Lessons for the Week

* Never, under any circumstances, let Elijah have your milkshake while you're driving. He will make it his own and do everything in his power to keep you from getting it back, which he thinks is hilarious. He will then drink half of it, which will come back to haunt you the next morning in a way that is unfair to everyone involved.

* 32 weeks pregnant is the cut-off for running after dogs when they escape from the back yard. This especially applies to sprinting after someone else's dog (and the loooong walk back up the hill to the house afterward) that you're watching for a couple weeks.

* I will never have dogs again.

* A pedicure followed by a 90-minute massage might be the greatest evening I have had in a long time (sorry, Michael).

* When feeling any kind of "off" while pregnant, a glass of water and a 15-minute rest will fix just about anything.

* "Mourning with those who mourn" takes on a whole new meaning when you're rife with hormones. Please pray for a family at our church that is having an extremely hard time with the attachment period after adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. I cannot get them off my mind, and I just ache thinking about the difficulties of what they're going through, none of which I can even imagine.

* My friend Emily is a decorating genius, and thanks to her we have made a huge dent in not looking like squatters in the new house. I didn't take any before pictures (because I'm terrible at things like that), but I'll try really hard to get some afters. And without her help, I wouldn't have found and purchased Naomi Judd's kitchen table and chairs, which just happen to match my kitchen perfectly. But that's a story for another time.

* The joy my child exudes about life is enough for me to live on.


Updated:
* I am only 32 weeks pregnant. All week long I have been thinking and telling people that I'm 33 weeks. I will blame it on pregnancy brain, but really, I think I'm just more ready than I think I am.