The forecast Thursday called for gusty winds and thunderstorms all day. The epic elementary school parade moved indoors, meaning non-room parent parents could no longer attend. We feared for trick-or-treating; I did some frantic Googling of indoor options (like malls). However, the storms cleared up for a few hours in late afternoon/evening (before sending in a tornado overnight — wow), so we went. My kids dressed up as Pennywise, a SWAT team member, Elsa (of course), and a glow-in-the-dark skeleton.
I made orange pancakes for breakfast with chocolate chip jack-o-lantern faces. Over at Before Breakfast, the day’s episode talked about the fun of celebrating little holidays; pancakes featured prominently. The kids did “make your own spooky pizza night” for dinner. I don’t think there was any real difference between spooky pizza and regular pizza, but it felt different.
Sarah and I recorded two episodes of Best of Both Worlds. With that and Before Breakfast, my goal is to get enough ahead that I can take some time off in late January/February. As a self-employed person, I’ve never taken a real maternity leave, and while I suspect I’ll still be working in some capacity during this time, I do think I’ll be able to scale down for a bit.
This week has felt long. That’s probably because I spent much of Sunday flying to San Antonio for work, and then much of Monday flying home. But the latter part of the week has been nice. I got a massage on Wednesday. I worked on a non-fiction book proposal. I’ve carved out time today to start editing my novel (as part of my modified NaNoWriMo observation). I’ve taken some gorgeous runs through the autumn leaves, which I will again today — though last night’s winds did knock a great many down — and cap off the week with a date night.
(We’ve got a long list of items to discuss. Will we move or renovate? What activities do we want to do over Thanksgiving and Christmas? This may be a lot to resolve over fajitas, especially without margaritas, since neither of us are really drinking these days…)
I’ll be singing requiems in church on Sunday. We’re taking family photos this weekend. I think we’ll do a walk and a bike ride, and maybe hit some open houses. The good news — I keep telling myself — is we don’t have to make any immediate decisions on our living spaces. The 4-year-old will move into the trundle bed in the 8-year-old’s room for a few months after the baby comes. Since the 4-year-old is only a little removed from the baby years, it will be relatively easy to repurpose his room with a bassinet (the SNOO??? Is it worth it?) and a changing pad on top of the low dresser (where it used to be before he got potty trained last year).
Now that it’s November, I plan to start building the gingerbread Lego house I ordered. I think the 10-year-old and I will mostly tackle this project. I’m looking forward to it! We will do this on a small table in the dining room. The dining room had been serving as a “puzzle room” and storage space but I cleaned it out and decluttered it this week. I realized part of the reason some of the houses we’re seeing look so much nicer than ours is that they’re staged and uncluttered. It’s hard to control stuff like the play room but the dining room? That I can do something about.
We didn’t try the SNOO, so I can’t say much about it, but I did love our HALO bassinet for the early in-room breastfeeding weeks. Which was probably 3 months or less. Kid #1 went to her crib around 6 weeks but it was right across the hall. We moved by kid #2, whose room was upstairs and across the house, so she got to stay with me for longer so I didn’t have to trek across the house so much. I loved it – and I thought it was safe. At the time it seemed pricey – we just used a pack & play for #1, but not compared to the SNOO.
The power to decluttering! As a household of 7, including 4 kids 12 and under, I have really embraced decluttering. I am definitely one who needs order to feel at ease. One of my goals for 2019 was to focus on one space each week. Most jobs take just a few minutes but increase my happiness immensely. Plus, now since many areas have been decluttered in the last several months revisiting them for seasonal changes is much less daunting. For 2020 I have created a decluttering schedule (certain projects definitely have a season: getting out winter wear in October and putting it away in April, cleaning out the playroom in November) with two manageable projects per month.
@Gillian, I would love to see your decluttering schedule!
@Sunny This is what I have for now. We’ll see how it goes and tweak it for future years. Of note we live in the Northeast and thus have 4 seasons. Also, many of these things I would do without it being on the list, but if it is on the list I don’t have to give it much thought.
Jan: Christmas decorations, Linens
Feb: Bathrooms, Laundry room
Mar: Kitchen, storage room
Apr: Seasonal clothing switch for me and kids, winter wear/accessories
May: playroom, kids rooms and kids books
Jun: kitchen desk (ie office supplies etc.), photograph and toss or store kids’ art from school
Jul: stairs to basement (weird catchall space in our house), cars
Aug: Game cabinet, mail cubbies
Sept: Seasonal clothing switch, pool bag
Oct: Backyard (and winterize), kitchen
Nov: Playroom, kids’ rooms and kids’ books
Dec: NOTHING!
I am expecting my second in January and decided to try the Snoo. I bought it when it was 35% off, and it will be shipped closer to my due date. You have 30 days to return it, and in the local Facebook Mom groups I am in, there seems to be a big market for buying/selling second had so I am telling myself it’s not a huge investment (maybe the same price as a Halo once I get cash back from resale). And if I do want to invest in anything, it’s sleep! Best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy.
I second the Snoo. And you can re-sell. Everyone wants one. I have heard they have a rental program but we bought ours on the black Friday sale last year.
We used it religiously and it was amazing for the first 6 months. We traveled a lot for having a wee one and there was a different when we did not have the Snoo or when my mom would try to just swaddle and not use the Snoo, so I vote yes! I know you have said your kiddos are great sleepers- especially the glow in the dark skeleton!
We didn’t get the Snoo when we had our son 1.5 years ago but another friend did. She bought it because she got freaked out reading about co-sleeping. She co-slept with her first since he was a frequent eater and terrible sleeper. She was happy with the Snoo and I think she was able to resell it for a good price. For us, the Halo worked well enough. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but overall it was good enough until he moved into his crib at 4 months.
Good luck making your housing decision! We just bought a house after looking for 2+ years. We were looking in a very specific area of Minneapolis and had very specific requirements so it took a long time. But we were pretty happy where we were so we were able to be patient. I hated the house hunting process, though. It’s so much work and the cost of buying/selling a house is NOT CHEAP. Man the transaction costs really add up, especially on your sale! So I am hoping we are happy in the new house until we retire and downsize. We are moving next month but are starting to move things over to declutter our house before it goes on the market next week.
Another vote for the SNOO. My sister is an infant nanny, and swears by them. She let us use one for our third child, and it was wonderful!!
Hi Laura!
I know it’s been quite a while, but I wanted to say CONGRATS on soon becoming a family of seven – just like us!
We’re also facing the issue of having to move in the near future, as little ones keep growing and needing more space. We’re still “just looking” at the moment. The last few years have definitely been focused on survival, which is why my blog has been seriously neglected and I don’t comment very much . . . but I’m still here reading and listening to your podcast
Anyways, just wanted to say hi and congrats 🙂
@Harmony- thank you! We’re very excited to become a family of seven. And yep, the question of whether to move is tricky. All houses have problems. At least we know what we’re working with on this one!
Laura, I’m really counting on you to vet all this new fancy baby technology so I’m hoping you get the snoo. 😉 But I think they should give it to you for free so you can do a review for your readers! Same with the wireless pumping bras. You have a huge following. Congratulations! Very excited to follow you on your journey to family of 7!