I’m curious about two things (maybe another blog post): (1) Are you planning to take a maternity leave and in what form?; and (2) How many hours a week do you work now (approx) and how much do you plan to work once done with mat leave in whatever form? (I guess that’s actually 3 questions!) As you know, I have 4 kids (my #4 is a few months younger than yours), and although I found that in many ways, there wasn’t a huge difference in moving from 3-4 kids, I DID find that my work limit went down quite a bit. Just can’t put in the same hours over a longer period of time.

@Cloud – thanks for the recommendations, I will check them out!

@Lee – pregnancy does a number on my sleep capability. I put a pillow between my legs and one behind my back in addition to the one under my head. I have a big pregnancy pillow but I find that three regular ones also do the trick with less bulk.

And if you want a fictional version of the end times… I enjoyed the novella An Etiquette Guide to the End Times, by Maia Sepp.

I also read “Strangers in their Own Land” and really liked it. It was baffling to me how negatively impacted people have been by the destructive behaviors of companies in that region. And yet – they don’t want stricter environmental laws! I just can’t wrap my mind around that. You can swim in the local waters or eat fish from them, but you think there should be fewer laws since corporations will act in the best interest of locals citizens… but they haven’t? Ugh ugh ugh. It was interesting to get a peak into the minds of people with very different views of mine, though. Even though it was infuriating to read.