Dare to blog?

Erick isn't home from work yet (had to drive to Charelston, SC and back), so I'm home, alone, and I've read all the huff post, drudge report, and other news sources (I like to be well rounded!) that I'm going to read, the kids have LONG been in bed, and the kitchen has LONG been clean.  For some reason when I know Erick isn't going to be home, I am super efficient about getting stuff done because I'm worried that I'll get too tired if I put it off, and I am really pregnant...so yeah.  Anyways, so now I look very pregnant.  Any time I go out into public, at least 10 strangers feel the need to comment, sometimes even more.  I asked Erick why he thought this was so and he said it's because a lot of times people are not very sure if someone is pregnant or just a little overweight, but when they see this skinny lady with an enormous belly, they feel very confident that yes, I am pregnant, and like to say all the things they would say to all of those pregnant ladies...blah blah blah.  I kind of think this is true.  A week ago the cashier at Aldi actually physically poked me and asked how much longer I had to go.  I thought that was crossing the line a little.  Come on, look but don't touch!  Here are some of the comments I have received from complete strangers in the last week:

"Wow, ANOTHER baby!!! You already have two!!!"  "Actually, this will be number four, thank you, I have one at school."  "oh my!"

"Oh, this little guy (Cash) isn't going to be the baby anymore!  I bet he won't like that!"  Huh, I guess we'll find out.

"Is it a boy or girl"  "boy"  "oh, he'll be a great big brother"   "that's what I'm hoping for!!!"

"Oh, I love children, I hope you're enjoying it!"  "Don't worry, I am"  What do you say to that???

"Oh, is it a boy or girl?"  "Boy"  "Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior?"  "Um, yes, don't worry, we're good"  Walk away quickly.

And repeat, repeat, repeat (except that last one.  It was a one-timer).

Also, I have been nesting like crazy.  About a month ago I was blessed with an AMAZING amount of energy, and I worked as hard as I could every single day to organize, organize, and organize some more.  I probably spent about one or two hundred dollars (who's counting!!!) on sterelite, rubbermaid and other various organization thingys from Target, but it is SO worth it.  My closet is organized, actually ever single closet is organized. And it feels wonderful.  Okay, the kids have put some loving touches/changes on a couple of the closets, but each closet is at least within five minutes of complete organization-ness.  Good enough for me.  I also purged all of Cora's clothes and gave all of her small ones away (kept a few mementos for future grand daughters of course), and went through every single baby boy up to 4t item I own, and sorted them.  It took forever, but now, when the baby comes home, I will have everything I need in an extremely large rubbermaid ready to go! The best thing of all, is that I feel a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.  It feels good to know everything is in it's very own place.

Now, I feel free to do some other things like make some things and store them in the freezer for post-baby (including plenty of popsicles and treats!).  During the last month or so I also had a great desire to take care of some big projects that involved Erick.  We have had tile for three years that has been waiting to go into our downstairs bathroom.  Cute ideas from pinterest finally pushed me into begging Erick to stop working on his trucks and give a little TLC to our bathroom and laundry area.  Of course, when Erick is going to do something like tile, all of a sudden we need to completely redo everything including toilet, vanity, sink, paint, the works.  That was fine with me.  So he did; heaven bless that man.  I now have an amazing bathroom, and laundry area that I really like.  I really detested our old bathroom.

A couple of weeks later, I noticed that I suddenly hated our front land scaping.  It had so many weeds and was so hard to maintain, I wanted to re-do it, but that's really hard when you can't bend over a lot, and you have no idea what you are doing, or what to do.  I told Erick that I didn't know why, but all of a sudden all I could think about was how much I hated our landscaping, and if he would just help me plan a new plan, I would start working on it, and he could just help IF he wanted to.  So we made a new plan, and I did start to work on it.  And Erick, being Erick, saw me using the manual clippers, and then came over with some electric ones and trimmed all the bushes 1000 times faster than I could.  I started raking away all of the weeds for a couple of days, and one night he came with his rake and did it all and I just wheeled away wheel barrel load after load.  Finally he just told me not to worry and spent an entire Saturday laying weed barrier, mulch, and then some gorgeous decorative stone, topped off with a few accent planters with monkey grass.  It looked so good, I wanted to cry.  I really don't deserve him, but I certainly will keep him as long as I can!!!  Which in my case, is eternity.  Phew.

Finally, in all of my nesting, I decided that I didn't know how I would ever potty train Cash with a newborn, or any-size baby.  I know people do it all of the time, I have never been one of those people, so I was scared.  I decided to go ahead with it.  Cash was right at 22 months old when I did the big "training day" and all I could think of was how crazy I was for trying it, but I knew it would work, and did my best to make it a positive experience.  For anyone who wants to potty train...22 months is a little too young in my opinion.  I think it would have been easier if he was 24-28 months (the sweet spot for training in my opinion), but I did not have the luxury of waiting if I wanted to do it before the baby.  I did prepare like it was a marathon.  I was ready, and I did it, and it was a long morning, but he figured it out and went on that potty.  The next week, he felt the need to test me in every single situation possible--you mean I still have to use the potty when I'm in the play room?  What about the kitchen?  Oh goodness, but now, a month later, he uses the potty.  And anyone that thinks that they can truly potty train a child in a day is kidding themselves.  But I've found it's a good start, and it really takes about a month, a little less if you're lucky.  It certainly has not made my life any easier though.  I have to bend over all the time, and he now is insulted when I put on his diaper at night and does everything in his power to escape his lumbering, slow, mother.  It is pretty exhausting.  I just tell myself, we would have had to do it eventually either way, and now it's done (mostly).  Besides, he is so proud of himself, and has earned tons of jungle animal figures, which he loves because he was afraid of going #2 for a while, so I used the animals as a motivator.

Okay, Erick came home a half hour ago.  I should go talk to him.  I hope you have enjoyed my little slice of blogging.