Maternity Photos: Part 2

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here are some more photos!

Maternity Photos: Part 1

My dear friend Amy and my sister Beth agreed to a few hours on a Sunday afternoon to take pregnancy photos.  These pictures are the ones from Amy's camera.  She is a talented photographer.  I was almost 36 weeks along at the time.

There are a lot of these, so I will post them in two parts.  I tried to pick my favorite favorites, but that still ended up being almost 30 pictures.  So 15 today and 12 tomorrow.  This is one of those times when I feel very self-absorbed in blogging, but I know that I will have wanted myself to document all of this when the season passes.  So if you are sick of photos of me, please feel free to skip these posts!

All is grace.

Pace of Life

I want to remember this month of March which has been so wonderful and different.  We've had lots of sweet time with family and friends as we prepare for Baby, and we've also just been really busy sometimes.  I know almost everything about the pace of our lives is about to change, so here's a picture to remind me later on:

Just after I stopped working, I made a three page list of things to do before Baby.  I never thought I'd get to the bottom of it, but it helps to keep me busy and productive.  And I am getting much closer to finishing it than I expected I would.  Come on Baby!

Bert in the Shop

Just because I like him.

This was when he was working on our crown molding for the dining room.

Nesting Knows No Limits...

I have been on a de-cluttering mission this month, and no stone has been left unturned.  Every level of our house has been scoured.  I realize that's the luxury of having 6 weeks off work before Baby is due. It certainly is an unusual luxury - and I am very thankful for it!

Now, I am in the mood for some 'after' photos.  Hopefully others will find them satisfying too. I was inspired by remembering these two posts by Becca on de-cluttering, way back when.  And I have also been really inspired by reading Organized Simplicity and discovering Tsh!

I borrowed the Organized Simplicity for two weeks with the intention of skimming, which is why I slacked on doing a Book Corner post.  I did not skim though.  I devoured it chapter by chapter with pleasure.

It's only fair that I admit my closet was not included in the de-cluttering, because I have no idea what fits or will fit after this pumpkin gets out of me.

Oakley 'helped' me sort and consolidate my boxes of college memorabilia.

I spent a day sorting and sanitizing our second-hand kid toys.

The linen closet was conquered.

Cleaning closet? Check.

Bert's bedside shelf doesn't look impressive, but that's because I didn't take a 'before' picture of the unused items being stored on it.

My bedside shelf, bulletin board, and dresser top are much happier now!

As are my bathroom drawers...

And even our medicine cabinet!

This is our attic storage closet for crafts, photos, frames, decorating items, and sewing stuff.

This one actually took me quite a while to de-clutter.

I got to go through our books in the attic too.  As you can imagine, I loved sorting through these and choosing two nice boxes full of books to discard. 

Some of the keepers:

The basement bedroom now has bedding, furniture, and potential function. 

And if you come stay in it, you will have access to some of my very favorite books.

Bert built shelves in our downstairs game closet, so now our games live there.

And Goodwill has recently received a very hefty donation of all our extra stuff!

Phew!  The back of our Ford Escape was packed to the brim.  Thankfully they do all the unloading for you, and all I had to do was pull through their drop-off area.