Don't Tell Me I Can't

26 weeks pregnant, showing off the necklace made out of nuts that Aaron bought me at the carnival. Looks like I need to sweep the porch. 

"Go home!" A well-meaning woman in our ward told me. Our ward party had just ended. I had Ruby on one hip, and I was walking around the table folding up chairs one at a time and walking them to the chair rack. It was slow-going, but not hard work.

"Go home," she said again, "I'm serious! Pregnant ladies with five kids don't need to be folding chairs and cleaning up trash."

She was half kidding and half serious, and her heart was in the right place. So I wasn't offended or anything. Besides, how could she know that one of my biggest pet-peeves of all-time is being told that I can't (or shouldn't) do something just because I'm pregnant.

"Are you going to try to stop me?" I teased back to her, and kept right on stacking chairs. "I could take you!" I'm pretty stubborn when I want to be. She had no idea what to make of me, and our conversation ended.

Nine months is a long time. Nine months times six, well...let's just say I've been pregnant more of my adult life that not. If I had to drop everything and sit around twittling my thumbs for nine months every time I was going to have a baby, I'd go crazy. Like literally, depressed, anxious, haul-me-off-to-the-looney-bin-and-throw-away-the-key crazy. I'm a doer. I must do things. Not, it's nice to do things, or I really like to do things, but MUST. Having something to do is a need ingrained into every cell of my body. I need projects the way I need oxygen.

Yes, I can't keep up my normal pace when I'm pregnant. I'm well-aware of that extremely frustrating fact. My body does force me to slow-down some. And yes, there are certain activities that are uncomfortable to do while pregnant. But I prefer to be the one who decides which ones I can and cannot do.

Example: I mow the lawn while pregnant. I get so many comments from people, "Gasp! What are you doing out mowing the lawn?! You're pregnant!" But to me, mowing the lawn is a snap (as long as I do it during cooler parts of the day so I don't over heat), because all I have to do is steer and hold down the handle that propels the wheels forward on it's own. I feel like if I can walk as a pregnant person, then I can mow the lawn. Loading and unloading the dishwasher, though....that's torture. All that bending, and twisting, and stretching to reach things that are low so that you can put them away up high. Ugh. I pass that one off to the kids when I can. But instead I'll be perfectly happy to stand at the sink and scrub dirty dishes. It's not like I'm just going to forget about everything that needs doing and lounge on the couch for nine months.

I love my OB because he's very fond of saying, "Pregnancy is not a disease. You can do anything you feel up to doing. If you were a marathon runner before you got pregnant, then by all means continue to be a marathon runner during pregnancy; however, if you weren't a marathon runner before, taking it up now might not be the way to go." Which to me basically translates into: Just use good sense.

So, if I want to paint walls, I will. If I want to can 15 quarts of cherries, I will. If I want to refinish furniture, weed the garden, adopt four more baby chicks, build a bean tepee, experiment with making sour dough bread in the dutch oven, get up at 5:30 to spend 6 hours at my kids' swim meets, or help fold chairs after a ward party, I will.

I have been doing these things, and I have no intention of stopping. These are the types of things that make me happy. I realize they aren't what would make everyone happy. I'm not saying all pregnant women should do as I do...no. But please, for the love, stop telling me that I can't or shouldn't. It will only motivate me to prove you wrong.

A spinach harvest from our garden. I used it to make spinach ice cream for FHE treat.

Kelly and Esther gave us a TON of cherries off of their tree. Thanks guys! I raw packed 8 quarts and hot packed 7 quarts. I learned that hot packing helps the cherries hold their color better. This experience made me super excited for our cherry trees to mature and produce. 

The YW in our ward held an auction to raise money. I donated a bunch of my canned goods. I spent an afternoon adding ribbons and labels and cute paper onto the lids to make the bottles more appealing. All but 3 jars got sold. Not too shabby.

Sour dough bread in the dutch oven was a success!! Finally. I've tried several different times to make sour dough, and they've all failed. This time, I got a start and a few tips and a recipe from Esther and it came together like clock-work. 

I finished the rocking chair!! And I love it. 

Aaron's parents gave us this old rocking chair that once belonged to Aaron's great-grandpa Charles Erastus Swan (the one Ivan was named after). I sanded it down really well, and then used a paint-stripper to strip it down, thinking I'd restain it. But once I got the many layers off, we realized the wood wasn't anything to call home about, and probably wouldn't look great with stain. So, I decided to paint it yellow! The same yellow we painted the leaves on the trees in Ollie and Cal's room. It adds the perfect pop of color to an otherwise very calm and blended room. 

Here's what the chair looked like when we got it from Aaron's parents.

Aaron had to fix the seat, it was cracked down the middle.

Then I sanded it down a couple times.

Here it is all sanded and waiting to be stripped.

I'm so, so, so, SO excited for this room to be done. It's pulling together better than I imagined it. We changed out the old light fixture and put up a small ceiling fan. I'm working on finishing up painting the ceiling. The tree leaves need one more coat of paint and then they'll be all done. I sanded down the curtain rod and the rod holder, painted them white, and hung them back up. As far as the room goes, the next big project for Aaron is building the bunk bed, and the next big project for me will be to sand down the changing table so I can either re-stain or paint it. (I haven't decided which yet.)