Family Living: Abbott Style

As I walked in the door to our home last night, I had a fleeting thought about anxiety.   Anxiety is an interesting thing.   It can take control of your life in a split second.   A year ago, I remember feeling just short of an anxiety attack each time I walked into our home alone.   Many times, I would call my husband to distract me as I walked through the house.   I would check the closets, behind shower curtains, and under the bed for the boggy-man.   I literally let my fears take grip of my life.    I truly believe the mind is a powerful thing.   Our moods are a state of mind.   When we give into our weaknesses, we can spiral downward into depression, anxiety, fear.   When I think back, I realize how weak minded I was allowing myself to be.   My fears were unreasonable and silly.   I can’t remember how I exactly moved on from my irrational fears, but prayer has always been one thing that has helped me move past my anx...

Alright, I'm joining the bandwagon and going to start participating in Top 2 Tuesday (except today, I am posting on Monday rather than Tuesday...oops..oh well I do what I want!) Top 2 Tuesday....Celebrity Hairstyles 1. Rory from Gilmore Girls.  Growing up watching the show, I always loved her hair.  Her hair always looks so fresh and classy. In this picture, I love her straight bangs with the long hair. 2.  Katie Holmes.  Love her chin length bob!  

4 hours later.............. *Cleaned out the linen closet to make room for Haley's cloth diapers (which we ordered online today) *Organized Haley's clothes so that all of the 0-3/3-6 months cloths that we have thus far are washed in Dreft  and now easily accessible in her drawers. *Washed Haley's bedding *Re-organized the kitchen cabinets to have an empty cabinet for all of Haley's stuff. *Changed our sheets. (Grand total of 4 loads of laundry today with Haley's stuff and our dirty clothes...) *Cleaned, scrubbed, mopped all of the bathrooms. *Dusted the entire house. *Vacuumed the entire house. *Scrubbed, dusted, mopped the kitchen. *Put away dishes and cleaned out the refrigerator The sad thing is...I don't think I can even blame it on nesting....I am just slightly neurotic when it comes to cleaning.  But most of all, I'm impressed with how much I got done in only 4 hours.  (Well I am not completely done, still waiting on some laundry to ...

It has been another fantastic yet busy week here at the Abbott household.  When I last left off, I was preparing for my cooking group.  My manacotti turned out pretty good for a novice cook.  I was impressed with myself.  When I arrived, I was surprised with a baby shower with my cooking group girls!  It was such a wonderful gesture and I was so touched by their kindness. Yesterday Ian and I attended our second child birthing class.  I thought I had learned and read everything to be learned about child birth, but I still learned a few things that I found so fascinating.  After birth, if the baby is placed skin-to-skin with the mother; the mother's body has the ability to regulate baby's body temperature, heart and breathing rate, and blood sugar level.  In addition to regulating baby's vitals, the mother's body then can absorb any bacteria the baby may have on him/her, create antibodies against that bacteria, and then provide those antibodi...

Today we had our 32 week appointment.  Everything went well.  The ultrasound showed that she has assumed a head down position so we are hoping she will stay that way. She did a nice job of showing us her tongue as she was sticking it in and out of her mouth...it was entertaining. Tonight, I am looking forward to an evening with my cooking group.  Tonight's theme is Italian.  I am currently a work in progress as far as my cooking skills go, but I do enjoy learning and...eating.  This afternoon, I decided to give my recipe a trial run so I could get my husband's feedback.   Easy Sausage Manicotti: 32 oz of 4% Cottage Cheese  2 lbs. of sausage (I choose turkey sausage, but any sausage should do) 16-20 Manicotti Shells (About two boxes) 26 oz of Italian Sauce (You could either make your own from scratch or buy a jar of sauce) 2 C of Mozzarella Cheese (Or any other preferred Italian cheese blend) 2 Eggs Prepare Filling: Brown sausage in la...

It's time to celebrate...SPRING! My laptop desktop has officially been updated with a picture of lilies (my favorite flower).  Each time I walk out my front door, I eagerly peak at my flowerbed.  Last year's lilies are well on their way to returning.  Seems like they are growing a half inch each day.  I can't say much for our front lawn.  Last year we decided to completely tear out our front yard and start from scratch.  Looks like it was a bust, as our front yard is now worse then it was before.  Perfect.  We are currently in the process of getting some bids from some professionals, hopefully they can do something !  But I fear we will continue to waste money if we try it ourselves because whatever we are doing...isn't working.  I'm so looking forward to getting some more flowers planted.  As much as I love to get my hands in the dirt, I fear I will only be allowed to supervise this year.  As my belly get...

  I have a confession.   Yesterday, for lunch, my husband and I ate something that neither of us can stop thinking about, in a bad way.   You see, the other day I stopped at Aldis on my way home from work out in Leavenworth.   The Aldis I usually go to is in Shawnee, so this Aldis was set up a little differently and had some different products as well.   Shamefully, sometimes I pick up frozen meals because they are easy when the afternoon slips away from us and I need to throw something in the oven quickly.   They have various choices and we’ve tried a few and they are not horrible.   Plus they claim to not have any preservatives and the calories are not outrageous like you would expect from a meal in the freezer.   So I grabbed a few of our favorites and went on with my business. Well, when I got home and was unloading groceries I noticed that I had mistakenly picked up a frozen “Veal Parmesan”    when I thought I had picked up a “Chi...

Alright...alright.  I'm officially banned from stressing about baby from here on out.  We went to the doctor for our 31 week appointment.  I expressed my concern about our lazy baby who seems to simply hang out in the belly and not move around much so he sent us over to Shawnee for a non-stress test.  He also gave us an ultrasound and everything appears good.  She is in a head down position and the heart rate was in the 140's. So we headed to Shawnee for our little test.  She passed with flying colors.  Apparently I am just not feeling her movements because the test showed that she is indeed moving around as a happy baby and her heart-rate adjusts accordingly.  So there it is.  I'm an over paranoid, slightly neurotic mommy to be.  How in the world am I going to handle my worries when she's in her crib all night, or when she starts to walk, or when she starts to....DRIVE?  Ugh I need to get a grip.... Anyways, I do feel at ease...

I know I stress too much.  But today, I seriously haven't felt Haley move all day.  I'm having one of those is-anyone-in-there-kind-of-days.  So I decided to pull out the handy-dandy Doppler radar to put my nerves at ease by hearing her heartbeat.  Usually I can find the heartbeat in seconds.  I went to the usual area where I can get the best reading....nothing....after a few minute of panicking, I started checking other areas of my now large belly.  Finally, I found her heartbeat but in a very different area of my belly.  Not at all in her usual position.  The heart beat was good (140 bpm).  Apparantly, she has maybe moved into a different position where she is comfy and not moving around as much.  I think the most important thing I need to do right now is to remember Philippians 4:6, " Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all that he has done.  If you do th...

Hello Tuesday! I'm suddenly exhausted, so hang with me...I may not be as composed as I would like to be... We had our 29 week check-up appointment today.  Everything appears to be going well.  She is measuring right at 29 weeks.  Heart rate was good, 150's.  Weight gain was right on target. It's hard to believe that she will be here soonish.  I am so ready to hold her.  After our doctor's appointment, my husband and I had a little lunch date at Cinzetti's (an AMAZING Italian restaurant).  Then we went to a store called, "About Nine Months".  I found a pair of maternity capris for cheap.  Always love a bargain.  As I was looking at the clothes, my husband approached me with two different types of cloth diapers.  I could write a blog alone dedicated to the many things I love and adore about my husband.  The store owner, watching from across the store eventually approached us and stated how impressed she was...