious how it’s going to go. I’m excited about it and feeling hopeful that it will help with a lot of what’s been going on with my body lately. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

A few plans and intentions for this week:

1. Go to acupuncture
2. Get away by myself at least once – maybe go to a yoga class or go sit and write somewhere

A prayer for the week:

Lord, I feel like there is so much that I could ask right now, so much that I need to be laying before you… I’m not sure where to start.
Lord, I pray for healing.
Healing for myself.
Healing for my dad.
Physical healing for all of the issues which are still unknown to us, but are intimately known to you.
Lord, I pray for guidance.
Guidance for Bryan and I.
Guidance for those close to use who face uncertain futures, multiple decisions and unknown outcomes.
Guidance for all of the questions in our hearts.
Lord, I pray for rest.
Rest for my small family.
Rest for my extended family.
Rest from the heartache, the worry.
Be with us all, Lord.
I pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

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These first few are of my beautiful sister-in-law and her handsome man:

These one’s are of my stunning sister and her beautiful family:

I love my family! They are so fun!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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After Trader Joe’s we went to Double DD Meats. This butcher was fun. It just had a fun, lively atmosphere that was really unique. It was busy and happening. There were funny little signs up that my husband and mother-in-law and I all got a kick out of reading. We went there cause we had heard they have grass feed meat, but we were disappointed to learn when we asked that although their meat is all grass fed it is also grain finished. I figured it was still better than the cow not having grass at all, although not as good as 100% grass fed, but I’m not really sure. Do any of you know?? Either way we happily bought a big steak to share, a pound of beef liver, and a whole rabbit.

After that we went to Manna Mills. This place made me especially happy because we found certified raw milk there. It’s the first raw milk I’ve ever bought or drank and let me tell you it was GOOD. My husband and I finished the whole half gallon in about just over two days. Yummy! We also bought some wonderful teas there. They had all kinds of flours and grains in bulk so we of course bought some coconut flour, which I’ve been dying to try. I plan on seeing if I can make a teething biscuit with it. Anyone have a good recipe for teething biscuits? My first attempt at teething biscuits was not all that successful. I want to make it without eggs or grains and I’m hoping that coconut flour will work as the grain substitute. We’ll see.

Today we went shopping again. This time just to Fred Meyer to get a few random things we’d forgotten about – like parsnip and carrots for the rabbit dish we’re going to make tomorrow and avocado’s for the baby. We were pleasantly surprised to learn, though, that Fred Meyer carries Kefir as well as a pretty decent health food section. We also had some fun getting a few baby things to stock my in-laws house – like a sippy cup and baby spoons, as well as a few toys for my son to play with while here. Since he’s their first grandchild they didn’t have anything like that yet. It was a very fun and successful trip as well.
On Friday we plan on going to the farmers market where my mother-in-law sells her homemade Baklava. I can’t wait.

Ok, so after all this shopping are you curious what’s on our menu this week? Well, here’s a little idea of what we plan to make in the next few days:

Steak with Artichokes
Salmon with a big salad
Stuffed Bell Peppers (stuffed with a ground beef and quinoa mixture)
Rabbit with root vegetables
Pizza with a few different cheeses and roasted peppers
Liver and Onions

Yummy! I’m so excited about all of these meals. Best part is that thanks to my in-laws generosity we didn’t have to pay for any of our groceries this week. We just get to cook and enjoy! Parents are great, aren’t they? Thanks again Blake and Lisa! Thaddeus and Bryan and I really appreciate it and our belly’s do too!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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Taking great pictures of your kids…or anything for that matter…may just be all a matter of perspective. Our first inclination upon snapping the shutter is to stand directly in front of our subjects, which although it produces a nice image, may not have an AMAZING quality about it.

So may I propose a Red Thread summer photography assignment? Every time you take a picture, take 3 more. Get above your subject, get down on the ground, and yes…you may even get dirty!

Let me show you the difference perspective makes from this collection of images of my favorite Superhero!

Here I am taking the picture standing directly in front of this flying wonder. Sure it is a good picture. It shows a concentrated super hero expression and definitely shows him jumping from some sort of height. But to be honest, it is not super…and superheroes need SUPER pictures!!

