Baby Mueller

pregnancy calendar

Monday, January 4, 2010

The Armchair Returneth

Hello ladies!!!!
Before I get started I want to say a very big thank you for all the lovely comments, emails, and other forms of communication from you all over the past few months. It has been a whirlwind since October, and your notes of encouragement and congratulations have meant a lot, so thank you.



I could probably write a four-screen post today about all that has been going onin my life since I last posted, but of course I won't. But those of you who were kind enough to check in regularly here at Armchair Housewife before my absense can probably guess that it's been pretty crazy for such a blabber-blogger like me to take such a long hiatus. And you'd be guessing right! God is so good and I am anticipting the arrival our Baby Armchair at the end of April, but pregnancy has been one tough road for this mama up until just recently.



I pretty well spent the 2nd to 4th month on the couch. I was terribly nauseated all day long, and was unable to eat much at all. My house ended up looking like a tornado had gone through it, I was so behind on housework as I was totally unable to get up and do much. I still went to work 3 days a week most of the time, but only becuase I have a wonderful Christian work environment and very understanding boss who allowed me to come in late, and not come in at all some days, but when I wasn't trying to get through what I could sitting at my work desk, I was home on the couch or in bed, trying not to heave. I was pretty miserable to live with, and my husband definitely wins husband of the year 2009 not only for putting up with me being a zombie, but also for picking up the slack and doing cooking and cleaning that he never really had to do before, and not complaining about it.



2009 has definitely been a year of ups and downs. Getting pregnant was a wonderful, exciting thing, and yet being pregnant was terribly hard on me physically, and eventually emotionally as I started to wonder if I'd ever feel like myself again. Along the same lines, Caleb and I were blessed to be in a position to start looking for our first purchased home right before I found I was pregnant in September, and were able to get the house searching and the purchasing done before i got too sick, which was an exciting and amazing blessing. At the same time, however, the reality of moving, and into your first house no less, in the midst of that terribly sick time was difficult despite how excited we were to be so blessed with our own place. If it weren't for our family, I'm not sure how we would have done it. On moving day I was in bed until almost 3pm I was so sick, and was all b ut useless with the move. My Mother-in-law pretty well did all my share of the packing in the house, and I was pretty useless during the move. Everyone was gracious and kind, but I must confess that was a hard time for me, as I felt like such a burden and unable to contribute.




After the fourth month, things got easier, I was more sick in the morning and sometimes in the evenings if I had had a long day. But I still wasn't feeling great, because I found I just had zero phyiscal or mental energy. One good example is painting our new place; it took me forever to pick colors for our main living area because I just didn't have the mental capacity to commit to a color! It sounds so crazy, but that's how I felt! And then once I did pick colors, if it weren't for the gracious help of friends and family, I wouldn' thave gotten the rooms painted, as I was trying my best but energy level, as well as my growing belly, were a hinderance to getting so much wall space covered. In fact, I still haven't painted the upstairs rooms, but I am hoping to get those done before baby comes. It's definitely been an adjustment for me, learning to accept my limitations at this time.




But slowly, things have gotten better. This Sunday marks the beggining of my 27th week of pregnancy, and a few weeks ago on the drive into work (I'm just now, in the past couple of weeks, starying to get to work at a normal time in the morning) I had a realization that I had finally gotten to a point in my pregnancy where I felt more normal than zombified, and that I was finally able to say I was actually enjoying this experience. I have more energy now, the nausea is all but gone (although when i have to get up extra early in the moring I still have a rough first hour, my body likes to wake up when it wants to these days!), I can think more clearly, and life has resumed a more normal pattern. In addition, I am feeling our little one swimming around, punching and kicking all the time and it's such an exciting thing and has made what has been for a long time a very abstract, almost inconceivable reality much more tangible and has helped me to realize this whole crazy enterprise has been MORE than worth it. Let me make it clear: I am by no means complaining or wishing I hadn't gotten pregnant.. .I have wanted to be a mom for years now and am so thankful for this blessing. But the reality of the difficulties of pregnancy for me did make things like blogging basically impossible.




BUT, it's a new year, Im in a new phase of pregnancy, and I'm in a new home and actually starting to feel like a home maker again, and I'd really like to get back to posting about working at being the best wife, homemaker, and soon mother (yay!!) that I can be, with the Lord's help. I still may not post as frequently as I used to, and you'll have to forgie me if my traffic at your sites isn't that speedy at first, but I do plan to getback into the swing of things, and hope to have my old bloggy friends back for the ride.

