A Privilege

Every time both pies end up napping at the same time I find myself having to decide how to spend the time. We say "spend time" because in such situations time really is like currency: I have a limited amount of it and I have to decide {quickly} how I will invest it.

Unlike with money, and unfortunately, there is no such thing as a savings account for your time.

Some days I choose to spend it on cleaning. Some days I choose to spend it on napping. Some days I choose to spend it by giving myself manicures.

I do not feel guilty for sometimes spending my precious nap time (aka, allowance) on doing my nails. To be honest it's really nice to look down at my hands mid-diaper change or during a bottle washing session and admire at least ONE nice feature of mine - because no doubt I'm covered in spit-up and desperately hoping I will be able to work in a shower that day...

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Housewives can have it rough. I'm not complaining, just stating the truth. I love my job. I won't say I love when my husband is walking out the door in the morning, freshly showered, wearing his nice white-collar work clothes, headed out to talk to adults all day. I watch him leave--I, seated at the couch breastfeeding, with tattered pajamas, no make up, and bed head--feeling like a total frump and wishing I could at least have a chance to make myself look presentable in case the FedEx man comes today.

I'm getting better. Violet is now 5 weeks old, together we are learning how to get more done. In the morning when she's done eating I hand her off to Justin {I don't even bother asking him if he minds taking her for a bit, he's their dad and he can spend time with them, too....he never complains about it, either } to burp her and entertain her so that I can either preen myself or sleep a little bit longer.

In complete truth, I feel very privileged to be a stay-at-home-mother. My feathers get all ruffled when people suggest {or just state bluntly} how stay at home mothers have it easy. Ignorance. {I will not turn this into a rant post, I will rise above!}

But I am in that season of life when many of my friends and acquaintances are also starting families. So I see the posts on Facebook, 6-8 weeks after a new mother has given birth she will say how difficult it will be to drop her baby off at day care and go back to work. These posts just make me so sad! I realize many mothers prefer to keep their careers after having kids, but I also know, not all of them would chose to stay at their jobs rather than be with their babies if they didn't need to. Either way, it's hard to leave your baby!

Leave my Violet and head to work after just 6 weeks?! Excuse me while I go hug her hard...

I am so grateful the Lord has given us the desire, the strength and the means to keep our babies at home with their mother. Not only do I believe it's ideal for young children and infants to be with their mothers, I just don't know if I'd be able to cope with another person "getting to" be with my pies all day if I had to return to work full time. In that respect, I consider it a privilege.

Not easy, not by any means is it easy... but still a blessing.

I've never been one for employment. Money is not important enough to me to make it worth it, and I'm a homebody. I don't look forward to getting away via a job. I am not concerned with my achievements in the workplace, it's just not a place where I am motivated. That's just not who I am. Ever since I was a little girl, my desire was to be a mother. It might not sound exciting, and you can call me crazy for preferring it over some high-powered career, but by-golly, I'm passionate about it.

Natalie Portman was recently criticized for calling motherhood the "most important role of her life" in her acceptance speech at the Oscars. I get her...


Unfortunately, not everyone does. 


"But is motherhood really a greater role than being secretary of state or a justice on the Supreme Court?" asked her attacker on Salon.com. 


{Rolls eyes.} Obviously it is to Natalie, so how abouts let's just let her decide her priorities in life, shall we?

How pathetic and sad is it that a woman is criticized publicly for proclaiming that she feels motherhood her most important role? As if Hilary Clinton, if asked, would state that her political career was obviously more important than being a mother to Chelsea? I doubt it. This is what I mean by privilege. One can work their butt off towards their career goals, but being a mother is a God-given calling, a privilege. It cannot be equated with a job.

I really do find joy in keeping house and child-rearing, I consider it a God given desire. A vocation. I have been called. Today's society is growing more unfamiliar and unappreciative with the art {and value} of being a wife and mother, in my honest opinion. Radical feminist, Simone de Beauvoir, may have called me a "parasite" and might have told me I was not allowed to stay home with my babies - but I don't care what she {or anyone else} thinks, because I'm happy with this "career". I'm proud of my work. I care what my children think of me, as their mother I'm responsible for helping to grow their self-worth. And I care what my God thinks of me. Sorry, Ms. Beauvoir. I don't care what you think of me. 

