Spanish Food

I called my brother today just to confirm plans for Mother's Day and to ask him if he and his new wife planned to serve dinner or if we needed to be prepared to feed the kids dinner after leaving his house and before going to the church for the musical that Jo is singing in.

His response?

"Uh...yeah...I think so.  Eloisa is planning everything.  I think she's cooking food.  She said she is going to make some kind of Spanish food, so that means your kids will like it because they are half Spanish, right?"

Um....yeah, Aaron.  We're good.  We'll be fine.  Can't wait.  See you tomorrow.

Note to self...pack snacks....

This Weekend...

Well, it turns out that my brother got married last Friday.  We all knew the girl, but we didn't know that he was going to get married!  In fact, we had kind of given up hope that he would ever settle down and marry, but lo and behold,  he did.  Our family here is very small.  I have one brother and one sister, and my sister and her husband do not have any children, and my mother was an only child.  My father's family is in Georgia and only one of his 2 siblings has any children, and they only had 2 boys...one of which married and now has triplets (!) and the other has 2 children, but they all live far away, and the most that we get down to visit them is once every few years, if that.

Jimmy has a large extended family, but only his mom and dad are here.  He has one sister who is still living and she has 3 kids, but they are all in El Salvador.  His brother, who passed away a few years ago, didn't have any children.

So to me, it is kind of exciting that my brother finally got married.  Maybe they will have children and my kids can have some cousins t play with.

Ok, let's be honest.  Maybe they will have kids so that when something gets broken at my parents' house during a family get-together, it won't always be our fault.

No, but seriously, I think that the more family and extended family you have, the better.  That way, if you have a falling out with one person, you have a lot more to still talk to and maybe one of them can help you fix the issue you have with the one that's mad at you.

We don't really have that right now, but maybe soon...

Anyway, for all of our family gatherings, we always get together at my parents' house since their house is the biggest and that way my parents don't have to travel.

But this year, Mother's Day is going to be something different.  My brother's new wife has invited us all to their house for Mother's Day!

I am pretty excited about this.  It has been forever since I have been to my brother's house even though he only lives about 20 minutes away since he is always out or working.

So, my first thought was 'wow!  This is going to be so fun!'

Then my next thought was 'wow!  He has no kids and has no idea about child-proofing a home!'

Not that I am expecting him to puts plugs in all the outlets and baby gates on the stairs or anything, but I mean more like fragile stuff on end tables and valuables at eye level.

So, I called him back after he invited us and I said, 'Ummmm...Aaron?  I don't know if you knew this or not, but baby Jesse's walking now, so that means that he kind of gets into everything.'

His response?  'That's ok.  We don't really have anything for him to get into.'

Hmmmmm....

Well, I guess we'll find out on Sunday!

To Fold or Not to Fold...That is the Question...

I feel kinda like I have been just treading water around here...or, in our case, treading laundry since that seems to be what we are drowning in.

When my in-laws moved out, we decided to make their old room into a huge walk-in closet.  (Have I told this before?  Sorry if I have...)

Anyway, although it may seem like a huge waste of space in our little house, it actually works out quite well.  The kids never do anything in their rooms but sleep, so it seemed like a waste to put one of them in the second biggest bedroom in the house. (Jimmy's and mine is the biggest, although not by much, and it is a lot hotter in the summer and the ceilings are slanted, so there is something to be argued about if someone says we took the best room in the house.  We also have 4 people in our room, so I figure it's warranted.)  So, we put all of the dressers in the bedroom as well as a special bookshelf just for library books and a few drawers and cabinets for our homeschool and craft supplies.  The thing is that there are only 3 dressers, and we have 6 people.  It works out ok, though, because I have a basket on a table for my socks and stuff, and the Jesse and Gabriel share a dresser and Jimmy has one drawer in Elizabeth's dresser and one in Jo's dresser.  I do think that I am going to move the rest of my stuff back into our room, though, since right now all my stuff is just folded in a laundry basket and that makes it really hard to find anything.

But here's the catch:

One of the big reasons we decided to do this was because the kids always seem to be needing to change their clothes when they are downstairs.  They come downstairs to eat in the morning, then they change.  They take their showers in the bathroom, which is downstairs, and then they change.  So we figured that since all the clothes somehow ended up on the floor or shoved in drawers never to be seen again when the dressers were upstairs, if the dressers were DOWNSTAIRS, then Jimmy and I could keep a better eye on things.

Ok, let's be serious.  I could keep a better eye on things.  Jimmy's socks often don't make it where they belong, either.

But it seems that no matter how close of an eye I keep on things, that room seems to be constantly in some state of explosion!

I can wash and dry all the laundry and put it in the room, but if I don't fold and put it away immediately, then someone sits in the basket and dumps it or looks for that elusive t-shirt and tosses half of it on the floor, or someone 'forgets' that the dirty laundry goes in the bathroom and tosses their stinky socks on top.

The handy part of having everything together is that I can just fold and put away just standing there right in the middle of the room.  It's great.  The BAD part of having everything together is that there is usually one huge mess in there unless I REALLY stay on top of things.  And let's just say I haven't.  Really.

But then I realized that I would rather have one huge mess that I can see and tackle in one sitting than to have several smaller messes in separate rooms where I have to actually enter the room to find the mess and then sort out what is clothing mess and what is paper and toy mess and then tackle it.  (Elizabeth and Jo's room is so small I avoid entering it at almost all costs.  All they have in there is their 2 beds and a desk and a dresser full of Elizabeth's books, but somehow it is always a disaster and I can't enter without risking stepping on someone's something important and breaking it.)

So now, it seems that our roomer, Charlie, has also moved out, so we are quite giddy with thinking about what to do with his empty room.  Well, it's not actually empty since he let us use it even when he was living there, but it's more empty than it needs to be so we keep tossing ideas around about what to do with it.  The problem with it is that it is very very small, and it is also on the first floor.  The bedroom where Jimmy and I sleep is on the second floor.  So, to put a kid down there means that they would be all alone down on the main floor of the house.

Anyway, I'm not really sure what the point of this posting is, but if I wasn't here typing, I would probably be feeling guilty about not folding laundry.

So maybe that's the point of the post.  To assuage my guilt by pretending that I am doing something worthwhile instead of rolling socks!

Christmas All Year 'Round

I have a confession to make:

We still have our Christmas lights up on the outside of our house.

Anyone who drives Elizabeth home late from babysitting or from choir knows this is true.  

'Our house is the one there with the fence,' she says.

'Oh, the one with the Christmas lights still on?' they ask.

'Umm...yeah.  That would be ours.  I'll just get out here...'

But really, what's wrong with a little extra color and lights in the evening?  

Honestly, it's just that Gabriel really likes them and turns them on every day and every time I mention to Jimmy that it just might be time to take the lights down, there is a sorrowful 'Noooooooo!' that comes from the back seat of the truck, and so, they stay up one more week.

I did, however, put my foot down on the red ball that was hanging in the middle of the front stoop.  I never really liked the placement of that ball.  There are supposed to be balls all around the gutters where the lights are hung, but somehow, whoever hung the lights this year didn't get the memo.  Not like we don't do them the same way every year...for the last 8 years or so.  But hey, it's easy to forget, right?  I mean you open the box of 'outdoor decorations', see a few strings of lights and a whole bunch of plastic balls, and you think, 'Yep.  It must be just one...just one up there right in the middle.  Just one lonely red ball dangling there all be its lonesome.  That must be what is meant to be done with this big box of balls'

But I digress.  And next year, I will be sure to either write clear instructions or be home during the application of the outdoor decorations.  I mean, I know our big plastic balls are a little hokey, but at least if there are multiples of them, it doesn't look like some weird red nose hanging on our house!

