Maternity leave begins :)

Baby boy is getting big now! Not a little pea anymore, kicking and wriggling so much. I still smile every time :) 

It feels a little strange to be finished work already but I really feel like it's the right thing to do. I knew I didn't want to get to that exhausted stage before I started taking it easier, I wanted to stay feeling vibrant, happy and relaxed for as long as possible and when you work with 3 and 4 year olds for 10 hours a day its only a matter of time before your energy supply would start to fail. I'm at 30 weeks now and I have started noticing a bit of tiredness creeping in at the end of a busy day or after climbing stairs in a hurry so I think it's perfect timing. 

My plans for maternity leave until our son arrives are

• Do my prenatal yoga everyday and walk/swim a few times a week
• Get plenty of sleep (even if that means cheeky day-time naps!)
• Sew - baby sling, cloths and wipes, bedding, blankets etc
• Cook super healthy meals and snacks with lots of fresh veg, protein and fiber
• Hand make christmas cards and gifts (and post in time!) 
• Spend time with my friends on their days off and Aine who's on maternity with her new baby girl :) 
• Read my Ina May birthing book again that Al bought me
• Spend more time blogging and taking photos, sharing this amazing part of my life with family and cyber friends :)

It's winter :)

Well its definitely winter here in Ireland now, there is frost on the grass and everywhere thats in the shade most mornings and there's a chill in the air. It was minus 2 degrees last night and I'm still sleeping with the window wide open, pregnancy heat's lovely :) Poor hubby has to sleep in Pj's and a dressing gown, with a hot water bottle! LOL

The down side to the frosty weather is undoubtably the cost in heating your home to a comfortable temperature, over here most people have oil fired central heating and the cost just keeps rising... We've opted for a wood burner since we have access to local, cheap wood and we love having a real fire in the house :) A friend of Al's dad is coming tomorrow to fit it into our chimney, I'm so excited...

The only thing is, do you think we have enough wood gathered up?? hehe

We borrowed Al's dads saw for the long chunky bits, it was brilliant,
about 1,000,000 times quicker than by hand!

There is something so lovely about opening your garage and smelling cut wood, sometimes I just stand for a few minutes and look at it smiling (like a crazy person!). It's just comforting to know that we will be warm and cosy this winter. Gathering up this wood has given me so much pleasure over the last few months, as I get older I seem to be more and more happy about the really simple things in life, does that happen to everyone?