End of the line

No, I am not loosing it, I am almost done baking this baby that's all. In less than 6 weeks, Finn should be here (unless he decides to be overdue, which is possible). In the last 2 days he has dropped which makes is so much easier to breathe, but makes standing and walking more painful as he is bumping and grinding everything in my lower region.

It is funny all the wives tales that come with each pregnancy. With Lily I was told - oh! you are gaining weight in your rear, it must be a boy. I gained weight head to toe, including 10 pounds of water weight that settled in my legs and feet and guess what: she is a GIRL.

With Chloe, I was told the same thing, and I carried her exactly the same, all the way around- I got wide before I got a belly and I had to take my ring off at 5 months and was in maternity clothing at 7 weeks because of bloat and wore only flat shoes after 5 months. Guess what- GIRL again.

This time however, the pregnancy was different; I could still wear my regular jeans, but they would not close over my belly. I am now 33.5 weeks and I still wear high heels and my wedding ring. I look the same as I did before pregnancy except I ate a watermelon that is protruding forward. I also can not wear any earrings right now, even the silver ones irritate my ears and I have mild heartburn all day long. Guess what: BOY...but none of the wives tales were true for me. 

I am wondering about labor. With Lily, I started very early labor at 5am with cramping, mild contractions  and some show. The cramping went on all day and labor started that evening. By 9pm I was contracting every 5 min, 1 min long. Lily was born at 4:24 am after 24 minutes of pushing. Straight up Textbook Labor.

Chloe kept us guessing however (pretty much her labor is like her personality)

Monday morning I had the same cramping and show that I had with Lily, so my MIL came for Lily thinking we were going to be in labor that day. After about 4 hours of contractions, they ended and nothing happened. My midwife told me to call her when I had 4 in a row that were really strong and I had to work with them...that I did not have. Tuesday morning at 3, they started again and woke me up. I was up rocking my ball timing contractions that were 3-6 minutes apart, lasting 60-90 seconds, but not really really strong. That went on for about 4 hours again and then stopped. So Corey and I went walking around, went to Kirby Lane Cafe for lunch and rested. 

Wednesday came with nothing major, except that it was 4/21 which equalled 7;  at church a guest pastor prophesied over Chloe that she would preach the word with conviction before her 7th birthday and he said there was more about the number 7 but we would have to pray about it and see. So we tried to stay busy and not get our hopes up. Around 12 I had more contractions so I went for a walk to see if they would stop (like they did the last 2 days) and they did not. They kept coming, and were seemingly more steady. We went to Central Market to pick up some stuff and sample food. I was contracting the whole time, but not too majorly. When we got home, I decided this was the day and we needed to go back to CM for some rehydration drinks that were on sale and protein bars because I figured labor would be long like with Lily. While there, I had 3 super hard contractions that made me stop and lean on DH- in the produce section, in the bread section and while checking out. I had 1 more when we got home so I called the Midwife, who came in about 45 minutes. When she got there she checked and asked how dilated I wanted to be (I was hoping at least 2-3 cm) she said "How about 7!". From there and feeling silly that I had called her "so early" Chloe was born 3 hours later...at exactly 7pm.

So... what surprises does this little boy have for us. Stay tuned!

Norwegian Apple Pie

Thanksgiving and Apple Pie, that is about as American as it gets. 

Well, on my mother's side of the family no one came over on the Mayflower or celebrated the early and traditional Thanksgiving meals. We are Scandinavian- Norwegian and Finnish, so Apple pie is a type of kake (no, not cake) and does not have a crust. 

So the "american version" would be a crustless pie (and would use cinnamon instead of cardamom)

Norwegian Apple Pie

2 egg whites

1 C Sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1tsp baking Pdr

1/2 C flour

1 C apples diced (smaller the better)

sprinkle or two cardamom

Preheat your oven to 350 and spray an 8" cake pan/pie pan with cooking spray. (I use glass)

This handy dandy thing is an egg separator. I like it because it gets most of the white off the yolk with no bits of shell in it.

No idea where I got it from, I probably stole it from my step mom when I moved to Austin! 

(Thanks Suzanne)

Beat the egg whites, sugar and vanilla until mixed.

Add the baking powder and beat until fluffy. 

This makes the top "crust" of the pie, so you take your time with the eggs, but we are not making a meringue (Although that does sound good right now, probably due to being pregnant at Thanksgiving)

Beat in the flour until blended and smooth. I would think you don't want to overbeat the flour and activate too much of the gluten, but I am not a chef, so who knows!

Sprinkle in the Cardamom before you add the apples. I used less than 1tsp because it is super strong stuff- and a Norwegian dessert spice go to. You can't have Norwegian Desserts with no Cardamom.

Add 1 C diced apples.

Make sure you DICE not SLICE

How Un American!

Any apple will do, I had Fuji because they were on sale and are a staple apple at our house. 
The next batch I am making with Washington Reds, so I'll compare. 
 When my mom made apple pies, she always made two, one with the reds and one with the granny smiths, I figured the Fuji would be a combo of the two.
  
Bake for 30 minutes. The pie will puff up while cooking and settle when it cools.
I guess I didn't take a picture of the batter, but it is really thick, similar to a cake when you put it in the pan. Lily asked "Mom- are you making cake?


