schickHouse

Shopping For Fun

Last week we had a big grocery trip to make. Shopping with four littles often takes me about an hour and a half or more. Last week, as my energy was waning, I made out these lists, one for each child. I still kept everything on my master list, just in case someone dropped or ate their list. I love art but no longer take the time to enjoy it enough, so this was a nice little outlet for Mama's creative juices. I always have them help me, but their energy likes to take over. This seemed to keep the children more engaged than normally. I hope to take the time to do it more regularly. Oh, and I also tried to give each person at least one item to find in each section of the store, to avoid boredom.

Fresh Starts

As we approach "new house day," more and more I've been envisioning how the "new life" will be. Of course I don't expect more hours to magically appear in the day or my patience to miraculously be that of a super hero. But I have been working on growing myself, and I have learned some things while "away" that I think have made our family work better together. The inspiration of a new house, plus inspiring and encouraging homeschool-conference speakers, has my head spinning with simple ideas to make this new chapter in our adventure get running smoothly. Indulge me as I let my brain organize through my fingers...

1. Keep it simple (and cheap).

As we enter a two-mortgage phase, cheap is at the forefront of my mind. But quality never leaves my mind. But often we choose simple for simple's sake, nevermind the cheap.

~ Staycation. Heard that term just today. Vacationing at home is the most likely option this year. We'll be enjoying our new pool, visiting the library, camping in the yard, using our children's museum family pass, free bowling, and free movies. Splurges once the baby arrives (and I am off my diabetic diet) include going out for ice cream and making homemade ice cream and goodies.

~ Traditions. Our children's favorite birthday traditions are getting to cut the cake themselves with a giant knife and getting to sleep in Mama & Daddy's bed on birthday night. Traditions don't have to be extravagant and difficult to maintain.

~ Family Time. Not jumping at every single get-together, picnic, or extra-curricular leads to calmer, more quantity & quality of nuclear family time. When people call to get together, we'll probably offer more to have them come down to our place, instead of packing the whole crew up to run around town.

2. Learning naturally.

As we enter a stage of more organized or structured learning in our homeschool (I think), I am determined not to squelch the love of learning out of my children.

~ In the Kitchen. All our children l-o-v-e helping Mama & Daddy in the kitchen. Just recently I discovered that it is much more enjoyable (for helper and parent, I believe) if there is only one helper at a time in the kitchen. If each day (or most days), one child gets to help make lunch and one gets to help make supper... that adds up to lots of one-on-one attention, lots of little chefs, and probably even some help on the dishes, too (no dishwasher in the new house).

~ Exploring God's Gifts. As the children grow, I absolutely love seeing their God-given talents, abilities, and interests blossom. I am excited to mentor Shelby in art more consistently, especially since she has expressed interest in learning to draw "better." (This was bittersweet to me for quite a while, because I love her spontaneous little-person creativity. Then I realized we will only be building on that, not destroying it.) Sewing with her is also in my sights. I'll be learning right along with her on that one! Cyrus is more advanced than me already in the areas of technical and mechanical. LOL! He amazes me. He is just like his daddy. I am excited to let him explore out in the shop with Steve. Tiny lego kits are also in his future. It will be fun to see him figure things out and then apply them elsewhere. He's so good at that!

~ Can't Stop Learning. This summer I plan to help the children learn to swim. I found a great step-by-step program online. It explains that with one-on-one instruction, most children will be basic swimmers in about two weeks. That sure beats the time and cost of swim lessons elsewhere! We're also planning a garden, so we'll be all over learning about plants, growing, harvesting, canning, freezing, etc. Feels a little intimidating, but I'm ready to learn.

~ Reading. I want to do lots more reading. Having a library a half mile away will greatly help this goal. I've acquired various "best of" reading lists, and I am thoroughly enjoying the advice of Gladys Hunt in her book, Honey for a Child's Heart. We need to enjoy more stories together.

3. Important Things Must Come First.

Ignore urgency as much as possible. Important must take priority. I am aiming to be much more disciplined and consistent with my Bible reading and prayer. With the children, learning Godly character is more important than ABC's, 123's, or history (even though it can all intertwine so beautifully). This includes discipline; it's not an inconvenience but an opportunity for instruction. I must remember.

So, I'm sure there are many more things swimming around in my head about beginning our new chapter. But that's enough for now. At least now I can think straight. Thanks for letting me blurb.

