Author: Katie

I Failed, Y’all (Or, The Dreaded Glucose Tolerance Test)

/ Katie / 36 Comments

If you’ve been pregnant, you know what I’m talking about. And hopefully, you got a better result than mine.

Because I failed.

Let me back up.

With the disclaimer that I am not a doctor and I’m only giving a high-level overview based on my understanding, here’s what I know. One of the standard tests you get when you’re pregnant is a blood test to see how your body is processing sugar. You start with a screening test, and it’s important to do, because it can determine whether or not you have gestational diabetes, which is bad, if left untreated. Your medical provider will give you a super sweet, syrupy beverage to drink in five minutes – I promise it’s not actually that terrible and tastes mostly like a melted popsicle – and then an hour later, will draw your blood to check your sugar level. Sounds simple, and really, it is. If you pass, you’re good to go. It gets a little more complicated if you fail.

Which I did.

Not by much, but by enough that I am now required to take the three-hour diagnostic test. This test will tell me definitively whether I have gestational diabetes. It’s an important thing to know, and I think something like ten percent of women will develop gestational diabetes in their pregnancies. From what I’ve read, it’s often not a result of lifestyle choices, and has a lot more to do with hormones and how your body reacts to having a placenta. I’m grateful to be alive and pregnant in a time when this test is routine and available, and when gestational diabetes is something we know how to manage. But man, I’m just not looking forward to that test. It’ll be a total of twelve hours of fasting, a larger sugar drink, and four blood draws total over the course of three hours. It’s not going to be fun. But it’s worth it. It really is.

So, I’m planning to take it easy this weekend. I’ve got a short story to write, which I’m planning to post on Monday. (And by then, it will only be eleven days late!) And then the test on Tuesday. Work in the kitchen continues, and we’ve officially got three months until Baby Girl’s due date.

Things are happening, y’all. It feels like barely controlled chaos in my house (in my life, I think) right now, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  

I Wish You Water (Another Drought Poem)

/ Katie / 15 Comments

Today, I could say
I wish you well,
and in a way,
I do.
I wish you a full well,
and flowing rivers,
babbling streams and
shoes sopping wet with rain.
I wish you well,
and so I wish you water.
I wish for you green, green grass
and heavy, rustling leaves.
I wish you clouds and fog,
evening storms
and drizzles in the morning.
I wish you water.
I wish water for me, too.

Time Marches On

/ Katie / 18 Comments

As of today, we’ve got 100 days left until Baby Girl’s due date. It feels like forever and way too fast to get everything ready.

As of yesterday, Merlin (the Magic Cat) is a year old.

As of this week, the kitchen’s coming along nicely. New paint.

One section of countertops and a new sink.

And lots left to do. But even small steps are steps forward.

It’s short story time, and I’ve got nothing. I plan to work on it throughout this week and weekend, but it will be next week before August’s short story gets posted. We’re visiting family starting tomorrow, and I just know I won’t have time.

Time, time, time. Funny thing, isn’t it? Infinite, theoretically, but it certainly doesn’t work that way for us. But as the old song says, it certainly marches on.

I’ll be taking a break Friday and Monday, but I’ll be back on Wednesday, hopefully with a late short story for August. In the meantime, I wish y’all happy creating! And if you’re in the US, a lovely holiday weekend!

Dry (A Poem)

/ Katie / 20 Comments

Dull,
brown,
dry as dust,
the trees and ground
cry out for rain.
The skies tease and threaten,
rushes of wind
and clouds of gray.
How long, I wonder,
can it possibly go on this way?
But the drought
goes on
another day.

Kitchen Things!

/ Katie / 22 Comments

Good news for a Friday: work on the kitchen has started! It’s feeling a little like barely controlled chaos at the moment.

And it’s certainly a challenge to be without countertops and other functional kitchen things for a little while.

But it’s just a temporary inconvenience, and it will be worth it in the end.

24 Weeks (Or, What a Difference One Year Makes)

/ Katie / 24 Comments

As of last Friday, I am 24 weeks pregnant. It’s a tricky topic, but 24 weeks is generally considered viability.

A milestone.

On August 18th last year, I had surgery for a missed miscarriage that didn’t resolve completely until November 30th. Those months were one long, waking nightmare that I would not wish on my worst enemy. To say I am grateful to be here, right now, is such an understatement, but it’s all I got. I’m happy and sad. I’m anxious and hopeful. I feel powerful, and humbled. I’ve just been dealing with lots of feelings these last several days, and I’m trying to let them wash over me while I focus on looking forward, and on feeling Baby Girl kick around inside my belly.

None of us are ever defined by the worst thing that’s happened to us. My life is full of joy and light, and soon, I’ll be able to share that with a small human I already love so much.

What a difference a year makes.

The Coming and the Going (A Poem)

/ Katie / 11 Comments

I can feel it, even now,
in the cool night air
and the subtle shift in the evening light,
and in the gentle way the leaves seem to sigh
and say,
“We are tired, and ready to let go.”
As one season waves goodbye
and another prepares to cross the threshold,
I breathe it in and wait,
and know:
All things come in their own time.

