Time

Thanks for all of your name suggestions. We'll have to get pretty serious soon and find a name for this little guy, and maybe it'll be one of the names you guys suggested!

Things are really starting to pick up at work, which means I am going to four full days for the next few weeks, getting ready for maternity leave. I'm hoping to get much of it done this month, in case baby comes early, or in case my energy level plummets. Please be praying that my energy level stays high enough for this task, in addition to taking care of e and preparing for babe.

Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day. Or I'm not efficient or organized enough to get it all done. We've been on the go so much during the week, that I've recently declared Friday as a day for e and I to be home, enjoy each other, and keep my house in order. Thank God it's small right now!

Good Things and Baby Names

Spring still hasn't come, so I'm posting another photo of what makes me think of spring. The sun is out today, so that means E and I will get outside for a little bit... she's been asking to go out quite a bit lately. I think we're all getting cabin fever.

So to keep our mind on the positive, here are some good things in our lives:

Good Thing #1: using our cash budgeting system for groceries went pretty well this month. I did aim a little low (and I knew this), but surprising, I only went over by $40, when we budgeted $100 less than previous months. This system certainly made more aware of what we were buying/spending, and obviously it seemed to work.

Good Thing #2: L was sweet enough to let me have an afternoon by myself, even after working some ridiculous hours over the week. He was also kind enough to put a chicken in crockpot, and vacuum for me.

Good Thing #3: E is learning so much, and growing leaps and bounds. She's talking so much now - combining a lot more words, counting well, distinguishing colors well, and becoming more and more of a Daddy's girl. I love this kiddo. She's going to be two in a couple of weeks, so you'll hear lots about her soon. :)

Good Thing #4: Tax refund, bonuses, and a raise. God has been so good to us.

Good Thing #5: A short work day. Love it.

Now onto the topic that is boggling my mind: baby names. Oh my word, it's ridiculous. I had a lengthy list of girl names that I liked. Boy names not so much. Nothing is clicking with us enough. There's a fine line between different and weird, and with boy names, it seems to be a finer line?

Anyone have any name suggestions? Come on... help a tired pregnant woman out. :)

A Spring Birth

I'm having spring fever, and will be posting pictures that remind me of spring until this fever passes (or spring actually comes!). Streams of sunshine always make me happy - I love mornings that start out with them!

I've been reading a couple of books about birth and pregnancy that I found in the library. One is Birthing From Within (which is what I'm reading now), and also Guide to Childbirth. I had a pretty decent birth with E, had a great experience with the hospital we birthed in. Though my intention was go to all natural (isn't that the general desire?), about an hour before pushing, I decided to take stadol, which I would not recommend to anyone. I felt very disoriented, and never felt the desire to push, which made the process take even longer.

They gave me the option of an IV, which would have been stronger, but IVs scare me (and so do epidurals, no matter what people tell me). I do find it strange that birthing a child doesn't scare me as much as needles do. In any case, they gave me a shot in the leg, and it only took the edge off of the pain (I still felt a ton a ton). So, in my opinion, it didn't really do much other make me feel drugged.

Personally, I feel like my mind hindered me from doing the birth naturally. It's hard to explain, and everyone's birth experience is so different, but for me, that's how I've processed my delivery of E. I went into the birth, freaking myself out in a lot of ways. I'm hoping that this birth will be a little different, as I do know what to expect a bit more.

Also, my birthing class did very little in preparing me for the mental aspect of childbirth. In fact, it might have aided in scaring me just that much more... but it probably didn't take much to do that. :)

Still in the end, I had a beautiful healthy little girl, and a complication-free birth, which is more than what some others experienced. I'm very very thankful for that.

To Buy or Not to Buy

Well since we're expecting another baby, we've started thinking about buying a house. This is supposed to be a great time to buy, right? We've spent some Saturdays touring homes, speaking with our realtor (who's also our landlord) about the local market, and looking at our finances/seeing what we qualify for.

Our credit is really strong, we don't have another house to sell (thank God), we have a fair bit of savings considering we paid cash for our vehicle a few months ago. Still we just don't feel like we're ready to buy, despite what a lot of people keep telling us.

