Ninety-five Days

Or 13 weeks and 4 days.
Or 3 months.
However you want to look at it.....time is ticking!!!

I have many, many things I want to get done before the baby gets here. I KNOW. You don't have to talk me down this time. It will be fine if I don't get everything done. I know. I know.

BUT.

We went and got some frozen yogurt last week to celebrate keeping up with our daily Bible reading in the month of January.

I would feel really a whole lot better if my kitchen were organized. It has an organizational system, mind you. It's just that with all the help I have (gladly) received in the kitchen lately, things have been put away rather haphazardly. It just needs to be re-organized. Probably wouldn't take more than an hour to do.

And I would like to finish our room. Just little things like hanging some stuff on the walls, and getting some curtains up and well...clearing up the piles on the floor. That last one has to be done or there won't be room for the baby bed or dresser/changing table.

Which reminds me, I have to get a new dresser for Little Bit so baby can have hers.

Little Bit finally finished her plastic canvas project for our Keepers club!

But all of these plans are on hold until my parent's wedding anniversary reception is over. THEN, it will be GO! GET READY FOR BABY time.

And I have a few things to do for the reception like finish scanning pictures and get them all printed and put them on display boards (which I need to buy). And find something to wear. And get the present ready.

Sigh. Ten more days until that little event.

Carrie, I think I just decided. I don't have time for Physics!

But right now I'm off to start doing our taxes. Taxes trump kitchen re-organization. And baby prep. And definitely Physics.

It's good to get all that talked through. Thanks for listening.

The Blessing of Rain and My To Do List

Yes, we needed it, what with the drought and all. But that's not why the rain this weekend was such a blessing.

It's because when it rains like that, husband can't mow. Well, that might not be such a blessing for him because now he's all behind and his next Saturday will be really, really busy. But for me, we had him home all weekend and that was nice.

In between the rain, Little Bit made a swing for her new dollar store doll , dried her swing off, and had a lot of fun. :)

It was nice because he and Sweetheart ran some errands together. It was nice because he had time to get some paperwork ready so I can do our taxes. It was mostly nice because now our living room and kitchen are clean.

**Happy Sigh**

I cannot tell you what a difference it makes to my Monday morning to walk into this clean area of the house. I feel like the whole day will be better and I can get anything done.

Cluttery, messy rooms really can suck the energy right out of you before you even begin!

I recently downloaded the app Teux Deux after reading about it on Pioneer Woman's site. I really, really like this app. Whatever you don't cross off of your list automatically moves to the next day for you so you don't forget about it. Well, after a lot of not sleeping last week, my accumulated Saturday list was pretty long. But I did get some curtain liners in our window!

I will sew "real" curtains later but our blinds broke and we needed something in the window besides a sheet. Five dollars worth of muslin is much cheaper than new blinds! Maybe these will help block some light and cold/heat also when the new curtains are up.

Other things still on my list that I need to get done this week?

*Change cake order at bakery for anniversary party.
*Call doctor with insurance information.
*Pick up medicine at drugstore.
*Work on pillow for Sweetheart's room.
*Pile up giveaway stuff so friend can pick it up for her garage sale (to raise money for mission trip)
*Work on quilts.

That's just the stuff that's been rolling over on my list for the last few days. But when S asks, "What do you have going on tomorrow?" I usually just say, "School."

And let's face it, when school is done....some of that list is going to keep right on rolling over to tomorrow...and the next day...and the next....

Here's your pregnancy shot for the week (pre-curtain liner!):

Almost 6 months!

My Friday--What I Was Awake For Anyway

I had to set my alarm this morning because at 7:45 on the money I had to drink this:

...AND get to the doctor within the hour. And I remembered that even though I had the kids lay out their clothes the night before, we are SORELY lacking in get-out-of-the-house-early practice.

But we made it. And after I got my blood drawn, we drove to McDonald's because none of us, especially fasting Mama, had any breakfast. Then we had to drive to husband's work for him to sign a paper.

I managed to stay awake through what little school we had today. Fridays are our short days. And then by 11:45 Mama was in dreamland. I vaguely kept track of the girls: they are in the backyard. Now they are playing Mario on the Wii. Now I hear them inside.

I woke up a little after 1:00 but couldn't actually GET up until my sister rang the doorbell at 1:40. Good grief! I think it was a combination of 2 things:

1. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and decided instead of just laying there, I would be productive. So I got up a little after 4:00 and paid bills and updated the checkbook. I went back to bed about 5:30am. Husband's alarm started going off just after 6:00.

2. My sugar high crashed.

Ug. What a day. We ate "lunch" at 2:00.

I've read several posts today about making our homes lovely and our calling as homemakers. I WANT my home to look good. I'm tired of seeing it like it is. But I just cannot summon up the energy to do what needs to be done.

The girls have been excellent helpers. They have helped me keep up with the essentials. But I want LOVELINESS!! I know...I know. It will come.

And thankfully, it's the weekend!! No school or bill paying to worry about so I can surely get some "home things" done. Yay!!

The girls are happily playing with their dollar store dolls. It was what Sweetheart wanted more than anything for Christmas. Little Bit bought it for her and the normally $5 doll was on sale for $2.50. This week Little Bit decided she wanted one--different hair and clothes--and she had the money. She got it today on sale for $4. They are happy and playing. Do you know how happy it makes me that they are content and pleased with dollar store dolls?

