getting adjusted to the school year

Getting adjusted to any big change in our lives is hard for me and a couple kids.  I like routine and predictability in my days, and having a change causes me anxiety and makes me grumpy.  So obviously, this school year with the oldest 3 girls going to school, a new baby, and Jojo starting homeschooling we had our share of temper tantrums.

Jordan's big adjustment is still happening here, as she's not used to sitting down daily and doing lessons with me that aren't mostly fun stuff.  She's not that into reading times and certain types of activities, but she's learning quickly how to tolerate it and do what she needs to do.  A big bag of tootsie rolls is helping with this one, I've been giving her one after each lesson we complete.  I plan to keep that up for a while and then slowly drop the reward.

The older girls have a completely different adjustment.  Lydia and Kimmy are NOT morning people, and they have to get on the bus at 6:45am since they are the first stop on the route.  Missa is adjusting to having to bring home homework and having to focus and sit still.  This is a hard one for her because of her ADHD.  All 3 girls obviously are adjusting to the structure of the school schedule, some of the rules at school, and not being able to just get up and go to the bathroom or grab a snack whenever they want.  It is happening though, and the girls are liking the school they are going to this year (this is always a good thing!)

As for me, I am a morning person but I personally don't like to get up early.  I snap right up when it is time, and have little problem with being tired or grouchy under normal circumstances.  The only time that I am grumpy when I get up is if I have to listen to a screeching tantrum from one of my kids who don't do mornings too well.

And now for the totally honest moment that I don't want to admit.  I am finding with the older kids at school that I'm a better mom to all my children.  I butt heads with one child because we are both very stubborn and have major independent streaks, and with another because she has a tendency to scream, whine, and can cause me one heck of a migraine in under 10 seconds flat when things aren't going her way or she's not the center of the universe.  Then there is my devious child, who is so quiet and sweet while she plots her takeover of the universe.  The three of them together is not a good thing for my sanity sometimes.  Being able to put them on the bus to go to school on weekday mornings helps me to be able to do the things that I need to do without losing my mind in the process, and gives me the opportunity to be in that place I need to be mentally for handling them after school and on weekends/holidays.  I spent 4 years teaching my children at home, and I knew that it wasn't something I can easily do long-term.  With them going to school, I find that I am almost never yelling, I have more patience to diffuse explosive tantrums from my drama queen, and my house is getting cleaned up because I don't have them undoing my work as fast as I get it cleaned up.

Yes, we are adjusting nicely to the school year and all the changes that happened this year/

September- new month, new goals

Yup, it is that time again.  At the start of every month, I take a look at where I am and set a goal for each child I am working with.  So here is what my goals are looking like.

JOJO:

finish testing out of math+ K
test to the right place in phonics K
keep plugging away at all subjects

PJ:

keep baby-proofing the house
try not to lose or drop him (hey he's heavy and FAST now that he's figured out crawling)

the other girls:

continue keeping up with homework
30min every day of reading for them
sewing lessons may be good here too

As you can see, not much really is planned for the kids.  Jojo has her first testing session online with her teacher tomorrow morning, and if I can get her to do it I know she'll do just fine.  She already meets the benchmarks to pass K and go into 1st grade academically (hence her not going to the charter school with her sisters) so I am not too worried about it.

And just for fun, here is a picture of her cute Kindergarten self.

And all 5 kids together.  Poor PJ is totally outnumbered!

First days of school for the big kids

The oldest 3 girls this year are attending a local charter school instead of homeschooling.  I was really nervous about it, knowing that they were behind in some areas but way ahead in others.  Two of them had never attended a school at all, and Missa has only done half a year of K in school.  Needless to say, my anxiety was running high this week before they started school on Thursday.

They got onto the bus at 6:45am just fine on the first day, although Kimmy was a bit grumpy because she's not a morning person anyway and wasn't too keen on the idea of going to school.  The bus brought them home almost a full hour late that day, and poor Kimmy had fallen asleep on the bus so she wasn't too steady at first.  Missa and Liddy loved school, and Kimmy hated it that first day.  The second day I had to carry Kimmy to the bus and force her to get on it, which I did because we made the decision that if we withdraw any of the girls the decision will be made after Halloween, allowing them the opportunity to fully adjust and get a really good feel for the school.  However, after school Kimmy hopped off the bus smiling and saying that she liked school a lot more.

Now I am having to listen to the 3 girls all complaining that they want to go to school and that they can't wait for the weekend to be over.  They have this upcoming Friday and the following Monday off, giving them a 4 day weekend, and I just know that they aren't going to be too happy about it.  I hope they can keep up the excitement at school for the rest of the year.

As far as Jojo is concerned, we start logging her attendance for OHVA tomorrow.  So I'm going to spend today trying to get a fairly workable routine for lessons made out and looking over the lessons to be sure I have all the necessary supplies for the week.

week 1 for Jojo

This week we started easing into our school routines with the kids.  The older girls have to get on the bus at 6:30am, so we have been adjusting wake-up time to 5:30 so they can get dressed and eat before they get on the bus.  This has gone pretty well, and yesterday we nailed the wake-up time perfectly and got them all fed and dressed like I need to in time.

Jojo, on the other hand, is having a harder time adjusting to school.  We have another week still before I have to start logging attendance, so I have time to get her into it better.  Now remember, she is a young K'er with her birthday being just a few weeks before the cutoff date in Ohio.  She is still 4, and VERY much a 4 year old.  I keep lessons short and sweet with her, breaking up the bigger stuff into little bits and adding in hands-on craft stuff to keep her going.  She's working at a developmentally appropriate level for her age with the tweaking I'm doing, and I have no issues with it.  This challenge we are working through right now is precisely WHY she isn't going to the charter school with her sisters.  She really does need the extra time working with me before she's ready to head off to school too.

This week has been really interesting as far as trying to get a routine started with Jojo and her schoolwork.  Having her sisters home all week (and half of the upcoming week as well) has made it a bit difficult to get into a routine with her; she keeps wanting to do her lessons and then getting distracted by their presence.  So I'm just calling it good that we get anything at all done before they head off on Thursday to school.

Really, though, she has done a lot.  We have completed the first unit in math (about 3 weeks of lessons, it was all review for her) and the first 2 units in phonics (again, review for her) on top of half the handwriting for the year (it was the same book we did with her last school year so she just sat down and did it all over the course of a few days for fun) and a few lessons in language arts and social studies.  It has been a very productive week for her, even with the distraction of her sisters being here still all day.

I anticipate that next week when they head to school, it will be a completely different story for how Jojo does in her schoolwork.  But, we have a picnic on Thursday and PJ has his 6 month checkup on Friday, so we'll see how much we get done those first two days of school.

New school year has begun!

I only have a few minutes to post, so I'll try to keep it short here.  Yesterday the OLS for Jojo's schooling was ready with her work, so we started lessons yesterday to get a head start on her schooling.  I have to begin logging attendance on the 27th, so we're starting 2 weeks early, but OHVA can be a bit tedious at times so I wanted to be sure to ease her in to the workload properly instead of just jumping into it all with both feet on the 27th.

The older 3 girls start going to school on the 23rd, so they are helping me with this transition.  I am trying to get us into a schedule of sorts for our days, and it isn't an easy transition for me to do this after 4 years of just kind of going with the flow.  Missa and Liddy have been VERY helpful with this transition so that I can get into the swing of it without holding PJ constantly or wearing him in the carrier before I have to do it with him attached to me one way or another.  I feel pretty good about how its going, although I can tell that this school year is going to be a real experience with Jojo as she still has the attention span of a gnat and can't sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time (which was our main reason for doing OHVA with her instead of sending her to the school her sisters will be attending).

As for the big girls, we are adjusting wakeup time so that they have adequate time to dress in their uniforms and eat before the bus comes at 6:35am to get them.  None of us are doing well with the 5:30am wakeup, but we'll get there by the end of the week hopefully.

Playing with friends

I sent an e-mail yesterday to a friend of mine to see if we could come play one day before the big kids start school in 15 days.  We set up to do it this morning, and we had so much fun.  It is very important as an at-home mom, especially a home educating mom, to get out with other moms and talk so that we don't forget how to do that stuff.

So, we showed up this morning to play and the girls were ecstatic at different playmates.  And PJ got his first "play date" with a little boy just 6 weeks or so older than he is.  I even got some pictures on my phone of the playing, but only 1 has made it to my computer right now.  I got to spend a couple hours talking with Tristan from Our Busy Homeschool and the girls played with her 6 older children while she and I snuggled our sweet babies.  I even got a chance to snuggle her little guy, he is so sweet and squishy.

And even better, it is one of those super rare pictures with me in it.  I loved having both in my lap like that, but man I'm glad I was never given twins.  That was just TOO heavy for me to do very long.

shopping

I love having a little shopping buddy, and when the shopping buddy is THIS cute I just can't help but grin the entire time we're out doing this dreaded task (shopping is not something I enjoy doing, especially when it is food shopping trips).

Yes we were at WalMart.  I had to go pick up the ingredients to make a cheesecake, as Scott's birthday is tomorrow and that is his absolute favorite dessert (I always do the birthday person's favorite meal and dessert, from scratch whenever possible).  I also swung over to the baby department to get PJ a crinkle toy.  This one that he got today is a teething blanket, its crinkly all over with 2 corners with chewing ends and a third with a squeaky thing.

Yup, my littlest shopping buddy makes the grocery store fun, especially since he's now sitting up well enough that he can hang out in the cart instead of me having to wear him all the time.  He likes the new view too.  The seatbelt in the cart provides just enough support for him to sit up for the trip.

Family game night

We are getting ready to enter the busy season at work for Scott, as all the kids are getting ready for back to school and need to get new glasses (he cuts lenses in an optical lab).  So this means that quality time is going to get harder to come by around here with him.  As a result, on Sunday evenings we are now having "family game night" in an attempt to spend time with Scott.  Last night was our first night of this, and he played Wii bowling with the girls.  They played two full games before the girls had to go to bed, and it went pretty well.  Jojo decided that she didn't want to play, so she instead became a cheerleader and cheered every time someone knocked down pins.  PJ and I sat on the sofa watching, and PJ just screeched and talked the whole time.  It was a total success.

Now I need to come up with an idea for next weekend's family game night.  I'm thinking we may try splitting into teams and teaching the girls charades.  That should be fun I think.  Or maybe I'll snag some new dry erase markers and clear off the big dry erase board so we can play Pictionary.  I'll come up with an idea.

Box day

Today Jojo's curriculum arrived.  She was super excited to get it, and to see what all was in the boxes.  K12 has certainly improved since I used their K materials with Liddy, that's for sure.  It was a good solid program before but the changes have really improved the program I think.

Of course, Jojo was so excited that she insisted that I let her do SOMETHING of the schoolwork today.  I let her at one of the handwriting workbooks, and that satisfied her.

Getting ready for the school year

Last week, I made a decision.  Since my oldest 3 are going to a charter school, I decided that it is time to get them used to waking up early so they can catch the bus.  I anticipate that they will need to get up at 6am to have enough time to get ready and eat before the bus comes, and they usually start waking up around 8am.  So this is a big change for them.  I started this morning with waking them at 7am, and will do this daily for a couple weeks before I move it to 6am.  Today went fairly well with it being the first day of the new routine, although I didn't get up a half hour before waking them up (PJ got me up at 4am and kept me up until 5:30 screaming, I think he's teething) so they had to wait for me to catch up to them so they could have breakfast.  I am so happy that I decided to start this a full month before they start school so that I can adjust and work all the kinks out of the system!

As far as prepping for Jojo's school year at home with me, I'm just waiting for payday so that I can get hold of a bookshelf for her stuff, and a couple bins for the littler supplies.  Her enrollment is completed and approved, and curriculum and computer have been ordered by the school for her.  I should have those things here in the next 2 weeks, give or take a few days.  I'll update when I get the e-mail with tracking numbers.

Of course, for the big girls getting supplies is a bit different.  I'm slowly working at getting their supplies, and on Wednesday the school is having a used uniform sale that I'm going to take advantage of.  My parents are being awesome and decided to buy the girls their uniform shoes, which is a HUGE burden off our shoulders right now financially.  Now I have to work our tight budget to include uniform skirts and the rest of their supplies they need.

Mom's in trouble

Yup, I'm in for it.  That is a baby trying to take off chasing his sisters.  He's 5 months old today, and I am totally NOT ready for this new milestone he's hitting.  Someone needs to tell him to lay back down and be a baby for a while longer.

Jojo's education figured out

I posted a while back about if I should enroll Jojo in the charter school with her sisters or keep her home another year.  I found a solution that will work PERFECTLY for us I think.

I am now in the process of enrolling her in Ohio Virtual Academy for her K year.  This way, I can keep her at home to work on developing the skills she'll need to handle school if we choose to send her next school year, yet at the same time we will not be holding her back academically.  I just have to get some printer ink so that I can print off the forms that I have to fill out and fax in with her birth certificate and other stuff, then she'll be set to go.

Her sisters will head off starting August 23rd, and her first official day of school is the 27th.  I have a good feeling about this year, and am looking forward to working with OHVA and the k12 curriculum for K again.  I also am looking forward to adding in many of the optional activities in the program that we skipped when I did this program with my oldest girls since it will be just her and PJ during the day.

My guys

I took this last night while supper was in the oven.  We do this every night, Scott cuddles his boy while I make supper and PJ typically falls asleep on his daddy's shoulder.

The end of a season

Today my children lost a bit of that innocence they have had.  This evening at 8pm we buried their pet hamster, S'more.  He had been ill for a while now, and slowly declining, so we had been expecting him to die.  This morning he appeared to be doing a bit better; however, that was just his honeymoon health before he passed this evening.  Now I have a little grave in the back yard, and Lydia crying in my ear and refusing to believe that he has indeed passed into the big hamster wheel in the sky.  He was our pet for a little over a year before his passing, and while he wasn't the easiest to get along with (he had a habit of biting the girls if they messed with him too much) he was loved by all 4 girls and they will miss him.

Until we get a rabbit that is........ stay tuned for that blog post coming in the next couple months.

tough decision with a child

I only have a few minutes before we have to leave for VBS so I will keep this short.

Jojo will be 5 on September 3rd.  The cutoff for a child to start school is September 30th, and school starts this year on August 22nd.  She technically passed the K screening but has some areas that we need to keep working on, and I question her maturity at times.  We have full-day K only around here, I don't know of any half-day options.  So I'm about 90% sure that she won't be going to school this fall with her sisters.  I'm thinking she would benefit from another year at home with me, working casually and gently on things that she struggles in and maturing a bit more before she starts the next year.  But Scott wants me to send her and at least give it a try to see how she does.  She doesn't really have an opinion either way.

If we keep her home, I'll get her reading and start addition and subtraction when PJ naps.

VBS week and life's crazy fun stuff

This week is VBS week for us.  In case you don't know, VBS is Vacation Bible School, and every summer the kids who are old enough go to the program at a church near our home.  This happens to also be the church they go to Awana at and the host church for the homeschool group we've been a part of the past 4 years.  We enjoy the children's activities there, and it is just a few miles away, so they go there for activities even though it is not our home church (it is a half hour drive each way, we can't spend that much on gas for activities there outside a few special events and going to the service on Saturday nights).

This year Jojo is old enough to go, so I have all 4 girls going there from 8am-noon this week.  This is the first time I've had all 4 of them off like this for an activity, and it is also good practice for me to see what it will be like this fall when they are all 4 off to school.  Yesterday I spent the time making all the important phone calls I needed to make, and this morning I went to the grocery store and did a little bit of tidying up.  Tomorrow's VBS time I will be taking PJ to his 4 month checkup and shots, and the rest of the week is likely going to be me doing some of the chores I have to get done and taking my laundry over to a friend's house to get some done.

