Happy Cheesfare week

Okay, so I finally got this spring's two big Emmelia activities scrapbooked and I'm not sure what I'll move onto next. I have some photos of the kids being awfully cute this weekend (or maybe I'll just get to developing that Gimp course already). Ah, this weekend. The sinus infection I'd been flirting with hit full force AND we discovered that it is impossible to buy a child a winter coat in Colorado in February. I'm mentioning this because the Deac thought I should blog about how stupid that is - apparently coats are clearanced here in snowy Colorado in December. But whatever. We'll probably find something online to replace Em's coat with a broken zipper.

So the verdict is that I will retain my uterus and chance to have future children for now - assuming the hormonal treatment works to lessen the pain. And then in a year or so, the Deac and I will re-evaluate and decide if we really want to try again for another child before I turn 40. Em's friend Rebecca, mentioned in the ballet layout above, got a new baby sister on Friday morning. It was a homebirth and everything went swimmingly well - if we DO have another one, we both agree we'd like to just do a homebirth this time. We met her on Saturday and I was wondering if I would get "baby fever" or anything. But, really, I didn't. I am really not at a point where I feel like being pregnant or going through labor again right now. Let alone sleepless nights and living in a fog for the first 2 years. I think it will be a tough decision in a year or so - I can see wanting to have a baby again (as it is, my girls seem so grown up - it seems so long ago that they were born!), but we may also be kind of glad to be past this period of our lives. It's wonderful having children, but also so very exhausting when they are this little. It amazes me to think that by the time Emmelia was the age Maura is now, I was already 4 months pregnant.

This week is Cheesefare week in Eastern Orthodoxy. Lent begins next week (we're a week behind the West this year), but this week we begin our abstinence from meat. Beginning next week the traditional fasting regimen involves fasting from meat, fish, eggs, dairy, wine and oil. I got a new cookbook last week that I'm very excited about! It should make Lent a whole lot easier this year - with easier clean-up, too, if I use those new slow cooker liners. It's called "Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker" by Robin Robertson. I looked through it when we were visiting Emmelia's godmother and liked so many recipes that I had to buy my own copy. Even the Deac approves of many of the recipes (he's very "meat and potatoes," so Lent is particularly hard for him). I don't know what we'll try first... Vindaloo vegetables? Almost-Irish stew? Actually, we'll probably save that one for St. Patrick's day.