Escaping the Hot Weather

Here we are at 39 weeks and three days, still waiting.  It’s going to be 38 degrees today and I’ve been trying to come up with creative ways of keeping cool at home (we don’t have an air-conditioner).  I’ve thought about putting a wet towel over the fan, and sticking my feet in a bucket of water, but that’s about it.  Of course, drinking lots of ice water should also be part of the plan. 

There was also the option of going to the local library to sit in their air-conditioning.  Or the shopping centre, but that would involve a lot more walking rather than sitting.  And I wasn’t sure that I wanted to get into the hot car to drive somewhere. 

One of my neighbour friends messaged me this morning to invite me out to the movies, which was something we had talked about earlier in the week as a way of escaping today’s heat.  So at least half the day I’ll be somewhere cool.

We’re going to see “How to be Single”, which is a comedy that has come out recently.  Hopefully the endorphins from laughing will do some good for my waiting!

The Awkward Friend

Some people are brilliant conversationalists.  They know exactly what to say when they meet new people, and always know how to keep a conversation flowing, even with people they already know (and have conceivably exhausted the get-to-know-you topics). 

I am not one of these people.  I don’t often enjoy meeting new people because I can never think of what to talk to them about.  When it comes to a lull in the conversation with friends I feel awkward and unsure about what happens next.  (Of course, there are some friends with whom you can easily sit in silence with and it’s not awkward at all, but that’s a special kind of friendship.) 

I found myself wondering if other people have picked up on my awkwardness and therefore find it harder to be friends with me or to talk to me.  Am I missing out on social opportunities because of my awkwardness?  Am I lowered on friends’ preference lists?  But I was reminded of something that I learnt in a college Ministry and Mission class.  If you want a friend, be a friend. 

And as I chatted with J about this topic I remembered a conversations with a friend where she expressed similar feelings of awkwardness in conversations, but I don’t remember ever thinking that she was an awkward person, or feeling uncomfortable talking to her.  So maybe my awkwardness is just something I feel and not something others see.  Or maybe we’re all a little bit awkward in conversational lulls and blame ourselves, without realising that the other person may be feeling the same way.  

But even so, I would like to work on my conversation skills, to not feel awkward or make others feel awkward.  And I think this will mean taking more opportunities to talk to people.  If you want a friend, be a friend.  I hope I can make some more friends in the process. 

Thankful Thursday

I thought I’d try to get back into blogging while I still can.  I’m now 37 weeks pregnant, which is called full-term, and the baby could be born any time now (though they say most first babies don’t arrive early).  So here are some of the things I am thankful for this week:

Making it to full-term
Whenever anything seemed abnormal in our pregnancy I got worried about the baby’s safety.  I’m so glad that we’ve reached full-term now and the baby can be born with minimal complications.  Now it’s just a waiting game!

Skills to make gifts
We went to a one year old’s birthday party on the weekend and I made her some crochet shoes (oops, I should have taken a picture).  I have often loved receiving handmade gifts from people and I love being able to do the same.  At the moment, it’s also easier for me to make a gift than walk around the shops trying to find something, so that’s a double win there.  I’m thankful for the brain that God gave me to be able to learn skills such as crochet, and hands with the ability to do such things. 

My husband
This week I’ve had swollen feet, a sore back, tired limbs and J has been wonderful to me through it all.  He massaged my feet and back, let me sit when I needed to and took over things such as the dishes so I could rest.  As my capacity to do things has decreased J has stepped up, even at a time when he’s gearing up to start college in less than two weeks and has a lot of work to do before that.  I’m so thankful for his love and care for me, now more than ever. 

What are you thankful for this week?

That time I was too worried to bring my phone

J and I went to the beach yesterday.  I’ve been wanting to go for a swim while pregnant to see if it felt different, and yesterday we finally got around to going.  But I was worried about leaving our things on the beach while we were in the water.  How do we keep our things safe?  How does anyone keep their things safe on the beach?  My mind ran through scenarios of losing our phones, car keys, bank card, transport card. 

