Easter Best

7 months and a night on the town

Snow Baby

yogurt face

we are just coming out of the flu fog. more pictures and updates to follow....

Lessons Learned

So the homecoming day was not as I had hoped. I had wished to have a clean house and a smiley baby and quality time with my husband. Instead he came home to this:


I woke up Monday morning to blood pouring down my face (nose bleeds thanks to pregnancy), throw up all over Maggie's crib and an awful diaper. It was a startling beginning to the week. After the phone calls to sister and mom about "Baby with the Flu" tips and after brushing my teeth and grabbing a few sips of english breakfast, I felt a little less daunted with the task of caring for pukey baby. It got worse and worse as the day went on and I had the full-immersion into Life as Mom. (ie. getting thrown up on about 20 times, literally).
My sweet friend brought by Pedialite for Maggie to stay hydrated; although she was only allowed to have a few sips at a time and even that didnt stay down.
Then half way through the day, my other sweet friend brought me a bagel and a latte and things were looking up. I had been so busy changing sheets, changing maggie's clothes, changing my clothes and getting thrown up on; that I hadnt had time to eat or grab some caffefine. The latte gave me the urge to carry on and love this little child.
But as Mojo's flight kept getting delayed my tiredness began to creep in. Then I thought of 3 things that gave me some welcomed and needed perspective.
1) I have a new found respect for women's whose husband are in Iraq. They not only have to do the duty of single parenting and bare the brunt of flu and illness all by themselves, but they have the added worry that their husbands could die. A plane delay was no biggie.
2) It took me until 2pm to pray and then it was spurred on by being covered with puke. It was easier to put trust in the energy from a latte then to ask the Father for some help and wisdom. That kinda needs to be the first thing I do when my babies get sick and not have it be that far into things. It was the real refresher of the day.
3) I realized that perhaps this might be the only time that I can give this much attention to Maggie while she has the flu. Most likely, the next time, I'll have one or more around my feet and I wont be able to hold her the entire day. It made me feel glad to have this time to hold a towel beneath her mouth and rub her hair as she got scared from all the throwing up. So plane delays were okay, changing clothes for the 10th time were fine... I was able to hold my baby while she was sick.

And who wouldnt want to hold that precious baby?

Day 5

one More day!

We woke up this beautiful Sunday morning to WARM weather. Stomach bug be damned, we are going outside.
After lovely coffee and conversation with our good friend Catherine at our local Bongo, Maggie and I headed to the park.
As soon as we got out of the car, I realized being cooped up for a few days had made maggie long for play time! she was saying hello to everyone! We watched the dogs at the park for about 30 minutes and then she just ran and ran. Her little cheeks got red from getting hot! it was lovely for us to get some activity. Sadly, 5 days of not exercising and being sick and i was out of breath! She was yelling hello to all the new dogs that would come up and then yell "bye bye doggie!" to the ones leaving. so sweet.
Here is my little girl RUNNING to the park!





After the park we came home to nap. She was so sleepy she immediately said "night night" when i laid her down. When she woke up we had a visitor! Mimi got back from her vacation in Mexico so Maggie got to play with her for a few hours and I got a bit of a break. We decided to not go to church since we both arent 100% and so many of our friends at church have the bug that we didnt want to get it again. After dinner and bathtime Mags went to bed early and now I am off to eat ice cream!!!! Daddy comes home tomorrow night and we are so excited!!!!!

Day 4

Good Friends + Good Baby= Great Day

Although Mags and I were still under the weather, today was a good day. I realized this morning that I was going to continue to feel worse if my house looked like a disaster zone. So i texted my sweet friend LeighAnne and she came and played with Maggie for an hour while I cleaned. It's amazing how much more you can get done when you dont have a toddler under your feet.
I felt better the cleaner the house got. Now, i had to stop a few times and drink water and sit down b/c I got a bit weak but I was glad I was up and doing something.
It was SOOO pretty outside, I felt bad I didnt feel well enough to take Maggie to the park.
so before nap time we went out back and threw the ball for Harriet. Maggie and Harriet had a blast. And I drank my tea and just watched. It was nice. I'm looking forward to cleaning up the back yard this spring since Maggie will actually want to play in it now.




