A Day in the Life...

It seems the posts that I do get done here lately have a running theme... not much going on. I am getting everyday life accomplished. Which, for how much I have going on, is saying a lot. The "schedule" is do or die at this point. Either I stay on it or something big doesn't happen, like school, or supper. But I thought I would share some snaps of our everyday life, such as it goes.

Caleb is being a great baby. He's sleeping through the night (10pm - 6am!!!) he's nursing every 3 hours, it's great! He might be the easiest baby that I've had.


School is happening everyday, whether or not any of us want to. This is the time of the school year where no one wants to be doing it, public school, home school, teacher, or student. I have a new love for my curriculum though. The author has put some REALLY fun projects during these weeks (she obviously knew these are the weeks we all struggle). Today Sofia, Lilia, John and I basically played Black Jack. :) Except we only played with the cards 2-9 and whoever got closest to 20 got a raisin. Never mind that Sofie's learning how to add 3 numbers together and is beginning the basics of multiplication, or that she was sweet and added her brother's and sister's cards together for them too...
More math, this time with goldfish in some "fish bowls"

We also had a "grasshopper" day and learned about them. Here Sofie made Peanut Butter playdough and then crafted a grasshopper from them. O.k. it looked more like a fly when she was done, but can I tell you the fun she had! And now knows the workings of a grasshopper.

And Lilia, she continues the wild card of the bunch.
I found her helping Baby Alive go potty the other day. Never mind SHE has tried to give up using the potty, but dolls on the other hand...

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Playdates are VERY important to get some of the wiggles out!

Randomness

It's the time of year when we're all a little stir crazy. Winter has been long and there's not much relief in the near future. So the kids are just boppin' around the house, doing random things. Thank goodness we home school so there is at least a little structure to our days!

The kids got some much needed snow suits the other day. I know, TOTALLY overdue. One might even need to ask, how do children growing up in the Northern Tundra survive with out snow suits? Again, the words "stir crazy" do come to mind...
Caleb really isn't into being "random" yet, he's just 11 weeks, but here's his version. Laying on a blanket and looking at anything and everything.Have I mentioned what a Lego fan John is? The whole Lego experience is him. They give you picture directions, no reading involved, and you get to put it all together. He'll even come to me and point to some insanely small piece in the directions and say, "Mo-om, do you know where this piece is?!" Um, no, I don't.Lilia is the randomest of them all. You don't know what you'll find when you see her. She may be playing Lego swords with her brother, marking herself up with markers from her sister, or dressing herself in random bits of clothes that she finds. Today it was John's baseball cap that she found.

John's 5th Birthday

I've been waiting a while to compose this post because John's 5th Birthday has stretched out over a couple of weekends. What a lucky guy!

We waited a week after his actual birthday to have his party so that all the guys could go to the motorcycle show this weekend. I still wanted to observe his actual birthday, so last weekend we took the kids bowling.

(sorry for the horrible picture, it's all I got)

Then this weekend was the big family party hullabaloo, We had Chili for supper and topped it all with a Lego birthday cake!When my parents had arrived the night before he had to put his birthday present from them on the Piano and then WAIT all day Saturday before he could open it. I don't know who was more tortured, him for having to wait, or me for having to say, "Not yet" all the time. But finally present opening time had arrived. Then we finally he was able to focus on the Birthday cake once the presents were all open.
Meanwhile, Caleb found plenty of willing arms to hold him as long as he wanted...
And cousins Jake and Isabelle found some games to occupy themselvesHappy Birthday John!!! You've just blasted your way into a new phase of life!

Mornings at our house

Mornings are usually pretty crazy around here. Arguably, it's the busiest time of day for me. I'm trying to shower and get ready for the day, get the kids ready for the day (which a lot of times includes baths), plus breakfast and cleaning up from the morning. Oh, and taking care, nursing, and dressing the baby. All before 9:00 am when I like to start school.

So a lot of times the kids are just running and playing whatever make-believe game they have come up with that morning. The kids were on a treasure hunt this morning and Lilia was dressed for the long trek. This included the doll blanket about her head because, " I TOLD!!!" (I'm cold) and Christmas "Hello Kitty" socks. She loves those socks and instantly puts them on when they show up in her sock drawer and cries pitifully when I deem them to dirty and take them off.

So as I was rushing around, here was my girl dressed for her long trek of treasure hunting, and I just had to take a picture.

Back in the Saddle Again...

I don't know why I, inexplicably, take a blogging hiatus at this point each year. But My Sil Mel has shaken me out of my apathy, so here I am again.

It's not like I haven't been doing anything. In fact with the addition of just one more child, I feel like my workload has at least tripled. I've been turning messes like this:

(Hey, I'm man enough to show my dirty kitchen!)

Into this:

I've had to dole out a lot of this:
And beg and plead for some of this:
So see, it's not that I don't want to blog, I just have a lot to do. :) But as the baby grows bigger and has more of a dependable schedule, you better believe I'll be a postin' madman once again. It's an addiction ya know...

Adult-onset Athletecism

I haven't blogged for almost 2 wks, but I break the silence at Mel's instistance (My SIL Melanie). She want's me to do a post about running, so here it is:

Running, I have said my whole life that the only time that I run is when I'm being chased. But after the birth of my 2nd child I was reeling from the post pregnancy body blues and so I did something completely extravagant. I hired a personal trainer.

Penny was a little wacky, known to be late or forget an appointment all together, but she was good at what she did. She would do weight lifting with me and then gave me a cardio plan to do myself. And what did it have on it? Running. I tried to explain to her my whole running/ chasing thing, but somehow she didn't buy it. I was to run for only 30 seconds every 4 min. All right, I guess I could handle that. And what did I learn? I LOVED it. But then I got pregnant with child #3 and the running was the 1st thing to go.

So then after baby #3 was born I was REALLY reeling from the post pregnancy body blues and I joined Weight Watchers and started back into the gym. Mel had been running for a while at this point and gave me her back issues of running world. So with Mel's encouragement, and Penny's plan (though she wasn't my trainer anymore) I started back into this sport that I was starting to love. I got pretty good at it! (Relatively speaking) I was at the gym by 6am each morning to run. I was running for about 45 min to an hour at a speed between 6.2 and 7.3. It felt great to be pushing myself so hard, pounding out any agressions or fears. I loved the shrinking waistline and physical strength that came along with it. But most of all I loved my Saturday runs. I had a 6 mile course mapped out through my neighborhood. It was a good exercise of restraint for me. I tend to do things to my maximum ability but running a set course meant I couldn't get off the treadmill and go home if I had overextended myself. I had to make sure I had enough "gas" to get home. This all culminated with a 10k that I ran the fall of that year. I loved the cool weather and the sailing along on my legs. I felt like I could just keep going. I never knew I would feel like that doing something so... strenuous.

Anyway, but then as has happened a lot in my life, I got pregnant with #4. He is now 9 weeks old and I've started back to Weight Watchers and can not WAIT to get back to my 6am gym appointments that I not-so-secretly love. I'm waiting till the babe somewhat starts sleeping through the night, though. I gotta draw the line somewhere.... :)

By the Grace of God do we all go forth....

I find myself looking at my children sometimes, and wondering who they are going to be. They are so young still, that I'm not even sure of their talents and aptitudes. I remember my Mom always saying that she never had a favorite stage ( I think she did, she was just being nice to a difficult teenager :) ) that the current stage was always her favorite because she was getting to see who her children were becoming. That has always stuck with me because it reminds me to not hold on to tightly to the present and to embrace, and not be scared, of the future. Because I truly am so excited to see what gifts and talents the Lord has given my children and how they choose to use them.