Nesting

Tomorrow morning my children come home after their three week Christmas visit with their dad.

Words cannot express my excitement.

I have learned to take full advantage of our absences, and this morning I realized how similar to pregnancy these absences are. The three weeks follow the same pattern as the three trimesters do for me. The first trimester of a pregnancy, I am sick, sick, sick. I barf many times every single day and all I want to do is lay in bed, though that never happens. Usually the first week without my children home, I am a lazy sloth. A lazy sloth without much guilt. I never, ever have the chance to wake up without an alarm clock, catch up on movies and reading, slack on the housework, and pay little attention to cooking when the kids are all here, and I know I'm not a lazy sloth by nature, so I indulge for a time, and then it passes. As does morning sickness.

In my second trimester, I am so relieved to be eating and feeling well again, that I break out the Kathy Smith Pregnancy Workout video. I feel powerful and alive and unconquerable. Similarly, in the second week without my children, I am full of ambition and goals. At New Year's time, this works especially well. I reevaluate my life and my relationships, and I spend time with God trying to figure out what needs tweaking and how to best do it. I usually focus on taking care of myself and recommitting to things like exercise, eating well, vitamins, journal writing, scripture study, and prayer. I planned a garden, just a small garden, that kept me up at night in pure joy. Indulgent in all the right ways, the ways that fill my soul, and it's wonderful.

As I round the bed in the third trimester of pregnancy, I feel the excitement in the air. I am struggling to keep up with all my goals, and feeling eager for the next stage to begin. I usually throw in some project before the baby comes. Sewing the crib set. Stenciling the bedroom. Staining the deck, or painting the shutters. As I anticipate my children's return in the third week, I try to keep up the second week's ambition, and then, I've noticed, I add a project for fun. Last year it was painting the entire downstairs to surprise the kids, remember? This year...well, another surprise, and I'm so excited about it. Hopefully, last minute details will come together nicely. (and then I'll tell you afterwards!) I also find things to deep clean. Like the kitchen cupboards, or the walls. A stage of nesting, all over again.

Getting ready for my baby birds, who will be flying home tomorrow. I must get the nest prepared for a soft, safe, happy landing.

Oh, happy day! Or, at least, Oh Happy Day Eve.