I also know that I am owing someone some give-away prizes, and some other loose ends i have to tie up. Truth be told, I have to go back and figure it all out, I've been away so long I don't even remember the ends I need to tie! :) But slowly and surely I'll get back into it, and thank you for your patience and your loving notes of encouragement along the way.

Coming up soon: pictures of yours truly all preggors, pictures of the new house, with some befores and afters, starting to think about my nursery and wanting your advice, and more!


Thank you, Ladies!!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Some Exciting News

Hello Ladies, I am sorry I have been away so long, owing many of you a visit to your blog, one of you a give-away goody, and just lots of blog-world catching up to do.

The truth is, however, I just haven't been feeling up to it. And truth is, I haven't been feeling up to much these days. And if you look above this post, and notice my shiney new ticker, you'll understand why. :) Caleb and I are expecting a baby in late April, and I am about 11 weeks along today. God has blessed us, I am very excited and thankful to our good and gracious God for blessing us in this way. I of course appreciate prayer for my little peapod and his or her development.

As excited as I am about the pregnancy, I have been more sick than I thought possible! I didn't know you could feel so terribly unwell as an expectant mother. I have not felt well in about a month now, having a hard time eating anything, not just in the morning, either, but all day! I'm tired mostof the time and have a hard time doing much. And so blogging, both reading and writing and other things, have really, really taken a backseat. In fact, I get extra nauseated if I'm online for very long, so I don't promise to be blogging regularly until I am feeling better. I start my second trimester next week, and I know many ladies start to feel better around that time, so i am praying this will be the case for me. Again, I appreciate your prayers in this area as well, because I am behing in my housework and at the office, and really in every way! :)

God bless all you ladies and hope to see you soon!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Recovering

Hello Ladies,

I seem to be on the mend. Thank you for all your sweet notes. Eventhough I am feeling a bit better, however, I still don't have the strength or mental energy for blogging, reading or writing. :( And something terrible seems to have happened... somehow because I tried to do some decorating while I was very ill, now I sort of have this bizarre association between my fall decorations and feeling nauseated. Very sad!!! I'm praying this well pass when I am fully recovered.

Sorry I can't take part in all the exciting around Blogland about fall decorations. Also, I owe two bloggy friends goodies, one just because (that's you Angela) and one from the Apron Giveaway (Forever Vintage) and I am thinking I will be well enough on Monday when the post office reopens to go get those sent off. Here's praying, anyway.

Thanks again, ladies!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Still Sick

Hi ladies, just a quick update that I am still sick and having a hard time getting off the couch or wanting to eat much. Looking at the computer for very long makes me feel worse, so I'm still not really blogging. My fall decorations got half done and I'm hoping to feel better soon.

You know its bad, ladies, when I'm not even uploading a photo. What I HAVE been doing with all this sitting on the couch time, however, is taking lots more photos of vintage images to use on the blog, which has been good.

OK, I've reached my screen-viewing quota for the hour.

Thanks for your prayers, ladies.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

My First "Button"


Hello Ladies! well, must be y'all have been a-prayin', because I feel better already! I'm still not doing any marathons or anything, but Im feeling well enough this afternoon to do some laundry and start dragging out my fall decorations and start putting summer away. Boy does this feel good!


I'm taking a break to unload photos from my trip to NY, and I decided to post my first "button". Many of you ladies have some of the cutest buttons, like The Vintage Housewife, and Aunt Ruthie over at Sugar Pie Farmhouse. I have wanted to make one for a while for any of my bloggy friends who might want to beautify their blog with some fun retro art, but haven't known what to do, especially as "Armchair Housewife" is actually a pejorative term, not one to embrace, so I'm not like to do a "I'm a Proud Armchair Housewife!" button. haha... that would sort of defy the point of the blog.


But I so liked the little graphic I put together for my intro to fall post a few days ago, and thought you ladies might like it, too, so I'm putting it up for any and all to use. I have now added my web address at the bottom, and if you use it as a decoration on your blog margins, I would appreciate you making it a link to my page as well, but there's no obligation. I want to figure out how you ladies create the button HTML, but for now, if you're handy enough to just click and save the photo above, and post it as a 'picture' gadget on your blog, you are more than welcome to. No obligation, of course, but thought it would be fun to share. :)


God Bless, ladies. More soon (if I can stay off the couch...). Thanks again for the prayers!