Yes I said taking laundry to a friend's house.  Our washer blessed us on Saturday morning when I was washing PJ's clothes by breaking down in mid-wash.  The pump quit working while it was draining the spin after washing, and then we had it fill to rinse and not drain that water.  Scott got the dryer unstacked last night so that we could tip the washer back for me to get the clothes out and scoop the water out into my mop bucket.  Next weekend he is hopefully going to order the parts we need and then he and I will try to fix it ourselves (if we can't do it ourselves, we have a reputable locally owned repair place that will put it in for us for $109 labor).  Hopefully it isn't down too much, because I don't want to do too much laundry at my friend's house and what I don't do there I am hand washing in the bathtub.  I really do NOT like hand washing dirty laundry, especially when I am dealing with diaper poop explosions because I have to use disposable diapers instead of cloth on PJ until the washer is fixed.

PJ and the milestone

I thought I'd do a little blip here about PJ's latest milestone.  I think I'll share a couple pictures first and then comment with what exactly is going through my mind now.

Nom nom nom!

PJ and the wubbie

He has started putting things in his mouth this week to chew on them.  Yes he is teething.  Yes he is starting to grab at toys and bat things.  No I am NOT prepared for the amount of heavy cleaning that this means I need to do and keep up with.  I've always kept things tidied enough to pass here, as life is just busy with 5 kids.  But now that he's starting to grab at things and is putting them in his mouth, I need to be extra diligent about keeping things picked up.  I do not want to have to deal with him getting something small in his mouth stuck there.

So today I started cleaning.  Nothing like having a baby who chews everything to force a "flight of the bumblebee" style deep cleaning.

Summer plans

This summer is going to be a very different one for us.  Scott and I made the decision to enroll the girls in a charter school this fall, so in August they will be getting on the bus and headed off all day during the week.  We are both in agreement that this is the path we need to follow at this time, and are confident in this decision.  This does not mean that I will no longer be teaching my children.  We plan to continue to supplement the school with our own materials at home on weekends and school breaks in history and science, and daily as needed with math and language arts.  This is going to be a new experience for me, as it means that I will be home with just PJ during the day.  But I have a feeling it will be exactly what our family needs right now, and give all of us an opportunity to grow in a new way.

So, that means that this summer we are going to be focused on preparing the girls to attend school.  Missa and Liddy are *slightly* behind the school so we will be spending time daily getting them caught up and even a bit ahead in math.  Missa also will get a crash course in cursive and spelling, in hopes that she will improve noticeably over the summer.  It is going to be an interesting and busy summer here, but I have faith that we can pull it off.

And I have to rework our budget to allow for us to purchase uniforms for the girls to wear.  That will be the hard part I think.

wrapping up the school year

We have had a very eventful school year here, and now it is June so we need to wrap up things at some point and take a bit of a break.  Originally I wasn't going to take a break here due to the time we had to take off with my pregnancy complications, but even I am wanting a little time to relax and enjoy.  Plus, I need to free up some time to focus on getting my plans for this upcoming school year figured out in a couple areas.

We have made a lot of progress this year despite the things that came up.  The girls had a chance to learn through my pregnancy, about keeping healthy and making good choices along with learning about the development of a baby before it is born (science and health both right there).  They learned the importance of working together and helping out when needed, and gained some additional independence this school year.  We did keep plugging away in academics of course, completing most of our goals in history and science for the year plus making great progress in math and reading.  Missa finished her math book and moved up into Beta back in October I believe, and yesterday Jojo finished her Singapore Earlybird math book.  Liddy should finish her math book in the next few weeks and move on up to Beta as well, and Kimmy will finish her math book probably by fall.  Overall, I am happy with how the school year has gone for us.

So we shall wrap up this year over this month and take a bit of time off, then pick up with grades 4, 3, 1, and K in late July or early August.  We will keep up with doing some math and reading most likely over this summer, but at a more relaxed pace.  But officially, I'm calling it over with by the end of this month and just taking it for what it is.  I didn't get as much done as I would have liked in history or science, but they still got a LOT more than they would have in our local public school.  We have many years still to finish up the history we did this school year, and I am looking forward to the US geography study we will be doing this fall.  I have even decided to expand it to include science by studying earth science (identifying landforms in each state, like mountains, canyons, and such) and some plant/animal science (studying different plant and aminal life that is in each state, such as tumbleweed and cacti, scorpions, birds, and such).  I need to take a bit of time to rework the plan I originally had obviously to include this, as I was just going to keep plugging forward in science with what we have here (finishing the Real Science 4 Kids books that I got for this school year).  I also need to take some time to create a basic intro to music theory for the kids, as I would ideally like to have the oldest girls reading music a little bit next school year, and come up with something for art.

3 months old, and May wrap-up

This has been a good month for us.  PJ turned 3 months old, Liddy is now 8, and Scott is spending more time at home with us and less at work (of course, this is also a negative, as it means they cut his hours at work so he has smaller paychecks).  The girls are making progress in their schoolwork, and getting along better.  They also are starting to listen to me more about helping out.

Here's a few pictures from this month's activities.

 PJ has decided that he LOVES tummy time, and gives big grins and squeals for about 20-30 minutes at a time twice a day.  I took this picture this morning because he was being so stinking CUTE about tummy time.

This was early this month, PJ's first time on our swingset.  He wasn't too impressed with it but tolerated it pretty well for long enough to get a picture.

A math lesson this week.  In case you didn't already know, my oldest 3 use Math-U-See and Jojo will start it when she's ready as well.  Right now she's focusing on motor skill development and using pattern blocks to make pictures, and she adores the Mighty Mind game we have.  It is a part of Sonlight core P3/4.

finding time for me

This is something I've not really done much of the last several months.  I am especially finding it difficult with a new baby that needs to be with me at all times since he doesn't take a bottle.  So, I have to really make an effort to find time to do things for myself.  Right now the girls are playing happily and leaving me alone for once, and PJ is hanging out in the playpen and talking to his animals on the mobile above him.  I should really get out my sewing machine and do some sewing for the kids, but instead I am here on the computer typing a blog post.

I need to force myself to be more diligent about taking time for me daily.  I have many activities that I enjoy doing and the things I need to do them, but I don't take the time to do it.  I have about 20lbs to lose, and I have workout DVDs plus access to free workouts on Netflix and on my cable's OnDemand collection.  I have a large supply of fabric and patterns for myself and the kids, and a long list of things to make for us (mainly we need skirts and dresses, and PJ needs more diapers).  I have yarn and knitting/crochet needles/hooks plus patterns for things I want to make.  I have 2 books of music that I can learn to play on my flute or the piano.  I even have almost a dozen books on my Kindle, just waiting for me to read them, and a couple games for the Wii and Playstation 3 that I haven't played in a long time.

As I said, I have a lot of great stuff that I can do, and yet I do not take the time to do any of it.  Instead, while Scott reads to the girls at bedtime, I watch tv and rock PJ to sleep before I head off to sleep myself, and I get up with the first child in the morning every day.  The free time I have, in the past I've spent at the computer playing games and reading on chat forums.  I need to rekindle that spark for my hobbies and do it.

So, I am going to set up a plan.  Yesterday we had our first quiet time after lunch, and today I plan to do it again after Lydia's yearly checkup.  During that time, I am going to finish the shirt I have waiting for Jordan and then start making skirts for us all (the girls each need 4 or 5 at a minimum and I need 3 or more, that is a LOT of skirts) if PJ will let me put him down.  If not, then I will get out my yarn and start making dishcloths or I'll read a book on the Kindle.  Quiet time is 90 minutes that I can spend doing what interests me, so I'm going to do it.

And yes, I do consider making clothes for the kids to be fun and relaxing to me.  I have always enjoyed sewing, and I have wonderful high quality machines to do it.  Anything is fun for me to sew no matter what it is and who it is for, so I will be taking advantage to make some clothes that we need anyway and just continue to enjoy the sound of the machine humming away and the feel of the fabric in my hands as I work it through my machines.  It is a highly satisfying thing to start with a pattern and a pile of fabric and then see it transformed into something useful and beautiful.  Blankets, pillows, clothing, toys, you name it I'll make it.

Yes, I need to remember to take more time out for me.

fasting

I have come to the decision that I spend too much time on the computer.  It is very easy to sit down just to read a friend's blog and then end up spending a couple hours playing games on Facebook.  So, I have decided that I am taking time off this machine.  For at least a week, the only times I will be getting on the computer are to check my friends' blogs (I have a few that I read regularly), to post on my blog, and for homeschool purposes (printing off materials, finding something to add to the lesson, stuff like that).  So, if we talk on a chat board, are Facebook friends, etc. you will not see me around much at all for a while.  I do access on my phone a couple times daily, but I get irritated easily with the smaller screen.

My family is going through a lot of changes here in our dynamic, and the girls need more of my time than I have been giving them because of this computer habit of mine.  I started this yesterday, and will continue definitely until Scott gets paid on Friday.  It is time to get back to the family, and spend more time living and loving with them.  I have 5 amazing children and a wonderful husband, all of whom are being neglected by my time at the computer.  It is time to stop this and get back at life the way we are meant to live it.

The kids are also being limited in their computer and television time as well, which is a new thing for us.  This should be interesting, to say the least.

Saturday fun

Scott has a thing he likes to do with the girls.  On the first Saturday of every month, Home Depot has a free kids workshop.  He takes them up and they get an apron, popcorn, and build something.  Today he took them for the first time since PJ was born.  They built little planter boxes, and the store gave away free plants to the kids as well so they all came home with strawberry plants.  The girls also got to meet Chester Cheetah (the Cheetos character).  I have to figure out how to get the pictures out of my texting inbox and onto a computer first, but as soon as I do that I'll edit this with pictures he took.

And while they were at workshop, PJ and I went grocery shopping for a few basic necessities.  I really am happy that we splurged on the carrier that we got me last month, he hung out in it on my chest the entire trip and then got mad at me when I took him out again at the car (Scott took the van) so I could buckle him into his seat.

May goals

Well, it is a new month, so it is time for new goals.  I like setting goals for a month, it helps me to get some focus going on and motivation to get it done.

Homeschool goals:

Liddy finish her level of math
do spelling at least twice a week with Missa
Get Kimmy reading to me at least 3 times a week
keep working with Jojo on her letter sounds

Household goals:

stay more on top of the housework than I have been
catch up the laundry fully
plant shrubs out back

Personal goals:

daily time with my Bible
finish reading "Love and Logic"
exercise twice a week on purpose
go to bed by 10pm every night
smile more often

Yes, I think that is enough of a goal setting for now.  I have a lot of places I need to improve as a wife and mother, so my plan for this month is to start working on the areas that need the most help.  One day I may take the time to share all my shortcomings that I need and want to work on, but I rather like the idea of just posting a couple to work on each month instead like this.

And just because I can, here's my first picture this month of PJ and me together.  Please try to ignore the smears on the mirror, I know I need to take some Windex to it.

I can't believe how big he is getting already.  He will be 3 months old here in just 16 days, and in 9 days Liddy will be 8 years old.  I am NOT ready for this month.

ornery kids

Look what they taught my sweet little baby boy to do.

The girls taught PJ to stick his tongue out when they stick theirs out at him........  And Scott helped with that lesson.  Darn ornery girls and daddy!

But he is starting to laugh now when you get him excited enough.  I love getting him going real good with the kicks and the grins and squeals until he gives out a little chuckle.  He's also starting to blow raspberries during those times too, which just increases his cute factor.

Yup, I am definitely going to have my hands full soon with him, especially since he's starting to do pushups and can already propel himself forward by wiggling his front end and pushing with his legs and feet.  I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet.

9 years ago

OK this is a couple days late, I should have posted it on Saturday, but hey better late than never, right? :-)

9 years ago, I was 21 and clueless.  I also became a mom for the first time ever on April 14th at 4:30pm to a 6lb 14oz little baby girl.  I had never held a baby before in my life, and was from that point on expected to take care of and train this baby girl to be a beautiful independent woman.  I had to ask the nurse at the hospital how to change a diaper and bathe my baby, I was that clueless.  I felt like I would never figure out this who parenting thing.  All I knew was that I didn't want to give up and leave like my own mom had done when I was little.  I was determined to give that baby girl both a dad AND a mom, and a life that I never had.

And now today, that guinea pig baby girl I had at 21 is a beautiful and kind, compassionate, caring girl who is growing into an amazing young woman.  She has an independent streak almost as big as her stubborn streak, and makes me proud of her every day.  She has her struggles with learning differences, but her determination to push through and master her lessons is something to admire.  I can't wait to see what the next 9 years of her life will bring, she is an amazing person.

Happy 9th birthday Missa.

lookie what I got in the mail today

That, my friends, is an Action Baby Carrier (ABC).  I love wearing my babies, and I find it increasingly needed as our family grows.  I've never actually purchased a baby carrier before, as all ours were either gifted to us or I made them myself.  I had 4 different carriers (2 wraps, a sling, and a mei tai) but PJ didn't care for any of them, so Scott and I decided to try purchasing a soft structured carrier and see if that would be any better.  He loves being held upright, but none of the other carriers I had would give him the support he likes to have (trust me I seriously tried).  So, I did some looking and asking around before deciding to purchase an ABC to try.  This one is the Deco Dots print, which is the lowest priced clearance carrier they have currently at $65 with free shipping in the US.

It was ordered on Saturday, then on Tuesday I got notification that it was finished.  Today is Thursday, and it is at my home.  I ordered direct from ABC instead of through one of the retailers, and this is the standard size carrier.  The girls helped me open the box it came in, then I took PJ into my bedroom to try putting him in it (I always do the first couple times with a new carrier/kid combo on my bed in case I drop the baby, soft landing spot is a good thing).  It took under a minute to get him in it and the thing perfectly adjusted, and then we put on my shoes and coat before heading outside with the girls to play before lunch.  He stopped crying as soon as I got him in it, then fell asleep within just a couple minutes.  He stayed asleep for an hour and a half, which allowed me to play with the kids outside, make lunch and feed them, then load the dishwasher and get it running before having a bit of computer time.

I think its safe to say he loves it.  I love it too, my back didn't bother me one bit the entire time he was in it and I'm about to get him back in it so that I can unload the dishwasher and refill and run it again.  I wish I had gotten one of these when Missa was a baby.

a kid on crutches

What a crazy time its been here the last couple days.  Missa managed to fall and hurt herself on Tuesday, so we had an unexpected trip to the doctor.  The official diagnosis is a couple bruised bones and she pulled/stretched muscles and other goodies in her left foot.  I was told ice, Advil, and keep her off it for at least a few days.  Well, yesterday I couldn't keep her off it at all, she kept getting up and running around with her sisters whenever I wasn't watching her, so last night we put her on crutches to keep her weight off that foot.  Hopefully we can get her back on her feet by Sunday, we have a special trip planned for a birthday gift for her (she'll be 9 on Saturday).

She is soooo like her momma with her coordination.

next school year's social plans

Ahhh yes, the social aspect of schooling.  Many people love to ask about socialization when it comes to homeschooling.  Well, I thought I'd give a peek into what we are planning for outside activities to show you exactly how a homeschooler does things.  Now remember, I have 5 kids and I attempt to get as many kids as I can convince into a single activity so that I'm not doing 2 million different things at once.

