Thoughts From This Day

I have many random bits {swirling} in my ponytailed head today. Here are just a few.
...

Is there anything cuter than a two-year-old running around in underpants? If it's a two-year-old in boxer briefs, you bet! :)
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I almost made it through my day out with the kids without somebody telling me that I "have my hands full". {The kids were behaving beautifully at the time also...} Does having four children automatically qualify me for having full hands? I honestly feel that four {for us} is no harder than three was. Moms of "many", any thoughts?
...

I adore going to the library with my kiddos. There's just something about them getting so excited about finding the perfect book for the week's school lesson or read-aloud time that makes me feel so proud inside. I always think how wonderful it would be to be able to keep all the {20-30} new library books we check out each time. Just think how our at-home library would grow! I am thankful for the books we do have, though. What a blessing!
...

I feel so "caught-up" and accomplished at home if my laundry is {mostly} done, the kitchen is clean, and the playroom is tidy with everything in its place. If one of those three things is off, so am I.
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How is it that I feel I have more patience lately? Does patience multiply {like love} with each new baby? In a way, it doesn't make sense to me. Yet in a way, it makes perfect sense.
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My wonderful, cute bloggy friend Lenae is so, so close to meeting her fourth little blessing. {and first girl!} She's having an online baby shower this weekend. How wonderful the blogging community can be, huh!? For goodness sakes, you can not only have a good friend {whom I've never even met} through blogging, but a baby shower too!?
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We've found out where we'll be moving to next for Mark's Phase II residency! Can you believe that we only have 4 1/2 months left in Texas!? Surreal. Any guesses as to what state will soon be our new stomping grounds? {Those that know, no cheating!}
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That's it for now. Have a blessed weekend! Oh, and by the way... What's on your mind? :)

Sooo Big!

Griffin is growing so fast!! It's hard to believe that he'll be {four} months next week. I thought the time to gush and gush about him here was way overdue, so here's an update!

G)rowing bigger... He just hit the 13lb mark over the last few days, having doubled his birth weight now.

R)olling over... Finn loves to roll from back to tummy now as of a couple weeks ago.

I)rresistible smile... I don't think this one got a dimple (other than his chin) from Mama and Daddy, but his smile is just as drool-worthy without!

F)inally a sleeper... After 3 naughty sleepers as babies, we now have a baby that sleeps up to 12hrs straight! Thank you, God!!!

F)ound his talking voice... He's a loud one too!

I)mmersed at birth... Finn was born under water at home and still loves his baths.

N)ever in a bad mood... Seriously, Griffin's such a wonderful, happy baby. What a little {angel} to add to our brood...

I also realize that I never got around to posting about my homebirth. It was amazing in every way, and we wouldn't have changed a thing. I'm still throwing around the idea of writing it out. Anybody interested??

One of Those Days

Today was one of those days. (Yet NOT one of those days...) It wasn't a bad day by any means, and actually, it was a pretty good day overall. There wasn't too much yelling, or too much drama, or even too much stress. Instead, it was one of those days that really make you think, "Man, this parenting thing really is no joke." I mean, really... I'm tired tonight! Like I've said before, sometimes being a stay-at-home-mommy seems like it merely consists of squashing squabbles over who will win the last yogurt tube, finding that elusive sippy cup, or wiping four hineys of various sizes for the millionth-jillionth time. These are all important in our little world's existance, but not really important, you know? Today, though, we conquered truly important things. Childhood-shaping things...

