Back to Work

Thanksgiving is over! We had a wonderful one, and I gave myself the full week to rest and relax with friends and family. I never want to eat that much again.

Nonetheless, on to my back to regular life topic!

Are you a list maker? I am. And this season is prime list making time. My legal pad shall be full of to-do’s.

Here’s what I find tremendously funny about my lists. Writing them is all I need to do to get something done right. Oddly enough, I have always been the kind of person who rewrites things repeatedly, and this is how I cement things in my brain and avoid mistakes, be they costly or just dumb. So before I unveil any makeovers around home, I ought to show you my mini control center: paper and pen. I think this was a second or third draft of my original list.

Other forth coming lists shall be as follows:

1. Christmas Card/Gift List – this big dog will take forever.

2. A Christmas Brunch list – I have been itching to have one of these for quite some time.

3. The nursery. I am starting to feel a compulsive need to plan it, but not put it together yet.

4. Resurrect my grocery/coupon lists.

5. Research at home jobs list.

I’m still slightly irked that pregnancy has slowed me down so much that list making is all I can do, but I will maximize that research time to get a lot of the “leg”work done on upcoming projects and goals.

Oh, and here are some deals I may have to bookmark for my shopping list this week: .99 Revlon eye tools, and .66 cent each Olay products.

What do you list?

Update: If you do not normally check It'sHip2Save and it is not in your reader, you must! Cyber Monday deals are pretty crazy!

5 Random Things I'm thinking

1. I cannot wait to check out all the kids library books to read with my little boy. Oh, and found this bedding collection I adore for a little boys room.

2. I want to do my hair like this, right now. Step by step guide to messy! I love it. And any blog titled Parisienne is sure to be liked by me.

3. Formal Thanksgiving is overrated in my household. I think I may have picked up this thought from Husband. One buffet thanksgiving coming up yo. Downloaded this adorable free menu from A Brooklyn Limestone to frame for the occasion.

4. Had a long conversation with a girlfriend yesterday. First time we hung out in forever, and isn't it just so nice that girls pick up where we left off? Love that. We geeked out big time over Food Network Magazine. I kind of want to subscribe, but have so many free subscriptions already I drive my husband nuts. So paying for one might drive him over the edge.

5. Sunday suppers makes me smile endlessly, as does the concept of what they do. I am waiting to form a club of some sort with friends. First dish we shall try: a speedy Paella. Perhaps a breakfast dish such as this yummy looking oatmeal recipe would be great to try too.

Picture courtesy of BHG - a lovely Thanksgiving idea by the way.

What's on your mind right now?

Inspiration.

Just for fun, I thought I’d show you some of what I have. This is not a full board, just some little things here and there I have acquired for a nursery from around the house, and some things I bought that I figured were useful for a boy or girl (before we knew!)

Fabric which I adore, and I am thinking of having curtain panels made from it. The colors in this fabric make me so happy! I especially love the oranges and reds for accents against a very light blue.

Our mod crib, and I’m not sure it would look so great with a crib skirt.

A lovely sailboat artwork that I had no idea what to do with until now. :o) Totally a reminder for mom by the way. I hope I don’t have an anxious baby. eep.

And finally, a mod hutch that will give lots of storage and look cool. Oh, and I found some stuffed animals and kids books already laying around. Woo-hoo!

These are my initial thoughts. Ah, little Peter. Mommy can’t wait for you to get here.

Drum roll… just for fun.

Peter Owen. 2010. Oh yeah.

Baby Season in Blog Land

Wow.

Katie at Bower Power is pregnant - and now, so is Sherry from Young House Love! The blog world is in baby mode. (I refer to them of course - people with much larger blogs than my little fun activity)

Congrats!

As for me, I know my blog has been dead for a few days, and that I owe ya'll some news, but I refuse to post without pictures and without letting you know what has happened these past few days! So the scary news first.

I started cramping badly Thursday afternoon and spent two days out of work, resting & scared until my doc said all was well. Apparently dehydration and over exertion are definitely issues for me - thus my home projects that I did, like my bedroom makeover ended up leaving me in a bad place. It's a bit unnerving to be able to only do about 30% of what I could do prior.

But the good news is I got the all clear from my doc, baby is doing very well, and we got a precious pic of baby's face and something else... that I shall reveal tomorrow most likely. And I finally felt the baby move which made me smile, I was so worried that I had done little baby some harm with my decor fixation.

Final news? I have a bump! Yay.

Boo news - I have to moderate myself much more when it comes to my activity and stress level. But I already have curtains and a color scheme for the nursery - so when I have a chance to show my inspiration board, and write a post in more than a mad rush at work, I'll do just that!

Bedroom Sneak Peek

Textures. Yum.

Must Read Post (Not mine, the one I mention!)

I'm being serious again. Doh. But sadly, I am a serious person, who has seriously freaked out over insane cramping of the baby region. Luckily, my Doctor told me that if the cramping resided once I went home and laid down I wouldn't need to go in. Good. It stopped. And laying here doing nothing but being served soup by my Husband gave me a chance to check my reader. Ahh. This is the life.

After seeing The Finer things in Life newest post in my reader I feel I have to share it. Amy's blog is great, and the aforementioned post really hit home with me. I cannot advocate reading it enough.

This week has hit me hard in the financial spot, a tiny spot somewhere in my brain that is dark and small, yet large and in charge. See, we did elect to go on a spending freeze for all of four days.

The benefits of the spending freeze were me finishing household projects that needed finishing, me cooking, and both Husband and I using what we have. Um, because we have a lot. (The wii, x-box, high speed internet, digital cable... a garage full of spray paint, tools, etc...)

The downside of which was seeing our finances clearly. Between putting away 75% of my paycheck monthly and the regular paying of our expenses it was feeling tight. Husband got glasses. We have an OB bill. Dental work was done, and our insurance covers next to nothing of it. And so on.

I felt the pain and thought something along the lines of "OMG - WHATEVER WILL WE DO NEXT YEAR!" Idiot. Husband won't need glasses again next year. Or need teeth overhauled again anytime soon. And I will not be having another baby for at least... 8 months. Hopefully. We'll just sell the video games if that's the case. (I'm positive Husband just developed a twitch as I typed that. And he doesn't know why. Buaahaha.)

Amy's post was a ray of light in my bleak freeze week, as were some of her suggestions. One suggestion I have looked into for a long while now, and that would be switching our health care to Samaritan Ministries. Because for Husband to insure a family of three would cost us the same as our mortgage payment with our current employer. Ouch. Leaving us little to live on. Totally doable until our kid consumes real food and starts growing like a weed and needs clothes to wear on kid's little speedily growing body. Oh, and if our kid is like me, this child will also need new shoes roughly every three months until their feet are as big as their calf. Then the body catches up.

I really believe God uses things, even things like blogs, to knock us (ahem, me) back into understanding he's got the money thing under control. And shout out to friend Julianne with her couponing skills. You go girl! I am impressed.