Then after lunch I put Maggie down and had a wonderful hot shower. Then Maggie woke up just in time for Daddy to call from Norway. During snack time Maggie cried and put her hand to her mouth and when I looked inside she has 3 new teeth coming in, two of which were bleeding from eating the waffle. Poor baby! I'm so glad I dont remember teething.
at about 4 oclock I started to get stir crazy and called my neighbor/good friend Stephie and left a msg. asking if she could stop by and hang out with Maggie while I get out.
A few minutes later she was knocking at the door! I was so excited! I was going to go to Marche to get a snack but they were closed:( so I went to East Garden and picked up flowers instead.


After dinner I was getting maggie ready for bed and while putting on her pjs I was singing the catechism song we sing at church. I always pause to let her say, "God!" but i never actually think she will. Well, tonight she did and i about fell over! And more importantly, she did it for the video camera b/c I know daddy will be so SAD to have missed this! When I called my sister to let Maggie sing it for her, her son who is 3 got on the phone and said "My daddy plays the bass guitar. Does uncle mojo play the bass guitar?" he was excited when i told him, yes Uncle Mojo does.
Anyway, on to the brillant baby video. My little catechism darling! Click on the link below....its soooooo worth it! excuse me yelling in the camera and my bad voice. i was so excited!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5555326353258693498&hl=en

ps. mojo copy the above link and then paste it into the web address box if you cant click on it. you're gonna want to come home right when you watch it!

Day 3

A Wash:

After coming home from Stacey's house I realized we had gotten a bad stomach bug. Things were looking bad. Maggie was actually a doll (of course!) and took two very long naps and went to bed at about 6:45.
But between naps and feeding her, this is what we did:



We watched Mr. Rogers (where Yo-Yo Ma made an appearance), Reading Rainbow (where I learned some good tips for teaching maggie how to read...rhyming is the key), and Between the Lions. PBS is pretty cool, especially when you lay on the couch all day. I couldnt believe how well Maggie just played around me and brought me toys and books from her room. She is an angel baby.

Megan brought me sprite when she brought back Harriet so that was a help. Even just seeing someone else was nice. After a dinner of chicken soup for Maggie and broth for me, she went down easy. I watched Lost on abc.com and went to bed by 9pm. I think my favorite character is Desmond...i feel like he is the culmination of all things Lost. Like he gets the brunt of everything. Honey, Cant wait for you to watch this one!

Day 2

Back in the world:

This morning started with dogs barking. Why was I surprised? Maggie's face was covered with junk from her nose. She was as happy as can be though. Nothing a warm washcloth couldnt handle.
I felt so rested this morning, which is a major accomplishment for a major non-morning person. I knew my friend LeighAnn was coming over so the morning would go by quickly.

She got here at nine and played with Maggie while I finished breakfast. After a few cups of coffee she and I were both ready to dive into food and conversation. Maggie was very silly at breakfast and kept making funny faces at LeighAnn. She babysits MAggie sometimes and does nursery at church so they are pretty good friends.
We had a wonderful time eating German Pancakes with hot mixed berries and scrambled eggs and steaming cups of Bongo Java coffee.




Halfway thru breakfast Mags got down and went and played in the living room and successfully pulled out all the folded clothes that was in the laundry basket. They are now all over the living room floor. It's naptime so I havent been able to go pick them up since the doggies and their long fingernails will pitter patter on the hardwoods....can you tell they are stressing me out?
It was nice having company over in the morning...i love cooking people breakfast. And after a day of not seeing anyone but Mags it was good to be back with people.
She graciously watched Maggie while I took a shower and got ready, what a treat! It takes little to make me feel pampered these days.

The Maggie and I headed to meet some of her friends (Amelia, Jack, Sophia, Annie, & Zoe) and some of my friends (all their mommies) for lunch at Baja. hmmmmm, good.
It is such a beautiful day today. I forgot to take pictures it was so much fun.
On the way home, despite me blaring daddy's new record and having the sunroof down, Maggie still feel asleep. One thing I love though, is taking off her jacket and shoes while she is fast asleep in my arms. It feels very mommy-ish to do that. And I can only imagine how good it feels for a sleepy baby to be underdressed and then snuggle into the crib. She stayed asleep the whole time. So sweet!

