nesting

So, I think I have officially started nesting. Creditial #1: Overwhelming feeling that we only have 13 weeks left until baby arrives? Check. Creditial #2: constant cleaning and obsession with having absolutely NO dirty dishes in the sink? Check. Creditial #3: Worrying about dust mites and the invisible lives they are leading in our bedding? Check. Ok, I'm there. Now that Jason has finished all but one of his licensure tests, we are off and running on preparing the house for baby. Of course, his desire to fix up the house is not nesting (or so he says :) I'm pretty sure we are both nesting.

Project #1: Remove all books from upstairs so we have room for our bedroom. Words cannot describe how many books we own, so I took a picture. There are even more at my work!! Our dining room table is 6-foot by 6-foot square and every square inch is covered with piles of books and each pile has 15 books or more!! That's a lot of books. We know they are worth a lot of money and want to insure them but that means creating a spreadsheet of all the books, what they cost, ISBN numbers, etc. etc. It took me one hour to do 100 books last night so I'm thinking it will take about 10 hours to do all of them!! It will be worth it in the end as our new bedroom will not be laden with dust-covered books!! YEA!

As we're going through this process, we are coming across many old memories. For example, I found my wedding planner book. Pictures of bridesmaids dresses, bridal registries, photographer contracts, hotel room reservations, etc. There was also a section called "coupons" with a little envelope in which to place coupons. Apparently, I didn't know that was supposed to be for wedding-related coupons. Anyone need coupons for mac and cheese that expired in 2000? That made me laugh out loud! Of course, I recycled the pile of about 100 coupons. I'm hilarious!

Memories. I'm excited about the memories we are going to create with our new little baby. First walks, first talks, first explosive diapers that go clear up the baby's back...so many things to look forward to! :) This pregnancy has gone so fast I can't even believe it. Only 13 weeks to go until Baby W is born. I am so in love with this baby I can hardly stand it. I wonder what traits Baby will get from me and which traits Baby will get from Jason. I hope that Baby gets my sense of humor and Jason's eyes (I wanted to say "Jason's butt" instead of "Jason's eyes" but I thought that would be inappropriate---oops, I said it anyways!!). I hope that Baby gets Jason's calmness and my compassion. Honestly, I just hope we don't do anything damaging. But, when we do, because we will, I hope that we are compassionate with ourselves and reach out for help when we need it. We live in a society that tends towards high expectations. But, what I know from my friends who are parents is this: we will mess up, we will not be perfect, we will do our best, and we will still fail at times. What I know for sure is this: God is with us, God is with this baby, God has already made plans for this baby's life. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11 Thank GOD for that.

So, I started with a picture of books and I've ended with a picture of life. The life that God has set forth for each of us. Takes some of the pressure off to know that He is in control and I just need to follow His lead.

Here's to following...