On Saturday, my church threw me a baby shower. I am so thankful that they throw showers for every baby! What a blessing!

We didn’t need a lot of things since this is baby #3 for us, but since she is girl #1, we did need some clothes.

When I got to church, I discovered this message on the sidewalk right outside the door. It basically says, “We hope you have a great baby shower,” and all the little girls that were there before I got there signed it.

Here’s a look at the cake. I photshopped out Little Miss’s name – you’ll have to wait to find out what it is. ;O)

When I got home, I wasn’t feeling very well so I immediately threw everything in the wash, just in case I really would go into labor that night. I didn’t, but at least everything is washed, sorted, and put away now! I dug some of it back out this morning to take a picture of it. It’s not everything, but it’s a good idea of what our church family gave. I’m so thankful – nobody HAD to give anything, yet what they gave was such a blessing to me!

Today I finally finished the cloth diapers that I’ve been working on. There are sixteen here. A friend gave me some fleece she wasn’t using so I can make more (thanks, H!). I’m not sure exactly how many more it will make, but it should bring me pretty close to my goal of two dozen. They are from the Rita’s Rump Pocket pattern (which by now is probably not a surprise to anyone).

All the diapers in this picture have a really pale pink flannel for the inside. My favorites by far are the pink ones with the hearts and flowers. They turned out so cute!

Although it seems like I’ve been working on them for forever, they really do make up pretty quickly. I’ve been doing them assembly-line style, and that seems to help too.

Stephen also asked that I make up some more newborn diapers, so those are next on my list. I printed the patterns today, but didn’t get any farther than that.

Here’s my sewing list as it stands now:

*Large diaper bag – I have a small one that will work at first, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to need something bigger

*Cloth diapers – 16 completed, have fleece for more. The flannel inners are already cut out, but not the fleece outers.

*Cloth diaper covers – have fleece for these (navy) – just need to find my pattern and cut them out.

*Bouncy seat cover – thinking of removing this. Stephen is concerned that the boys will torment their sister in the bouncy seat, so I’m waiting to make a new cover. I still might, but we’ll see how things go with the old cover first.

*Maternity dress

*Pajama pants for Stephen

*Comfortable skirt for me

*More wetbags

*Newborn cloth diapers – 8 made, giving me a total of 19 NB size pocket diapers

We had a little different dinner tonight. We had green eggs and ham.

First, I sauteed some diced ham with spinach and mushrooms. I figured since the eggs were going to be green, some spinach wouldn’t hurt.

Then I added some green food coloring to a bowl of beaten eggs.

Once the veggies and meat were somewhat cooked, I poured the eggs over top.

Then I added some cheese.

The final result: Green Eggs and Ham.

Samuel will eat scrambled eggs, but he practically inhaled them tonight. “Mommy, these are SO GOOD!” I don’t know how many times he thanked me for making him green eggs and ham! It was definitely a fun way to eat scrambled eggs.

It’s funny how some days one thing leads to another, which leads to another, which keeps going on and on and on. . .

Today was like that. I went to put some stuffed diapers away, and ended up sorting through our entire stash of cloth diapers. We have SO many!

I’ve been meaning to pull out the newborn diapers, just to have them ready. I remembered that we didn’t have very many, but didn’t remember that we only have 11 of my favorite ones. They’re Mama Bird pocket diapers, and they’re my favorite because they have velcro on them. That led to me sorting through the rest of our fitted diapers and covers, trying to find the rest of the tiny ones.

We should have plenty of the Rita’s Rump Pocket diapers once I finish sewing this batch. Those are my all time favorite, but they’re just too bulky on a newborn for my tastes.

One thing I did discover is just how many prefolds we really do have. Probably 90% of the prefolds I have were given to me as gifts when Samuel arrived. We have a good 2 dozen Gerber ones. They’re the ones they advertise as diaper service quality – but I’ve never ordered actual DSQ prefolds before so I really don’t know how they compare. Then another dozen or so of some thinner prefolds, and then another two dozen (ish, lol) of really thin prefolds. I have no idea what to do with all of them. Some are so stained I can’t imagine selling them, but the really white ones are so thin I can’t imagine anyone else using them.

Then there’s the part of me that says, “Hey – I’ve got at least 8 dozen diapers in the house – don’t get rid of any of them, just in case!” Ha. Yet I rarely use prefolds anymore because I like pockets THAT much better.

