They Say It's My Birthday

So in about a half-hour (local time) I'll be 43.  Yes, you read that correctly. Forty. Three. Some of you will be shocked by that, thinking I'm younger (some people think I'm *much* younger than I am).  Some of you will think, "Are you sure you're not fifty-three, Gina?"  No. I just feel fifty-three most days. 

One of my sweet friends emailed me the other day and said she wanted to buy me a birthday gift to use for my baking endeavors.  She asked for a list of things to choose from so it could still be a surprise. I gave her a list of a few things and in the end told her, "Just walk down the baking aisle at Target or Wal-Mart - I'd love anything you choose."  So today at church she pulled me into the nursing moms room and gave me my gift.  It was a shoe box - "Oh, shoes! Just what I wanted!!"  I knew it wasn't shoes...okay, sometimes I act thirteen. :)   I was so surprised by my wonderful gift from her! And I can't wait to put it to use and bake her something - but since she reads my blog, I won't blog about it until after the fact.  :)  She gave me:  a new balloon whisk to replace mine that was so horribly bent out of shape I finally ditched the thing (the story she told about choosing it was hilarious); two different sets of prep bowls, 1/8th cup and what we decided were 1/4 cup; some vanilla beans (yay!!!!); and a wonderful resource that I can't wait to comb through: The Pastry Chef's Companion.   Such a wonderful, thoughtful gift from a wonderful, thoughful friend.  :)  Love you, Kathie!

And, another friend made me squeal with delight when, around the screen to the room, popped a little pumpkin hat for Harrison.  My friend, Kay, made this little hat for him - and you can pick up the pattern for free on Ravelry if you're a knitter or crocheter.  Harrison looks SO cute in it.  I've got to get a picture of him in it for Kay.  I'm going to see if he'll cooperate with me tomorrow.   Of course, I'll share the picture here!

Speaking of the BabyMan, his six-month well-baby visit was Thursday.  He's meeting all his milestones.  He weighs 14 pounds, 10 ounces (10th percentile, up from 3rd at his last visit).  He is 26 1/2 inches long (25th percentile, up from 10th at his last visit).  He had a big growth spurt over the past two months!  He is such a wiggle worm!  He has started "creeping" - or what we like to call The Army Crawl.  He isn't bridging up yet, but he uses his arms to pull and his feet to push himself across the floor (imagine an Army guy crawling flat on his belly - that's what it looks like).  He can really get himself around, too.  We doubled his Axid, thinking that his screaming is likely related to a return of his reflux but he's definitely teething, too.  We're holding on solids right now - rice cereal, squash and peaches. I'll probably add something green this week.  And, he *loves* to stand up. He doesn't want to be standing in his Exersaucer, though. No. That will never do.  He wants to be standing next to the sofa, next to the bed, next to the recliner.  I've gotten to where I'll prop him between my knees and "hold" him there with my legs so he can stand.  He looks around, smiles and squeals as if to say, "Look at me!"  Silly, silly little man.  He wants to be like his big sisters.  I can't believe how quickly the time is flying with him.  I know he's going to be pulling up and walking before I can blink. 

Preschool starts for Nin on Tuesday, it'll be green day for Annie, and Elizabeth will be on to Math Lesson 5 (she is really liking math).  Reading is getting better. The more words we read, the better she likes it.  I think us going to the library as much as we're about to start doing is going to be a good thing in that regard.

Thankful - a 400th blog post

I'm thankful that I have clothes to wash.
I'm thankful that all this laundry has been created by children.
I'm thankful that I have these children - I prayed for them!


I'm thankful that there is noise in my house for at least 15 hours a day.
I'm thankful that this noise comes from the mouths, feet, hands and other parts (ha!!) of my children.
I'm thankful that I have these children - I prayed for them!


I'm thankful that I have breakfasts to make, lunches to serve and dinners to prepare. And snacks...oh the snacks!
I'm thankful that this food is for my growing children.
I'm thankful that I have these children - I prayed for them!


I'm thankful that there are bodies to bathe after playing hard and teeth to brush twice a day and hair to wash.
I'm thankful that these bodies, teeth and hair belong to my children.
I'm thankful that I have these children - I prayed for them.


I'm thankful that this crying baby can only be soothed by me.
I'm thankful that the reason he's crying is because he's growing according to his milestones and he's cutting teeth.
I'm thankful that I have this child - I prayed for him!


