A Healthy Dose of Spinning

Have you ever felt yourself spinning on His pottery wheel? Not spinning out or spinning your wheels or even feeling your head spinning, but rather aware that He's working? Aware that things are changing and you, against all odds and common wisdom, are changing?

That's how I am feeling lately. Of course, for me, it includes food. Which is why I can say that on Saturday morning, Rory and I did something a little crazy......we bought MEAT. I know, I know. We have been avoiding four-letter words for so long and now look what we've done! But we have been processing the pros and cons of veganism, locavorism, and the SAD (Standard American Diet) for a while now and have been willing (even eager) to give local, "healthy" meat a chance. I know I hinted at this in my last post in reference to Kingsolver's glorious food tale "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," but while at farmer's market on Saturday, we happened upon Abby Farms (unfortunately they have no website as of yet that I can direct you to). A helpful guy and stay at home dad, sold us some free-range, local beef from happy cows. I was thrilled. (We also bought some of their apples--organic and smaller than the store-bought ones; they are DELICIOUS!) It is one of the best prices we've seen around ($4-$8/lb depending on the cut) and tonight Rory stuck his hands in some ground beef and we ate PATTY MELTS! What is going on here....

Truth be told, it was one of the best sandwiches we've had in a long time. (Rory claims the best in his life but he does tend to exaggerate...) The meat really did taste different. I have eaten meat a few times during my pregnancy and once or thrice since D was born so it wasn't just that the taste of meat was new to me. This really tasted different. GOOD different. We bought a pound of ground beef and got four patties out of it (we only ate two tonight). We also put the yummy beef on some local rye bread we also bought at farmer's and for me, the bread was so the best part! I love bread.

At any rate, we are attempting to find a balance here. Our menu for the rest of the week is meatless (and heavy on veggies--we ate a delicious green salad bigger than our burger with dinner tonight). I'll keep you posted on our thoughts as we continue to spin--in a good way, of course.

And our life is also changing audibly as well. Namely, we now live, eat and breathe with a soundtrack; Dia has started singing! I nearly fell over and very nearly had to catch my heart as it leaped out of my chest when I first heard her. I had placed her on our bed with some pillows so I could make a little pit stop in the restroom, and when I came back in, I saw her on her tummy (unaware that I was there) singing. No understandable words were formed or anything, but she kept a beautiful little tune of "aaaaahhhhh....uuuhahhaaaaahhhuhahuhah...oooooooohhohoh" It is hands down my favorite thing in the world. She is so sweet and very thoughtful (you can see her lips start forming sounds and her eyes get an intense look right before she makes her first sound).

She is also talking, talking, talking--again, no words I know yet, but we're listening intently nonetheless. For a while she was speaking primarily in raspberries and other beautiful noises made with spit, loose lips and a little tongue, but now it's a series of sounds and intentional lip movements. I die each time she shares her thoughts verbally! Her most talkative times tend to be around diaper changing, but she has also been known to start up when someone first starts to hold her (especially with her Grammy and aunties). And of course, she does every so often mumble these sounds in her sleep! I eat, sleep and drink joy all day. Endless endless joy.

So I'll end this with the joyful face and gleeful sounds of D herself: