How time does fly…

It does not feel like two weeks since my last blog post! Many days seem very long, but the weeks just slip by before I know what is happening.

Nothing too exciting has been going on the last two weeks. Ethan is now reading simple stories quite well and I'm so proud of him. Every unit (which lasts about a week) ends with him making a little story booklet. Here's a video of him reading one of them. I've noticed that he tries to memorize the book, which you'll notice I missed in the beginning part of the book, when he didn't read it correctly. I caught him in the later part. But he can and quite easily does read the booklets.

Gwen has started reading as well, but it doesn't come very easy to her and she doesn't like doing it. Well, I take that back. She likes it, but its hard and one thing about Gwen is that she likes to do things well on the first or second try. Going back over and over something is very frustrating for her so if she thinks it will take a lot of effort she'd rather stop before she starts. For now, I'm dropping her lessons and letting it lie. I'll pick it back up in a few weeks and see if she's in a different frame of mind.

The kids are so different in their styles. Honestly, I always thought Ethan was going to be the more difficult one to school, but I've found him quite willing to work on something until he gets it right and doesn't need constant parental interaction and affirmation. Gwen, perhaps suffering a bit from the wunderkind traits that many people attribute to her, wants a lot of feedback and affirmation. For instance, she'll be practicing her letters and EACH letter she will stop and look at me and wait for positive feedback before moving on. She'll read one word and stop and wait for that affirmation. Its very frustrating and time consuming! I'm not giving her the constant affirmation because I don't think its a good habit to get into, so we often bump heads and she feels like she's not doing it right because I'm not there constantly telling her how good she's doing. We're both learning!

Elsa is very two, though her birthday isn't for another 6 weeks. Perhaps I don't recall the other kids at two very clearly, but she seems to be more precocious than they were! She talks very very well and figures out how to get into absolutely everything. She wants to do everything herself, from warming up her own milk in the microwave, to stirring pans on the stove (which I've scarily found her doing a few times!), to changing her own diaper, to adventuring down the street or across the parking lot in a few seconds time. Yet, she's very funny and loving to her siblings and she makes us all laugh when we need it most. What a lovely little child she is, despite the near heart attacks she gives me on a regular basis.

Pregnancy is rolling on fine for me. I hesitate to post this, but I haven't had a severe headache in a couple days and I'm cautiously optimistic that perhaps that stage ended very early this time? I don't know... I'm not getting my hopes up! I'm still wearing my regular clothes and am barely showing which is surprising! I'm kind of ready to get into the comfy maternity pants!

Last night we had an Easter/Passover celebration at my parents house. I made a huge pot of matzo ball soup and we had other goodies there as well. It was a long day but it was a fun mix of both mainstream Easter traditions (candy, egg hunt) and Passover. My Mom had gotten some EXTREMELY hot horseradish and Ethan put a huge spoonful on his matzo and literally erupted in pain! I tried to give him a drink and he spit it all out and started crying and screaming. I took him to my Mom's room and flushed his mouth but there isn't much you can do but wait it out. As he was crying, he said, "Mom, I'm peeing my pants!" and I just busted out laughing and then so did he, but he was still sobbing too. Oh, my poor little man. His face was so red from the pain and the crying. At first I'd been annoyed and thought he was over-reacting, but when I saw how much he'd taken, no wonder he was in agonies!

Ethan and other news

Today is Ethan’s 6th birthday. I can’t believe I’m a parent to a 6 year old, and I can’t believe I ended up with such a great 6 year old! He’s my stubborn, smart, sweet, and silly firstborn.

Newborn

1 year (He reminds me of Elsa!)

2 year

3 year

4 year

5 year

 

6 year

We held a birthday party at our house on Sunday afternoon. There were 7 kids total. The weather held out and thank goodness because it was 2 hours long and by the first hour we’d done everything! The kids played outside and had a great time.

It was funny to see how everyone grouped up immediately. The boys talking Bakugan, Lego and Star Wars…

The girls doing girly things…

We played Pin The Tail on the Donkey. Twice. Because oddly, about half the children pinned the tail on perfectly the first round. Hmmm… that doesn’t seem right! They could see through the blindfold :)

This was Gwen in the first round… getting it perfect of course!

Ethan had me make a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Served with chocolate ice cream. This kid is a chocoholic like his Daddy!

After presents and cake, we had a SpongeBob piñata. Hilariously, everyone pulled the string (that’s how they do it these days instead of hitting it with a stick. So not as much fun) and nothing happened. The one string that no one pulled was the “trick” string.  After candy was gathered, the kids wanted to bat around the piñata. They really had a good time with that!

Two of the kids yanked off the legs and proudly displayed them to me!

It was so great to see all Ethan's friends here and having a good time. I’m gonna have to get them all together again because everyone played perfectly together and had a blast.

Today, still completely wearied from the party, I had my 16 week midwife appointment. All was well. Blood pressure perfect and heartbeat found. I’m having persistent bad to severe headaches again (happened with Elly too around this time) and like last time I saw a midwife, they don’t seem to get how bad they are. I’m sure many many people complain of headaches, but these are quite quite bad. Not just an annoyance. I think part of it is that they can’t prescribe me anything anyway, but I’d like to hear something other than Tylenol (useless) and massage (impractical). Worse comes to worse I’ll go see my GP and maybe she’ll give me some drugs for the worst days. If anyone reading has ideas for me, PLEASE let me know.

I scheduled my mid-pregnancy ultrasound for April 21. Seems so far away! I’m positively dying to find out what we’re having! Hopefully these next 4 weeks will fly by.

Soft Spring Days

I don't know if there is a better type of day in the Pacific Northwest than those right before and during spring when the sun is shining and the world is fresh with growing and blooming things. The air is clean, the breeze is warm, and the sun is so bright after the long slog of fall and winter. Its just lovely!

We spent all of our day out and about. First was grocery shopping, which we do every Monday. It was kind of bittersweet because it was Ethan's last day in the store daycare. Next week he'll be turning 6 and have aged out of it. Bummer! I love having the in-store daycare at my grocery. That one hour to get my shopping done is so precious and the ladies that run the care are awesome! I suppose the upside is that in two months Elsa will be old enough to go in, so it'll all even out. I'd much rather shop with a 6 year old than a 2 year old.

After shopping, we ran home and dropped off the groceries, then went to our friends house to have lunch. They run a dairy farm and while we were there I took Elly to see the little baby cows in the domes (see this post for info on the cow domes). Elsa was making me laugh by calling them puppies! They would stick their warm noses out and lick her hands and she just loved it! She would have gone by every single one of them if she could.
After lunch, we packed up all the kids (7 total) and headed out to a local park. The sun was out and the kids played hard. We wrapped it up when both my older kids were crying and the youngest one wasn't far behind. Naptime! It was great to absorb all that Vitamin D and visit with friends.

The only two pics I snapped today, thanks to a failing battery:

Jack and Ethan.

Max and Gwen.

Pregnancy has been going well. Same old stuff :) Occasional nausea and a recent upswing in exhaustion have been my plagues. I'm trying to enjoy what I can about this pregnancy because it will probably be my last. But its hard not to complain! I'm not yet showing enough for maternity clothes. I'm shocked! I'll have to go back and check, but I'm pretty sure that by 12 weeks with Elsa I was in maternity clothes. I guess working out so hard really did pay off by strengthening those abs and putting me in better shape overall. Unfortunately, I've been doing little to maintain that.... working out is SO not something I want to do right now. I've been doing it about once a week which is not enough! I'd like to be doing it 3x a week, but it seems like an impossible task with everything else going on.

Ethan started t-ball a couple weeks ago and seems to be doing well! Practices are every Saturday and wear him out completely (very good!). This was him on his first day (he has more official looking uniform now!):

And for good measure… the girls!

Yep, this is Elsa. And yep, she climbed all the way up without my help (she even told me “No Mommy!” when I tried to assist). I thought Gwen was a monkey…

And isn’t this the sweetest picture? I love how cuddly the kids are with one another.

12 weeks

On Monday I had my 12 week appointment. Jason came with me as it was thought we should be able to hear the heartbeat. He also wanted to have a look around and get a feel for the place and meet the midwives.

Everything went fine at the appointment and after some searching, we did find the heartbeat so all is well. Jason is still reluctant about me birthing at a center instead of a hospital, but he’s willing to go along with it at this point.

Next appointment will be at 16 weeks and I’ll be able to schedule my ultrasound for a few weeks after that. I’m anxious to find out the gender!

Quiet...

This morning I got the rare pleasure of waking up to an almost empty house. Its just Jason and I. My parents took the kids yesterday so J and I could go out to dinner at Dahlia Lounge with some friends.

