I feel like I have so many things to say… Some things I wrote on my wordpress blog (that I had for all of a week), but since I didn’t know how to transfer over, I’ll just repeat myself.
First, we have decided that I will stay home after I have the baby. I was pretty sure that I would stay home the rest of the semester (because I had so many issues with breastfeeding the last two times, I didn’t want anything to mess that up), but we’ve decided to make me an official stay at home mommy. It has been a bittersweet decision because I love my job, but I know that it is necessary for me to be able to take care of my family to the best of my ability; and, well, I feel like I’m being stretched thin right now and it’s only going to get worse. I am ready to be fully present when I’m here and not emotionally and mentally tied up in something else. It was also hard to turn down the amount of money that I make. But, money isn’t everything. We have found that the more we make, the more we spend. We have been so unorganized this semester (more than in a long time), and I’m looking forward to get back to doing things the right way.
Second, I’m so thankful… even though Robert works crazy hours during the summer and fall, he gets AMAZING holidays for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I am so excited because he is off November 22-30, then again December 17-31. I can hardly believe that he is going to be home with us that much. I really need to stop complaining during the summer because who else has that kind of holidays (besides teachers)?? I am SOOOOO looking forward to him having that time off. It is going to be amazing. We will (hopefully) be making a lot of our Christmas gifts this year, so that time will be helpful. Of course, many of those days are tied up in being out of town, etc, but we’ll still have plenty of time here (and just being together is all I want). We just need to get through the next 2 weeks because he only has one day off each of those weeks… but, we did it all summer, so I think we can handle it.
Third, I am now 25 weeks pregnant! Only 15 more weeks until my due date. It has been dragging, but now it’s starting to get close. Here is a picture of me from last week, at 24 weeks pregnant:
Fourth, this is little and silly to be excited about, but we got a Costco membership :). I was SO excited to go there and see all that they sell. I was very surprised. I don't know why we chose a Sam's membership before... Costco is so much better. They have many organic meats and other items that are in my price range (well, they are cheaper than "natural" meats at HEB). I was going to have to cut out some of those things with me staying home, but now I might not have to. I have been thinking through the changes that I will be making when I have this baby and stay home, and one of them is that we will have to cut out a lot of organic foods. My main goal will be organic animal products, and I will pick and choose everything else. I will have a little bit more time to shop at a few different stores if necessary, also, which actually does save (since most of them are in the same area-ish). My mom has told me that she will come to my house one day a week to help me (I'm SO thankful for her!), and I will just make that day my shopping day. Most likely I will take Levi with me, but I can handle one, easily!! :) I also plan to begin making most things from scratch again, and I hope to start making all of my cleaners and personal care products homemade again. I really hate chemically laden products, but natural products are just so expensive that we have to pick and choose... and we only use a few. If I'm making my own, it will be much cheaper. We'll see what happens with that. My goal is to choose a day over the holiday to spend making personal care products from scratch and see how it goes. I have found a great recipe recently for shampoo :). I hope that it works out!!
Fifth, we have made some changes inside and out of our home :). We like to move furniture around, and we do it several times a year :). We made our "living room" area actually a bit smaller, but it opened up the rest of the room. We've also changed things up outside and it has made it really enjoyable to sit outside now. Well, the beautiful weather helps too. It has been in the 70s and sunny every day. The outside is still a work in progress, but it's getting there. Just a little mowing/weed-eating and cleaning up some things, and it will be finished. We hope to get the kids a few outside things to play with/on for Christmas.
Here are some pictures of the inside:
(our biggest goal with moving the inside furniture was to take the tv out of the front entrance... it used to be right in front of you when you walked in!)
(our biggest goal with moving the inside furniture was to take the tv out of the front entrance... it used to be right in front of you when you walked in!)
Here are "before" pictures of the outside:
(there was a cedar post fence here but Robert took it out because it was rotting... which is why we added a new fence)
Here are "after" pictures of the outside:
(which, technically, we still have some work to do... but it's MUCH better!)
(which, technically, we still have some work to do... but it's MUCH better!)
Our biggest goal with changing up the outside is to lesson clutter and make things more simple. And, if we can't get to mowing/weed-eating the backyard, it won't be as visible :).
And sixth, I am thinking about starting a website (apart from my blog). If I decide to, I will let you know. :)
Anyway... sorry for the length of this post. I feel like it has been FOREVER since I've really written. I hope to pick up again with the holidays coming... we'll see. I still have many things that I would like to post about. I'll get there one day!
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