Today was busy, spring “break” is not so descriptive of how my week has gone. My work doubles when all of the family is home. And both Shelly and Jeff have been ill with fevers and body aches. So all of the projects I wanted to get done are being shoved to the side while I play nurse and cook and clean.
I did have a lovely time at the rec center where I work out. Went for a walk around a beautiful arboretum that has been created in a space that used to be a large field. Then I swam twenty laps in the pool and did a good stretch in the sauna. I have Yoga tomorow night and will get the rest of my muscles streched out in class.
I like to sing and pray while I am walking. It is such a great time to have a Chat with Father in Heaven without any interuptions. Mostly I just sing hymns and primary songs. Today I added in a few favorite and memorized songs from the musicals, Saturday’s Warrior and My Turn on Earth. I was blessed to memorize two songs from My Turn on Earth which I performed during childhood as solos in sacrament meeting. One early memory of my maternal grandmother was of her weeping while I sang the song homesick in church at about age eight.
Homesick
I get sort of homesick sometimes
For the home I had before my birth
For my other Father and Mother
That I left to come to earth
I miss all the heavenly peace
Of that place where no pain can be found
where their is no hurt and their is no hate
but only love around
till its time to go back home
there’s just one thing to do it’s clear
I’ll try with my heart, I’ll try with my hands
to make a heaven here.
I still cry when I sing it, such a sweet little song.
I loved listening to the birds that are drawn to those trees in the arboretum. So many different kinds all singing for joy. I really enjoyed my walk. My friend Lauren had called asking me to go biking, it was perfect weather for it, but I wanted to be alone. I love a friend like her. I can say no and don’t have to worry about offending or making her mad. No explanations needed, just “that’s cool, maybe next time”. She is a gift.
We are both thinking about having babies this year. It will be her fourth, my sixth. Music has been a connection for our friendship. When I was explaining to my husband why I love her I said, “when I told Lauren that I have a life long dream of playing Mrs. Thenardiere in Les Miserables one day on broadway…she laughed” The fact that she would get the joke is why I am so grateful for her friendship. I do want to play that part some day….”everybody raise a glass…raise it up the master’s *ss” Mormons can only have fun in certain ways and playing a bawdy character in a play is one of them.
I have been preparing my body for pregnancy. I started doing serious prep for pregnancy when I was expecting Allison fifteen years ago. By focusing on good nutrition and exercise, I have been able to prepare well for that intense time of creating a body to house the spirit’s sent to our home.
Each pregnancy has gotten just a little more intense, as I have learned more and more about pregnancy nutrition, deep tissue cleansing, and started doing my own prenatal care when I was pregnant with Andy back in 96.
I went through an intense time of research. It lasted for quite a few years. I was a childbirth teacher and felt a responsibility to my couples to know everything possible about how to build a healthy child while pregnant. It was an interesting exercise in research and then putting my research to the test. Those experiments in baby making, followed by watching the physical, emotional, and spiritual strength of my individual children has convinced me that the physical, emotional, and spiritual foods a mother puts into her body during pregnancy have a profound impact on the health of her child.
I have now learned these principles so well that it is second nature to me to be tracking Protein, Salt, and Water consumption while pregnant without really putting out too much effort. I also “eat” huge amounts of spiritual foods while pregnant, and go to extremes to avoid “toxic” situations and people when I am expecting. This is one of the reasons I stopped going to doctors. Everyone in the obstetrics world is paranoid and fretful. All tests performed on the mother and baby are done in a state of fear. And so many deadly situations are possible for both mother and baby because of the defensive medicine doctors are practicing, that I just decided I did not want to be a part of it.
I plan to blog my next pregnancy in detail. I did a simple pregnancy journal which is still up at the birthlove web site while I was pregnant with Benjamin, who is now three. This is a members only site, or I would link to the journal. I only did a few entries while I was pregnant, as I was homeschooling all four of my older kids during the pregnancy and did not have much time for writing. But with this next baby I plan to get into the details of nutrition, exercise, and natural home birth here at my blog.
While I was walking I felt the spirit of my next son close to me. Every time this happens I feel so overwhelmed with the Love that we mothers are so blessed to experience and feel in relation to our children. I have had these experiences many times with all of my children. Pre-Conception communication is real.
The first was when I was engaged. I was sitting in church and all of a sudden I heard all of these little children voices. “Mommy, Mom, Mother, we are so excited to come down and be with you!” I remember thinking…”Just how many of you are up in heaven waiting to come down?” I didn’t get any sort of a number or know how many girls or how many boys – although I have known women who have had this experience of knowing exactly how many children and in what order those children would appear.
It was just a sweet experience and one that I remember with fondness. This morning my son up in heaven let me know that he was very excited to come join our family and that he would patiently wait until the perfect time to come, for both him and for us as a family. We are so packed into our little house right now, if we had another baby, I just don’t know how we would make it work. We are really hoping to move in the summer to a bigger house. Even just one more bedroom would make a huge difference. But time will tell. Heavenly Father knows our needs and I trust that he will help to open up a way for us to move if we really should. We may just stay here, don’t know. Boulder county is a very expensive place to live.
Well, I need to go to bed.
Jenny Hatch