More later...
(It's now Friday)
AFter nap time we dropped the doggies off at Lucy's house and headed to Franklin to stay with my cousin. It was so nice to just lay on the couch and let maggie play with the other kids. (She has 4) After a yummy meal we got all the kiddos ready for bed. Maggie slept in a pack n play in the guest room with me.
Stacey, Brad and I stayed up talking and watching CNN and catching up. It was nice to have company. I headed off to bed at 10pm b/c I was so tired. As soon as I walked in she woke up. I should have known then to go sleep on the couch. So I brought her to bed with me, not thinking she'd actually fall asleep but its exactly what she wanted.
She snuggled in with me with her arms around my neck. She felt for my face and once she found my nose she went "honk honk" which is her latest funny thing. We both giggled in the dark and then she fell asleep.
{by the way, we are watching Mr. Rogers and Yo-Yo Ma and his family are on it. Maggie is swaying to Yo-Yo play the cello. Did you all know he has played since he was 6?}

Anyway, after I realized I could move around and not wake maggie up it was fun to have her fast asleep next to me. She hasnt sleep in our bed since she was about 6 months old. It took me a long time to fall asleep as she kept creeping up on my pillow. But I loved smelling her lavender scented hair. She was even sweet when she woke up at 1am and wanted to play. She kept trying to put the pacifer in my mouth and would pat me and say, night night!
It was cute for about 30 mins. and then I put her into the crib. She eventually fell asleep. Well....until 4:30 . I tried to get her to sleep for about an hour, then I gave up and went downstairs and got on the couch. I was exhausted!!!! she stopped crying after about 5 mins and fell asleep too.
all the kiddos woke up (loudlyy!) at 7. So Maggie and I got up too and headed home. We went by chickfila, but even that didnt make me less tired.

Later for an update on day3!

day to day while daddy is away

Full Day 1: Stillness and Quiet
After a wonderful night of good food (courtesy of food swap) and great conversations with an old sweet friend. We woke to a snowy day and a runny noses.
Harriet has a friend over (Lucy) and they did a good job of keeping me up last night too. So everyone was a bit tired this morning. But after grapefruit, toast with a little cream cheese, and organic english breakfast tea (only for me, not maggie) we all felt a little better.



I didnt expect it to keep snowing but it did and has, which has been a treat. Mags and I laid in bed for a while looking out the window at the very huge snowflakes. But after a few hours of hard play, Mommy got tired. So against my better judgement I put Maggie down for a morning nap. I crawled into the bed in our guest room which looks out over the porch. I opened the curtain and watched the snow until I drifted off the sleep. The dogs (finally!) curled up at the foot of the bed and went to sleep too and the house was very quiet for a few hours. Even Baby in Belly ceased kicking for a bit to give Momma a nice nap. Everytime I opened my eyes the snow seemed to be falling harder. It was a good nap! I heard Maggie awake but playing in her crib, so I let her play while I watched the snow more.


Then lunch time. Last night I made some yummy sweet tea with mint and lemon. I normally dont make sweet tea because my hubby's from NY and could take it or leave it. But for lunch it was a treat. With a wonderful organic green salad topped with strips of chicken, feta, kalamata olives and a yummy balsamic dressing. Maggie just ate the chicken part with a few chunks of cheese and some crackers. We watched the dogs play in the snow while we ate. They are now covered in mud. Beautiful.
More to mop.


More playing and watching the dogs run around the backyard getting muddy. Then attempt at nap number 2. she slept for a bit but mostly played. it was a nice break for mom though. the day has seemed extra long because we havent been able to get out.
Then it was tea time. Me with my caffefine free red tea and Mags with her fig newtons and milk. Then more play time and watching old supertones videos of daddy on youtube. she didnt really get that it was dad. so we watched babies laughing instead. she really liked that.
Dinner wasnt ready in time for her so i made some quick scrabbled eggs, toast, milk and fruit. After that she had blueberry yogurt and was COVERED in it. Bathtime!


Then we spent a while reading and then Maggie decided to take some pictures with my phone since I had been doing it all day.I thought it was pretty good that she actually got me in the photo!




