By the rivers side......

This moment...

A single photo,A moment from our week to cherish and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Yarn Along

Since I have been well enough to read and knit the past few days I thought I would join in on this weeks Yarn Along hosted By Ginny at Small Things.
I could stand it no longer I needed a good book. So I gave in and went to a local bookstore to get a copy of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I love it already and read the first five chapters before falling asleep.
The knitting project I am working on is the "Star Afghan" by Sandra Daignault from the book Knitter's at Home. I don't know if it is pregnancy brain or what but it took me a long time to figure out how to get this blanket started. For some reason I could not grasp the circle cast on, and wasn't ending up with the right number of stitches at the beginning of the pattern. Finally I You Tubed "circle cast- on" and watched the video about 50 times and then finally got cast on, sheesh. Then when I didn't get the right number of stitches I just kept going anyway intuitively and I soon caught back up to the pattern. Now I am finally on track, the pattern is easy to remember and it is a pretty fun knit. But it takes a lot of concentration(not my strong point a.t.m.) to remember where I am at in the pattern and the rows are getting longer and longer. Also I am not sure of my yarn choice for this project. I am thinking maybe a softer yarn would have been better since I was intending this to be a baby blanket. Maybe I will make another. Sounds nuts? maybe, but if you peek on Ravelry there are several "Star Afghans" by the same knitters. Gotta hold on when you find a good thing:)

Felt baby ball...

I wanted to share the felt baby ball I made from The Children's Year book by Cooper, Fynes-Clinton and Rowling. This was part of the Craftalong for June, I believe. It came to mind when I was thinking of a gift to make my dear friend's daughter for her first birthday. It was fun to make and I plan to make more. Both of my kids want one now too:)

This Moment...

A simple precious moment from my week to cherish and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Thankful....

I am thankful for feeling well enough to eat blueberries out in the sun.
I am thankful that I was well enough yesterday to sit by a river for a while.
I am thankful that I am the one who has been ill and not my children.
I am thankful that one night last week I felt well enough to eat an actual meal.
I am thankful that I got to "see" a healthy, dancing baby via ultrasound today.
I am thankful that my body grew a healthy baby despite my severe sickness this first trimester.
I am thankful there was only one baby in there .Don't get me wrong, twins are a wonderful blessing but more than we could provide for currently.
I am thankful that after weeks of feeling helpless, that things are finally improving and I am slowly getting better. That there is a tiny little person thriving and growing and knowing that makes everything I have been through during this difficult first trimester worth it.
After all, I would do anything for my kids, even one I haven't met yet:)

A bit of fresh air...

Since I have been house bound for the last month I really need to get out once in a while in order to keep myself from going completely insane. It is very hard to watch the sunny days go by out the window, as I know the sun will soon be gone and months of rain will take it's place. Summer is brief and precious and it has been hard not to be able to enjoy it. I have made a new goal to get outside everyday even if it means just sitting in a lawn chair in the sun. I am hoping to build that up to a small walk around the block every day until I can get my strength back. I noticed that the muscles in my legs have withered away, especially in my calves and this has really shocked me..and scared me a little too. The difficulty of this past month has really taken a toll on my body. I went from hiking up the mountain every day to not leaving my home for weeks and not able to do much more than sit with my feet up. I have lost a lot of weight too.

I was supposed to have an ultrasound a few weeks ago but it got bumped up to next week. I was really stressed about that because I want to see that everything is okay with the babe despite my Hyperemesis.
The chances of getting Hyperemesis is greater for mamas who are carrying more than one baby and women who are having a molar pregnancy. I really just want to know what is going on. I hope there is a healthy babe in there and that I haven't suffered all these weeks for nothing, that would be really hard to say the least. My only problem now is to wonder how I am going to hold fluids down long enough to get an ultrasound? I am still not able to take large drinks of water without losing it right away, and I think you need to drink like 20 oz of fluid or more to get a clear picture.
Alright, enough about my freakish medical problems....
What could be a better pick me up than a drive in the country and a stop to see our favorite goat? On Ben's day off we drove to Sauvie Island which is North West of Portland. It was a beautiful day and it was good to get out of the city and roll the car windows down. I luckily didn't get sick in the car although I did have my trusty blue bucket along. We stopped at one of our favorite farms and visited Victor the goat and Lucy the llama along with a few other barn friends.

Sollie spotted" another bunny" in the barn, which turned out to be a little mouse in a hay stack. That Sollie's got a good eye I tell ya, he always notices things we don't see. When we were on our trip to the Redwoods earlier this summer he would notice banana slugs in the ferns as I hiked past with him riding in the backpack. And I am a pretty fast downhill hiker,especially with extra weight behind me, but he would yell "Mama stop go back, I saw a slug" and we would stop and go back and sure enough there would be one hidden a way. To the rest of us it was just a blur.

It was nice to get out of the house, if just for a little while. I am really hoping to have a few good days in August so I can enjoy the last moments of summer. In the past few weeks I have become quite the Netflix junky. I am running out of good movies in my queue, so if you read this and wouldn't mind giving me a few good movie suggestions, this sick mama sure would appreciate it.