Half-way Hodgepodge

So, here we are -- half-way through the pregnancy (or at least, what the half-way mark should be; I shutter to think we may have already passed what will be our half-way mark). Baby is moving tons and tons which is fun. (S)he is still small enough to where I don't feel a foot in the ribs or a butt crowding my lungs. I can tell a kick from a roll but nothing like what can sometimes be misery when a nearly full-term baby starts kicking and rolling around inside of you. Braxton Hicks contractions (contractions that don't do anything other than annoy you) have already started and that's NOT fun. And I've been having moments where my heart races. They say it's normal but it certainly doesn't feel normal. I didn't have any trouble yesterday so maybe I'm over the worst of it. They say that your blood volume doubles during pregnancy and that it reaches its peak volume around the mid-way point. But, you take the good with the bad....Life, in general, isn't slowing down one little itty-bitty bit which is not fun, either. Nathan's in gym once a week on Monday afternoons and yesterday was awful (for me). Wrangling 4 kids -- including chasing the baby around the stage where we sit above the gym floor and 3 almost-bored preschoolers that got sick of me telling them to stop running -- was just exhausting and we were only there 45 minutes! There's too many steps to climb so I can't use a stroller so I have to carry Timothy in and out, too, which doesn't help and leaves me with a killer backache. Honestly, I'm thinking I might see if I can find someone that would be willing to drive Nathan to gym these next 3 Mondays before this session is over. Or else maybe borrow a travel DVD player and sit in the car with the younger 4. So that's Mondays, which are always after Sunday which is, by far, our busiest day of the week with church services and family time. Tuesdays, Jonathan meets with a man from church concerning RA's but he's so nice to schedule to meet with him at 9 pm after he's helped me get the kids in bed. Best husband in the world, hands down! :) Wednesdays are church again and Thursdays, I have a ladies meeting at church. Every other Friday night is grocery night. And that's not counting the 3 days/week that I take John & Elizabeth to Candace's for preschool. That's going soooooo well, though, that I have no desire to give that up until I absolutely have to (or until the weather gets colder -- nothing I despise more than bundling up children and stuffing them in car seats -- YUCK!). Weekends, you ask? Last Saturday was a doozy -- Jonathan and Nathan went to men's prayer breakfast at church at 8 and got home a little before 10; we dug our heals in ("we" meaning me and Jonathan) and moved beds around to clean out from behind and underneath them, cleaned out the toybox, changed sheets, etc, etc, etc; then at 3 me and Timothy went to a baby shower and Jonathan took the other kids at 5 to a birthday party. Actually nothing on the schedule for this Saturday, thank goodness! I still have a ton to do to get winter wardrobes where they need to be and dealing with the unbelievable amount of summer clothes that I have to sort through to either keep or not. Ah, life....there are days when I wish childhood was less than 18 years! But then there are days when I wish the baby days lasted more than just a few years.

Well, let's see....oh, that's what I was going to mention -- did you see the new pic at the top of the blog? (If you use Google Reader or any other RSS feeder, you'll have to actually log onto our blog to see it). Not bad, considering all the effort it takes to get 7 people looking in the same direction, especially when 4 or those 7 are 5 and under! And I usually can't stand pics including myself but this one ain't half bad.....I guess that's it! Stay tuned for the big reveal this weekend!