Too Sick to Blog?


Hello Ladies. Well, you know it's bad when I'm feeling too under the weather not only to write my own blog, but to read yours as well. At current count Google Readers says I have nearly 300 unread posts. Ha! I came home from my trip last week and hit the ground running with work and lots of house-buying-related evening activities, and for the past few days I've been feeling so under the weather I've basically been living on my couch. My summer decorations are staring at me, begging to be taken down and replaced with all things fall, and my "to do" bloggy list is collecting dust. Not to mention the 300-some posts of yours I am behind on.


But, that's life. I'm praying to feel better soon enough to start being productive again. Prayer would be appreciated.


I also want to say thank you to all you newer followers of my blog, I so appreciate every one of you evenif I haven't had a chance to stop by your place and say 'hi'.


I hope to be back sooner than later with fall decorations, pictures of our new house, and more.


God Bless you, ladies!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Home Again and Here Comes Fall!


Hello ladies!
Just a quick stop in to say thanks for the well-wishes and prayers for my trip home, all went well. What was very exciting was seeing the few trees here and there that were starting to change color in the rolling hills of NY on my drive home. And on the drive to work today I noticed one young tree on my street is already bright orange! As such, I officially declare it Fall here at Armchair Housewife, and you'll notice some decorative changes and more to come. If you haven't been over to Dame Penniwigs to get some lovely Autumn graphics for your blog, stop what you're doing and get over there right away!


And speaking of Home, Mr. Armchair and I have some exciting news, and that is that we are in the process of purchsing our first house! We were able to get past that bump in the road I mentioned in a previous post, and tonight we sign some more paperwork that puts us on the road to home-ownership. Lord willing, we will get posession on Oct. 9th,and be moved in by Nov. 1st. Yes, you know what that means, ladies... Christmas in my new house! Yahoo!!

God is good indeed.When I can, I'll post some pictures of the new place. I intend to blog more this week, do some catch-up blogging I've been behind on, so I pray to see you again real soon.

Thanks for stopping in, and i can't wait to catch up on all of YOUR blogs as well.

God Bless, ladies!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

We have a Winner!!


Hello, Ladies! Congrats to Caroline from Forever Vintage, on winning the Vintage Apron Giveaway! I am so excited to get these lovelies off to you!


I want to say thanks so much to all of you who participated, and became followers during this giveaway. It really blessed me to meet so many new bloggy friends.


And don't despair if you didn't win this time. I already have some more give-aways planned for fall, winter, Christmas, just because, etc. it's fun giving stuff away!


God bless you ladies and I'll see you when I get back from my trip early next week!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Where I Get my Vintage Images


Hello again! Two posts in a few minutes time... I'm on a roll! I just wanted to take a minute to answer a question that a few of you sweet sisters have asked me recently. "Where do you get your vintage images?" and the answer is I take them my myself. Here's how.

I have a running collection of vintage magazines, mostly from the 1950s, and most ladies' magazines like Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, etc. I use my digital camera, on the 'macro' setting, which allows you to take quality photos up-close, and I take photos of all the ad art and other illustrations in the magazines. I think load the photos into my Photobuck.com account, and I use their image editors to crop and brighten the photos to my liking. They are then stored online for whenever I chose to use them here at the blog. This is somewhat of a time-taking procedure, but I so enjoy it that it has become like a hobby to me.

I will still occasionally use other photos from public domain sites, and when I do so I make the photo a link to reference back to where I borrowed the image from, but the vast majority of he images used are from my own storehouse. That is why my 'image policy' on the left asks people to ask for permission before they use any of the photos, as I've worked to create them and feel that they make my blog unique.

Hopefully this answers your questions and I encourage you, if you come across some well-priced vintage mags, from whatever era, or picture books, to make use of this process, if you have the time. It's lots of fun!

God Bless, ladies!

Give-away Winner Announced Later Today


Hello Ladies! Just wanted to let you all know that I WILL of course be doing the give-away draw tonight before I head out tomorrow for PA. So stay tuned, I'll announce a winner and get those lovely vintage aprons off to one lucky gal. And ladies who advertised the give-away, thanks so much, and go ahead and take those down now. :)