Wild Sunshine and Lemonade

I love naming babies. But I find it’s so much easier to come up with names I love when I’m not pregnant. Throw an actual baby into the mix and suddenly those names are either vetoed by my traditional-minded hubby or I’m suddenly thinking there must be something better or more ideal out there.

Add to this that baby #3 is a surprise, and we now have to go in with two names. Yikes – me and my first world problems! We have our boy name picked. But for a girl, it’s a real toss up. I have always loved Larkin for a girl, although it seems a wildly unpopular name choice on the baby name forums. Hazel was in the top for a long time. Then there’s my love affair with Indiana/Indie. Even Wilder has been a frontrunner. And don’t forget about River, which was probably close to my #1 girls name before Kelly Clarkson used it.

Good thing we have ~7 weeks to go, since my guess is that this baby is a girl. Fortunately we have two potential family names to use as a middle name: Mathilda or Eleanor.

Anyone else only seem to struggle with girl names?

Long about this time every year, in the dead of winter, I start daydreaming.

• I dream of open fields of green grass and their fresh cut smell
• I dream of big blue skies instead of being surrounded by stark naked trees
• I dream of a cute white farmhouse — a slight downsize from our current home even though our family is still growing (tiny house junkie here)
• I dream of summer days splashing in hoses in bright sunshine followed by summer nights around a firepit with a sky full of stars
• I dream of soft sounds of a horse, a few goats, and enough chickens to feed our weekly 4-5 dozen egg consumption.
• I dream of rows of grapevines and the smell of fermenting grapes as we stomp bucket after bucket full, ready to embark on the fine craft of winemaking on a larger scale.
• I even dream of the smell of manure.

I wasn’t raised on a farm, but I grew up near many. I lived an unplugged childhood, running through grass and catching bugs. Don’t get me wrong, we live in a great house in the best neighborhood. But I still dream about open fields and a smalll farm. Maybe someday…

Am I the only one with these winter daydreams? 

PS: maybe the fact that I’m 34 weeks along has something to do with it. Wowzers! Time needs to slow down!

The other day as I stood in the kitchen making lunch for the fam, I made a fairly large pasta bowl of pimiento cheese (hubby was home… he can devour some pimiento cheese). I set it on the table and went on getting the rest of lunch ready. When I turned back around, the 2 year old had climbed onto the table, was on all fours, head in the pimiento cheese bowl, LICKING IT with pure happiness.

I stood there in awe. “Sawyer! What are you doing? You’re not a cat!” (we do have a stubborn white cat who is forever contaminating unattended food bowls).

Sawyer looked up at me with a grin and said…. “meow.”

Ever since Pippa started eating solid foods, we’ve been casual followers of the Paleo and WAPF nutrition guidelines. I say casual because we do occasionally eat beans out of the can, rice, and we do eat dairy (although we do keep our dairy to yogurt/cheese/kefir, i.e. the fermented set). Knowing we would love to have a third child I made sure to eat extremely healthy last spring and summer. And here I am in the third trimester, yet again trying to give a sh*t about what I eat because… I’m hungry. ALL the time. And I want carbs. Bread. Cake. Rice Krispy treats. All the stuff I know will not grow a healthy baby.

At least we abide by eating a lot of meat and after purchasing a quarter cow last summer, we still have a good supply of grass feed beef in the freezer. In the words of my kids “we love MEAT.”

I also have never been pregnant in the winter when it’s hard to make it outside with a 2 and 4 year old. So my instinct is to eat. And hibernate. We spend 15 minutes getting ready for 10 minutes outside before they are cold. And another 10 minutes getting undressed and putting our winter gear away. Then I’m ready for a nap.

33 weeks preggers y’all.

So what have we been eating?

• lots of soup with bone broths
• stew beef in the crockpot
• almond butter stuffed dates
• dark dove chocolate (it’s my vice, can’t help it)
• apples and cheese
• paleo crepes (I make these almost daily at quite time in our house so I can eat an entire plate in peace)

Thanks for letting me vent. And sorry about the lack of photos. We just got a new computer, a Mac (and I am SO excited for the photo editing opportunities!) but am still in the process of moving photos and learning the ropes. I promise, more photos coming soon!