what pregnant women do

We have too much going on all at once right now. It is probably time to take inventory of all the projects and decide what is important and what can wait.

All it took was a discouraging week at work, and I was fighting the blues. Usually, I cure this with good company or an early night to bed. But this is not PMS, this is pregnancy. This calls for a new strategy.

What I needed was a project. My first attempt at a project was a needlepoint for baby’s room. Two flowers later I was crying. Even though my stitches were accurate, they came loose and looked awful. Mark pulled it out of the trashcan and gently suggested I start over another time.

The next thing to do was start hauling rocks off the hill so we can start to reshape our hill and build retaining walls. The sun happened to feel good on my back when I got home one evening, so I changed into work clothes and tore up a section of the hill. Not exactly effective or conclusive, but it gives me a little workout for my arms on nice evenings. Lately, as it did the first night, the sky clouded over with rain.

Then I needed something to do indoors,after dark and after my house chores were done. Happening across an idea web-page hosted by Lowes I decided to refinish a table. For suggestions and to build confidence, I discussed the project with a co-worker in our communications department. At Hobby Lobby, I selected stencils, paint, brushes, paper, and decoupage.

Back home I pulled out the sander and all the sand paper I could find. I made a mess, a real mess. At some point, I knew, I would have to call upon Mark's expertise. I called upon it too late.

He didn’t laugh when I showed him because I had just created hard work for him. "It's going to take a lot of elbow grease to reshape the legs." Ooops! Later he said, "If you are going to paint wood, you only need to rough up the finish." Double ooops.

Instead of being done by now, I walk into the table every morning on my way to work. While I wait for the time Mark can pay attention to the table legs, I continue to leave a wake of projects around the house. Now there is a huge planter that is waiting for soil and herbs, the one sunny patch in our garden waiting for tomatoes and peppers, one guest bed is covered with pictures waiting to be hung or framed, and the table in the sun room is covered in thank you notes.

So that, and dragging your husband down to McDonalds for an extra large serving of fries just before bed time, that is what a pregnant woman does.