Confessions

To whoever bothers to still check this blog,

You may be wondering whatever happened to us. When a blog is neglected for several days/weeks/months, one might come to one of the following conclusions:

1) The person has given up on their blog for good

2) The person has absolutely nothing going on in their life worthy enough to share

3) The person has too much going in their life to have the time to write

4) Or...the person is pregnant.

And in this particular situation, #4 applies. Yes, the Mitchells are expecting number Baby #3. Surprise! (For us, as well).

And now, in light of surviving the horrific first trimester, I have a few confessions to make.

Confession #1: My children have watched more Veggie Tales, Sesame Street, and a terrible cartoon about Jesus getting befriended by a group of stray dogs (and where is that in the Bible?) more times that I care to admit. It has been my only means of survival. And sadly, my kids may prefer that I stay feeling terrible for the rest of their lives, if it means getting to watch a movie every day. Man, how I never wanted to be that parent!

Confession #2: My family has quite likely become completely malnourished...eating pasta for about 6 weeks straight (minus a few times that our nutrition was supplemented by the kind folks at Chipotle, Subway, and various other fast-food places that we never eat at on an ordinary basis). However, when you can't stand the sight of food between 4:30 and 7 p.m., making dinner can become very tricky. And let's be real, nonexistent.

Confession #3: I have either failed to download or take nearly enough pictures of all the events of the past 12 weeks. From our awesome trip to Keystone (right before the nausea kicked in), to my parents visit, to Valentine's Day, to Ethan's recital and Pinewood Derby....it just didn't happen. It was like we didn't exist. Bummer.

Confession #4: I haven't read a single word, minus one girlie Francine River's book and my weekly cramming for my Beth Moore study (in which the only real motivation is not looking like a total moron to the other girls in the study.) No Francis Chan, no Donald Miller, no difficult reading that requires any use of my brain whatsoever. But, I have gotten all caught up on the Biggest Loser, Surviver, Project Runway and a million other mindless TV shows that you can watch online to just sort of take the edge off of feeling like you want to crawl into a dark hole. It is embarrassing and I've probably lost millions of brain cells because of it. I wish I cared.

Confession #5: Yesterday was the first real day I felt truly excited for our next little peanut to arrive. I'll admit, when you go weeks on end without seeing an ultrasound, you just kind of forget why you are going through such torture. But then, I saw my little baby and suddenly all of the grief of the last 12 weeks just sort of disappeared. "Peanut" was just sitting there, so happy and content, sucking his or her little thumb. "Peanut" won me over in that instant.

And so now it is time to get on with life. I'm starting with simple goals, such as making dinner a few nights a week and taking a picture every now and then. Then maybe I'll work up to reading something short, but requires at least a sixth grade education. Who knows, I may even kick my reality TV show addiction?

With much love and nausea,

Julie