Nathan, Emma and I just watched this excellent video on the recommendation of Danielle Bean. It is well worth your time!
(In case you’re wondering what happened to Gregory, he watched the first couple minutes then wandered outside to play. Can I tell you how wonderful it is to have outdoor space for the kids to play whenever they wish?? It makes life so much easier and more enjoyable for everyone!)
Our first week of school is going very well. I’m really pleased with how things are progressing, and even though we’re doing a lot more, it seems to be going much more smoothly. Emma is also enjoying school a lot more now, and likes having the additional subjects (namely history, science, art, & music) as part of our school day. I’ve also started folding memory work and copy work into other subjects, so she’s doing that with more speed and less complaints. My approach to the subjects we were doing before has changed substantially as well, and it has all been for the better. All the thinking, reading and planning I’ve been doing since April is really bearing fruit.
And here’s a couple pictures for you all - the first is from our second day of school (I forgot to take any on Monday, oops) and the second is from just a few minutes ago, where Emma is “babysitting” Nathan and Gregory is helping.
In case any of you are wondering, I’ve decided to forgo the money (and the hassle, testing, meetings, and paperwork) from the state and do our own thing this year. We won’t be joining one of the local homeschool charters, rather we’ll be filing an R-4 and establishing a private school in order to fulfill the state’s education requirements. Now we just need to come up with a good name for our school… but at least I don’t have to file the paperwork until Oct. 1st. Any suggestions?
We’ve moved and mostly settled in, and all is well. We’re very busy though, and I think we’re only going to get busier. We start school on Monday, and Matt and I are stepping up the pace on house projects… and then there’s still a baby to be cuddled and nursed, stories to be read, food to be cooked, and stuff to be picked up as usual. So, yes, I really don’t know how blogging will fit in - I can’t decide where it fits on the priority list.
But here’s a picture for you all of our six year old daughter holding our two month old son. Isn’t he huge? *grin*
Last night I absent-mindedly did something and it turned out to be quite a painful experience. I had broiled a frittata in the oven and taken it out to cool on the stove. I was about to cut a kiwi for the kids and was thinking about what else I would cut up when I suddenly remembered that the burner under the frittata was probably still hot. Since the frittata was a little, um, well done on top I thought that the last thing it needed was to be on a hot burner, so I picked up the pan to move it. And yes, I forgot to use the hot pad. Wow did that hurt. I had my hand on a cold pack for quite awhile then in cool water once I read online that cool water is better. I took some tylenol too, and that seemed to help. By about 11:30 I felt like I could perhaps sleep without my hand being cooled, and I managed to do so, although it was a restless night.
This morning it is quite a bit better, but I have some definite red and white areas where the contact between my hand and the pan was the strongest. I am very clumsy with my right hand (and thank goodness it is my right!) now but I can at least change a diaper and pick up Nathan (awkwardly, but safely) I really hope I’ve learned my lesson this time… but I’m not sure I would bet on it. *sigh*
Good thing I’m ahead on my packing… and I thought having the kids come down with a cold this week was rough!
Just a few more days until our move. The packing is going well, and I’ve started doing some cleaning as well. We’ll be moving on Saturday, then I’ll come back on Monday or Tuesday and finish the cleaning. The carpet is scheduled to be cleaned on Wednesday morning and then we’ll be done. Yay! Onto the next adventure.
We’re getting ready to do some tile work at the house so that we can get our wood burning stove installed on September 16th. It’ll be our first experience with tile, but hopefully it will go well. Matt’s getting really close to being done with the rough electrical, which is exciting. He still has about 60% of the rough plumbing to do and some pipe work for the propane, but then we’ll be ready for another inspection and then it is time for drywall!
I just read The Milkman, by Carol Foskett Cordsen and illustrated by Douglas B.Jones, seven times in a row to Gregory. I think he likes it. And better yet, I like it too. It has a nice rhythm to the rhyme, the illustrations are fun (a sort of 50-ish advertising style) and the story is peaceful but interesting. If you have a little one about, see if your library has it and take a look.
Emma had her last day of swimming lessons today (and she can do something that looks something like the freestyle stroke now - yay Emma!) and I brought a picnic lunch for after her lesson. As I sat on the grass watching the kids, Emma and Gregory decided I needed a flower crown so I could be the flower queen. Emma made a flower chain for me, and Gregory found flowers for me to hold. As Gregory handed me the flowers to hold he told me “Here’s a statue for this hand, and here’s one for this hand” and as Emma was putting the crown on my head he said “You will look blootiful, mommy! You will look like Jesus!”
The two things I like least about the whole post-partum period (and when exactly does that period end? Hmm) are the residual pregnancy weight and the emotional ups and downs. The weight part is frustrating me right now because I’ve been at the same weight for almost two weeks. It is 16 lbs above my target weight, and while I’m no longer considered overweight by my BMI, I still feel large and I don’t fit into much that I would like to be wearing.
The emotional ups and down are trying as well. I’m taking cod liver oil which I know is very helpful, but it doesn’t seem to be enough right now. I think if it wasn’t with all the stress of the move and the financial pressure I feel like we’re under (which, granted, perhaps seems worse than it is because of all this) I’d be doing better, but there’s nothing I can do about that except get through it. I’m still not doing anywhere near as well as I was doing after Gregory which is disappointing, but it isn’t quite so bad as it was after Emma. *sigh* hormones are really awful sometimes.
I’m going to start walking every morning to see if the additional activity helps on both fronts. That’s one thing I was doing after I had Gregory that I haven’t been doing since I had Nathan. I walked this morning and I’m going to try to keep it up, even with the impending move.
If I have to ask the question, the answer probably is yes, isn’t it. Here’s the situation. My sister is getting married on September 20th. It is a rather un-traditional wedding and will take place at a private campground 30 minutes outside of Willits, CA. (Those of you unfamiliar with Northern California geography, this is pretty much the middle of nowhere). It is going to be very hot, but the wedding will be in the evening. I’m going to be in the wedding party, and I’m looking to wear something that I won’t a) broil in, b) can nurse in c) goes with either the silver of the groom’s side or the dark red of my sister’s wedding dress (yes, you read that correctly - like I said, untraditional).
My mom suggested a black dress, which I think would work well and I should be able to find a decent looking black nursing dress. What I really want to do it knit a shawl in either a silver-ish or a dark red that I can use to give the outfit more color and that I can also use as a nursing cover-up sort of thing. I’m thinking something along the lines of this shawl. It is a fairly easy pattern, and I did a test piece of it this morning and it looked really neat. However, do I really have a hope of getting this done by September 20th? I consider myself an advanced beginner in knitting - I know how to do this pattern, but I’m not all that fast. I’ve never done a project this big before either. And then there’s the upcoming move, the start of school and oh yeah, I have a 7 week old too. Hmm.
I spent some time last night (probably more than I should have *ahem*) looking at nursing dresses, shawl patterns, and at Etsy to see if I could find something I could perhaps buy. But it would be really neat to make it myself… but could I really do it in time?