On Pregnancy, Painting, and Pecans

I am 6 months pregnant this week. The comments I was getting... "wow, you hardly look pregnant at all!" have quickly and suddenly changed and now I am apparently big enough that strangers feel comfortable asking when the baby is due.  I try not to be offended.  My uterus is now the size of a soccer ball, so it seems normal that my midsection would reflect that. I know.  And no I haven't taken any belly pictures to show you. Instead I will show you my other children playing with bubbles.  Not sure who was more excited, Bella or Addison. :)

The most amazing thing happens in pregnancy, at least for me. Not as amazing as feeling this little booger kicking me all day and night, but a very close second. I get a little crazy doing the "nesting" thing. And if you don't know what that is, apparently, moms have an instinct that kicks in before baby is born just like birds and bears. We want to prepare an appropriate place for our child. I think for most people, it doesn't happen until close to the end of the pregnancy but for me, I turn into a cleaning machine. It's quite amazing and my baseboards have really missed this. Here's what I've done this week, single-handedly, while still having lots of time to maintain my other responsibilities:

• Cleaned all the baseboards and repainted the ones in the living room, dining room, kitchen, staircase and new nursery. 
• Removed a beautiful, heavy panel that has been hanging in our living room (after Addison knocked one side off the nail). I repainted that wall along with several other areas in our living room (since I already had the paint out). Then, I re-hung 3 frames in place of the panel, that my daughter can't get crushed by. 
• Dismantled my photography backdrops and wall mounts and repainted the soon-to-be nursery (with some help from matt). 
• Cleaned out the microwave and washed all the kitchen cabinets, doors and doorknobs downstairs. 
• Cleaned and organized the laundry room. 
• Shelled a box of pecans (that we'll talk about later) 
• Cleaned and reorganized my closet for summer and maternity clothes. 
• Reorganized Addison's closet for summer clothes and packed up those she's outgrown.

And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Like I said, I'm a machine. It is not actually me, but the hormones or something.  Thank goodness Addison is such a great napper for me to get all that painting done while she sleeps. She actually got a washcloth and helped with the cleaning on the kitchen cabinets. She sat beside and said, "wash" so I would spray the cleaner and then she would wipe it up. It wasn't all that productive, but pretty, darn cute. 

Painting is a touchy subject with my husband and me. He is always happy for me to paint. But he has a trim brush I am not allowed to use because he feels I do not clean them properly or well. Same goes for the putty knife. "A putty knife is no good if it has dried spackle on it, Libby," he says calmly but annoyed. 

"Really? I didn't know.  I'll remember that for next time." But I rarely do. I feel like he shouldn't notice the brushes or the putty knife because he is so impressed with how well the freshly painted walls, door and baseboards look and the fact that a delicious meal is still on the table. I say, "who cares about the brushes?" but, really, I know he's right. 

Now for some Pecan talk. 

My fabulous great Aunt Exie and Uncle Fred that live in Macon, Georgia mailed me a huge box a pecans this week. I LOVE pecans and they happen to have a zillion pecan trees on their property. I usually have several quarts in my freezer thanks to them, but just as I was running low, a special treat arrived in the mail! 

After shelling pecans for a couple days, I am now well stocked and this morning I made Glazed Pecans. You know, the ones, you can get in a paper cone at the fair or the basketball games or whatever. I always buy these and now I have made them myself and they are DELIGHTFUL! 

BEFORE

AFTER

 

YUM-O. 

And after a pretty darn, busy week, we're plum, tuckered out.