A New Leaf

Hoping I never reach XL, I just handed a big box of Size XL maternity clothes to the goodwill yesterday. I wore many of them in my first pregnancy, where I gained an abominable amount of weight and had crazy water-retention issues anyway. On top of all that, most of those clothes were hand-me-downs from a lady at my old church who had something like eight kids, and she apparently wasn’t too concerned with fashion by her eighth child because every piece closely resembles something Paul could have made in his second job, you know, tent-making. Big. Loose. Stretchy.

So clearly, I think I’m not going to get that big; I mean, I gave them all away. There was no way I’d have worn them even if I do blimp up again, but I’m hoping, praying, keeping my fingers -- “X” -- crossed that maybe I can keep the inches off. With Abby’s pregnancy I think I actually weighed…well, doing the math, I’m having second thoughts about writing that number down for all the world to see. Nah. But let’s just say I’m 26 pounds from that point now with elevenish weeks left. So maybe, just maybe, I’ll never get there. It’s a possibility, but you never know.

In order to attain this goal, I’ve turned a new leaf. With the one-hour blessing of the time change on Sunday (actually, I can’t stand the time change usually; it’s the two times of the year I seriously weigh the risks and benefits of moving to Arizona), I’ve decided I would set my alarm for 7:00, which I realize is not all that early, but it’s getting up with the roosters for me. So I got out of bed, immediately made it (so I wouldn’t be tempted to jump back in it), and stepped on the…[insert drumroll here]…treadmill! Yes, the first thing I did after making my bed was exercise. Hard to believe for me. I didn’t head for the coffee pot or the refrigerator. I exercised for about 30 minutes and then showered. I was ready for my day by 8:00. I know this is what those working outside the home do every day and even moms with older kids, but when you stay at home and raise babies for a living, you can sometimes get out of the everyday habits of the rest of society. Well…so now I guess I’m officially hired.

Let’s hope new leaves don’t fall off this tree like the one out in front of my house.