We had an interesting day yesterday. After dropping off the kids, we came home and decided we were going to head into downtown Seattle early because the day was so gorgeous and we haven't explored downtown in years. We wanted to stop and buy J a few shirts and then we thought, maybe we should look at a sports jacket and slacks because its something he's really needed in his wardrobe. So we stopped at Men's Warehouse in Lynnwood because it was the only place I knew of off the type of my head. An hour and a half later we walk out rather shell-shocked (sticker shocked?) at what we'd done! He ended up with a sports coat, 2 dress pants, 2 shirts, and 2 ties. In truth we only walked out with the shirts and ties because the other things were being tailored. That was the most money we'd ever spent on clothes and then we left with this tiny bag. Wasn't very satisfying! Oh well. At least we know he'll be very well dressed for any events that come up.

We got downtown and parked right by the restaurant, then walked to Westlake Center. I used the ladies room and while I was in there, mall security busted in to get a lady who was high as a kite and leaning in a corner. That was kind of interesting. We wandered around for a bit, then headed back to the restaurant and met April and Gregg and had dinner. We were there 3 hours and had a good time. Food was ok. Not amazing, but good and a little different. My favorite was the dessert of freshly made doughnuts with marscapone and jam. YUM!

Today I have some big yard plans, thanks to the really nice weather that has inspired me. I'm pulling out a big bush in the front yard and replacing it with my blueberry which has outgrown its pot. I'm also going start hacking back the blackberry bushes that have been encroaching on my yard for the past few years. They are now officially "out of control" and I'm out of time... if they're gonna be cut back, it has to be now. How I wish I had a goat who could come in here and eat them back.

Freedom!

As of 2/13/10, we are entirely consumer debt free. No credit cards, no car payments. No monkey on our back. We are FREE! This is astounding. A little over 2 years ago we were putting $200 a month on the credit cards for essentials and totally baffled at why we couldn't live on Jason's income. My friend April told us about Dave Ramsey and his book, Total Money Makeover. I read it first, with a huge dose of skepticism. Budgeting was scary and we'd never stuck to anything we'd tried in the past. I didn't think this would work either. After I read a few pages, I knew Jason had to read it too. He started and got SO excited by it. We saw a far better future for ourselves and best of all, a very easy plan to get there. So we started and we stuck with it, like we'd never ever stuck to any other budget plan before. And suddenly, that very first month, we not only had enough money to pay for everything, we had extra left over. Why had we needed that $200 on the credit card every month? We were not shorted on anything. We could still get an espresso and eat out. We still went on vacations and celebrated birthdays. Our lives were not negatively impacted at all. And best of all, even then, we felt free. We didn't worry about having enough to pay the mortgage or groceries. We knew we had it because the cash was right there in the envelope staring at us.

So I would recommend this plan to anyone who wants to get their finances under control. How we wish we'd done this 5 years earlier. We'd be in a totally different place. Its truly changed our lives.

So... in other news, my commitment to only spend 30 minutes online did not work today. But, it wasn't pointless time killing internet stuff, but research, planning and investigation. I looked for some home organization for the kid's laundry (and found it!). I planned out my gardens and ordered some seeds and starts for delivery later this year (so excited!). I ordered a new cell phone. I am pleased at how aware I've been of my time. When I started just aimlessly browsing, killing time, I left the computer and did something else. Like plant my tulip bulbs... better late than never. Right? Right?

Convicted

I've been feeling very convicted about how much time I spend online. It never feels like I spend a lot of time at a stretch, but since I'm always popping on and off it does add up. Some days, bad days, I spend most of my day online just killing time and trying to escape reality. I end up eating my breakfast and lunch here, so I can read articles or my message board and my kids watch more TV than they should because Mommy gets caught up in something online. I don't want to be a parent who keeps brushing their kids aside because they are too distracted by the computer.

So, my new goal is to limit myself to 30 minutes a day. I suppose for some people that still probably sounds like a lot! But I will guarantee you that its way less than I spend online now. 30 minutes is plenty of time to check my boards, Facebook, email and read a few things online.

I want to fill that extra time with good, fun things. Not more housework. Nope. That's a sure way to send me back to the computer for an escape! I want to use that time to read for myself or to the kids, finally get back into sewing, work in the yard, or do one of the thousand and one projects I have in mind for this house.

So, I start tomorrow. I'm a little afraid to be honest. My computer has been an escape for years and years... even before I had kids! I'm sure there will be some withdrawal pains. But I'm not living in a way I'm proud of right now, and I know technology addiction is part of it.

A beautiful story

I discovered this through a link on a message board I visit and it was too beautiful not to share. It really touched me. I think it may touch your heart too, so I encourage you to spend the 5 minutes to read through this mothers story.

The Birth of Nella Cordelia

Funny & charming things the kids are doing

Just so I don't forget!

