I’m going to go ahead and announce that I am squeezing one more blog post in before baby girl shows up, in hopes that this will prove true and she will actually show up. Yes, I am still a couple weeks from my due date. But since Henry came at 38 weeks and Etta at 37.5… I am officially Over Being Pregnant. I have an induction scheduled for 39 weeks, as I like my births highly medicated and scheduled if possible, but I have no intention of actually making it to that date. (Yes, I am real fun to live with right now).

This summer feels so strange in comparison to what I love about DC summers (read: socialization and splashpads), but I nevertheless can’t control my summer excitement. We have been dragging out the sprinkler frequently, swimming in every creek we can find, letting the kids stay up late for bonfires and popsicles, and generally reveling in these long days made even lazier than usual by things being shutdown. I’m still hopeful that some more normal summer pastimes will resume next month, but for the moment, I can’t complain too much. Both kids are currently obsessed with their “tent,” which is actually some sticks rubber banded together and covered in a picnic blanket. They set it up daily over all the outdoor furniture pillows and beg to eat every meal in there, and I usually let them. I am raising summer-loving babies and it makes me so pleased.

Here are some very important things that I absolutely had to let you know about before I check out with my newborn.

This table hammock made from a sheet was a big hit for my kids.

If you are a parent, you might cry laughing at this. If you aren’t, it will make absolutely no sense.

It can be really daunting to stay on top of the news, especially as we are all weary of virus-related happenings. My friend Liz is an amazing journalist covering COVID-19, and she has developed a daily email newsletter where she sends one expertly chosen article each day. They cover a wide range of virus related topics and opinions, but all are well-written and fact-checked. She also gives a summary if you don’t have time to read the whole thing. It has been such a helpful way to have constructive media exposure.

This has been our favorite podcast of quarantine, teaching really great (and often obscure!) Bible stories for kids. Like, my kids know about Naboth’s Vineyard. We also love this one, for nonspiritual entertainment. The train love had waned at our home, but both kids are hardcore back into it, and I am pumped, as train mess is my favorite mess and train play lasts for hours.

If you have summer strawberries sitting around, this cake is my favorite way to eat them up.

We made these grilled chicken sandwiches last week and they were phenomenal, even for someone hating meat in the third trimester like yours truly. I used some of my sacred Chick-Fil-A sauce stash on the kids’ and a million pickles on mine and skipped the relish.

We make pizza every Friday, and we used to always rely on Trader Joe’s crust. As going to the grocery is trickier now, I decided that I could master making homemade crust. I tried a bunch of sub-par recipes, before my cousin’s wife suggested this one and it is perfect. Bonus! It only rises 10 minutes and rolls out without any breakage or trouble.

So few positive things in the news, but someone finally found the treasure!

Finally finished this and it was so beautiful and deeply satisfying. I’m reading this book now and convicted by pretty much every word. How different would the world look if Christians actually loved their neighbor? Also reading (ok, listening to) this bookand it is so weird but really gripping.

The past couple weeks there have been so many deeply convicting and thus unsettling words to read around the internet in response to racial injustice in this country. It has prompted good and hard conversations with our own kids about race and equality. I am not going to pretend to be an expert on any aspect of this conversation, but I did want to share two articles that have stayed with me, one on a Biblical response and one on a conservative response to systemic racism. I think that phrase makes many people really defensive and I appreciate how this article explores what it actually means. I was really excited to get this book that I am adding to our collection to approach this discussion with our kids in a biblically centered way. There are a lot of things that have been discouraging surrounding the discussion of race in recent weeks, but one thing that is truly encouraging is how many parents I am seeing taking seriously their job of starting this process in the home with their kids.

And on that note… hopefully I will not blog for weeks and weeks because there will be a newborn to snuggle. But if not, I’ll probably show up annoyed and wordy at some point.