Random ravings of a 7 month pregnant lady...

via  Abby Staffieri on pinterest

Well, I'm more than 7 months pregnant now and I'm starting to hit the wall.

Does anyone else have a pregnancy wall?? That point where you can't ignore your size, hormones, or the idea that you'll have to give birth in a matter of weeks no matter how hard you try? 

My wall includes tons of anxiety over childbirth. I thought the more you went through it the easier childbirth would become. But I think I feel even more trepidation about it than even my first time. It becomes such a hurdle that I have a hard time picturing my actual baby because I'm so hung up on the actual labor, pain, delivery part. However, I know that this mentality does change once you enter your eighth month of pregnancy, by that point the desire to not be pregnant anymore and to be something close to comfortable has become so strong that childbirth just seems like a speed bump. 

The pregnancy wall also includes the heightened sense of your rational mind and hormones blurring into one. Am I really that upset I forgot to buy chocolate at the grocery store or are my hormones looking for a convenient escape route? I'm freaking out at small things, and even my toddlers think I'm overreacting at the slightest thing. 

I think this all boils down to driving myself crazy! I'm sure this can be a measured scientific effect. My own craziness makes me crazy. Its a vicious circle. And I'm not quite sure when I'll come out of it...I'm guessing around 6-9 months after this little bundle decides to pop out and sleep more than half an hour at a time? Until then I'll keep grasping for some semblance of normalcy!

A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark

I can't believe its taken me this long to discover Muriel Spark! How could I have gone a quarter of a century without finding such a completely unique, intelligent, humorous, and shockingly Catholic writer? Whatever the answer may be, she's become a quick favourite author and I've only read two books thus far.

About a month ago or so I picked up The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie because its a modern classic supposedly. And I didn't read it too seriously, and to be perfectly honest for about three quarters of the book I completely didn't get it. Yes the writing was dead-on, the characters expertly crafted, the humour simmering beneath the surface, but it is the last 25 pages of that novel that left me completely gob-smacked. I feel like I still need to let it sit with me in order to fully appreciate it. I'm still gob-smacked.

A Far Cry From Kensington was written over twenty years after The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and because I haven't read much Muriel Spark I wondered if maybe this novel would be written past her prime so to speak. Instead I found a quirky, funny novel that accomplishes what is so seldom found in much modern literature but which singularly makes a book great; the ability to create and expose the everyday into the great drama which it truly is.

Spark usually writes in the first person of one of her characters, and in this book it is the charming and honest Mrs. Hawkins. She is honest in describing herself as a plump woman, living in a boarding house in 1954 London, who works in publishing and who inspires the confidences of almost all those around her. She fiercely describes those she shares her home with, not with malice but with a concise honestly that brings to life great quirkiness and vulnerabilities. The dramas involving those in her boarding house and those she works with at first don't seem to mix, and it is so entertaining the reader hardly notices. The plot begins to thicken however, when a literary leech named Hector Bartlett slithers into Mrs. Hawkins circle of publishing. She immediately confronts him with her upright honestly and states to his face that he is a "pisseur de copie". She stands up for good writing and against the despicable practice of someone trying to get published simply by hanging onto the coattails of someone famous.

For Mrs. Hawkins this leads to losing her job multiple times. She faces this problem head on and refuses to budge from her principals. The great twist occurs when Hector Bartlett seems to infiltrate Mrs. Hawkins personal life by coming in contact with some of her fellow boarders. What happens next really boils down to the seemingly innocuous way good battles evil in everyday life. Of course I'm not doing this book any amount of justice, you've just got to read it, I promise you'll be surprised at how much you enjoyment this book brings!

Feeding kids shouldn't be this hard!

How can a kid who looks this cute at the dining room table be such a handful to get to eat? 

Oh. There are many ways let me tell you!

We've had an ongoing discipline trial for the last couple days and it doesn't seem to be getting through. He stubbornly refuses to eat anything if you ask him to eat. We stubbornly say he can't get down until he finishes his two bites. It took him an hour the other night to finish dinner.

I've almost reached the point where it can't be worth it. The problem with having three kids so close in age is that rules need to be applied universally or else they catch on in about two point three seconds. We'll see if this technique works, for now I'm trying to look at this cute face so that I can respond almost nicely to his constant demands to be released without touching any food at all! 

Best glasses ever.

This is my favourite shot from this month's Matchbook Magazine. I want to be her! But really I must have those glasses, they're perfect! I just have to wait till 2012 to get new ones and hopefully they'll look just like this, and I'll look just like her-I'm also hunting for turquoise gloves!

I needed a nice pretty picture, I capitulated and went to the doctor yesterday so I'm trying to look on the brightside of starting to feel better in the next day or two.

Sick...of being sick...

A beautiful Norweigian summer home from Design*Sponge.

I wish I felt like this room. Beautiful, clean, light.

Instead I've been suffering through a crazy intense sinus infection for which I can take no decent narcotic. Today I'm starting to get pretty grumpy about it, my sleep is starting to suffer in addition to being in intense pain if I move my head. Not cool. 

My kids are going to enjoy extra tv today, I'm hoping to make it till the hubby gets home, wish me luck!

I Married Adventure for $3.99!!

Yesterday I blissfully got into the city by myself for some medical appointments and I decided I needed to do some thrift shopping just because its been ages since I've made it to any stores. I love hitting thrift shops. You never know what you're going to find, and the thrill of the hunt never lets me down! 

At my second stop I was dutifully checking through about 5 aisles of used books. Usually I'm after vintage hardcovers by authors I enjoy that I don't already own, the pickings yesterday were beyond slim. I was just going to walk away with one side of aisle left when I made myself stop and check through one more aisle. And look what I found at the corner of the bottom shelf smooshed between a million dreadful copies of The Da Vinci Code: 

I KNOW!!!

I think I let out a small shriek and threw it into my cart because I thought people would wrestle me for it!  I Married Adventure by Osa Johnson for $3.99. 

The most styled book in design ever. 

I love everything about it!

Its a perfect condition 1940 first edition. It looks fabulous and old.

I'm even thinking I should read it! Has anyone ever read it? 

Look at how awesome the photos are! Its really one of my greatest thrift finds ever. 

I'm such a nerd.

Oh, and I may have a slight problem. I bought a whack load of brass birds. Can I blame this on pregnancy? Do I have a strange brass bird craving? Will they turn my house into a circa 1972 trailer like my husband says? 

All Saints Day!

Today is the feast of All Saints! 

I find these black and white photos of modern saints amazing. You've gotta love modern technology when it can capture such gripping images of such different and holy people. I'm wondering if some kind of gallery wall of sorts could be created with black and white photos of saints? There should at least be a kick-ass coffee table book made! 

Hope we all spend today asking for some interceding through so many inspiring saints.

(St. Gianna Beretta Molla, St. Teresa of Calcutta, Bl. Pier Giorgio, Bl. John Paul II, St. Maximillian Kolbe)