A Few Things of Note

Two posts in the same month?!?  Perhaps it's a sure sign that things are starting to normalize around here.  Last August was full of me trying to hide the fact that I felt nauseous and gross all day and still make tiny, feeble attempts to connect with the world (which usually failed) while also hiding the fact that I was pregnant.  I actually remember very, very little of last August...

But THIS August is proving to be busy, and fun.  And busy.  Did I mention it was busy?   Oh, what's in a word anyway.... we're always busy!

So, we started homeschool August 1st, a slow start, to get us slowly acquainted with our materials and schedule.  I occasionally blog about our homeschool here.  We did a week or two strong, then we loosened up a bit, and of course we made sure to have lots of friend time in the last dear days of summer.  These last 2 weeks we have scheduled a ton of friend time, jamming it all in before most of the friends go back to school this Monday.

Shelby Joy is 4 months old and a nice, healthy 16 pounds and as cute as ever.  She is a grabby little girl, wanting to sit up and play all the time and getting held way too much, as usual.  But of course, there is no such thing!  Soon enough she will no longer want to be held, and so, for the fleeting moment, we will hold her.

Riley holds.

Indy holds.

Sometimes we put her down so we can stare at her. 

She loves going swimming with her family.

Sometimes she sleeps.  

And then she plays.

\

And gets grumpy at her toys.

And eats her toys.

And makes insanely cute faces at us.

So in other, non-baby news, Chase got a summer job.  Some neighbors noticed that he has been taught to mow the lawn and weed-whack, so they hired him to do theirs through mid-September.  A young man making money is a happy one, indeed.  Chase has some other, big news.  He is enrolling in the USNSCC, the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps, Liberty Bell Squadron.  He has attended orientation and the paperwork is in process.  He will have drill one weekend per month, and prepare himself for his TWT (two week training) next summer.  The Sea Cadets are a non-committal program, meaning he is not required to join the military upon turning 18, but he will get considerable life experience from the program regardless.  He is beyond excited to start, and I'm beyond proud of him for signing up.  Chase and his Fedora and his hormonal attitude are mostly absent from my picture roll... 

...but here's one.  He's holding.  And... take a long look at that fuzzy blonde hair and kiss it goodbye, the Navy requires a haircut...

Indigo is nearly 11, and continuing to learn to mow and take care of the yard.  Yep, that's our big thing this summer... we obviously need to get out more!  Which we will absolutely do once everyone else goes back to school.  It's our privilege as homeschoolers to get to avoid the crowds.  So, on her very first mow, she had hit a rock, which came up and bit her on the leg, so she developed a fear of hitting things with the mower, and shed a few tears over it and traded dish duty with her brother to get out of it, and begged and cried a bit about it.  But she got back out there like a trooper, one time in her pajamas, as they were long pants, and once more with long socks pulled up.  She and I recently crashed the 5th grade orientation at the middle school so that she could learn the building to get to Strings lessons.  We've also poked the district a bit about connecting it's Home Education students more through it's technology systems so that we can easily partake in some of the things we are legally entitled to.  I think it's a good thing, as a homeschooling family, to be connected and to be known.  So I introduced us to the principal (who of course knew my name from my email campaign for connection) and the guidance counselor for Indy's class.  We plan to maintain as many working relationships within the school as we can.

Mowing like a boss

Practicing violin along with the music on the computer

Riley bops to her own beat, as she always has.  Though she does well mixed in with her siblings, she also can often be found playing alone, with some in-depth scenario or scene.  We recently purged a bunch of stuff from the attic, and one of the small boxes contained some trinkets that I had as a kid.  She played with them on the side of the tub for hours.  

And in early July, this 5 year old..

Turned into this 6 year old!

Even at age 6, we still read her a book each night before bed.  We've had to get creative with the larger books she desires, or else we'd be in there all night!  She's now onto the Animal Encyclopedia, and we *try* to limit her to going over a 2-page spread at night.  But sometimes we get caught up with her.  It happens.