Anyhow, the solitary red ball had to go.

And, of course, we can't just use a ladder like normal people...oh, no.  We have to make a spectacle of ourselves to get it down.

Gabriel was looking on to be sure that we didn't sneak up there and take his lights down, too.

Don't worry, little buddy, we're still the odd ones in the neighborhood with our Christmas lights still up.  

Do Not Exasperate Your Children...

Ephesians 6:4  Fathers, do not exasperate your children, instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the LORD.


I firmly believe that children need to learn the meaning of the word 'no', and I believe that the sooner they learn it, the easier it will be on them, on the family, and on the community as a whole.  I believe that many parents have given up on trying to teach their children 'no' and rather go for 'no, ok?'  But to be effective, 'no' can't be framed as a question.  It is no because it is no.  It is not 'no' only if you want to agree with me.

I also do not believe that children should be allowed to run the house.  They should be taught that certain things are not ok and are off limits, especially for the youngest members of the family. Don't touch the computer, for example, or don't drink mommy's coffee Gabriel, or don't put your feet on the table at dinner time, or don't pull the cat's tail or try to take his food from his mouth while he's eating...you know, the things that not only protect the valuables in your house from being wantonly broken, but also to be sure that your children remain relatively safe in their home environment and it is an enjoyable experience for all involved.

But even though the word 'no' is used liberally around our house, I also believe that it is our duty a parents to set up areas where it's easy to follow the rules.  That way, things are more evened out.  You may get more 'no's' at the dinner table, for example, but the living room and your play place is pretty much free game, within reason.

Along those lines, when I see a problem area, I try to figure out if this is an area that needs a 'no' taught, or is this an area that needs to be rethought and redesigned with the kids in mind.

Our 'dining room', if you want to call it that, is actually the room that used to be the tiny kitchen before an addition was added to the house and the kitchen was moved back there.  To get to this 'new' kitchen, you must walk through the 'old' kitchen.  It is quite narrow and a little bit long, and has pretty narrow entrances to it on both ends.  In this small small space, we have a dining table pushed up against the wall with 5 chairs and a highchair crammed around it and 3 tall bookcases.  That means that if someone is sitting in a chair eating and you want to walk past them, they must push their chair all the way up to the table to their chest is touching the table so that you can get past behind their chair.

The bookcases hold most of the books that we have in our house.  The reason that they are there is because there really is no other place to put them.  We have a gate that we can close off so we can keep the littles either in or out of the dining room/kitchen area and away from the books.  But, of course, Jesse's favorite past time is to pull all of the books off the second shelf from the bottom and watch them hit the floor.  They make a wonderful slapping sound on the stone tiles we have in that room, and the pages flutter so wonderfully, it's easy to see how he just can't resist.  However, as much fun as he has pulling them off, it is not fun putting them back up, and it's not even like we can leave them down for the day and just collect them once a day because if we do that, they we can't walk back and forth to the kitchen.

I decided that this was not a place where I wanted to try to teach a 'no' so Elizabeth and I decided to take all the books off that shelf and leave that shelf empty.  Actually, to be honest, it was my idea and she was roped into helping.

This is what we started with (this was after they had been picked up and somewhat neatly placed back on the shelf):

...and this is what we ended up with:

There is something in front of the other shelf so that Jesse can't pull those books off right now.  You see, the problem is that we have too many books!  There is no way to empty those two shelves and still have all the books out.

So now I have come to a dilemma:

Do I put the extra books away to be taken back out who knows when?

or

Do I get rid of some of the books that we don't use as much and just figure that we can get them back out at the library if we ever want them?

Is it ethical to get rid of books?!?!?!?!?!?

It seems kind of pointless to put the books away.  I mean, if they are packed away, when am I ever going to say, "Wow!  We really have a lot of extra space here!  Let's pull out those old books that we haven't seen in years and stack them up right here!"

But on the other hand, it's really hard to get rid of books!

It does seem more practical to have a carefully chosen library of really awesome books so that they aren't lost in the mediocre ones, I guess, it's just hard to part with books.

Does anyone out there know what I mean?

For the Sake of Writing

I have not written on here for a while.  I often end up doing that...I think of all the things that I want to write, but then I want to put a picture with them that I don't have yet, or when I actually have time to sit and write, my thought seems trite and not worth spilling out here, so I do nothing and I leave this page blank.

But then so much time passes and the whiteness of this screen haunts me like a ghost and calls me back to its pure perfection and begs me to mar it with these keystrokes.

So here I am.

Today was a wonderful day.  I love days like today.  I love it when the day washes over me in all its bumpy, jumpy, sticky-fingered way.

Jesse is cutting more teeth, so he was up a lot last night, and so I was bleary-eyed tired this morning.  I took Jimmy to work and I didn't take anyone else with me because there were no car seats in the car because we had just picked up a bed for Jo yesterday and hadn't installed the seats again.  (Yay!  Beds!  What fun!  I'll post pics when we get the other bed and get it set up, too.  Jo was too funny last night, her first night in her 'new' bed.  She looked so little there in this bed even though it is just a twin bed.  She and Elizabeth have been sleeping on the floor for the last few month.  Jo's comment before dozing off was, 'But Mom, this bed just feels to high or something!')  But anyway, after taking Jimmy to work, I cruised on back home and Elizabeth and I started in the rhythm of the day...dress the kids, do the laundry, pick up the living room, wash the morning dishes...

Elizabeth had a class this morning at the library and she had to babysit this afternoon.  But when I sent the kids outside to get them ready to take with me to drop Elizabeth off at her class, I realized that these last weeks have been really hard.  We have just been pushing and pushing between school and my bookfairs and Pampered Chef shows...it's just been a constant run.

So I decided to not take Elizabeth to her class and we went to Huntley Meadows and saw the beaver lodge and beaver dams instead.  And we spotted some turtles, some cool scat and some really neat prints.  The geese were there floating in the beaver pond and flashing us their white underbellies as they dove for food under the water.  We took the double stroller, so Jesse rode and Jo and Gabriel took turns riding and running along.

The birds were singing and the sun was out and the sweaters came off and the conversation flowed.

And I remembered again why it was that we decided to homeschool.  I was there with all 4 of my kids.  Not just the little ones, not checking the clock to meet a bus, but just there, enjoying all that God has to offer in his wonderful creation and just soaking it all in and watching in wonder as the kids all discovered anew God's handiwork.

Then it was home for lunch and naps and then Elizabeth went to babysit and the baby woke prematurely from his nap, so I snuggled him back to sleep and just sat there with him in my arms as he slept off the rough night that he had had last night and as he dreamed of beaver teeth while his little teeth struggled to push through his sore little gums.

Before I knew it, it was time to pick Jimmy up from work and the day wound down to it's snuggly long-sleeved pajama end.

And I realized that there are different kinds of fulfillment.

Last week, I worked very hard and each day was full of getting things done, of working hard and feeling good with my accomplishments at the end of the day.

But there was a sort of disconnect.  Dinner was a random affair, and Jesse and the kids were clingy and winy because I was out for most of the day almost every day.

Today, however, I got basically nothing 'done', but I felt connected with the kids and connected to myself.  Even though I don't have that sense of 'get 'er done', which I love, I have a sense of a day well spent with people with whom it is well worth spending.  



Before it was all over, though, Team 3 took Team 2 to Target.

But that's another post, so I guess I'll have to keep on writing!

: )

Another Visit to the Bookshelf

So here's another peak at what I've been reading lately.  Once again, it is a smattering of random stuff, but it sure beats reading the back of the cereal box...again!


