Top 10 Things Going On in My Life Right NOW!

I've done the Top 10 Tuesday post once I think and I like reading them but always forget to post one myself. My sister posted one today here about the top 10 things on her mind right now. She's having a baby in 8 days so you can only imagine that there are probably more than 10 things going through her mind right now! lol. So, in true form of mine lately, I'm going to copy my sister and do my own Top 10 Tuesday for things going on in my life right now. You may want to make sure you are sitting down because this is very exciting stuff! haha

Ok, here goes:

1. I'm on maternity leave for the rest of the school year!! I cannot tell you how exciting that is to me. I've had a difficult year in many ways, not just work-related, and adding a pregnancy to it all has just made it more difficult. So to be done going to work everyday is a huge relief to me! The last couple of weeks were stressful though, due to the fact that I had to get all my lesson plans for my substitute. That was a lot of work and I still have not finished it. I will be going up this week to finish things up while we're on spring break. No one will be around and I will be able to focus and get done what I need to without the distractions of grading papers and having students coming in with questions.

2. I resigned from my job and am now officially a SAHM!!! This one really is the #1 most exciting thing going on for me right now BUT, the maternity leave is what is making it possible for me to be home NOW instead of April so I put that as #1. It was so difficult going back to work these last two years and leaving Brooklyn behind for someone else to take care of. I had this huge amount of mommy guilt even though I know that not every mom gets to be a SAHM and that it is completely OK to work and support your family. If I had not worked these past two years, things would have been very difficult for us. My job had been the stable one between mine and Waylon's and we haven't felt at peace about me quitting my job until this year. Had it been up to me, I wouldn't have gone back for the 10-11 school year but Waylon's wisdom overpowered my desire and I stuck with it another year and it ended up being the better choice for us. Of course this means a lot of pinching pennies and really sticking with a budget and cutting back on our lifestyle but that is something I am TOTALLY committed to doing! There was just no way we could have asked my parents to be the full-time day care to both our children and paying for day care for two was out of the question. We will be losing my medical insurance and Waylon doesn't get any through is work currently so we will have to find an alternate option for this but there are several affordable ones I'm looking into right now. I may post about it once I've decided on it and show some comparisons of others I've looked at if I think it might benefit some of you out there. (You know, all my 34 readers who subscribe to me. lol)

3. I'm having a baby in 5 1/2 weeks! Oh my goodness! IS this really happening???  It hasn't sunk in yet that there will be another new born in the house. I'm excited, overwhelmed and nervous all at the same time. I keep hearing that the transition from 1 to 2 kids is the toughest so I'm preparing myself for the struggles I know I will be facing.

4. I'm trying to get a routine going here at our house (now that I'm going to be here many, many hours a day) by using a home management binder. I got the idea from Money Saving Mom and I downloaded her forms and created my own version of it. Once I get it all in order and work out the kinks, I'll post some pictures of it and show it off. Right now, it's still a little messy and I'm not sure I'm going to keep everything the way it is.

5. I've begun couponing in earnest. I've been reading about it all over the internet on all sorts of mommy blogs and now that we will be losing an income, I'm going to need to find every way to save money for us. I've started by focusing on CVS and using their ECB (extra care bucks). This week I'm moving on to grocery stores as I'm in need of a trip to get groceries. I'll admit that it's been a bit overwhelming but I'm not putting any stressful expectations on myself here at the beginning. I'm simply looking to save money on things I need and actually buy. The big savings will come the more I do it. Today I bought a binder and began organizing it. I've got a long ways to go on that one but again, not something I'm rushing into so I'm going to take my time!

6. I'm truly trying to declutter our home. We have this horrible habit of keeping things around that we don't use or need and they end up junking up our house. We live in a meager 1200 square foot home so there isn't a lot of space for junk. We plan on staying in this home for a while so we need to create more space as we add new members to the family. I know I'm not the only one who has this problem but it's such a frustrating issue to have! I have several friends who's houses always seem so neat and clean and uncluttered and I wonder how do I manage to look like I live in a house with pigs?? I don't have an official plan on how I'm going to go about this but I'm trying to just do it slowly and surely.

7. I'm trying to get a blog up and going for the women at our church. I've already posted a couple of posts to the blog but then life got too hectic and I took a break. I'm hoping that now I will have extra time to dedicate to keeping that updated and interesting. You can check it out @ www.gracepointegals.wordpress.com.

8. I'm really enjoying the study through James that I'm doing with the Good Morning Girls group. It's an online study and I'm in a group with two other great women who have been a huge encouragement to me. We email each other daily about the daily verse we have read. We use the S.O.A.P method to study the book and it's been an eye-opening experience. I've really enjoyed it!

9. I'm reading through the New Testament in a year. I wish I remembered where I got the reading plan from because I really like it, but I don't! I found it after I wrote an entire post about three plans I was looking into. I read a chapter a day and they have 2 non-assigned days for any catching up or re-reading you need/want to do. It's been something that was realistic for me to be able to do and I wanted to go with a plan that I could stick with. I'm still a little behind but I'm catching up.

10. I am finally reading a book for fun again! I've really been missing my reading for the past year or so. It's been quite some time since I read a book that really pulled me in and I couldn't put down. I think I've found one that's gonna keep me glued to the pages. I'm reading Stephen King's "Under the Dome" and so far it has been very interesting. I also like that it is over 1000 pages! I love a good book that is long so you can savor reading it for a long time! I won't have hours to read it at a time but I think I will have it done by the time I go in to have Layla. The nice part is that it's from my mom's library which is closing for remodeling so nothing you check out now is due until May 11th! Plenty of time!

So there you have it. 10 things going on in my life right now. I'll leave you with a picture of me currently at 33 weeks and 3 days:

I think there's a baby in there!! :)