FYI/Update/Yadda, Yadda

B-A-B-Y
1. I'm pregnant. Due Aug. 28. We're very excited.
2. I feel nauseous about 80% of the time, and on the verge of...well, I don't think I can type the word without getting sick, but it rhymes with "Gromit"... about once every couple of days.
2b. I have to eat about once an hour to keep the tummy grumbling to a dull roar, but if I eat too much, I have that awful over-full feeling for about 2 hours, until I can't decide if I'm still full, or if I need to eat again.
2c. I'm pretty much always tired. No more night owl 'round here.
2d. Other than the sleepiness and yucky tummy, I'm doing pretty good for a preggo.
3. I'm not quite 8 weeks along yet, and I already started wearing maternity pants.
4. The maternity pants are on not only because I'm already feeling a little full around the midsection, but also because I have yet to climb out from under the pile of dirty laundry that assaulted me soon after we returned from our 3-week vacation.
5. Visiting family for 3 weeks is fun, but coming home to a huge to-do list that wasn't finished before leaving is....not fun.

B-L-O-G-G-Y
1. All my old posts disappeared for a few days.
2. I didn't delete them - I just set them all to "draft". All 92 of them.
3. I've been having a little bloggy identity-crisis since around Thanksgiving (hence the lack of posting). "Clearing the slate" was one step short of deleting the whole blog...which I almost did a number of times.
4. I still can't quite decide - To blog, or not to blog? What to blog? How to blog? Blah, blah, blah.
5. I republished most of the old posts, and now I've edited this post, like, 3 times...so I guess that means I'm back to blogging.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Name Change

I finally did it - I changed the name of my blog. Somehow "Sarah's Other Blog" just didn't quite cut it for me anymore. I had never intended for that to be the permanent name for my blog, but just slapped it on there because I had to have some title. I have finally wearied of it enough to make a change. Henceforth, this little bloggy o' mine will be called:

Love Well

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands. (Matthew 22:37-39)

The name is both a statment of who I am/want to be; and what I want to do. If someone were to ask me to explain the meaning of life in one sentence, I would answer this: To love well. The ultimate goal and purpose of my life is to grow in my capacity to give and receive love. I do not mean that as simply a trite statement. As I seek to live my life out of that reality, I am learning that loving well is hard. It does not happen on accident. It doesn't happen apart from the movement of God upon my heart. God IS love, so no amount of benevolent pleasantries on my part can actually manufacture love coming out of my heart. I cannot create God by the sheer force of my will. I can only love God because of the grace He has given me, enabling me to say "yes" to Him. I can only love my husband, my children, my neighbor, my enemies, if the love of God is filling me up and making me like Him.

I desire to be a person who is like a well of cool, refreshing water in the midst of a dry land. The only worthwhile water drawn out of the well of my life is the love of God. If I have not His love, I am empty, dry, and have nothing to give. When His love fills me until I overflow, only then do I have something to offer. I am a well of God's love, or I am nothing.

So whaddaya think of the new name?

A blog of my own

Somehow I've morphed over the last few months from just a proud mama showing off pictures of her firstborn into a wanna-be blogger, writing more and more about myself than I ever intended to on a blog that's supposed to be just about pictures of my baby. I've decided it's about time for me to get my own space, and get my thoughts out in the open. Not that I have anything all that eloquent to say, but by golly when eloquence comes out, this blog will be there to catch it!