Frazzled Reflections

I looked down at the Clearblue Easy digital pregnancy test. "You have got to be kidding me!" I couldn't help it. The words just came right out. I walked back into our bedroom, sat on the bed, and told my husband, "Well, I guess we're not going to Florida for Spring Break." "Huh?" He's never been very good about waking up right away. "I'm pregnant." "Seriously?" Yep, I was serious. I want to be perfectly clear: I LOVE my son. My sweet, loving, beautiful children are a daily reminder of just how much God has blessed me. However, this was not what we were expecting to happen, and at that very moment it couldn't appear to be worse timing. Maybe I should back up. Three years earlier we were shocked to discover that we were pregnant with our daughter for very different reasons. We struggled for two and a half years to get pregnant. We had finally met with a specialist and were on our third round of treatments...

While we spent a fair amount of time celebrating family this weekend, we also got a much needed head start on the next set of projects in the house. We have several projects we are working on at once, but one of the bigger projects we are starting on is the renovation of our mudroom, pantry/laundry room, and family room bathroom. Our first step was getting rid of the cabinets in our "pantry" area. We think that the room must have originally been a craft room, but for us it works perfectly as a place to store the "extras" from our kitchen as well as a stock area for groceries on those rare occasions when I have the time and energy to plan a massive coupon/sales savings trip. Maybe now that I'm done with my MA, I'll have more time for that. Of course, that could just be wishful thinking. On Friday night, this is what our pantry looked like: And this is what the room looked like before we moved into the house On a whim I decided to post the cabinets o...

Done. Finished. Never again. My husband says he'll believe it when he sees it, but for now it is most certainly true. How's that for a good Lutheran phrase? What is done you ask? My Master's degree. As of today, I am officially done. I'm not walking at the graduation ceremonies next week, and that is ok. My parents, in-laws, and husband all drove out to Nebraska 11 years ago to help me celebrate the completion of my Bachelor's degree. With a busy life as a wife, mother, and teacher, I don't have the time to spend several more hours celebrating the completion of my graduate work. Instead, I'm just going to celebrate by writing about it, and maybe finding a time to hang out with my M.A. English peeps one last time. I knew in my first year of teaching that I needed to go back to school to get my Master's degree in English. After spending four and a half years in undergrad studying English, history, and education, I really thought I knew everything I nee...