Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Overrun - but in a really, really good sort of way.

(Inspiration has finally hit and I have some thing to write!)

Our garden is being overrun by lettuce.  Yeah, there are a couple of bushes that are thriving in the background, (and a couple that are not!).  There is even still room for a few brave impatiens way down at the end there.  But mostly, the lettuce is dominating!  Our lettuce has never lived past about three inches tall, so this is a little surprising...  I'm actually going to have to plan salads for every night this week, when you add in the stuff I picked at our "big" garden plot this morning.


We thought we would prefer to be able to finish the lettuce off and get our colorful annuals in.  But being overrun by lettuce is an undeniably good thing, really.  There is so much, we can't help but eat the healthy stuff!  On top of that it tastes really good and is free, so I guess that we'll gladly give a few more weeks of our gardening season over to the leafy greens.  

In other news, our house is going to be overrun by kids.  A couple of months ago, we found out that I was pregnant.  (Hence my tired-ness, worrying, sick feeling posts for a while now.)  Last Wednesday, we got the shocking news that it was actually TWINS!  They don't run in the family.  They are most likely identical, which happens purely by chance, about 3 in 1000, (fraternal are the ones that run in families, I've learned).  They are due December 3, which means that we will be overrun sometime before that.  

We planned on having a third baby, and finishing my childbearing days there - still squeezing into a Civic, a two bedroom house, a pack'n'play instead of a crib, road trips and the occasional flying trip.  But amidst throwing all those great ideas quickly the windows, we are coming to realize that being overrun like kids will be an undeniably good thing.  The big sisters will still have their tight bond, the twins will have theirs.   The questions of where the majority of our family efforts and my 5-year-career plan should lie - well, raising the kids becomes the obvious answer.  We sometimes prefer the obvious answers to the ones we get to over-analyze. All those worries about birth order or what if it's a little boy with only big sisters have evaporated.  As Abby will tell you, we pretty much haven't stopped talking about what this change means since last Wednesday.  But our realizations have been amazingly positive.

There's plenty to worry about and some temporary sacrifices (not unlike the annuals in our garden), but I guess that we are about to be overrun in a really, really good - if unexpected! - sort of way.  And here's the proof to show it - yikes!

PS - Oh, and John?  He agrees with me on this one - both the overrunning and it being a good thing.  As we gulped our way into Target to window shop car seats and double strollers last weekend, he looked at me and said - "well, I guess this is our next big adventure together, isn't it?"  We may have to postpone our family trip to Europe for another decade, but times won't be dull back here at home!

6 comments:

Caroline said...

How incredibly exciting!!! Congrats Jo!

That's Not My Name said...

They are already the cutest things! Is December 3 the new adjusted due date? That's even sooner than I thought! I hope you're feeling well!

sarahstew said...

I cannot tell you how excited we are for you and the family! Thank you for posting the ultrasound pic - so precious! This seems to me such an answer to the prayers of your heart (though not in the expected ways or times!) Lots of love!
Sarah

Jess said...

congratulations joanna! what an unexpected surprise :) hope you start to feel better soon.

joanna said...

Thanks everyone :). And yes, I'm actually feeling a lot better every day this week. Hopefully just in time to visit the northwest and eat my heart out at the cheapest, freshest restaurants I can find!

Erin Kirchhoff said...

Hi Joanna,
Wow!! Double congratulations!! This is just so exciting-my whole family is soo happy for your family. The ultrasound picture is soo sweet! I love twins-I have always thought it would be so neat to have them-identical is soo cool! I think it is so neat how the Lord blesses some with twins! Will you find out if they are boys or girls? Will you keep getting ultrasounds? This is just soo neat! Tell John,Abby, and Rachel we say Congrats!
Erin and family