The hard part is waiting until it cools to eat it, but you HAVE TO! I promise it will be worth the wait. Go put it on a window will and forget about it. 
(Because it is easy to forget about pie when your entire house smells like it)

Traditionally Norwegians top this with a goat cheese. Well, we didn't have any lying around, but I could have used yogurt, or what the heck, a big dollop of Whipped Cream.
NOT Cool Whip, you gotta go for the real deal there.

 The pie is fairly thin, maybe a bit over 1", so I am going to try to double the recipe and see if I still get the same crunch. 

Yes, that is what was left after dinner!

My friend who is a chef got the first one I made. She was thinking of how to "Americanize it"

I suppose if you don't have Scandinavian tastes buds, you could use cinnamon and brown sugar.

New Wake Up

I normally get the bulk whole bean Organic Coffee from Sunflower, which is a steal at $7.99/lb. They don't offer bulk at the HEB I was shopping at yesterday so I was stuck with other "options". There were the basic Starbucks brand, which looks like a decent deal until you realize the package they sell is only 12oz!
I almost gave up there when I discovered this brand-I say discovered because it had not been on the shelf there before, but I distinctly recall seeing this coffee before. Lo and behold, it is a local brand, grown in high altitude of Nicaragua, hand picked, then roasted here in Austin.
The taste rivals Starbucks, with that strong almost acidic taste.
 I guess that is from the local roasting (I am an Austinite and down for anything local).

My husband commented on the beans when he put them in the grinder, they were so oily they looked wet, I even rubbed a bit of the oil onto my fingers. In fact, I could smell the coffee as soon as he put it in the grinder, before he turned it on.
This is my new favorite: Fair Trade, deep flavor, localish, $6.99/lb


*Update* The HEB did a major overhaul and now offers bulk coffee, to top it off, they offer FARA'S different flavors and blend in bulk!

Paper Bag Curls

A little late to post this since my hair is short again: 

Here was my first attempt at paper bag curls.

It's a...

BOY!

When we went to get the ultrasound, the place we had the appointment at told us that they did not take our insurance. Of course they neglected to take down a current phone number so they were calling one I have not had in over 5 years. They also failed to ask what my insurance was.

So we left.

 (Like we were going to pay $450 cash for an ultrasound!)

I placed a call to Bluebonnet Imaging in Round Rock who got us in the next morning.

The place was small, but the staff was wonderful. The tech told us that she would tell us what she sees, it is was neat that she typed what she was looking at on the screen, so we knew what all the blobs were.

When she got to the "goods" she first stated that everything was flat so she was thinking it was a girl. Of course, we were hesitant to take that word. 

She kept looking because she wanted to be sure. When the baby moved over, the tech got really excited and said "OH! WAIT!" and backed up the screen shot. She asked if we saw the image on the screen, we did, and she told us that if it does not light up- it was NOT an umbilical cord.

So she put the pulse/blood measuring thing over it, and there was no color on it. 

She said "Not lighting up, you can paint the room blue"

We were so thrilled with the experience there and she said we can come back for free once to get another view of him. We did not get to see his face, so I am hoping for a nice profile shot!

We may also get the 3D, but Corey thinks it is creepy to see the sienna image of a squashed baby, so perhaps not.

I will try to upload the picture later, as Blogger is not liking me at the moment.

Photo Collage Maker

Photo Collage Maker

I used this nifty online photo creation program to mark my belly progress!

Taming the Flyaways

No, not the hair fly aways, although this time of year when the weather turns, hair gets full of static and stands on end.

I am talking about taming the fly aways of your mouth (or my mouth as I am thinking about it.)

I have always been one to mean what I say, or pop off at the mouth no matter what or even worse, let my mouth drive my ship. I have gotten much better over the years as God has worked in me, but even a quick tongue that has been silent for awhile can come back full force.

I had to think about what causes me, my soul, my heart to allow my mouth to get away with things. It was re evaluation time.

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one Col. 4:6

I don't always have grace with people. Sometimes, I think things should be done my way because to ME- that is the right way. And when people close to me don't do it that way, I get frustrated. A little frustration can cause growth, but when you don't check yourself and let God work out that frustration, it can cause bitterness which will cause you to get out of character, or let that old character come back.

Lack of sleep can cause you to get tired and weary which causes you to not think about the actions of your words. Being a mom of 2, pregnant with my 3rd and having a busy life style, I have to schedule and plan to go to sleep early. When this does not happen, I get too tired to be good to anyone and then I get short with everyone around me. This always comes out in my tone. "It's not what you say, it's how you say it." 

Do you remember when you could ask your husband something so sweetly and your voice was light and girly? He would do it! But when you ask blunt and forceful (even using the same words) he has no interest in helping. He may even call you a nag!

Boredom.

If you are bored with what you are doing, not only are you going to not do your best, but you are also going to be negative about what the other people are doing.

If you are bored with whatever it is you are doing, find a way to change it up, or learn something new to add to it. This goes for anything: work, play, schooling, exercise, housework, church. God gave us a fullness of life, to enjoy his creations, not to be bored with our very breath!

So take today to actually think about where your heart is. If there is someone you feel you can't talk to without having a condescending or condemning tone- tell God that only he can change your heart so it comes out in your mouth.

Be careful little children what you say.