Now baby is snug in bed with her steam vaporizer with lavender and euclyptus to get rid of that runny nose. I had to lay on my left side once she was down b/c bath time is getting really hard on my back and Baby in Belly has been kicking aggressively all day on my right side. I am pretty sure its all bruised and he's trying to make an escape. Laying on the left side didnt get him moving positions though...so the kicking/pain continues.

I'm off to eat my "homemade" veggie pot pie (courtesy of Whole Foods) and to finish GodFather Part 2. sorry honey, we can rewatch it when you get back. couldnt wait!
although the day as seemed super long, I was sad to say good night to my sweet baby. Even with a runny nose and molars coming through, she is such a delight!

Long Way Gone

Last night I got to attend a lecture at Vanderbilt by Ishmael Beal. He is the author of the book Long Way Gone. It's his story of being a young boy when the civil war in Sierre Leone started, the death of his immediate family and then his recruitment into the army as a child soldier. Reading the book is beyond anything you watch on tv. He confimed last night that movies like Blood:Diamond(which is an awesome movie) dont even touch on the violence of war.
Hearing him speak was so inspiring. He is a storyteller by nature. His tribe, the Mende people, have oral traditions they past down so he learned at an early age how to captivate an audience.
There were a few things that were really impacting:
-He is only 27 and is actually taking his experiences and impacting the world at large. He is a international speaker for the UN, works for Human Rights Watch and is on the council to influence laws and policies related to child soldiers. and he's only 27!
-He spoke of the UNICEF workers that were working at his rehabiliatation center and how the other child soliders and he would beat them up severely, cut them, curse at them and the workers would come back, stitched up, and say, "its not your fault"....over and over they would do this until the spark of humanity left in the young boys would come back and began to change them. That is such love.

He has been out of the army for over 10 years. He still only sleeps 3 hours a night, the nightmares continue, the affects of trauma are still present. But he has taken those things and made them into something positive. He had a really good therapist or he is an extremely resilent young man. He doesn't let those horrors continue to negatively affect him.

It was good for me to engage with something on a global level. I listen to NPR news every morning. But besides my hubby, do i rarely talk about things we listen to and how it impacts me. Afganistan and the bombings, Kosovo and its liberation, Pakistan and its current voting polls. These things swirl in my head and in my heart and so to get out and actually hear a speaker and in engage with a friend afterwards was truly what this girl needed.
Even though we are heavily involved in our community and I get the privilege of being on the benevolence team....its good to talk about the world. It's a passion/calling and I need to continue to nourish it.

If you are interested read the book and learn more at www.childsoldiers.net
And PS. if you dont have children and your my friend, talk to me about global things. I like it! Or if you do have children, lets talk about ways we can make our children global minded.

black, grey and all shades of pink

Yesterday the Morginskys happened to need to go out at the exact time it decided to snow. Mommy and maggie threw on whatever clothes were near and took daddy to his doctor appt.
I decided to take Maggie for a latte at the Starbucks while we waited. We went to the one on 21st near Vanderbilt. It was about 8:30ish and the work rush was in full swing. We people watched as I drank my very caffienated latte and Maggie ate a cranberry scone. Besides the guy with the hat that read, " Jesus is coming soon...Enough Said" we were the only ones not wearing black, grey or white. I had black sweats, a pink striped maternity top, purple scarf and purple hat with a flower on it...no makeup and freshly rolled out of bed hair. And of course, snow boots. Maggie had every shade of pink and her Ellie-hand-me-down shiny pink and purple snow boots. We were a pair. For a milla-second I wanted to have on a black suit and being having important meetings with steaming cups of expensive coffee. Then I realized that when ever someone looked over at us, they were beaming. Maggie in her hot bright pink, was nice welcome to the hustle of the morning coffee and commute. Sitting there, with a child who was content to people watch with me and eat her scone (and incidentally drink from a straw for the first time) I couldnt be happier and was so thankful I was tosseled and quite a stay-at-home-mom mess. I knew we would soon be back at home, where everyone else wanted to be, and making hot tea and watching the snow with my bright hot pink baby.

