Less than 5 Weeks

"When I stand before God at the end of my life I would hope that I would have not a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me."

Non-stress test this morning. It was a long one. Baby wanted to sleep again. S/he slept for about an hour. I ate candy, poked around, got up and danced,...nothing. Then about an hour into it baby started rolling all around. Good baby. I have plans this week and next week, so I'd like to keep the little one inside me for a little longer. Next week's plans include getting our home ready for our new baby. I'd like to clean the cradle and the car seat and get all the baby items organized. Lots to do.
This afternoon I had Rachel's gymnastics. While I was getting ready to go, I found out it was going to be a family outing. All 6 of my children wanted to come along. Rachel wanted her oldest brother, Brandon, to come watch her, and he told her he would. Then the rest of her siblings said they'd like to come. It was nice. I love when my children support each other - and honestly, I feel so proud of all of them when we go somewhere together. We do get the "look" from people that don't know us - and the "friendly" smiles. My children behaved very well today and it was enjoyable. When Rachel was done with her class, Brandon told her she did a great job. Rachel seemed to really appreciate that comment from her biggest brother.
It was a long drive home - lots of traffic. Nice thing about that, is that Tom was home soon after we got home and we were able to have dinner all together as a family.
This will be short tonight. I have children sleeping all over the Family Room and I want to get them upstairs. They love to "camp out" in the loft together. During the summer and on weekends, that's fine. They have fun. Right now Tom is upstairs hanging window coverings in our master bedroom. We've lived here for 7 1/2 years and have had paper blinds on our windows. We've had to redo our children's bedrooms so many times, we've never been able to spend time / money on our own room. We're finally focusing a little on ourselves. Plus, we have to figure out how to fit the cradle back into our bedroom.