Our wonderful day, Micah’s frugal corner, and other stuff. (posted by Mic)
Hello all!
Boy, it’s been a while, huh? Sorry about that. Things have just been a little crazy around here, what with baby’s due date just 16 days away, projects at the hospital, projects at ANM, and so on. But I’m glad to have the time now to post a little update about what’s going on in Afton, VA.
Em’s pregnancy continues well, and we are thankful that all seems to be as it should be. It is funny to prepare yourself for a preemie and get a full-term pregnancy! Funny, and wonderful. We went through a similar process with Tessa, with the doctors unconvinced that she would make it to full term, but she did! I think that Em and I must produce naturally strong-willed children – they want to come out when they should be in, and they want to stay in when we would like them to come out! Really, though, we are thankful for every day that she has to develop. We are just so very anxious to finally meet her!
Em and I continue to do well also. Today, we went to a nearby farmers’ marker (and bought nothing but a lovely head of lettuce). It was fun to browse the stalls, in which one could purchase anything from potted plants to furniture to rabbit meat (no kidding). On the way home, Tess wanted to try the lettuce, so I have her a piece. She chewed it for a moment… then spit it out, saying “yuck”. It’s OK, it was kinda bitter. She’s cute.
After the Farmers’ Market, we took some very back-roads home (think dirt and gravel), but we saw a bit of the countryside that we hadn’t before. It was actually quite breathtaking, and only 10 minutes from our home! We daydreamed together about what kind of home we’d love to have someday. The home itself doesn’t have to be anything posh or fancy, but we want our home to be relaxing and full of love – the kind of place where our children will feel utterly secure, and guests won’t want to leave. We also would love to have some property so that our kids could learn to love being outdoors and exploring, rather than being glued to a TV screen. There is so much to do and explore with just a little imagination! The woods become an Amazon adventure, and the grassy plain the African savannah! A tree-fort can be a fighter jet, and a creek the wide ocean! Just dreams, really. Dreams for our children, and the legacy we leave.
We went home and packed up a picnic lunch, and drove to the Rockfish River (again, about 10-12 minutes away). There, we walked down a short trail, and found a lovely little picnic spot where we could sit on the rocks and dangle our toes in the surprisingly cold water while we ate our tuna fish. Tessa and I even found a caterpillar, but she wasn’t too fond of it!
After lunch, we visited Isaiah and Aleyah. Actually, Isaiah and I replaced the brakes on his car while Tessa and Em listened for Aleyah to wake up from her nap. The brakes took longer than we expected (due to the complete unavailability of the 9mm allen wrench needed to remove the calipers. We ended up “modifying” a 10mm wrench with a file – ingenious! Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but it worked just fine, and now the car stops much better.
So I’m sitting here, writing this update with a wonderful warm breeze blowing in my window, the moon glowing brightly in the sky behind me, all my girls sound asleep in their beds (or uteruses), and the soothing sound of a tractor-pull just down the road floating in on the breeze. They’ve been at it four hours now. What a weird, noisy competition. And this from a guy that grew up just outside of the city which hosts the National Tractor-Pulling Championship every year! We can hear the tractors from Haskins when they’re pulling in BG, and these tractors are much closer than that. Hooray.
Actually, one of the reasons that I wanted to write this post, is I wanted to let you in on a little secret I discovered when shopping online. I don’t do a ton of online shopping, but Em and I will occasionally order from Diapers.com or Babies-r-us or something like that. If you’ve ever placed an order online, you’ve probably noticed that many retailers have a spot at the bottom of their “shopping cart” page that says something like “enter coupon code here”. You’ve probably just ignored it, right? Well, next time, take a moment to visit http://www.retailmenot.com . It’s a site where people put coupon codes for 50,000 different online stores. Put the address or name of the site you’re ordering from (e.g. babiesrus.com), and take a look at the coupon codes posted there. You may find 10-20% off coupons, free shipping, or something even better. It’s definately worth two minutes to check. I’ve saved a substantial amount using this method, and figure it could be helpful to lots of other people. Oh yeah, many times retailers that sell both in store and online will also have printable coupons on retailmenot.com. Check it out.
Oh yeah, also check out http://www.grahamgardens.com. It’s a family business based in Pennsylvania that makes natural skin-care and beauty products. Em ordered from them recently, and we were very impressed both by the product they delivered and by the fact that they sent some free candy with it (I liked that a lot). They also sent samples of 5 other products which we were not expecting. All this, and free shipping too. We believe that it is a Christian business, since they sponsor Passionate Homemaking (http://www.passionatehomemaking.com), one of Em’s FAVORITE Christian blogs. Anyways, check it out.
So that does it for this update. I’m sure that one of us will update again soon. Perhaps with baby news! 
-Micah
