The Countdown is On

I finally just added the widget to my sidebar of my pregnancy countdown.

It's obvious, from my lack of posts, that I have been a slacker blogger for this whole past year. I'm not making any promises for next year, but I hope to make it more of a priority.



So, anyway, my pregnancy is soon coming to an end, and really it wont' be any too soon for me. I just hit my 36 week mark, but compared to my other 4 pregnancies I feel like I am at 40 weeks. My belly is huge, my hands and feet are swelling like crazy and I lack motivation to do much, partly due to trying to keep the swelling down, the more active I am the more swollen I am, but if I sit to rest, I don't want to get up.

Thankfully my children have been great helpers lately. The boys are on dish duty and do a great job keeping the kitchen from mountains of dirty dishes. Charlie is learning to do a great job mopping the floors.  Friday we had a "clean the house" day and I made them badges to wear that held their chore cards so they could move their cards to the back of the badge as they finished.

example of badges we used

clips attached to the badges

They probably loved the badges so much because it is a new thing, we've never used them before, but it was great because the badges clipped to their shirt and on the back of the card that said the job I listed the steps of what was expected for that job to be complete.

For instance Tom was in charge of cleaning the patio. the steps were, pick up garbage, put the big toys in the garage, put the small toys in the toy bin, line up the bikes and toys with wheels.

Tom did a fabulous job and the patio looked great. The chore badges were very helpful in keeping the kids on task. I didn't have picture cards for the girls, so they just came and asked me what theirs said and then ran off to do it and came back to ask about the next one.

One thing I have been enjoying lately is sewing. So far the baby has a couple blankets and burp clothes, my next project is to make a nursing cover. Not knowing the gender of the baby has made it harder in choosing fabrics and such, but I found some fabulous fabrics that i made the rag quilt with.

The other children have benefited from my sewing marathon. They each got a new apron, which actually the boys helped make their own. And I made the girls towel wraps for Christmas which are great for them to wear after baths or after swimming.

Mostly I'm trying to keep myself distracted from wanting to have this pregnancy over now, and rather just enjoy these last few weeks before our lives are changed forever with the addition of a new little one. One thing I have to look forward to is my sister Susan coming to spent some time with us, before and after the baby is born. She will be here in two weeks and stay for almost a month.