Candles

I like to try and think of different things to give away to neighbors and friends besides cookies this time of year. Is that so bad? If you were to ask this question to the Universe of Crafting then it would tell you "YES."

What did I want this year? Simple beeswax candles. Right? Get some sheets of the stuff and roll it up around a wick and BAM- candles.

But sheets of beeswax are nowhere to be found in stores and online there are only expensive and massive kits. Boo. That was one wasted trip to Hobby Lobby.

So then I go back to Hobby Lobby. That naughty whirling vortex of supplies that promise to be "easy" on the package. I decide, what the heck, I'll make some simple hand dipped candles instead. How hard can it be? I'm sure you can guess what the universe of crafting would answer to that...

The thing is- I don't even LIKE doing crafts very much, as I've mentioned before. This is different from being creative and experimenting, sure. I like those things- but crafts always involve cutting paper and sewing and gluing and knowing What the devil you're doing. I don't have the patience for it. And I hate how it seems so easy every time but then there are always at least 15 dead ends to every road you go down. But maybe it's just me. Well whatever, you wont see any Etsy shops in my name anytime soon...

So I buy some wax. Why? Because the worker told me it was the right kind. In this world these days you have to ask Google, not store employees.... and I learned my lesson that day.

An hour of dipping string into soy wax, Buck and I give up and go to bed grouchy. There was maybe one layer of slippery wax to show for our work.

"Just give it up already and make cookies!" said my shoulder.... angel.
"But no!" I declared, determined and crazed, "These candles WILL be made!!"

And off to Hobby Lobby I went. This time with more research and anger than ever before.

And?

IT WORKED.

And dang it, I'm proud of how they turned out. I even came up with the idea of wrapping them all my myself. And THAT worked too. So TAKE THAT UNIVERSE.

A couple last things I will mention.

1) Use paraffin wax when making hand dipped candles. And ask Google about it first.
2) I only made ten of these so sorry that I'm posting this and not delivering them to many people. I only have so much sanity.

Highly Favored of God

Christmas is now over but my thoughts about the season are not, especially this year they have been about Mary, the mother of Jesus. In the scriptures it says that she was highly favored of God. I have wondered before who she really was and what she was like- how does a woman become “highly favored of God?” Was she mild and meek- or maybe she liked to make jokes sometimes. Did she sing to herself or tell stories or did she listen to others instead? What were the desires of her heart? Were they simple or as complex as women today?

I may never know.
What I do know is that I believe it, that she was highly favored of God.

I even feel highly favored when I think about the blessing of being a women. Forget what the world has told for ages about my worth- I know what I feel from my Heavenly Father and I feel that as a woman, I am incredibly precious and wonderful and vital in His eyes. And on top of this tremendous blessing He has now given me the chance to be a mother. A MOTHER! And not only that but He has given me my June bug. I know I'm not anybody extra special but these things alone make me feel that He must love me more than I know.

But not only that. So far He has given me the wonderful blessing of being able to stay home with June and to take care of her and be with her all the time. I know every new thing that she has done since she started growing in me. Older women like to remind us younger women to appreciate these special times and sometimes we all laugh/cry at this notion as our baby screams in colicky madness or throws a tantrum of toddler proportions. But yet I think they must be right.

Because beyond those frustrating times there are MANY more times where I just sit and watch her innocence. I see her learn about the world and become excited. I watch her make connections and explore. She is unaware of the evil things that surround her on this planet. Maybe she is throwing a fit because she wants her milk- but isn't that wonderful that that is her only hardship?

And I get to spend all these moments with her. And as each day flies by and as she gets older she will learn of certain evils and hardships. I wont be able to always protect her. She will change. Experiences will harden her and frighten her little heart. She will make choices everyday and many, I hope, will be good, but some, of course, will be bad. And these days of complete and pure innocence will (appropriately) end.

So I have to think this is what these older women mean. These days are golden and good.

And then my mind goes back to Mary. Highly favored of God. God saw her as the one, the woman among all women ! to carry His only begotten son in HER womb. To feel his kicks in her ribs; to wonder about what He would look like and how she would manage to raise Him.

She was the one who screamed in pain and blood and brought His life into this world.*

And it was she who spent those early years with him. Those years. The ones where Christ Himself experienced what it was like to be a baby, a toddler. If a child is perfect up to a certain age and yet these perfect little angels can throw a tantrum like they do then I have to wonder if toddler Jesus had some outbursts too. And regardless Mary was there. She was there for ALL of it. God gave her the gift of raising Him. Seeing him learn and explore. She knew Him in a way we don't get to read about in the Bible! MAN ALIVE! Being “highly favored of God” must be the largest understatement of the scriptures!

Yet of course, Mary's days of perfection with her son never ended. And I have to imagine that as she watched him go through the suffering that He did, that her heart broke in a way that only one who is highly favored could know.

Yet it was her child who came to take all the pain away, even her own on His behalf.

This Christmas I have reverenced this. I may not have my story written on the pages of the Bible. I may not have been the one chosen to raise the son of God. Yet through my blessings I feel a connection to the unspoken stories of the past. The stars continue to shine brightly on us because of that blessed night of Christ's birth.

*Clearly it was a man who wrote the song "Silent Night" 

I mean come on, "all is calm, all is bright"??

(especially considering that for centuries men 

weren't allowed in the area when the woman was in labor)

;)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! 

(And consider this your Christmas card from the Harrison family...)

 

2nd Trimester Review

Because I know you're all dying to know all about it.