So we didn’t bring a lot of those things.  I think J thought I was being paranoid, but he went along with my fears, what a lovely husband.  We brought cash, transport cards and one set of keys.  On one hand, it makes me really sad that I didn’t feel safe enough to leave things on the beach, afraid that someone would steal them.  But on the other hand, I didn’t want to take the risk.

Once we got to the beach and saw the number of people around, how close people were packed (beaches in Sydney are packed!), I relaxed a bit.  I didn’t even use my back-up plan of further hiding/disguising my valuables.  Surely all these people also had valuables and weren’t worried about them being stolen.  Maybe there’s some sort of beach etiquette of not stealing (J called it general etiquette, he’s right). 

We had a lovely time and I was able to relax in the water without worrying too much about our bags.  We could see them from where we were in the water (well J could and he gave me occasional updates, I wasn’t wearing my glasses in the water).  I found swimming while pregnant wasn’t hugely different than swimming not-pregnant.  Mind you, I haven’t been swimming in a while.  Doing a star float on my back was lovely since I haven’t been able to lie on my back in months.  But I had to commit to it, ears in the water and all.  If I tried to keep my head up that engaged my abdominals, which weren’t too happy about being used. 

We’re not very good at taking photos of what we’re doing anyway, but we’re a bit better when there’s an actual occasion to photograph.  I’m a bit sad that since we didn’t bring our phones we have no photos to show you of our time at the beach.  So here’s us at a different beach:

 

The Second Room

The second room in our house began as our study.  I spent my first year of college trying to not get distracted from homework in that room.  In our second and third years of college the second room was mostly used for storage and playing computer games.  When friends or family came to stay with us, they would sleep on a foam mattress on the floor in this room, wedged between the storage wardrobe and the hastily cleaned desk.  

To prepare the room for the baby we moved the giant desk out, shifted the bookshelf, constructed the cot and hung a few things.  The desk is now in the communal studies and J will use it there.  We left the desktop computer in our second room, in the corner on top of a set of desk drawers.  Not sure how often this will get used, not at all while it still doesn't work!

I’m a little bit bummed that I didn't take any ‘before’ photos of our second room.  It really was a mess!  We did a lot of throwing out and reorganising to make space for the baby.  But here are the ‘after’ photos (or at least the corner of it that is the nursery).



This is the first view you get of the room, from the doorway.  We were given the cot for free from friends who have graduated from college and used to live in our college community.  We also got the drawers and change table for free from a friend of a friend. 



A friend crocheted the baby bunting as a gift and I love the grey chevron cot sheet, which was also a baby shower gift.  Sitting in the corner of the cot is Rachelle the Rabbit, which I knitted from a kit that my mum found and gave to me for Christmas.  It’s so rare to find something that has my name spelt correctly, so this was a very exciting find.  I’m glad I was able to finish knitting sewing her together before the baby arrived. 



This mobile was made by a lovely friend of mine as a baby shower gift.  I love it.  We hung it from the ceiling using two stick-on hooks in opposite directions which has worked well.  The drawing of the daffodils on the left was a gift from my sister, and the frame on the right has the fingerprints of everyone who came to celebrate at my baby showers (two colours for two cities).  My sister drew the umbrella in that picture. 

Unfortunately, this frame has since fallen off the wall.  Becuase we rent we can’t put holes in the wall, so I use sticky hooks or ‘velcro’ hangers (I don’t know what else to call them, but it’s not exactly velcro, they are the 3M Command brand, and they and wonderful for this sort of thing!).  Actually not so wonderful in this case.  As you can see the wall is a bit textured, which may have meant the hook didn’t stick so well.  The hook also said it could hold up to 2.2kg and the frame was 2kg.  I’m hoping that going up a size will mean I can re-hang this frame. 

Well there it is.  The baby won’t sleep in here until they’re a bit bigger, but we needed the space set up for changing nappies and storing the baby’s clothes.  A big thank you to everyone who has given us gifts to help prepare for baby’s arrival.  On Monday I’ll be 37 weeks pregnant (full-term) and we’re so excited to meet our little baby.