A Date I've Been Awaiting

Although the circumference of my waist varies some based on the position of the baby, I measured today about 42.5". That's not much different from mid-June. But with the advent of September, now when people ask when I'm due, I can say cheerily, "Next month!" That is far better than when I was asked in mid-June, by people clearly expecting me to say something like, "Any day now," and have to respond, "Oh, sometime in mid-October."

Even better: although when October begins, I can say, for the whole month, "I'm in the zone," I am happy to be not yet completely enormous. I hope September passes very slowly.

***

Phil and I had an interesting conversation after our guests left yesterday. He said, "You know, the farm is really pretty much me right now." Knowing how behind we are on our mowing, how we have pallets that held boards in one place, and broken concrete blocks in another place, and insulation not yet installed here, and a pile of construction trash there, that seemed at first to be a bit of a depressing thought.

But he expanded on that. One of the little issues I've had, when I stop to think about it, is that we are not like The Good Life Nearings, or like a friend we had in Boulder. They have workrooms so exquisitely organized that they outline their tools with paint, so they can easily hang things back up or note what is missing. Doesn't that sound dreamy?

For us, we (usually) get our tools back to their storage spots after use (Phil is probably better about this than I am). But the storage spots themselves are not terribly orderly. "I'm just not that anal," said Phil. "I don't think I'll ever be like that."

I don't know that I would say he's inherently messy, though maybe we both are. We keep our bills paid, and we can (usually) locate what we need in short order. Part of the messiness may be a lack of decent organizing tools, or a basic lack of space. But even with more space, are our areas that much more clean? Probably not.

It was an interesting thing to realize, though, that as much as I might admire the cleanness of IKEA's lines in their catalog, or the perfectly organized pegboard of our friends, that will probably not be in our future.

So we celebrate what we're good at (creative thinking, perseverance), and just try to make sure the hammers and shovels come in out of the rain.