Pool and a Birthday

  A few days ago, our pool looked like this...

 But after much hard work from Kevin, and some help from the kids, today it looks like...

THIS!

The winter cover is off, the solar cover is on. The water is blue instead of green.  The water is still murky, but progress is being made.

It is COLD!  Like in the 60's.  But with the solar cover on, and some sunshine in the forecast, it should come up quickly.

We celebrated Daniel's birthday this weekend.  He turned 2 this week!

2 year olds don't care a lot about presents, but we did buy him a cow plush toy that makes a "mooing" sound when he presses the stomach. Daniel loves cows.  He often wants to go outside and listen for mooing, as one time in the last week he and Kevin were able to hear a cow mooing from a neighbor farm.

Here is our precious boy with a mound of stuffed animals.  He got up tired and just needed a little time relaxing on the floor.

In other news, we're about 3 weeks off from having this baby.  Wow.

I'm feeling excited but also anxious.  I don't like the physical weakness after a C-section, and Daniel has been extra clingy the last week or so.  He is very "mommy centered" right now and I'm concerned he'll have a hard time when Little Miss is born and I can't lift him for 2 months. Please pray he adjusts well.

But of course I am also very excited we'll be meeting our sweet girl face to face, very soon!

2 this week...

Our little man turns 2 this week.  Isn't he a sweetie?  He is a handsome, charming little fellow and, as I've said in previous posts, a real handful.

Today he stunned me and I don't stun easily with 7 previous toddlers under my belt (so to speak.)

I was reading a book to Sarah in her room, and had sensible removed the ladder from the bunk bed so that Daniel couldn't climb up it onto the top bunk where Angela sleeps.  So he climbed up the end of the lower bunk, grabbed the upper bunk, lifted himself up, and climbed over the edge onto the top bunk. So he managed to climb to the top bunk without a ladder. I was right there, I saw it, and still can hardly believe he was able to do it at the tender age of (almost) 2.

Like Gold!

It is funny the things that excite me these days:

Our chickens have been laying well and we've been low on egg containers.  Not any more!  :-)

And A River Ran Through It

2 nights ago, we got totally, completely, deluged with rain.

It really was impressive!

This is the view out our sun room.

Someone posted on Facebook that their rain gauge measured 5.5 inches of rain!

I don't know if we got that much, but it poured hard for a couple of hours so we at least got a couple of inches.

Not for the first time, we were super thankful we live on a hill.  We have never had flooding in the basement.  Obviously, we had plenty of water pouring into our back yard but it was harmless pouring -- our chickens were fine.

We took cover in the basement for at least an hour as the winds were fierce.  That would have been fine except that it was past Daniel's bed time. I have observed that the Little Lad has a fiercer desire (even than usual) to climb on things when he is tired.  So he climbed in the basement...on the furniture, on a book shelf, and even stood (wobbling) on the foosball table before I pulled him down.

He is a dear child, but very tiring.

We didn't lose power so all was well with us.  A friend had flooding in her basement and much of her art work was ruined, which was sad.

Today was beautiful and all was back to normal out back.

TRULY Giant Egg

Scary.  Thankfully, no chicken died in the making of that egg.

A Little Sick...

So I have a cold.  I think I have a decent immune system as I don't get sick all that often, and I'm feeling a tad grumpy about this cold but...it isn't anything too terrible. I just need to wait it out.

Headache, sore throat, congestion, nosebleeds...ah well, life happens.

I am taking things very easily. Kevin very graciously took time off from work yesterday to run our 2 youngest children to an eye doctor appointment. Both Sarah and Daniel are far sighted and in glasses.  Sarah's eyes, in particular, are very bad.  Without her glasses, she crosses her eyes trying to focus.  So we thought it important to have her eyes checked now instead of waiting a few months 'til after the baby is born.  The results were encouraging. She isn't showing any signs of amblyopia (which is a possibility because one eye is worse than the other and she has an astigmatism.)  Both of the children are seeing quite well with glasses, praise the Lord.  Kevin picked out new frames for their new glasses and I'll post a pic after they come in.

I went to an OB appointment yesterday. Everything looks good.  I am so thankful I've never had blood pressure issues. My blood sugars have been decent -- maybe a tad higher now that I am sick, but decent.  I'm doing fine.

I weighed 168 lbs. yesterday, so have gained about 33 lbs already. Usually I plateau at around 36 weeks and I'm 35 weeks, so I probably won't quite hit 170.  Kevin and I joke that I try to catch up with him during pregnancy and never quite make it.  He is around 175 lbs.

I pegged out at 173 lbs with Daniel, and he was our biggest baby. I'm not expecting Little Girl to be over 7 lb, but I hope she is at least 6 lb. Naomi and Angela were under 6 lb.

I have less than a month before I'm supposed to have this baby.  Wow.  Well, yes, it'll be less than a month.  In some ways, that is hard to believe. I hope to make it at least 38 weeks and at 39 weeks, we'll have the planned C-section.

Lots of people have said, "Wow, this pregnancy went fast!" and you know, it did! 

I am really looking forward to meeting our sweet girl face to face. I'm also stressed about the post partum period, when I won't be able to lift anyone but the baby and when I will be recovering from fairly major surgery. I am SO thankful for big kids who can help a lot, but I'm a "doer" and it isn't easy for me to step back. I've already had to depend a lot on Kevin and the big kids. Kevin has been doing all the grocery shopping and the vast majority of the errands.  The kids are doing most of the housework these days.  I am sort of the brains behind housework in that I direct my troops.  I guess I'm the General. But my nature is to be in the trenches helping more.  But the baby needs me to be resting and taking care of me and her, and I am.

One Month to Go!