Month: May 2025

My cousin’s son had a baby about two months ago. I sent my cousin this message today:

Today, at the end of Mass, the priest did a blessing for all mothers. Then, for fun, he had all first-time moms stand. I was one of maybe three or four. Same with first-time grandmothers and my mom. Then first-time great-grandmothers. The people around us were pointing at Grandma, and my mom said that this one was number thirteen for her. There were a handful of women who stood for that one. (Keep in mind that this is a huge church.)

Then, the priest said, “Now, I only ask this one because I’ve seen it before. Are there any first-time great-great grandmothers?”
I kid you not, Grandma shot out of her wheelchair like nobody’s business – she had been ready for it! She was standing tall and smiling proudly because of you guys!

Thought you might enjoy knowing that and might want to share it with Ryan. 🙂

Pretty cool, huh? My grandma is 94 and a half. I told my mom today that I feel like we need to say the half, because it means a lot at that age. She laughed and commented on how we count every half when we’re really little, and then again when we’re really old, because those halves matter at those points in our lives.

Happy Mothers Day!

And to all who long to be mothers and to those who have lost, may you find comfort in God’s will in your life – there is always something better than we could have imagined waiting for us on the other side of our struggles. You are strong and you can find what awaits you with joy. You are perfect and enough exactly as God made you. And you are loved and worthy of being loved. Remember that.

Thank you, God. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

My husband says to me tonight that he learned something about wolf spiders today. I, rather automatically, reply, “Not to stomp on them?” He then proceeds to tell me how he looked them up and that they don’t have webs because they’re hunters instead – which I didn’t know, but which make sense on multiple levels – as well as that they, and this was the part I was expecting, carry their egg sacks, the females, that is, on their bodies… since, you know, they have no web, which I now knew. I then asked him if he stomped on one today. He laughed and admitted that he did, and then explained the terror of stomping on the poor spider – thankfully, in the garage – and watching the seemingly hundreds of tiny spiders flee the scene in all directions and at once. I was saddened by the news, and even more so by his adding that they all just stopped after a certain distance and stood around until he sprayed them with bug spray. Sad on so many levels here.

He did understand that the way he handled it wasn’t truly the best route, especially considering that those spiders eat the bugs we really don’t want around. But he did also comment that he now knows he needs to treat again for those other bugs, because the presence of wolf spiders proves that they have food available to them where they are.

So, yeah… both an exciting, interesting thing and a sad one.

In 100% positive news, though, our baby rolled over all on her own today for the first time. And she did it twice, both times she was given the occasion. Super cool!

Anyway, totally wiped, both physically and mentally. Lots happened today, in a way.

Goodnight.

Thank you, God. Make us well and keep us safe and together, please. Show us clearly our next steps. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

Tonight, I picked up this activity table horse I’d originally intended to give to my brother, in order to show it to him while he was at the house. However, as I held it up, my husband came over to see what it was before my brother came back into the room. My husband, at first, criticized it for its price new – I got it used and in great condition for $20, versus $70 new – but, upon closer inspection, asked my what it was. As I explained that it was like the activity table thing, but in animal form, he proceeded 100% genuinely to explore the toy… ‘What is THIS? Where does This thing go? What does This do?? What?!’

I kid you not, as he fiddled with all the bits, his excitement and fascination at his own exploration of the toy was the epitome of what designers want kids to do with the toy.

My husband, the toddler. It was beyond adorable.

Thank you, God, for the fun stuff, like this. Thank you for your silly sense of humor and your childlike joy. (I suppose you’re the origin of their joy in the first place…) Thank you for this life and for my husband and for our daughter and for our home and family. Make us well and keep us safe, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

I was discussing this evening with the neighbor about how depression kind of snuck in yesterday and was pushing pretty hard on me today. She said that she has also noticed that it has been off and on ever since she had the baby, and that it kind of sneaks up her each time. It has definitely been an emotional rollercoaster these past few months. 14 and a half weeks. I suppose it has even been rather whiplash-y, so much up and down emotionally, often within a single day or night.

But I saw specifically for this round that it might just be tied to my lack of feeling any sense of accomplishment in my daily life. I am accustomed to checking things off, completing tasks and then moving on to others. I receive a huge surge of positive hormones every time a task is completed.

And I seem to have very few surges of them when I don’t check off tasks. I have begun to feel very useless in the world, like I’m not making any difference for anyone. Yes, logically, I know that my job is to keep a baby alive and well, and I know that I am doing just that. But that isn’t exactly an item to check off the list – it kind of an ongoing and ever-present task that will last for the rest of my life, really. And that particular task keeps me so busy and interrupted that I hardly get any other task truly completed at home, anyway.

So, I’m not getting those surges of oxytocin or anything else happy and positive. Instead, I am living pretty fully in this cortisol-led survival-esque state of being most of the time. And it’s hard to feel worth it while spending so much time in that state each day.

So, as my husband and I discussed tonight, I think my best move is to look for ways to check items off my lists. Perhaps I need to adjust the tasks so that they are in parts and so can accomplish single parts here and other single parts there. I also would do well to list out some new activities I’d like to do for myself (and for the baby), and start working them into my schedule. More items to check off that way, too. Let’s get these check marks going and this oxytocin flowing(!), shall we?

