My button is about to pop

Just like a Thanksgiving turkey's little timer thingy, my navel is coming close to popping out. Pretty much any day now. I wish this meant the baby were ready to be taken out of the oven, but alas, I have another two months to go. These sentiments occur to me right now especially because we're experiencing a late spring heat wave - 93 degrees and hair-curling humidity. And I'm sweating all over this keyboard.

Sorry I haven't been at the computer for a while - I had to undergo some minor surgery and haven't been up to blogging for the last week or two. As I refuse to turn this blog into a diary of my aches and pains (oh, my bursitis!), I won't go into any further detail on this matter, because trust me - you don't want to know. Or maybe you do, in which case we can communicate directly. At any rate, I'm very happy to be up and around again, because one can only hold so many Lord of the Rings film festivals for themselves so many days in a row before getting a little goofy in the head.
So, with thanks in much part to my steadfast husband and kindly roommates, I'm back in business as they say, and spending a good bit of time enduring the heat very close to au naturale here at our little farm tucked away in its green valley, making me ultra-aware of the fact that my belly is HUGE! Plus the fact that I seem to knock into everything with it these days. Like people at the grocery store. 3-D, coming at you!

By the way, did you know that most of the weight a pregnant woman gains in the first several months of her pregnancy is due to increasing blood volume? Isn't that nuts?

The baby continues to do well (from what we can tell anyway), frequently waking me with heels to my ribs and some sort of tai chi maneuvers. Jay swears he felt a fist punch out, causing a temporary tumor to rise from my belly and then go back to whence it came. My midwife Paula says the head is firmly planted in my pelvis and unlikely to shift much at before being born, which is a good thing as head first is definitely best for a complication-free birth. Unfortunately, not such a good thing for complication-free urination on my end, but what can you do? Also, I had no idea how many choices were involved in giving birth (how do you all feel about vaccinations? Any advice?). Sheesh, as if there weren't enough to worry about bringing a small person that you helped create into the world via birth canal.

Wow, tons of progress has been made here as far as planting and gardening go, little thanks to moi. Check out the farm life photos link Chris posted over to the lower right (under the "links" heading) to see how things are looking. Our garden design was very artistically rendered by Chris, and then Becca came up with the idea to add rocks to the paths, along with some very wise-looking, primitive-feeling petroglyphs here and there. Vegggies are already starting to come up, and we've partaken of radishes and rhubarb, along with a good lettuce crop, fresh out of the garden. I planted nasturtiums in the retaining wall blocks and in front of the barn, and they're quickly springing forth, making good progress every day, especially with the sun and storm pattern we've been enjoying.

My dad will be celebrating getting his doctorate next week, and around that time we'll be enjoying visits from Nathan and Barbara and Anna Gray and her boyfriend Ryan. Looking forward to seeing them!

Love and fat grazing horses to all,

Charis