My, it has been a while hasn’t it? Things have been moving along very quickly in the Merritt home these days. Weekly baby doctor visits, new work, baby room construction, and a bunch of other little things have been getting in the way of my precious blogging time. So, why not take this time to give everyone a little update?

Baby News Bulletin:

Katy is working 3 days a week from home now, so she can take it easy here for the last stretch of the pregnancy. Caelyn has been doing very well it seems. At our last sonogram a couple of weeks ago, our doctor told us she was about 5lbs 2oz, and growing very well. Caelyn’s gotten herself breached though, and hasn’t decided to turn as of yet, so there’s a decent chance that we’ll be going the c-section route in order to get her outta there. And depending on a couple of other variables, we could be having her any week in June. We’ll keep you posted.

Spring Cleaning:

With the delivery coming near, Katy and I decided to extend our long weekend by taking last Thursday and Friday off from work and dedicate ourselves to finishing Caelyn’s room, reorganizing the apartment, and cleaning the apartment from top to bottom. It took the entire 5 days we had, but we were able to finish yesterday. It’s amazing how much stuff we are able to cram into this apartment. The place looks great and I’m sure that we won’t even be able to tell we did anything after our 2 baby showers this weekend. Great.

Work/Business:

Work has been very good this month. I picked up a client from church and I have been casually talking with a design firm based in California about taking a full-time job with them sometime in the future. We wouldn’t have to move or anything, since my work is digitally based. Until that opportunity officially comes, I have been fortunate to pick up quite a bit of contract work from Church Plant Media, a fantastic firm that is dedicated to helping church planters be relevant through technology and design. They are basically doing what I set out to do with Pixelight, but doing it at a totally different level and much better. Andrew has been working for CPM for the past few months and I have to give him all the credit for recommending me for the job. I’m designing websites and logos and even consulting with church planters. I created a portfolio over at Carbon Copy in case anyone wants to see the work I’m doing for them. I’m loving the work and jumping at the chance to do as much for them as possible. It’s a great intersection of my passions. I get to do great, relevant design for the Kingdom, plus I get to talk with church planters all over the nation about how they do church, what their philosophies are, and what their vision is for the future and the local church. It’s like I get to keep my hand on the pulse of the church planting movement while doing great design.

Now that Andrew is full-time at Church Plant Media and I’m somewhere between part-time and full-time with CPM, we really don’t have much time to devote to Pixelight Creative. I think we will have to make a decision by the end of the year on whether or not we will be able to sustain it long-term. I’ll always have time for freelance work, but running a small business is a totally different monster. Marketing, client maintenence, site maintenence, meetings, administrative needs…….all of these things add up to not having enough time. Heck, I haven’t updated the Pixelight site in months! It’s still in it’s temporary-iWeb design. If I go full-time with this firm in California or with Church Plant Media, I may have to convert Pixelight to “Chris Merritt Design” or something more freelancy-sounding.

But this is all good news and I hope that things will continue to develop so Katy won’t have to worry about returning to work (2 days in office, 3 days at home) after her maternity leave.

Dallas Mavericks:

You didn’t think I was going to forget the Mavs, did you? The playoffs have been adding an extra load on my weekly schedule, but I don’t mind a bit. The Mavs swept Memphis, wrestled by the mighty Spurs, and are currently trying to get by the speedy Suns. If they stick with it and don’t break down defensively, then these Mavs are undoubtedly going to the finals, which would be quite historic and therefore I am both excited and stressed out. Almost every recent game for the Mavs has been very tight in scoring, so I am having no trouble staying up late to watch the end. The Mavericks in the playoffs is better than espresso and Red Bull. I’m already counting down the minutes until tonights game. Go Mavs!