Progress is progress!

/ Katie / 12 Comments

Alas, work on our kitchen has yet to begin, but we did order our new appliances, and they look so good! We went ahead and installed the refrigerator, since ours was broken, and y’all…

…I love it so much. It’s bright and fun, and I think it’s going to look perfect in the space. We also got a new, retro-style microwave, because why not?

I’m getting sort of antsy knowing that the work hasn’t started, and we’ve still got our upstairs bathroom to finish, and Baby Girl will be here in about 16 weeks. But whatever happens, I know it will be fine. And when I do get anxious (which is a lot), Merlin reminds me to slow down.

Cats, y’all.

Our basement bathroom is also (finally) finished, so I’ll post some pictures of it soon. In the meantime, I will repeat to myself: Small steps are still steps forward. I’m grateful for progress.

Happy Birthday to Me! (Also, 37 Things That Make Me Happy.)

/ Katie / 51 Comments

It’s my birthday!

I’m 37 today, and grateful for every moment of this life. I feel like I was 16 two seconds ago. Isn’t that strange? And while I’m older, I don’t know that I’m necessarily all that wise. I do think I’m wiser than years past, though, and this year, I think the most important thing I’ve learned – which I already knew, but man, has it been a lesson learned and relearned this year – is that you can choose to be happy.

My mom always told me that happiness is a state of mind, but I don’t think I ever really understood it until this last year, when I’ve had to choose to keep going, to smile, to find the good things, over and over. And choosing to be happy this year doesn’t mean I haven’t been sad, because I certainly have. But there’s so much in my life to be thankful for, so much that makes me happy, and I know, even in the darkest moments, that in my life, there is light.

All of that to say, in honor of my birthday this year, here are 37 things that make me happy.

  1. Annie and Merlin. I love those crazy animals, and they make my life brighter just by existing and sneezing on me.
  2. Graham. Of course Graham. All these years we’ve been together, and he is still my guiding star.
  3. My family and friends. And now we’ve covered the big three. But seriously, I’m surrounded by kind, loving, creative, wonderful people. They inspire me every day.
  4. The dewy green smell of fresh cut grass in summer.
  5. Fresh brownies right out of the oven with a cold glass of milk.
  6. Cake. Any kind of cake.
  7. Going on adventures. Big adventures and small adventures. I just like exploring.
  8. Learning something new.  
  9. Picking out a new book to read.
  10. That bittersweet feeling when I’ve just finished a really good book.
  11. Candy. I love candy the way a kid loves candy. I could, in fact, eat it for dinner. But my 37-year-old body disagrees.
  12. Doing something that scares me. I’m not good at this, but I do always feel proud of myself when I’ve been really afraid to do something and then I’ve done it anyway.
  13. Old trees.
  14. Pretty flowers.
  15. A rainy Saturday with a cup of tea.
  16. A sunny Saturday on the patio with friends.
  17. Playing music with people who love to share their music with me.
  18. Playing trivia. Even when my team loses.
  19. Mayonnaise. On fries. With some hot sauce mixed in.
  20. Apparently, just food. Lots of food on this list. But not ketchup. Ketchup is trash.
  21. Getting up early enough to watch the sunrise.
  22. Sleeping in with Graham and the animals on a Sunday morning.
  23. That musty, familiar smell that somehow exists in every antique shop ever.
  24. Christmas decorations. I put them up earlier and earlier every year. We’ll see what happens this year, though, with Baby Girl due right around early December.
  25. People who laugh at stupid jokes. No need to be serious all the time, right?
  26. Howl’s Moving Castle. The book and the movie. They both just make me smile, every time.
  27. Clean laundry. Especially if someone else puts it away for me.
  28. That moment when I’m writing and I know the story’s done. You know that moment? That’s such a cool moment.
  29. The Blue Ridge Mountains. My home. No matter where I go in this world.
  30. Really good craft hard cider, especially if it’s made with heritage Virginia apples. If you’ve never had cider made with Virginia Hewes crab apples, you’re missing out.
  31. Driving down country roads in the fall. No better way to see those beautiful autumn leaves.
  32. Wood fires.
  33. Looking up at the stars in winter.
  34. And while I’m thinking about winter, snow.
  35. Our pokey, cozy old house in this wonderful little village. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
  36. Collecting weird knick-knacks. Bonus points if I have no idea what they’re meant to do.
  37. Just being alive. I know it sounds cliché, but I’m here. Right now. I wake up every day and I can make things and do things and meet people. It’s amazing!

I hope that 37 is good to me. I hope that this year is full of laughs and fun and good memories. I know I can’t control everything that happens, but I can control how I choose to live. And I choose to live happy.

*A quick note – I won’t be posting on Monday. Taking a small break for my birthday weekend. 🙂 But I’ll be back on Wednesday, August 16th, hopefully with an exciting kitchen update!*