The Big White Farmhouse

A collection of our ordinary days, recorded every week.

Around here, I have been:

surviving a horrible cold and sinus infection that started late last week.  Since the strongest thing I could take was good ol’ Tylenol, it felt like forever until I started feeling better.  I’m still not 100% and this week was such a wash.  I wasn’t productive at all.  My lifesavers were this chapstick (after almost a week of breathing through my mouth, my lips were hurting!), our cheap humidifier (I always feel like it doesn’t help much, but I slept SO much better with it vs. without) and inhaling steam from a bowl of boiling water.


reaching the point of pregnancy where all you can think about/talk about/dream about is birth.  My emotions have been all over the place and I’m generally just a hot mess – my poor husband.  Trying to remember the end is near!  On the rare occasion I’ve had a burst of energy, I’ve been distracting myself by reading birth stories (Fran’s was awesome) and cleaning the carseat.  I really need to pack a hospital bag, but have been procrastinating.  I probably should prioritize that soon. 

finishing Flight Behavior and starting The Quality of Silence.


celebrating M’s 10th birthday.  He requested a BBQ feast from Famous Dave’s for dinner and graciously accepted a store bought “brownie cake” instead of homemade because I’ve been so sick.  (And it was actually delicious!)  We are so proud of the young man he’s becoming, even though his tween status feels more than a bit surreal to me.  How in the world have I been in this mothering gig for TEN years?!   Seems like forever and just yesterday.  


granting J’s biggest birthday wish by celebrating his birthday two weeks early.  He has the last birthday of the bunch and struggles with it every.single.year.  Sweet boy just can’t understand why he has to wait until the very end, watching all of his siblings enjoy presents and cake and adventures with Daddy.  So we surprised him with the option and you’d think he won the lottery!   He requested my homemade crepes for dinner and a cookie cake and ice cream for dessert.  Surprisingly, his favorite present was an inexpensive pirate play set.  We love him so.


adding a handful of vintage Santa mugs and a really cool pair of stocking stretchers to Big White Farmhouse.  I am still in shock that Black Friday is next week already, but hoping we’re as prepared as we can be!  

 A collection of our ordinary days, recorded every week.

Around here, I have been:

surviving a full, somewhat stressful, totally crazy week!  The boys had last Friday off and then Monday, Tuesday and today off this week.  It’s been great to have them home, but it also proved to be the perfect time for half of us to get a (thankfully short-lived) fever and then croup-y cough.  The boys are all better, but – as usual – mine is lingering.  We also filled the days with dentist appointments, parent/teacher conferences, an OB appointment, the Marine Corps birthday and oh yeah, a presidential election.  So many ups and downs.  I am so tired and maybe a tiny bit numb from all of the emotions.  


celebrating another successful Pajama Drive!  (To everyone who helped us, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!) We’re still waiting on a few pairs to arrive in the mail, but hope to drop them all off with Northern Virginia Family Services next weekend.  It has been pretty consistently chilly here at night now, so I’m excited to give a handful of children something cozy to sleep in this winter.   


finishing The Book of Speculation and starting Flight Behavior for book club.


watching The Crown on Netflix.  Took me a little while to get into it, but I like it.


working on a wall collage in our upstairs hallway.  D brought home an art project and casually told me, “The art teacher said to draw our best friend, so I just made me and M.”  I was so touched, I had to immediately frame and hang it!  That started me on the rabbit trail of finding random unused frames around the house and art I haven’t been able to throw away.  I’m still not completely happy with it and not sure if the big red “B” will stay (I’m thinking more frames will make the B less prominent, but I’d have to buy them), but it’s a start.  And free!


checking off presents on my Christmas list like a boss.  Mark and I took one night to nail down our choices and then another to see what deals we could find online.  I’d say we’re about 60% done now?  I spread my Amazon orders among a handful of bloggers’ links (as a blogger, that extra step is SO appreciated, let me tell you!) so we’ll be getting a million boxes on our step soon.  The mailman’s gonna love me…

sobbing while listening to Emily of The Freckled Fox in this podcast.  Her story makes me appreciate Mark so much.  You just never know when it’s your time to go.


trying to keep up with Sophie’s frequent wardrobe changes.  She’s all of a sudden very into “fashion”: “Mama, you like my fashion?”  “Can we hang up all of my dresses and shirts?  They’re such good fashion.”  She also suddenly sings about everything and her stream-of-consciousness songs make me laugh so hard, I think I’m going to go into labor.  This week’s favorite was entitled, “The Dead Squirrel on the Side of the Road.”  


listening to Audrey Assad’s version of my favorite hymn, Be Thou My Vision.  Her reflection was so honest and beautiful too.  I loved this part: “Hymns like this one have come alive for me with fresh and thrilling meaning in this time of my life. Lines like “Thou my best thought, by day or by night” have a new breathtaking significance—the fact that I spend so much of my time dreaming about what God might be like is the best thing I can be doing. It doesn’t matter, really, that I don’t *know* what God is like exactly, or that I don’t comprehend the metaphysics of this whole God with us thing. I’m thinking about God. I’m dreaming about God. That is beautiful. It’s my best thought, by day or by night. If that’s the only way I pray right now, then okay.”


reflecting on the past year and where I want to grow in 2017.  As I get older, with more kids, more responsibilities and less time (funny how that works), I’m learning to be really specific in the direction I’d like to go.  A few thoughts I’ve jotted down this week:
+ More Knowledge: My thirst for knowledge has always been pretty strong and I want to continue even further.  Specifically, I want to dive deep into my faith, read more challenging topics (like the classics? logic and critical thinking?), and learn from perspectives different from my own.  
+ More Kindness: I often struggle with the idea of service while having lots of little ones, because on the hard days, what more do I possibly have to give?!  Yet I feel like my kids are at a critical stage right now: if we create an atmosphere of service now, it will, God-willing, be second nature to them as teens and adults.  I’d like to continue our family traditions of monthly donations to the food pantry and our fall pajama drive.  I’d also like to seek out opportunities that the bigger boys can do with their dad (seeing their father serve others is powerful!).  For me, I want to continue being aware of the subtle nudging of the Holy Spirit and follow through on those.
+ More Contentment: I’ll give myself a small pat on the back in that I’ve made some progress in this department since last year, but I still have so far to go.  I want to strive for continued peace with where I am right now, in my home, my current vocation, etc.  I don’t want to fall into the trap of wishing the time away or to pass quickly, but to enjoy life as it is right this moment.  
+ More Self-Care: With a new baby on the horizon, I need to prioritize my mental health in a big way.  I want to be aware of triggers that may encourage depression and humble myself to ask for help if needed.  I also want to make the effort not to obsess about weight, but come to love the body I have, no matter the current size.