For the most part, I haven't been in baby mode. I haven't pinned a single baby item. I haven't decided where to register. I haven't read through all the papers and magazines that were sent home with us from our first prenatal doctor appointment. Don't tell my nurse. I thought I would be more "into" my pregnancy than I have been thus far. It's not that I don't love my baby. I do! And it's not that I'm not excited. I am! It's just that a few random circumstances are making it difficult to go into full-mode nesting, and for the most part, I think that's a good thing. I can be too controlling and anxious when it comes to planning things... so the circumstances below are stripping an idol from me, I think.    #1) I know I've said it before, but I will say it again... THIS SEMESTER IS CRAZY. In two weeks, I will hand in my last two papers and be done with the insane school year. I cannot wait. I anticipate a frenzied return to blogging consistently, pinning nursery ideas like mad, registering for baby items, and doing a huge summer-long house purge before this little one arrives. #2) We might be moving. Our housing situation is up in the air right now. I need to write a post about Resort Russum - or how we've been blessed to live in my parents' gorgeous retirement home for the past year and a half - but our time there might be up soon. We are anxious to get our own place now that we are becoming parents. I am excited to paint the walls in a house I own and decorate the way I've been wanting to during our past three years of renting. We don't really know if we will move before or after the baby comes, only that we will probably not be in our current home by Christmas. This makes me feel much more lax on the whole "nursery" thing, since the baby probably won't even sleep in its own room until after we get a new house. #3) Not knowing the gender. Boy or girl? We don't know! We had our anatomy ultrasound last week, and we held strong and looked at the wall when the tech was checking "down there." It was honestly easier than I thought not to find out; it almost felt like a little adrenaline rush from the will-power and the anticipation of surprise. Before the ultrasound "not finding out" was just an abstract plan, but now that the ultrasound is over and we have new pictures of our little mystery baby, I feel a surge of excitement every time I think about being surprised on delivery day. So that's me and my surprisingly laid-back attitude about this whole pregnancy gig. I am excited to start planning and prepping for our child, but I am also thankful that God has put other wonderful things on my plate this spring to keep me from idolizing our baby or being a big ol' control freak. ... Read more