A summertime sprout!

This is the craziest life post I have ever written because Cody and I having a BABY THIS SUMMER! Actually the craziest will be sometime in early summer when we're moving to a new state (don't know where yet) and about to have a baby at the same time.

Consider this my first "bumpdate." I am fourteen weeks along this coming Thursday, and Baby Green is the size of a peach and is due in mid-July!

In this post I wanted to capture what my first trimester was like. It's not to complain because it could've been a lot worse, but to add another data point to the map of pregnant women everywhere. If a rosy preggo glow is indeed in my future, then bring it b/c I'm ready!

Dating in 2010, Wedding in 2014, Baby in 2016! The years have a mind of their own.

We always knew we wanted babies but figured we'd start trying in a few years. Well, on Friday, November 13, 2015 the test was positive...we now like to say baby was in our five year plan, but four years early ;)

What led me to take a test (besides the observations that often accompany early pregnancy) was the boot camp class I'd started and was very excited about. The third week in, I could not figure out why I wasn't getting any better at any of it. In fact I'd been getting worse every week. I was clumsy and slow, and spent a lot of time standing in one place with my water bottle glued to my face just watching everyone else kick butt.

I'll never forget wandering into the bedroom that early November morning with the positive test in my shaky hands as I handed it to Cody. I took two more that day that were both positive, and time stood still. It kind of has ever since.

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The first trimester was hard in ways I couldn't have imagined. I didn't have any morning sickness, just nausea the two times I took a prenatal vitamin with no food (don't do it) and developed an intense hatred of Thanksgiving food, my favorite meal of the year.

What I got in my cards was exhaustion.

This tiredness was nothing I've ever known. It sapped my energy, my brain power, my motivation to cook anything or literally do anything, and had me on the floor by 3 p.m. Even though baby's literally building itself from scratch at that point, all I wanted to eat was Spaghetti O's and pineapple (sorry baby!!).  And hardest of all, the exhaustion sucked away who I was which I was NOT expecting or had ever heard of.

It felt like the girl I normally was had gone to Mars and left a shell of a person who was surviving from the help of her husband and God. I'm a pretty happy-go-lucky person, but I was about as cheerful as a flat tire from November to about the end of last week. Pretty much every aspect of my life suffered from it.

But I'M BACK! I'm here to tell you it ends ( as my mother-in-law gently told me over Christmas) and you will go back to being yourself again, or until month six I hear. And once you see your little baby kicking and moving at the first ultrasound, you'll wonder how you ever felt like crap.

We are beyond humbled and excited that we get to raise this person. This is a special gift to us from the hands of heaven and it's our constant prayer that he/she is healthy and strong, and becomes a loving human being full of wonder.

I had no idea how mobile such tiny babies are in utero. Baby kept rolling over, and kicking its legs out so it was hard to get a good shot.

Cody and I love this picture of its little legs! It looks like its patiently waiting for summer... 

The Last Pennsylvania Autumn

I've enjoyed being able to love on our little half-bungalow (my name for a duplex) SO much over the past year. Fall is important to us. It's our wedding season (year 1 wraps up Nov. 8!) and when both our birthdays happen. And we're big scarf people - as in we'll wear each other's. 

I asked Cody what his favorite things about fall are and he gave me the Hallmark answer: crisp and cozy. But I must say I agree!

We only have till May here now, when we make our next big move for wherever Cody's PhD work takes us. This means that I'm taking in each season a little slower, trying to be more mindful. I spent this week getting our little home into the fall spirit! I love keeping our decor simple, and meaningful.

Here's a little list of what we cherish about this most bittersweet season.

 1. Pumpkins! Well duh. These are locally grown pie pumpkins, and we plan to slowly eat them over the season until the mantle is empty and ready for Christmas! The cotton stems remind me of fall in Louisiana. I grew up going to a cotton plantation with my school every year.
2. The herbs in the garden are still cranking out goodness. This was for Saturday's brunch frittata.

3. Crafting. This is the first fall wreath I've made from second-hand yarn and leftover fabric samples from our local creative reuse store. The whole thing costs about $10.

 4. Walks in the woods, seeing everything changing into its next stage of life (and death) for the year

 Goldenrod and Aster

 No serious tree color change yet. But man the air is cool.

 5. Backyard fire pit!! Probably the BEST thing about the half-bungalow.

6. Knowing that this leaf's look will be replicated by the trillions across Pennsylvania in a few short weeks.

7. This is a new one: making our own fall coffee. This is a pumpkin spice latte, with only 4 ingredients, and way less than what you'd pay at S***bucks. You can see there recipe on my Instagram account.

8. Finally, and most importantly, this has been a new season for me in light of my beliefs. I came across She Reads Truth, a series of online scripture-based Bible studies especially for women. They're short, full of inspiration and bring ancient words into our modern world to help us grasp their true meaning and apply them to our lives. I read one every morning with my coffee before heading out into the unpredictable world we live in. Just doing this one little thing has brought me so much peace, and ritual is not something I'm gifted at so the fact that I've plugged into this so well means much to me.

