Good

Life has been full lately. Full of preparations -- of our home and ourselves for this baby, preparations to step away from work for two months, preparations for camp I won't attend but which has held my heart for three years now. It has been full of meetings and farmers markets and hanging out with friends as we reflect on all the ways life will change in just a few days. There have been naps and movies and popcorn and trips to baby stores and appointments. There have been countless prayers for this new little person and for the new intentional community that has gathered for a month now -- both things about which we are super excited and whose paths seem a bit mysterious at this point. Life has been full and it has been good.

Hanging out in Portland with Eliser and his friend, Jorge, who came to visit from Tecate.

With Freya and Kayleigh, who both love Mat's homemade horsey so much!

We got to hang out for a morning -- just me and Kayleigh Bea.

Max's graduation party, where he showed off his I love Calculus creation.

Eric with Gerry, an excellent mentor and great friend.

Freya loves ice cream. And we all love Sweet Tomatoes!!

Hanging out in the backyard with some new friends and growing community. A huge gift.

The growing baby and the growing belly. We marvel daily and how big they both are!

Hmm... a sign that it is time to stop washing and start folding.

We met up last week with Ben and Claudia, who were Eric's mentors and supervisors during his many years at Twinlow Camp in North Idaho. They are back in the northwest after some years in Illinois and it was great to reconnect!

Our trip to Salem for Annual Conference included a wonderful visit from Justin and Lil, who made their yearly drive from Chico, CA to northcentral Washington so Lil could start her summer work with Outward Bound. We may or may not have visited Marco Polo three times over the weekend.

Justin found a suit for their wedding!! I hope this isn't supposed to be secret.

Have I mentioned that they are getting married? In the redwoods of Humboldt County on the first day of October? And that I will officiate? We are so happy and I think they are, too.

Back home, it finally got summery for a day. Eric set up his home office in the backyard.

My wonderful midwives at Alma Midwifery after our appointment this week. I'm 39 and a half weeks, so my next weekly appointment is scheduled for after my due date! Crazy! This baby could decide to show up at any time!

And here is the view from the room we are preparing for my mom, who will arrive from Michigan tomorrow and stay for three weeks. I'm so excited!

Walk There: Ardenwald and Johnson Creek + Rood Bridge

On a cool sunny day a few weeks back, we walked along Johnson Creek, which traces the boundary between Portland and Milwaukie. After passing through a lovely wildlife area, we turned around at this bridge. We think that this path connects with the waterfront path that follows the Willamette to downtown Portland and beyond. It would be fun to ride it sometime.

We left the path and walked through a neighborhood, stopping in this schoolyard to eat our sammies (and check voicemail).

The next week, on our anniversary, we headed to Rood Bridge Park, which looked interesting when we discovered it online. It has a nice park-y picnic and play area close to the main road, but also has some hiking and biking trails that wind through quite a few acres of forest.





We'd love to come back and ride here once I have my normal center of gravity back.


And we ended the day with milkshakes at Burgerville. Fresh strawberries are in -- my favorite of all the Burgerville seasonal specials!

It's wonderful to have so many green places nearby to wander.

The city of our baby's birth

At least that's the plan! We've been spending a good amount of time in Portland as we prepare for the arrival of Lil Miric to the outside world. This is the Alma Midwifery birth center, where we've received wonderful, personal care by our team of three midwives. Inside this old house are gorgeously finished birthing rooms with unique woodwork and huge tubs. You can see some of the rooms here (their newest one is almost ready and isn't yet on the page).

This is the Alma meeting space a few blocks away where we took our childbirth class and where I've attended summer mama groups and taken a breastfeeding class.

Across the street from the meeting space:

This is the neighborhood around the birth center.

These two are in front of the Metanoia Peace House, where Eric and I have been gathering with folks monthly to dream about new ways of engaging in intentional community in the Portland area. One of us always comments about how lush it is here and how amazing it is that this is "inner-city" Portland. And then we always get this Flight of the Conchords song in our head.

Last time we visited, we were surprised by some clucking hens that were nestled in under some bushes just behind where we stood when this picture was taken.

This one is technically taken across the river from Portland in Vancouver, but it seemed fitting to include it here. After one of our appointments with our midwives, we headed to Cotton Babies, a cloth diaper wonderland and natural parenting store where we purchased our car seat and got to try out some wraps and carriers with a weighted doll. They do lots of their business online, but we are lucky enough to have one of only three national stores near us!

Goodness

Ann, Brody, Mike and Emerson came down for our Lil' Miric celebration and we made the most out of their short visit, though we were bummed that Tanya couldn't make it. There are good and bad things about having a job, no? We wandered around the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, hung out at a cool coffee shop, climbed on a fun play structure, then met some of Mike and Tanya's good friends for dinner.

Marnie, Scott and "Baby" Foster, who used to live in Spokane but just moved to the Portland area from Texas, joined us at a local brewery for some great food.

And Em provided the entertainment. She danced in the aisle, made faces and did every cute thing she knows to make Foster smile, and she was quite successful.


The next day, the out-of-town Conklins headed north after church and I got to experience another lovely shower, this time with the wonderful women of Hillsboro UMC. And then we had a whole bunch of friends over for dinner that night. It was a packed weekend, but a great one!

Loved

A few weeks back, Leah and Emily threw us a shower at our place, and we had such a wonderful time visiting with friends and family, eating delicious food, and seeing folks we love meet and get to know one another better. It was a nice enough day to hang out in the backyard until the wind picked up.

I took very few pictures because I was enjoying being with people so much, but Leah got some good ones that she'll be sending me, I think.

Ron, Cathy, and Eliser enjoying the spread:

We moved inside and got cozy for the gift opening and Eric volunteered himself for the tradition I got to experience at our previous shower. Before opening each gift, he guessed who the giver was, and a wrong guess meant that the giver could make a mark on his face with lipstick. A correct answer allowed him to mark the giver's face. He looks good in hot pink, no?

Some of our dear circle:

Nearly all the Conklins ended the night with a little something to show for it:

I can't express how incredibly loved we felt that night and how grateful we are for the wonderful communities into which this baby will be born.