Spring Fever

Last Thursday, something came over me and I started cleaning my entire house.  I haven’t really stopped cleaning, except a brief pause on Sunday.  But even then, I walked around the house leisurely cleaning during nap time on the day that I usually am determined to not do anything because I can.  I’ve gone through all the books in the house, including the schoolbooks.  I’ve completely reorganized the school shelves.  I eliminated a small bookshelf worth of books, so that Silje could have the bookshelf up in her room, and in exchange she’s giving up a rundown drawer/shelf set I got at an antique store closing a few years ago for $15.  I’m planning on chalk painting it, and adding it to the living room, where Silje’s sewing machine is.  I’m planning on selling that.  She much prefers to use my machine, and I don’t mind.  I’ll turn that little drawer/shelf unit into some kind of Lego storage area, or something to keep the clutter in that area tamed a bit.

Simplifying, cleaning, decluttering, is all on the mind.  I don’t know if it was the rare 60 degree days that got into me, or some insane bout of nesting, but I can’t seem to stop.  I simply can’t.

That’s likely why I’m not writing much this week.  I do pause from time to time, adding blog post ideas to my notes as I go.  Titles like “best family devotionals ever” and “why I’m such a horrible friend right now”, “developing sanctuary spaces for the whole family”, and “garden plans for this year (considering I’m having a baby in the middle of garden season this year” (I’ll shorten that title) are all on my mind.  Some of them are already mostly written.  I’m just so easily distracted these days.

So besides an insane need to spring clean, we’re making plans to have our ram butchered, I’m working on training our new puppy in the barn, as Silje has deemed that job much too big to help out with.  I can barely get her to walk the dog, let alone train her.  Plus she needed her puppy shots, our other dog Lena is up for a minor surgery to remove a worrisome tumor at the end of this month.  I just ordered in our curriculum for next year, which is ALWAYS a boost to my February doldrums of homeschooling every year.  It’s been fun to go through and make plans.

Plus I’m hungry all the time now.  I’ve reached the lovely 2nd trimester where I’m full of energy and can’t stop eating.

We have our 20 week ultrasound this next Friday.  I’m so excited to find out if we are having a boy or girl.  I won’t share here right away.  I’ll share that funny story behind that today.  You see, we’ve found out at birth before, and we’ve found out early before. (Both ways are being surprised.  It’s not like one way you get to pick the gender of your baby.)  We found out we like to find out early.

We seem to be linked up with one of Knut’s cousin’s.  It all started with Elias and his second cousin.  Knut works with his cousin, Erik on the farm.  They are business partners.  Erik and his wife had a little boy about 3 months before we had Elias.  2 boys.  3 months before we had Solveig, they had a little girl.  3 months before we had Ingrid, they had another little girl.  But you see, we love to find out early, and they like to wait until birth to find out.  Whenever we have found out that what our baby is, it has predicted what their baby is, 100% of the time.  Whenever they announce a pregnancy, we announce one 3 months later.  It’s crazy.

So when Knut walked in the door a few months ago, and said: “Erik and Sara are having another baby.” I simply looked him in the eye and said “no.”

Well, we’re 4 months behind them this time.  So, you know, totally different.

Erik and his wife have asked us to keep it a secret what our baby is until their baby is born, so they can actually be surprised this time.  Knut resisted, saying it’s not really up to Erik, and apparently Erik threatened to have another baby after this one right away if Knut didn’t agree, and Knut couldn’t risk that, so he agreed.  I wasn’t in this conversation, and it’s very possible it was embellished.

Erik and Sara’s baby is due sometime this month, and we’ll announce the gender of our baby after theirs is born.

I know.  It’s funny.  It’s all silly and fun.  We’re not serious…I mean, really.  You’ll all find out soon.