Ten Reasons Why I Love My Husband

I thought for Valentine's Day I'd dedicate a little blog post to Reid.  I would have written "top 10" but I'm not sure I have the mental clarity right now to put these in order and I know I'm going to leave a lot out.  (Please don't judge me that I've referred to our baby a couple times today as a little parasite who is draining all the energy and mental capacities right out of my body.  Love this baby, not a big fan of the side effects.) So just listing ten of the many, many reasons why I'm still thrilled that  Reid is all mine (you know, after almost 11 whole months) may be sufficient for now.

1.)  First, he will eat anything at least once.   I've never heard him say "that's gross" or "I don't like that" without first giving it a go.  I love even more that even though he knows he hates raw tomatoes, he tries them at least once every single year just in case anything changes.  I definitely could not have married a picky eater.

2.)  He calls me "Sugar-britches."  For the first two months of dating it made me giggle uncontrollably (mainly because I had never heard anyone say anthing like that and with such a Southern drawl).  I would laugh so hard I was asked on one occassion if I was drunk (right before church, which I was not, thank goodness).  Now all his coworkers and most of his friends refer to me by this little pet name as well. 

3.)  For my birthday this year he spent forever finding the perfect pair of boots for me because he knew my feet get really cold.  It was the last thing I would have thought to ask for but now I wear my Mucklucks as often as I can and my toes stay so cozy, especially during the cold market days lately.

4.)  He knows how to fix plumbing in our house. 

5.)  He built a two story dog/cat house for our pets complete with wood lap siding and a tin roof.  (I told him we should get Leonard Jones to paint it.) 

6.)  He makes sure I have a glass of water before he gets in bed every night so I can have it as soon as I wake up...often a few hours after he wakes up and is already at work.

7.)  Since we found out we were expecting he has completely withheld from tickling me or trying to scare me which has previously made up a big part of his entertainment.  This is a big act of restraint for him and I appreciate it tremendously. 

8.)  He knows how to reload bullets which just sounds like it would be too hard, tedious and dangerous for me.  Even better have been the little craft projects lately that have gone with it such as ducktaping random boxes and filling them with that insulation foam stuff to make bullet cases as well as cutting out target critters (so now we have cardboard squirrels, hogs and birds). 

9.)  This past Saturday morning before the market I had some major morning sickness, had banged my leg falling up the stairs, had no makeup on and had gone all night without sleep to get everything baked for the market. I looked pretty pitiful but he looked at me and said "You're so pretty darlin."  It may have made me cry all prego-emotional style complete with sniffling but it was super sweet.

10.)  Speaking of Saturday mornings...Every Friday night/Saturday morning since last May about he has stayed up late/gotten up early with me to help bake/prep for the market, load my car, make the coffee and then spend all morning with me "working" our little tables behind the courthouse.  We joke around about our regular "Saturday morning date" but I really cannot think of anything more romantic than having a husband who supports my little dream endeavor so much that he'll give up all his Friday nights and Saturdays to help me.  (Along with countless weeknights and middle of the nights too!).

11.)  Okay I'm going for a couple more here...Every Sunday since we were dating Reid has been the one who makes sure we get to church.  I'm so grateful our little baby is going to have a father who isn't quite as flaky as I am...(I'm also grateful our church doesn't start until eleven because the good Lord knows I am not naturally an early riser).

12.)  Lastly, the thing Reid does that completely knocks me off my feet:  He folds laundry just like he learned in military school.  Am I the only one impressed at how flat/square this stack of t-shirts is? 

If you've trudged through all my newlywed sappiness, thanks!  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine's Day with your friends, lovah or that box of chocolate that went on sale early...  (And that any men reading this realize that folding laundry is waaaaay sexier than flowers.)

-Kathryn

Ham & Pop-Tarts

No one in my family is what you would call a "finicky" eater.  My mom cooked dinner every weekday and you just ate what was being served.  (Except for Friday nights which was always pizza night.) Which was not a bad thing at all because my mom is a great cook.   I'm one of four so my mom would wake up around 4 or so to have time to cook dinner and have coffee/quiet time with my dad before we all woke up.  Since dinner was "ready" by 6am every day, this means no one in my family has a weak gut either.  See, as we got older we all  had different schedules with practices, etc. so we would eat dinner with whoever was home and hungry at the same time.  My mom was adamant we wouldn't find dinner if she didn't just leave it on the stove so food only got refrigerated a good 12-16 hours after it was done.  Not a practice the Health Department would smile on, but all of us turned out to be pretty healthy and also pretty "adventurous" eaters.  And like I said before, none of us have weak stomachs at all.

Which is why the way I've been eating lately is so strange to me.  I've been an intuitive eater for a long time, so I am pretty good at eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full and listening to my body for cues on what to eat.  (That sounds kind of new age-y, but I promise it's not.  Just imagine life without dieting, moving your body just because it feels good, and finding a natural, healthy weight without the food police around to tell you what you should and shouldn't be eating.  If that sounds like a peaceful dream, it is.  But it is also the way we were created to eat and is even backed up by some pretty good studies).  So I'm not afraid to eat lately what really sounds good to me.  The thing that is so strange though are all the foods that don't sound good to me.  Such as...