Lord, let this thankfulness truly come from my heart and not just my mouth. It's hard to be everything to him while I'm trying to keep house, teach his sisters, be a wife and an employee. He's miserable and nothing seems to be helping (including Hyland's). Help this child nap, peacefully and in his bed (something he's rarely ever done). Help me figure out how to best help him. What a precious gift he is and his cries cut me to the core.

When God opens the womb...

No - not mine.  :)  Brad would drive the car off a cliff, trust me. 

I am so excited!  Several of my friends have been trying to get pregnant, and another one has been thinking about trying again.  Well, I have quite a few pregnant friends again!  :)

Judy, bless her, is expecting baby #6 - babies four and five came together about a year ago. This is a big surprise for them.  The way Judy just kind of slipped the news into her blog post cracked me up. 

Wendy and her husband have been trying to get pregnant with baby #4 for over a year.  A couple of months ago they decided they'd forego intervention and "if it happens, it happens."  Well, "It" happened and Wendy is expecting her fourth! 

And then there's Summer, she and her husband have been trying to conceive their first baby for five years.  Five. Long. Hard. Years.  And now she's expecting, too!!   She and I had a couple of conversations about the wait that Brad and I had, how I dealt with it, etc.  I can't tell you how hard I cried when I read her blog entry- so excited for them.

One of my other friends is pregnant with her 4th but I've been sworn to secrecy (and, no - she's not a BCLR member if you're wondering).

I'm so excited for all my friends and can't wait to see the precious gifts God has given each of them!  

Homeschooling and Homekeeping Update

I've purchased the Kindy workbook for handwriting for Katherine.  Bless her little heart, she was sick on Monday when we were going to start.  She didn't let puking stop her.  She literally stood at the doorway between the kitchen and dining area - hurled, cried a bit, rinsed her mouth and then sat down at the table and started working in her handwriting book.   I kept telling her she did not have to do handwriting, but she wanted to do it.  Of course, to her it's not school work, it's fun.

Annie loves to sit at the table while I'm doing school with Elizabeth (and now with Katherine).  There have been a couple of times that I've done school while she's napped; but most of the time, she's right there in the middle of us. She has her own little steno pad, crayons and pencil - and buddy, she's particular about her pencil.  She must have the "traditional" yellow pencil.  All the cap erasers I have are brightly colored - and Annie prefers the green one or blue one, thankyouverymuch.  I've wanted a way to focus Annie a little more, to give her something more substantial to work on during this time.  Well, I found it thanks to a recommendation on a homeschool message board.  I looked it over today - spent over an hour looking at things and then another hour printing, bookmarking, saving PDFs and organizing.  I am so excited about what Annie and I will be doing for her "homeschool."   We are going to be using the Preparatory Curriculum from Brightly Beaming Resources.  There are 26 weeks worth of curriculum.  It's fun and not trying to make her some kind of child prodigy.   We'll read a story; do some gross and fine motor skills activities; sing songs (which all of us can do - not just me and Annie); have some coloring pages; introduce a letter, a number, and either a shape or color.  I've reserved some books at the library for our story time next week for our "cow" theme, including Click Clack Moo Cows that Type which is a book I think all the girls will love - it is so funny. 

Several of you commented about my reading curriculum dilemma.  Well, after talking to several moms - including those who have used the particular curriculum we are using - I'm changing some things up but not ditching the curriculum altogether.  I'm not doing the rhyming part (which is what really sent my girls over the edge of boredom).  I'm significantly trimming the "say it slow/say it fast" parts of the lessons.  I have added some homemade flash cards - each of the girls has their own set - and we do a game with them.  I make the sound and they choose the correct card.  Then, they make a sound I have me choose the card (thanks, Kim, for that idea!)

We've been doing our home management schedule for a month now and I love it.  If I get behind on something - no biggie, I can get to it another day or it can wait a week. The girls are loving helping me.  Elizabeth asks "What's on our schedule today?" and they fight about dusting.  I mean they fight to the point that we stopped dusting because it did nothing but create strife - which did NOT help me in the least.  We'll see if things are better Tuesday when we have to dust again.  Perhaps we can get my bedroom dusted this time!  And even though it's on my schedule, I haven't done a lick of ironing.  I swear, I hate it! I've done some tonight and even though it's not on my schedule for tomorrow, I'm going to work on it more tomorrow because Brad vacuumed this afternoon (bless him) so I don't have to do it on Thursday. 