Yes, let’s.

Thank you, God. Keep us safe and make us well and together, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

I’m working on getting my husband to go camping. He has wanted to do it but hasn’t gone in years. He is very stressed right now. I am, too, but in a different way than he is. I would love to go on a wilderness adventure. But my wilderness adventures require normal homes, not tents. I can go get dirty during the day, but only so long as I have a hot shower and clean space in which to walk around and relax at night. And no, a tidy tent and campground do not count as a clean space. Nope.

I’m working on my ability to do camping. I wish I were comfortable with it. Especially since it’s so affordable. And we already have just about everything awesome we could need or want for camping. And since I want to go experience nature better and stay in all the state and national parks and all… Anyway.

The point is that I want my husband to get to go enjoy camping and relaxation in nature, even if I can’t. Especially right now, when he is so terribly stressed.

God, help us to sort through all of this beautifully and clearly. Guide us clearly at each step and help us to be the people you call us to be, our best selves. Grant us the lives you have set in our hearts. Keep us safe and make us well, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

I’m not sure anything about a job interview would stress me out more than a personality test. How do I prepare for that? Be less myself? No employer needs to know how nuts I am. There’s a reason I’m good at reading social cues. I’m not meant to unleash all of me to all of the world. This ain’t to say that I need to hide. Certainly not. But we also don’t want to walk up to the Sunday school teacher and start discussing our sex life, nor do we bring up how stupid we think people have become in society with someone who employs us. It just isn’t tactful or smart. I am extremely accepting of opposing viewpoints to my own. But I don’t openly contradict people who do not read as being truly open to discussion. (Because most people aren’t, by the way, even if they say they’re open to it. They’re lying. They’re open to stating their opinions like facts, and then meanly judging anyone who doesn’t agree exactly with them.) So, that being said, having to take a personality test as part of an interview process, to me, sounds terrifying. It also sounds like a 99% chance of being rejected, or, at least, of being treated negatively by others.

So, yeah… no, thank you. Haha

Post-a-day 2025

I sent a joke I crossed to my family this morning. One brother commented that it had to be AI-generated, as it wasn’t a very good dad joke. I then went to AI, told it that we needed better dad Joe’s than this one, and waiting for its response.

Sadly, the jokes it provided were incredibly terrible. And I don’t mean in the sense of their being dad jokes and that dad jokes are terrible. I mean in the part where they were barely jokes at all, they were so bad. Cleverness was lacking greatly. Let alone the part where it’s supposed to be a dad joke, not a failed joke by a child (which is how most of them turned out). Despite multiple rounds of feedback, it still wasn’t creating anything funny by the end of it all.

Big bummer there. However, it does seem to suggest that AI can’t write jokes too well, at least not dad ones. That then suggests that the original joke likely was not AI-generated, as it was actually funny as a dad joke. It seems AI can’t do comedy so far. Hmm…

Post-a-day 2025

The weather is cooler tonight for an unexpected respite. So, my husband decided to open up the tent and camp in the backyard. And I allowed him to take our daughter with him. So, the two of them are camping in the backyard together for the first time, both in celebration of the great weather and of her first anniversary of life. (Yes, we made her on May the fourth last year, so, her life from conception makes today her first anniversary of life! Yippee!)

I am stressed, and also calm. He even took the camera, so I could monitor. However, this is the view I got first:

Fortunately, he was still awake, so he picked it up from being face down on the mattress and righted it. However, the view wasn’t much improved after that, anyway…

So, yeah… I know she’s in the tent, at least… haha

God, keep us all safe tonight especially, please. Make us well and keep us always safe and together, please. Thank you for this life and this family. Help us to love one another fully and always. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

My husband is attempting to sleep in our bed tonight for he first time since he got sick and had to sleep upright in the other room. He said to me, “We’re gonna try this… If I end up coughing too much, just wake me and tell me to go to the other room.”

Pretty sure I did a sort of scoff at his idea. He asked what the deal was, and I replied something along the lines of, ‘Yeah, that’s gonna work,’ and he started chuckling, almost childlike. I threw out,”‘Honey, wake up, please, and go to the other room.’ ‘WHAT DOES IT EVEN MATTER?!’ That could be an excerpt from our future conversation.” He kept chuckling all the more. He understood fully how true it was. 😛

Post-a-day 2025

My husband and I just exchanged several text messages. We were sitting about three feet apart. And it wasn’t even in an effort to keep from waking the baby…

The room is mostly quiet, but for the AC unit directly behind where my husband was sitting and rocking the baby to put her to sleep. So, he couldn’t have understood me easily if I had spoken out loud. I half expected him to ask me why I didn’t just ask him out loud what I was sending to him. However, I think he also realized that it was much easier this way. He had, after all, just kind of fussed at me a few minutes ago when I spoke to him about something else, because he couldn’t hear me well enough. So, it all made sense.

Sort of, anyway… it was still totally ridiculous, without a doubt. 😛

Thank you, God, for my home and for my family and for our good health and safety. Please, keep us well, keep us safe, and keep us together and loving with one another. Help us be our best selves together, always supporting one another in doing so. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025