In this picture, I decided to get down on my knees, but still directly in front of our Boy Wonder. (You know, the lovely thing about Superheroes is that they LOVE to perform their feats over and over and over again. Makes for great photography practice!) So…this picture is much better and getting closer to super status. Just the change in my perspective makes it look much more like a spectacular jump.

So for this image I not only get down, but get dirty…but I think it is worth it. I laid down on my stomach, still directly in front of this flying champion. But this time he looks Super!! Because of the perspective at which I took the picture, you can see the swing set behind him and his whole body is almost fully “in the sky”. He is obviously (from this perspective) able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!!

Just when you think you are done, I say that you get dirty one more time. Since you will already be down on your belly, just roll over onto your back and take the picture from there – almost upside down! You never know what that will do for a superhero image…

Of course, once you’ve mastered taking 4 different pictures from 4 different perspectives, you could always move you location and start again…

So here is hoping you get down and dirty this summer!! AND you get great pictures to prove it!!

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In honor of Father’s Day today I wanted to share with you a few pictures of my husband, Bryan, and my son, Thaddeus. I love my boys so much!!!

The Day Thaddeus was born

Bryan and Thad having a little chat (roughly three weeks after Thad was born)

Cuddling with Daddy

Bryan carrying Thad in the baby Bjorn. Baby wearing dad’s are HOT!

My boys. Aren’t they both sooo cute? Thad was about four months old here.

This is probably my favorite picture of the three of us from Thad’s first few weeks/months. We all love each other very much!

Happy First Father’s Day, my love!!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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For all the cooking we do though, our kitchen is surprisingly sparse. We have great knifes and we have basic dishes and cook wear, but we don’t have a lot of the little extras that make it easier. I guess it just goes to show that you don’t really need all the gadgets and gismos in order to cook real food well.

…But…. there are still a few things that I do covet (in no particular order):

1. A baking stone – we make bread without it, but a good baking stone is really the way to go if you want to make really great bread.
2. Kefir grains – I buy kefir milk, but I would LOVE to try making kefir myself.
3. A kitchen Aide - thankfully I have a very generous neighbor who lets me borrow hers, but it would be great to have my own since I use this almost every day lately.
4. A kitchen scale - I’ve been borrowing this from a neighbor for the past week as well and I LOVE it and want one. But, of course, it’s not really a necessity – you can still make great food and great bread with just measuring cups.
5. A food dehydrator– if we want to dehydrate something we just put it in the oven at a VERY low setting and leave it all day (or longer depending on what it is), but I don’t really like having the oven on for that long and it doesn’t always work very well.
6. A food processor/blender that can grind grains– I have a very small cheap food processor (that is chipped and braking cause I use it so much), but it gets the job done. It just can’t grind grains or do any of the other fancy things that a good blender can.
7. Some glass or stainless steel food storage containers– I have two bigger glass storage containers that I use all the time, and I re-use any glass bottle or container that food comes in, but I still sometimes have to resort to using plastic tuber ware because that’s what I have and I haven’t yet been able to afford replacing it with all glass or stainless steel.
8. A bigger freezer (and maybe these cool Popsicle molds to go in it)- our freezer is literally the size of a shoe box. It works and it’s all we really need, but sometimes I wish I could cook make ahead meals to freeze and prepare later or store some veggies or meat to have on hand when I need it. And as for popsicles, well we just don’t make them since I don’t have any molds, but popsicles aren’t really a necessity anyway, right?
9. Some really nice pots and pans (or at least some really good one’s like what I left in the states) – we have cheap pots and pans from Ikea that we bought when we first moved here – they don’t cook as evenly or heat up as quickly as good pots and pans, but they work and that’s all your really need.
10. A slow cooker/crock pot– I make stock and soup regularly and it would be great to have a crock pot to make these things in, but for now I just use a big pot on the stove on low heat for a long time, it works well. I just have to pay more attention to it since I have left it on a little too high before and ended up demolishing a chicken carcass and filling an apartment with smoke…yeah,  don’t do that.

Well, that’s my kitchen wish list. What’s yours??

