Nesting All Over Again...

Talk about nesting. Whew. I'm in full-throttle mode. We've been focusing on babies for a while now, and it isn't stopping any time soon, which is a good thing. My nephew and his cute wife and family just adopted sweet little twin babies. Because they live out of state, they needed a place to wait out the red tape and paperwork. Of course I offered them to come and stay here. Who wouldn't want to? So, we've had house guests, in and out, for the past two weeks, and loved every minute of it. Even though the babies are teeny tiny, they filled our house to the brim with something special. And the family got the OK to take the babies out of state yesterday, so they headed off to their home. It was sad to see them leave, but what a happy occasion for them to finally be heading home.

The good news is, we still have a new baby in the near future. My daughter is expecting any time now. Well, theoretically she is due on March 17, so it could be a while, but she's showing signs of having that baby a little earlier than that, so who knows? And I've invited her and her husband (and of course the baby) to come and stay here for a week or so after the baby has been born, so we will have another wee one in the house. We don't know the gender of the baby yet, but we all have our own ideas about that. I'm thinking boy, but I was wrong with our first grand-baby, so I wouldn't take that to the bank. Bob thinks it's a girl. I'll just be happy to not be calling it an "it" anymore.

So, that there is why we're (okay, maybe just I am) nesting around here. I did this before Wyatt was born, and wondered if there really was such a thing as grandparent nesting. I'm here to tell you, there is definitely such a thing, and I've got it bad. Which isn't really bad, since I've got lots of rooms and closets and cupboards to organize.

That brings me to a whole different subject. I have had to swallow my pride and let all of my walls down as we've hosted my nephew's family here. Normally, when you have someone in your home for a night or so, you can hide the fact that you have closets and rooms that are in such an upheaval, people might get harmed by opening the doors. But, when you have people in your home for an extended period of time, they become part of the family, and there isn't much in the house that they don't see. So, darling nephew and family, please forgive my disarray. Forgive it and forget it. Seriously. I have been planning for months to tear into the den and get it all organized ... when Bob was planning on going out of town for training. Stacks of projects had accumulated on the counter tops and shelves. I kept the door closed anytime anyone would come into the house.

Problem is, his trip hadn't happened yet when my nephew's family came. So, they not only saw it, they had to be IN IT, as they had some computer needs. When they asked to use the computer, my initial response was to say, "Oh, we don't have a computer". But I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have bought that. Soooo, I directed them to the doors, asked if they were up to date on their tetanus shots, and let them enter completely at their own risk. Oh well. It is what it is, and there wasn't much I could do about it in that moment. At least I can report happily that they didn't receive any harm (that I know of).

I did lose a little sleep over it, I must say, and that became my first project when Bob went out of town.  So, nephew and wife... the room is no longer a danger, and is actually quite usable. Come back.

And just as a side-note, it's fun, but distracting to organize the den. The cupboards and drawers have all sorts of Bob's treasures in them, like his collection of Micro Machines he used to play with the kids with. I get a little distracted with the memories sometimes, and the work takes longer than it maybe should. In fact, I had to stop and take a photo and send it to my kids on Group Me, so we could have a "Memory Night"...

And that brings me to another subject -- something I've learned in the past couple of months -- that relationships and time with family are much more important things than the little details in life. I learned that with Valentine's Day, as that came and went without me being able to do some of the extraneous Valentine's things I had wanted to do for our family. I realized, as we had them all here for dinner just before Valentine's Day, that being together is much more important than "things" I might have made or bought for them. And it is. I love my family, and both Bob and I receive so much joy from being with them. That is truly as good as it gets. And if I have a disastrous den, or craft room, but I have time to sit up into the wee hours and visit and laugh with my family members (sorry to keep you up so late, nephew and wife), that, again, is the best thing that I could have done with my time.

Now, there is a balance, right? I mean, we have to have clean, orderly, functioning homes. Soooooo, I need to take advantage of some of this nesting time, get things organized, and just keep my house that way. Then, I won't have to take big chunks out of my life (and away from family time) to clean and re-organize. Simple as that. And now, off to clean the bathroom...