Such Treasures

Did I scare you? Did you think I’d made some sort of colossal mistake? No, I haven’t. This is merely a post to catch you up on my fun and productive week.

As much as I dreaded the kids’ departure, I find that so far, I’m enjoying the quiet. Really. It is so nice. I’ve managed to cross a number of things off my list. I’ve made Jeff three t-shirts, loose cotton tees, from knit sheets (thrift store, yes). I’ve updated both this site and gnowfglins.com with things that have been on my mind. More tweaking to be done. I’ve read a couple books. I’ve visited with our sweet, sweet goats (who are missing the kids).

Yesterday, I had fun by getting a massage and a haircut. Sounds extravagant, I know. I got the hairdresser recommendation from a friend of a friend, who reported that if you don’t mind a slow-Steel-Magnolias-type salon, it would be good. Boy, was she right. This place was sooooo like that — the chit chat, the pace, the carefree ease. I believe I got a good haircut, so I’ll go back there. I hardly said a word and was a bit put off because the lady didn’t ask me one single thing about me or my family. She and the others working there were too full of talking to each other and making jokes about their own lives to concern themselves with mine. I suppose that’s okay. I didn’t have much to talk about anyway and I felt very different from them. Oh, and the smell! That place was full of chemical nail stuff. After all this I’m saying, you’re probably shocked I’ll go back. But I think I will. I only go once a year anyway and the lady seemed experienced and did a good job.

Jeff has been working hard outside every night, using the tractor to dig out a spot for the new water system. It is slow going because he’s working around the phone line, the water line and the power line. I really feel for him. His back is breaking. We got these rocks delivered the other day and should be getting another load. Boy, it is vicious how those rocks fall out of the back of a dump truck. We are going to use them for retaining walls. The goats started climbing on them right away. I’ll show you a picture. (Okay, I have to restart my computer to get the picture up here. The USB thing-a-ma-jig is finicky.)

I watched “The Business of Being Born” last night. I got it from Netflix and wanted to return it right away so we’ll have an entertaining movie for the weekend. I thought it was pretty good. I am a proponent of home births, having had 2 myself, and both of them after a Cesarean section (VBAC). The information in the film was not very deep and also, I feel that not enough types of people were profiled. There were the hip home birthing moms and the hippie home birthing moms. Not that I have a problem with either. In fact, I’d like to say I’m a bit of both.

But I am also a God-fearing mom who feels that birth is a natural, God-given process which put me in touch with my Creator and the perfection of His design. I kept hearing about empowerment from the ladies profiled, as if they could take credit for the perfect design of their bodies, rather than a thankfulness to the Lord for making the birth process as wonderful as it is. I do believe the film did a good job of showing the alarming trend of how more and more births in this country are ending up are being treated as diseases to be managed through interventions and surgical procedures, rather than miracles to be witnessed and shared. I recently ran across a very good site on VBACs and HVACs (home birth HVAC), chock full of stats, stories, encouragement, intelligence and information — VBACfacts.com.

The rest of my day today I have some research to do and I would like to sew, too.