Slow & steady is such an accurate picture of my life right now in so many ways...at 34 weeks pregnant, I am definitely moving slower & slower these days & can really only hope for steady!  And at 34 weeks pregnant, I feel like the countdown is ON & I am just praying that our slow & steady pace of progress will get things completed in time...I know she might not arrive for another 4-5 weeks (all of my kids have been at least a little early), but since my last baby came at 37 weeks...I am feeling the pressure of only 3 weeks to go in my mind!
But we are making progress towards a new room for Drew & getting things organized, so I am going to be thankful for the baby steps & keep on plugging along! The thing is, even though our "Get Ready for Baby" list is a mile long (and growing), we still have lunches to pack, disputes to settle, boo-boos to kiss, meals to make, messes to clean, laundry to be done, homework & projects & activities & LIFE...so we devote minutes where we can, and like I said, at this point I really am just happy for the slow & steady progress, I'll take a baby step over nothing any day!

This week, all of the necessary HVAC & electrical work was completed to make Drew's new room free of any pipes running along the wall or ceiling. (A huge shout-out of THANKS to Jeff's dad & mom who helped enormously with the electrical work!) Now there are just a few holes left in the walls that Jeff will have to patch & sand this week...we are hoping for a little progress each evening. Next will come painting and, hopefully, building out a little closet/shelving area. Then comes moving in the bed & hopefully Drew will get at least one night in the big-boy bed before he is literally forced out of the crib ;-) It's rather ironic because he gave Darcy the boot from the crib when he was born...we had just moved her to a big-girl bed literally one night before he was born!

So we keep chugging along...with the gorgeous weather this weekend, we were thankfully able to spend some time tackling the hot mess in the garage. Right now, it is in the "worse before it gets better" stage...i.e. I'm back to parking in the driveway again after only a month of garage parking...but it is for the short-term while we pull out all the bins, sort into piles, organize, donate & discard! So I'm okay with it, and it sure feels great to finally get rid of stuff we don't need...we have found several boxes that were meant to be donated before we moved, but got mixed in the shuffle & have just been taking up space for the past 9 months!

And we also managed to enjoy some fun-time this weekend, too...

On Saturday, we joined some friends for a picnic & play-time at a local park. The weather was SO nice, it was great to just be outside...everyone else in town felt the same way, so I felt like my eyes were going in different directions the whole time to keep up with everyone, but we came home with the same kids we arrived with, so it's all good!






After the park, we ran a few errands & then came home so Drew could nap. While he was napping, Jeff jumped on the trampoline with the big kids & I sorted in the garage (Jeff had made a lot of progress earlier in the day, so it was my turn!) Jeff is proud to report that he can still do a perfect flip on the trampoline & nail the landing...but he's going to be feeling it in his back & legs for the next week!
Saturday evening, we headed to Jeff's sister's house to celebrate a very special family birthday, their mom's! It was a fun evening with all of the cousins playing together & celebrating Nana's birthday. She is such a wonderful, kind, generous & loving person, no celebration seems adequate, but we gave it our best shot!

A few projects around the house, a little baking, a bit of birdwatching, time spent just playing around the house...that's pretty much a nutshell of our weekend. And it was really nice! I'm starting to feel like we are making baby-steps progress towards getting Drew's new room ready so that the baby can move into the nursery. Oh, I got a lot of the out-grown clothes organized last week...that's a nice feeling...still have a few more closets to tackle, but it didn't take as long as I though it would, so that gives me renewed hope for the remaining ones!
Some HVAC work that needed to be done in Drew's new room was knocked-out yesterday, so now we can paint!
And I need to choose a paint color...but before I get overwhelmed, back to our weekend...

Friday night we enjoyed a simple dinner & then all curled up on the couch for a simple movie night. It was so fun to just snuggle with the kids & relax! A great way to unwind after a busy week...and I love that something as simple as sitting down to eat popcorn & watch a movie together is still considered a special treat to our kids...I dread the day when they will consider such family time lame...and I pray it is a long, looonnng way off!
Saturday morning dawned clear, but cold. We busied ourselves around the house with a few projects...