1.)  Coffee- I think an astute observer could have seen that my morning Southern Scratch Facebook posts went from mentioning sipping on coffee nearly every other day (even though I had plenty every morning) to absolute zero mentions of the stuff in January.  For about 3 days after we found out, I was crushed at the thought of having to limit coffee to a cup or two a day.    I didn't care at all that I couldn't have a glass of wine with supper.  But coffee, how would I go on? Then all of a sudden two days after Christmas it just had no appeal to me.   Now, I can't imagine how I ever drank it since the smell of it grosses me out. 

2.)  Most Vegetables-  Raw carrots, steamed brocolli and a tiny bit of lettuce/tomato snuck on a sandwich are about all the veggies that sound good to me.  Potato salad, french fries and onion rings with lots of ketchup are pretty amazing too but let's not count those as a "vegetables."  I'm hoping I get over this aversion really quickly. 
For example, a week or so after we first found out (right before Christmas) I picked up 3 pounds of raw spinach from Lazy Willow Farm.  I knew how important folic acid was and I was psyched to be getting so much of it in this locally grown, pesticide/GMO free form which had been freshly cut and washed that morning.  So picture me arriving home with the equivalent of about 9-10 of the washed "baby spinach" size bags in the grocery store.  I had been so excited to sautee up some every day and had told Reid our "baby" was going to eat so healthy.  Then I got it all inside the kitchen.  I took one look at all that spinach and quickly realized baby was going to have to get it's folic acid somewhere else.  Luckily, I'm eating fruit like crazy.

3.)  Chocolate-  This is more of a semi-aversion since I still like the stuff in icecream or chocolate chip cookies.  I've mentioned before our stash of weird dark chocolate flavors which normally I love.  Reid still thinks it's funny for him to be eating some and I'd prefer saltines.  Chocolate cake also seems equally as awful.  So instead of eating any myself on my birthday, I just brought chocolate cake to the market for everyone to eat for me. 

4.)  Anything I cook- Luckily this one is starting to get a lot better but for nearly a month I could hardly bring myself to coo,k much less eat, anything I made.  I am so thankful the worst of the nausea/funky food aversions happened during the slow time for the market, orders, etc. and the very worst week there also happened to be an ice/snow storm.  The rest of the time I would go by TPS on the way to Tignall and buy a Mexican coke (made with sugar and not high fructose corn syrup) in a glass bottle.  Alternating between water and sips of coke I could get through the cooking.

5.)  Reid's Sunday breakfast- This one is the worst for me!  One of my favorite times to spend with Reid is on Sunday.  Before, I would sip on coffee and watch him cook grits, eggs, bacon, etc. thinking how lucky I was.  Now that any of that food makes me feel a little sick, we're stuck with trying to have a relaxing morning over...granola bars?

6.)  Food I really liked the week before-  Another weird thing is that for a week or for a few meals, I'll really be craving something in particular and loving it.  Then all of a sudden it seems like the worst food in the world.  This has included pizza, orange juice, apple juice, Nekot peanut butter crackers and Talk of the Town's Hello Dollie turkey panini.  It happened briefly with this organic instant oatmeal (which I started eating due to the whole not liking anything I cooked thing), but now it's good again.

Foods that I haven't gotten tired of and cannot get enough of include fruit, ice cream, milk, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on twelve grain bagels and extra pickles on any sandwich I'm eating.  (But not on the PB&J or with the icecream).

BUT, I think the oddest part about the whole food aversion/craving thing though has got to be my very, very recent Pop-Tart habit.  It started the day I went to pick up antibiotics the ice/snow week.  I felt more miserable than I had ever felt and pretty much all food except for oranges and saltines seemed like a full on assault to my senses and my stomach.  Hot soup or any other good sick food seemed equally as horrible.  Until I went to CVS and passed a package of brown sugar and cinnamon Pop-Tarts.  All of a sudden I thought, "that actually does not sound I entirely horrible.  I went on to run another errand but the little toaster pastries still sounded good, which was a good thing because I hadn't really eaten but I needed to.  When I did get a box of them I definitely thought "What is wrong with me??" that I want processed breakfast pastries but good oatmeal makes me sick?

So for the next three weeks I ate nothing but Pop-Tarts for breakfast every single morning along with not a lot else during the day except for fruit, saltines, lots of water and the time I ordered a pizza from Mellow Mushroom and had Reid pick it up on his way home.  Between my first two doctors appointments I had lost 8 pounds.  I told Reid I was going to give up real nutrition for good and write "The Pop-Tart Diet." 

Luckily, I've been feeling better all around the past week or so and am finally okay with more variety again as well as eating a much better breakfast most days.  So while I'm glad the aversions toward EVERYTHING aren't as bad, the cravings are definitely starting.  As evidenced by Reid and I driving to Athens Friday afternoon just so I could get a ham sandwich.  It was so worth it.

-Kathryn