The last day of 2008!

Wow. A lot has happened this year. Very exciting things and sad things both have happened.

A year ago, final preparations were being made for Kavi's arrival. He arrived right on schedule with one of his due dates, Feb 1st, though I wished at that time it was Jan 31st since my labor started early that morning! I didn't want it to last until the next day. But, it did. I am thankful he arrived safely into the world and we were both fine overall. It's hard to imagine life before Kavi now. He has made an amazing addition to both of our families.

Not long after Kavi's birth, my closest family members had to move. It had been in the works for a long time, and it was kind of hard to reverse everything even though I was going to have a baby, the first grandchild for my parents, soon before that. It was very hard to see them move, but thankfully we have been able to see eachother almost monthly. It's still hard with them being somewhere else since my family is extremely close.

In the summer my Aunt Margie passed away after a long struggle with illness and health problems. That was very difficult, and sometimes I still can't believe she is gone. I have to remind myself she is in heaven now and all her cares are gone. She was the only aunt I was close to, so I miss her a lot. I have another aunt through marriage, but I never see or talk to her or even know her very well or my uncle who she is married to.

In good news, I have started selling more at my Etsy shop which is encouraging. I have sold a couple things a week for the past 2 weeks. The extra spending money is great to have. I can use it to buy fun things or gifts for people.

Christmas was very fun having five people visiting and staying in our two bedroom house, hehe! We all survived. The only complaint I have is that it was in the 80's on CHristmas eve and Christmas. I know some peopel around the country would covet that, but if you live here your whole life there is nothing more disappointing for me than a Christmas that feels like any other day of the year, not even a slight chill. I have had a weird feeling Christmas season. Because my family isn't here anymore, we had far less fun events before Christmas arrived, and the weather stunk. It was exciting that it was Kavi's first Christmas, but still everything felt weird leading up to Christmas Eve when my family arrived.

I finally made time to write on this, and that's all I can think of right now.

Christmas Preparations

oday is the day I do a lot of prep for Christmas tomorrow! My parents, Nana, Jenny(sis), and Rachel are all on their way down here! Kavi is trying to play on the keyboard making the hard type out! :)

I am cooking a slightly altered traditional Franchi family meatball and sauce recipe today! I have to do most of the cooking since my mom is on her way down here. I am excited to have the responsibility but nervous too! I'll start cooking in a couple hours.

We have our main Christmas meal at 2pm tomorrow. Tonight we will eat light and then go to close family friends' Christmas party that we always go to on Christmas Eve. 

I leave you with Christmas wishes...I love these vintage style pictures!

O Holy Night

Moving slow...but still trying

I rarely talk about my weight on here, but I thought posting would help keep me motivated. I have been trying to lose weight ever since my 6 week post partum checkup last March. I have lost 24 lbs since then. When you think about how long ago March was, that might not sound so great. But It's still an accomplishment for me and I have to keep going forward. I don't diet or do any weird eating. I just control how much I let myself snack and what kind of food I eat all day. I still have chocolate, and unhealthy food(I know, bad hehe), but I try to just eat a lot less of it than I used to. I am trying to shape my mind on food so that it's a permanent and not temporary change.

I use this weight tracker for fun. For now I had put I wanted to lose 41 lbs to get to a certain goal...it has a deadline too but I ignore that or keep changing it. :P

The snail really symbolizes me, since over the last month I have only lost 1-2 lbs. But since it's the holidays, I consider that good! At Thanksgiving time I pigged out for a few days, so still losing is a relief to me. After getting back home, I went back to my regular routine of how I eat. 

Wish me success! I've never been thin as an adult or even a teenager, and I don't want to be skinny but healthy and not as big. 

Music

Right now I am listening to music, something I don't do a lot of these days. But I love music, and when I feel I need a spiritual "recharge", music with Christian lyrics help me a lot. 

An old song by Jars of Clay called Love Song for a Savior was remixed by them, and I like the new version too. The words are really good. The most important to me, the chorus singing to Jesus "I want to fall in love with you..." repeated over and over. This is not something to just forget about. 

I also still like listening to some Matisyahu songs that are a couple years old already(yikes! time goes fast). While we don't share some core beliefs, his songs remind me of reading Psalms make me think of King David in the bible. Lyrics from King without a Crown that I love...

"Strip away the layers and reveal your soul

Got to give yourself up and then you become whole

You're a slave to yourself and you don't even know
You want to live the fast life but your brain moves slow
If you're trying to stay high then you're bound to stay low
You want God but you can't deflate your ego
If you're already there then there's nowhere to go
If you're cup's already full then its bound to overflow"

"What's this feeling? My love will rip a hole in the ceiling 

I give myself to you from the essence of my being 

And I sing to my God, songs of love and healing"

Eww!

Should I even write what I caught Kavi doing a little while ago? Ok, even though people will think "ewww!". I forgot to shut the bathroom door behind me, and in an instant Kavi had crawled in there and by the time I was in there, he was standing at the toilet playing in it with his hands. EWWW. I washed them right away. That little stinker!! He also tries pulling himself to stand at the garbage can too!

He's getting taller and able to reach more and more things we thought we safely on tables. I guess it's time for baby proofing take 2.

He pulls himself to stand like it's nothing now, and I wouldn't be surprised if he tries walking by the end of this month.

He loves investigating everything and studying it. He also "talks" a lot more now, which is so cute. (pic below from yesterday)

My Christmas Tree isn't up yet! :(

I am so behind with decorating this year. I guess because I was away until Saturday night. It was a very nice trip. I am glad to be back home with Sujeet, but still feel a little sad about not being where my closest family is!

I hope we can put the tree up tonight. Usually it gets put up right after Thanksgiving. Another issue this year is making sure Kavi can't pull on it, so we have to shove the tree into a corner and block it off.  I am so behind on a lot of things. I need to do tons of laundry and haven't fully unpacked from the trip!

I have still been having fun on etsy. I have sold a couple things and have made trades for some wonderful items that I can give as Christmas gifts. My mom's shop is doing great, selling very often! I hope to sew more pillows soon to add to my store. 

Cup of Tea Please, or as they say elsewhere-a Cuppa!

I have been enjoying my time in Alabama a lot! At night when it's cold outside, and a little chilly inside, it's great to have a hot cup of tea, decaf if it's late. I have drank more hot drinks at night this one week than probably over a year's span of time at home. One night I felt so chilly I had three hot drinks within a couple hours...hot cider, then hot chocolate, and then hot tea. :) Overkill! It's so cozy feeling though. And you need it!

The hard part is bundling Kavi up to go out. It's not even as cold as the North here but still he had to be bundled with whatever we have to keep him warm. And we don't have real winter clothing, being from Florida. My winter clothing option is layering. I would need a new wardrobe if I lived somewhere were it actually snowed a lot, and you don't realize how unprepared you are for cold days being from Florida until you end up in a cold cold day and have nothing very warm to wear. I can't imagine having a baby to dress in a long, cold winter!! Ay ay ay. I'd rather have a moderate-mild winter like here in AL. It's way better than Florida's looooooooong summer too.

If you live somewhere that gets cold all winter, you should check out my mother's shop on etsy and her lovely scarflettes and cowls. They are adorable. I wrote about them at my crafty blog. http://considerthecoffee.blogspot.com/