Last Minute Reflections

This will be my last post as a mom of 3. Next time I'll be a mom of 4. This baby WILL come this week, I assure you. I am sooooo ready too. The benefits of having the baby in-utero such as not having to feed a baby at night, listen to crying, or holding baby, etc, are quickly being outweighed by the negatives of being 38 weeks pregnant which includes back pain contributing to trouble sleeping, getting up to pee at least 6 times contributing to trouble sleeping, lumbering about and wishing more and more every time I look in the mirror that I could start on losing this pregnancy weight NOW, not later. I am tired of being tired, tired of having no energy and tired of my drastic pregnancy mood swings which have been pretty intense this pregnancy. I want to feel mostly normal again and that won't happen until I am no longer with-child. So while there is so much I HATE about the days following birth, I am ready to tackle it and move on with life. At least that part's not 9 months long.

So I've been spending the last days trying to keep my house in pristine shape because there's really nothing worse that having a baby and knowing your house is a wreck and I've also been making freezer meal stuff. I'm rather proud of that actually. I did so much better this time than in times past. I think I have about 2 weeks worth of dinners either completely or partially prepared. Sweet!

The kids are excited too and they keep asking me if it's time for the baby to come out. Today, Novan, bless his heart, said, "Mom, I can help you carry it out." It took me a while to figure out what he was referring to but I finally got that he meant "carry the BABY out of me" and I laughed and said thank you but I would push it out myself. He replied, "Ok, I can help you push then. We can push it out together." So sweet. Sometimes Novan is quite thoughtful and it reminds me maybe I'm doing a decent job with him after all.

Some other goings on are the newest goal we have for Novan an Beya for Family Home Evenings. I decided they should learn the 13 Articles of Faith. We would go over and explain each one for FHE and then that week they would memorize it. And what better motivator than money, I say. So they earn 3$ for each one they can remember. Just this week alone they have both mastered number 1 and 2. I know those ones are short but I've been very impressed with their willingness and ability, being only 4 and 5 years old. Plus it helps Brad and I because I don't think EITHER of us have ever memorized the Articles of Faith since neither of us grew up in the Church. Go me!

Finally, the kids have been enjoying the Cardinal family we have in our yard right now. The other day I spotted a baby cardinal on the ground. I feared it had fallen out of the nest and was doomed but then I saw a second Cardinal baby and decided the coincidence of TWO falling out of the nest was too high so I Googled it of course and found that the baby Cardinals leave the nest to learn to fly and the parents still take care of them as they learn. I guess they just have to hope they don't get eaten by a cat or something in the meantime Anyway, they've been learning to fly in our yard for a few days now, and because they still can't really fly, the kids can get pretty close to them which has captured their interest mightily as you can see here.

Even Novan, who doesn't much care for nature as a general rule informed me that he "loves watching birds."
Fun times. Now if only, it would stop being so darn hot, I could enjoy the month of June more. Yuck.