How is the changing season changing you?

P.S. Another style collaboration coming Tuesday with The Creative Closet (my first is here) - pumped to share the first of my sustainable fashion posts!

On to the heights

This week I've been all about staying indoors - partly because the weather crashed again last night with several inches of new snow and temps below 20, and partly because I have felt a pull to be still and consider what it is that I am doing. 

As much as I've been dreaming of summer and being outdoors often (distracting myself from the present), the this snowy winter has served a special purpose that I'm only just coming to appreciate. It has kept me inside, but it has kept me still and watchful, nesting.

I found these tiny ice feathers growing on one of our windows this week!

It has kept me watching snowflakes fall slowly out of the front window as Ravel's piano trio drifts from the record player (Cody's "snow" song).  We've watched little brown rabbits from our bedroom window in the moonlit backyard, sitting upright with perky ears listening in the still cold, while we chatter about their cuteness. Vein-like tubes run across the snow where I suspect mice have tunneled to and fro visiting their winter stores. I've even found deer tracks pressed in the snow leading right up to our front door. We've crept over paths turned to rivers of ice in the nearby park, and eaten lots of good crockpot chili. 

This winter has kept me in-tune with the natural world just by watching what goes on around our home, and it is simple and lively. It reminds me of why I do what I do, and why I have pursued sustainability as a career. It isn't a straight path by any means; it takes a lot of creativity to pursue any one path inside this "field". It also requires being comfortable with an uncomfortable level of uncertainty. Cody is a cellist and I am a sustainability communications professional. One career is hundreds of years old, and the other starts tomorrow. It feels paradoxical, and I think it has encouraged us to be alert, watchful, and in-tune more than ever this winter.  I am thankful for all these snowflakes ; ) 

"My strength is in the Lord.

He makes my feet like the feet of the deer,

and leads me on to the heights."

Trusting through trial. Peace, the deftness and swiftness to navigate safely as we are designed to when we hold on to His promise and listen. Imagining a delicately stepping deer moving through the quiet, listening carefully - it is beautiful. 

Faith: The Jubilee Professional Conference 2015

Nine days ago I would have had no idea what the title of the post was about. Yesterday, I experienced the fireworks of what happens when your faith life and your career life meet up and have a sit-down together.

Cody and I were invited by a member of our church small group to attend the Jubilee Professional conference that is part of a much larger young adult faith-based event, Jubliee. Each year the Center for Christian Outreach teams with the Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation to throw a weekend bash that celebrates recent college grads and their careers, lives and other passions in the context of the love of God.

Thankful we we able to attend.

I certainly fall in to the young professional/millennial category - I'm searching for my best fit career-wise using the talents I've been given and cultivated without settling. It was a blast of fresh air to hear a Christian perspective on today's often scary dynamic work situations, and how to put yourself out there in faith, while living your faith.

Jubilee Pro was all about those of us 5 - 20 years out of school creating our careers and being agents of influence, whether we know it or not. How does what we do everyday in our workplaces affect those we work with for the greater good? How do we show love? How do we share our personal transformations in a challenging world?

A number of well-spoken thought leaders and change drivers inspired us to think about why we choose to believe what we do, both politically and spiritually with the metaphor of tribes. How can we break out of 'tribal' thinking, or believing what we do because we just were raised that way, or that's just the group we feel comfortable with; at the end of the day, how do we solve problems focusing on making sure that love is our standard?

One of our favorite presenters left us with these ideas: "Our existence here is to love people because they are people, not because they are on 'our side'." // If we could first find the middle ground with those we seem to be at odds with - how about starting with the agreement that we simply want people to flourish?

Another shared how his tech consulting company has no CEO. As president, he thinks of the CEO as the love and teaching of Jesus Christ. He puts his employees and their dreams front-and-center, as well as the company's and client's values. This atmosphere of support and genuine listening makes for a creative workplace where employees thrive, clients are satisfied and feel heard, and profit can follow naturally. The relationships nurtured are the driving force.

One of my favorite speakers encouraged the church to turn outward to embrace truth about modern career struggles, and speaking to those needs with the unique and amazing resources it has. What a great series it would make - to think through the changes and unforeseen paths our lives and careers take through the safety of the church environment that is primed for our vulnerability.

Cody and I were able to nab some good reading material at the bookstore afterwards on each of our interests.

The FRAMES books look at a variety of research on American society and share ways to understand where you might be in life and ways to think about cultivating your circumstance with a Christian teachings in order to thrive.

Our individual buys on communications & messaging for me, and arts for him ;)

It was an eye-opening few hours, and I can't stress enough how refreshing it was to hear about God's love spoken through career paths, and the blessings that unfold in response for everyone involved. 

Something to leave you with is a solid, simple question asked at the conference. How can we be Christians every day, not just Sunday?