Busy-ness, Birthday, and Waiting on a Baby!

     As usual, life has been busy, busy, busy here in the Lipskoch household!  Since I blogged last, we have continued preparations for our new arrival, hired a new teacher for school to help while I'm "off-site,"  attended my cousin's wedding, welcomed the Traveling Grandparents, and celebrated Stitch's fourth birthday.  And those are just the out-of-the-ordinary things!  School, home life, church, and Scouts were all mixed in as well!  Oh, and don't forget those weekly doctors visits!

     I have been on "enforced" maternity leave this past week.  I say "enforced" because I wanted to keep busy as long as possible so I wouldn't go crazy just sitting and waiting for the big day.  But Hubby (who also happens to be my boss at work--so I had no chance of winning this one!!) insisted that I stay home until Baby shows up.  So I have been finding things to occupy my time--going on shopping trips for last-minute supplies, and trying to stay out of the school building.  I may have spent a few minutes over there yesterday though...

     This past weekend, we celebrated Stitch's fourth birthday with a family party.  It seems like two months ago I was blogging about his third birthday!  *Sigh...  He wanted to go on a trip to a local state park, but we had a cold snap last week (we even had SNOW), so we told him we would go there another time.  The only other thing he kept saying he wanted was "a chocolate cake AND brownies."  So, Mommy made the brownies and Uncle N's girlfriend made the chocolate cake.  So we had one happy little boy when it came to dessert time!  Of course, he got presents too, which was just even more exciting to him.  I knew the party was a success when he came to me later that night and said, "Mommy, my tummy kinda hurts."  To which I replied, "Well, that's probably because you had brownies, and chocolate cake, and some Hershey bar (one of his gifts).  You need to drink some water.  That will help your tummy feel better."  His answer was, "No, I think my tummy wants more chocolate.  That will help it feel better more!"  Even though it was his birthday, he did not manage to convince me that this was a wise course of action!

One happy guy--surrounded by his brownies and cake! 

It must have been great.... :) 

     Of course, among all this busy-ness, we are still waiting for our new baby.  These last few days always seem the longest.  I'm fairly certain that Stitch has half-convinced himself that the baby will never get here!  And I must admit, there are days I have the same feeling! As I have written before, waiting is not my strong suit.  And yet, God gives this time to all mothers...this time of waiting.  Maybe to give us a chance to draw close to Him as we approach a time in our life that is like no other--the welcoming of a gift that He has given.  A little soul to mold and show the example of Christ to.  A daunting challenge and precious responsibility.  So, this time of waiting is also a time of reflection.  A time to remind myself of the calling God has given me, and a time of prayer that He will help me as I face the joys and challenges I know are ahead.  A time once again to find the "Lego moments" God has placed in my path.  :)