Potty training began this morning for Brigham. We've been wanting to start for the last month or so, but with Christmas, visitors, and travels, it just wasn't a good month to start. I didn't want to set him up for failure before we even began. In the realm of potty training, that's never good. Today was the day, though! Brigham did a fantastic job, as I knew he would. (When a two-year-old is driven by promises of M&Ms, can there ever really be failure?) Every two minutes this morning, we were crawling to the bathroom. Oddly enough, Briggs chose to crawl to the bathroom every.single.time instead of his usual toddler-like sprints. Maybe he was trying to hold onto his babyhood, but again he just wanted those prized M&Ms. Who knows? What I do know is that I don't care if he rode a mule to the bathroom as long as things went well inside. All-in-all I'm happy with how the first day went, but those who have potty trained before know that one should almost physically train for the million back-and-forth bathroom jaunts and whooping and hollering to follow. It's physical work, People, especially now that I've turned *cough*thirty*cough*. Also, not to forget the other three children to take care of amongst the hoopla... ;)

Moving on to the homeschooling... Bella's been doing great in school, but it's to the point that I'm seriously second-guessing everything that I'm teaching her with our kindergarten curriculum. I've been worried that she's bored and that the lessons are too easy for her now that she's really taken off with reading. (For a brand-newbie of homeschooling, I'm thinking that second-guessing is normal. This just adds to the insecurities, though.) Before I ordered the materials, I considered both the kindergarten and first grade curriculums, but decided on the kindergarten. She's a late-summer birthday and had barely six months of kindergarten before moving last year. After much consideration and reading from veteran homeschoolers, though, I've now decided to speed up her lessons and do two to three lessons a day instead of one. Condensing or skipping some of the activities and speeding up the phonics beef of the lessons will allow us to move onto the first grade studies sooner. I'm excited about this, and so is she. I know it's the right thing to do now. I think. Praise the Lord that we were able to start and complete this new schedule of two lessons today when Brigham was napping. I could barely do school from the edge of the tub in the bathroom where I'd been camped-out for much of the day.

Well, another busy day in the books. Today, though, was full of victories aside from yogurt and sippy cups. I'll take it any day. I love my job...

Now Stop Your Whooping...

Well, I think it's finally happened... Now don't get too fired-up yet, though. "It" simply refers to the fact that I just may have gotten the blogging bug back. This news is probably not exciting in the least bit for most of you other than my hubby and family members, but that's okay! You see, I couldn't sleep last night and made great use of my time by catching up on some of my old favorite blogs. Surely some of you all reading now were visited! (In other words, y'all here in the south... I think that's the first time I've ever typed or written that, although I've found myself saying it some lately!) I was inspired to pick the virtual quill and ink back up. (I'm thinking I can't use a preposition to end a sentence, and those that know me well know I'm a stickler for proper English...) Anyways, I suddenly miss writing my thoughts down, even if it's nothing important or fancy or pretty or cute or profound. Come to think of it, most of my posts don't routinely fall into those categories, as I leave that all up to you more often than not. It's been way.too.long since I've regularly posted, and since I don't know what to clean in this near over-cluttered house first, I took the easy way out and sat down at the computer. That never happens to any of you, right? I didn't think so. I guess what I'm trying to very long-windedly (totally not a word) say is that you just may be seeing more of me coming up. Maybe. Probably. Hopefully.

P.S. I'm pretty sure that was my worst post ever, but nevertheless I'm hitting publish. Sorry. Furthermore, I used way too many parenthesis. Sorry again.

A {Coy} Hello

I don't have much to say...

but {desperately} wanted to say "hello"!

We are having tons of fun with our four litte ones...

and trying to survive the {blissful} organized chaos!

Maybe one day soon-ish I'll start squeezing in some more

frequent "hellos" and posts containing more than 25-ish words!

For now, though, you're left with this coy little smile
from our newest little {12 week!} boy...

xoxoxo

Newsflash

Griffin Silas

September 27,2010

10:34 P.M.

6lb 5oz

20in


New
Love
Of
Our
Lives...

Sweet Surprise

Coffee

(butter toffee with hazelnut creamer),

my favorite fall-time snack

(candy corn & roasted peanuts),

and a card...

What a great
late-morning

{surprise}

from Bella!
I love you,
sweet girl!

Almost Time...

