I have had a fairly productive spring day today. I have done 3 loads of laundry and managed to put about 7 loads away! I also cleaned Donovan's room, which was an ordeal, but it got done! AND, to top it all off, during naptime I sat down and went through the toybox matching up toys that had gotten mixed up and sorting out ones that will go back in his room instead of out in the front room making it look quite a bit cleaner in here. I am thankful for the time I have before this baby is born that I can get little stuff like this done. Over the next week or so I want to go through closets and drawers to clear out winter things and box away clothes that are too small. I also need to bring up the tote of clothes for the new baby and get that all organized in his room.

We have also decided to gate in the back porch so that Donovan can go right out the back door while I am in the kitchen and play right outside where I can see him and not have to be right there with him. I am excited for this to happen, he will enjoy that so much! I think it will clean up our porch a bit too and Caleb and I will enjoy sitting out there watching him play in the evenings. I am also glad for after this baby is born that D will be gated in somewhere so I won't have to chase him if he takes off outside. We will let daddy do the chasing!

I am so thankful to see the green leaves coming out on trees and the green grass growing. I am also thankful for the ideas that I am coming up with to save gas and money. I have started planning out my week lots better and also assigning major tasks to certain days. For instance, Monday and Thursday will be laundry day. Monday will also be paperwork day. Wednesday is grocery day so we can go after services to walmart and save a trip into town. I am starting to schedule appointments and such all on the same day and in general just get more organized than I am now! I am also realizing that this baby will be here in about 2 months so I need to really get my housework under control. I am going to try and plan some meals and make double to freeze some for after the baby is born so I can just throw it in the oven. Lots of ideas, but hopefully it will get accomplished.

It sounds as if naptime is over, so I will sign off for today. If you all think about it, pray for my sister in law's cousin. Her name is Kaylee Brooks, she just had a baby on April 4th, he was 10 weeks early and had some major heart defects. He has made it up to today, but they are going to take baby Jett of his ventilator this afternoon. I know that is hard and I know she needs lots of prayer to get through these next few days, weeks and months.

The weather is warmer and my motivation becomes very mixed. I am motivated to do things, but probably not the things that I should! I want to read a book, I want to play outside with Donovan, I want to "spring clean" the van, I want to clean up the yard and pick up all the sticks that fell over the last 5 months. But while I do those things, my laundry, my dishes, my house inside in general remains in its mostly unsettled state. I am thankful for the warmer weather because it encourages me to stay home and enjoy time here rather than using gas and going to town.

While reading some other blogs I saw that some of them were doing something called 1,000 gifts. I got curious and looked into it and I have decided to try it. The general idea is to eventually have 1,000 things you are thankful for written down. You see, as humans we often overlook the everyday blessings which can also double as gifts. So, my desire is to become more thankful for the things that I normally take for granted by writing them down and reading over them as the days go by. Lord willing, that will help me to grow more content and thankful for the way my life is now.

I have a couple books I want to read. One is Gone with the Wind. I like the movie, but I would love to read the book in its entirety. The other is a book on nursing our soon to be here baby.  I would love to nurse this baby and hopefully with filling my head with knowledge and information about it I will be better equipped to take on the task instead of resorting to the much easier but slightly more hassle-filled bottles.

It is times like now when I have so many spectacular ideas and desires running through my mind that I want to do, and yet in 30 minutes I will have mostly forgotten them all. Therefore, I find a notebook, write it down and there it stays until I find the time to devote to it to fulfill my goals. Well, I am wasting precious sunshine and daylight as I sit here, so I am off to enjoy the day. I will be doing laundry and dishes and general picking up, but also accomplishing some of my "warm weather tasks" too!