Plastics A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel was a great read.  I actually read this one a while ago, but it didn't make it on my last list.  This was not an easy read.  It had a lot of chemical names and compounds that you kind of had to pay attention to and me somewhat familiar with to make it through the book.  The author did explain the words she was using, but to make it easier to follow along, it was nice to already have a background in the jargon.  This book was a real eye opener.  I think that one of the biggest things that I hadn't thought of was the whole plastic pollution issue.  The thing is, or so I learned in this book, is that it is not the bags and bottles that are the biggest plastic pollution issue.  It is that these things never compost, but rather break down into little micro-sized pieces that are now in our oceans.  It is impossible to remove these micro pieces because if a net were used, it would also remove the tiny organisms that are important to our ecosystem.  Another aspect that I had not thought of was how the tubing that is used in the hospitals is all plastic and that is used in babies in the NICU.  That means that sometimes in healing our babies, we are also infecting them with plastic 'runoff' from the tubing and therefore causing complications down the road.  Never thought of that.


The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon was an incredible read.  It took a minute to get into it, but once I did, I really couldn't put it down.  It is the fascinating true story of a girl who lived in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule.   It is written by a reporter, and I could feel this in the way that it read.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but it was not written in a way to entertain, but rather to inform one of details.  But it was not dry at all.  I was captivated.  One day, while I was shopping at Safeway, I saw a woman in full chadir (the one where the whole person is covered with only a little net rectangle over the eyes to see out) and it really made me think about the huge differences in our cultures.  But this book does not focus on the culture so much, but rather on one girl's life and how she moved purposefully through her life constantly striving to help her family and her community against what seemed to be insurmountable odds.  After reading this book, I wondered what exactly is it that I am doing for the good of my community and if I would have had the ability and perseverance to do what she did.  



Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk
For some reason, this has been Gabriel's book of choice for the last few weeks, so I have read this one about one million times.  Well, actually, what happened was that he was into Miss Spider's New Car



which anyone who knows Gabriel will know that this one is more up to his speed, but he misplaced the book and so he had to settle for the tea party one.  It's still cute with lots of bugs in it.  He likes to read the same book every day at nap time for a while then he will just up and pick a new one.



I just finished reading The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner with Jo and Gabriel, so they have spent the last week or so playing boxcar children in the backyard or under the table in the dining room in inclement weather.  It's a cute story about a group of children who are on their own and find an abondoned boxcar to live in.  They are running away from their grandfather, who they think is mean, but it turns out that really he was looking for them and is very nice and rich, too.  I think that part was kind of lost on the kids, but they liked the part about the kids making their own home in the boxcar.  Honestly, that's all I really remember about the book from when I read it when I was little, too.  Cute read.


The Enclave by Anne Aguirre was also a good read.  It is another one of those books that takes place in the future (the not so distant future, it would seem with all this crazy weather we are having!).  It is about a girl who lives below the ground in what was the subway system and then is sent away from her clan to live above the ground.  She realizes that there is indeed life above ground and she and her friend, who was cast out with her, try to survive above the ground.  There is a sequel to this, and I will read that one, too, but it seems like an awful lot of the new literature is about the future, and sometimes I get tired of reading about everything getting blown up, taken over and/or enclosed and ruled and teenagers trying to figure out how to live.  Maybe because it's kinda scary to think about?  Or maybe because it's not the literature I grew up on, or maybe it's just because I like to vary my reading (as is made obvious by what I end up burying my nose in!)

On another note...

A neighbor called and asked if we have power.  We do.  They asked if they could run an extension cord from here to there.  I told them that they could but that the part of the house that is closest to them is an addition, and is not wired well and the fuse can't take much before it blows.  It blows on us all the time with just the fridge and the microwave.  I told them that they could use the power, but mainly just to run a lamp or charge a phone or something small but not like a TV and lights and a computer and everything.  They said they would call me back.  They never did.  It just seems like two things:  1.  This storm did not spring suddenly upon us.  If you know that you will probably lose power, you should prepare at least somewhat so that you have some sort of lighting and a plan of what to do when you can't turn on the TV, and 2.  If you want to borrow electricity from your neighbor, you should not be expecting to power your whole house with it in an attempt to act as if the power is not off.   Anyway, that's just my opinion, but then again, I am the one sitting here with full power.  If my lights were off, maybe I would think differently.

I hope everyone is safe and I plan to go to bed now and hopefully sleep through what's left of the storm and wake up with at least some of the shingle still on my roof!

Not Laughing Now...

I know that one day I will look back and laugh at it all.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I won't laugh, but at least I will have made it through so that I can look back rather than look down and not really even be able to see my feet.

Most days, I'm fine.  I get up and do my stuff.  The kids have their routines and things progress and get done and the day weaves its way from breakfast to dinner and bedtime without incident (unless you call Gabriel climbing up on top of the table in the library and jumping off yelling 'And beyond!' an incident.  If things like that are an incident, then yes, we have them every day.  If not, then we're good.  Since Gabriel was born, I've had to change my definition of 'incident'.  And for the record, I had only turned my back to him for a split second to fasten Jesse into his stroller when said non-incident happened.  This, folks, is why he wears the monkey leash every time we leave the house and, to add further the record, he was wearing the leash, I had just dropped the tail to have both hands free to fasten the buckles.)

But some days, it all gets to me and I feel like I am going to go crazy!  I feel like the house is closing in on me and I begin to feel claustrophobic.  I feel like I am tripping over everything and every one.  My clothes feel too small and I notice every noise like it is coming through a megaphone right into my ears.  The aquarium bubbling, my in-laws TV in their room, the washing machine tumbling its way to clean all feel like too much...sensory overload.  I feel overwhelmed, incompetent and completely out of control.

And it doesn't help that the living room looks like this:

We had to pull everything out of our bedrooms upstairs about 3 months ago, and we have still not recovered enough to be able to put things back, so everything is in our living room.  Yes, that's right, we are living out of boxes in the living room.  Everyone has their basket of clothes, and that's what they get.  But with winter coming on, the clothes themselves are larger, so they take up more room and don't really fit in the baskets anymore which means that there is always overflow.  And have you ever tried to keep something organized in a basket that stays in the most highly traveled area of the house?  And what happens when you have one half naked kid balanced on your hip and you realize that the article of clothing that you need is in his basket that is on the bottom of the pile?  Or what happens when you tell Jo to put on her socks and HER basket is on the bottom of the stack?

Needless to say, this whole thing is driving me crazy.  But then I think, what if all the clothes were put away? Would that REALLY ease my problems?  Would I then be able to avoid these 'don't touch me, don't talk to me just let me curl up in the corner in the fetal position' times?

I honestly don't think so.  I think that it's just me and a part of who I am, and I just need to develop strategies to help me deal with these times.

So far, I haven't come up with any strategies, and of course I wait til I'm in the thick of it to try to think of one.

So for right now, if you need me, I'll be curled up in the corner.  Approach with your hand extended in a sign of friendship, and speak gently.

Keeping an 'eye' on things...

Let me warn you right now...

This is going to be a random sort of post, so...

Read on at your own organizational risk.


For those of you who know what has been going on with Jo, and for those of you who don't know what is going on with Jo but who have been praying for her and our family anyway, I have good news:

Jo's most recent tests came back normal, and so it seems that although no one knows why her body was behaving in the way that it was, all of the 'scary' diagnosis are ruled out so far, and now it is just a waiting game to see if the symptoms go away on their own.  Either way, we plan to run some of the tests again in about a month to see if things are continuing on their 'normal' trend or if further investigation is needed.

Please continue to pray for normal.

Jo's comment on the whole thing was as follows:

But Mom, if I have to draw blood again, I can't!  They've already done it twice and I don't have any arms left!