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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So, today in honor of my quickly growing boy here’s a post all about my beautiful baby:

Favorite things:

-          Music time with Daddy. Almost every day Bryan and Thad have a few minutes of music time. Usually this involves Bryan playing guitar for Thad for a little while and then the two of them playing on the African drum we have from Ghana (Thanks Carrie and Mathias!). Thad LOVES the drum especially. Here are two little videos showing you Thad playing with the drum (and flashing some cute smiles too):

-          Yoga time with mommy. This usually means that he lays on my mat while I do a little yoga and make some funny faces over him. But, if he starts getting fussy then I’ll hold him while doing poses or do a little baby yoga with him, moving his limbs gently. Here’s just a little video of our yoga time:

-          Being carried around in his sleepy wrap. He didn’t like the wrap at first, but now he LOVES it. When he’s in his wrap he’s happy doing pretty much anything, whether we are folding laundry, dancing to some music, or doing the dishes (I think his favorite is doing the dishes – he seems to like watching the water).

-          Bath time. Ok, so he doesn’t ALWAYS like it, but most of the time he seems to really enjoy it. He likes when Bryan splashes the water a little and seems fascinated by the little frog thermometer that floats in his bath.

-          Putting his feet in his mouth…well, really putting ANYTHING and EVERYTHING in his mouth!

-          Drooling. This kid can seriously drool. Sometimes I keep a bib on him so that I don’t have to change his outfit every few minutes after he’s soaked it with drool.

-          Reading and flash cards. He loves it when we read to him and it often calms him down. We also have Language Discovery cards and Animal Discovery cards, which he loves to look at. They say they are for 9 months and up but we show them to him regularly and talk about the pictures. He usually gets a big smile on his face when we start looking at them – so cute!

Things he can do now:

-          He can roll over. He definitely prefers rolling from his back to his belly, but he will also occasionally roll from his belly to his back. Here’s a little video of him rolling:

-          He can grab toys and sometimes even move them from one hand to the other.

-          He can sit up for just a few seconds on his own. Not all the time and not for more than a few seconds, but we still feel like it’s an accomplishment and we are proud of him.

-          Laugh heartily with a full body little person laugh.

-          Unintentionally scoot himself backwards a little bit.

-          He can sometimes lift his body up using both his hands and his legs so that he’s almost in a crawling like position, but he can only hold it for a few seconds. Here is a quick video of him doing this a little bit (although it’s not as good as how he does it now):

Things he really doesn’t like:

-          When mommy leaves the room.

-          Naps.

-          When something is just out of reach and he can’t get to it.

Well, happy half birthday to my little boy! We love him so much!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

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There are a few bugs still to work out in the side bar so be patient with that and it should all be good soon.

On a completely different note. I watched this TED video today and thought it was worth sharing. Check it out here.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany

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Circle Adalyn, Lord.
Keep comfort near
and discouragement afar.
Keep peace within
and turmoil out.
The eternal Father, Son and Holy Spirit
shield Adalyn on every side.
Amen.
Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

pictures by Beth Stedman and Bryan Stedman

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This is a liturgy I wrote as a gift for baby Izaak. Please join me in praying it for this precious new life today.

*God of our Fathers, eternal ‘I AM’,
Almighty maker of heaven and earth,
You are our Rock, our strength and our provider.
*Lord, God, father this child.
*Protect him, guard him, keep him.
Be for him a refuge of strength and security.
In your great power circle him and deliver him from all evil.

*Holy Spirit, Barer of Life,
Breath of the Almighty God,
You are our counselor, guide, and teacher of the way of truth.
*Lord, Holy Spirit, mother this child.
*Support Him, guide him, nurture him.
Be for him a refuge of tenderness and love.
In your abounding grace circle him and seal him.

*Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man,
Image of the invisible God, firstborn from among the dead,
You are our hope and salvation, our life and our very being.
*Lord, Jesus, brother this child.
*Defend him, teach him, forgive him.
Be for him a refuge of grace and truth.
In your unending love circle him and bring him safely into your kingdom.

*We call upon the sacred three
to save, shield and surround
this precious child
In the name of the King of Life;
In the name of the Christ of Love;
In the name of the Holy Spirit;
Sacred Three in One,
The triune of our strength. Amen.

All say together the words in bold.
* indicates a change of reader.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Bethany Stedman

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