6 months

Lost "Sucks"

My mom told me the other day that she tried to comment on my last post. She said if you could have she would have said, "Mimi says, Lost Sucks. I want to see pictures of Maggie."
You cant argue with that. Here are some pics of Mags and her cousins from Christmas.
Also, as an aside, we havent decided if we are going to watch tonights season premiere or wait until this season is over. so no body leave any clues or comments! :)

More Lost Clues

So now that Mojo is into lost as well, we've been researching names, derivatives of names, etc. Desmond whose full name is Desmond David Hume (David Hume is a philosopher and his philosophy parallels Desmond's character). Also of course John Locke who is also a philosopher and influenced our political science and education system. His ideas too are wrapped up in Locke. And on and on with the names. So when we were watching the episode where Juliette is recruited to go to the island, we were interested in the companies name, Mittelos. Mojo felt like it was of greek origin. Well, we googled it and there were like a billion lost blogs and code crackers and mystic lost sites.....keep in mind we just go into this so we were just surprised at all the stuff on the web. Seriously, Lost has done a great job at getting people interested.
So anyway, all the websites said Mittelos was an anagram that when switched around spelled, Lost Time...
well, thats just plain lame. The writers go to such great lengths to twist and weave things, they arent going to throw an anagram in there, right? plus, what the heck does Lost Time mean? nothing.
So we went to a greek translation website. We divided the word. Mi- means un, non or not. Telos means conclusion or end.
So....No conclusion. Unending...
We believe Mittelos and the island people are on the search to conquer death. And what man isnt on the search for that?

Lost Clue

So I started reading Eat, Pray, Love last night. (more on my opinions on that book later)....and I had an epiphany about Lost and the hatch. It comes from one of the beginning paragraphs....
"{The bead of strings that Buddhist/Hindus pray with} is strung with 108 beads. Amid the more esoteric circles of the Eastern philosophers, the number 108 is held to be most auspicious, a perfect three digit multiple of three, its components adding up to nine, which is three threes. And three of course, is the number representing supreme balance, as anyone has ever studied the Holy Trinity or a simple barstool can plainly see."

So every 108 minutes wasnt just an arbitrary number but because it kept everything is perfect balance, just like the number.
Lost fans, can i get props?

I'm open for business

If you have any counseling needs, I'm your gal. If feels good to hold something in your hands that says a task is completed. I cant wait to hang it.

Eyes, Nose, Teeth and Toes...God created me!

We are half way there!! Maggie successfully said Eyes (and perfectly I might add). So we've got Eyes & Nose and the T sound....
just working on Teeth and Toes! Maggie loves that song and I do to. I sang with it about 300 kids from the Kiberia slum in Kenya and so whenever i sing it with Maggie, I am reminded of our position (that I can feed and clothe my baby) and am Thankful! (These Pictures of our Maggie learning how to use our camera in the computer)

Shortbread, who knew?

Mojo and I are behind the times usually. With our noses stuck in books, we miss alot of mainstream media. We normally dont catch on until the shows are already in syndication. For instance, a few years back we watched Law and Order and loved it! Only to realize later that Law and Order had been on for like 15 years and there were all sorts of break offs and we could find it on about any channel any time of the day.
We also landed on Scrubs last year....just in time for there last season, which of course, we continue to forget to watch. I guess we will have to wait until this years Scrubs starts playing on Fox at 10pm.
Since my sister introduced me to ABC on line....I've been up to date. I can watch shows like Grey's Anatomy and Extreme Home Makeover, anytime I want. It's perfect. But since the writers strike, I've been forced to watch old episodes of My So Called Life, which I decided to leave my good memories of it in the past-b/c Jordan Catillano just isnt as cute when you are 31.
So last week I started watching Lost, and oh my goodness....I cant wait for Maggie to fall asleep at night so I can watch more...
We now understand why people in the past have said, Oh i cant hang out-Lost is on.
It would drive me nuts to be left with the cliffhangers each week. Watching it online is full of pleasure. You stop watching only when your eyes cant stay up.