American Heritage Girls (similar to Girl Scouts, but with a biblical and family emphasis)
Awana (2 in T&T, 1 Spark, and 1 in Cubbies)
weekly park trips as long as weather allows
regular grocery store trips
a million checkups for kids with doctors
church Saturday nights (including Motion City)
maybe 4H if we can agree on what they will do
regular library trips

And this year we also are adding hopefully a couple of trips out of state for history-related field trips.

One of the best things is that we are able to provide a social moment pretty much every time we go out in public.  It is impossible to go somewhere and not interact with anyone at all, so we are blessed to have such a variety of ages and personalities and so on with public outings for social moments, instead of being locked up in a classroom all day during the week and only interacting with your age-mates and teachers during designated times.  This is something I really am looking forward to, I know that I will be incredibly busy with the things that we have planned for the school year as far as running around for the various activities and all that may entail.  However, it will be worth it to provide the kids with such a valuable real-world application of the social lessons they are getting with all of this.

Take that, socialization myth.

American history 2012-13 school year

Yup, that's what I'm doing this upcoming fall.  Our *plan* is to either get Sonlight core D (the first part of a 2 year US history study) using the 9 month time payment plan, OR to create my own thing.  Since we can't apply for the payment plan until after April 1st, I am spending this week's free time looking over resources to buy for us to create our own thing.  I'm going to just post this as a reminder of what I'm liking as of right now.

History Pockets- love these, we did the grades 1-3 ancient civilizations one alongside our world history studies this last couple years and it was great.  I'm going to be purchasing some of the ones that go with US history to do as the starting point for our studies, and we'll lapbook them instead of making the construction paper pockets (how we did the ancient civ. one)

Smithsonian Children's Encyclopedia of American History- I am pretty sure this is the US history reference book we'll be going with, but I'm still exploring the different ones available.  It is going to be difficult to find one that doesn't have an obvious political slant (either liberal or conservative) but this one appears so far to be fairly neutral.  I need to take this search to the local public library this weekend to see if I can find this one to look at closer, as well as look over some other reference books that they may have. (feel free to comment if you have a suggestion for a good book to fill this spot, it will be one of my big tools for teaching this subject)

library books- an ever-popular resource, I'll be finding a lot of books at the library to add to our studies.

Not too much set up yet, but I'm working on it.  In fact, if I get a good feel of what I'm doing before we can try for the payment plan, I may just opt to go this route instead of buying Sonlight.  I'm actually having fun trying to come up with something to do on my own like this instead of just buying the next core package in line, although I can 100% guarantee that I will be buying Sonlight's core F in a few years for the girls to do while PJ does a core (either the P cores or core A, depends on how old he is when we buy it)

the Kindle

Yes, we finally bought one this month for me.  I swore that I'd never own one, as a book lover one of my favorite things about reading a book is the rustling of pages and being able to twiddle the side of the pages as I read to help me focus.  However, books are horribly impractical for reading when you are spending hours a day stuck in a chair while the baby is latched on to nurse.  A traditional book is a little too heavy and big to hold with one hand and read easily, and turning pages is a chore.  So, Scott and I agreed that a Kindle would be the way to go.

We were initially going to get the Kindle Fire because I like gadgets like that, but we decided to go instead with the classic and continue to save up for my iPad that I've been wanting since they first came out.  That iPad will come in VERY handy at managing my life with some of the apps I can get, but that's a completely different post for a future date when I actually GET the iPad and can share all the things I will be using it for.

But anyway, the Kindle.......

It was a breeze for me to get set up and charged, and get some books on it.  I have about $24 in Amazon gift certificate money loaded to my account still, and I want to spend it on books for me to read.  I have many free domain books on the Kindle already, sorted into collections based on who and what they are for (kids' history, kids' read alouds, mom's reading, and such).  OK so maybe many isn't the right word here as I only have about 30 books loaded on it.  But it feels like a lot of books to me.

So now I must ask for some suggestions.  I am in need of some new reading material for me personally.  Most of the books I have already on it I've read in the past and enjoyed, or they are the entire 6 volume series by Charlotte Mason (dry as heck).  I'm looking for new reading material.  I'm especially interested in books that may help me as a parent, wife, and/or homeschool parent, and total fluff (I rather enjoyed the Ann Rice books I've read in the past and plan to get a couple more).

What do YOU like to read on your Kindle?

Planning the new school year

Yes, I know its ONLY March.  However, it is that time that I like to look over where we are in each subject and start getting real solid ideas for next fall.  We typically call our first day of school officially at the very start of August, and I would *like* to take July off most lessons if possible so that we can enjoy some street fairs and summer weather.  July is the month that is usually slowest for Scott at work, so we get to spend more time together as a family before it picks up again in August with all the kids getting glasses for school to start (in case you don't know, Scott makes eyeglasses for a living, a lot of his work is actually for children on Medicaid in a few different states).  So, during his hours off work we do field trips on weekends and go on picnics and stuff like that.  It is something we always look forward to, even if the paychecks are barely enough to cover our bills during the slower season.

So, I'm looking now and figuring out fall, mainly to ease the amount of work I have to do when Scott is at work less.  If I plan now, then it is ready to go before he's no longer working 70 hour weeks (that's the busier times, during summer he gets 45 hours a week if we're lucky).  So here's what we have figured out so far.

This fall I will have an infant still, which I hear that the infant year is easiest to do this.  I've never schooled kids with an infant, Missa didn't start K until Jojo was a year old, so this is a new experience for us.  I'm learning as we go with it.  Anyway, this fall I will also have all 4 girls going formally.  Jojo will be of K age by cutoff date, so we will begin K with her and plan to stretch it out over 2 years on paper for maturity.  So she will be a Junior K and then her sisters will be in grades 1, 3, and 4.  Sounds fun, don't you think?  Lots of juggling, and not a lot of independent work with a couple of them.

So, here's what IS working for us this year, which will follow us into next year:

Math-U-See (I will have to get only 2 workbooks, the middle girls went slower than expected this year)
All About Spelling (Missa is working her speed and Liddy will start level 1)
Real Science 4 Kids (not finished with the books we got for this year so we'll finish them up and go into some unit studies)

That right there takes care of half my requirements easily.  Now for the fun part.  What didn't work so well, or what we're changing out of necessity because it just is a bad fit for our situation with all the kids going at once.

The biggest change for us will be that we are taking a year off Sonlight.  I'm feeling a need to spend a year doing geography and some US history and state studies, so I'm working out the kinks in this one now.  I already have "Geography Songs" that we are going to do to cover the basic geography stuff, from our Sonlight core (one of the things we got then dropped early on because of the pregnancy when I started lightening my load in teaching back in I think October).  I also have some free domain books on my Kindle that we will utilize, as well as 11th grade A Beka US History to refresh my own memory before I start working this out.  I will need to use as many free resources as possible to cover this year's history, we just don't have the money to buy all the consumables I need for 4 kids AND the US history program I was originally wanting (I had originally decided on Winter Promise American Story 1 for this fall, then Scott had to get a car and we decided on one about $1500 more than we planned so my homeschool budget went down from $1200 to $300 and I spent part of that on a Kindle).

I also am dropping Handwriting Without Tears, and getting a couple of dry-erase handwriting practice books they have at a store here locally.  This year, I simply cannot afford to buy handwriting workbooks for all 4 kids to go through as fast as they do, so they will use the dry-erase variety and take turns practicing.  I also am going back to regular copywork instead of the copywork and journaling books we did this year, also because of cost.  Thankfully, I only need to buy 2 math workbooks for Missa and Jojo to do this fall, and a friend blessed us with the teaching materials for all the Math-U-See levels we didn't have up to Algebra 1 so I am set there for several years.

And that's about all I figured out so far.  I am hoping to make it to the CHEO convention in June this year, but I'm not sure I can do it with the cost for the person we have do our portfolio reviews for reporting.

Pictures!!!!!

