And the beat goes on. . .

There are a number of different beats going on in our lives right now. . . perhaps most prevalent is the beat of water dripping from our ceiling in various places (yes, that would be INSIDE our house). The whole roof needs to be redone on this house, and there are a number of leaky places--we find more and more every time we have a good rain--and also there's a part where the wood is totally rotting and will need major replacement as well. Some of that part is outside--the overhang on the front walk--and a big part of it extends inside into our living room. The good news is that we are renting from Josh's parents, and Josh's dad does construction and knows how to do all that kind of stuff. The bad news is that it will cost thousands of dollars to fix, and we certainly don't have the money, and Josh's dad hasn't had a job for months, so he doesn't have the money either. For right now the water leakage areas are just ugly and discolored and a little swollen and wet, not moldy yet. I am just praying that our house will hold together mostly intact until we have the means and ability to get things fixed. I know God set the natural laws in place upon matter in this world, so He can surely work a small miracle and hold them back for a time if He wills. We will see what happens. I am kind of dreading a collapse of part of our ceiling, but hoping it doesn't happen. But I am really grateful that there are not more leaks and that we still have a mostly good house that keeps us sheltered and warm from all this cold winter rain and slush (we did have a little snow this morning).

The other beat that's a major one right now is the extra little heartbeat inside of me! : ) And that's a happy one. : ) Little Jacob is doing fine, and everything has been normal as far as my pregnancy goes. He's a mover and shaker, that's for sure! He moves like crazy. I think he's starting to feel a little cramped. Little does he know that things are just going to get a LOT more crowded before he's born. . . But yeah, everything's been pretty good. My symptoms have been the normal ones--tiredness, backaches, a little heartburn, that sort of thing. Luckily, despite us all having been sick on and off (mostly on) since November, everything has continued to be going well for the duration of this pregnancy. We still haven't settled on a middle name yet for this squirmer. . . One day we'll figure it out.

I've been really trying to get our house more clean and better organized and just more functional. I've been moving around where we're storing different things so that the house flows better and trying to go through stuff that's been needing to be gone through. I put away all the Christmas stuff halfway into Janurary, and I did just barely finally finish organizing ALL our files after a few years of having it partially just thrown into boxes. It took me days and days, but it's done! Hooray! I also rearranged Elsie's room (soon to be the kids' room) and put ALL her toys in there instead of having a play corner in the living room. We moved our piano keyboard into the living room where we'll hopefully use it more, and I am in process of organizing and moving all my craft and art stuff into the dining room (I know, seems like a weird place, but there's space now that we've moved the keyboard, and it's kind of a multipurpose room anyway, what with our behemoth bookshelf in there). I switched out dressers in the kids' room--Elsie will share with Jacob--and put in the few baby boy clothes that we do have already.

I was wanting to get more painting done in the house--particularly the kids' room--but don't know if that will happen before Jacob makes his appearance. And I definitely won't be painting the kitchen until all the leakage issues are resolved in there. But I am going to try to clean out the back room so it's a usable guest room and really clean the bathrooms and also shampoo all the carpets again. And there are various other projects like all the piles of mending and Elsie's baby blanket that I still need to finish. So I've got things to keep me busy for sure, on top of Relief Society and family and whatever else comes along.

If anyone happens to have a few extra thousand dollars burning a hole in their pocket, I know someone who can put it to good use! : )

Cheers and Happy New Year!