Elsa has moppish hair, so I often put it up in a spout on top of her head. Its a very tall spout. The girls have come up with a game where Gwen holds the spout and leads Elly around the kitchen-living room-office circuit. Around and around they go, Elsa giggling and Gwen gently guiding her by the hair.

Elsa really gets that Gwen is her sister now and "Gennie" is usually the first person she asks about when she gets up in the morning. I've noticed the last few times we've been out and about, Elsa has run up to Gwen unexpectedly, hugged her legs and said, "Gennie sis! Gennie sis!" meaning, of course, Gwennie is her sister. Its so cute!

Every night I pray with the kids before bed. Gwen always likes to follow up with her own prayer. Its so sweet because she always praises my dinners, even if she didn't like them, and thanks Jesus for her "bestest" Mommy.

Ethan has been  coming back with little statements that crack us up. The other day we were in the car and he was cranky. I asked him why he was so sour and he says, "Because I got up at 1 in the morning and ate a lemon". Too funny! When I was trying on my red lipstick for my sisters 40's themed party, he looked at me, wide-eyed, and said, "Mom, those are kissing lips, like in a cartoon!"

Ethan also has good reasoning skills. I have to be very careful to not let him reason his way out of assigned tasks or punishments because he will somehow always talk me out of them. Jason tells me that he did this as a kid too, so I guess E comes by it naturally. On one hand, I admire his ability, but sheesh, this will be a challenge the older he gets. Perhaps I will need to get him in a debate club!

One of the most charming things the older two do is snuggle on the couch and fall asleep in ridiculous positions or fall asleep on their own in ridiculous spots. Here are a few of my favorites.

Ok, they aren’t asleep in this one, but who can sit comfortably like this!

Ethan has special snuggling powers. His sisters can’t stay awake around him!

Times of our life

Things have been so crazy lately. Seems every week or weekend has some event that takes up every ounce of available brain and body energy!

Last weekend we traveled to my Aunt Daralyn's house in Northeast Washington. Our journey was for two reasons. 1. A housewarming for my cousin Lindy who lives in that area, and 2. hooky-bobbing, which is basically sledding and then being pulled back up the hill (in this case, driveway) by a car.

Our trip out took about 7 hours and went fairly smooth, all things considered. My kids are not strangers to long car rides and they do pretty well. The DVD player helps a lot! As we got closer, we were skeptical that we'd have much snow to sled on as the roads and most of the countryside was snow free. However, my aunt lives on a mountain basically and there was plenty of snow for us! We navigated the somewhat treacherous driveway with ease (what a big relief) and settled in with the scads of other people there. I think at the fullest point there were 31 people in her house, and for 2 nights there were 27 people sleeping there! There were 11 kids under 9, and 5 of them were under 2 years. Oh it was a full house, but it wasn't all that crowded feeling and everyone was able to find a little space to move and breathe.

The next few days were filled with lots of visiting and playing. It was my first time hooky-bobbing and I had a BLAST! I so want to do this next year :) I have an album of pictures that ya'll can see here.

The drive home took about 7 hours too, but was more difficult because my cranky little sis, Jenni, was riding with us (sorry Jen, its true!) and the DVD player was broken. But we all survived and the journey was well worth the memories and enjoyment we had at Aunt Daralyns, even though we had to go to the bathroom in garbage bags the last day ;) Our poor hosts, the sewer pipe under their house was crushed (unbeknown to them) and the influx of all the people using the faciilites clogged it completely. Its freezing with deep snow outside and we are on a mountain. Not many options. So we did what we had to and lined to the toilets with garbage bags and tied them up and put them in the bathtub when they were full. It wasn't so bad. I DO feel bad that my Aunt had to empty all those bags when the sewer problem was fixed though. I have to say that I think it speaks highly of my family that everyone dealt with the issue with good humor. What else CAN you do in that situation?

In other happenings, tonight my sister Becki is celebrating her 30th birthday (technically her birthday was back in January, but we're celebrating tonight). She's having a swing dancing 30-40's style party at a gym. Its gonna be SO fun! My friend April is a whiz with hair and makeup and I asked her to do me up. We did a trial run on Thursday and she turned me from my everyday plain Jane into this. I was SHOCKED. It didn't even look like me! I've never worn so much makeup, but it was fun to do something totally different from the regular. I can't remember the last time I wore lipstick or got all dolled up. It'll be cool to see what it looks like when I'm in my outfit. Thanks April!



My goal is that it won't be 3 weeks until my next blog post. Lets see how that works out ;)