Now that I'm doing homeschool for all three of the girls, I'm going to have to get lesson plans written down for each day.  Off to do that.  Oh, no I'm not.  It's 1:40a.m.  I'm off to BED!

The hard part of motherhood

Poor Nin.  We came home from Mom & Dad's on Sunday evening and she said her head and tummy hurt.  She laid on the sofa to watch HSM2 and then at about 8p.m. she got up and very calmly walked into the kitchen where she proceeded to climb on the step-stool at the sink and puked-up her little toenails.  Poor baby!  She was sick once more in the middle of the night - which prompted a middle-of-the-night bath and mopping session.  She was sick several times during the day on Monday (if she drank too much water at once, her tummy would rebel).  I'm hoping and praying it will be over and done with today.  She managed to keep down a few crackers on Monday, actually most of what she ate.  And she actually managed to keep down most of the water she took in (in the form of crushed ice).  We're going to do an easy, bland diet again today in the hopes of keeping her tummy stable.  

More pictures - we have big things going on around here!

Harrison turned six months old yesterday - and today he got his first taste of organic brown rice. 

He ate the rice cereal like he was starving!  Of course, each sister had to get into the act and they each gave him at least two spoonfuls - encouraging him and cheering the entire time.  Here's that collage:

 

And here is our six-month-old little man with Miles the Moose:

 

Smallish things

Sometimes it's the smallish things that take up the most room in our hearts. ~ Winnie the Pooh

 

How sweet are these baby girls?  This is Annie and Ava walking across the bridge at the park.  Ava's mom, Anita, took the photo and I love it!  

 

A group of us got together at the zoo today it was a great day for going to the zoo since we finally got a break from the oppressive heat. It was cloudy, windy and in the 80s a perfect zoo day!  There were seventeen kids and six adults - and the only "wild" things at the zoo were the animals.  The older kids (older being in the 11 - 9 age range) helped with all the little bitty ones, even if they weren't siblings.  Kids were in and out of strollers and Anita's wagon. Ava even spent a little time on Brad's shoulders.  After seeing all the animals, we went to the park where Brad grilled hot dogs.  The kids played on the playground while Brad was grilling.  Nin proceeded to take her Crocs off because she got sand in them from the playground - and she left them there.  Conversation went thusly:

Me:  "Nin, where are your Crocs?"

Nin:  "I took them off"

Me:  "Why?"

Nin:  "Because they had sand in them and I didn't like it."  

(apparently being bare-foot in the sand is better than sand in your Crocs)

Me:  "Okay, where are they now."

Nin:  "Down there. Buried in the sand."  

We never found them.  (big sigh)  Otherwise, it was a great day, though!  :)  

And on another note - we sang "Happy half-birthday to you" to Harrison this morning before we went to the zoo.  He is six months old today!  I'll upload the traditional photo of him with Miles the Moose later.

What we did this morning

Egg Academy is officially underway. We had our first day of school today. I had to pry the handwriting book away from Elizabeth so we could do reading. Katherine was very interested in what E was doing in her handwriting book - so I'm going to buy the Kindergarten workbook for her to do (Elizabeth is working in Level A). 

Reading - we've been working on reading for a week and...ugh...I hate it.  The kids hate it.  It's repetitive, monotonous and boring! If it doesn't get better, and soon, I'm going to ditch it for another curriculum.  We're using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and I've heard wonderful things about it - it has come highly recommended by quite a number of people whose opinions I trust.  What works for one kid/family might not work for another - and buddy, it ain't workin' for this one!  Though we're really close to being able to read the "I am Sam. Sam I am" part of Green Eggs and Ham.

We'll start math in a couple of weeks.  Elizabeth has already done FIVE handwriting lessons, so that means I can skip tomorrow and not feel badly about it.  We're going to the zoo with some friends from church since zoo admission is free for kids.

And here is a little collage of our morning...