I mentioned EARLY this morning that we had pictures today, and here are a couple from that session.  PJ was not in the mood to cooperate too much, that child has a one-track mind and only wants to be feeding if he's awake still.  But we got some great shots I think. :)

I am definitely enjoying having a little boy too much obviously.  I loved getting to pick out his first little man outfit for today, and I do think he looks amazingly handsome in it.  Even Scott had to agree that he looked good for pictures.  I just wish I had been able to get his outfit in a newborn size instead of 0-3 month, it was a little big on him.  Oh well, just means he can wear it a little longer before he outgrows it.

what a busy week!

I'm waiting for the van to warm up now so I can make a run to pick up some clothes for the kids for today, so this will be short.  I hope. lol

Monday was supposed to be my due date, and instead I had a 2 1/2 week old baby boy in my arms.  Loving it by the way, he is bringing a whole new level of joy to our home, one that only a new baby can bring.  For the first time, I don't feel like there's someone missing here.  Yes, I do have moments where I think that a few more babies would be nice, but that is something that we're not even considering right now.  We are too busy enjoying this little man.

Tuesday, PJ had his 2 week checkup AND it was our wedding anniversary.  Yup, 8 years married now, and this July we'll have been together officially for 10 years.  What an amazing feeling THAT is.  Anyway, PJ was 2 ounces below his birth weight and a full inch bigger.  That puts him in the 50th for height and the 25th for weight and his head measurement.  Looks like he's got my build.  He goes back in uhhhh mid April I think, I have to look and see first.

Wednesday I saw the midwife about my blood pressure issues I had.  I'm still on the meds to control it, and its at the higher end of the normal range now.  She and I had a nice long discussion about how those last weeks of my pregnancy went and what the future could hold for me if we have another baby.  She also made it clear that my long term recovery will be a better indicator of the blood pressure issues and that at this point she won't say whether or not it would be a good/bad idea to have more because its not that long after birth.  I go back to her again in April for my official 6 week checkup and to re-evaluate the pre-eclampsia.

Then Thursday we hung out at home and I prepped diapers.  I forgot how much work prefolds can be to get ready for use. :)  But they are all washed and ready to go now.

And today, we have PJs first pictures.  Which means, I need to leave now to get 4 girls dresses and a boy a little outfit.  I'll share pictures later when we have them.

PJ at 11 days old

Yup, I think he's fitting in our home nicely here..........  He actually likes this style of sling better than the Moby wrap I have, so here soon I have to buy a sling that isn't quite so girly to wear him in public since we don't own a stroller (and have no plans to buy one either, I have an umbrella stroller we'll use with him when he's older but none that will work with him right now at this size that will lay down flat for him).

math headaches

As you know, I have a lot of fun with teaching Missa sometimes.  She is stubborn just like I am, and we butt heads regularly.  I had tried passing math to Scott to do with her, but his approach doesn't actually teach her how to do the work.  It only taught her how to be lazy and mess around until he gives her the answer and tells her how to do the problem.  I make her actually DO the work herself, and keep trying when she makes simple mistakes where I know she knows what she's doing.  I'm talking a problem like 62+16, she'll just randomly say that the answer is 91 and then when I send her to redo the computation she'll put 92, then 90, then 93, and so on every time in hopes that I'll give up and tell her the answer.  That was one of today's math problems, by the way, one that she just threw down answers on to get out of the work.  She's capable, she knows how to do the work.  I sent her back to recheck her computation on that problem (and 3 others) four different times before she started screaming at me about it.

Time out, kid.  Get on your bed.

She detests actually putting forth a little effort in math.  Of course it is difficult, she doesn't take her time with each problem.  She did so well in math before, even when I moved her up to Beta in October.  But I've noticed that the last 6 weeks or so, she's become increasingly resistant to doing the work.  She has balked at it, ignoring me when I say it is time for math, she's smarting off, screaming at me, not even trying to do the work, and doing everything she can to get out of it.  And every day, math gets interrupted by my having to send her off to cool down on her bed for a little bit so she can regroup and focus on the couple problems that she keeps butting heads with me on.

These are the moments that make me want to bang my head on the brick walls in our home and just scream.  These are the moments that lead to me fantasizing about enrolling them all in the local public school and saying forget it.  These are the moments that make me feel most like a failure as a mom because my child won't listen to me.  I know they are hard on Missa too.  She gets all worked up and flustered, then starts to scream and freak out which makes me yell back.  She pulls every excuse she can out of the bag, from trying to use her dyslexia to get out of it to saying its because she's not a Peterman like everyone else so she doesn't get it as fast to anything else she can think of.  She manipulates, ot ay least tries to, and I smack down those attempts as fast as she makes them.

She will make a great politician one day, if we can get her through school and college..........

today

So here it is, 10 days after we welcomed little PJ into our family.  He's a great baby, one of the easiest I've had so far.  Sleeps great at night (6 hour stretch already!) and nursing like a champ.  We had a few hangups with my milk not coming in right away, it took a full week before I was producing enough to completely stop supplementing with an ounce or two of formula a few times daily.  But now we are settled there too.  He has a birth mark on his forehead, right between his eyebrows, that we originally had thought was just bruising from how fast he was born but now I see it as a birth mark as he lightens up and the jaundice resolves.  It is getting darker as his skin lightens, and it is kind of in the shape of a capital U or V.  Once he's fully to the pale he will end up being, I'll get a good picture of it to show you what I mean.

But today is another day.  Today is the day that I was originally scheduled to be induced because of my blood pressure.  And instead, here I sit with my baby in my arms, sleeping happily after a heck of a good feeding while I get my computer stuff done for the morning before kids get up to start our day.  It is a strange feeling, knowing that today I was supposed to be induced when he's laying here in my lap, but I'm ok with that right now.

But for the rest of today, I have some goals.  It appears that the weather is going to be tolerably decent as far as temperature and such, so I'm thinking that today I may see if I can recruit the girls to help me with a little outdoor spring cleaning.  We have some toys laying around in the yard, and leaves still out back from fall that need raked up, so I'm going to try and bribe with cookie making to get that done.  I also have to get Missa finished up with her math lesson and taking her test today, and Liddy has a unit test to take today.  If Liddy does well with that test and is open to it, we'll also start her on her new lesson so that I don't have 2 kids starting a lesson tomorrow.  Ummmm, what else?  Oh yeah, I have to portion out meat into meal size packs for the freezer today, and our usual daily chores.  And perhaps we'll get to some extra schoolwork, I may attempt to add in history lessons this week if I am feeling up to it.  Or maybe we'll just do another week of the R's while I figure out how to do all this stuff in my life one-handed, PJ isn't loving the Moby wrap as much as his sisters did right now so I have to keep an arm available for him at all times.  Maybe when his umbilical stump falls off and finishes healing fully he will like it better, or he'll like the ring sling that I am planning to buy in the next few weeks.

Oh, and I have to find something that I can use as a diaper pail until I manage to remember to buy myself a small trash can to use, I'm sick of the smell of dirty/wet disposable diapers in my house.  I have my very small set of diapers and covers all washed and ready, so now I need to use the silly things.  I'm hoping to get that going today too.  I can't wait to see how cute his booty will be all fluffed up from his diapers!

Yup, that covers my day I think.  I'll come back tonight hopefully with a positive progress report on how we did here with that list.  Hopefully I have a positive report for you on this one.

Woah, what a weekend lol

So, we had a VERY eventful weekend here.  Scott, being the awesome guy he is, called in late to work on Friday and watched the kids while I went to my midwife appointment.  I knew it was going to be an interesting day when Erica told me that my blood pressure was too high and my protein had more than doubled in my 24hr test so I needed to go to the hospital for monitoring, testing, and to be induced the next day.  So, I went home and got the family so that Scott could drop me off on his way to taking the kids to his mom's before hanging with me at the hospital.

