Wow, 32 weeks!

I thought I should update my blog since it's been neglected for so long and there are only 8 or so weeks now until it becomes obsolete!

Geoff and I have been busy lately trying to reorganize our freezer, our house and our lives in order to get ready for the new baby.

I have been trying to cook about 4-6 extra food serves per week to put in the freezer so that I should not have to cook much during the first month. This has involved a major waste disposal operation as the freezer was formerly the last resting place of many ancient, unregonisable and unlabelled food items, which are now in the bin. I hope my current efforts don't go the same way! I was feeling pretty good about my progress on this job until I spoke to another lady this morning who mentioned that the frozen food she carefully prepared was useless. She didn't have time to defrost it with her new baby. But then, her new baby turned out to be twins. I'm sure that would be more than twice as bad as one baby!

We spent $1,400 at the Whitewood warehouse last weekend buying bookshelves, a desk, and a new wardrobe. Unstained. Probably a big mistake as I now have to paint them myself. I will use low-odour paints to avoid breathing the chemical nasties. All this should allow us (finally!) to provide Cassie with the furniture she needs in her new room, and consolidate the remaining junk into a combined spare room/study. Cassie should also be able to move into a "big bed". I'm embarrassed to say that, at 26 months, she's still in the cot. I'm not sure if we will actually move her now, as it may be a little obvious to her that she's being booted out of her current lodgings by the new baby. Also, we have wised-up a bit since our first pregnancy, and now I know that the best place for a new baby for the first few months is actually co-sleeping in Mum and Dad's bed. Or at least, I hope it works out to be a bit easier that way.

The only other minor job on our list is to get that bloody deck built. I don't think we will ever build a house, as this tiny 26 m2 deck (which we are engaging a builder to construct) has been challenging enough. Every step in the process seems to involve some pitfalls, and so far I'm only talking about the planning and the DA, and the project is actually exempt from needing a DA! The latest item was having to ensure that the WHOLE HOUSE complies with the current Building Code of Australia energy efficiency requirements in re relation to window glazing. All this because we are replacing one (aluminium framed single-glazed) window (with a double glazed door). Surprise, surprise - our 1971 house DOESN'T comply with 2009 regulations! To fix this little problem, the building certifier advised me to manually change the U-value and shading coefficient of the existing glazing until the overall result was compliant. He earnestly told me that this was not "dodgy"! Isn't it good to see that the bureaucrats who design these systems are so sensible.

Geoff and I took some time to ourselves last week when we took ourselves off to the beautiful Country Guesthouse Schonegg. This was our first-ever (and last-ever, for a long time) night away from Cassie. The Guesthouse is in Murrumbateman, so you can see that I was not very confident. Cassie is not quite weaned yet, so I wasn't sure about going away for more than 1 night. Anyway, we had a lovely time. Delicious food at both dinner and breakfast. The people who owned it were truly hospitable (something the "hospitality" industry has generally overlooked), and the rooms were even solar passive!

Only two weeks to go till my mat leave starts! Yay!