My response:

Well, then, they will just have to get it out of your nose.

Jo:

Nu-uh, Mom.  My arm will be healed already by then.  It is a whole month away.



On the school front, things have gone a little slower than I would have liked due to all the doctors appointments and running around we have had to do because of what's been going on here.  Just in case you're curious, here's what we have been doing:

Elizabeth has finished module 2 in biology.  She is using Apologia 'Exploring Creation with Biology'.  Since I like biology and so by default she has no choice but to enjoy it to its fullest as well, (I'm kidding.  Sort of.)  she also has a coloring workbook that goes along with her lessons.  It doesn't follow the same plan exactly, but it is kind of neat because it hits on some things in more depth that the book just glosses over.  You can't see very well, but you read about a certain subject and in the text, it points out specific parts that you then find on the diagram and color.  Then you color code the key on the page with the text.  I like it.  Elizabeth tolerates it.  But I know that she would prefer to be coloring things than dissecting them.  As much as I like bio, she really kinda sorta doesn't.  It's a good compromise.

We are not starting her Algebra 2 until January or February.  The hope was that she would finish her science first, and then hit her math, but since we were slowed a bit lately, I'm not sure how the timing will work out for that.  The idea was to push through science and focus on that and then push through the math and be able to focus on that one.

We are kind of using the Sonlight curriculum for Elizabeth this year, too, but I am finding that I don't really like the readers that go with it.  I mean, I like the stories well enough, they are just too easy.  We are using core 100, which is for 9th grade, but her reading level is much higher.  But, since we have it, we are pushing through it.  Despite the fact that the readers are easy, they do have good historical content, which may in fact be the purpose:  to have books that are easy to read so that the student can really absorb the historical content without having to struggle with the reading level.  Either way, she is reading the books like they are comic books and putting the characters on the timeline that she made.

Which is another interesting thing:

I told Elizabeth that we needed to make a timeline so that we would know when things were happening in relation to each other.  That is all I said, pretty much.  Well, one day, after I got home from taking Jo to the doctor, this is what I saw when I walked in:

A timeline.  With a Jo's pumpkin on the bottom.  This is not at all how I imagined it.  I was thinking more along the lines of a long line with hash marks on it for the years and then individual figures cut out and placed in their proper times.  Elizabeth's argument was that we may not hit all of the years in our studies, and this way we can move things around to fit in more figures where they need to go.  Good thinking.  I like it.

Elizabeth is also still going on her Thursday morning jaunts into DC.  She is doing wonderful work there.  Her writing is much improved, both in handwriting form itself and her style and content.  Much more insightful and creative.  It's amazing what a little freedom will do for you!

To pick up the slack in the readers that she is experiencing with the Sonlight curriculum, she is also attending a book discussion group that meets once a month.  Last month was The Aeneid; this month, War and Peace.  I think she is making up for her easy readers there.

She is also part of a literature group that meets once a month as well, and they are studying English Lit.  She has a couple of good assignments due for that, too.

Elizabeth has a spelling list that she tests on every week as well as working through a chapter of Wordly Wise, a vocabulary workbook, every week.  (Jo calls it 'Whorly Why's' so she will sit with her workbook and say that she is doing her Whorly Why's.)

Her Bible study is loosely taken from her Sonlight Curriculum, and she is continuing to read through the whole Bible.  She is not as far as we would like in her reading, but she is working through it slowly but surely.  More slowly than surely, but still, it's happening.

Her geography is tied in with her readers, but is pretty weak.  I am looking into something to supplement it, but honestly, she is pretty busy with everything else right now especially since she is also following the elections.  Tied into that, we are collecting propaganda from both sides and analyzing it to see how marketing and design are targeted to elicit certain responses in us.  This is to hopefully not only help her to pick out what's the truth and what is only a design scheme both in politics and also in the day-to-day life marketing of make-up, clothes and body image to name a few.

Elizabeth's foreign language has pretty much been limited to practicing reading Spanish and working on some vocabulary.  We decided that it would be a good idea to get her more proficient in Spanish before branching out into another language, but we do have her French books in the wings, raring to go.

We didn't sign up for soccer this season.  Elizabeth said that she wanted to try karate, and usually the rec center has karate very inexpensively, but they didn't have a class for her age group this session.  She also has been interested in scuba diving, but that is very expensive so she would have to pay part of her class for that.  But, since she hasn't been good in her oral upkeep, she has 4 cavities (!) that she needs to have filled, and she will be paying for those since we told her we would not pay for any preventable dental work like cavities that are between the teeth and due to not flossing.  That means that scuba has to go on the back burner til she gets a lot of babysitting jobs.  What she has in the bank right now will just be enough to cover her teeth.  Hopefully she will find flossing and scuba to be a better investment than cavities in the future.

That pretty much sums her up and keeps her busy and out of trouble.

Jo is going a bit slower since she is the one I have been having to drag around with me to doctors' offices.  She has broken the code of reading, though, and is able to sound out easy, short vowel words.  We are working through A Beka Book kindergarten Letters and Sounds and Writing with Phonics, but honestly, she just runs through the pages because she wants to write her letters.  She is pretty much past both of the books, but I let her use them anyway for reinforcement and letter practice as well as to satisfy her craving to have workbooks.

She is also whizzing through math.  I have kindergarten math books, too, but she is basically using those in the same way as the Letters and Writing books...just to say that she has done her math workbook for the day.  I had picked up a math fun book for grades 1-2 and she is working quickly through that, but it is more at her level.  She understands addition and subtraction and is beginning to grasp the concept of multiplication.  I am not going to push her into that one, though, because I want her to be really strong in her addition and subtraction facts, first.

Those are pretty much the only 2 scheduled things that I do with her.  In science, we have been talking about fall and how the leaves are falling, but also about plants in general.  I used to work at a garden center and loved it, and I remember many of the botanical and common names of many of the plants, so I am teaching them to her.  She is very interested.  We talk a lot about what you can learn about a plant by its leaves and flowers, and she can name many common plants that we see when we are out walking.

We go to the farmers' market every Wednesday morning and have made good friends of one of the farmers. He always likes to give us fruits and he has even taken the time to learn the kids' names.  I ask him how in the world he makes his money when he gives us boxes like this:

But he says that he can't really keep it anyway, so he would rather we use it than he throw it away.

So, use it, we do!  I have canned a few jars of applesauce, and these pears are next to go!  I know I could just freeze the stuff, but there's no room in our freezer, so we have to can instead.  I love the round brown ones...the Asian pears.  They are so sweet and juicy with a crystalline feel in your mouth.  Not gritty, but just right.  

Last week, to show our appreciation, we took Farmer Settle a tamale that my mother-in-law had made.  When I saw him this week to ask how he liked it, he said, Well, it certainly has a different taste.  I thought that was a very nice way to put it.  This guy's only foray into cultural cooking is a once a week trip to Taco Bell.  So the fact that he even tried it at all says a lot to me.

Now, for the title of this post...

I have long since known that Jo has an artistic talent.  Jimmy does, too.  (Elizabeth and I don't.)  But even though I know this, I am still constantly amazed at the abilities of this 5 year old little girl!  Jimmy drew the eye on the left, and Jo 'copied' it on the right.  I love the way she did the lashes and shading of the pupil.  This is honestly better than anything I could do.

And the best part is, if you ask her how she can draw so well, she will say:

Because God made me special so I can draw!




 

Not Today...

I fully intended to write today and share the pictures that I have been promising.

However, you will not find me here tonight.  I have one picture that I will share with you and you will understand:

This is a picture of the inside of our refrigerator.  And to make it worse, only the right side of the fridge is ours.  The entire left side and half of the door is my in-laws.