Off to sigh at my house a few more minutes and then maybe get up and do something about it.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Chance to Do Everything Differently

I have one of the older kids among my friends. Sweetheart is usually one of the oldest when we get together with many of our family friends. I guess that would be because S and I are older than a lot of our friends. Hmm.

Anyway, just because we started before a lot of our friends doesn't necessarily mean we have more parenting experience. I consider someone with 3+ kids to have more experience than me because I only have 2 kids. Do you see how that works? If you've been through it more times than me, you have more experience even if I've been at it longer. And anyone with kids older than mine certainly has more experience in my opinion.

While on maternity leave with Little Bit, I had a chance to go with four year old Sweetheart (right) on her preschool field trip.

But we've had 8 years to re-think a lot of things. I wasn't sure we would ever have another (even though I sure hoped we would) but you still find yourself thinking about things. Things I never even considered when mine were little (like cloth diapering), I've had a chance to think about now. (I'm still not going to do it. :)

The thing is, my life is VASTLY different than it was in 2003 when Little Bit was born or goodness sake in 1999 when Sweetheart came on the scene! I was a full-time working mom back then. We had a nice house that wasn't ever very clean (OK not everything has changed), a boat, 2 jobs, debt, daycare/babysitters to pay, etc. Now I'm a full-time Mom and homemaker. We homeschool. We live in a smaller (read: cozy), older home. We have some debt, but nothing like we used to. I take care of my own children. I have time to help my husband. Things have changed!

Baby Little Bit

And as a result, my parenting can be so different this time! I don't have to worry about waking up in time on Monday morning while I'm in the hospital after giving birth so I can call in my maternity leave. I don't have to deal with disability paperwork or FMLA, or long-term subs. I don't have to find a babysitter or daycare. I don't have to count down every single day of my maternity leave or hide my work ID in my dresser drawer so I don't have to think about returning. I don't have to pump 3 times a day at work. I don't have to pack and re-pack a diaper bag every night. I don't have to wake up a sleeping child at 6:00am so I can get to work on time.

When this baby is born, hopefully, I'll just.....bring her home. And be her Mom. Oh! It will be such a blessing!!

My babies--fresh from the bath. 

And so I find myself researching making my own baby food, and thinking about how many toys a child needs, and considering what needs to be done to baby-proof around here (we need to stop leaving scissors laying around!), and how long I'd like to nurse, and all kinds of things. Life is different and I have a chance to do things differently!

So blessed! Thank you, Lord!

Zombie Mothering

That's what I've been doing. Stumbling around like a sleep-deprived zombie teaching my children and doing housework. Somehow, we've gotten some stuff done and somehow, they are learning.

The girls are SO helpful around the house too. We've really gotten to a point when I can ask them to do something and they just bang it out. "Can y'all pick up the living room?" 4 minutes later....done. No complaining. They do everything fast so they can go play and that may not be the best thing but at this point in my life it works for me. I asked them to both help me clean up the very nasty kitchen last night and we were done really quickly. At 12 and 8 they can just do SO much.

Sweetheart made us blueberry pancakes last week for breakfast!

By the way, I re-read this last night. I just love Auntie Leila posts. I love how she talks. This one is great too.

But it makes me think of what all they could do that Mama won't/can't/doesn't-care-to-try to do right now. Like baseboards, for example. That's the kind of job I pay for. Keeping their room and their stuff picked up is a non-issue. I will not pay you for that. It's your job. But other jobs that Mama doesn't want to do herself but sure would be nice if someone would do them....that I'll pay for. (I do it all in 25 cent denominations--small jobs=.25 Medium jobs=.50-.75 Big jobs=$1.00) Wiping those baseboards down around the house is no big deal for their young selves. But for a 5 months pregnant 41 year old mom? Well it's going to take a lot more than some quarters to motivate me!

Little Bit helping cook at our Keepers at Home meeting.

And little bitty jobs like that really add up! Usually when I say "pick up the living room" I just mean get the stuff out of the middle of the floor and clean the couch off. But the details make a real difference. Twenty-five cents for someone to re-fold all the blankets that are currently piled in the blanket box in a mountainesque fashion. Fifty cents for someone to take the vacuum attachment around the edge of the room. These things matter. They really make the room look different. And the kids can get these little jobs done so fast and earn quarters right away. Instant loveliness and instant gratification. Win-win.

As for school, we did that in my bed yesterday. It was a nice change of pace. Reading, writing, and math is  mostly what I'm worrying about right now. If we get other stuff done--great! (and we do--several times a week but NOT every day) I realize we have about 3 months more of real school. I imagine in May nothing is going to happen so we're just plugging along trying to get what we can done.

Part of bed-school yesterday we spent finishing their plastic canvas bookmarks. 

Meals have been the worst. I haven't been to the grocery store yet this week because I've had other errands/things to do every day and I only have so much energy. Grocery shopping is one of those THIS IS JUST ABOUT THE ONLY THING YOU WILL GET DONE TODAY kind of things. Anyway, I ran to the store yesterday during our errands and bought ingredients for supper but when we got home, had no energy to cook. So, we went out again. Sigh. I don't even want to think about how much money we have wasted at restaurants since I've been pregnant, but at the same time I'm grateful. Still, this is one area I plan to do better in.

I don't know, reading Auntie Leila's posts has made me realize it's time to worry about basics and quit trying to live life like we did before I was pregnant. It's a season and things need to be different right now.

Meals
Laundry
School

These things matter and need to be at the top of the list. My girls need to continue helping more than they usually do. And I need to plan ahead and pace myself.

Any suggestions on making life simpler while you are pregnant?