Nearing completion

A year ago today I was five months pregnant, Judah was perfecting his escape-artist techniques, and we were moving dozens and dozens of boxes into our new home. What a difference in a year. Micah's eight months old, Judah stays in bed fairly consistently, and the boxes are FINALLY all emptied.

The last part didn't come about until a few weeks ago. The picture above is what one wall of our front room looked like for months and months after we moved in, because I was waiting for a bookcase to be built. I don't know what happened, but between moving into our last place and moving into our current place, my library grew exponentially, and I discovered that I now have a completely unconscionable amount of books. I had no idea what was going on. Two bookcases used to be more than enough. Not anymore. So Nathan built me a third. Yay! He and Jeff installed it, and then the alphebetization began. It involved several days and a lot of floor space.

In process.... and please, don't anyone go thinking I'm a Nazi because of the book in the center. It's a really good book, and I thought it was hysterical that Payasa decided to park herself overlooking a book called Maus (mouse).
The three bookcases, filled and, in some places, double-decked. As I started to fill the top shelves of the third case I considered donning my bullet-proof vest, because I began to realize that we would need a fourth bookcase, and that Nathan was going to possibly murder me out of frustration. I could only fit up to Rowling on the three cases. Nathan was very kind about it, however, and just sighed and suggested that I throw out or give away some books (and I totally forgive you for saying that, Nathan). Fortunately, I have a very kind, generous brother-in-law, and Jeff knocked another bookcase together inside of a couple hours. It has yet to be installed, but when it is Edith Wharton and Oscar Wilde and John Steinbeck and Sue Townsend and all the rest can come in from their exile in the garage.

And then. Then Barbara up and moved to South Africa. And, bless her forever, she asked me if I wanted to babysit part of her library for a couple years! Nathan sighed again and agreed, and a few hundred more books (and two of her bookcases) made their way into our bedroom. I'm having so much fun with her books already! It's like Christmas every day around here.