Superwoman! Or maybe just nesting.

My house is looking GOOD these days. Still a little cluttered; still less cute and decorated than I'd like. But clean? Definitely a drastic improvement from how it's been the last few months.

I've made myself a daily to-do list to try and help keep me motivated to keep it up, because honestly, it's hard. I am not someone who enjoys cleaning by nature, so even though I like the results, it's SO much easier to just sit in the recliner and do nothing. But, knowing myself, if I slack off too much, I'll fall right back into my old habits of letting my house look like crap all the time. It feels good, though, ticking off the chores on my list.

I have to admit, I feel a little bit like Superwoman when I think about all the stuff I've gotten done today (and on previous days). It's coming up on 4:00 pm as I write this, and so far I have:
-Made the bed
-Swept the hall and kitchen
-Done the dishes
-Cleaned old food out of the fridge
-Taken out the trash
-Vacuumed the bedroom
-Painted a layer of topcoat on two long dresser drawers

Someone suggested that I'm nesting. I kind of hope they're wrong. I want to believe that I've turned over a new leaf, and if it's nesting, then what happens when Little Boy gets here? Am I going to go back to being a cruddy housewife? I'm afraid I'm setting my expectations for myself a little high right now, and that I'm going to be really disappointed in myself when the dishes aren't done every night before bed, and the kitchen needs mopping, and the laundry piles up, and the bed doesn't get made the entire day.

Also, can I just say to the women of Sept. 2012: STOP HAVING BABIES ALREADY. Do you guys know how impatient I'm getting when you keep posting pics of your beautiful new children and I'm still sitting here, massively pregnant and uncomfortable and WEEKS away from my due date? Ugh. Stop that. Maybe I should go put my shoes on and walk around my neighborhood to try and encourage this baby to engage a little. I'll be 37 weeks on Sunday, "to term", and he can come any time after Monday without me being the least bit upset.

I'm so negligent...

So, I fail at life and haven't updated in forever. Not that much has been going on, but yeah...

I think that I've finally gotten the knack of being a housewife. I don't know what it was, but something just...clicked. For the last couple weeks, my house has been clean. All of it. (Well, my bathroom needs to be swept and mopped, but whatever.) It started with the kitchen. One day, I got it all clean, and just kept it that way. I've been sweeping when it needs swept, vacuuming when it needs it, keeping laundry done, etc etc. It feels really good, to be honest. Part of me is sort of afraid that I'll fall back into my old habits, but I haven't even been tempted so far. I think DH is thrilled to bits to come home to dinner cooked every night, a clean kitchen, laundry done and folded, and a happier wife.

This year's Jane Austen festival is coming up fast, and I'm excited! I'm a little worried about how I'll handle the heat, but there are a couple buildings that I know I can retreat to if I need to hang out in the air conditioning. I decided to see if my dress from last year would still fit, but I expected my belly to be way too big. Surprisingly, the belly wasn't the issue...my boobs were. I ripped out a couple of seams we had done in the bust last year, because it had been too big at the time. It gave me at least another inch of space, and it helped drastically! I'm going to make some other little adjustments, but it'll work. I'm such a nerd...any excuse to dress up in a cool costume, right? :p

We're finally getting a break from the heat around here. I never thought mid-80s would be "cool", but it's fantastic because our AC unit can actually keep up now. For this big ole pregnant girl, that is pure bliss. DH and I haven't been walking at night in a long time because it was still ridiculously hot even when the sun went down, but I need to start doing it again. Especially since I'm totally bad about sticking to my modified gestational diabetes diet...walking will help burn up some of those carbs so that it's not all just sitting there turning to sugar.

In pregnancy news, I'm about 30 weeks along now. Crazy to think that I'm this close to being done. Little boy is still pretty active, but I'm feeling more nudges and rolls now, instead of kicks and punches. I'm up about 20lbs, which feels weird but is totally normal so I'm trying not to be too self-conscious about it. Stretch marks are springing up all over the place, but not in the places that I expected them. I've got some on my love handles but none on my belly yet...I think they all decided to go for my legs and butt instead. It's weird, because I don't FEEL stretched out in those places. Here's my bump picture from Wednesday night.

"You're too big."

Yep...someone actually said that to me last night.

I don't get it. Why do people feel like they can say anything and everything to pregnant women? We still have feelings. We're still people. Just because we're growing someone doesn't mean that you can be critcal about our weight and we won't mind.

So, backstory. I have this really great maternity dress that I've waited a while to wear. Now that I have an actual bump, I decided it was time to go for it. I felt really confident and pretty dang attractive in that dress. I was milling around talking to people after church (visiting at my mom's congregation) and an old woman came up to me and informed me that I'm far too big for how far along I am. (Um, almost 5 months pregnant, and I've gained no more than 6 lbs at most. I think I'm fine.) I smiled and told her that I like my bump, but she insisted that I'm showing way too much and that I need to be careful. It really got under my skin. First of all, just because I'm pregnant, doesn't mean I'm not self-conscious about gaining weight. Secondly, I have virtually no control over how big the baby is right now. I'm eating fine and haven't gained a lot, so that belly is because the baby is growing. Urgh.

On a happy note, I have the prettiest wild roses growing in the hedge line at the back of my yard! They smell wonderful, and they're so tiny and delicate. My BIL is supposed to come spend the day/night with us tomorrow so I might cut a sprig of them and put them on the dining room table. (If I can get the table cleaned off. It tends to be our "pile junk here" spot.) I've been fairly busy today cleaning the front room, hanging some wall decorations, cleaning DH's desk (oy vey) but now I'm taking a break to ice my tailbone. Sacroiliac joint aches are a pain in the butt, hardy har.