Spidey Sense

so here i am at 3:48am, sitting at the computer. the reason? as steve puts it, my spidey senses are all tingly. i popped awake at 3 o'clock hearing a little noise from the other end of the house. seeing the time, i thought feverish shelby must be ready for more medicine. but as i approached, i realized she had actually made it to the bathroom to, um, "be sick." so after that, my motherhood "spidey senses" are having trouble letting me sleep. hope shelby's fever came out when she "got sick." poor shelb.

83+100=Missing Fastnachts!

i finally unearthed my missing glucometer yesterday. today my morning prick was 83 (good), and after a breakfast of cereal it was 100 (great!). i'm guessing that at the present i really don't "have" the gestational diabetes, because when i was certain that i did, i could NEVER eat cereal for breakfast and get a good number. all this to say, i could definitely go for a fastnacht today. :o\

Birth Control Fuels the Economy?

i'm not big into politics, but this hit a nerve with me. how is THIS going to fix our economic difficulties? wouldn't having even less children get us... less idea-generators, less money-makers, less helping-hands? didn't having less children get us into the social security dilemma? (another talk altogether.) and wouldn't having less children just wipe us off the map, seeing as we're barely replacing ourselves now? thanks for letting me vent a bit.

High Day Thursday

yesterday was one of those "just wonderful" days. we purchased a wonderful 12-passenger van the Lord led us to (since steve's camry could no longer hold its oil). it's big and maroon, and i am so much more excited for it than i thought i'd be. it was too adorable as we pulled up to the dealership last nite, and shelby and cyrus bursted from the minivan with their booster seats in hand, sprinting towards the new "red van." they are just as excited about it as i am. we were planning on waiting a year or two to spring for the big van, but obviously that was not THE plan. the condition is better and the year is newer than we were going for, but the price was excellent, so we are very blessed.

and yesterday afternoon, right after i had hesitantly scheduled an appointment with my former ob/gyn to start the prenatal routine... my dad mentioned to me a place near quarryville. i scouted out their site, and when i read the founder's statement i was overjoyed. then i read the director of nursing's statement, and i wanted to cry... because God has wonderfully answered another prayer perfectly in His perfect timing. i still need steve to look over their site to see what he thinks, but i'm thinking it'll be a perfect fit for us.

we are heading UP home for the weekend and then back DOWN home for next week. we'll be staying at gram & poppop's, giving the armstrong's a break. looking forward to the big van drive today.

Visiting Fun

we've been having a wonderful week with lots of visiting, eating, catching up, and announcing (see the ticker at right). this is the longest we've waited to announce. just seemed like fun to do it at Christmas time. my mom did find out a week early, but she kept our secret, too. 

so far we've celebrated Christmas at my parents' with my family, at my aunt's with my dad's extended family, and at steve's mom's with his family. last nite i went to a friend's house and had a blast with the old timers from the hop.

today we are headed to my parents' for lunch, then back to steve's mom's for a little birthday celebration for elle mae. just cake and ice cream. tomorrow she will be three years old. she is SO excited. we've been snapping some fotos, but i'm not very motivated to get them up right now. looking forward to lotsa gaming on nye.

My Happy Mother's Day

steve & the children made me these awesome never-wilt flowers! steve also got (picky) me the beautiful kind of flag i wanted, complete with embroidered stars and sewn-together stripes. ~bec.

Garage, aka My Family Closet

i seem to never cease moving clothes around our property. i keep bins in the garage. i allow myself one bin (around 18 gallons), per size, per gender. that keeps me organized and also forces me to get rid of some things when i acquire too much. i love children's clothes but usually keep myself to window, er... monitor shopping instead of actual buying. that is, unless, i'm at a garage sale, gabriel brother's, or consignment shop. but i do alot of "research" (ha!) on ebay. at any rate, it seems i'm constantly moving outgrown clothes to the garage and the next size up into our drawers. angela is the first baby we've had to follow the same gender (girl followed by a girl). so this is stunning to me. today i brought in 18-24 months clothes for angela because she has quickly passed the 12 month clothing size. and when i opened the bin, what did i behold? most of the clothes that elle mae was wearing last fall!!! o. my. word. ~bec.

Precious Box

ok, i've been on and off with the spring cleaning urge. on one of my "on" days, i was going through the toys in my mind, reviewing ones that i thought needed to go. one that came to mind was a strawberry shortcake tin. i had avoided getting rid of it during other cleaning rampages because it was sentimental to me and somewhat beloved by the shelb. i think she bought it with her own money. but see, it's a game on the inside and nearly all of the pieces are missing. so i picked it up to throw it out, felt there was something inside, opened it to clean it out, and what did i find?? now, how could i throw THAT out?! ~bec.