Yes, here it is finally... Here's the pregnancy picture that I've been promising for a gazillion years now. The time was right today! A) I wasn't in my PJs when I remembered finally and B) I got half-way decent pics with Bella this time. {No, I'm not usually still presentable for taking pictures for all to see when Mark gets home at night. PJs, remember...}

I was thinking my baby tummy wasn't this big all along, but whoa! The camera adds like 10 lbs, right!? RIGHT!? I just compared myself with this picture again, pregnant with Brigham at 35 weeks, 1 day. {These pictures are today at 35 weeks, 5 days.} Earlier in the week I swore up and down that I was nowhere near that big this time. That was until I saw these pics from today... I measured almost a week-and-a-half small at my last visit with my midwife too. We'll see what she says on Tuesday for my next visit! It's just so hard to believe that my baby bump was so tiny just over four months ago and that he's grown into this now. What a miracle, each and every time.

I still feel great most of the time and have no major complaints. {I don't really count not being able to roll over in bed anymore without strategic planning as a major complaint, only minor...} The baby is head-down, yet not engaged as of last week and still growing and moving quite well. Our midwife will deliver at home anytime past 36 weeks, so it looks like this homebirth might really happen! {Not to mention she starts making weekly home visits this next week! Yippe!}

We are getting so excited to meet this little boy, and I'm daydreaming way.too.much now by speculating how and when it will happen. Isabella prays every night now that Mommy and baby will get through contractions and be safe.

Yes, be safe, Sweet Baby Boy... We can't wait to show you to the world.

First Week of School {My Father's World Creation}

We're starting our second week of school today, which means that we survived our first week last week! I'd like to think that we didn't only survive, but thrived! :) Since the lessons in kindergarten aren't terribly long or take up half the day, I decided to do our school in the afternoon when Brigham was napping for the first week. This way, I wouldn't have the extra distraction or frustration from wanting to focus on the older two but having to deal with a new-two-year-old's demands. While this worked out well, I found myself wishing some afternoons that I had already completed school in the morning getting right into a routine, instead of looking forward to it all day and not being able to start until early afternoon. I figured I'd do school in the morning this week then, and compare the pros and cons of morning vs. afternoon school. This will truly test my multi-tasking and patience, though, having to keep Brigham happy (and quiet!) for school time. Afterall, I won't always have the luxury of only having a mostly quiet four and six-year-old around for each day of school!

Wanting to make the first day of school special for the kids, we headed to IHOP for breakfast on Monday morning followed by them picking out a new outfit for the day and fall. We enjoyed our morning, strolling around the shops and making our stops, preparing for the big afternoon! When we were ready to start, I still of course had to take the "first day of school" pictures in front of the house! :) There were the initial moans and groans coupled with very sunny skies, but in the end, we found a shady spot and got a couple of good ones...

Once inside it was all smiles and even though I was a bit nervous on how to "start", we were rolling in no time. Each day the lesson took just a bit over an hour, as I served them a "creation snack" along with the lesson. These were easy, fun ideas that I mostly got from the My Father's World message boards. (A huge wealth of information!) We waited until the near-end of the lesson before our last coloring project and song to have snack, as to not disturb the "core" of the lesson.

Day 1: Oreos & milk {God divided the light from darkness}

Day 2: Blue water & marshmallows {God divided the water above & below the sky}

Day 3: Pudding, crushed oreos, & strawberry {God made sea, dry land, & plants}

Day 4: Nachos & lemonade {God made the sun, moon, & stars}

Day 5: Goldfish crackers {God made living creatures in the sea & birds}

{I will also not confirm or deny that anticipating what the creation snack would be ended up being the kids' favorite time of school...}

Bella did a great job with her letters (and numbers) each day, as she already knows them all with their sounds. These first two weeks are definitely review for her, but I came up with a couple of speed games with the alphabet cards to challenge her a bit. This helped her along with not becoming bored during the lesson. As the year goes on, I expect things will pick up for her with more letter blending and reading. She also loved the "This is My Father's World" hymn that we learned, and loves singing along to the laptop music many, many times as we close each lesson. As expected, Lincoln drifted in and out for parts of the lesson. Some days, he was quite interested in the letters and numbers and others not. He did enjoy the crafts, though, coloring and pasting. With him being in preschool still this year and a newer four-year-old, my focus with him will be review of his colors and shapes, while teaching numbers and introducing letters. Of course we will all do a lot of quality reading too, as that's a huge focus of the My Father's World curriculum! :)

