After working for 10 days straight and without adequate time to recover from his trip to Amsterdam, Shane had Thanksgiving through Sunday off. Yay! He really deserved it. We spent the time together, just relaxing and getting things organized around here.

For Thanksgiving, we watched the Macy’s parade on TV and then the dog show afterward, while munching on cinnamon rolls Shane so kindly popped into the oven. After he took a bath and I took a nap, we started making our quick and convenient dinner of ham, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and rolls. Everything came together and tasted yummy. I don’t regret taking the easy way out.

On Friday, we did manage to do some shopping, though we didn’t head out until the late afternoon. We went to Joann fabrics and Target, and Target again the next day. Minimal crowds and lines. It was nice.

We have just about all of our Christmas shopping done (all that’s left are presents for each other!) and we’ve bought just about everything I hoped to have on hand before the baby is born. This week, I’ll order a sling and I’ll head to the mall and get a nursing bra or two to get me started. Other than that, I think we’re pretty much set.

Not long ago, Shane was lounging on our futon, and the crazy thing broke. Part of the frame snapped, and the only way to fix it would be to weld it back together. Considering we sort of hated the futon anyway, and picked it up for $40 used, we didn’t feel all that bad about parting with it.

Shane disassembled it and we carried the thing to the dumpster. Bye! At first, we thought we wanted to get a couch to put in its place. But now, we think that we’ll just use the furniture we have and get a couch some other time. Maybe when we move to a bigger place?

For starters, our living room isn’t huge. It feels a bit cramped with a couch in it, and now we’ll have more floor space for the baby to crawl about.

Plus, we don’t have a truck and we don’t know anyone with a truck. Getting a couch to our apartment (and to the third floor) would be more hassle than it’s worth.

So for now, we have a recliner and the Price is Right chair with ottoman in our living room. That’s one chair each — and if we have people over, we can also use our dining chairs, exercise ball and even some floor pillows if we wanted.

This weekend, we rented a Rug Doctor and cleaned all the carpets and our recliner. It didn’t take too long and it wasn’t difficult. The machine rental was about $30 and we paid about $18 for the cleaner and anti-foam. It’s taking awhile for everything to dry, but I can already tell that it looks so much better. I’m glad we finally did that. Who knows when they were last cleaned? I don’t.

In the baby’s room, we set up a shelf for books and I finished organizing the closet. Just a few more bits of organizing, and it’ll be ready to go!

We hope to get our Christmas tree set up early this week and get a few more things organized. I’ll feel a lot better about things if we can get these little projects finished.

We’re really making progress and I want to keep the momentum going while we still can.

After going YEARS without having a good night’s sleep, I’m happy to report that I think I’m finally starting to get past my chronic insomnia.

I was a bit worried about the effect daylight saving time would have on my body, but so far, so good.

I’m being more strict with forcing myself to go to bed by 10:30ish, and it’s really helping. I’m automatically waking up around 6 a.m. or a little sooner, but as far as I know, I’m sleeping through the night.

I’ve been doing a short exercise routine during the day, and I hope to add to that. I think even a 15-minute ab workout is helping me.

Finally, the biggest thing: I stopped worrying about sleep. I had read some literature suggesting that if you’re worried you’ll never get a good night’s sleep, you’re probably right. It’s better to have a positive attitude about it instead.

So, after implementing those things in my life (and praying hard about it!) I feel like I’m on the path to great sleep every night.

It’s nice to know that there’s probably not anything physically wrong with me that caused my sleep issues!

Some of you might know that I have had trouble with sleep for the last, oh, five years. Basically, all of college and then some. I kept zany hours working at the newspaper (afternoon-past midnight) and had some morning classes. Not good.

I’m trying to get back on a normal-person schedule. For one, I don’t feel productive when I’m up all night and sleep during the day. Two, it’s not good for your health.

I’ve been working hard to wake up and actually get up during the morning, and go to sleep before midnight. It’s been a struggle.

I’ve imposed a new rule on myself: No computer or TV past 8 p.m. I think those devices just keep me wired, and make it hard to shut my brain off at night. Plus, I get distracted and carried away, and the next thing I know…it’s really late.

Second, no caffeine. I haven’t been drinking coffee or colas lately anyway, but when I do drink coffee, it’s decaf.

For the last two nights, I’ve gone to bed at 10 p.m. That’s unreal at how early that is for me, especially when 2 a.m. or later was a previous bedtime.

I’ve fallen asleep OK, surprisingly, but I’m now waking up during the night. Last night, I woke at 1:30, and went back to sleep. I woke again at 4. I went to the bathroom and tried to sleep, but I don’t know how deep of a sleep that was. I finally got up at 5:15 and had breakfast. I was wide awake at that point, though still tired.

I hope to stay productive all day. I might end up taking a nap later on, though I’ll try not to since I tend to take long naps, rather than the suggested 20-30 minute one.

If I can get on this routine, I think I’ll get a lot more done and feel a lot better.

The next step: Adding exercise to my day.

Thank you to everyone who reads my main blog! On Tuesday, we saw the most unique visitors in one day that we’ve ever seen: 1,985. This comes about a week after passing that 1,000-visitor mark, so it’s really neat that it’s growing so quickly. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Yesterday, I went to my new Bible study. It was great! I liked the leader and the topics we’re covering. Yesterday, one topic we discussed was being homesick. Whoa. When I saw that written on the handout, I almost started to cry. “Homesick” has been how I’ve felt off and on since June.

Things are getting better, though.

My husband and I are starting to think we might be in Pittsburgh for awhile–at least longer than we originally thought (12-18 months). It might be better for his career if he stayed in the Pittsburgh office, as opposed to being transferred to another location.

While we would like to live closer to family, it might not be the best option for our little family of two.

For one, we’d have to start all over in a new city–knowing no one, likely. Two, we don’t know if he’d like his job there, and we don’t know if we’d like the new location. Nothing is definite–we could end up moving this year, or our children could be born here (I’m not pregnant.)

So, we’re going to try to plant some roots in Pittsburgh. If we’re going to be here awhile, it’s probably for the best that we become Pittsburghers, you know? While I wish that we were closer than a 7-9 hour drive from our parents, I’m glad that at least we are able to make that drive.

We’ve found a potential church home. As I mentioned earlier, I joined a women’s Bible study. I met some great gals yesterday, and two of them will be meeting me for lunch today. Hooray! They each moved to Pittsburgh from other parts of the country a few years back, and know exactly what I’m going through. What a relief to know I’m not entirely alone.

…wasn’t so bad for me!

Did you see this story in Time?  I hope the day wasn’t horrible for everyone. That’s pretty bad–when the entire nation has a bad day. Ya know?

My day was good. The sun was shining most of the day, I got a decent amount of stuff done, and made a little money. I had a hot cooked dinner. My husband and I have our health. We don’t have any major worries. Life is good.

Here’s to a great week! Hope you’re well, reader in bloggyland.