So yes, I will be at the grocery store tonight, not here sharing fun pictures of the kids and our gardens.

But can I extend my promise to next time?

Where to Start

I don't really know where to start the account of what has been going on here, so I will start with the school stuff. 

Elizabeth finished her last school lesson on Saturday, June 3rd.  The reason that this date is important is because she was supposed to finish it at the end of May, but she didn't.  Which meant that I had to be a mean mom and keep my word and not let her do anything til she got it done.  Which meant that she missed her soccer practice on Thursday and her game on Saturday.  She was mad, but I do believe that next time she will finish her work on time.  I wasn't home anyway, so I didn't even get to witness the 'madness' that went on, so honestly, I'm not concerned.  At all. 

I had ordered her a yearbook from the school that we took her out of, and she went today to take back a few books that she still had and to get her yearbook, which she got in the mail yesterday, to be signed.  But, when she got to the front desk, they told her that she could not go back to her classroom because the teacher was in the middle of class and couldn't be disturbed.  It's the last day of school.  How much lecture do they think he is going to be doing?  Anyway, at least she got the book even if it isn't signed by anyone.

The last 2 weekends Jesse and I have been going to festivals for the Pampered Chef.  It's been a lot of fun, but it makes for a long weekend.  He hangs out with me either sleeping in his seat or hanging around in his Bjorn.  He's such a trooper. 

Last week Thursday and Friday Jesse and I went to the homeschool convention.  It was pretty awesome although a bit overwhelming.  The used curriculum sale was pretty incredible, but Jesse decided that he needed to fill his diaper when we got in and then, of course, after the filling of said diaper, he had an empty spot in his tummy that needed to be filled, so we didn't end up getting to look at all the books that I wanted to.  But that's probably ok anyway because I found the science and math books that I needed for Elizabeth and I found the readers that I was looking for for Jo.  So I feel much more prepared for the coming year.  I just need to find the other books for Elizabeth, but I am tracking them on eBay, and I will purchase them soon.

Elizabeth is working like crazy babysitting.  She has earned all the money that she needs for the mission trip and camp, and now is just working to save up for whatever.  She is excited because she got a checking account and a bank card with her name on it so now she can pay for her own stuff and write her own checks.

Gabriel and Jo are signed up for classes at the rec center for the summer.  Jo is taking gymnastics and the class for Gabriel is just called Zoom Around the Room.  I thought that sounded exactly like something that would be good for him!  Both classes are just one day a week for 45 minutes, but they look like fun and will give us all something to look forward to in the heat of the summer.

My mother in law left to go to El Salvador and has a return ticket for August.  At first she said that she was not going to come back in August, or ever, for that matter, but now that she has been there and seen how things really are, she is ready to return.  My father in law is still here and is still looking for a job, but he has some good leads and has been told that if he gets his asbestos license in VA, then he will be able to work there, too.  Which means that it appears that we will not be getting our room back anytime soon. 

Jesse is a smiling giggling machine.  Seriously, that's all he does.  He is an amazing baby.  Have I told you that he sleeps for the night?  Yeah, he's been doing that pretty much since he got home from the hospital.  He also often sleeps at the same time as Gabriel and Jo in the middle of the day.

Which reminds me that Gabriel is doing much better going to bed now.  Jimmy and/or I can usually get him down with just one try, meaning that I can just rock him for a few minutes and then put him in bed and he will stay there. 

And Jo has been doing really well with her quiet time.  I give her a few choices of what she can do, draw, a puzzle, look at a book, fold laundry (yes, this is an exciting activity for her) or something like that, and she stays quietly in her room for at least an hour. 

And my canning has been going well, too.  I have canned strawberry preserves and raspberry jelly.  I'll tell more about that, but that's for another day.  It is getting late here and my 2 oldest, Jordan and Elizabeth, will not go to bed!  Jordan is under a dog blanket barking and wagging her tail.  Jordan is our other 'adopted' daughter, along with Annie, who has been MIA for a while now. 

Anyway, that pretty much sums up the last week or so. 

Pictures?  Well, you see, I pretty much write in the minutes that I find lying around at the end of the day, and they never happen close to a camera, so I'll catch you up on those next time.  Promise.

A Matched Set

Now that Jimmy has hit the big 3-0, one would think that he may be old enough now.  No one's asked yet since his birthday, so we'll see.

But this is what we always get:

A stranger sees Jesse:
Oh, what a cute baby!  Is he your first?

No, he's our fourth. 

Really?  You look too young to have 4 kids!

I mean, I guess it's a compliment, but how do you respond to that?  Say thanks?  Thanks for what?  For saying that I look like someone who had kids while still in highschool?  Is that a good thing? 

Or we get:

Oh, how nice!  Two boys, two girls!  A matching set! 

Ummm....they're not sweaters....

Or:

Wow!  You started young!

Really?  Did you really just say that?

So my question is:
Who's business is it how many children a couple has and when they decide to have them?  I mean, really.  Especially strangers!  When Gabriel was born, after two girls, we heard so many times: 

Great!  Now you've got your boy!  Now you can be done!

As if getting the token boy is what we were after all this time. 

Or, someone would tell Jimmy:
Well, I bet NOW you're happy!  You've got your boy!

Yeah, you got us there!  Those girls just weren't quite doing it for us.  Sure are glad we got us a boy!

After Gabriel was born, I was even asked by someone when I was going to 'take myself in and get fixed'. 

I was a little bit at a loss for words after that one. 

I know that large families are not the norm in the US anymore, especially here in the metropolitan area where we live.  In fact, sometimes I feel like some people try to make us feel guilty about having 'so many' kids, and everyone is always shocked when I say that we very well may have another kid to add to the pile.

Anyway, since apparently it's deemed socially acceptable for people to get into others people's business all in the name of 'curiosity' or 'giving good advice', I think that I'm going to head down to the local Krispy Kreme and sit there and ask people,

Wow!  You're really going to eat that donut?  Yeah, it looks like you've been eating donuts for a while now.  You must have started young.  When are you going to take yourself to the gym and get that little 'issue' you have there fixed?

Oh, but I'd better not.

That'd be rude.

A Difficult Transition

I must admit that I think that I am having a harder time with this whole change in the family set up than anyone else.  Jo and Gabriel are doing fine with the new baby and haven't really seemed to notice that I just happen to be around more now that I quit my job.  I guess that's a good thing on many levels.  It is nice that they are secure enough in me and Jimmy and in each other to not fall apart over the arrival of the little one, and it is also nice to know that I was enough in the picture for them that they aren't really noticing that I am around more than I was when I was working full time. 

Elizabeth has transitioned well to being homeschooled and Jimmy has been doing really really well at work without me there, too.

I, however, am having a really hard time!  I seem to not be able to accept the fact that even though I am home now, that doesn't mean that I am going to get anything done.  But the thing is that even before I quit, I told Jimmy that he needed to understand that all because I am home does not mean that I am going to be able to do a lot of things and keep up with everything all by myself because my primary job and goal while I am home and he is at work is to school and care for the kids, and he is/was ok with that.  He agreed and said that it SHOULD be that way and that yes, that was my new 'job'...NOT to just stay home and be a housekeeper. 

So, what is my problem?  I am having a really hard time letting go of the pressure to always be productive, and I mean productive in a tangible way.  If all I get done in a day is cut 30 fingernails and 30 toenails, bathe 3 kids, wash one load of laundry and hang it out and cut the brush off only one part of the fence, I feel as if I have gotten nothing at all done.  But then, when you look deeper, you see that I have also fed and soothed and played with 3 kids under 5 years old, one of whom is only 2 months old, as well as monitored and coached a teenager through the day, everything takes on a different light, and I feel like perhaps I did indeed accomplish something. 