I got there and all hooked up at 9am to the monitors, where they picked up mild contractions and got my blood pressure back down again with laying me down.  2pm came and they decided to keep me another 2 hours just to see what was going on, and the monitor decided to stop picking up my random contractions at that point.  When they checked me at 4pm, they had to RUN to get a delivery room ready and call in the midwife, I was ready to have a baby.  Oops...... lol  So, at 5:05pm on Friday, February 17th we had a baby.  I wanted an epidural, instead I got some Nubain after he came because I was really sore.  Oh, and I kicked the midwife in the chest in the process, and didn't get both doses of antibiotics so they had to keep us 48hrs to watch for Strep B in the baby.  It was by far my fastest, easiest, and least painful birth, even with him being posterior.  And yes, I was pissed that I didn't get an epidural at that moment when I had to push him out and feel every bit of that pain, but now I'm really happy I didn't get it because I am moving so much easier than I did after Jordan (the only epidural I did have before, I had planned on it mainly because it can lower blood pressure and I wanted to increase my chances of keeping it down).

Then Saturday we watched as my blood pressure started going up again. *sigh*  Yup, the pre-eclampsia didn't resolve itself with delivery.  I was put on blood pressure meds to bring it back down once it hit 154/109 at 11pm.  They are working though, so I was released with a prescription and orders to get checked again in 2 weeks to see how its going.

Yeah, you could say this weekend was eventful.........  Welcome to the world, Scott Preston Jr.

8lbs 1oz, just shy of 20" long, and already spoiled rotten lol  Not a bad size at all for being born at 37  1/2 weeks, he came a full 10 days before we had planned to induce for safety with the blood pressure issues I was having.  And yes, I made it a total of 3 hours after coming home before I grabbed the Moby Wrap and tied him to my chest so I could take care of a few things easier.  I have a bit of a headache on and off, and I get little spells of dizziness where my scalp starts tingling, but other than that I have the standard pains and discomforts of having just had a baby 2 days ago.  As soon as Scott gets the girls into bed here in a little bit, he's going to go pick up my blood pressure meds at the pharmacy for me.

Oh, and Scott's car has officially died now so we are down to just my van until the tax refund gets here and clears the bank so he can buy himself a used compact car to replace it.  I sure hope it comes soon, I don't like being stuck at home even if I did just have a baby and I have NO plans to go anywhere without him for several weeks.  He is taking a day or two off work here tomorrow, then in 2 weeks he has a full week vacation so I can schedule my appointments with the pediatrician and the midwife and WIC so I can go with just little man and Scott can watch the kids if I don't decide I'd rather he drive me to them.

the waiting game

Yup, that sums it up pretty much I think.  We're in a holding pattern here waiting on our little boy to arrive.  I've been having random signs for almost 2 weeks now that he will be coming soon, and it has me worn out and grumpy.  And since I'm a big believer in keeping your mouth shut if you don't have anything nice to say, I've been quiet here to avoid a huge long rant post about how I'm feeling.  I'm just tired of it now, and will leave it at that.

But on the plus side, my midwife has said that if I don't go into labor beforehand, she is going to induce me on Feb. 27th because of my blood pressure issues.  Of course, that is all provided that I manage to continue to stay fairly stable in that area and we don't have a major change that would require immediate delivery.  So this means that in 11 days at the most, we will have our first son join our family.  I hope we are all ready for this, I've not had any children at all in diapers for a year now, and it has been 4 1/2 years since I've had a newborn in my home.  Scott is hopefully planning to take time off work with FMLA for us to have some time together as a family and adjust to being a family of 7, and all the girls are beyond excited at the upcoming arrival of their new brother.  I, on the other hand, keep having dreams at night that involve my own anxieties about this upcoming change in our family size.  I need this to hurry up and happen so that I can just be thrown into the middle of all the chaos and have my sink or swim moment.

Oh, and the baby shower last weekend that Scott's family had for us was a total hit.  I got so many baby clothes and such that I don't know WHAT to think of it all.  I'm totally overwhelmed still by all the clothes and stuff we got, even though it has been washed and folded and is all ready to go.  I even have 90% of my bag packed for the hospital, minus a few little things I need to buy for myself (bathroom stuff, and I want a new robe and slippers), and the car seat is installed in the van and all ready to go thanks to a wonderful friend who is just as good as I am with that stuff.  Just need to buy a baby swing and some more cloth diapers, and I'll be good to go.

nervous for Friday

Friday morning is the growth scan to make sure that my blood pressure hasn't caused any issues with lil man's size and development.  I wish Scott could go with me for it, but we need him to stay at the house with the other kids.  I am worried that they will find something wrong and need to induce, especially knowing what my resting blood pressure has been running lately.

But in good news, my lab testing I did over the weekend came back good.  Protein is still elevated but holding steady from the last time, and my blood tests all came back within normal parameters.  I repeat them again this weekend.  Praise God for the little things!

34 weeks and great news

I had another visit to the midwife today.  A friend of mine brought her son over to play with my girls so I could go without the kids, just in case my blood pressure was acting up so I wouldn't have to deal with that on top of it all.  Anyway, I came home to a clean house (minor miracle, she actually got my kids to listen and help out) AND I had a good appointment too.

I gained 3 1/2lbs since my appointment last week, which isn't so great in my eyes, but hey I'm in the final weeks so I'm not surprised.  My blood pressure was completely normal for the first time in several weeks, AND I wasn't spilling protein when they did the dip.  I do have to repeat all the blood tests and the 24 hour collection again since my 24 hour results last week are higher than the week before, but today was a VERY good day for me with her.  She had a smile on her face when she came in, its been a while since I've seen her smile when she opens the door.

I decided to ask for information about permanent birth control options, as the first step in our decision about what to do after this baby comes.  We have no plans to make any decisions like that until he is at least 6 months old, however.  I'm too unstable emotionally to trust my own judgement at this point, and I don't want to have any regrets later if we choose to do something right now.  The only thing I do know is what we'll do while we wait to make a decision when I'm mentally stable again (yes, I've turned into a nutcase this time around, as usual, and I do anticipate that I'll end up on antidepressants after birth again as well).

So I go back next week for the routine tests and checkup that happens at 35 weeks *yuck* and I also get an ultrasound to check on our little boy's growth, placental function, fluid levels, and such.  With the issues I've had with my blood pressure, there is some concern that it may have affected his growth, blood flow, or placental function so they are going to take a look to double check that everything is good.  While we're looking, I'm going to ask if we can take another peek between his legs to be sure he's still a boy.  Yes, I'm still having a little trouble believing that he's a boy after having the 4 girls.  That is a surprise I do NOT want to have on delivery day.

Downside to next week?  My appointment is at 7am.  I'm NOT a morning person, getting up before 8am is really pushing it for me.  But I can do it, especially since Scott is pulling strings to get covered at work for a couple hours so he can go in late that day and watch the girls for me.  Yes, daddy will be the one dealing with breakfast that day, my poor kids.  I just hope that all goes well again next week, now that I'm in crunch time to baby.

FINALLY a homeschool update lol

Yes, I know I've not done much of that the last couple months, but we've also not done much for lessons lately either.  I will explain that one in my pregnancy update here in a minute.

So I was having a good day today with my blood pressure and symptoms, and decided to take advantage instead of taking it easy and trying to not overdo it.  I did a history lesson and a tie-in art lesson with the girls.  Now, I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but we have streamlined our history from doing a full Sonlight world history core to just reading "A Child's History Of The World" and doing whatever strikes our fancy to go with it as I feel up to it to finish this school year.  Simplified history here, so we could work with my limitations of the pregnancy and also be able to not miss much with a new baby and getting settled and adjusted to 5 kids.

Today's chapter was about Egyptian writing, also known as hieroglyphics.  Now, a couple years ago I went over this material with Missa when she was in 1st grade with OHVA, so it was review for her and new for her sisters.  I read the chapter, and we discussed the stuff that we read (lots more than JUST writing in there, it was also a good bit about Egyptian culture and gods/goddesses they worshipped, I'm going to do some searching later today for coloring pages and simple things to do tomorrow and the next day when I crash physically so they can continue with the culture and such with minimal work from me directly and I won't have to read to them too much hopefully).  I then remembered that we had some stuff hanging around from Missa's time in OHVA so I went to dig a minute.

