(wrote this Thrusday and forgot to post it!)

Finally getting around to having that yard sale. Sort of a "moving-in" sale. We’ve been here nearly two years and still had things to unpack. Actually, I have boxes of things I packed up when I married Bobby and we moved into our first home that I still hadn’t unpacked... that was nearly nine years ago. Oh boy.  Needless to say I can live without all that and most of it's in the sale.

With this whooping cough deal and all our free time at home we’ve started going through a lot of stuff. Bobby’s the only non-contagious one so he’s in charge and the rest of us run and hide when someone pulls in the drive. This works out wonderful for me because I hate the dealing with people part and am likely to just give everything away.

At our current home the only outbuildings we have are the barn and coop, which we built, and the well pump house, which holds a few outdoor tools like rakes and shovels. No storage. All our need-to-store-out-of-the-way items find their way to the laundry room (Bobby’s tools really, really need their own room!) or to the unfinished attic (someday bedroom), affectionately dubbed the "Spare Oom." A LOT finds it’s way to the Spare Oom. I finally kicked the habit of saving every article of clothing "for the next kid" and wow did that free up some space! Being able to donate to our Community Closet helps a lot, as well as to replenish our wardrobe for free from there when we need to. Last week I went through all the kids current clothes and reduced the number of articles drastically. The two older girls each got to keep 4 short sleeve shirts, 4 long sleeve shirts, a small mix of summer and winter dresses/jumpers, a couple skirts, couple pairs of pants, and a couple pair of "creek shorts." The younger kids keep a little more because they just go through them so much more often, but they each were freed of at least half their wardrobe. That, combined with my own yearly wardrobe thinning, filled about 8 trash bags full!!! What a ridiculous excess we have in America, eh?

So, there are few clothes in our sale because they all went to the Community Closet, but there’s plenty of other junk. Toys... so many toys... about 1/4 of them mine from my childhood. Tons of boxes to go through... old magazines, calendars, cookbooks... (sigh) You know how it is. Anyway, I’m very excited about getting rid of it all. We agreed that most of what doesn’t sell we will attempt to give away (freecycle.org) and the rest burns or goes to the dump!

So that’s what we’re up to today...

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Saturday...
                Everyone's doing about about the same.  I've been able to sleep pretty well with no coughing for four nights now (if I stay semi-propped up at first).  But it tickles a lot through the day.  The 3 older Willies cough and vomit at times during the night as well as the day but it doesn't phase them now (kids are sooo adaptable) and I don't usually have to get up with them at night.  Blue coughed a little yesterday as she was waking from her nap, but no idea yet if it's pertussis or just a regular cough.  Royal still coughs a little.  Bobby's test result came yesterday and it was negative for pertussis.  (shrug)  False negative?  Too early to show up on the test?  Maybe he didn't have it very bad?  Maybe it was just sympathy coughing?  He's just about done with the antibiotics.

We're getting pretty tired of not seeing everyone.  We've got at least two weeks to go before we can socialize again.  Another month if Blue's cough turns into more.  Last night there was a gathering at the Martin's and we honked and waved as we drove by (had an errand in town)... the kids playing ball out front waved and my heart ached to be there!  Bobby's been able to hang out with his friend Jason and has been placing letter boxes and scoping out new places to hike and place letterboxes.  He's been running most of our errands and enjoys the freedom.

A friend also asked about my pregnancy.  Here's my email response:

      Oh yeah... I'm pregnant, aren't I?  =)  There's so much else going on I don't think much about being pregnant.  I'm somewhat conscious of it when I eat and drink (eat small meals, drink tons of water!)... But when you're not running around to doctor's appointments and such and you don't have anyone pampering you (ha ha)... and you're busy with goats and garden and pertussis and yard sales...  you know, what's a little pregnancy?  It's nice, I think, to just have the time fly by without dwelling on it.  I had stop and think last night of how far along I am.  Something around 4 months, I think.  I have it written down, of course.  Starting to show, starting to feel it a little.  I spent so much time on my feet the last two days my back was sore and I was out in the heat a lot and it just drained me.  I drank and drank and drank and still ended up with a headache that felt like dehydration.  I guess it's harder because I'm pregnant... So, I have little reminders like that.  I dread getting big and being out and about and having people pat my house-sized belly and talk about it... I just want it over with already.
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        That's all for now.  Nothing interesting going on, nothing interesting to even write about!  But I thought everyone might like an update.  Maybe I can get some pics up here soon.