RJ loves to be outside and is having "swimming lessons" with Mom.  He can swim nearly all the way across the pool without "sinking" and really just doesn't tire out or give up when he has his swimmie off.  He just keeps going and going and going.  He can also ride a 2-wheel bike without training wheels, but since we live on a busy road with a crappy bumpy sidewalk, he doesn't get much opportunity to ride.  Mom still makes him ride his balance bike if we do go out, which makes him quite cross.  Playing for hours in the dirt pit or mud pit (when it rains) is also a favorite activity, and he MUST have his sun hat on.  DO NOT forget the sun hat, Mom!

This 3 year old...

Carefully marked the days on his steam train calendar

And turned into this 4 year old! 

He went with sibs to Jungle Wonder and opened his presents, Thomas rain gear and blinky sneakers, what else?

Sometimes he picks his own outfits.

He rocks that tie.

And he still sleeps soundly in grocery carts. 

A well-timed Science Kit birthday gift from Avia and Coolpa happened to coincide with our Kinder Art lesson on the Primary Colors.  Boy, was this ever a hit!  

Building a machine for the "newseum" with his Tinker Toys

So with all the summer kid birthdays, we basically visit the doctor once a month for their annual physicals.  And I go in with my typed list and we go over everything and then she drops the bomb.  A question.  For me.  What do I do for "me time?"  Ummmm.  Uhhhh.  Well.  There's at night, after the kids all go to bed... for a little.  And... well.  That's it.  And I try to explain to her, that's okay.  I signed up for this.  I actually LIKE my kids and I don't spend all day thinking about how I can get a break from them.  I'm really actually okay with it.  

I enjoy when my nights and mornings look like this... 

And when my afternoons look like this.  

The month of April, and a Baby

What the heck happened to April?!?

It's gone.  Already.

5 days into May, though, and it's still April-Showering, while at the same time, May-Flowering.  It's our 6th (or maybe 7th) day without the sun, and it's getting a little gloomy, not to mention chilly.

I'm not one to complain about the rain. because that equals lots of drink for my gardens to grow.  Our peas are growing and ready to burst into flower, our peas which we gambled on and planted on March 1st, since that 'ole Pennsylvania groundhog had called Winter over early and all that.  The front garden perennials are growing beautifully, and so is our little Baby 5, otherwise known in some parts as Shelby Joy...

Squishy and fresh from the womb, that right arm still in front of her face!!

2:28am on 4/7/16 (her due date!)

Everyone else was born in the middle of the night, so this was not surprising.

Still fresh, trying to figure out what just happened.  She still had no name in this picture.

Around 9am later that day, Mom and Dad got bored of just lying in bed at the Birth Center.  So we came home to show off our new, almost-sorta-kinda-named baby girl.  Mom wisely took her out of the carrier before walking in the door, knowing we would be attacked by siblings.  She made it in the front door and just one step into the living room, and Avia even more wisely started snapping pictures (thank you!!) of this precious moment.

The holding begins soon after.  Mom says they go in birth order, so there's no arguing. 

RJ got bored of waiting on Day 1, so he held her another day.

Day 2, Shelby slept through our history lesson.  Yes, we did homeschool on the day after the baby was born, because it was actually just easier to get back into our routine rather than have a free-for-all (like the day she came home).  Mom sat, the baby slept and ate, and slept and ate, the kids worked.  

The first few days are made easier by this genius product for newborns - a shirt with a pouch!  Shelby and Mom can't get enough of it, and declare to wear it every day.  Honestly, can you find any reason to have to put a baby down?   :)

Shelby is 2 days old, we go out to the Chinese Buffet because Mom is HUNGRY.  For not wanting ANY food while pregnant, breast-feeding is another story... Must. Have. Food.  This is what the car looks like now. 

We chillax at night sometimes by projecting a movie on the wall in the newly finished, totally awesome family room/playroom.  

Shelby and her camo.  Just b'cuz.  

Shelby's 1st week of life would not be complete without a Home Depot trip, so here she is in her orange cart.  The biggest adaptation for us now is NOT having RJ secured in the cart.... cue Scary Music...

And T-Ball has begun, so here we are on the sidelines. 

And here are my 5 wacky, adorable goobers all in one spot! 

Flashback.... Wednesday?