Proof that I don't have babies, I clone 'em

 

Katherine, Elizabeth, Harrison, Annie.  I thought I had one of Annie holding her feet on the changing table but I don't.  I took hers as she tried to roll under the sofa (so far Harrison is the only one who hasn't rolled under the sofa - but he has rolled under my bed and his sisters' bed).  How funny is it that I had the exact same thing on the changing pad when I took Katherine's picture and Harrison's?   Obviously we've reached the milestone where he's found his feet!  :)

Just silly stuff

 

Could these two be any sillier?  They'd just eaten my latest baking endeavor (more on it later, I promise!)  Elizabeth was saying, "Ooooh, Mommy cooked something and we're all still alive to tell about it."   I have no idea what on earth Nin was doing.  She is such a nut!!!!

Oh...funny...I got called out of Sunday School this morning.  Annie managed to make it to church without a certain article of clothing.  So glad the church is next-door to WalMart.  I remembered seeing it (them?) laying on my bathroom floor and thinking, "I need to get her to put these on as soon as I finish buckling her shoes."  As soon as I finished bucking shoes, I had to deal with another child melting down over the clothes she was wearing (long story, not worth going into but it lasted for an hour!!).  Needless to say, I forgot about the garmet laying on the floor in my bathroom...until Bettina called me out of Sunday School.  Oh. My.  She and her husband were dying laughing, "This is proof you have too many girls to get ready."  Hey, this is the first time in five years this has happened.  I think that's a pretty good track record considering that two of the girls get themselves dressed and Annie is quickly wanting to go that route herself (she's 2 going on 20).

Elizabeth pointed out another cute young man in church on Sunday - and he is an attractive guy.  I'm so not liking this!  I mean, on the one hand it's so cute to watch her discover this attraction. On the other hand it makes me realize that all too soon I'll be dealing with broken hearts.  Like Kim said - I'd better start praying now!  Isn't that the truth?!

"Boy, you have your hands full!"

This would be what I heard more than once this morning while walking through Kroger grocery shopping...with all. four. of my children. All. Four.  :)  I did it!  They survived.  I survived.  There was only a moment when I thought we were headed for "leave the cart and go home" behavior; however, my two wild ones regained control of themselves, obeyed, and we went on our way again. Elizabeth pushed the cart with Harrison's car seat and all the groceries (bless her heart, she did wonderfully). I pushed the cart with the wild women in it.  :)    Yes, I can do it.  But I really don't want to unless I have to. 

My life just fast-forwarded 10 years

After dinner Thursday night I was clipping some things out of the food section of the paper Elizabeth came to me.  "Mommy," she said, very quietly and very shyly, "I need to tell you something." 
Me: Okay, sweetie, what do you need to tell me.
Elizabeth:  [tilts head down, gets even more shy, brings hands to mouth, smiles]  I saw a cute boy in the gym today.
Me: [thinking, Oh my! Already? This isn't supposed to happen for another 10 years!!!!]  You did? Who was he? Was he in your class or was he one of the guys from youth group? (we had vacation Bible school this week)
E: [looking at me from under her eyelashes and giggling like the little school girl she is]  He was one of the big boys.
Me: [trying not to laugh - not at her but because it was so stinking cute] Was he in the play or was he helping in the gym?
E:  He was helping with game time.  Mrs. Krista told me to go stand by him when I came into the gym. Mommy, he was so cute!
Me:  Do you remember his name?
E:  No. But he was cute! [more giggling ensues]

I was immediately on a mission.  I called Krista but she was at volleyball practice so I sent her an email.  Brad was in the shower during this entire exchange - so I told him about it later and cautioned him, "Don't you dare do anything that would be teasing her in the slightest. This will set the tone for her coming to us in the future and if you blow this, you will regret it."  He handled it really well.  After talking to Elizabeth and making certain she was out of earshot, he turned to me and said, very sternly, "Find out who it was. I want to know."  (I laughed so hard at him for that)

On Friday morning I received an email listing the six boys who helped Krista with VBS.  I called Elizabeth over, so as not to embarrass her in front of her sisters, and read the list of names to her.  When I got to his name, her face lit up and she started giggling again.  "That's him! That's him!" Then she repeated his name with this dreamy little lilt in her voice, "Isaac. (sigh)"  By this time, I was almost rolling on the floor - both at her being all dreamy about Isaac and my first memory of him as a three-year-old in Sunday School, coloring and humming the theme to STAR WARS.  Now he's an 8th grader! 

Of course, I told Brad who the boy was. And then, I had to call Isaac's mom, Tamara, to tell her - it was just too cute to not share.  And I know that I can trust no one who knows (including you, dear blog-reader) will tease Elizabeth about it.