I try to be practical when it comes to buying things for my family or house. And yes, even myself. When you live on 1 income, which isn’t a fantastic figure, you have to be. Frivolously spending of your money is not taking care of what God has given you. I believe we are to be wise stewards of our money. Which in reality is His anyway, for when He is our Lord, we are His. And what is ours, has been given to us by Him. Yes, we have worked for the things we have, weather is be money or goods, but it still all came from Him. So I try to be wise with our money. And I stress the word “try”. I am much better at this whole money thing than I was, say, 10 years ago or even 1 year ago. But I’m still not at the level of my husband, who will most likely laugh when he reads this. His mother is really good with money and even she calls him a “penny pincher”. I am not complaining or criticizing by any means! When we married, we jointly had about $25,000 in debt (from college, credit cards and the like). With in 4 years that was all paid off and now, the only debt we have is our house. We have been a 1 income family for 10 years out of the 11 we have been married. So for me to claim all this is remarkable! But be sure not to give me any credit, for if anything, I made things harder on him in the process.
Anyway, this was a long introduction to my announcement that I have a baby wish list. I know what you’re thinking: you have 6 children. What could you possibly need at this point? That’s a good question and I have a good answer. 
Except for a baby car seat and a stroller, we haven’t had any new baby gear since Maacah was born 10 years ago. Because of that, I’m not ashamed or embarrassed to have a list.
So here it is and I will explain why I would like that particular item.
1. A play pen. We still have the one from when Maacah was born and it works fine. Except we lost the bassinet pieces long ago and the material is getting quite worn around the edges. It still works for a toddler, but not for a newborn. For Damaris, I used a bassinet on the ground floor which worked nicely when she fell asleep. That is until her brothers found that it had wheels. Then it wasn’t so great when they would push her around, at any given moment, in any given direction. I don’t want to make that mistake again. I have used another bassinet for in our room (since Isaac was born), which I might still use. It has a strap that goes under our mattress so the bassinet can’t move away and it also has a piece of the side structure that can be removed to be the same height as the bed. I like this, but there is no room for that and my table (which holds the lamp, clock, diapers, and wipes). If I had a play pen with a bassinet and diaper stacker (like the one linked), this would solve that problem. I’ll put a smaller table for my lamp and clock, move the bedside table out of the way and put this play pen there. Or I’ll use if for downstairs, which would get more use for the price. Either way, I think this would a helpful item to have. (BTW, I obviously am totally out of the loop with baby things! Most of the play pens were completely outrageously priced! Goodness!!)
2. A Moby wrap. I tried to make one of these on my own, but it didn’t work out too well. The fabric was too stretchy and the baby kept sagging. Not really a good thing. I don’t care too much about the color, except not a definite “girly” color, such as the lilac or the natural color. Adam wouldn’t like me to put his son in a lilac holder (but blue is okay for a girl?) and can you imagine how quickly something natural colored would get dirty around here?! 
3. A traveling swing. We had a regular sized swing but after 8 1/2 years and 5 children, it finally broke. We borrowed one for Damaris, but we just don’t have the room for a regular sized swing. All of our children LOVED the swing, so it is a must have (watch this little one make a liar out of me!). We were constantly tripping over the swing or moving it around. With as many bodies, toys, furniture, and junk that we have in this house, a small travel swing would be a much better use of money and space. Our old one had a tray and toys on it, but no one ever played or needed them.
4. A little rocking chair. This is take the place of a bouncer (another thing we no longer have but all the children liked). It was my mistake. I was cleaning out the garage and thought I had picked up the old, mildew-y cover to the old bouncer, which is why we had a new bouncer, and took it out to the garbage man. It wasn’t. It was the old frame with the new cover (when a baby item is not being used, the cover gets washed and then put in a bag tapped to the frame of the item. I made the mistake of not looking into the bag before throwing it away.). So that left me with the old cover and new frame, which would not work. Hence, we have no bouncer. Someone gave us a chair like this for Nathaniel and he, then Damaris, LOVED it! But it has since been broken and I would like to replace it. Not necessarily for the new little one, but certainly for Damaris now and when this little one gets bigger.
5. A breast feeding pillow. This is a total want, not a “must have”. I’ve nursed 6 babies without a special pillow, but I have wanted one for some time now. I have looked at the Boppy pillow, but most reviewers said that it was not a good nursing pillow. So I came across this one and it seems like a good idea. It talks about deflating it for travel, but I don’t think it will be traveling much with it, for I don’t travel much.
So that is my wish list.
Jennifer