People have been asking me if I’ve been “nesting.”
The answer is yes! 

According to my husband, Jeff, I have been nesting since the day I was born and there is probably some truth in this. 

I was always organized since I was a child. I liked my room to be neat and tidy and I had fun putting all my toys away where they belonged. (Lucky parents.) When my mom announced that it was “closet cleaning day” my sister would groan and I would let out a gleeful sound. In high school, I would help my friends organize their closets, I absolutely loved it! I always changed my own closet’s organizational system for fun- by “rainbow colors” or “seasons.”

Oh, I am such a Virgo. I’ve met other Virgos who love cleaning and organizing as much as I do, which makes me feel perfectly normal. Also, it’s in my roots. My mom has a clean house. My grandma has a clean house. And I’ve heard stories of my great-grandmother that blew us all out of the water. I’m not overly-concerned with sanitation, I’m a farm girl for goodness sakes. I just feel best when things are tidy. And though some people consider us to have a clean house, I know our homestead home will never be as clean as my mother or grandmother’s houses and I’m okay with that. I know that living in the country comes with bringing in firewood and all other sorts of things that make a mess. So as long as things are generally tidy, dishes are done, and floors are swept- I’m a happy lady.

I’ve been cleaning, organizing, texturing walls, painting, and getting rid of stuff at our place for years and years. So yes, I’ve been preparing this nest for the new baby coming. And on top of nesting and my natural cleaning insticts: now Spring Cleaning is buzzing through our house- which inspires deeper cleaning than usual. Even Jeff is feeling it and clearing out all his workspaces (hooray for Spring!) 

I’ve been washing bedding, sweeping, dusting, washing the kitchen floors, scrubbing, mopping, vacuuming, tidying up, and opening all the windows to let the fresh air flow through and blow out all the winter stagnation leftover. Also, Jeff’s mom is visiting tomorrow, which is a great incentive for extra cleaning. I will be meeting her for the very first time and I’m excited.

The baby’s room is really coming together. We have a crib (that was mine when I was a baby), a baby-changing table (from our friend), a dresser for baby clothes (also mine as baby), a stroller (that my mom got for free from work), and some clothes we’ve gotten as gifts.

I’m feeling pretty good about it all. There’s only a few things left that we really need to get: a car seat, a baby carrier, cloth diapers (a friend said she has some extras for us), and a few more clothes. Just recently I’ve been delighting in looking at baby things at the market. Early on in my pregnancy, I wasn’t ready to collect very many baby things yet and I still don’t want a lot of baby “stuff” (since I’m not a person who likes a lot of “stuff” in general), but I am starting to look at a lot more baby things now. I think as my belly gets bigger, it all becomes more real to me and I feel like I can get really excited now and ooh and aah over all the adorable baby things I see.

I guess birds aren’t the only ones nesting in the Spring.

(P.S. If you like the nest shown in the picture above, you can find many more on our friend Lara’s Etsy Store:

Mountain Hearth Handcrafts 

She makes handmade nests out of all natural materials and they are so sweet. You will be sure to fall in love when you see them.)