Okay....ALL that to say, I have a new found love. shortbread cookies! i know, my ADD mind found those two topics connected. But the other day, Mojo and I had the pleasure of eating some shortbread cookies at our friends house. I'm not a big sweets person. I'd rather have a piece of fresh french bread and aged cheese than a piece of pie. My all time favorite dessert is Nestle chocolate chip cookies and when we found out Nestle buys from companies that use child slave labor....well, that did it for me, no more perfect dessert. But this shortbread cookies surprised me-I had never eaten them before. And my pregnant self has been craving them since then. So I went to my trusted Becky Crocker and lo and behold, they are so super easy to make!
Two dozen will be ready in just 3 short minutes. Hmmmm.
I'm off to eat cookies and watch Lost.

A Few Christmas Pics

Thoughts without pictures

So I realized today its been a long time since I had the urge to check my University of Tennessee email account. I went today to see if I could still log on, I couldnt. Sometimes we get so use to doing something it seems wierd to stop, even if its time (ie. graduating). I havent gotten my diploma in the mail yet, which is the catalyst to check to see if perhaps someone had emailed about it.
Somethings become a part of your life for a season and you cant imagine life without it or a certain job or something. And then things change and you cant remember life with those things.
I told Mojo today that recently I've missed working. I miss meetings and deadlines and feeling important. Sounds silly doesnt it? I liked the structure of my day, The commute to gather my thoughts. Now my commute is from my bedroom to Maggie's and my thoughts dont quite gather until about 2pm.

Things to think on during this Advent Season. These things have been on my heart. As the quietness before the birth sets in, Ask Jesus to bring with him redemption of these things:
*Current Ebola virus outbreak in Uganda. World Harvest Missionaries are there, some have evacuated, some doctors have stayed.
*Some of you might remember that I did research this past summer on PTSD in child soldiers, specifically from the LRA (Lord's REsistance Army). Well, now there is Village of Hope-a semi-new village funded by African Leadership that serves women who were abducted by the LRA in Uganda and now have children (from bring raped by soldiers). This village will create job skills and create a new home from them and their children. (You can donate online at www.africanleadership.org)
*Joseph Peabody who will start treatment at St. Jude's at the end of the month.

On cheerier note (i'm listening to Pete Yorn who doesnt facilitate cheeriness), Maggie had her 15month check up the other day...she weighed in at close to 23lbs and is 30 inches! Way to go Mags!!!

Joseph

Please pray for an old friend who's 3 year old son has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He just went through brain surgery. You can read more at
www.prayforjoseph.blogspot.com
He will start radiation in 2-3 weeks when he heals from his brain surgery. Please join with me in asking our Father to heal Joseph.

Christmas, Christmas...Time for Cheer

It's a very blustery day today in Nashville. Makes me wish we had a fireplace that wasnt over a 100 years old and still worked. But nonetheless, we are gearing up for Christmas. Which means of course, we broke out the Christmas records. I've already listened to the Joan Biaz Noel record about 25 times. It's beautiful and I look forward to December 1st when I can put it on. Maggie was a big help this year as you can see...



But most of the time she did this...

(video isnt showing up...i'll work on it)

We've had fun making the house a bit warmer and brighter. I found an delicious recipe for cranberry scones on Martha Stewart. I love finding new recipes that dont call for alot of ingredients but end up being amazing. Banana bread with chocolate chips is one of those and now cranberry scones, although it took me a minute to figure out how to knead the dough without crushing the berries. Oh Martha. Here are some more of the house. The tree and a close up of a favorite ornament.



Our living room mantle and a Christmas Welcome.



Cranberry French doors and our bedroom mantle. Our own private christmas cheer.



And we cant forget my favorite Christmas decoration. The yummiest blanket around. I;ve been wrapped in it for about 5 days straight!


Now I'm off to wrap myself in that blanket and have a cup of hot tea, a scone and listen to Handel's Messiah while Maggie is napping. Mmmmm, Christmas time is delightful isnt? Come drop by and have a scone and hot tea with me anytime.

Love Actually Is....All Around.

"Whenever I get gloomy about the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrowe Aiport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed - but I don't see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified, or newsworthy - but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."

(it's time to break out Love Actually)

Thanksgiving in Sunny California

Actually, it was a bit colder in California than we are use to but Maggie got to spend with lots of family. It was a good time with yummy home cooked food and of course, lots of In and Out burger. We didnt get any pictures of Maggie's new playmate...Cosmo, Aunt Nikki's new puppy!