This pregnancy, the second trimester has not been as glorious as it's suppose to be. I've often wondered if it's just because I've been a bigger wimp this time around, but who knows. There's been three main things that have kept me complaining. ;)

20 weeks

1) My constant fever.
Some days are worse than others but it can really wipe me out. I started getting these fevers once I got pregnant so I thought I had some obnoxious pregnancy symptom but apparently it's not and so I've had a lot of blood work done with no signs of a potential reason why. The specialist wants to do a cat-scan... but as long as my temperature doesn't go above 101 and there are no other related symptoms then we are going to wait till after baby come to act on that drastic course of action. They just wonder if there was something that was dormant in me but was triggered by my weakened immune system once I got pregnant. So who knows. My guess? It's will disappear after the baby is born and we'll never know.

2) Braxton Hicks contractions.
Kill me now. They were triggered early on this time and they hurt. Sometimes they hurt down my legs and sometimes they even wake me up at night. Awesome.

3) My upper right back ribs
This also happened with June but it still sucks. I have a crooked spine from a bad hip and that makes less room for my ribs on my right. Being pregnant, my ligaments and things get all soft and can't seem to hold my ribs in and they get displaced. And as the weight of my belly adds on, so does the pain. It's fun. Sitting is the worst and then standing. The only way to release the pain at all is to lay flat on my back, which I'm not allowed to do very much when pregnant. It feels like a fire almost, the heat strongest on those few ribs back there, but then the "heat" permeates my whole side and fills up my bones to the point that I feel SO overwhelmed at times and want to lay down even if I'm in the middle of the grocery store. This is another one of those "well, that sucks but too bad" kind of things.



And then in other news:

22 weeks?

I also found out I have low iron so that could explain the lack of energy and even some of the reasons why I get sick so much. So at least now maybe I can get on top of that and feel a little better.

And I keep having to get ultrasounds because my amniotic fluid is on the low side- and for those who don't know, in the end June had to be emergency induced (I feel dramatic using the word "emergency" but then again I'm kind of being dramatic in this whole post eh?) because her fluid got super low and they had been checking because of other complications. So, hopefully we can stay in the know about this and catch anything and could be dangerous. I guess maybe my body just doesn't do a good job at the whole amniotic fluid thing.












NOW- for some positives :)

1) I feel baby girl move ALL THE TIME. It's wonderful to have so many reassurances that she is doing well all the time. It never gets old to me.

2) I like my growing belly.

3) I feel extra cuddly and romantic about life.

4) I am still living up my excuse to eat cereal all the time...

5) And above all else- I know in the end I am not to complain, even though I just did.... but I will proclaim to the world that I like being pregnant. Sometimes I don't love the side effects but that's a different thing. I am excited and grateful that I am able to do this twice now. I would never take it back or trade it for a pain free, un-pregnant body. I know there are many who would take all the pains in the world to be doing this, and many others who have it worse ailments than me.

24 weeks

26 weeks

And here I am looking all emo in the snow about being 28 weeks- 3rd trimester baby!

December Update

Time for my iPhone photos to give an update on the events they've been seeing lately.

1) This sunset. People. These photos are from my phone and not edited in any way. I even stopped at a Walmart parking lot to capture it. Walmart Parking lot. In Decemeber. That's how important these colors and lights were. May your days be merry and bright.

 

2) June and I went to the Charles Dickens "festival" with Adrian and Elora. I say "festival" because it was really a vendor convention decorated in old fashioned times. But we kind of knew what we were in for and wanted to get out of the house anyways.

(These next two photos were not taken with my phone... Adrian had her camera there.)

They had a pretty cool Santa there and he smiled and waved right at June and she got the biggest smile on her face. But the real highlight was seeing this "princess." As we were leaving Queen Victoria was there and June audibly GASPed and ran up and gave her a hug. We haven't even pushed the whole princess thing but it seems most girls become obsessed no matter what.

3) For Buck's work party this year we were treated with the "Dueling Pianos" and fancy food. It's a funny thing because they play songs by request and there is a battle for who wins what song will be played and you can make people go up and dance or sing. At one point they said they needed some people to come up on the stage and shake their booties and nobody was budging... so... I went up there in all my pregnant glory. Thankfully others finally came up as well so I did not have to shake my booty alone... It was worth it to see Buck turn bright red.

4) The night after that we got to go on another date! My mom won tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle choir Christmas concert but couldn't come so we got her tickets. It was amazing! They know how to put on a show... so epic! And before we were able to see the lights at Temple Square. And take some blurry dark photos with my phone...

Jolly times.

Gingerbread

So maybe I've got a thing for gingerbread. 

And maybe also for my little gingerbread helper.

And maybe this is most terrifying gingerbread family. Ever.

I may do somethings well but making cookies look pretty apparently isn't one of them.  At least they taste amazing, right?

Christmas Cheer

Buck picked out the tree this year. He's got a thing for misfit trees. But I have to admit, I also like the character of it. 

June likes the tree and all but she's not obsessed with it by any means. She's put a few ornaments up but then she's over it. She hasn't even cared to notice all the real edible candy canes hanging in the boughs. Weird child...

For some odd reason I've been feeling the urge to be a little crafty. But just a little... and the things have been simple and well, kind of not "crafts" per say, but still, assembled-pretty-things-that-I-made up-on-my-own... that counts for something right? First was this little doo-dad:

Then I made Buck do this to cover up the summery painting: (this idea originated with Pinterest though, I'll admit it)

And then I couldn't reconcile the air plants I had hanging over the sink so I took out the greens and made little wonderlands instead. Obviously these were not difficult but still, I was proud of myself. haha

And then some classics that come out every year:

Not shown here: June's stocking. We couldn't find hers and had to buy a new one

And that's about all the room we have for decorations in our little home. I love having it up though! (for now.... After Christmas day I'm that girl who wants it all gone immediately. I don't know what my problem is)

But until then- Merry Christmas!