But I feel like I must always be moving forward.  I have a hard time sitting with Gabriel til he sleeps (ARGH!  He keeps just getting out of his crib!  Any suggestions for keeping a 2 yr old in his bed at nap and bedtime????) or sitting and just rocking Jesse while he nurses and snuggles.  It raises my blood pressure to see Elizabeth sit idle, and I often feel trapped by Jo, Gabriel and Jesse's constant need for attention. I see so many things that need to be done and I feel frustrated by my inability to finish any of them.  I have never done this before! 

I feel like I need to learn to breathe again. 

I was thinking about this today right after I lost my cool with Elizabeth because she was reading a comic book while the frozen groceries melted on the floor in the kitchen while I had to sit with Gabriel for an hour because he wouldn't stay in his crib even though he was tired and really needed a nap.  In a daycare for 2 year old children, the ratio of adult to child is 1:5.  That means that one adult is supposed to be able to care for 5 2 year old children.  That's all.  Care for them.  In a daycare setting.  A place that is set up for childcare and where the kids go home at the end of the day so that it can be straightened and cleaned.  Unless it is an in home daycare, these child care providers worry only about the children that they are watching.  They don't do laundry or grocery shopping or doctors visits while they are trying to watch 5 children.  They watch 5 children. 

Now, I don't have 5, but I do have 4 and one is very small and one is fairly large.  The oldest one does help with the younger ones, but she still needs direction and supervision (i.e. who would think that I would have to tell a 14 year old child that the food needs to be put away BEFORE the comic book is read?  But I do.  So, I have to add that to my mental list of 'things to do'.)  And yet, with these 4 kids to watch, I still have unrealistically high expectations of myself. 

Does anyone out there have an suggestions on how to cope with the transition from being a full time working mother to being a full time stay at home mother? 

And does any one have any suggestions on how to keep my toddler in his bed?  (The tent will not work because he will pull it down and rip it up.  This child can climb anything and is strong enough to push down and pin his 4.5 year old sister to the floor.)

Homeschool

I must admit that Elizabeth's studies have not been as academic as I would like.  It  has been hard to get into a good swing of things with a newborn.  But honestly, that's not the biggest problem.  I have still been heading into work a few days a week to help out with Jimmy's transition and to help tie up some loose ends that only I could do.  So, it has been hard to get a real schedule going around here.

And then my in-laws are saying that they are going to leave and go back home to El Salvador to stay there, so I get in my head how we can use their room, but then they change their mind and only my mother-in-law is going and my father-in-law is staying, so that kind of throws things off, too.  Also, since neither one of them is working right now, it is hard to find a schedule that works now and will work after they leave, too, if they do.  So, we are kind of playing that by ear, which means that everything is pretty much up in the air. 

One thing that we have been working on is sewing.  Elizabeth picked out a pattern to make a dress to wear for Easter, and so we have been working on that.  I have not sewn since highschool, so needless to say, we are just kind of figuring things out together and working our way through it with a seam ripper close at hand. 

The nice thing is that our renter, Charlie, has let us set the sewing machine up in his room so that we can use it there when he is not home.  This is great because before that, we had to set it up on the kitchen table and we could only use it when Gabriel was either sleeping or not home.  Otherwise, it was impossible to work on it with out him trying to sew his fingers together. 

Another thing that Elizabeth is doing is she is going every week to meet up with some other homeschoolers in DC.  The first 2 meetings were at the National Gallery of Art.  Today it is somewhere else, but they have a writing assignment that they find out before hand, and then they go around the museum and are lectured on the various pieces and styles that pertain to the assignment that they have.  Then they write their essay at home and send it in so that it can be graded by interns.  This is every Thursday from 10:30-1.  It's great because the fee is only $20 per month and it's doubly great because there is an awesome lady at church who has volunteered to take Elizabeth every week!  There is no way that I can go with her since I have the 3 little ones, too, and there's no way they would be able to handle that long in an art gallery, and this lady is very interested and knowledgeable about art.  I just don't feel comfortable with leaving Elizabeth in DC be herself yet.  She doesn't have a cell phone yet, either, so that's doubly bad. 

Elizabeth is making her schedule so that she will finish the geometry course that we got for her in the next month or so.  I am looking for an Alegebra II course.  Any suggestions?

In other news...

I think that we are closing in on purchasing a larger vehicle.  Our van is dead and so all we have now for our family of 6 is a 2 door compact Ford Focus.  Great car.  A little small.

So we have found a Suburban online and are going to check it out on Friday.  It's actually a pretty cool car and it holds 8 passengers, which is perfect for us.  We did look at a 12 passenger so we have extra space for the kids that we take to church, but we can't afford that right now, so we will have to continue depending on other people to pass by the house and pick up the extras that won't fit in our car.

So, I have written this post in various sittings, and all in a just type what comes out kind of method, because I know that any other way will result in my never posting again for the next 5 years, so I apologize if there are typos and if it doesn't really flow or make much sense!

And in the spirit of just getting things up here to share with people who are interested, above are some pictures of Gabriel's 2nd birthday!  The car cake was made by Elizabeth, and the train cake was made by Jordan.  I was so impressed with their creativity!  And they tasted really good, too. 

Ok...so now to hang out more laundry - now that our washing machine is fixed after almost 2 weeks! - before the little dudes wake up from their naps!

Decision

So, the decision has been made, and it seems again that things are racing along at break-neck speed.

We have decided to take Elizabeth out of the public school and home school her starting on the 30th of January, so that her last day of school will be the last day of the semester, January 27th. 

That being decided, curriculum books are being poured over even more, and plans are being made, but I feel like the date is coming so quickly that I can never be ready by then.  I know that it is not that important that she starts her classes on that Monday, and, in fact, even if she were to stay in school, that Monday and Tuesday are days off, and she will still be participating in District Band, which is all day Thursday and Friday preparing for the concert on Saturday, but still, Elizabeth is chomping at the bit to get on her way in this new adventure, so I feel like I really want to support that and not hold her back in any way.


But the thing is that I am still working full time, so I don't really have time to figure everything out because by the time I get home from a full day's work, I am so beat that I can't really think straight, let alone concentrate on Geometry books!

At work, things are moving along as well.  Jimmy and I were given the green light to hire a new guy (finally!), who is taking Jimmy's place in the production process, which means that he is now available to actually train with me in what he will be doing when I am not longer there.  He is coming along well, but since he had been so busy with the production of the products that we are working on, we are behind on inventory, which really needs to be finished before the spring orders start rolling in.

BUT...we are still not done with the horribly convoluted billing from the project that we did over the summer...and are still working on...which I MUST get done before I leave because there is no way that anyone will be able to step in and figure anything out.  I can't even figure it out, it is so bad, that it is a constant weight hanging over my head that I try to work on every day.  But I still have to keep up with everything else, so I keep getting interrupted, and having to start up again.

Jo will probably finish her year at preschool and then we will keep her home next year.  I think that this is what we will do so that she is not going through too many changes at one time.  She is not so good with changes, and with Elizabeth coming home and the new baby coming, I feel like it might be more of an issue for her to upset her routine than it is just to leave her where she is til it's over.

BUT...the problem with THAT is that my father-in-law got a job that started today.  That means that he is no longer available to pick Jo up from school, nor to take my mother-in-law to and from her part-time job at the church, which is every Tuesday and every other Friday.  Technically, her job is not my issue, but, of course, since they live with us and since she is family, I want to be supportive of what they are doing and help them make and save the money that they are trying to get together to eventually go back to retire in their own country.  Plus, Gabriel goes with my MIL to the nursery when she works, so it is good for him to get out of the house and play with other kids his age. 