I'm in a cleaning frenzy!

And you know why I'm in that cleaning frenzy? Because one of my friends is coming over to help me clean.

Yep. I'm that kinda girl.

My housekeeping skills have been lacking for a long, long time. I've never been one of those women who naturally enjoys keeping things in order. Don't get me wrong; I like for things to be clean, I just hate being the one who has to get them there. So my house has been on a downward spiral since I started working again. I basically wait until things are starting to look rough, and then I'm like, "Hm. I should probably clean that." Laundry? I'll just ignore it until I have no clean underwear left and then I'll throw in a load. Oh, and when it's done, I'll leave it in the dryer.

But this is where it's all gonna change. I put in my two weeks notice at work on Monday, so I'm going to be a housewife again as of March 6th. And I do not want to be the same kind of housewife I've been this entire time. My husband deserves so much more effort out of me. He works so many hours each week at a job he doesn't like that much, because he wants so badly to provide for our family as well as he can. All I have to do is clean, and I haven't been holding up my end of the bargain. So I'm going to clean this dang house. I'm going to KEEP the house clean once I get it there. I'm going to organize things (thanks, Pinterest!) and I'm going to keep a cookie jar stocked with freshly baked goodies. (Ok...maybe not.) I need to get into this habit before the baby gets here, or else I'm going to have a whole lot of adjusting to do at once. Also, I need to keep up with laundry better because we're planning to cloth diaper and that is going to be a WHOLE lot of work on its own, without having a ton of other laundry to catch up on, as well.

Wish me luck. It's hard to stay motivated.

My cats are killing me with grossness.

Let me preface this by saying that I love my cats. Really, I do. Most of the time. They can be so sweet and cuddly, and really funny with their crazy cat antics. But I think they want to kill me.

This pregnancy has been pretty low-key so far. Not experiencing terrible symptoms. However, the nausea has been increasing the last few days. Still manageable, but definitely more present. My cats seem to sense this, and are being as gentle and sensitive to my tummy as they can be. Right? Wrong.

I decided that since I have work this afternoon, I should probably wash my khakis. (They were covered in hair because I wore them while I cut DH's hair the other night.) I loaded up my little laundry basket, walked out to the washer...and froze in abject horror.

Poop. Everywhere.

The best I can figure it out, it went down like this. Someone (probably Suki) crawled in the litter box and did their business. Our cats are both terribly stupid and don't understand that they're supposed to kick the litter back over their completed business. They just leave it sitting on top. So, in her post-doody litter box romp, Suki stepped in her pile o' poo. She then jumped out of the litter box, and vigorously shook her poo-covered feet, creating dookie carnage the likes of which I have never before seen.

I mopped the main part of the mess, and used antibacterial wipes to scrub off the front of the washer. A Magic Eraser was needed to remove the excrement from the walls and doors. (Yep, I said doors. Plural.) There needs to be more mopping done, but my stomach cannot handle that at the moment. I texted DH and told him that I left the rest for him. He texted back to inform me that I could've left ALL of it for him...if only I had known that before I cleaned. (Actually, I think it would have bothered me more to leave all that poop everywhere.)

I also just got another text from DH informing me that the reason my car has been leaving a big, wet stain on the driveway is because there's apparently a leak in the oil pan. Which can't be repaired. They would have to replace the whole thing. Which will cost, according to this one shop, $450. We're going to get estimates from other places who will hopefully do it much cheaper, but I'm feeling rather sorry for myself. We are dealing with a lot of start-up fees from the midwife and other medical goings-on, and $450 is a lot to us right now. Sigh. Life goes on.

Photo update of my fur children!

I figured it was time for a photo update. Here's the fur kiddos...grey is Pippa, multi-colored is Suki. (Nerd points to whoever can name the animated series that the name Suki came from.)

They have really been a lot of fun so far, although definitely more work than I expected them to be. Suki will sit at the bedroom door and cry for several minutes if you don't let her in, which takes some serious tolerance. But I love them to bits, and I'm so glad we got them. They're good company.

New washer and dryer get here tomorrow.
Tomorrow is also the Summer Solstice. The sun will be at its highest point at 12:16pm. (Central time.)
Tomorrow is also my 22nd birthday. Happy birthday to me.

Butt whupping, via phantom symptoms.

Today has been surprisingly rough. This 2WW has been really kind to me, up until now. I guess this is payback for a few days of relative ease. For the last few days, I've had a lot of cramping on the lower left. Mild, slightly pinchy, but nothing too bad. But today, it morphed into something a little more agressive. It switched to both sides, and is a deeper, duller pain. I also started having tons of nausea today, which isn't unheard of for me in the 2WW. But this is a bit more potent than normal. I've been tired, a little cranky, and I think I have a sinus/ear infection starting. (Also all new today.) I'm hoping that these things end up being something good, but right now, I'm just uncomfortable. I'm debating testing in the morning. It'd be so exciting to get a BFP on Fathers' Day, but also incredibly disappointing to get a BFN. We'll see how my temps are in the morning and go from there.

DH and I are finally, finally going to get a washer and dryer! His grandmother decided that she'll buy both the washer and dryer for us, and we'll pay her back for the dryer. The set will be delivered and installed on Tuesday...which is my birthday. Happy birthday to me! I've wanted my own washer and dryer for a really, really long time, and these are so nice. (They're definitely mid-range, not the most fancy stuff, but they're a lot nicer than I expected to get.) Very much a blessing!

Happy Fathers' Day, y'all. Hope you have a father (or father figure) to celebrate! Mine's my FIL...he made waiting 20 years for a dad totally worth it.