This work here, raising my Pies, this is important business.

Violet's Birth Video

Better late than never, here is the video of Violet's birth which Justin took with our Bloggie. I promise there's nothing graphic other than the typical newborn baby goo. Don't forget to leave a comment for Violet to read someday!

New Blog

Welcome to the new blog!

You're probably wondering, "Why 'Last Day Ago'?"

Coming up with a blog name is hard. I see so many clever ones out there on all the blogs I read, but I'm horrible at these sorts of things. I polled my mom & sister with a few options, however, and Last Day Ago won out. So blame them.

Justin, for the record, thinks it's lame. Except when I challenged him to come up with something better, then he suddenly thought it would work out just great...

Perhaps my mom & sister voted for it because it's a family thing?

When I was a little girl, or so my parents tell me, and I was first learning how to structure sentences properly, I would say "last day ago" instead of saying "yesterday" or "the other day".

"Remember how last day ago when we blah blah blah..." I'd say.

My mom thought it was cute and to this day we still sometimes use the phrase I coined as child.

I figured this might be a fitting blog title since I'm usually posting about things we did...

LAST DAY AGO.

bum, bum, bum!

The House Elf's Revenge

{Naked pie!}

I had all intentions of posting Violet's birth video by now, but a certain house elf spilled water on my laptop. It happened in slow motion one day last week, whilst I has stuck on the couch nursing the new pie.

The house elf has become much more brazen and much less responsive to threats of discipline since the new pie came home. So when she was pulling the straw out of my's hospital-issued water mug, the "STOP! STOP!" I screamed from the couch meant nothing, and right before my eyes the house elf killed my computer. This was, no doubt, punishment for bringing home the new screaming pie.

The house elf "tickling" baby while mommy begs her to stop {it's rare Violet sleeps through a car ride.}

Until we work up the courage to spend the money on a new laptop, I'll have to blog with Justin's work-issued IBM. As soon as the edited video is retrievable from my hard drive I'll be sure to post it. {Don't worry, it still exists, the house elf is not crafty enough to know how to destroy that.}

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After 42 pregnant weeks that seemed to last forever, I'm already in awe of how quickly the past 3 weeks of V-Pie's life have gone by. She is a really good baby, already sleeps through the night 95% of the time! We'll take it.

Daddy doing some "baby wearing" with the Moby wrap.

While Eis-Pie is still addicted to the pacifier after 2.5 years of life, V-Pie is of the opposite persuasion and refuses to let anything calm her except ME. I can easily spend 4 hours straight on the couch nursing her if I let her. She will reluctantly take a bottle, but it has been difficult for us {me, really} to get out of the house as Violet is not a fan of the car seat and is too much of a fan of my boobs.

This right here is why I could have 19 babies. RIP laptop...

You forget, even having done it before, how hard it is to have a newborn. But it is such a blessed time! Hard but wonderful. She will grow up so fast, this period of our lives is so fleeting that I am just trying to hold on to it as long as I can - even if it means spending 4 hours stuck on the couch helpless while the house elf destroys the home.

I know things get easier every day, too. Violet grows a little more independent each day and will continue to do so until someday she's moving herself out of the house or picking out a wedding dress. Eisley is already a reminder of how short this season of life is.

At my check-up for my doctor to look at my incision, I asked him how many c-sections were too many. I was sincerely curious: does it get to a point where 3 or 4 c-sections are dangerous? No, he said, you can have as many as you want {although he admitted, as I already knew, any surgery comes with it's risks}. We're not planning the next one yet, and have not even decided if there will BE a third pie, but I just know that before I blink Violet will be as old as Eisley is now and I might get baby fever again...

but maybe not. After all, like I said: this season is hard.

But wonderful. SO wonderful. Worth the 42 weeks & 1 day a hundred times over.

Does it scare you that right now it makes total sense to me why that Duggar lady has had 19 of them???

How can you blame me, when this is what I get to stare at all day:

That's one of the few times she's taken a pacifier... sigh...

Don't fear, I just keep telling myself 19 babies would turn into 19 teenagers.