Yeah, I know... there are other titled days and things that occur on the internet, like Throwback Thursday and all that jazz... but since I don't spend much time in the online social world, I can just do my own thing and not give a darn about whether or not my Flashback Wednesday makes sense to anyone but me.

I don't even know how I got started on this path, but I think it had something to do with coming across a picture from last spring when I had decided that maybe eating gluten free actually wasn't necessary for me (or perhaps it just involved me really wanting real, live, actual Pizza, or an Auntie Anne's Pretzel, or anything made with flour that actually tastes good...) and so I went back to eating regular (including gluten/wheat) for a day (and it tasted gooood....) and it totally gave me that whomping headache back just the way it was before, and it also did this to my stomach:

We affectionately call it my "Gluten Baby" every time it occurs, and believe me, it's hard, solid and completely poke-able.  Roger, the kids, even the neighbors have poked the Gluten Baby to make sure it's real.  Pretty funky and weird, right?  And may I add, uncomfortable??

I took a picture in the same pants the next day to show what my stomach normally looks like, on the gluten-free, flavor-free diet.  

But, I'm getting ahead of myself here.  So, back to how we got to Flashback Wednesday.  I wondered about how my 20-week, 5 month pregnant belly NOW compared to the Gluten Baby belly picture, and so I went digging for the picture.  And in doing that, well, then I wanted to see all my newborns on the same page.  And then, I wondered about Christmas pics from every year (that I could find, you know that digital picture thing happened at some point AFTER I had my first two kids, at least for me). 

So, without further adieu, here are my sweet little newborns:

Chase, 2003

(Maybe 1 day old?....nice, grainy camera.... hahaha)

Indigo, 2005

(Day she was born, as you can see on the 35mm printout)

Riley, 2010

(About an hour after birth)

RJ, 2012

(He's about a minute old in this photo, after they pinched him to wake him up since he wanted to remain sleeping after being born)

I think out of the 4 kids, Chase definitely wins for most hair!!

And here are the Flashback Christmas pics, starting with 2007.....

Ages 2 and 4

I have no idea where we were, but it was December as this was in my December 2008 folder... aren't we so cute?

Kids 2008, 3 and 5 years old.  And wow, our old blue living room!  And no giant fish tank in our dining area!  

The 4 of us in 2008

So, it was really bright and about 4 days until Christmas when I drug my kids out in the snowy cold (did I mention bright??) to quick get this shot before I had to get to work so we could get a card printed and get them out in the mail to friends and family... I ended up yelling at them to keep their darn eyes open and of course got all these fake funny faces instead.

But we managed to pull off a pretty decent card anyways.  Ages 4 and 6 now.

New addition in 2010, ages 5 months, 5 and 7. 

Nothing says Happy Holidays like the baby eating the lights... and look at our half-finished hardwood flooring in the master bedroom.  

Even the "best" one of all of us looked like it actually belongs on a Motivational Poster somewhere on the 'net... so we just went with.... 

...this one on our holiday card.  

In 2011 we got fancy and had pajamas with names on them....oooooh.  Ages 17 months, 6 and 8.

Santa brought another baby in 2012.  Or the Stork.  Or somebody.  He's frickin' cute. 

I didn't know it then, but this innocent 4.5 month old face is trying to tell me to prepare myself for a wild, wild ride over the next 3 years.

The girls are cute, too.  

My photog friend had some neat ideas. 

2012 - ages 4.5 months, 2.5 years. 7 and 9 years old. 

In 2013, we still have our orange living room, which replaced the blue in 2010!  My girls are growing older.  

I used a groupon for JCPenney's photo studio and got pics done, because we like, never spend our money on that.  2013 - ages 16 months, 3, 8, and 10. 

I used my happy, dressed up homeschoolers in my Christmas photo last year.  2014 - ages 2, 4, 9, and 11.  I seem to have a recollection that I gave up about halfway thru enveloping, addressing and stamping cards last year..., and if memory serves me, people with last names starting with "M" onward may or may not have actually received our Christmas card... whoops.

And for this year's shot, well, it's pretty darn adorable.  But you'll have to wait until you get it in the mail.  If you're on the good list, you know.  In the meantime, here's one from this year that we didn't use:

2015 - ages 3, 5, 10, and 12.