Random Bits

We are getting a huge storm here right now... thunder, wind, rain. It is supposed to blow through quickly though. Hoping that holds to be true - last week, we had such a bad storm one night that 13 pine trees were uprooted in a field right near where Chris works! Time to get our bad pine tree taken down in our backyard...

The girls found tons of inchworms in the yard the other day - they are literally everywhere. They must have had 40 or more of them in this yellow bucket!

This was the biggest... most were really tiny. They kept the girls occupied for a long time!

I am feeling more baby taps and flutters, especially in the evening when I am leaning back and still and quiet. We have an ultrasound on Thursday and will hopefully find out if this is a boy or a girl! Lately, I am becoming sure it is a girl. At first, I was so sure it must be a boy because I just felt differently than I did with the girls... but I am now kind of mentally preparing for another girl, because, well, that's how it has always been so far, right? ;) Either way will be fun and,

really, either way will be a surprise still, because I can't say I am totally, 100% convinced that it's a girl. At church this weekend, two people were able to tell I was pregnant, and today our next door neighbor noticed and commented. I talked to our other next door neighbor, and she either didn't notice or didn't feel like she should comment yet in case I was just getting fat. ;) So I guess it is now getting to be pretty obvious, as nobody said anything before this weekend. And i got to see an adorable four week old baby girl at La Leche League this morning, and another mom who is due in three weeks, so my brain is gearing up for all that newborn-ness that will be coming before we know it! Several people have said, "Wow, September isn't too far off!" Five months seems like a long time away, but yeah, it will creep up on me... so I have been ordering homeschooling materials to try to plan for next year. If only I would get my Amazon gift card code in the mail so I can buy everything that is piled up in my shopping cart!

Caroline made this for Cecilia. She made her another one recently that said something like, "I love yu even when you hit me and pull my hair." She really, really wants Cecilia to like her, and she understands the importance of forgiveness in this. And Cecilia, well, she's three, so she is starting to grasp concepts like "hitting hurts" and "we don't hurt people in our family." :)

Our church had an event on Saturday called the Princess Ball, a dance for dads and daughters. It was from 7-9, and since Cecilia wakes up at 7 am and doesn't take a nap, she had to miss out this year... maybe next year. Caroline and Chris went and he said she had a great time dancing around with all the other little girls there. They got cupcakes and punch, and she brought home a balloon.

Spring Cleaning is slowly underway here... I am having this early nesting instinct that comes in random spurts. One week, I dusted the built-in shelving in our den and everything on the shelves, re-organized some of it... then I started on the window-cleaning last week, but it is slow going. It's hard to get motivated about the labor involved there, especially when I encounter little spots that don't want to come off and then the windows don't look noticeably different at a glance after I clean them. So far, I have done four. Four of 20something?? Then yesterday, I took everything out of my closet and my dresser drawers - everything! I sorted through it all and filled up four paper grocery bags of stuff to donate, so that stuff didn't even go back in the closet. I filled up one large kitchen trash bag of clothes that were stained or discolored and stretched out, stuff that had just been shoved to the back of the closet... like a pair of Airwalks I wore in high school/collage that had holes in the heels... why did I still have those? To wear while painting?? But I did keep...

...the ugly shirt (photo circa 2000).

Just try to picture it without the mud on it... it has been through a lot. It also got nail polish spilled all over it, which my mom successfully removed by soaking it in diluted nail polish remover. That shirt is tough. And ugly, my husband says. And I think my brothers all said it was ugly, too... but I loved it, and still do. And so I kept it. It has a history. But I still did manage to donate all the things I will absolutely never wear again because they don't fit, or because 31 year old mothers in 2011 don't wear them (like overalls... unless they work on a farm, I suppose). And then, I promptly refilled every hanger I had emptied... with maternity clothes. Oh well, at least those won't be in there forever, as they will return to their storage box this fall... and then it will actually look like I have made a dent in culling my clothing collection!