Maybe one of these days I’ll actually make up my mind.

But for now, I need to get finishing the Rita’s Rump Pockets that are in progress. And some more nighttime covers would be good. . .and maybe turn some prefolds into fitteds. . .and maybe, just maybe, 24 hour days will stretch longer, LOL!

I never would have thought using cloth diapers would be this addictive, but it kind of has been. I love knowing I have all the diapers I need already at the house. Cute prints and custom diapers (Caleb wears blue, Little Miss will wear pink) are just a plus. . .

It absolutely amazes me how kids can amass so many clothes sometimes. I sorted through the boys’ clothes this morning and was absolutely flabbergasted at the amount of outgrown clothing they have.

The blessing of it is that I shouldn’t have to buy Caleb many clothes in the next TWO sizes. I think most of what we have will be the right season for him. Aside from trying to find a place to store it all, it’s nice knowing we should have very little to buy.

What I’m really wondering is how fast Caleb is going to grow. If he grows as quickly as he has been, that puts him and Samuel in the same size clothing some time this winter. It was also funny to pull out clothes that Samuel wore last winter, knowing Caleb will be able to wear them this winter. I sure wasn’t expecting that last winter.

Sorting clothes wasn’t on today’s to-do list, but it did need to be done. Now we can get two plastic tubs off the porch and back under the house, and the boys’ closet looks a lot better too.

Now. . .to figure out how and where to store the baby’s clothes!

Tuesdays are my “big” lesson nights. I like to schedule as many lessons in one day as I possibly can so that it’s easier on my family throughout the rest of the week. It usually doesn’t work to schedule 100% of my students on one evening, but having the majority on one night does help.

Tonight, in between lessons, my boys ran into the studio. Here’s what I saw when I walked in:

What made me laugh, though, was Samuel. He was shouting to Caleb, “Good teaching, Caleb!” Guess Samuel never realized that the one in the chair is supposed to be the teacher. . .

My ultrasound was this morning. Apparently yesterday’s huge measurement was a fluke somehow – baby is measuring right on track.

It was a real relief. I will admit that I was pretty scared about considering being induced (or more). Granted, sometimes those things are needed, but I’m hoping for as natural a birth as possible.

It was a lot of fun to get to see the baby again though. The tech verified that baby is still a girl (yes, I was a tiny bit worried after all this preparation!), and it was fun to see which of her body parts have been poking me. :O)

So, back to our regularly scheduled programming, and back to looking at a due date of just under 5 weeks away.

After yesterday’s adventures with the bees swarming, you’d think today would be a bit less eventful. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Stephen went outside to leave for work and could hear buzzing. He looked around, and discovered that the hive that tried to swarm yesterday had completely left the hive and was resting at the top of a tree across the yard.

He managed to catch the queen yesterday, so she was already in the queen cage in the hive today. The bees won’t go anywhere without the queen, and since she can’t get out of the hive to go with them, the swarm returned home.

I’m not sure what happens next. Hopefully the bees will become satisfied with their current home again, but if not, well, guess I have more to learn about beekeeping!

. . .for school lunch leftovers again. YAY!

We went to Stephen’s parents’ house tonight to make homemade ice cream. When Dad arrived home from school though, he brought with him three 9×13 pans of Chinese from today’s lunch at school. Several local restaurants cater the lunches there, and today’s lunch was Chinese.

The fun thing for us was that we got to take those three pans home with us. Dad’s not home enough to eat it, and Mom doesn’t like it – so we get it.

There’s sweet and sour chicken, sesame chicken, and a whole pan of fried rice in the refrigerator for us to choose from. It’s a nice treat since we all like it! I’m especially happy about it because that’s at least two meals for our family that I don’t have to cook this week. Easy lunches are the best – and I’m really excited about it!

I looked out the window today to see our bees going nuts. Stephen’s still outside tending to the hives, but from what I understand, our hive was getting ready to swarm. Thankfully, it looks he caught it in time. If everything goes well, we should have the old hive with the old queen, and a new queen should hatch out in the new box soon.

Stephen was going to put the split into the brown nuc in the picture, but ended up putting them into the bigger white (standard size) hive box. This way there’s more room to feed the small hive so hopefully it will get a better start.