But that means that on Tuesday, I have to drop Jimmy and Mirian (the other lady who works with us and rides in with us every day) off at work by 8:30 Yolanda and Gabe off at church at 8:45, get Jo to school by 9 and get me to the doctors (I'm on the every week plan now) by 9:15.  Then I finish up there, go to work, then go to pick up Yolanda by 12, and Jo by 1 to race back to work to finish my day there.

Wednesday is just to work with everyone and Jo to school, then pick up Jo at 1 then back to work, and Thursday the same.  Friday is drop Yolanda off at church at 9 and pick up at 12.  So basically, every day except Monday, I will be running around which makes it hard to get into a groove to get this billing done at work. 

And I only have 3 weeks left, give or take, til the baby comes. 

Which means that the craziness will only last about 3 weeks, but then again, it will go on because I still have to take Jimmy and Mirian in to work, and drop and pick up everyone else, too.

I know that a routine will work itself out, but from where I am right now, I know that it is a blessing that my father-in-law got this job, but I feel like it's going to be a bit stressful, at least for a while til we all get used to it. 

In addition to that, my Pampered Chef is picking up again with 2 shows this weekend (yay!) and a few catalog and fundraiser shows out.  I have a huge goal that I am reaching for this month.  I'm not sure if I'm going to get there, but by this point, I am just counting it as reaching a goal by having any shows at all!

My energy goes up and down pretty much unpredictably.  I can be super charged one minute and dragging my knuckles on the ground the next.  But I've never tackled this much this close to the end of the pregnancy.

And every time I feel anything or have a Braxton Hicks contraction, Jimmy asks me if I want to go to the hospital.  Of course, I would prefer to not go to the hospital at all, but that's not an option for us, so I'll have to go, but not yet, Jimmy, not yet!

Coming Back

I have not written in forever.  I don't even really know how to break the ice again, so instead of trying to write something 'worthwhile' which is kind of what I have been waiting for, I think that I will just let some words flow here and post whatever comes out.

I have started and aborted many an attempt at writing on here because these last weeks have been very difficult. 

We are all well, and there is nothing to really worry  about...it's just that some things have happened that have made us stop and regroup...multiple times.

I am nearing the end of my pregnancy...I have about 5 weeks left, and I feel like I am actually somewhat ready, if that's possible, and Jimmy and the kids are super excited.  We have a car seat, which is great because Gabriel wore his out with him being so big and all, and I had gotten diaper covers a while ago and today we pulled out the newborn stuff from Gabriel.  We have the bassinet set up, kind of, but it is still on the other side of the room.  Right now, Gabriel's crib is on my side of the bed and the bassinet is on Jimmy's but after the baby arrives, I know that it only makes sense to switch it around, but I am not ready to 'let go' of my baby Gabriel yet!

Jo, of course, is ready for Gabriel to sleep in her room with her and Elizabeth, preferably in her bed with her.  Which could actually work since her bed is a mattress on the floor, but I don't think we are going to go that route since they are of the opposite sex, so why get them used to sleeping together when they will not be able to to do it for long. 

At work, things are going along, although I am not sure that my boss really has accepted the truth that in about 4-5 weeks I will no longer be showing up at his door.  We had a big meeting today and talked about it, and I think that we have a little more of a plan in place that will help Jimmy move into my position, but only time will tell if these plans will actually be implemented.  And there's not much time left in which to do the telling!

I am actually pretty excited about Jimmy taking over at work, though.  I think that it will really stretch him and get him to explore more of his potential.  He is excited, too, but also very nervous.  It will really be pushing him out of his comfort zone.  I am confident that he can do it.  He just needs a little practice and a few successes. 

Christmas was interesting.  We went to my parents' house on Christmas day, which was nice until my dad got after Gabriel so much for touching stuff (he's 21 months old!) that Gabriel came to me and said, "Mommy, vamos!"  in a plaintive little voice.  (Mommy, let's go!)  So, I took him and Jimmy home and as soon as he got through the door, you could see the relief in his little face to be in a place where he could touch all he wanted to.

So, Gabriel is crying upstairs, so I've got to go see what's going on with him, but at least I'm back 'on paper' again!

An Interesting Evening

Two days ago, I started having lower back pain.  I know that back pain is normal in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy, and I remember having it quite a bit at the end with Gabriel, so I didn't really think anything of it, except that it was an annoyance, and really quite painful, more so than I remember with the others.  Yesterday, however, when I realized that this back pain was accompanied by contractions that came every time I got up and moved around, I started to get a bit concerned.  I mean, I am only 32 weeks, and as anxious as I am to meet the little guy, he really needs to stay in there and cook up a bit more before he makes his foray into the great big world.  

So, last night, after dinner and after the little guys went to bed, we left Elizabeth nestled on the couch with the phone at her side with the strict instructions to get in bed at 10, and Jimmy and I headed off to the hospital because I was having continuous contractions. 

Without going through all the details, I will just say that the upshot of the whole thing was that I am 'doing too much' and if the contractions don't stop when I am moving around, well, then, I'll just have to stop moving around. 

Hmmm...is that possible?

I was told that although the contractions are not strong, if they continue even as light as they are (they feel like Braxton Hicks, only they don't stop) they will eventually set off full labor, and it's not time for that.

I guess if it is necessary, it is do-able, but how does one just tell everyone 'Sorry.  I'm out of commission for the next month or so.'?  (That will bring me to 37 weeks.)

And how does one live?  I mean, you know the old axiom, you don't work, you don't eat...well, I've been pretty hungry lately...

So, in my attempt to cut down on what I am doing, I stayed in bed til 8:30 this morning, (after climbing in at about 12:45) and am dutifully sitting with good posture at my desk. 

And I am hydrating.  But to hydrate, I have to get up and go upstairs to get water or whatever when I finish what I have, which can bring on contractions....

And what exactly is 'too much'?  I mean, I don't FEEL like I am doing too much.  I am living like any other mom who has a job and responsibilities.  And I certainly did a lot more when I was pregnant with Jo.  I worked as an overnight manager at a warehouse, driving the forklifts and up and down ladders for 10-12 hours a night.

Of course, she was only my second, and that was about 5 years ago.

(Does that mean I'm getting old?)

Anyway, the good thing about last night was this: 

They did a sonogram just to see how the baby was and to see if I was effaced or anything yet, and it turns out that the baby is head down now!  Great news! 

In fact, he is SOOO far down that they had to put the reader thingy practically on my leg to see the top of his head. 

So thanks for the prayers guys; they definitely worked and got him in place.

Now, just to keep him in there for a little while longer and to stop the contractions! 

Things 'Round Here

I have not been on here for a while because my computer was out of commission for a week at Thanksgiving, and then things seem to have been moving at break neck speed!

Elizabeth got straight A's on her report card but has confessed to being bored in most of her classes. 

So...she signed herself up for Science Olympiads and a special French program that culminates in a competition in the Spring.  Maybe that will keep her busy for a while.

Jo is going through a rough time with lots of crying and carrying on.  So much so that I sometimes wonder how we are going to make it together next year!

Gabriel is having a blast with the Christmas tree and looking at all the decorations.  But, in pure toddler style, he was looking at a Santa on the tree this morning and turned it around and announced 'Ewww...poopoo!'  Ah, yes, the potty training days are still upon us.  Although he uses the potty and knows exactly what it's for, he is not consistent, so we are still washing diapers.  I was hoping to get one out before the next one goes into the diapers, but i don't think it's going to happen.