I think Dave's getting into my head. He suggests that you don't buy a house until you have your debt paid off, and have three to six months of savings. We've always been a fan of Dave, but I'm starting to realize how wise his advice really is.

Now we're not following the order of his baby steps, but certainly understand his reasoning for it. We have some of my student loans to pay for, but instead have focused all of our "extra" money on building a down payment. This was wise, in my opinion, since both cars broke at the same time, and drained some of our savings when we decided to buy a more reliable vehicle. I'm glad we had that money - otherwise we would have had to taken a loan.

We've decided to save x amount for a down payment, and will have that once we get L's bonus (praise God for this). We will then focus on saving three to six months worth of expenses, especially in this volatile economy. Once that is done, we will then discuss whether we want to buy a house or focus on paying off the rest of my student loans.

Dave has often referred to renting as "patience money", and that's exactly what it is. It's not an ideal situation, and it's not supposed to be for forever. Still, if a couple of years of living in an less than ideal place results in a better place financially, and a house that we really enjoy, then it's worth it in our opinion.

For those dealing with "house fever", read this blog from Simple Mom. It calms me pretty quickly. :)

What Do You Do?

I'm hoping the winter storm that we're supposed to get over the next couple days doesn't come, and we only have sunshine. It could happen, right?

Things have been busy around here, but going well. It seems that we have something going every day which is nice, but also a little tiring. My energy level seems to be okay so far, so I'm thankful for that.

The past couple of days I've been able to get quite a bit done in the evenings, and so it's been great having the extra energy to do it, since we're busy during the day. We've been eating salads for dinner (very filling salads), and honestly, I feel so much cleaner, for lack of a better word. We ate A LOT of salad over the summer, thanks to our CSA, and it made such a difference in our energy levels.

I miss farmer's markets and the freshest of foods. Uncooked fruits and veggies just make me feel so much better, and we need to incorporate them in our diet more and more.

I'm wondering this: what do you guys put in your salads? I feel like I need to branch out and be more creative so we don't get bored with them. And also, what sort of dressing do you make/use? That's another rut we seem to get stuck in.

Thanks!

Project Connect 2009

Project Connect welcomed over 700 people over the course of the day. I knew it was going to be full as soon as I pulled into the parking lot and couldn't find a spot to park... and that was before the event even started.

I was taking part of the children section - answering questions about services in the area, discussing development, and of course, playing with kiddos. Our section gave away books, diapers, trucks, sippy cups. The point of the event was to provide free services, while answering any questions residents had on pretty much anything.

This was a pretty great event in which the community really pulled together to support each other. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. :)

Of course I forgot my camera, so I didn't take any photos to post here. In any case, here is an article from our local paper discussing the event:

http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2009/02/06/news/doc498c430890196573436054.txt

Let's Talk Baby Stuff

Well now that we're inching closer to our third trimester of pregnancy, I've been trying to find some second hand items that we're in need of for the babe. I've been going through some our baby items and seeing what we have and what we'll need.

First up: diapers. We had mostly what we needed, but I have some girly dipes that I got for a steal online, which won't really work for a little guy. So, I found an amazing local diaper lot for a pretty reasonable price, and these will grow with the kiddo.

Let me say this: I love cloth diapers. And I love bargains even more. And for some reason having this diaper lot makes me breathe easier about baby coming.

Also, one of the other necessities in life is clothing. This is pretty easy. A local thrift store is doing half off all clothing this week. Yes, I stocked up. Baby clothing should not be expensive.

I feel like we have everything else that we really need. Maybe a couple of things here and there that we'll be on the look out for at thift shops or garage sales.

As far as emotionally readiness, I'm not sure you ever get there. E challenged me in ways I wasn't expecting, which was frustrating at first, but have since relaxed. I don't care if this kiddo would rather take his thumb than a pacifier (like E), or would rather co-sleep than sleep anywhere else (like E), or would prefer a cup to a bottle at an oddly young (in my opinion) age (also like E). And no, I don't even mind if this kiddo wants to breastfeed longer than I want to (also like E).

I'm trying to let go of all expectations, and look forward to seeing this little guy's own little personality shine through, and enjoy him. Makes life a little easier and more pleasant for everyone, I think.

With that said, any moms of more than one kiddo have advice for me? I'm assuming it's a learning curve just like with the first, yes?