Plans!

We are all feeling much better this week, thanks for all the concern expressed.  Today is the first day I really feel like my sinus infection is gone, and it is great!  BJ and Gabe are healthy now as well. 
We have been working a bunch on decluttering and getting organized around here.  We I have a 3-month plan (I just love lists, what can I say?) of the things we are trying to get done before the baby is born. 
Done so far:
I have a large, ever- growing bag of things to go to DI.
We have gone through our books, including old textbooks, to determine which ones will be given away, which ones we are using right now, and which ones can go in storage for a while.  We consolidated the "keepers" onto one bookshelf, then we boxed up four 18- gallon sized Rubbermaid containers full of books.  We are getting rid of the large bookcase that all the other books were on.
I repacked some things in storage including our Christmas decorations to make more space.
We downsized to a smaller, and more child- friendly proof television and entertainment center.
We have installed dimmer switches for our lights in all the bedrooms to conserve electricity.  We'll be doing that in the rest of the house soon.  

A few things we are working on now or will be soon:
Clearing every non- essential gadget or appliance off the kitchen counter and coming up with an organizational system to prevent junk build-up.
Going through all our closets and cupboards, giving stuff to DI, or boxing it up for storage. 
BJ will install a ceiling fan in our room, but probably not until this summer.
BJ is also planning on building shelves in our tiny storage unit outside so that we can better utilize the space.
I am working on meal planning ideas and revamping my recipe binder to be more helpful.  We recently came up with a grocery shopping list system that has helped somewhat in meal planning and preparation.  It is an itemized list of our most commonly purchased items, that we circle as we run out of.  I posted about it (and included the list for people to download) on my other blog here.

Gabe toddles around, "helping" as much as he can.  He has become very interested in helping put things away in buckets and containers, and pushing laundry baskets up and down the hall.  He pats his chest proudly when we say that he is a "big boy helper".  He has been very interested in little babies, although he still points to himself and signs "baby" sometimes.  He is finally starting to sign "mommy" when he sees me, and today he started saying "nananana" which is the closest thing I have heard to "mama".  I know it isn't banana because he calls bananas "lala"s.

Anyway, that's what we have been up to and will probably be working on for some time.  I am trying not to be overwhelmed by it all, but rather to enjoy the progress we are making.