Baby room photos

Here are photos of baby #3's nursery. We got the room together just last Saturday, and the baby may be coming in the next few days! I love our "reading chair" -- an awesome Dutailier glider found on Craigslist. What the room really needs is a book shelf / storage. I have a small basket next to the chair for now, but I'll want to increase our book storage space soon. Picture #2 features a soon-to-be big brother.

I'm also going to try and paint my own artwork for the room -- I picked up some stretched canvases on sale and some inexpensive acrylic paints to make car and truck pictures for the walls. Nothing too fancy, but hopefully attractive! I'm also hoping to make a valance, a little intimidating, but I'm feeling inspired and encouraged by a favorite blog, The Nesting Place.

I LOVE the library -- but not the fines!

I would love for our family to be big-time library users. But..... I'm having a lot of trouble with overdue books and paying fines. And the fines add up fast! (Enough that I could buy a few books with what I have paid this year so far, and it's only September!)

Our library system has a great online catalog, and I have had helpful librarians renew my books so that I don't have to pay the fines, which has saved me more than once. I can go online to renew also, and just did that, which has erased a fine that was on that book ($1.60 savings -- very worth it). But... a book I returned a week ago had earned an $0.70 fine that I will have to pay, because I didn't think to renew before returning via the book drop.

I love to go with the boys (or by myself) and check out 6-8 (or more) children's books at a time. What happens to me is that we read them and they get scattered into our own books. I think I'm doing better, as I will grab some to return and only keep the ones we really are enjoying a little longer, to the max of the borrow period (and then some!) I think frequent return stops is working for me, but evidently not well enough as I have an $0.70 to pay.

What are your strategies for managing borrowed materials? I need help!