Illustrating the Creation Book

Ready to start! {I love this picture, as many of you who know Lincoln knows that he does NOT smile or cooperate for pictues...}

We're really looking forward to this week, the second week of Creation, and even more so to the themed weeks that follow! Of course the kids are already counting down and asking for when their favorite themes are coming up. I feel great that we have our first week done and confident to move on, finding our rhythm and the schedule that fits best for us before the baby is born.

Snippets, Ramblings... Anything!?

Ahh, blogland, it's been a busy couple of weeks and again there's not much coming from this end in the way of creative thoughts, cute pics, or really... anything! When life gets a bit busier {or even if I just want a break from something!} the blog is always the first thing to go. I guess that's better than most things like the children, hubby, or laundry, though! :)

I've missed chatting with you all and hearing from you here, stopping by your blogs to hang out and comment, and just plain soaking in my bloggy friendships! I'm not sure if any of you noticed I was absent, but oh how I've missed my daily fix of checking in with my friends! :)

Like I said, it's been a bit busier the last weeks or so, but I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things very, very soon! I'm hoping to expand on a few points and goings-on around here, but for now I'm just going to ramble. I like to ramble sometimes, and I think it's long overdue here! :)

~ This little cutie-patootie turned {TWO} this week...

{I can't believe it either! I started this little blog when I was pregnant with him... We had a "Cars" party and tried to spoil him rotten. Not that that doesn't happen on a daily basis around here! Such a cute age...}

~ My parents were here for a week-long visit and we tried to fit in quite a few yummy restaurants and fun outings. I'll miss the extra help and extra food...

~ We'll start school at home this Monday the 23rd! I'm so excited, but feel like I have a lot to get together this weekend still. Hang things on the wall, freak out, pray, order a few more books and supplies, buy more art supplies, freak out again, pray again, trip to the Christian bookstore, look into homeschool groups... I figured out that I just needed to set a date and start or there would always be something left to do, so that's the date we set! I hope to be able to keep up on here with what we're doing every couple of weeks. We have a perfect little dining nook off the kitchen with built-in shelves and our table that we'll be using for our school area and storage.

{Here's a pic from when we moved in... Love the shelving on both sides and the bare wall space to hang and store lots of school stuff!}

~ Mark's schooling is going very well so far, and I've lovingly started calling him a "nerd". Studying advanced-level pharmacology, biochemistry, anatomy & physiology, statistics, and anesthesia research would do that to the best of us, I believe. {Just between you and me, though, I think he sort of likes it...} Classes and exams are really heating up now and in full-swing, but he's doing an amazing job of juggling school with plenty of family time. It's hard to believe, but in a couple of months we'll probably know where we'll be moving on to next for phase II, starting next summer. I'll let you know which state we'll be the newest residents of when we find out!

~ Last, but certainly not least... If you haven't noticed, our newest little boy-blue will be arriving before we know it! I'm feeling very good and just can't believe that it's nearing the end already! I'm getting sooo excited to meet him, see what he looks like, and see how our first homebirth unfolds. Did I even mention yet that we were having a homebirth with him!? Hmmm.... Well, we're planning on it! We love, love, love our midwife and look forward to the new experience. Of course there's a list that I want to have done by a few weeks time, but we're really trying not to overreact with crazy unnecessary preparations for this one. By the fourth, I think {hope!} things just fall into place a bit more. But if I'm wrong on that thinking, please don't burst my bubble... ;) And yes... I promise an updated baby belly picture before too long! Oh, I just can't wait to share his name with you all too...

So... What's new with you all? I have some catchin' up to do! :)