I got out 3 pages that show the American English alphabet and the hieroglyph translations, and made a couple copies for the kids to use as a reference.  The project was simple.  Draw a simple self-portrait and write their first name (or nickname, in the case of the little girls) in hieroglyphs.  I paired them up so that the little girls each had a big girl to help, and then spent 45 minutes listening to Liddy throw a conniption fit because she couldn't draw her name out perfectly enough.  *sigh*  Yes, she is my motor delayed child, mostly we're caught up but she still has some issues there at times, but she is also a MAJOR perfectionist and drawing is the enemy with her most times.  She spent time cooling off and working out her fit in her room while Missa helped both little girls with theirs (this girl has a talent for hieroglyph drawing, she does rather well for an 8 year old I think).  Liddy and I came to an agreement that she would draw her picture and point out which hieroglyphs she needed for her name, and I would draw her name out for her.

Missa did better than I did at drawing names out.  But that is ok, hopefully Liddy will see that it is ok to not be perfect at everything and sometimes someone else is better than you at something.  We hung their portraits on the wall over the fireplace, and a copy of the pages for the "translation key" as a display of our work today.  I'll take pictures later and might share, if I feel up to it.

But 3 of the 4 girls thought it was an awesome fun project, and I found it really simple to come up with in a pinch.  I just wanted something to fill a little time after reading the history chapter just in case I needed to lay down because of my blood pressure.

snow day!

We got our first REAL snowfall last night overnight.  All of yesterday it rained, then it turned to snow around 8pm here.  Roads are covered in ice and snow, and they were shutting down portions of freeways in the area last night until the salt trucks could hit them to try and get rid of some of that ice on the roads.  As a result, many public and private schools in our area are on either a 2 hour delay, or closed completely.  Our district is one that decided to close for students.  So, technically it is a snow day here for the kids in my area.  For us, however, it is just another day.  We are sort of on a break from schoolwork until the baby comes, just doing a bit of work here and there as I feel able to stay up without my blood pressure acting up too much.

So now I get to decide, are we doing any lessons at all today or just enjoying the pretty snow from the window?  I think its just a little too cold right now to go play in it, and Kimi has a cough that sounds strangely like her coming down with a cold so I have to be extra careful right now for her sake.  Last thing I need on top of everything else is her to get seriously ill with bronchitis or something that could put her in the hospital while I'm at the tail end of my pregnancy.

pre-eclampsia

Yup, it sucks.  I am still doing the testing, but the OB that I saw yesterday for my appointment (yes, instead of the midwife, but that's ok I like this doctor, she's really nice and willing to talk to me about stuff openly and frankly) said chances are that is exactly what is going on.  So, there we have it.  I've danced with the vampire for a 4th time yesterday, and have more testing still to do. *sigh*  And here I was expecting a nice uneventful pregnancy for a 5th time.  Oh well, God knows what He is doing and everything will turn out as it is supposed to.

Now I just need to decide if I feel motivated enough to use the patterns I found over the weekend to make our little boy some footy pj's and such to wear.  Sewing calms me, but I'm not sure if it is going to be something I can do without my blood pressure going up too much.  Maybe I should go to a yarn store and get some yummy yarn to knit a blanket instead, that may be safer.  But then again, I really would like to make him a couple fleece overalls, some cute shirts, and some pjs with matching blankets.  The patterns I have are rather cute if I can just work up the motivation to dig through all my fabric.

Horray for 32 weeks

I've hit that last 8 weeks, and now I remember what it is I hate most about pregnancy.  These final weeks are not very fun, with the leaking from parts of my body that normally don't leak and the rib kicks, reflux so bad that we have decided the benefits outweigh the risks and I'm on Prevacid to control things, and now adding hypertension.  Yes, I was at the hospital last week again for my blood pressure, after a scary incident involving me blacking out while driving with the kids to go to the dentist, but we got it stabilized in the normal range again so I got tagged with pregnancy-induced hypertension and put on bedrest until my next appointment (tomorrow morning).

So obviously, I've had a rough go physically with this one compared to the girls.  But I still am really looking forward to meeting our little boy soon.  We decided to toss his name and revisit some other options for his name, and will decide when he is born what his name will be for sure.  He may still be Isaiah Preston, or something totally different.  This is the first time we've decided to just pick a few different first and middle names and pick the official name when baby is born, we always had a name chosen by this stage.  The kids are adjusting to calling him Booger again until he's born, and are excited to find out what his name will be.  I think Missa is again hoping that we'll consider her suggestion that we name him Moses.

We also finally got the crib set up in our room, after having it for ummmmm a few weeks or so.  Scott also got the recliner set by the crib with my filing cabinet by it for a temporary table, so I have a place for Booger to sleep and me to breastfeed and rock him comfortably with a place to put my drink at.  I'm hoping that this weekend one of us can get to the thrift store to find him a dresser, and that we can start buying him some clothes that he'll need.  We'll finish decorating his area of our room when we get the tax refund sometime in the next few months.

Yup, that about sums up my pregnancy and all I know right now.  I'll have more details and information about how I'm physically doing with it after I see the midwife at 11am tomorrow.  Scott is sick and we've discussed him taking tomorrow off to be sick in bed, so if he does then I'll be able to go alone and spend some serious time discussing what's going on and what our options are and a bunch of other things that I am concerned about.

New year, new plans

Well, its the start of a new year.  This is the time I usually look at what we've done so far during the school year and re-evaluate my goals to see what we need to do so that we can accomplish them for the school year.  Well, this year is no different for us, although I'm doing things a lot differently.

Math has gone really well for us.  My goal was to move at their paces and let things go how they do, with hopes to at least have Missa in Beta and then Liddy and Kimi working well through their books.  Well, goal met and all is going well, so no changes will be made there.

Handwriting is going well too.  In fact, better than anticipated.  Missa decided to start cursive in November, my plan was to have her start by February so she's ahead there.  Liddy is about to start her next book, which is also a bit ahead of schedule.  Kimi finished her book, which totally threw me off so I had to scramble to find something to fill in with until we can order the next book for her, and Jojo is going to finish up her book here probably by the end of this month.  So that is all going well.

Reading..... well Missa finished her first chapter book recently, so now we're waiting for the baby to be born so that we can take her to lunch and a movie like promised.  Liddy started one, and the little two are working nicely at it as well.  No complaints in this area at all, everyone is making forward progress in reading.

History..... yeah that.  I ended up dropping my Sonlight core completely for the most part, now we are just reading through "A Child's History of the World" a chapter 3 days a week minimum until we finish.  I don't have the ability now to do anything extra really, but that's ok because the girls, especially Missa, have been pulling the other history books off our shelf to look through in their free time and Scott is reading the read alouds from the core to them at night and on  weekends.  So its still working here, just not as written at ALL.

Science has been mostly abandoned.  We watch stuff on tv and talk about it.  That's about all we're going to do the rest of this school year I think in this area, unless Scott takes over this subject as well.

*****CONTINUED*****

Sorry, I had to take a break in mid-post because I started getting dizzy.  That happens a lot to me lately when I'm up more than just a few minutes at a time.

Anyway, my mid-year evaluation showed that we are doing pretty good in general here with lessons, even if we've not met a few goals in a couple subjects.  So, the plan for the rest of this school year is for me to take it easy and continue with the changes that we were forced to make and just keep up the pace we've set for now with things.  Then in August I will send in our notification for the new school year with the plan of moving on to US history.  That plan I'll talk about later on, after Isaiah is born next month.  But I do have a plan for it, and surprisingly it does not involve Sonlight at this point.  I am taking a different approach for a bit, after seeing the troubles we had this school year with the pregnancy and how I had to drop so much.  So stay tuned, and I'll share more later with you.