Morning Sickness, Downy Woodpeckers, and Scrapbooking

I haven’t written a personal life type post in a while so I decided today was the day.

I suppose the first thing everyone wants to know is about the baby and pregnancy. I started my thirteenth week on Tuesday and I think (knocks loudly and heartily on wood) my morning sickness may be going away. I hesitate to write this for fear I shall jinx myself into six more months of it, but since I don’t believe in jinxes I shall write it anyway!

It seems as though weeks six through ten were the worst and I’ve been very, very slowly improving with just a few major setbacks here and there. (Like the other day when my poor mom had to listen to my sobbing on the phone that it was never going to get better and that I’m sick of being sick.) But I am cooking, working, blogging, cleaning, reading, and stuff more each day. Sunday I made it to church for the first time since mid-January and we even went out to eat at Olive Garden after church which was the first time we’ve been out to eat since our anniversary.

On the other hand, my birthday was Tuesday and David said he would take me anywhere I wanted to go. I just didn’t have the energy or the stomach to do so, so instead we got Chinese take-out. It is a sad day when your husband has offered TWICE to take you to The Melting Pot for a special event and you’ve turned him down flat both times. Very sad!

But may I just say that I never knew how good Taco Bell could taste until I had spent four weeks living on pretzels, ginger ale, bagels, oatmeal, cottage cheese, yogurt, grapes, gingersnaps, and other similar bland stuff. Eating a chalupa and nachos with a Dr. Pepper was heavenly, truth be told!

The most exciting thing to happen around here in the past week was David rescuing a male downy woodpecker from strangulation! We have this contraption on one of our bird feeding pole system things that has four weighted fishwires that hang down. (The purpose of the contraption is to keep sparrows off the birdfeeders and it works incredibly well.) Unfortunately, this little woodpecker accidentally flew into one of the wires and got it tangled around neck. Providentially, David was looking outside when it happened or…. Well, we won’t go there.

David ran downstairs, out the back door, and was able to grab the little guy with his gloved hands. (The bird was flying and squawking frantically as David approached.) David held him gently and was able to get the wire untangled and the bird flew off unharmed (but probably emotionally scarred for life!). We would have felt just terrible if we hadn’t seen it happen and had looked out later to see that poor little woodpecker hanging there, strangled to death. I’m so thankful that didn’t happen! And David got the thrill of holding a downy woodpecker, one of his favorite birds. So all’s well that ends well.

On the topic of birds, the goldfinches have started turning again. One male in particular is quite bright so it won’t be too long before the rest of them are all bright yellow again. I cannot recommend highly enough getting a goldfinch feeder. They are such fun little birds and I defy anyone to listen to them twittering, squeaking and chirping and not smile! It is simply not possible! They have the cutest little sounds! Goldfinches are all over and they are very easy to attract. Whenever we’ve had a feeder, we’ve always had them find it within 36 hours. Buy one of the feeders where the birds hang upside down to eat the thistle seed. They love thistle seed and it is so funny to watch them eat upside down!

On the topic of birds, lately our backyard has resembled a high flying singles bar. I’m not kidding! The mating dances, mating flights, passionate songs, and all manner of males trying to interest the females have been everywhere. One lucky female sparrow had four males all going at her at the same time with their courting rituals in one of our lilac bushes. I don’t know what kind of perfume she was wearing, but it certainly was working!

I’ve been thinking about what I want and need to get done in the next six months before life as I currently know it ends. Aside from some professional things, there are really only two items I consider critical: scrapbooking and reading. I know that if I don’t finish up the scrapbooking projects I have started before this baby comes, it is all over. So currently our dining room is not being used for dining because it has been completely taken over with all my scrapbooking stuff. The only way I can get it done is to leave it out all the time. And when I’ve had a few good hours here and there, I have been making progress. I’ve also jumped into the large pile of books next to my office glider. It is the same deal with these books. I know if I don’t push through them, they will still be mocking me in another year or two. So with a baby delivery deadline on my mind, I’ve found myself energized (in spirit if not completely in body) and have been reading like a madwoman the past week or so.

Happy Thursday to all!