Jimmy is working hard to catch up on everything that he needs to know about the business for when I leave, which is coming soon!  At the end of this month, we have inventory, and then I only have about a month left!

I am getting steadily bigger, but still feeling well.  The doc has said that the baby is in breech position, which if he stays that way means a C-section, but I am keeping positive thinking about how there are still about 10 weeks left for the little guy to change his mind and turn around.

My Pampered Chef business is also growing steadily.  Thank you to all of you who have supported me in this!  It is a crazy time what with working full time during the day and then working shows and festivals on the weekends in addition to keeping up with the kids and their schedules! 

Jimmy and I have also been researching homeschool curriculum and just how to go about making everything work out.  I am not so worried about Jo as I am about Elizabeth getting the right stuff so she can continue at the rate that she needs to.

Speaking of which, I told my mom and sister that we were going to homeschool Elizabeth next year.  It didn't go over quite as badly as I thought it would, although I am pretty sure that I can't really expect any support from either of them. 

But in the good news, my mom has invited Jo to go the harbor to see the ice display there.  That's a first.  I guess Jo is getting to be of the 'acceptable age' now.  I just hope she can hold herself together and behave or it may be another 3 or so years before they want to do anything else with her!

I need to post pictures of our tree!  It is up and has our mangy assortment of ornaments on it.  Think Charlie Brown's Christmas tree BEFORE the other kids decorated it!  But it's ours and we love it!

Homeschool Trepidation

I have been reading every book on home schooling that I can manage to get my hands on, and by now, I am realizing that all of them pretty much say the same things.  You can homeschool, there are many reasons as to why people homeschool, different states have different laws...all that kind of stuff.

Now, then, while all that is great to know, what I am coming up against is curriculum.  There seems to be so many out there to choose from!  I am not so worried about Jo, since she is just starting kindergarten, but what about Elizabeth? 

What happens if we try it with her and it doesn't work out and we want/need to put her back into school?  How will we be sure that she will have taken the right classes to be on level with her peers?  I am not so much worried that she will not learn as much as that if she doesn't take the classes in the right order, if she does end up going back to public school, she may need a class that most of the other kids have already taken in previous years, meaning that she would be in a class of students much younger than she would be.

I guess all I really need to do is to find out what the curriculum is of the public school and pretty much follow that path of learning, but even then, there seems to be so many choices of what books to use and what methods to use.  I am feeling a little overwhelmed, and I have barely even scratched the surface!

But in all reality, that is not really my main issue.

You see, next week is Thanksgiving.

What THAT means is that our family will get together with my family.  Meaning that Jimmy and I will load the can up with all the kids and take them to my parents' house where my sister and her husband and my brother and his girlfriend will be and then we are all supposed to sit down and eat a happy meal together without whining or crying that we don't like the food and without flicking sweet potatoes in our grandfather's hair (or lack thereof).  You see, I am the only one in the family who has kids, so of course that means that everyone ELSE in the family knows much better ways to raise and train children that Jimmy and I do, because of course if THEY had kids, THEIR kids would NEVER be allowed to                   (fill in the blank as you see fit). 

But even THAT is not the main problem that I am facing here, and the main fear that I have is telling my family that our family has decided to homeschool both Jo and Elizabeth. 

You see, that will not go over well. 

I do not really think that anyone will really care about Jo, because, like I said, she is 'only' going into kindergarten.  But Elizabeth is a different story. 

Looking at it from a purely academic viewpoint, there is really absolutely no reason for her not to continue in the public school system.  She is in very advanced classes and she gets straight A's.  All the time.  Every time.  And so, even though there are holes in her education, the public school does not see them, and since they teach to the test, even to the SAT's and ACT's, I am sure that Elizabeth will ace all the tests with flying colors and go on to graduate very high in her class.

But for Jimmy and me, that is not the only side that we are looking at.  We also feel the pull to keep her closer to home for other reasons, such as, as I have mentioned before, to patch up the holes in her education, to help her develop a better relationship with her siblings, to offer her opportunities that go along with her long term goals that are not available in the public schools, and to be able to take these last four years with her to continue to train her up and give her a firm foundation in God's Word and His desires for her life.

But the thing is, no matter how you slice it, they are still my parents, and I still respect and listen to them, and they still have the power to make me feel like I am doing it all wrong and that everything that I am doing is purely for my own selfish reasons.  So, even thought it is not necessary for us to tell them now, over Thanksgiving dinner, I really don't talk to them any other time, so it's kind of now or over the Christmas roast beast, so I'm kinda thinking along the lines of 'now'.

Elizabeth is not really helping too much, either.  She vacillates between wanting to stay home and wanting to go to school, with a leaning right now of continuing school, just not where she is.  She wants to go to ANOTHER school.  Which she would be, anyway, but in reality, it is really just a lot of the same.

Like today with the whole lunch table issue and who sits where and who is offended and who got dumped by their boyfriend and why and who is going to steal whose seat tomorrow at the lunch table so who's going to go off and sit alone...

REALLY?!?!?!  And they are supposed to be able to concentrate on learning with all this drama going on?  Now Elizabeth is stressed by this whole issue, and yet she still has to concentrate on her studies and her tests. 

When I think of those things, I feel firm and secure in our decision, but while looking at my dad across the turkey plate, I'm not so sure I am going to be able to hold with my resolve.  Especially when they ask Elizabeth what she wants and she will say that she wants to go to a different public school...or she will say, in a canned sort of way...I know that this decision is the best for me and my family.  I want to do what is best.  Ummmm....right.  Grandma wasn't born yesterday, and she was the principal of a middle school for years, and Aunt Cassie AND her husband both teach middle schoolers. 

So, yeah, not looking forward to it.

BUT...on a lighter note...


We in our family are always on the lookout for a good way to save some money.  Since the colder weather is coming on quickly, some people would begin to think of pulling out the old wipes warmer for their little babies' tushies...

not us!  No siree!

We have something much better and totally FREE!

Our own personal DIAPER WARMER!

Yes, folks, that's right.  He really DOES serve a purpose...after all those years of kitty kibbles, we have found a good use for Little Boy.  Warm those diapers, buddy!  You gotta earn your keep around here!

Five Minute Friday - Relevant

So, it's not Friday anymore, but oh, well.  Here's my Five Minute Friday, linked to Gypsy Mama

The topic?

Relevant...

Ready?  GO!

Hmmm....Relevant.

It is relevant that I have complete writer's block recently and can think of nothing to say on here that anyone would want to read? 

Is it relevant that it is Tuesday and I am just now writing Five Minute Friday? 

Or is it just enough to be on here and to let my mind and my fingers loosen up to get the juices flowing?

Things are happening, time is flying...

My mother in law is home from the hospital and my Pampered Chef business is doing well.  I am very happy with both things, but are they really relevant?

Elizabeth is going back and forth between wanting to home school and wanting to go to eh public high school.  But is THAT relevant?

Does it really matter what she thinks or wants if Jimmy and I truly feel that God is pulling us in the direction of finishing off her years of education before college here at home?

Is it relevant that my parents will not like the idea?

Or is it only relevant that we point ourselves upward and outward, in that order, so that we can help our children fulfill their God-given life's work?

Of course, the answer would be that only what is good, right and holy is what is relevant, but that is so hard to see and accept when there is so much opposition.

But then maybe the opposition is more in my head.

Urgh.  I told you.  Nothing much coming from these tired fingers and this worn mind today.  Maybe tomorrow. 


I hope you'll find me more relevant then.

But I did see a home video today of a little girl playing with her daddy who had folded his tall frame to the floor to take her in completely and wholly.

THAT was relevant to me

Because it made me smile.

Cheers!